2010 Season, Game Post

Game 2010.002: Tigers at Royals

103 Comments

PREGAME: It will be Max Scherzer versus Luke Hochevar in game 2 of the 2010 season. The big news around this game in Detroit is that we won’t be able to watch it, until the Red Wings game is over anyways. Due to a scheduling tsunami the Tigers are pushed off of both Fox Sports Detroit, and it’s FSD+ brother (which will show the Pistons). A bummer to be sure but FS Detroit is likely contractually bound to the 2 other games and picking up the Tigers in progress is extra effort on their part.

But back to the game…

Hochevar gets the #2 role due to an injured Gil Meche. The Tigers have beat up Hochevar the last two times they faced him. Miguel Cabrera will try to make history as he has gone a perfect 8 for 8 in his last 8 at-bats against Hochevar. Lefties strike out just as much as righties against Hochevar, but they walk twice as often.

Scherzer makes his Tigers and AL Debut. He dominated righties last year with a 4.58 K/BB ratio and hopefully he can hold down Billy Butler.

The Tigers lefty heavy lineup is:

  1. Jackson, CF
  2. Damon, LF
  3. Ordonez, RF
  4. Cabrera, 1B
  5. Guillen, DH
  6. Inge, 3B
  7. Avila, C
  8. Sizemore, 2B
  9. Santiago, SS

Detroit Tigers at Kansas City Royals – April 7, 2010 – MLB.com Preview

POSTGAME: That was certainly a disappointing ending to an otherwise compelling game. The Tigers did quite a few things right in this game, but also had their share of struggles.

Offensively the Tigers couldn’t muster anything but ground balls against Hochevar. Sixteen of the Tigers outs against Hochever were ground ball outs, including two double plays. The only hit of note was a wind blown triple by Austin Jackson. And unlike against Greinke, many of those outs came early in the count meaning that Hochevar was able to hand the ball directly to Joakim Soria  with 2 outs in the 8th and avoid the tasty middle relief options of the Royals.

Fortunately Scherzer was up to the task and he didn’t allow a hit until the 5th inning and left after 6 scoreless innings. It was a very nice Tigers debut for Scherzer who’s only blemish was a couple of HBPs. (Bless You Boys has the pitch f/x breakdown)

The bullpen which was quite efficient on Monday, didn’t control the strike zone to the same degree. Fu-Te Ni, Brad Thomas, and Phil Coke each threw more balls than strikes. It was Ni’s walk in the 8th that moved a runner into scoring position for Chris Getz’s RBI single.

Jose Valverde, a notorious slow starter, didn’t do much right in the 11th inning with a chance for his first save. The Callaspo homer was a bullet, and the Ankiel shot off the wall was smoked as well. Yes, Scott Sizemore blew the relay play, but even if he catches it clean the winning run is 90 feet away with nobody out and the closer being bludgeoned. There is definitely shared responsibility for that 11th inning.

  • The Miguel Cabrera at-bat in the 9th inning was tremendous. Down to the last strike Soria couldn’t put him away and with pitch #10 Cabrera doinked the foul pole to tie the game. That’s 4 big hits in the first two games for Cabrera.
  • It was the Venezuelan uprising in the 11th that again game the Tigers a chance. Singles by Ordonez, Cabrera, and Guillen  gave the team the lead. It goes without saying that the majority of the offense will run through those 3.
  • Don’t make too much of the Cabrera caught stealing. It was costly, he just left a tad too early. I don’t mind the added aggressiveness.
  • Where was that aggressiveness earlier though when Jackson led off with a single only to have Johnny Damon with a first pitch GIDP?
  • I didn’t care for the Sizemore bunt in the 8th inning. Hochevar had barely been in the stretch, and even though Sizemore was his last batter, make him try and get the out. The Tigers had already handed over too many easy outs.
  • Gerald Laird is 2 for 2 in not even making a throw down to gun out a runner.
  • Jackson’s strike out in the 10th was a pretty bad at-bat, but not all that surprising either. He was probably experiencing some additional pressure, and he’s already a player who’s entire minor league career has been prone to the strike out. Not that he won’t do a lot of things right this season, but he’s going to have his whiffs.
  • Two more walks for Sizemore who continues to work the count.

Post game video with Leyland/Avila/Sizemore/Valverde

103 thoughts on “Game 2010.002: Tigers at Royals”

  1. Looking forward to seeing Scherzer’s Tiger debut.
    I love this line-up. Getting Avila significant PT is going to help our offense so much.

  5. I have it on audio. They make it sound like the weather is deplorable. Sure wish we’d get some runs.

  11. Great outing by Scherzer. Unfortunately, I think his day might be over, especially with it being the first start of the year and Verlander getting yanked after 93 pitches a couple days ago.

  12. yeah, it would be nice if he had a little run support here and was able to pick up the win. Looks good here, lets see how we all do against the top tier teams. For now we look good.

  13. Well, on a promising note, we get to see the KC bullpen after another inning. Hopefully they are still throwing meatballs.

  16. If you like low scoring “pitching duels”, this year I have a hunch we’re in for bunch.

    1. Does that mean you have little confidence of decent seasons by Ordonez, Guillen and Inge? Or you believe in a Bonderman/Dtrain miracle? Or a bit of both.

      1. I think Maggs will bounce backsome, but his heydays are behind him, but Guillen’s a ? due to his perennial health issues. I do not believe in Inge ever having a “breakout” year, the rooks are ? because they are rooks and in general the 6-7-8-9 spots in the order do not instill much confidence (Everett – please; Laird’s new batting stance – uh uh) – they are going to have trouble scoring on a consistent basis. It’s just too much to expect all the weaknesses to magically disappear, although hopefully there should be some improvement. I forsee a lot of games where they score 4 or fewer runs, which is not a prescription for winning a lot.

        If Bonderman can actually learn a 3rd pitch (how long have we been waiting now?; has he tried the knuckler yet?) there is some hope there, but I have no faith in Willis, who could well be gone by the end of the month. Verlander, Scherzer and Porcello are dependable and the pen should be okay if it doesn’t get overworked. The pitching staff is the strength of the team. If trouble is brewing there, we can write the season off because the offense won’t be able to pick up any slack. The pitchers I think will be carrying the bulk of the load and working under pressure most of the time.

        There are quite a few interesting stories to be played out this year, so I am looking forward to the race. My expectations just aren’t particularly high.

  26. Thanks for swinging at that garbage pitch on a 3-1 count, Jose, GIDPs are your friend.

  29. I guess it’s the economy…but G-money so far has been a handful of couch-cushion-change. I’m used to his pop-ups at the plate, but what’s up with the glove pop-ups on the SB attempts?

  30. Both Sizemore and Jackson both showing good plate discipline so far. That’s a breath of fresh air for the Tigers.

  32. That was an absolutely atrocious at bat by Jackson. Not a single strike was thrown and he swung at three of them. Those pitches weren’t even close. I know he’s a rookie and all, but there’s no excuse for that kind of approach.

      1. You are both right, he’s probably overanxious and is doing fine overall, but that was a really bad at bat. He gets the benefit of the doubt for now, but none of the pitches he swung at were even close to the strike zone.

    3. Yea I’d give him a mulligan for a bit as well… He did seem to like that high hard stuff…Thoughts of Pudge instantly sprang up.

  33. The old strikeout with a man on third and less than 2 outs…
    Looks like Austin Jackson IS taking Curtis Granderson’s place…

    1. Nevermind, since Laird pinch-ran for Avila that made Raburn unavailable (he is now the Special Emergency Catcher in Reserve).

  37. This will come down to the heart of the order (if the Tigers come up again). It’s a one swing of the bat type game at this point.

    1. Scouting reports say the Royals are susceptible to Coke. Er, wait, it seems those are old reports from the ’80s…

      1. I guess more helped us. Or it hurt them. Hit the white part of the plate, Phil. Follow your nose…

  40. I like pitchers that come in and throw strikes. I am having trouble finding the love for Mr, Coke so far.

  46. Ah yes, I remember Farnsworth. At least he’s doing this for somebody else now…

  49. Boy, that was some terrible baserunning. Nothing like taking ourselves completely out of the inning.

    Question for the tech people out there – my name and e-mail don’t stay in the boxes above after posting a comment. After I hit ‘submit’, the comment posts but the boxes are blank. What setting do I need to change to get them to stay? I am using IE7.

    1. mark- i was going to mention the same thing, but i have been tinkering with my settings to see if it was my fault first… i guess not. i am using firefox3.6.3

    2. I’m using firefox and the same thing is happening to me. Didn’t happen last year, though.

    3. while we are mentioning changes. i also noticed i cannot edit posts anymore. i think you used to be able to edit them for a couple minutes.

    4. Same thing here on Mac OS/Safari so I’m guessing there’s nothing on the user end at work here.

      1. Good to know it isn’t just me. I wonder if this is billfer’s way of getting all of us to post less so he doesn’t have to read and moderate 150 posts for every game thread. Or maybe his host is charging him by the word… 😉

          1. I don’t know actually. It was nothing I knowingly changed. I’ll poke around.

          2. I’ve spent all morning trying to figure this out and I’m no where. Except for completely breaking the site and having to put it back together again. I’ll work on this more in the future, but it looks like you’ll just have to live with it for now. Sorry.

  57. that was ugly. very ugly. our new closer with a BS on the 2nd game of the year…

    did anyone notice the number of detroit fans at the end of the game there? nearly everyone left seemed to have detroit gear on.

  59. Granderson with the go-ahead HR in extra innings. Way to go Grandy. See everyone manana.

  60. Well that was a great start to the Valverde era. Way to engender confidence in your new fan base.

      1. Actually, to give up 2 errors (Santiago catch, Valverde misplay) and not give up a run…that’s pretty darn good.

        Let’s not overreact friends, I’d hate for this to turn into a Mets board. There are going to be a lot of nights like this.

  61. Memo to Sizemore: In the major leagues, it’s not permissible to be either clueless to the game situation and/or indifferent to picking the ball up and getting the ball to the infield before, uh, the winning run scores.
    The goal is to prevent the other team from scoring.

  62. Inge and Laird are so bad the Tigers figured out how to make all three outs with the two of them batting…first and second no outs….. Gee Marboro man don’t bunt the wonder boy Inge the then hit and run with Laird.(who used up all his hits in spring training)….as good as Leyland was yesterday he stunk today…..oh ya and we didn’t want to pay Polanco or Rodney the money…..

    1. I think its a little early to criticize the Sizemore/Polonca switch, after all Polanco is only projected to have 486 RBI this year…which is a little low for 2B.

    2. Leyland has stunk every year… Collapse year after year after year after year is not a coincidence.

      Fool me once…

  63. Well, that was awful.

    We were on pace to win 162 games; now we are on pace to win 81.

    So we pretty much blew 81 games tonight.

    1. Well, you win some and you lose some. For a .500 team, they are about where you would expect them to be.

    1. Yes we all can’t wait to see the Greek errr African God of Walks…Oh wait he’s a pitcher…

  65. Friend of mine mentioned this was the second game where Valverde seemed to forget how many outs there were, anyone else catch that?

  66. Thank God we let Rodney go for Valverde. The blown save not withstanding, I don’t see any movement on this guy’s pitches. This portends lots of bad ninth innings because he doesn’t appear to have a strikeout pitch, which is a MUST for a closer. As scary as Rodney was at times, he got the job done and he missed bats. I’m not seeing anything in the first two Valverde appearances that indicates he is going to be anywhere near solid in 2010. Another terrible move by Dombrowski. How does this guy keep his job? Please Mr. Ilitch, I’ll do his job for a quarter of his pay and get you better results.

  67. Sizemore is terrible! Valverde is horrible. Great moves DD! Hopefully DD is gone soon!!

  68. Wow, two games in and its already the apocalypse.

    Methinks its a tad early to call Sizemore and Valverde duds. Especially since we knew to expect growing pains with the former and an NL –> AL adjustment with the latter.

  69. Cabrera’s at bat reminded me of the All-Star HR derby. He just kept taking pitch after pitch until he hit one out of there. Tremendous at-bat.

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