2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.143: Blue Jays at Tigers

72 Comments

PREGAME: After Amber Grand delivered a big win yesterday (with some help from Rick Porcello, the bullpen, and a decent offensive attack) the Tigers will turn to Lori Adams who has a 4-2 record this season when performing the Star Spangled Banner. Sounds like a favorable match-up. Well, that and Justin Verlander taking on David Purcey.

Verlander gunning for a Cy Young (and having to pass Zach Greinke and Felix Hernandez) and Purcey returning to the rotation for the first time since April. Then again, Tigers have made lesser pitchers look great.

Your “Inge isn’t going to get anything good to hit” lineup:

  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 14, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: A walk-off FC E-6. Lori Adams gets to stay in the National Anthem rotation.

Justin Verlander had another one of those outings where he has his great stuff. Doesn’t look like he’s going to get touched. And then gives up a crooked number on less than 10 pitches. I don’t get it.

But how about that bullpen. They have now thrown 6 straight scoreless innings and have allowed only 4 baserunners after getting beaten up for 5 straight games. And it wasn’t even the big guns today with Fernando Rodney serving game 1 of his reduced 2 game suspension and Brandon Lyon having worked 3 straight days. This time it was Ni and Bondo and Perry and Seay.

As for the offense, I thought they had let this game slip away when they didn’t make Purcey hurt in the first. Raburn with the leadoff homer and 2 straight walks that never moved. But like in many of the Tigers recent wins, everybody contributed in one way or another. Inge fanned on 2 pitches at his shoulder, but drew the walk and scored the winning run. Granderson got on with an error and later walked. Raburn had 2 hits. Maggs reached base 3 times. Avila with a big pinch hit single. Oh yeah, and Huff.

Honestly I was kind of upset when Huff came into pinch hit. He hasn’t made a great impression with the stick since coming to Detroit. But crow tastes good. Give me seconds.

72 thoughts on “Game 2009.143: Blue Jays at Tigers”

  2. Wow talk about a cringing line up with Raburn,Thames,Inge,Laird, and Everitt. talk about striking fear into the hearts of mortal pitchers. I suppose by now it is pointless to try and come up with reasons why Inge is still playing as he plunges toward the 200 mendoza line. I do like the resurgence of Mags just wish it would have happened a little sooner.

    Here’s to JV throwing another gem a cementing his place in the top 3 Cy Young voting.

  3. .362 .415 .681 .1.096

    Better than Cabrera. Better than Ordonez. Better than Polanco. In fact best on the team–before today’s HR.

    Those are the last 28 days numbers on Raburn. I don’t mind having his bat in the lineup.

      1. Agreed, Raburn has been a lot better at the top of the order. That should be a top off-season priority, a legit OBP leadoff guy. Not sure who are where that player exists, however.

  4. Now it’s time for today’s Random Statistic of Interest (RSI):

    Looking for a correlation between hitters’ performance and whether the Tigers win or lose, I looked up the team’s OPS in wins vs losses to see where the biggest correlation was–it wasn’t what I would have guessed.

    Your If They Hit We Win, If They Don’t We Lose hitters:

    Clete Thomas (.937 in wins, .499 in losses)
    Placido Polanco (.873 in wins, .526 in losses)

    The If They Hit We Probably Win, If They Don’t We Probably Lose hitters:

    Gerald Laird (.774 in wins, .473 in losses)
    Miguel Cabrera (1.095 in wins, .801 in losses)
    Brandon Inge (.875 in wins, .583 in losses)

    The eh, Whatever…hitters:

    Curtis Granderson (.852 in wins, .714 in losses)
    Magglio Ordonez (.807 in wins, .727 in losses)
    Marcus Thames (.841 in wins, .766 in losses)

    The Please Don’t Hit Today, We Need to Win hitter:

    Carlos Guillen (.709 in wins, .792 in losses)

    2. I left out Everett above, he goes right above Granderson (.706 in wins, .523 in losses).

      (I couldn’t decide if he was last in the 2nd group or 1st in the 3rd group)

  11. OK, to add to my RSI post, and in an attempt to ignore the last half-inning:

    You would think that whether the Tigers win or lose depends a lot on whether or not they hit–the pitching has been pretty consistent, but there are days there is just no offense at all.

    Yet…

    Tiger wins: .859 OPS
    Tiger losses: .620 OPS (.239 diff)
    AL avg wins: .882 OPS
    AL avg losses: .637 OPS (.245 diff)

    In other words the difference between our hitting in wins and losses is SMALLER than the avg AL team difference. Who knew?

  14. Another pathetic offensive performance against a horrible pitcher. Had a chance to put this thing away in the first and then did almost nothing after that. Add that with a Verlander meltdown inning which he seems to have and this team is now doing everything it can to not win the division. Hopefully they will come back and win this but just an absolutely dreadful last 6 of 7 games.

    1. Twins and Hose don’t seem to want the crown either. Twins losing to CLE and Sowers (!) 2-0 as I write. Something will have to give when they start playing each other.

  15. I wonder if Verlander is starting to tire a bit. He is still bringing the heat, but he is up with his pitches a lot the last few starts.

  18. They just don’t seem aggressive or play with a sense of urgency. Verlander let the game speed up on him. By the time anyone got out there it was too late

    1. The Jays were swinging in the 6th – 4 runs on 7 pitches, then a first pitch single by Wells after the 3-run homer.

  19. Leyland probably pinch hit for Raburn because of his knee injury… however, pinch-hitting Clete Thomas ?? Is Guillien injured or something? Or if you must go with a righty, Ramirez. But I would never, ever pitch hit Thomas. Ever. It’s just plain dumb.

  20. Downs threw 2 pitches in the strike zone to Inge that AB. The results in those situations are becoming more and more predictable. Not that it matters tonight especially, but a pattern has definitely developed.

  22. AUBREY!!!! Bout time we see some fire! these guys look too relaxed, laughing when they are down by 3. Lets get it going boys!

  23. Leyland, you dog . . . all the right decisions yield all the right results . . . nice job. Let’s see Polly end it here . . .

          1. Straight from the opponent’s (Kevin Millar’s) mouth: He said a couple guys on the Blue Jays looked at him after that like “What was THAT?” and he said he told them “The guy just hit a three run homer to tie the game in the ninth. Nothing wrong with what he did.”

            People make way too much out of little things. A half second of admiring it and a little bat flip. I’d do it too if I were brought here just to do those kinds of things and FINALLY contributed. And this is the first time in his CAREER that he has been in a pennant race.

    2. Then he walks to the mound for a chat. That’s almost always the kiss of death. I can’t watch anymore.

  36. Looks like our prayers were answered. Amazing. Thank god I don’t smoke or my heart would have failed in July.

  37. Words just fail me. Scutaro makes errors in two consecutive innings – he had only 8 coming into the game.

  38. That was so exciting I didn’t even have time to complain about Granderson swinging at a 3-0 pitch. Hello! A walk moves the winning run to 2nd, and it’s not exactly like you’re pounding the cover off the thing right now…

  39. Wow…In the bottom of the 9th I was just getting ready to post about how I had tried to stay positive, but now was sure we were collapsing! Then Granderson and Avila get on, and Huff crushes it. What a turnaround. Hopefully this gives us some momentum to take care of business and do what we should do against Kansas City.

  40. Yeah another count our blessings type of wins. Hopefully this will count as one of those wins that allow gritty teams into the playoffs. Have to give Huff a 10 on the bat flip and pose too.

    1. Technically they were already eliminated. For them to have tied they would have needed the Tigers to lose the rest of their games, but that would have meant 7 wins for the twins and 6 for the white sox which would have brought their totals to 77. There was no way for the Royals even before today.

        1. I’ve incorporated national anthem singer won-loss records into the last 2 posts and you think this was scary?

          1. Some people have a devotion about the Anthem singers. It’s not the first time I’ve seen a team is undefeated when Singer X performs. I think the pistons had some record too, or the Wings. To the point where the team would call the person for a big game.

            Plus you write 162 game previews a year, this is one of your methods to keep it interesting. In fact, I bet you keep writing about the Anthem records as long as the Tigers keep winning.

  42. Wow unbelievable win huge hit by Huff and the assist to Scutaro. Hopefully we can carry this over to the Royals start to put the division away. That 9 game road trip coming up is making me nervous as can be.

  43. The 3-run homer is derigeur in the Central tonight – Twins tie CLE in 8th, 3-3.

    Edit: Now 6-3 Twins. The horrible Indians bullpen has blown it.

  44. Oh well would have been a perfect night if Indians could have managed another win vs Twins but any night that ends in a win is more than good enough right now. When can we expect to see that infamous magic number ticker with only 19 games left :). I am with you on this upcoming 9 game road series scaring me would be really nice to go into that with 5 game plus lead and force the twins to sweep.

Comments are closed.