2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.154: Tigers at White Sox

156 Comments

PREGAME: One thing about the divison race has become increasingly evident. The Twins won’t lose. So the Tigers just need to respond by not losing too. Simple right?

Nate Robertson gets the start. I’m sure after watching Eddie Bonine take a loss last night he’s just chomping at the bit.

Freddy Garcia is still alive and pitching tonight for the White Sox. Not only is he still alive, he has a streak of 6 straight quality starts. Egads!

Detroit vs. Chi White Sox – September 26, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME:

[audio:http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/onemoretime1.mp3]

This pretty much tells the story:

290926104_Tigers_WhiteSox_143447828_lbig

This one got off to a scary start. Nate Robertson didn’t have the good stuff tonight. The way some of his breaking balls stayed way out side had me wondering if the groin, g-g-groin, g-g-groin (Cheers reference) injury was flaring up again. He surrendered all 5 runs, and it could have been worse without some nifty defense from Carlos Guillen in left field and a heck of a double play turn by Adam Everett.

The offense will get a lot of attention (and rightfully so) for awaking from a 13 inning scoreless slumber. It turned into a blow out thanks to some hard hit balls, and some weakly hit balls hit to the right spot, and some routinely hit balls that went between infielders.

But could it be that on this night the star is a mop-up man who threw 2.2 innings of scoreless ball to keep the game from getting out of hand and allowing the offense the opportunity to get back into it? Alfredo Figaro’s 1 hit performance tonight was huge, huge I say.

One thing that is, um, mysterious, is why use your primary set-up guy for 2 innings in a blow out? Especially with Seay day-to-day? I don’t get the Brandon Lyon usage.

  • Everybody hit except for Brandon Inge who has 6 K’s in his last 8 plate appearances. Use the game link to see the box score. Lot’s of hits (20) all around.
  • Zach Miner with another strong performance.

156 thoughts on “Game 2009.154: Tigers at White Sox”

  1. I’ll be in section 522 tonight if any y’all in Chitown at the game.

    Unless you’re Chris or stephen, I’ll buy you a beer.

    JK, I’m not buying anyone beer.

    JK again, I’ll buy you beer.

  2. Just got tickets to the Thursday afternoon tilt. I’m taking my son out of school to see his first baseball game (in person, that is). Should be a ton of fun!

    I hope the bats get going tonight and “do not go gentle into that good night” (pulling out a line from a Dylan Thomas poem – anything to get the offense going) like they did last night.

    PS Could the Twins please lose a game before Monday?

  3. I do not have a good feeling about tonight’s game. I really hope I’m wrong, though.

    Also, the Twins are ridiculous.

  4. If the Twinkies end up taking the division you sure as hell can’t say they didn’t earn it. It will be massively crushing of course, made all the more bitter by the fact that the Tigers have owned first place since the second month of the season.

  5. Sunday is the 1st time the twins face greinke. That’s like 4 losses for us this season. And we had peavy which they did not.

    1. Well it better not be the team that played against KC and Toronto a week ago or we will be tied be the end of the weekend.

  15. Alex Rios…are you kidding me? He’s arguably been the worst/biggest disappointment in baseball this season, yet he decides to turn it on against the Olde English D. What a surprise.

    Let’s just hope Freddy Garcia turns into the tomato can that the Mets released in April.

  17. At some point the offense has to score some runs or it does not matter whether we make Garcia work or not. Watching this game early it just feels like one of those games where it looks like our offense has no idea how to score runs. We have had enough of them that they are easy to pick out. Hope I am wrong though. Go Tigers and Royals.

    1. What I don’t like is how easy the Tigers are making it on Garcia. Doesn’t seem like they’re working the at-bats too hard. Just like last night and we know how well that turned out.

      1. Agreed. Everett…Laird…etc…shouldn’t they be mandated at this point to take a strike or two? Something? Anything? Is Lloyd McClendon being possessed by the spirit of Chuck Hernandez?

      2. Haha, working the pitchers, that’s a good one!

        I’m much happier now that I gave up on that. You should too. Just won’t happen–the Tiger way of making pitchers work is to keep getting hits and have more ABs, not getting more pitches per AB, so focus on that.

        9. Polanco
        16. Cabrera
        19. Ordonez
        24. Huff

        These are the AL rankings of some of the Tigers in Pitches Per Plate Appearance–as in #1 = lowest/worst. So there are 4 Tigers among the worst in the entire league.

        And I would be remiss to not point out that #1 Very Worstest = AJ Pierzynski 🙂

        Overall team numbers Tigers are easily worst in the AL of course, with a 3.76 team PPA (league avg is 3.84…NY is at 3.88, BOS is at 3.94).

        The difference between 3.76 and 3.84, or 3.76 and 3.94 doesn’t seem like much. Try this instead: number of pitches seen 2009:
        DET: 21,921
        NYY: 23,863
        BOS: 23,696

        So the Yankees have seen about 2,000 pitches more than we have this season. That’s an entire season of Seay (773) and Lyon (1069) and then some worth of pitches…I mean think of that, the Yankees have gone through an entire season’s Seay and Lyon’s worth of pitcher more than we have…

  19. 5, .243
    6, .232
    7, .227
    8, .260
    9, .243
    1, .243

    now that should scare the Sox into forfeiting this game

  21. Classic Robertson…walking the No. 9 hitter nobody has ever heard of. Fantastic. Art of pitching.

  24. Dear Tigers Hitters,

    Thanks for taking it easy on me. You might be helping me earn a spot in the Sox rotation for next season.

    Sincerely,

    Freddy Garcia

    1. Ha…who else can we include on that list? (Off top of my head)

      Robinson Tejeda (X2)
      Brian Tallet
      Ian Snell
      Brett Tomko
      and of course Carl Pavano

        1. The only thing that’s unbelievable is that this collection of offensive ineptitude has managed to last in first place until Sept. 26…

  25. I’m glad we didn’t sign Freddy so he could beat us tonight. I’m also sick of Mario and Rod. They act like the Tigers are perfect.

  28. Well good to see that the White Sox rolled over like dogs vs. the Twins but decide to show up vs. the Tigers. Awesome. Good times all around.

    1. Was it really the White Sox rolling over or the Twins playing some pretty hot baseball right now? I don’t want to believe that the Tigers are playing so much worse than the Twins. Guess we’ll find out Monday thru Thursday. Yowza.

      1. Shut out by Blackburn on Monday….I’d say that’ rolling over, to some degree, but yes, the Twins are playing like they deserve the right to get swept by the Yankees.

        1. I hope the Tigers get the bats going at home against the Twins. This offensive offense just makes me sick. Losing is bad enough. Looking so impotent in doing so is disgusting.

  30. Dear Tigers Hitters,

    When you hit a ball past the third baseman and he can ‘t get it and it rolls into the outfield that’s called a single and that is good!
    Then when you hit a pitch all the way out of the park that’s called a home run and that’s really good.
    Tiger hitters you should try these things once in awhile.

    sincerely
    Tiger Fans

    1. Tigers are last in the league in doubles, but oddly enough right there with them are the Twins and White Sox.

    1. Bonine pitches great. Tigers can’t hit. Robertson pitches like crap. Tigers can’t hit.

      The one constant has been that the Tigers can’t hit. U-G-L-Y game tonight.

  32. If Grandy can’t get it goin in Chicago, he’s not gonna get it goin anytime soon, anywhere else. imo.

  33. Really a classic Tiger game so far, including the solo Cabrera home run. How does a cleanup hitter in the AL not have 100 RBIs on Sept. 26?

  35. So frustrated so I keep venting….classic Twins, runners on the corners, one out and Brendan Harris at least gets a sac-fly to tie it at 2-2.

  38. It’s really going to happen. They’re gonna toss it away over the next few days. I’ll just go hit my head against the wall a few times. Nite!

    1. Worst case is that the Tigers face the Twins on Monday tied for the Division. They play ’em at home (where they are WAY better than the road) in a four game series with Verlander and Porcello taking the bump the first 2 games. I still believe 🙂

  41. Dernard Span bases clearing triple with two outs….5-2 Minny. (Of course an error and Nick Punto walk preceded it.)

    Good night.

      2. he means they look lifeless, which IMO makes no sense at all

        i’d say if any team looked like that lately in the AL it’d either be the Indians or Orioles or Chi Sox

    2. OK I’m back. And once again I’m right for the time being. Look if we were in the Twins spot (down 2 games) going into the Metrodome and losing every game in sight then I might be pressing on the panic button somewhat.

      But!

      1) We’ve won 5 out of our last 6 games
      2) are two games up
      3) have a much better group of players
      4)play the rest of our games after tomorrow at home
      5) and they face zack attack 2x and us in copa

      need i say more?

  46. Despite Everett’s bat, he has made some good plays tonight.

    Let’s go boys and show off you late inning drive

  55. Dear Tigers,

    Pay no attention to the poopy heads. They’re only happy when they have something to complain about.

    LET’S GO TIGERS!!

    Sincerely,

    Rose

  57. Polly, you are always so consistant. This is the game that turns it around.

    Warm up Lyon for the 8th

  62. Did you see the stat on tonight’s broadcast that Polly is batting 0.324 after the break? That is right in his comfort zone.Also Mags has been too bad after the break either.

  64. Tigers… I just can’t quit you…

    Just when I think I’m out, you pull me back in…..

    Just when I think you can’t do anything stupider, you go and totally redeem yourself.

  65. Great inning Team! Did you see Inge on deck drooling at the basesload situation?

  66. Hat tip to Figaro for coming in and pitching 2 2/3 scoreless innings to keep the Tigers in it.

    Enter the Rabbit (by the way, where is Coleman tonight?)

  67. What’s that line from the Godfather…..just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in?

    nine outs. do it bullpen.

  72. OK, who do I text message for player of the game for this one? Perhaps it is a bit early but Polly has my vote for his bat and DP fielding.

    Good inning Zack!

    1. Inge has struck out three times.

      As I understand it from those who represent Inge so well here, that means he’s going yard in the top of the ninth inning.

  81. True, this is probably no time to test whether the double-rabbit is a jinx or not…

    Triple-grandy! Welcome back, we’ve missed you!

  85. If the Tigers can win tonight and scratch out a win tomorrow, and if Greinke can beat the Twins tomorrow, we go into the Twins series up 3. That would be huge. We would keep hold of first place unless we lose all 4.

    OK, enough speculation. Back to the moment and enjoying a really nice comeback.

  87. the only thing better than this rally is listening to the Hawk whine!

    he says ” the Tigers aren’t exactly an offensive juggernot. I can’t believe this is happening” ….Hawk quote

    1. that somebody woke up our sleeping giants. 12 hits from our 1st 4 hitters. When we hit like this we’re the best team in baseball.

  90. The great thing about being a pessimist/realist is you don’t jump out of a window when you go behind the White Sox 5-0. Even if we had lost tonight, we were still in the drivers seat. You know why? The Tigers have a lot more talent than the Twins. There’s no way the Twins are going to take 3 out of 4 in Detroit, they just don’t have the horses no matter how good their mojo is right now.

    See? I didn’t even mention the fact that the Tigers have 17 hits and none by Brandon Inge!

    (damn, i was so close).

    2. This is what I keep saying. Sometimes I think some Tiger fans overreact because of their volatile emotional responses to a short stretch of not winning.

      Our talent is much superior. We are fantastic at home. They face Cy Young 2 more times in 8 games. It’s very hard to rationalize a Twins comeback if you THINK about it.

    1. Yes! Inge is the baseball equivalent of leeches and/or bloodletting. There must be hemorrhaging before there can be healing!

    2. That actually is pretty indisputable.

      To bat in every inning I think would require a minimum of 17 runs; I’d put my money on 162-0 with a guaranteed 17 runs in each game.

      Although, there would presumably be a lot of Rodney non-save appearances, so I guess you would have to take that into consideration…

    2. Here’s one I’d be interested in learning:

      How many twenty hit games have the Tigers had in which Inge has gone 0-5?

      1. Now that one’s tough, but after several complex calculations I have what I think is a correct answer: 1

        (Tonight was the 1st time the Tigers reached 20 hits this season).

        If you mean over Inge’s career, OK, that’s not as easy. But not hard…they had 1 20 hit game last year (Inge 1-5)…in 2007 games with 22, 21, and 20 hits (1-3, 3-4, 3-4); in 2006 games with 23 and 21 (2-5, DNP); none in 2005; in 2004 a 27 hit game [!] (2-6) and none in 2001-2003.

        So today was actually the 1st time in Inge’s career the team had 20 hits and he had none (except for the one game he didn’t play in obviously).

        The surprising thing is that there have only been 8 games with 20 hits over the Inge Era…

  94. I’m not sure about using Lyon for the 9th. I hope that won’t make him unavailable for a twins game at some point.

  99. Ok Greinke

    Ok Jackson

    lets do your thing tomorrow

    if the Lions win and KC wins and the Tigers win it will be like Christmas in September

  100. How does your team get 20 hits, and you go 0-5 with 3 strikeouts and are the only player to have an official at bat and not get a hit?

    That is one serious slump.

    edit: I forgot to mention how your 3 K’s make up 3 of the total 5 that your team had in the game.

    1. All befuddlement aside, the major difference between tonight’s game and, say, many of the Tiger’s two and three run efforts of late is the fact that the bottom of the order (save Inge) came through, keeping rallies alive, and bridging the huge black hole in the lineup. This is one reason the Twins are on a tear. Their bottom of the order guys are producing big time and keeping rallies alive for Span & Co.

      If we do take the division — and if we expect to see any kind of success at all in the post season — we need the BOOBs — including Inge — to produce.

  101. If the Lions win it would be like Christmas in September and Santa Claus drops by and says he’ll finish mowing your lawn for you if you want to take his sleigh for a spin…

  102. I just wanted to point out that because I decided to listen to the game on the radio instead of watching it, I helped in the victory. Just sayin’. Good night.

    7!

    1. I did the same thing. I tuned in when we were down 5-1.

      Man it’s satisfying to hear Dickerson yell “LINE DRIVE BASE HIT INTO CENTER FIELD!”

  105. Wow.

    I planned a day trip to Austin today to watch UT wax UTEP and was looking forward to the return trip home. If the game ended just in time, Dan and Jim could sing to me for 3 hours (just the time it takes to get from Austin to Dallas) via the miracle of the iPhone. It was gonna be perfect.

    That plan was derailed just south of Georgetown (that’s not very far from Austin) when Quentin hit the three run jack, so I flipped over to the KC game (love me some Denny Matthews) and was pleased to see an early 2-0 KC lead. Before I hit the next Dairy Queen that had mutated to a 5-2 deficit. Frustrated, I decided to give both games a 45 min break and resume Albert Camus’ The Stranger (fantastic book if you can handle the existentialism; I’m guessing that stephen considers it light reading, and Coleman reads it, dissects it, and Freakonomicses [new verb] it in a way so that he can debunk any claim stephen makes about it).

    Anyway, the 45 min mark hit while I was on a phone call, so I flipped on XM radio (another baseball miracle) to check the scores off of the display while I was still on the call. KC was down 7-2 (sigh) so I pushed down a few stations and saw that our little Tigers were up 7-5!!! I immediately ended the phone call (I mean, it was my wife, like I’m not gonna talk to her again soon anyway) and spent the next 90 minutes sharing imaginary high fives with Dan and Jim and then flipping over the the SuX broadcast to point and whistle (Fresh Prince reference…) at the bad guys. KC even tried to add to the party with a brief 2 run showcase, but we all know what happened there. Not to worry, it was a good party anyway. My favorite DJ ended it with arguably my favorite song of all time…”One more time” (legitimately).

    See everyone manana.

    1. Hahaha, the “bad guys”. I watch the Cubs and White Sox sometimes for the WGN broadcasting. I’m not a fan of either of those teams at all, but after hearing them, I think that Rod Allen is Ernie Harwell.

  106. I thought last night’s game was to start at 8pm, by the time I finally turned the game on we were only down 5-3 – talk about good timing…for me and our sweet Tigers! A sweet victory today should give us enough momentum to shut down the Twins for good.

    Go EJAX!
    Go Greinkeeee!

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