It looked like a laugher, but then the jokes stopped getting funny, then the Miguel Cabrera had the last laugh. It’s games like this where I like to let Fangraphs tell the story.
Jeremy Bonderman looked great in the early going. He only needed 38 pitches to get through 4 innings. He pitched his way out of a rocky 5th with minimal damage, so it was quite the surprise to see him unable to finish the 6th and spare the bullpen.
And that bullpen which has been quite good and quite heavily used was vulnerable. Joel Zumaya finished off the 6th inning, but got knocked around for the first time this year. Phil Coke came on and got the first out before Vladimir Guerrero tied things up.
The offense scored early and late. Brandon Inge broke his home run drought in a big way. After sending a ball to the warning track he got angry and went homer-double-homer for a monster night. Ryan Raburn narrowly missed a grand slam and added another double.
But the biggest blast once again came from the biggest hitter. The Rangers inexplicably threw Miguel Cabrera a pitch over the plate in the 9th inning and he put it over the wall to give the Tigers a win that Jose Valverde saved easily.
A 5-6 road trip isn’t great, but it is certainly acceptable. And we get back to 7p start times, and the Minnesota Twins.
Why is Jackson’s WPA so low? Ks in moderately high LI situations?
Considering how horrible the scheduling was for this road trip, I would not have even expected 5-6. I think it is pretty darn good for no days off and night games where there should be day games. I woulda been disappointed in last night if they lost, but Miggy gets the April MVP. LOTS of clutch RBIs.
I was at this one. I’d like to add that Inge hit the ball really really hard in almost every AB. Good sign. He had a rough trip with the bat.
Our inside the tiger clubhouse source informs WBWF that GALARAGA is on his
way up from Toledo to join the starters shortly and that COKE is on LEYLAND’S
short list for the reason.
How do I go about exchanging website blog rolls with you??
bobby hoeft, former tiger prospect and founder & poublisher of the tiger quarterly:
WHEN BASEBALL WAS FUN.
Okay, I will write it: What? Who is Galaraga replacing? And what exactly is a “short list”? Is that akin to a sh** list? And if so, I mean, I have not watched any games this year, but a guy with a 1.60ish ERA and a lot of innings under his belt, along with being a lefty, is not someone who belongs on anyone’s sh** list, if that is indeed what you are saying. But the real question: why would a starter being called up have anything to do with a reliever’s seat in the ‘pen? Especially a lefty reliever, and especially when we are going up against a team that sports about 7 lefties in their line-up. Could we get some clarification on this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_list
oh the dreaded wiki-link-in-response-to-inquiry. second only to the dictionary.com response, or perhaps google.com
Thanks Jeff, but it was a bit of sarcasm there. What “reason” is Coke on this “short list”, and really, what the heck is he talking about. Coke is on the short list for what? A starting slot, but Galaraga is coming up for a slot. Are two guys going down, then? I mean, seriously. And if Coke is he on the short list for the “season”, not “reason”, the short list for what? Starter’s slot? That’s earth-shattering. There is just alot going on there. But I am still curious: if Galaraga is coming up, then who is going down, and if Leyland is still thinking about starting Coke, then who else is going down? Verlander?! Again, just a lot going on.