Well, at least Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Guillen made significant returns to the lineup. Beyond that the theme of the night was frustration. Despite Cabrera’s 3 homer heroics the Tigers managed to repeatedly come up short in most facets of the game.
Cabrera was spectacular. Each of the 3 homers were crushed no-doubters. Unfortunately the rest of the team didn’t follow suit.
And then there is Dontrelle Willis. Once again he wasn’t good, but once again he wasn’t the reason the team lost. It’s safe to say that the game was close in spite of Willis rather than because of him.
As for the bullpen management, I have a hard time complaining about this one. I like that Ryan Perry was thrust into a difficult 2nd and 3rd situation. Because of the 9th inning it’s easy to forget that Perry escaped the 8th without incident.
The 9th inning was just a disaster, but only one of those pitches I can hang on Perry and that was the Mark Ellis HBP. The double was a fluke. Ordonez was playing deep, Guillen was playing up the middle. It truly was no man’s land.
The swinging bunt was a fluke, though the fact that Fu-Te Ni gave up on the play was frustrating. I don’t know that they can get an out on that play, but Ni didn’t give himself a chance.
In the end the pitching wasn’t quite good enough, the fielding wasn’t quite good enough, and the hitting certainly wasn’t good enough. For the 4th time in 5 games the Tigers came up on the wrong end of a close game.
- Magglio Ordonez didn’t have a particularly good game. It’s rare he strikes out twice. And while he was active in right field with 7 outs recorded, his inability to get to the double or gun out the runner on the sacrifice fly in the 9th hurt. I think Maggs catches too much flack for his defense as there is nothing wrong with being okay. But he didn’t play well last night. The 8th inning double he didn’t read well and the throw to the plate was accurate but without zip.
- Phil Coke escaped scrutiny because nobody scored in the 8th inning but he faced 4 batters and all 4 laced line drives.
- Alex Avila has often hit the ball hard right at people this season (he’s also struck out a lot so I’m not saying his batting average is all bad luck), but he managed 3 dribblers tonight and a catchers interference.
- Not everything was bad though. Guillen played fine at second base and worked 3 full counts at the plate. The time he didn’t work a full count he ripped a double.
Guillen looked great. As did Cabby, obviously.
Damon needs to get hot, and A-Jax has to start hitting again. Our hitting is pathetic right now. Put a couple guys on base for Miggy. Two solo homers is shameful, regardless if one was a leadoff… It just means Mags shouldn’t have made the last out the inning before.
It’s easy to fault the bullpen because they’ve been so stellar this year, but I’m not going to get worked up. They’ve done a wonderful job and are due to falter a few times. But that’s when the hitting has to make up for it. We’ll get hot and win 7 or 8 out of 10, and it’ll be a lot of fun.
Go Tigers!!
Good post Bilfer! Yes, it is unfortunate but those were two back-to-back games that we should of won. Throughout the season I subjectively keep track of this count. Last year we had 7 we should of won and 6 we shouldn’t have won, so it tends to balance out.* This year, until last Wednesday’s game, on my unoffical list, the Tigers had three games we shouldn’t of won (Games 6, 8, and 37), and only one game (Game 2) we should have won. Now we are balanced out. As mentioned earlier, now is the time for all to help out at the plate. Good to have Carlos back home with Boesch in the lineup too!
*For those dying to know, the 7th game on my subjective list that the Tigers should have won in 2009 was game 148 on 19SEP09 against the Twins. During that game, Verlander went into the 8th with a 2-1 lead and had one on and one out. Don Kelly playing LF looses a popped fly in the Twinkie Dome ceiling and instead of two outs and runner on first, it is one out and runners on 2nd and 3rd. The Tigers intentionally walk Mauer to load the bases for a DP chance when the next batter hits a bloop single to LF scoring two. Verlander is relieved by Lyon whose first pitch is blasted for a homer. Tigers lose 6-2 and as all know later go on to play a 163rd game. (However all of this may show that the baseball gods might have a sense of humor by keeping the Tigers from having to play the 2009 Yankees in the playoffs.)
Thanks for keeping track of those games. I agree that things balance out; teams that win lots of one-run games in a year usually fall back the next year. (I think the ’05 White Sox did this.)
Also, please never mention an end-of-the-2009-season game against the Twins again.
Hi Andrew…thanks for replying. Despite the loss, I am proud of the Tigers v. Twin playoff game as it showed off the Tigers to other fans. This year, my wife and I are hosting two exchange students from Norway and Germany. After watching that playoff games they developed some my interest in baseball. Then this past April they became Tiger fans when we took in the four game wrap-around series against the Rangers. One of them even caught a foul ball off Damon at their first game! Next week they will be wearing Tiger caps on their flight home.
Really good stuff OTFiM. Can we just go with Otfim from here on out? It’s quicker.
Anyway, keep us posted on your count.
You know, I had a couple pops in me, and the HBP happened to fast afterwards, I am trying to remember exactly what I thought of the Intentional BB to Ryan Freakin’ Sweeney. I recall it raising my eyebrow a tiny bit but the more I think about it later the more I’ve hated it. Why add extra baserunners there? Pitch to him, if he gets a hit you are down one run because of a bloop double. But he’s not exactly a Pre-2010 Pujols and you have the righty-righty matchup. Putting him on first just sets up a tiny margin for error on the next batter, which is what burned them with the two runs instead of one.
Agreed.
But so goes a 162 game season. We’ll hit a 4 game win-streak sometime in June and all will be fine. Then we’ll run through this when we subsequently lose 4/5 again shortly thereafter.
Willis is being DFA’d to make room for Scherzer:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/05/tigers-to-designate-dontrelle-willis-for-assignment.html