The bullpen has been strong, the offense has been uneven but generally productive, but the starting pitching has been struggling. I guess the cure for that is to welcome in one of the most prolific offenses in baseball because the starting pitching this series was outstanding.
We’ll throw out the Brad Thomas start, because he isn’t really a starter. The three conventional starters that pitched in the series combined to allow just 2 runs
| Detroit | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR |
| Verlander | 6.2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| Bonderman | 7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| Porcello | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Totals | 20.2 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 13 | 0 |
In both Verlander’s and Porcello’s starts the bullpen maintained the shutout meaning the Yankees were shut out twice in a series for the first time this century. Is it the start of something for this rotation (and to be fair Verlander has been pretty good of late)?
- Don Kelly played some very nice defense the last 2 days. He had an excellent day at third base and helped to preserve the shutout in the 8th inning of the series finale with a very good play at the wall.
- Brennan Boesch. Yep. I remember being skeptical about Leyland slotting him into the 5th spot in the lineup when he debuted. It seemed like a lot of pressure on the kid and more Leyland lineup stubborn-ess (can’t disrupt the rest of the lineup so the sub has to bat where the normal starter would have). It seems to have worked out.
- The mohawks. I just don’t know. It workend for Jeremy Bonderman but not for Phil Coke. I do think we should track the performance of those with mohawks, both pre and post splits.
- Gerald Laird coming up with multiple RBI is reason for rejoicing, even with the “blistering” shot that Laird tossed into shallow right field.
- I’m thrilled with how the Tigers played this week. Taking 3 out of 4 against New York is always reason for excitement. In the end though the Tigers outscored the Yankees by all of 1 run. Great results from a W-L perspective and enjoy it, but don’t confuse this with domination.
If you’d have told me Bondo would have 7 strikeouts against the Yankees I’d have probably laughed in your face. I love eating crow of this flavor.
In a short series like this I don’t think run differential means anything. They put up 6 runs in a game they were already winning against a setup guy and a kid called up from AAA. The Tigers put up 6 runs in a game against their best pitcher. It might look the same, but it’s not. Over the course of a season these things even out, but in a four game set, it doesn’t make much sense to talk about.
Great series win. Hope we can carry the mo’ into the next couple of series. But as Mr. Wolf would say, well, you know….We faced only two of their best starters (granted going off on Sabathia was very nice, but he is a notoriously slow starter despite his record thus far this year), and a line-up without two of their guys (Swisher and Granderson) and two others that have not heated up yet (Tex and A-Rod). Again, I will take it: our bullpen is excellent, as Bill pointed out the starters are coming around and the offense is steady when not spectacular. Barring a major catastrophe it should be a fun season.
They should start calling Miguel Cabrera and Brennan Boesch the ‘Mash and Bash Boys’ because that right-left combination is very powerful in the middle of the lineup right now. With Miguel mashing and Boesch bashing pitchers it should make for a very entertaining middle of the lineup offense, particularly with the production from top three hitters.
The pitching was an especially encouraging…and I discount many of the Yankee runs to finish off game 3, as the gates were opened against an AAA pitcher on an infield hit and a blooper.
BTW – Bilfer: dunno if its something with my browser, but the photos on your site are coming through digitized and blurry the past few weeks.
The only qualifier I had in my mind was the slightly diminished lineup for the Yankees. Winn, Golson, Cervelli, Pena….but, I’m happy, don’t get me wrong.