2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.140: Blue Jays at Tigers

108 Comments

PREGAME: There was a time when the Blue Jays looked like they may be a surprise team. That was April when they took 3 of 4 from the Tigers and generally were winning with regularity. They even spent 44 days in 1st place. They played a lot of AL Central teams back then and there may be a chance that had something to do with it. The Jays are now 14 games below .500.

Tonight Toronto sends out the mustachioed Brian Tallet. He’s left handed. And he has a 5.31 ERA.

The Tigers send out there own trusty southpaw, Nate Robertson. If Nate’s pitching, I’ll be there. Through scheduling quirks, I will be at this Robertson start, and I was at the last one, and I was at the one before that too.

Your “I hope the top of the order is productive” lineup is:

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

Toronto vs. Detroit – September 11, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Brian freakin’ Tallet . The Tigers fanned as many times as they got hits against Tallet. Tallet. Put this in the Bruce Chen disappointing offensive performance bucket. And I just don’t get it. Raburn is hitting. Thames is swinging the bat well. Maggs is up to .290. The Tigers have some guys hitting lefties well, but the team is still struggling at the dish.

I’ll give them credit for making things interesting in the 7th and 8th innings. They strung hits together, and Thames had himself one heck of a sac fly with the bases juiced. A sterling defensive inning in the top of the 8th and it felt like stuff was starting to lean in the Tigers favor, but the threat ended on a foul pop-up off the bat of Polanco and that was that.

Of course the offensive had to pick up 5 runs in the late innings just to tie the score as Nate Robertson was awful and channeled his inner Dontrelle and eventually left with a groin injury. His first 2 outings were very encouraging. This one the stadium gun had him at 85/86 (haven’t checked gameday yet), and Nate doesn’t really have a strong 85/86mph pitch.

Galarraga started off great and retired the first 5 guys he faced before reverting to Galarraga form. Ryan Perry didn’t help the matter. Runs just kept getting piled on.

Ugh.

The Tigers haven’t lost more than 4 in a row this season. It will be up to Edwin Jackson to get deep into the game and stop the slide and once again take command of their September.

108 thoughts on “Game 2009.140: Blue Jays at Tigers”

  1. Leyland clearly has been reading the comments here complaining about Inge’s bat which has been not very useful aside from providing a nice breeze.

    So he moved him up to 6th in the order.

    That will teach us. I blame Stephen.

  2. We look to be doing Ok with Nate on the mound and I hope he gets better as the game goes on. Our success is due to a large park and the wind blowing in but hey we will take it.

    How about those chops on Tallet

  4. Wow, all the action’s in the outfield tonight…

    That was pretty cool–seeing Polly with a full count…

    Don’t look now but Nate’s about a start away from bumping Washburn from the designated lefty spot in the playoff rotation…

    1. The Washburn thing does not appear to be working out. I hope Luke French is not a 211 – 86 career record guy in Seattle

  8. The red hats beat the fatigue style jerseys the Padres have worn in the past…nice sentiment, poor execution

    1. Granderson is going to have to do better than that or he will be forced back to lead-off – no B.O.O.B. status for Curtis.

    1. And with LH pitchers going for the Jays in each game this weekend, the Tigers get to see Cy three times.

  13. Yeah Leyland is practically conceding this one, bumping Inge from the B.O.O.B.s and throwing Curtis in there…

  15. What kind of shape would we be in if the wind was blowing out. Nate has 5 walks and with the wind blowing out he could have 5 tates as well. I like Nate but he has gotten all the breaks and now has a spot to claim in the Rotation if he doesnt screw up

    Lets go Nate !!!

  16. According to gameday Robertson is having difficulty spotting his 81MPH 2-seamer, 86MPH 4-seamer and 86MPH change. the 83MPH slider is OK though.

  17. Holy COOOOOOOOW

    Armondo is warming up.

    Oh boy, I might have to have my first cigarette in 16 years, even with Todd Jones gone

    Edit: Looks like an injury got Nate.

    I hope I dont injure myself watch Armondo

  18. How many times this year have the Tigers taken a lead only to have our own pitcher surrender it the very next inning. Not that tonight it was a surprise. In fact with 11 baserunners in 3.2 innings the Jays probably should have had more than 2 runs off of him

  19. It’s looking more like a season plunge that always begin by losing to the Royals. God, I hate these periods… and things were looking so good down in Tampa.

  20. Oh that was just frickin’ brilliant…

    Cabrera has games where you just wonder how in the world he is hitting over .250, much less .330…and other games where you wonder how in the world anybody ever gets him out.

  21. Ordonez out stealing on strike three called to Cabrera on a pitch down the middle of the plate – amazing.

    1. Vince “stealing” in its most liberal sense has some possession attributed to the act of stealing. The only thing Maggs stole there was a chance to get home on Thames next double.

      I’m just sayin

    2. Ordonez singled and then got thrown out because he was running on the 3-2 pitch which Cabrera struck out on. How is that Magglio’s fault?

      1. He jogged after the 1st three steps. I don’t care if you get thrown out, but at least pretend you care about this thing.

  25. After the swearing was over I did appreciate the expression on Maggs’ face though…kind of a “hello, you can swing anytime now” fior Cabrera…

    1. And just K’d the side. Read your earlier comment. Tallet in the running for the Cy Young.

      Come

      On

      Guys

  28. Yeah Ill give him the first time through the lineup–the batters need time to adjust to looking at the muttonchops. There’s no excuse for the 2nd time through though…

  29. Man…it’s looking like that off day after the Tampa sweep is like the layoff after the ALCS in October 2006….

  31. Our hope lies with Oakland & LA Angels as the Tigers are tanking… Does anybody remember August of ’06 or July of ’07?… Those times are with us again. Leyland and DD have got to find a way to stop the bleeding…

  32. Man they are playing some pitiful baseball these last few games. I have no idea how we have given up 13 baserunners through 5 but only 3 runs and I really just don’t know how Cy Young Tallet is just eating us up. Good start to the inning though.

  33. I have been trying to find out our record vs. LH starters this year, but with no success. I am guessing we have a losing record against them. Anybody know offhand?

    1. We’re not bad, actually 23-18.

      You must be paying too much attention to Curtis.

      Normally though Cabrera hits lefties really well, and when he’s off like tonight that puts a damper on things…and next best is Inge and they’re just pitching around him. As usual in our bad games, we’re stuck in the every-other black-hole pattern: Ordonez hits, Cabrera whiffs/GIDPs. Then Thames hits, they pitch around Inge and Granderson whiffs, etc…

  34. For future reference: maybe rest Cabrera against Leprechauns. He has looked Everett-bad his last two ABs

  35. Jim Price just pointed out we dont have an error, so we have that going our way. That a few hits and an HR and we are gold

      1. Interestingly, once Granderson did say he sometimes frequents strip clubs…speaking of faux B.O.O.B.s…

    3. Bases loaded with a batter due up who hits .180 vs LH pitching. Do you let him hit in that situation?

      Didn’t think so.

    1. Don’t know.

      Career Tiger Sept record for Leyland:
      42 – 37 .531

      Career Tiger overall record for Leyland:
      332 293 .532

      So yeah, he has a problem in September and it’s costing us wins at the rate of .001… 🙂

  40. Maybe Leyland was right to downplay all the positive talk after the winning streak. Is it possible the success got to the guy’s heads? Nobody is going to hand them the division…well…unless Minnesota and CWS keep tanking, too.

  42. Well here’s hoping that the Oakland and Angels can continue to win and win when they play because going to take a minor miracle to win this one. Really poor play from the Tigers.

  46. One positive way to look at this is that since the entire team is stinking up the joint right now, when they pull out of it, maybe they will all stop stinking at the same time. I just hope they don’t wait too long.

  49. I’m not sure if the extra runs are that big a deal…our only offense all game has been a sac fly driving in a guy who reached on an error

  50. I’m really not really sure where that territory is, but it sounds like it would be ugly.
    I thought that after yesterday, the Tigers would go 9-14 the rest of the year. I didn’t post it, I didn’t want to sound like a pessimist.
    I post it now as an optimist.

  51. You know actually if Leyland hadn’t messed with the B.O.O.B.s and had Curtis 6th and Inge 7th we might have 3 runs already…oh well

        1. I hear ya Coleman. There has been a lot of sighing on the Tigers behalf this week.

          Too recap- the trades have sucked, the four game skid sucks, the offense lacks continuity, Grandy/bullpen/outfield defense have been frustrating. And to top it off, we learned tonight that Leyland is September terrible to the tune of .001.

          Sunnier though is the fact that Inge has lost his taste for the check swing K, Maggs has regained some pop, and Spring Training I had this team battling for 3rd in the division with Cleveland. Compared to last year, it is really nice to care this late in September.

          These Tigers are better on the field than on paper and have not sold out the future to get in this position, i.e. White Sox.

          I’ll take timely hitting over last year’s all-star ham-sandwich lineup any day.

          (Holy Cow, that’s a lot of optimism. Must be the coffee. I need to put the mug down.)

  58. Luckily the Blue Jays appear to be out of 7 ft tall Leprechauns to throw out there. This may not be such a bad series…

  65. Bright spots seem to be Everett is hitting more consistently and Rayburn had a great game offensively AND defensively. Good at bats by Marcus and Polanco. Let’s just hope this bullpen meltdown is very short lived. Think I will go out and chop wood next time Perry trots out to the mound.

    Hopefully the offense can get to the starter a bit better in the coming days.

  66. I was just about to make snide comment with “Aubrey Huff” and “why bother” in the same sentence when just on a whim I thought I would check up on the Alex Rios pickup by the Hosers at the trade deadline. Believe it or not, he is actually doing worse than Huffandstuff. A lot worse. Along with the less than sterling results from Washbum, it makes me wonder if the late season pickup idea is even worth it.

        1. I think we’ll finish okay against the Sox this year (bold, I know). Next year will be interesting if Rios and Peavy get it going again. I bet they do, hopefully it raises the quality of the division a bit.

  67. Maybe we should all sign a petition and send it off to the commish stating that if the Tigers do take the division, that this year and this year only they be given a special option where they can play either the Twins or WS in each consecutive level of the post season. Then it would be a first, the battle of the team which wants to lose the most! We could have asked for them to play KC, but that wouldn’t work.

  68. I MEAN . . . did anyone . . . I MEAN . . catch Ryan Perry . . . I MEAN . . on Tigers live . . . I MEAN . . . Profound analysis . . I MEAN . . . on his gigantic black hole . . . I MEAN . . . of a performance . . . I MEAN . . . tonight.

    At least if the guy’s arm gives out he can jump on the international chess circuit!

  69. Sigh. What are you going to do? Having a dead end night in Manhattan, but reading the comments tonight warm my soul. Its good to have folks to commiserate with. Tomorrow is another day as noted sabermetrician Scarlett O’Hara once said after the Braves were swept by the 65 Mets.

        1. Things were going so well…then she noticed the Tiger cap…

          “Are you a Tiger fan? That’s SO cool, because my all-time favorite player is Brandon Inge, I voted for him 1,000 times for the All-Star game…”

          A mere few minutes later nothing was to be heard but the slam of a door and the click of heels hurrying across the pavement and the phrase “.230 lifetime hitter” echoing into the night…

  70. Pingback: Game 2009.140: Blue Jays at Tigers | Cheap Tickets News Cheap Yankees Tickets Cheap Steelers Tickets Cheap Tickets

Comments are closed.