2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.100: Tigers at Rangers

72 Comments

PREGAME: When the Tigers were being swept by the Yankees, they were at least ultra-competitive games that saw the series come down to a 9-5 score. The Tigers have been outscored 12-5 so far in this Rangers series. I think I preferred the ultra-competitive heart wrenching games than the games without heart.

The Tigers will try to muster some offense against Scott Feldman who sports a 3.59 ERA. Feldman’s peripherals are unimpressive. His walk rate is a touch under 3 per 9, but he only fans a batter every other inning. But he has managed to go at least 6 innings in 14 of his last 15 starts.

Justin Verlander takes the hill for Detroit. Verlander is coming off a huge 127 pitch dominant performance against the White Sox. The Tigers look to him once again to pick up a much needed win.

Detroit vs. Texas – July 29, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Can you believe the Tigers stranded 13 runners tonight?! It’s not nearly as problematic when you plate 13 as well. The Tigers haven’t had a lot of laughers in the last couple months, and the team needed some smiles after looking dead the night before. Early runs, a big cushion, and Verlander pitching nasty meant the drama was pretty limited in this one.

  • The Tigers were quite patient early on and made Feldman work, which worked to their advantage. They left the bases loaded in the first, but Feldman threw 38 pitches. Unlike other games though where they’ll let a starter off the hook, they came back in subsequent innings and plated runs.
  • Grandy had homers in his first 2 at-bats.
  • Cabrera had 4 hits and his 2 outs came on great playes from Byrd and Vizquel. He also got hits with guys on base. With it being a blow out they weren’t really “clutch” but hopefully it relaxes him.
  • Ordonez still found himself in a double play situation. This time he roped a liner at the pitcher who caught Guillen off second base.
  • Verlander matched a career high with 13 strike outs. He got in a jam in the 5th inning and what ensued wasn’t really the art of pitching. Fifteen of the last sixteen pitches the threw that inning were fastballs.
  • Texas pitchers threw 195 pitches
  • Jim Leyland had a wonderful opportunity to give Verlander a light outing and Inge a full day off. He did neither bringing Verlander out for the 7th inning despite a 9 run lead, a rested bullpen, and an off day tomorrow. Inge also came in as a defensive replacement. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

72 thoughts on “Game 2009.100: Tigers at Rangers”

  1. The Tigers have most of their big hitters in line-up. Should be a good move if Verlander is unhittable again, then the defense won’t even matter much. Otherwise, it could get ugly.

    Right now Texas is 1.5 games behind Boston in the wild-card race and 3 games behind LA in the West. Every game is a huge game for the Rangers.

  2. I like the 8 o’clock start time. Gives me an extra hour to enjoy the outdoors.

    I agree with Billfer. I’d rather lose 2-1 gut wrenching games like we did vs Seattle and NY, than lose like we have these last 2 games. I’m not fussy about how we win; any win is nice for me.

  3. Why is Maggs starting – Feldman is a RH. Looks like that option is going to vest…

    1. And Everett is SS, not Santiago…I’m guessing that even though his is RH, LH batters don’t hit him much better than RH batters

    1. It’s not for nothing he has been called Baby Inge…sometimes he makes easy things difficult and makes the difficult look easy.

  6. The guys throws 40 pitches in an inning and we only score 1 run. That’s actually hard to do.

    1. Something else hard to do is pitch more than a couple of innings if you start out with 40 pitches in the first. OK Vegas guy, what kind of odds would you take on this guy still being on the mound in the 5th? I say he is…

    1. Hmm, maybe, but it took him 16 pitches and there was a guy he didn’t even strikeout! Hopefully no more of those not striking-out-batter lapses next inning.

    2. Hmm, I think Andruw “Gold Glove DH” Jones took that “not-striking-out” thing a bit farther than is called for.

  8. There goes Granderson again!! This Feldman guy ought to do stand up comedy. Watching him pitch is making me laugh.

    1. I think we can expand the T-bone theory now:

      When Granderson hit a leadoff homer, we always lose…unless he hits another one his next time up.

    2. Feldman is getting out of these innings by the skin of his teeth. This might just turn into a real laugh fest.

      1. Actually he has a problem. Just see billfer’s pre-game…the guy doesn’t walk many, but also doesn’t strike out many.

        Tiger’s: Walks? What’s that?

        “He doesn’t walk many” is something you could pretty much say about the guy named Guy Pitching Against the Tigers. So if you aren’t striking out Tigers, in a hitter-friendly park, you better be at least a little bit lucky…

  9. Tiger’s scoring 4, and the 2nd not even over: excellent
    Tiger’s scoring 4, and the 2nd not even over and Verlander on the mound: a near sure-thing
    Tiger’s scoring 4, and the 2nd not even over and Verlander on the mound and the next AB results in: “M. Cabrera singled to pitcher”: Priceless

  11. If I were writing something fictional which included characters who were baseball players, it would never occur to me to name one of them “Teagarden.”

    And even if it did, it would never occur to me to make the Teagarden character be the catcher.

  15. Crap. That pitch hit Laird pretty good. I hope he isn’t hurt. We can’t afford an injury to him. Who is next in the depth carts at catcher? Is Sardinha still in the organization? Is Avila ready for a call up?

  16. On a more philosophical note, it’s odd how certain hitters are ball-magnets; if you hear a Tiger is hit by the pitch, you already know it’s either Polanco, Inge, or Laird, before you even hear the name. They don’t seem to crowd the plate more than anyone else…

    And in general, the catcher always leads the team in HBP. (Inge leads the Tigers, but then he was a catcher, wasn’t he?). Is that because they’ve had so many balls ricocheted off so many places that when they see the pitch heading at them they just think, oh whatever, let it nail them, and take their base?

        1. Oh dear, I don’t think you know what you’re saying…you mean you’ve loved Inge probably 10+ times this season already?

          1. Exactly 18 times to be exact. That leaves about 80 games of sadness. And I’m guessing I’ve loved Inge 150 times in his career. Too bad that he’s played almost 1100 games! That’s a happiness to disappointment level lower than my dating career.

    1. MCB, So are the Indians…………. dealing themselves right into the basement. I guess time will tell but if you are a Tribe fan you are puking about almost everything related to your team

  19. Hey you guys know what would be awesome?

    Out scoring the other team in a series and still losing the series. I just love it when it happens, it’s like they collectively chose to work only once every three days.

  20. on a night when our AAA and AA players would be hitting the ball…maggs is dealing an ofer…you just gotta wonder. personally i think the tigers are giving him just enough at bats to either prove he can still play or that he can’t. i don’t think the option will vest and i don’t think boras can do anything about it.

  21. That Texas rally was a little too exciting to watch. Nice job by Verlander to get out it!

    2. Where were you at? I was in the Lexus Club level. I was almost in the Tigers dugout in the 7th though when JL put Verlander back out there. I was in a strangling mood.

  23. Laird stretches out a single into a double, then steals 3rd base. That is some good hustle there.

  24. If Granderson hits a homerun here, I plan on referring to him as “One Man Arby’s” from here on out.

  25. Prediction: This will be Magglio’s last game as a Tiger. The more I think about it, the more I think the only conceivable reason for him to be playing tonight and not be removed yet is a desperate hope that he hits two homers and can be traded for scraps (or like a million of salary relief) instead of released outright.

    1. Everyday people keep thinking and saying that. If he’s released he could still play for another team and get the playing time he needs to get the option years kicked in. The Tigers would still have to pay his contract and be at risk of being hit with a grievance from the players union. In the future, other players may be very reluctant in signing with the Tigers also. I think it’s just a bad move all around for the Tigers to release him.

  26. I hope Jim takes out Verlander at this point. No need to put him back out there with a big lead, a well rested pen, and an off day tomorrow.

  29. Geez, Miguel. He lofts one that doesn’t even make it into the first row and he’s admiring it so much that it lands well before he makes it to first base. C’mon man.. pretend you’ve done it before.

      1. actually he was in shock that he got an extra base hit with runners on! He couldn’t get over it

  31. Amazing…12 runs tonight (so far) matches the output from the last five games (2-3 in that span).

    Let’s hope this carries into Cleveland, but I fear Carl Pavano pitches well enough Sunday to sucker some team into signing him for 2010.

  32. does this round of 13 runs pretty much assure that Jackson will get 1 in support on Friday?????

    1. Especially since the idea was to rest Inge by giving him a day off before an off-day…does this mean they don’t get an off-day now?

      Actually I think the reason for the move is obvious. A hyper Inge is bugging the crap out of Leyland in the dugout.

  34. Why did Verlander stay in for 115 pitches? It’s 13-4 and you need 9 outs. And JV is coming off a 127-pitch outing. There isn’t ANYBODY at the back end of the bullpen you can use, especially with an off day tomorrow?

    I don’t get that at all, Jimmuh…

    1. Sox lost to Minny, 3-2. Hawk nearly wet himself as the Sox put runners on 2nd and 3rd against Nathan in the 9th, but Kotsay lined the first pitch to RF for the final out.

    2. Thank you. I said the same thing about his last start. There’s going to come a time in September or October when we need Verlander to be strong late in the game, and he won’t have it.

  35. The Tigers have scored in every inning so far. Sure is nice to break out of that team hitting slump.

    13 k’s for Verlander. This has turned into a game to remember.

  36. hopefully this offensive on-slaught will continue into the Cleveland reservation where the good Indians are fleeing the reservation everyday now!

      1. It’s a little ambiguous, but he means that the 8th was the first inning that they failed to score a run. No AL team has scored at least one run all nine innings this year, and I believe the last time was the Yankees in ’06. Oh well.

  38. as good as Laird played tonight maybe he should get a day off once in awhile. Ryan did fine last night

  40. In the meantime, the White Sox got swept by Minnesota and have lost 6 of their last 7 games. Next they have a 4 game series vs the Yankees, then 3 games vs the Angels. They won’t be getting any sympathy cards from me.

  41. I figured out that it was the “Bizarro World” Tigers that we were watching. Feldman pitching is what really made it like the Seinfeld episode.

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