PREGAME: Normally when Justin Verlander takes the mound I like the Tigers chances of winning. But he hasn’t yet faced the unstoppable force that is Carl Pavano. In an effort to irritate Tigers fans everywhere the Twins acquired Pavano in a waiver trade and inserted him into the rotation.
After Pavano stymied the Tigers for a 3rd time last weekend, he lowered his ERA against Detroit to 1.93. He has a 6.16 ERA in the rest of his starts.
Verlander is coming off another dominating 7 inning shut out performance. Those 7 innings came after a 5 run first inning though.
Pavano is also 2-1-2.42 vs. CWS.
Meaning he is 4-7-7.20 vs anyone else besides DET and CWS!
Well, it has only stopped raining at my house for a total of a half hour today. I wonder if they would do a DH tomorrow if they can’t get this one in.
Great, we’re going to make Pavano look like Cy Young again.
Nah, today’s the day Pavano comes down to earth. He hasn’t faced Alex “Babe Gibby” Avila yet (is he in the lineup tonight?hopefully), and Inge has his number (last game: single, walk, and fly out to CF warning track. And that’s when he was useless at the plate).
Thanks Sam, I hadn’t realized Pavano was a Sox-killer also. That almost makes the trade a no-brainer for the Twins and Racially Insensitive Mascots. Today ends Pavano’s run vs DET though. Unless Gender-Insensitive Nature-Parent foils us.
Note to Mr Verlander: it was really cool how you recovered from that 5-run 1st inning last time; maybe this time we could blow through the lineup a few quick times and get into the 5th ASAP…
Wow I actually like Uncle Smokey’s lineup tonight. I was sure he’d rest Inge since it looks like Inge is ready to pound Pavano; he actually gives Junior a 3rd consecutive start; and he goes against platoon logic and plays Ordonez. (Who has a hot bat and has hit Pavano). I guess that makes me Little Smokey for the day.
Avila is the lineup? Where bc gameday says Laird is catching and Guillen is DH.
Hmm, so it does. And the Free Press does also. Yahoo however has Avila:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore;_ylt=As6PzjlC40cJonhwuQRg2hwRvLYF?gid=290808106
I do think he should play. Play the player who is hitting right now.
I’d play him even if he wasn’t hitting. He’s a lefty; he’s new and hasn’t been Pavano-d yet; and Laird is career OPS .111 vs Pavano (9 PA).
Maybe this is wishful thinking, but the yahoo version ends with a R-L-R combo, the others R-R-R…the 1st looks more like the Uncle Smokey I know…
Does anyone know if the game is delayed?
I do not think so.
Crap.
OM what the hell.
Verlander is Bondermanning. Just get through that first!
That’s better
The belt-high fastball over the middle may not be the best pitch to start Mauer off with with a runner in scoring position….
I don’t know how we’re going to score runs without Avila in the line-up.
Ordonez, Inge, and luck.
OK, I’m 2 for 2…now where’s that luck?
(Inge closing in on Shoppach, 2 more to go…)
It’s not the best sign though that our DH has a career OBP of .000 vs Pavano in 7 PA…
HA!! Make that 3 for 3!
Good, quick inning by Verlander.
Inge getting hit again.
Inge just tied Kaline for 6th on the Tiger all-time HBP list.
(I’m guessing Inge and Kaline aren’t tied for anything else…well, maybe career strikeouts…)
Actually, Inge on pace to become all-time Tigers strikeout leader by end of 2010. He should leave Kaline in the dust by this time next year.
Is this like the 1,000th time that Everett has been up with the bases juiced this year?
Only the 14th, but it does easily lead the team (2nd best is 11). And in general he has come through–14 RBI in 14 PA.
Part of that is the 1-3 hitters have been a bit light on OBP…our cleanup hitter, Cabrera, has had exactly half as many bases-loaded opportunities.
WTF Everret. Why would Santiago not be playing? Is his number bad against Pavano?
Here we go again.
Why can we not hit this guy?
Santiago is 0-2 career against Pavano; Everett has more PA vs Pavano than any other Tiger, I guess he gets in on the Pavano-experience angle. (19 PA, .278)
love the unassisted double play
“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.” C’mon Rod. You’re my boy but even YOU know you say that way too much.
I hear the Twins are in trade talks with Boston; the Red Sox are interested in obtaining Pavano once this game is over…
Has he always been Cy Young vs the Tigers? I can’t find stats against the Tigers from the Yankee years…
…because b-ref doesn’t list a start against Det before this season. (apologies if I missed the bilfer post that already reported that info this season)
for Boston I hear Dice K will come off the DL and pitch the first and last games of the 3 game series seeing the Tigers were one of his only wins
I would have to hand it to the Twins front office if in October the player to be named later was Pavano
Well Bonderlander is cruising now; now where are those 2 runs/game we’re supposed to score?
(Even if Ordonez and Inge do hit Pavano, we’ll need a bit more with 1-career Cabrera and 0-Pavano Guillen preceding them…and I’m guessing he’s going to pitch around Inge all game, with Lard batting behind him…
Much better against M&M round two
Guillen does not have a hit against Pavano? Why did he not put Avila in?
No hits, no walks, no sac flies, zippo. 0-8 1K 1 GIDP
Cabrera’s not much better: 1-11 (single) 2K
We got to score. This is just unbelieveable.
White Sox losing 4-1.
Come on is Pavano really 47-0 how did he get all those losses…this is ridiculous
OK, Polanco will NOT strike out with the runner at 3rd one out…
On the other hand–the GIDP is a high probability (yeah I heard it before I typed it, but I was going to, really)
yeah double play
So the Twins release Pavano tomorrow and Boston signs him, right? If the AL is willing to collude, we could face him like 11 more times this year.
We should check with our Casino Correspondent Ken and see what kind of odds we can get on Pavano winning 20 this season…
Lets just face it – Pavano owns us.
should be 3-1. Everett ABSOLUTELY has to score on that hit by Grandy.
would you have bet your house that was going to happen…poor coaching again by Lamont should have scored Everett on Grandy single ..instead set up the almost automatic GIDP
and here I was hoping that 7 and 10 runs the last two nights would carry over. looks like minny is getting all the timely hits and we’re coming up with big fat duds….
Weird….I thought once you got two outs you were not allowed to get a base hit??
Minny is playing for its baseball life…getting swept here would almost put them completely out…The Tigers just aren’t of the Killer instinct type….. just look at the past 4 years
like to see what Lambert has ..saw him in spring training ..he looks capable..obviously this isn’t spring training
And Pavano still on track for a CG.
Weird, never heard a commercial for the Masons before…I’ll have to check it out. My favorite is James: “Lo-leeta…Lo-leeta…”
on the bright side-45 of the final 53 reg season games ARE NOT against the Pavanostrong/Twins
(sarcasm intended)
gee two nice at bats there from Guillen and Ordonez they both had the Rodney look on there face after K–ing
Every time I think we’re about to turn the corner and go on a run, we come out lookin like a bunch of nerds. I of course made a nice sized bet that the Tigers would win by more than a run and a half, thus proving once again that I should never bet on the Tigers to break a trend. If Pavano is pitching you keep your money in your wallet. “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.” Yeah, I get it, Rod. Thanks.
The only good thing about it is that every time Pavano does this Yankee fans get all cranky.
They probably won’t notice though since they’re immersed in The Most Important Weekend Series In the History of Baseball (so important that when Boston swept the 1st 8 games it left the Yankees still way in first…OK, nevermind that part)…
Guillen and Cabrera now 1 – 20 with 0BB and 1HPB vs Pavano.
And that’s 2 games in a row for Crazy-Arm Clete, I’m going to start spelling his name “Cleat” out of spite.
considering 1-0 would win this game all this doesn’t mean much
Why did they tale JV out? Lambert is getting hammered…..
why continue to pitch JV when you have 0000000000000 runs
Just watch, we’ll double that by the next inning.
I can’t believe this trade trick worked this well. I hate the Twins! This is the kind of sneaky crap they do.
See Pavano talking to his pitching coach between innings. Pavano is trying to get them to let him pitch tomorrow….
Pulling Pavano during a shutout after 90 pitches – I think you’re on to something
I think that was one of the conditions of the trade with Boston
Span is hitting .298…… .900 against Detroit and .250 against everyone else
Pavano: “what do you mean I’m traded to Boston, this game isn’t even over yet?”
Chris Lamber is just NOT big league material.
someone please wave the white flag or throw in the towel or BOTH
I think the idea is to get the Twins to waste as many runs as possible so that they have none left tomorrow.
good idea it works with the Tigers that way
Lambert… Saw his big blow-up coming a few days ago. I sometimes hate it when I’m right. I’ll gladly pay for his bus ticket back to Toledo. I’ll take some iffy Bonderman instead. Just one more word: AVILA
Lambert was horrible, I’ve seen special ed kids play better than him
Inappropriate.
Skip the plan, Smokey, put in Avila – you’re gonna need him today!