2011 Season, Game Post

Game 2011.32: Yankees at Tigers

29 Comments

Well, the Tigers take the field for today’s asphalt game with the hopes and dreams of Tigers fans who are ready to charge up the AL Central standings after two games.  Count me in!  Before we start printing our AL Central Division shirts let’s remember the week preceding these last two games, but it’s hard not to get excited.  The Tigers have won the last two with timely hitting, outstanding starting pitching, and some shrewd lineup management.  A long series win over the venerable Yankees would replenish a lot of the recently lost fan capital.

AperiordJperiod Burnett makes his seventh start of the season for the Yanks today.  Burnett has been a pleasant surprise for the Yanks this year, considering that last year he set franchise highs for the highest single-season ERA for a starter (> 180 IPs).  He has been taking advantage of great run support on his way to a 4-1 record (the Yanks are averaging 5 runs per game that he starts).  On the season, Burnett has a 3.93 ERA, a 1.28 WHIP and a 2.33 K/BB ratio.  His biggest flaw has been high pitch counts, which have left him with a 6 IP per start average.

Porcello looks to lock up the series for the boys today, and there is no reason to believe that he won’t (other than the fact that I just wrote that).  After two starts which had him looking up the bus schedule to Toledo, Porcello has found his sinker and been downright filthy.  Over his last three starts, Porcello has allowed 4 earned in 19 2/3 (1.83 ERA), posted a 1.07 WHIP, and K’d 17 against only 3 walks.  Yeah, 17/3 K/BB.  Note this is only the 2nd time in RPs career that he has posted 3 straight quality starts, the last coming in May of 2009.

Today’s double reverse jinx notes: The Yankees are the only AL team yet to lose 3 in a row, and they have not lost a series to an AL Central team since losing 3/4 to the Tigers in May of 2010. They are 9-0-2 in their series against AL Central teams since.

AJax, Avila and Peralta with the day off today:

1. Kelly CF
2. Sizemore 2B
3. Boesch RF
4. Cabrera 1B
5. Martinez C
6. Ordonez DH
7. Raburn LF
8. Inge 3B
9. Santiago SS

29 thoughts on “Game 2011.32: Yankees at Tigers”

  1. Uh-oh, the Leyland well-he’s-playing-CF-so-he-should-bat-in-the-CFs-spot-in-the-order lineup. I mean nothing against The Donkey, but leadoff?

    1. JL before the game today:
      “Jackson has been pressing a bit lately, think I’ll give him the day off. Who should hit leadoff? Sizemore? Hmmm, no he’s my no. 2 guy now, How about Rhymes? Yeah! Wait, sh*t, he’s gone now. Man, this leadoff thing is a real b****, nobody seems to be able to hit there. F***, even I could hit there………… Even I could hit there! That’s it. Hey Kelly, get over here.”

  8. I tried to repost “this is our inning” but Word Press said “you already posted that.” And I said “I know, I’m reposting it because this is our inning.” And they didn’t care. And then we scored. So I’m happy.

  13. I like this new “score runs” and “good pitching” strategy.

  14. The good news is that with good pitching and a lot of help from the Yankees, the Tigers took the last three games of the series, which is almost as good as a sweep. Always good to beat the Yankees, so kudos. The bad news is that, because of the three game winning streak, Leyland may think this is the lineup of the future. The fact is, the Tigers offense is scary, and I don’t mean that in a good way. More changes still need to be made.

  16. Sure hope we don’t need Valverde tomorrow. I don’t get why Leyland put him in, it’s not like he needed the work.

    1. Perhaps he was already warming up for the save situation when Boesch hit the one-run homer and removed that scenario. I’m just guessing here though, since many of the decisions Leyland makes, I don’t get.

    2. What do you mean you don’t get it why Leyland put him in? I will tell you then. Valverde is our closer and gives us the best odds to close out a close game. We just came off a 2 game losing streak, with a lousy start to the year, and are playing the Yankees, so up 3 runs with 1 inning to go, a meltdown would be catastrophic and embarrassing in an epic way. It would be complete disaster and a storm of hatred towards the team if we blew that game. Baseball logic says that you gamble on a 3 run lead and don’t use your best pitcher and take the chance to conserve for your best player in a likely closer odds game, but Leyland doesn’t understand math and logic, because he is an old, stupid, and ignorant person. He is willing to trade-off our future success and winnability in order to protect himself from embarrassment. Any manager that handicaps the team to protect is own social equity is not a true baseball man. But that’s what we are stuck with in Detroit, and that’s why Valverde was playing despite what any intelligent baseball expert would have suggested.

  17. A win is a win…….any way you can get it…….but we must send the Yanks a thank-you card for this one.
    Smoke on the Brain must think that he is a true genius after todays victory.

  18. Not to take away from the Tiger’s success in this series, but if i were a Yankee fan, i might be feeling a bit concerned… sure it was ‘only three games’ (against the Tigers) where the Yankees looked pretty close to bush-league (fielding, base running and lack of hitting), but when you factor in how much they’re paying: ARod $32M (.273), Texiera $23M (.253), Jeter $14M (.250), Swisher $9M (.214), Posada $13M (.154), Sabathia $24M, Rivera $15M and Burnett $16.5M… that could cause some discomfort – especially for the guy signing their checks.

    The month of May will set the tone for the rest of the season for the Tigers in May the play the Blue Jays 6 games, Red Sox 6, Twins 4, Royals 3, Rays 3 and Pirates 3 – 25 games, Tigers need to at least 15 of them.

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