On the heels of a game where he only retired 1 for the 4 batters he faced while protecting a 5 run lead, Ryan Perry has been optioned to Toledo. Unlike his last optional assignment where he was squeezed by roster maneuvering, this one seems to imply the Tigers have some things they’d like him to work on.
Perry has faced 27 batters his last 4 games and 13 of them have reached base, and 2 of the 11 hits were long balls. What is somewhat surprising is that the 2 walks he issued yesterday were the only 2 he’s allowed in this rough patch and 65% of his pitches have been for strikes. But he is getting hit.
For those wondering about why Perry and not Robertson, I’d guess it is because the club thinks Perry can improve by going to Toledo whereas Robertson is what he is at this point. Sadly he’s been worse than Perry over a comparable stretch with 50% of the batters Robertson has faced over his last 7 having reached base. I can’t imagine that Nate has much more leash left.
The Tigers didn’t announce a corresponding roster move and likely won’t formally announce a move until Tuesday.
PREGAME: The Tigers look to keep their offense rolling and they look for Justin Verlander to bounce back as they go for the sweep of the Brewers.
Verlander broke his streak of sheer dominance with a rough 5 run, 4 inning outing against the Cardinals. For the first time since April the whole game seemed to be a struggle for him. Verlander has only faced the Brewers once in his career, and I think we all remember how that turned out.
Yovanni Gallardo takes the mound for the Brewers. Like Verlander, he strikes out a batter an inning. Like the Verlander we sometimes see, he also has a tendency to throw 100 pitches in 5 innings. Walks have been a recent issue for him with 14 walks in his last 3 games. The Tigers have yet to walk in this series, so that should be an interesting facet to watch today.
Jim Leyland is sticking to the same lineup, almost. Polanco gets the day off after being plunked in the thigh yesterday, but otherwise it is the same:
Mike Cameron steals 2nd base ahead of the throw to Adam Everett
POSTGAME: I forgot in my hasty pregame to wish all the Dads out there a Happy Father’s Day. My haste was fueled because I was heading to the game with my family. I could swear that on Father’s Day Dads used to be able to run the bases. It seems like they don’t do that anymore. Oh well, at least it was an awesome game.
The Verlander/Gallardo match-up was everything you could hope for. Gallardo was very much on top of his game, and while he had 3 walks he was all up in the strike zone and was very efficient and the Tigers weren’t centering the ball. Through 4 2/3 innings the Tigers had managed 2 balls out of the infield, but then they broke through.
The Tigers had back to back singles in the 5th. And then in the 6th the Tigers made the adjustments to start hammering the ball. A sharp single by Cabrera was followed by a towering, majestic blast from Marcus Thames that found the wind blowing the ball to the deepest part of the park and resulted in an out. But then another sharp single set up Brandon Inge for a no doubter home run. That was the Tigers offense.
Justin Verlander gets Ryan Braun chasing high heat
Verlander’s rough outing against the Cardinals was mostly a hiccup. He didn’t have a 1-2-3 innig until the 5th, and threw 74 pitches through 4 innings, but he also wasn’t being hit hard except for a McGehee homer. He was also inducing more grounders than normal and there were no outfield outs in the first 4 innings.
Fortunately he rebounded and made it through 7 2/3 innings thanks to an 11 pitch 5th and a 6 pitch 6th inning.
Bobby Seay K’d Prince Fielder on 3 pitches and Fernando Rodney had a drama free 9th inning to complete the sweep, extend a 4 game winning streak, and extend the division lead to 4 games.
Erie 2 New Hampshire 8
Brennan Boesch, Ryan Strieby, Alex Avila each had 2 hits. Josh Rainwater allowed 1 run on 5 hits, 1 walk, and 3 K’s in 3.2 innings. Zach Simons didn’t record an out and allowed 3 runs to score.
North 6 South 4
It was the FSL All Star game. Andrew Hess pitched for the North team and managed 2 scoreless innings allowing just a hit. Thad Weber also had a scoreless winning and was credited with the win.
West Michigan 8 Dayton 7
Gustavo Nunez went 3 for 5. Billy Nowlin and Bretn Wyatt both homered. Ronnie Bourquin went 2 for 4 with a walk. Mark Sorensen allowed 4 runs on 9 hits (including 2 homers), 1 walk, and 4 K’s in 5 innings.
The Magglio Ordonez benching/non-benching is the story that just keeps on giving. At this point I think everybody except Barack Obama has had their say. Let’s put it all together and see what we can come up with:
Thursday
Jim Leyland announces that Ordonez wouldn’t be starting that night in St. Louis and that he would be out of the starting lineup indefinitely. Headline writers use the term “benched” liberally as it seems that Ordonez is being placed on the bench.
PREGAME: It’s a hot and muggy and breezy afternoon, the kind of weather where the balls tend to fly. That could be good boding for the Tigers because Milwaukee starter Dave Bush has had homer issues, with 17 allowed so far this season. He’s been taken deep in 12 of his 14 starts and multiple homers 4 times this year.
The Tigers will lean on the big league debut of 24 year old Alfredo Figaro. Figaro posted a 7.8 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and 1.1 HR/9 in 68 innings for AA Erie.
POSTGAME: First things first, let’s talk about the kid making his debut. I was impressed with Figaro. The stuff definitely seemed to live up to the billing with more fastball velocity than I expected and a pretty nasty breaking ball when he could control it. That said, he did get knocked around quite a bit and the Brewers stranded 2 runners in each of the first 3 innings. But with 7 K’s Figaro was able to pitch around some jams. He finished with 96 pitches, many of them thrown in tough situations. All in all a promising debut.
And then there is the offense. Miguel Cabrera is swinging like he did in April where everything off the bat seems possible of injuring someone. Marcus Thames is locked in. Heck, everyone was locked in today except for Curtis Granderson and Brandon Inge. even then Grandy hit a couple balls well and Inge had a sacrifice fly.
Miggy has been playing some superb defense at first base, not just making the plays fielding the ball but making heads up plays when he has it in his glove.
Speaking of heads up, how about Alfredo Figaro being in the right spot backing up a throw to 3rd. Yes, he should be there but in a big league debut I can see it easy for him to be distracted.
The Tigers didn’t take a walk today, and yet they scored 9 runs. The last time the Tigers scored that many runs without a walk was…Friday night when they plated 10. What’s odd is that since 1954 the Tigers have scored at least 9 runs with no walks only 7 times.
A response to a Rob Neyer post that the Tigers have received no offense from their shortstops. Blake shows the production hasn't been bad compared to the rest of the league.
Great stuff from Dave Cameron about Granderson's season. The batting average is down, but homers are up. So far it appears it's because Granderson has become an extreme fly ball hitter- meaning more outs (and a lower batting average on balls in play) and more homers.
Toledo 1 Rochester 2
Scott Sizemore and Jeff Larish each went 2 for 4. Chris Lambert allowed ust 2 runs in 6 innings on 3 hits with 3 K’s. Casey Fien fanned 3 in his 2 perfect innings.
Erie 4 New Hampshire 2
Deik Scram homered. Jon Kibler fanned 4 in 6.2 innings with 2 walks and 6 hits and 2 runs allwoed. Jay Sborz struck out 3 in 1.1 innings.
Lakeland – DNP
West Michigan 6 Dayton 0
Mike Gosse went 3 for 4. Gustavo Nunez and Joe Bowen each had 2 hit games. Billy Nowlin walked twice and homered. Casey Crosby allowed just 2 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings of shut out ball with 5 K’s.
Tri-City 0 Oneonta 2
Wade Gaynor (3rd rd pick) doubled. Michael Rockett (13th rd pick) went 2 for 3. Jeff Gerbe pitched 6 shut out innings with 4 hits, 2 walks and 3 K’s. Mike LaLuna had a 3 inning save with 6 K’s.
PREGAME: After an extensive 11 game road trip, the Tigers finally return home to Comerica Park. They welcome in the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers are 37-29. They have a propensity to slug the ball and rank 3rd in the NL in slugging percentage. The plurality of that power comes from Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder who are OPSing 991 and 1.024 respectively.
Tonight Armando Galarraga will try to suppress some of the slugging. Unfortunately Galarraga has been especially susceptible to the long ball and he’s allowed the 3rd most in the AL this season with 14.
Braden Looper is on the mound for the Brewers. Looper has had his own homer problems with 13 allowed. The difference is that he’s walk a third fewer hitters.
For more on the Brewers I encourage you to check out Brew Crew Ball.
POSTGAME: Other than Armando Galarraga getting hammered again, and an uncharacteristic butchering of balls by Adam Everett and Brandon Inge, this was a nice game. The bats broke out in a big way and got Tigers fans Arby’s + 1. Don Kelly threw in a nice defensive play and the Tigers got good (but rain-limited) bullpenning from Zach Miner, Joel Zumaya, and Bobby Seay. Getting the first win of the series should take a little bit of pressure off of Alfredo Figaro (who will already be really nervous) in the Fox afternoon tilt.
The Tigers today announced the extension of Jim Leyland’s contract through the 2011 season.
“We are happy to announce a two-year contract extension for Jim Leyland today,” Tigers President, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager David Dombrowski said. “Jim is an outstanding manager and he has done a great job for the Tigers. We look forward to Jim leading our club for years to come.”
UPDATE: The news is now official per tonight’s game notes. Sardinha has not been removed from the 25 man roster. The Tigers had an extra spot when they DL’d Willis and they haven’t formally recalled Figaro yet.
Detroit Tiger Tales has the scoop that Dusty Ryan has been called up to join the Tigers. The guess is that this is in place of Dane Sardinha who has been beyond brutal at the plate. This move is probably at least 2 weeks overdue.
Ryan is hitting 259/374/442 for Toledo. He will strike out a lot and his numbers likely won’t look as good in Detroit, but he should still be a substantial offensive upgrade over 097/091/129.
Sardinha is regarded as a good defender, but Ryan is as well despite a spate of wild pitches at the end of last season. Sardinha only threw out 2 of the 10 runners against him this year.
The move may make it easier to rest Laird periodically. One of the reasons for keeping Ryan in the minors was to get him everyday experience. He’s had half a season of that now and should be starting twice a week going forward. Plus, with the emergence of Alex Avila there is less pressure for Ryan to be “the catcher of the future.” Laird probably needs the rest. He’s only had one season as the full time catcher which coincided with his worst offensive season.
PREGAME: Four game losing streaks warrant backwards game threads. The Tigers top 2 in the rotation couldn’t coax out a win, so it is now up to the kid to stop the losing streak.
Rick Porcello was on the mound for the Tigers last start, and hopefully he’ll be on the mound for their next one as well. He does get the benefit of not facing Albert Pujols tonight.
Joel Pineiro has some pressure himself. Opposing pitchers have kept the Tigers under 4 runs for 7 straight games. I’m actually stunned that Pineiro is only 30. He’s having a solid season with only 11 walks and 2 homers allowed in 76.2 innings.
The Tigers finally had a big inning, and they got it early in the game and took some of the pressure off of everyone. Grandy and Polly each had 2 hits and the top of the lineup produced. Inge and Laird had big hits. Thames with a foul-poul thump. Sigh. Runs. Whee!
Porcello was good again. He gave up a number of hits, but got a ton of ground balls as well. He also slithered out what could have been a bad inning after a Gerald Laird error (Laird’s throw wasn’t good, but Inge seemed like he could have reached it).
Bobby Seay was very good. Brandon Lyon was fine. Fernando Rodney was nearly a train wreck as he was throwing the ball all over the place. Fortunately Rick Ankiel decided to swing to end the game with a double play.
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