2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.079: Tigers at Twins

162 Comments

PREGAME: Here we go, another series in the Metrodome. I don’t know if it is the dome itself or the way that the Tigers play there, but this games are rarely enjoyable. This time first place is at risk with the Twins just 3 games back (and the White Sox 2 back).

Lee has a detailed comparison of the two squads doing better tonight, and things are pretty but the Tigers are benefitting from some good fortune in close games. I have a feeling that good fortune doesn’t really apply to the Tigers when facing Joe Frickin Crede though.

Tonight’s match-up features Luke French making his first career start. Never a dominating force, French got by with location and moxie until he started fanning batters to the tune of 7.9 per game resulting in a 3.60 K/BB ratio for Toledo.

Ten game winner Kevin Slowey gets the ball for the Twins. He walks like no one, with only 15 free passes in his 87 innings of work. But he will give up the occasional homer with 14 on the year, but those even seem to come in bunches.

Random Factoid of the night: Slowey has only induced 6 double play grounders this year. And 2 of them came in his start against Detroit.

Your Magglio-less lineup is:

  1. Granderson, CF
  2. Polanco, 2B
  3. Cabrera, 1B
  4. Thames, DH
  5. Kelly, LF
  6. Inge, 3B
  7. Anderson, RF
  8. Laird, C
  9. Santiago, SS

Detroit vs. Minnesota – July 3, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Well, that certainly was a memorable game. I’m sleepy so only bullet points tonight:

  • The Tigers did get some offense, lots of it early in fact. But then there was the 9 innings of shutout ball between the 5th and the 14th.
  • French was okay and he held Justin Morneau in check. I am surprised that Leyland didn’t let him go the one additional out for the win with the big cushion. It is a little indicative that the team has been struggling because that is when he tends to over manage.
  • Two walks to Nick Punto. Really? The good news is that the Tigers only had 1 other unintentional walk.
  • But two intentional ones, and this I thought was a great move by Leyland. Zumaya had control tonight, and the risk of walking in a run is always present, but passing on Mauer and Morneau when their runs were meaningless was good strategy.
  • Despite the game going 16 innings only Freddy Dolsi and Joel Zumaya should be unavailable for the next 2 days. Rodney (6 up, 6 down) and Lyon were efficient in their multi-inning outings. Ni and Seay threw less than an inning and Miner was too ineffective to run up his pitch count.
  • The Tigers didn’t play great defense tonight. During Miner’s meltdown inning, I thought both triples should have been fielded. Neither play was easy, but both plays were makeable.
  • Eric Cooper was awful. I really think he’d ask the pitcher and catcher what number he was thinking of, whoever was closest got the call. One of the many egregious examples was a called 3rd strike against Polanco that Gameday tracked at 3 ft, 10 in off the ground. So at Polanco’s nipples essentially.
  • Magglio hit into kind of a tough luck double play, but then he finally had a ground ball not go at someone and through for an RBI single.

162 thoughts on “Game 2009.079: Tigers at Twins”

  1. Maybe if Inge keeps hitting like he has been, and works really hard, and gets really lucky, he’ll get to bat ahead of Kellly in the order later this season…

  4. We’re setting up Slowey for the Verlander effect–it’s a lot of pitches, striking out every batter, he’ll never make it past 6 innings…

  8. Nice start by the Tigers.

    Slowey stinks Today. He should be yanked. We’re just teeing off him. Hard to believe he has 10 wins with an ERA near 5.

  12. Magglio sits and the Tigers score six in three innings. I know the two events aren’t necessarily directly related but didn’t the offense become more productive when he was “benched”? What does it take for Uncle Smokey to see that Magglio just can help this team?

  13. who has the stats on LEADOFFf walk by any Tiger pitcher and the other team scores that runner..Odds are most teams do score that run often but seems like the Tigers do that a lot

  16. What’s with taking French out when he’s an out from being eligible for the win?

    Jim Leyland is a butthead sometimes.

      1. Only thing I can figure is that Jim Leyland is re-living this day over and over again, a la Groundhog Day. The first time he goes through the day, he leaves French in there. Kid walks Cuddyer, and then gives up a home run to Crede.

        Bing bang boom, it’s 7-6. Tigers go on to lose by a few.

        So every day since he’s just been managing the game differently to see how to win.

      3. And since this is Groundhog Day, it doesn’t matter what Leyland does, the Twins always win.

      1. Sometimes Leyland just doesn’t get it. Logically, I understand his thinking. How risky can it be to pull French? You’re protecting a six run lead — you should be well able to give the bullpen some rope. But he just doesn’t get it. In baseball, you stick with what’s working, regardless. The French vs. Twins lineup was working — advantage Tigers. You NEVER NEVER alter what’s working unless 1) it stops working or 2) you have no choice. Niether 1 or 2 apply here.

        1. I’m fine with Leyland’s approaches to things…individually…it’s the way he mixes and matches that is so irritating; one minute playing probablilities, another time unthinkingly doing the conventional, another time going completely superstitious, with the stray “gut-feeling” thrown in.

          For example, with your French comment above–I might be able to handle his move if at the same time he wasn’t going around saying he can’t move Inge up in the batting order because “why mess with success.” Arrrr.

  27. And now the offense is dead. Games in MN are so predictable they should just take the weekend off.

  31. leadoff double and don’t score. Why in the world does Anderson swing at the first pitch?

    1. because it was well out of the strike zone, at least according to Gameday

  32. That’s one way to stop Inge I suppose…may be a good way to stop Crede next time.

    1. You don’t ask Thames to bunt, that’s not his strength.

      Agree with you on French, though. But it’s Miner’s fault he completely laid an egg.

        1. you’d like to think that was the case, but reality is if marcus tries to bunt, it more than likely does not end well. and all you’ve done is take the bat out of his hands.

          1. I can’t think of a situation where it would ever be right for your #4 hitter to bunt.

  38. Ugh.. this is just one of those games where we all know some sort of Minnesota walkoff is coming, just like we knew that 6-run lead was never safe. :-\

  41. How does Mr Hard-to-Strikeout take a called 3rd strike with the go-ahead run on 2nd?

  44. I think the strategy here is you walk the bases full then a strikeout, to torment them…

  45. This game sucks. It looked so promising but in the end, Twins luck and dominance in their cheat-dome prevails.

      1. Yes… The Twins are my most hated team in all sports. Right now I find myself rooting for the White Sox because I absolutely want somebody to prevent the Twins from making it into the post season.

    1. I agree. Miguel sucks. He swings at first pitches just because he’s so fat and lazy. Not because that’s when he gets the best pitch and has a great average when putting the first pitch in play.

      1. Oh, I get it. Sarcasm. Yeah, I wonder why Miggy even tries, since he’s so terrible.

  54. Nice stuff from zoom. He gets another inning if we don’t take the lead…mostly because only Dolsi is left.

  57. lets win it in the nazi dome boys

    Mauer’s opposite field drive to the wall that Kelly misplayed, but caught scared the bijezus outta me

    Lets go Brando!

  61. I didn’t like those intentional balls. I’m sensing a walk-off walk.

  64. The best part about intentionally walking them is that we don’t have to see them for 7 more batters.

    1. Also: I think it shows, despite the constant smoking, Leyland doesn’t have hypertension/blood pressure problems…

  66. Well, for all us Twins-haters, you have to enjoy the Cabrera-beats-out-strikeout play…

  67. That 2nd strike to rayburn was half a foot from the strike zone…the strike zone seems to have become anything catchable by the catcher (and even some that aren’t apparently)…

  70. I assume Ordonez knows this, but then again, maybe he doesn’t…I mean you cut your hair, and it keeps growing back in…the same hairs…see what I’m saying? The slump hairs are getting a little longer every day. He needs to be re-cutting them daily.

  72. I say they all come out next inning with the blue hats…sure, there will be fines or whatever, but they’ll win…

  74. Det:
    Last 30: .246/.317/.420/.737
    Last 7: .223/.290/.375/.665
    Tonight: .170/.200/.430/.630 (and that’s with an inflated slugging due to all the XBH)

    League average OPS is ~.750, we are at .751 for the season, which shows you how incredible April and May were. Just demonstrating a prolonged team slump, and that we can be much better. We’ll get out of it.

  76. Has Placido ever struck out 3 times in one game before?

    EDIT: And also had the go ahead RBI single in the same game?!! WOO!

  80. “The Tigers score the go-ahead run on a little 6-hopper dribbled up the middle…”
    Um, yeah, sort of like a “Twins-hit,” deal with it…

    And by the way the hit was preceded by a classic use of the sac bunt, luckily one of the handful of guys who can bunt was up….

  86. The Twins make me sick. Why can’t the Tigers hold a lead on this team. Every series the same thing…

  87. well, good night.I really don’t care if they lose now.it’s just sad when you know in advance that it is going to happen and it happens just as you expect it to………even at 6-0 I was pretty sure Minnesota would win…no way Detroit will compete the rest of the season…..in the games that count….

      1. Wow, that was great. That’s the kind of game that really inspires a team.

        It should be weeks before they lose a game again, if at all.

  88. these pitches to crede are strikes on gameday, are they strikes in real life?

  90. magically, we somehow made it through the 14th. too bad we have no pitchers left.

  96. On display is the very reason why the Tigers have no chance at winning the central this season. If they had an 8-game lead I would still be nervous.

  98. This is officially horrible. Not only will they not win but they will exhaust their entire pitching staff in the process.

  102. “11-8, 96 % to Win, Top 16, 3 Outs, ___, Brandon Inge ground out off pitcher R.A. Dickey.”
    Per @tigers_fg

  115. Big win for the Tigers in what is hopefully the craziest game we will play all season. Now we need Edwin to pitch some innings tomorrow. You know it is a crazy night when every Tiger who batted either drove in a run or scored one except our best hitter in Cabrera.

  116. Freddie hung in there …..that pitching was a big as it can get with no one left…Great win

    Someone tell Cabrera he can go to the hotel and sleep now.. He slept most of this game already,,,He should be fresh tomorrow

  117. Finally!
    Good Night!!
    Let’s hope we won’t need our bullpen to come up “big” for us tomorrow…

  119. My gawd! Pujols hit his 31st home run of the season. I predict he will be the 1st non-juiced player to hit over 61 HRs in a season.

  120. OK….my breathing rate just returned to normal. I hate the Minnesota Twins so much as every game with them takes weeks off of my life. Seriously, my chest felt tight from the time Minny tied it up in the 14th until the final out in the 16th inning. They should change their name from the Twins to the Terminators. Seriously…….I’ve never seen a team that just keeps comin’ no matter what like the Twins when we play them (especially in the Metrodome). Its like the Tigers are Sarah Conner and the Twins are on a never-ending mission to snuff us out. Its sick. It really is.

    In all seriousness…………..as much as it sucked that this win was so hard to get after having a six-run lead, I have to acknowledge the Tigers for showing some sack and battling all the way through this one even when everything was going against them tonight. The crowd was in full throat, screaming for another Tiger scalp (can you blame them? They almost EXPECT it to happen against us ’cause they’ve seen it so many times).

    Polanco was my player of the game, with two crucial RBI hits in extra innings (the first coming after getting a “bell ringer” in the “bathing suit area” per Mario Impemba). Absolutely clutch for the ballclub tonight. Thumbs up to Polanco, Laird, French, Zumaya, and Rodney. Thumbs down to Cabrera, Inge, and Miner tonight. The rest of the guys were meh, not good enough for the thumbs up and not bad enough for the thumbs down. Big, big win tonight. It really takes the pressure off for the rest of the weekend. Hopefully the guys can settle down and realize that the Twins can be beat here. It’d be great if we stopped playing as if we expect bad things to happen, even though it usually does in the Metrodump. Getting one of the next two would be wonderful and I would run so fast for the airport if I was a Tiger that it would make heads spin.

  121. Winning this crazy game should be a huge confidence booster for the remainder of the series! It wasn’t pretty but in the end it’s a win, and a huge win at that!

    Go Edwin Go!!!

  122. This is the first game all year that I’ve fallen asleep without knowing whether the Tigers won or lost. I’m a hoser.

  123. Good change of pace last night. Not a typical game, but a win is a win, and we’ve been getting wins from our 4th and 5th rotation spots lately. That’s huge in my book. We’ve won our last 2 out 3 from the 5th spot and 4 out of 5 games from Galarraga’s spot. Now if the rest of the rotation keeps pitching well, we’ll be putting together a few more nice big winning streaks.

  124. As for the Twins, Yesterday they did not impress me. Slowey was terrible and the bottom half of their starting line-up was pathetic. 6th Crede .229, 7th Young .264, 8th Gomez .224, 9th Punto .209. That’s good enough reason alone to throw a minor league left-handed pitcher against them.

    Anyone want to critique Delmon Young? Man, that guy is worse than Magglio Ordonez is this year. I don’t understand why Young is still on their roster. He’s a complete butcher out in the field, he’s not hitting for much power (though he did homer off French), and he swings at everything. He makes Josh Anderson look good.

      1. Good point Joel. I could live with Maggs’ production if he was only raking in 1.2 mil. However, when a guy is raking in 15 mil and hits for less power than Polanco, you can see why the criticism of Maggs is at full throat. If DD gives in and lets Maggs reach his contract incentives for another two years, Ilitch should fire him on the spot. Be smart one time Dave, give Magglio his outright release before he ties up $30 mil over the next two years. We can replace his current production with Raburn for about 5% of the cost.

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