Justin Verlander has turned in 3 remarkable outings in a row amassing 31 strike outs as hitters can’t catch up with his heater or their knees buckle with the curve. But very quietly Verlander has added a slider to his repertoire.
This pitch received significant attention from Rod Allen and Mario Impemba last night when he picked up a swinging strike with it against Kelly Shoppach. But he actually began throwing it as early as the April 27th Yankees game. The pitch was first noticed by Eric Cioe (who comments here on occasion) and he posted about it at Motown Sports.
Lehigh Valley 5 Toledo 4
Wilkin Ramirez homered, singled, stole 2 bases, and walked. Ryan Roberson also went deep. Eddie Bonine allowed 3 runs on a walk, 5 K’ss and 7 hits in 7 innings. Freddy Dolsi blew the save allowing 2 runs on 3 hits in the 9th inning.
Bowie 3 Erie 4
Alex Avila was 3 for 3 with a walk. Ryan Strieby homered and doulbed. Scott Sizmore and Gene Roof add 2 hits each. Brooks Brown allowed 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks with 1 K in 7 innings. Josh Rainwater pitched 2 innings and allowed a run on 2 hits and a strike out.
Brevard County 5 Lakeland 3
Christopher White doubled and tripled. Michael Bertram added 2 hits. Duane Below struck out 4 in 5.1 innings but allowed 4 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks. Brett Jacobson struck out 3 and walked 1 with 2 hits allowed in 2.2 innings.
Clinton 5 West Michigan 0
Ronnie Bourquin doubled, one of only 4 hits for the Whitecaps. Luke Putkonen surrendered 4 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks with 5 K’s in 6 innings.
PREGAME: Did you know the Tigers are 0-3 in Friday night games this year? Hopefully that doesn’t have a bearing in tonight’s game. Regardless, it has to go better than last night’s game against Mark Buehrle doesn’t it? Then again the Indians are probably thinking the same thing after the Red Sox hung 12 on them – in the 6th inning – last night.
POSTGAME: This is one of those postgame’s I struggle to write. There are so many different ways to write the story with lots of irony and symmetry and in general awesomeness. Fortunately it is a happy story which makes it a little easier.
Justin Verlander was amazing again. He’s been money in his last 3 starts, and the one thing that may have been holding him back a little (and I mean a little) was efficiency. No problem with that tonight as he notched a complete game shutout. He fanned 11 Indians tonight, the second time he’s turned that trick in a week. And this is a team that had beat him like that annoying drum in the bleachers over Verlander’s career.
It was only a couple weeks ago that people were questioning who the ace of the Tigers staff was. There is no question in my mind as we sit here tonight. Verlander has actually been pitching good the whole year, save for that Toronto stuff. But he was being undone by ridiculously poor defense. Tonight, things evened out a little. Here’s where that irony comes in.
Polanco made a leaping grab of a liner, Raburn laid out for a ball and came up big, Everett started a nifty double play on a liner, and Curtis Granderson made a nice play in centerfield.
Yeah, that was kind of an understatement. Amazing, unbelievable, athletic, super hero-ish, game saving, those are probably more apt descriptions. And this is where some of that symmetry comes in. Grandy and Grady are two of the best centerfielders in baseball. And here was one robbing the other, not only of a home run, but a walk off home run. Granderson’s career signature play has probably been the time he robbed Wily Mo Pena in left-centerfield. Does this catch top that one?
As for the Tigers run, it scored with out a real hit. Heck, it scored without a ball leaving the infield. The run was the result of a walk, Curtis Granderson stealing 2nd on a hit-and-run where Placido Polanco whiffed (Polanco is 10th in baseball in contact %) and Grandy was dead at second except Kelly Shoppach threw the ball high. A bounce out advanced Curtis to third. And the run scored when a second baseman failed to throw a ball quickly enough on a routine grounder. And that was the difference.
Other stuff:
Justin Verlander now has the Tigers last 3 complete game shutouts.
Verlander has 56 strikeouts this season. Last year he got his 56th strike out on June 16th
Brandon Inge has all of the Tigers webgems this season. I think, and I’m going out on a limb here, but Grandy’s catch might just sneak in there tonight.
The highlight reel is here. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of seeing that catch (please disregard the nicknaming of Curtis as “The Cougar”:
Do you have a bad taste in your mouth from last night’s Tigers/White Sox game? Get rid of that bad taste with Bacon Lovers Night at tonight’s Toldeo Mud Hens game. The first 5000 fans will receive bacon scented air freshners and bags of bacon flavored sunflower seeds will be handed out after the game.
*I realize this post barely has anything to do with baseball, but it is a Tigers affiliate and I do like bacon. Plus I have 5 yards of mulch to spread today and have limited blogging time. It’s kind of a shame I wasted it on this.
Toledo 1 Pawtucket 8
Jason Tyner, Danny Worth, and Dusty Ryan all had 2 hits. Chris Lambert was lit up for 7 runs on 9 hits in just 3 innings.
Erie 9 Harrisburg 6
Erie finally got to play a game this week. Ryan Strieby was 3 for 3 with a walk including 2 homers. Max Leon also had 3 hits while Scott Sizemore (homer/single)and Jeff Frazier (double/single) had 2 each. Alfredo Figaro returned to the mound and allowed 5 runs on 9 hits, no walks, and 4 K’s in 5.2 innings.
Erie 6 Harrisburg 7
Cale Iorg homered twice and boy did he need it. Scott Sizemore also homered and doubled. Ramon Garcia pitched 3 innings of 1 hit ball and Zach Simons added 2 of the same. Zach Simons allowed 5 runs, only 2 of which were earned and Cody Satterwhite allowed 2 runs as Erie surrendered 7 runs in the last 2 innings of the game.
Brevard County 1 Lakeland 2
Andy Dirks had 2 hits, so did Kyle Peter. Andrew Hess fanned 7 and walked 2 in 6 shut out innings. Scott Green struck out 3 and walked none, but he also allowed a run on 3 hits in 1.2 innings.
Beloit 0 West Michigan 2
Gustavo Nunez had a 3 for 3 night. Chao Ting Tang had 2 hits. Casey Crosby fanned 7 and walked 3 in 5 1 hit, shutout ininngs. Jared Gayhart pitched 1.1 scoreless innings and dropped his ERA to 1.53.
PREGAME: Let’s try this one again. Both teams pushed their pitchers back a day meaning Zach Miner gets skipped and Armando Galarraga gets the ball for Detroit. The Tigers will miss Jose Contreras and get Mark Buehrle. Everything I wrote yesterday still applies so just look there.
POSTGAME: Mark Buehrle was really really good. The 6 perfect innings to start the game should have been a clue. But in most of these type games there is a great defensive play or an at ’em ball or two. Not so much in this one. Just a parade of weak ground outs only interrupted by the occaisonal pop-out. Working a 3 ball count or a 15 pitch inning were reasons to celebrate.
With that in mind, the fact that Armando Galarraga was the latest Tigers pitcher to experience a big inning became largely irrelevant. It started with a questionable 4 pitch walk and got worse from there. Galarraga got two outs but then walked Jim Thome after getting aheadd. Jermaine Dye ripped a single. Paul Konerko doubled on a nice pitch off the plate, and AJ killed a hanging slider and that was the ballgame.
Dontrelle Willis has a start scheduled for next Wednesday against the Twins. This will end his stint on the DL due to anxiety disorder. I don’t really know what to expect from Willis, but as Jim Leyland said:
“I think that’s good. I think it’s time to find out. The report is that he’s throwing pretty much around the plate all the time, 89-93 (mph) with his fastball, throwing some breaking balls, some change-ups, using all his pitches.
“I think it’s a huge thing for us, definitely. I’m all for finding out. I’m hoping he’s really good. Having a left-hander in the rotation would be really good for us.
“Regardless, it’s time to find out.”
Indeed it is.
Zach Miner is the one getting bumped from the rotation and he will be in the bullpen. No announcement has been made on who will head off the 25 man roster, and that decision likely won’t come until closer to the start.
Toledo 1 Pawtucket 2
Dontrelle Willis pitched deep into this game going 7.2 innings and allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and 4 walks with 4 K’s. He threw 118 pitches, 74 for strikes. In his other rehab starts he was getting numerous groundball outs, but this time he had 11 air outs versus 8 ground outs. Willis can remain on a rehab assignment until May 20th. Brent Clevlen and Ryan Roberson doubled for the Hens offense.
Erie – PPD, 3 days in a row.
Dunedin 6 Lakeland 4 (10 inn)
Andy Dirks went 3 for 3 with a double and a walk. Kody Kaiser was 2 for 4 with a homer and a walk. Lauren Gagnier fanned 6 and walked 1 allowing 4 runs on 5 hits in 6.1 innings. Robbie Weinhardt allowed his first runs of the season, giving up 2 on 4 hits in 1.1 innings taking the loss.
Beloit 0 West Michigan 3
Ben Guez doubled and walked. Gustavo Nunez had 2 hits. Matt Hoffman fanned 6, walked 2, and allowed 4 hits in 7 shut out innings.
PREGAME: From one 2 game series to another, the Tigers land in Chicago to take on the White Sox. The two teams played a rain-induced 2 game series already this season with each team winning a game in convincing fashion.
Armando Galarraga will be on the mound for Detroit. Galarraga has become very slider-happy and he hasn’t exactly been attacking the strike zone as of late. In his last 3 games he has walked 11 hitters while fanning 13. He has always featured a slider heavy repertoire, but this year he is throwing it 44% of the time, that’s more than he throws his fastball.
It will be Mark Buehrle for the Sox. Buehrle has a 4-0 record already. He’s been consistent this year, going between 6 and 6.2 innings and allowing 1-3 runs in his last 4 starts.
Granderson returns to the leadoff spot, but Clete sticks at #3 in tonight’s lineup:
Toledo 0 Pawtucket 4
Brent Clevlen went 3 for 3. That was half the Mud Hens hit total as the team was shut down by Daisuke Matsuzaka. Ruddy Lugo walked 5 and allowed 6 hits for 4 runs in 6.2 innings.
Erie – PPD
Dunedin 5 Lakeland 8
Michael Bertram homered. Christopher White had 3 hits and walk. Justin Henry and Kody Kaiser each doubled and singled. Charlie Furbush struck out 3 and walked 3 and allowed 4 runs in 5 innings.
Beloit 9 West Michigan 3
Brandon Douglas went 3 for 3 with 2 walks and 2 steals, and owns a 446 OBP. Bryan Pounds doubled, singled, and walked. Brayan villarreal fanned 8 and walked 5 in 3.2 innings of 1 hit, 1 run ball.
These are the types of games that make me love baseball. It’s much easier to say this after a 9-0 win, but it’s not just the favorable result for the Tigers that I’m talking about*. It’s the disconnect between everything we know about baseball and what happens on a given night.
With a rich statistical history we are able to study the game in such detail. We know so much about how runs are scored and how they are prevented. We can talk about true talent level and the disadvantages of small ball and proper lineup construction. And I believe the majority of it to be true. With so many stats we can make some pretty good educated guesses about what will happen. And on any given night we can be so wrong.
I was very critical of the lineup that Jim Leyland put together tonight, and I’m not even someone who puts a lot of stock in lineups. The newly recalled Clete Thomas has no business hitting third. I don’t mean to disparage Clete at all, but that is simply not the right spot for someone with his skillset. Even for someone who had 12 hits, 7 of which were for extra bases, and 6 walks in his last 10 games in the minors.
But there was Clete, batting in the spot typically reserved for the team’s best hitter, and it took him 2 at-bats to match Magglio Ordonez’s season total for extra base hits. There was Clete anchoring a lineup that has struggled to score runs of late, even against inferior and/or struggling pitchers, and the offense exploded for a much needed laugher.
Despite tonight’s results I’m still firm in my conviction that this probably isn’t a lineup that will stand up in the long haul. But tonight, it sure did work.
(I’m not moving to seperate posts pre and post game, I just thought this one warranted some more space. *Also as to that unpredictability, I can appreciate Jackson’s start against the Yankees for the utter absurdity of what took place. Still didn’t care for the result though)
Rick Porcello kept the ball in the park and got him 78% of a shutout. He only allowed 4 hits and if he hadn’t walked a couple in the 7th, he probably would have been out for more as he only needed 87 pitches to record 21 outs. He was helped by the GIDP, but as a ground ball pitcher that’s what happens.
The Twins fielding was uncharacteristically bad. Joe Crede bobbled a ball in the first in which Polanco should have been cut down at the plate. Delmon Young played a Josh Anderson blooper into a double. Michael Cuddyer got an assist on Clete’s triple. Crede botched another play. The Tigers offense had help for sure.
Miguel Cabrera is hitting everything hard. His homer was absolutely crushed. Since the off day on Thursday there isn’t much that hasn’t been blistered off his bat.
Curtis Granderson. Nine homers already. Who knew?
Brandon Inge hasn’t reached base for 2 straight games and hasn’t looked good at the plate. Is this his first slump of the season?
A 4-4 homestand isn’t bad, but it would have been nice to be on the winning side of the ledger.
PREGAME: Rick Porcello takes on Nick Blackburn tonight, but that news kind of takes a back seat to the Tigers roster moves and their new lineup.
The roster moves have been covered already, but the lineup? Here you go:
Anderson
Polanco
Thomas
Cabrera
Granderson
Ordonez
Inge
Laird
Santiago
Aside from putting your best (not necessarily fastest) baserunner behind your slowest runner, you are also taking 70 plate appearances over the course of a full season away from Curtis Granderson*. I understand trying to protect Cabrera (and there is even doubt that protection is real) and put Granderson in a position to drive in more runs. BUT…You can protect Cabrera by having guys on in front of him as well. You pop Granderson in at 3rd and you get 35 of those PA’s back.
*I understand that the 70 PA thing may be inflated because we’re part way through the season and who knows how long this lineup sticks. But I do want to highlight the impact of sliding that far down the order.
I have more complaints about this lineup (especially with Porcello on the mound), but that’s enough for now.