2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.123: Tigers at A’s

70 Comments

PREGAME: The Tigers have a chance at a road series win. If they succeed, it would be their first since they took 3 of 5 from the White Sox in early June.

The Tigers will send out Rick Porcello who has been quite solid as of late. Over his last 4 starts the opposition is OPSing just .486 against him.

The A’s send out Brett Tomko who is making just his 2nd start of the season. His first time out he shut out the Yankees for 5 innings on 5 hits, no walks, and no strikeouts. The Tigers don’t have a lot of history against Tomko, but Adam Everett has taken him deep so make of that what you please.

Detroit vs. Oakland – August 23, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

70 thoughts on “Game 2009.123: Tigers at A’s”

  3. Baltimore is up 5-3 in the bottom of the ninth over the Chisox. Hopefully the new closer Jim Johnson can pull this one off.

    And he promptly gives up a lead-off double right after I post that.

    1. We have scored three runs or fewer in 7 of the last 10 games. So you’re probably right, 4 is just too much to ask for.

  7. ….aaaaaaaand this is over. Well, at least Chicago lost. How many more times we can keep saying that? It is getting really OLD. I want this team to show me something and come back to win this game. I want to see how bad they want this. By the way, Minnesota is up 10-3 in the 9th at KC, so don’t look now but they’lll only be 4.5 out after today if this score holds (and I expect that it will). I’ve siad it all along that Minnesota is the team that scares me far more than Chicago. They will be 5-1, if they hold their seven run lead, since Morneau went down with an inner ear infection. What would happen to us if Cabrera went down with an inner ear infection for a week? 1-5 sounds about right.

  8. Wonder what kind of odds I can get in Vegas on the this being the 37th time we are held to two runs or less. Another journeyman (this time Tomko) smiles as he brings our hitters to their knees.

  12. Those last 2 fastballs were right down the middle to Clete and he couldn’t hit either of them. Tomko is just throwing his average stuff down the middle and its working.

  13. I’m sure we’ll get much better results in Anaheim where we always play so well.

  14. This is what I wrote after it was written that Adam Everett was a ‘steal’ at a million
    12/8/08
    Wow, I’m not sure Everett would be a steal if the Tigers were getting paid a million dollars. The man has not had an OPS about 70 in four years and his career high OPS is 80. A Santiago/Everett platoon is perfect if you’re shooting to go 75-87. That’s a Royals-quality platoon. He’s a deft fielder, but if he’s getting more than 200 ab’s than this team is in a world of hurt.

  15. What the hell is going on is Tomko is pitching to one of the worst offenses in baseball. If Detroit was in the AL East or West, they would be in dead last since May, not first. The only thing more laughable about the AL Central is how the White Sox and Twins seem to continue to throw away chances to take over first place.

    How can you rest one of your leading hitters going into Sept in a pennant race(Polanco)? Why would you not start one of your best come back hitters this month(Magglio)? Why on God’s Green Earth is Adam Everett wearing a Tiger’s Uniform?

    Personally I find no solace in this team being in first place considering the lack luster performance by the rest of the division. It is a hollow lead, supported only by the luck of the WS or Twins losing on the same day as the Tigers losing.

    How the hell can the first place AL Central Team have only 3 or 4 hits against the last place AL West team? And this is not a slump, this is systemic and commonplace.

  16. I like the move to pinch-hit Raburn for Granderson. No way in hell would Grandy pick up a hit against this lefty. Lets go Raburn…

      1. I liked hitting Raburn more than Maggs simply because Raburn hits A’s pitching very well, and the fact that he has had some clutch hits recently. However, none of this matters because he just flew out. I do agree with Leyland’s choice, though.

    2. I agree with you. I would’ve hit Polanco though since he was going in the field anyway and put Thames in RF. Then you still have Raburn to possibly hit for Thomas, Huff or Santiago later vs. a LHP.

  18. Holy Crap! Smoltz had 8 strikeouts in 5 innings in his first Cards’ start. That after a 8.38 ERA with Red Sox.
    The National League really is the Pacific Coast League of the 21st century.

  19. Jeez…this outfield defense, what’s the word? Brutal?

    And with Davis swiping third, they’re just giving back that run.

    It’s pretty terrible that the A’s players (namely Cust, Wuertz and Tomko) are going to get contracts for next year on the back of this series.

  20. The Tigers are about to have the second most road losses in the American League. They have a 3rd baseman hitting .180 since July 1 and a shortstop with an OPS below .600 and a starting catcher who is hitting about .220
    And yet they are in first place. I’m beginning to think this actually might be their year!

    1. That’s what I keep telling myself. And the White S** can’t get out of their own way. I just worry about the Twins now.

  22. Cabrera’s opposite field power is pretty amazing. That ball was absolutely murdered. He also takes the home run lead on the team with that one (25 vs Inge/Grandy with 24).

  24. If Inge jacks one right now, I’ll stop carping on him for 10 days. This is a limited time offer!

  29. Amongst Oriole fans, he is known as Aubry Hepburn because he will lead you on with momentary flashes of sexy power, but, in the end, he will break your heart.

  33. I think I’ve reached my Tigers Zen moment.
    2009 Tigers: Not very good! But yet will make the playoffs! And then anything can happen!

  34. As I was trying to say, the worst part is we’re getting beaten by a bunch of guys with really bad baseball names…Landon Powell?  Soccer.  Rajai Davis? Cricket maybe.  Brett Tomko? Hockey.  Jack Cust? Locker room attendant.

    1. Jack Cust is the name of a pirate who is forced to walk the plank very early in the movie.

  35. You have to question the management of the pitching staff this series.last night miner in the 9th with it tied and today why not Lyon to keep it close in the 8th???? This is getting old.

  37. Just asking but has Jim Price ever said anything insightful in his fifteen years in the broadcast booth?

  38. Anyone know if they have some sort of free fast food deal if the A’s hit more than three homers? If so, I’m starting a road trip from Ann Arbor to Oakland because I’m really hungry. And because I want to yell at the Tigers and tell them to stop playing like a bunch of idiots. And that steal was unnecessary with a five run lead in the ninth.

  39. Why? Why bring in Perry to pitch to Powell? He’s .787 vs. RHP and .596 vs. LHP (albeit, small sample sizes).

  40. Just getting in to see this mess. I’m almost ready to give up. I said “almost”. They just don’t have the will.

    1. Don’t give up Kathy! You’re one of the mainstays that keep me in line. We need you.

  43. It’s really unfortunate that Seay, Lyon and Rodney are hurt. Really could have used them the last two games.

  44. Ok, here’s the analogy: The Tigers are that underachieving 19-12 sixth place Big Team that makes an improbable magical run to the Final Four on the backs of two junior college transfers with sketchy transcripts.

  45. And I’m going to be very disappointed now if we don’t see Huff step up to the plate at some point wearing Capri pants…

  47. Think of it this way: when the Tigers eke their way into the playoffs somehow, they will make everyone crazy in the way that, say, an Inge All-Star selection affects Stephen. This can only be a competetive advantage.

  48. I only saw a few minutes of the game so I don’t really know what happend (well, besides the fact we got our arses kicked). The Tigers are supposed to be in full fighting mode at this point. And I’m just not seein it. It makes me mad.

    1. Yep…that’s the most disappointing part. You’d think Oakland was the team that was fighting for its postseason life the last two days. I know there is no way to quantify this, but our guys don’t seem to want it badly enough. A lot of quick, easy outs for the opposition and way too many games (36) where we are completely shut down (2 runs or less). Of course today we score 4 (which seems like a landslide of runs for us) and then we don’t get the stellar pitching. Even though we’re in first place, there is some kind of disconnect with this team. I’m really sensing a Minnesota run coming down the pike, so if this road crap continues it will just be a matter of time.

  49. Another thing that I’m sick and tired of hearing about is our record on the road, which stinks. But, why does it stink? While there may be some advantages to playing at home, a good team wins everywhere, home or away. It’s not like the Tigers don’t know millions of people are watching them play in cities not named Detroit. It’s an excuse, imo, a mental block of some sort, that just sounds weak.

  50. hey Jim maybe you need a bed check on the road…what do these guys do after games on the road that they don’t do at home.? they are hardly EVER ready to play on the road.

    1. Beware of every day players that hang out with pitchers…that’s the wisdom of Mr. Mantle, who after years of spending his time after games with Mr. Ford realized, wait, he doesn’t have to play tomorrow…

    2. 1. Least likely Tiger to be up late drinking or doing other naughty things on the road: Curtis Granderson. Any debate on that one even? I think not.

      2. Tiger with highest road game OPS:
      Curtis Granderson, .894

      I’m just sayin’….

  51. Did anybody listen to the A’s radio feed of the game? The reason I ask is that apparently at some point early-ish in the game (2nd-4th inning) one of the A’s guys was talking about how “Detroit fans” were upset at the “east coast media bias” regarding the Porcello-Youkilis fight and how it was portrayed, and he mentioned the Boston Globe column that talked of the Youkilis “take-down” of Porcello and said something like “I don’t know about you but I saw the incident and what I saw was Porcello taking down Youkilis,” to which the other guy said something like “well I guess it all depends on your perspective.”

    So I did a Google search to see who else was bothered by the media bias angle and found…almost nothing, except a couple of Yankee blogs (which, hilariously, go on about “anti-Yankee” media bias), and my little rants here. In other words, there’s a very strong possibility that, somehow, Billfer’s Blog has made it into on-the-air Oakland A’s radio comments…

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