On June 15th, 1938, Johnny Vander Meer, in only his second big league season, took the mound for the Cincinnatti Reds against the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. It was only four days after Vander Meer had no hit the Boston Braves at Crosley Field. Despite walking 8 against 7 strikeouts, Vander Meer pulled off a feat never before accomplished, and yet to be repeated to this day, as he threw his second consecutive no hitter. This was the highlight of Vander Meer’s otherwise nondescript career.
Verlandermeer takes the hill tonight against the 2nd place Kansas City Royals. KC got off to a fast start and has been holding steady since, largely in part to their hitting. The Royals are currently hitting .265 as a team (tied for 2nd in the AL, Tigers are 5th at .257), and are 3rd in the AL with a .758 OPS (Tigers are 7th at .729). The Royals’ team ERA finds them 10th in the AL at 4.18, one spot ahead of the Tigers. Where the Tigers do have the Royals is starting pitching.
Luke Hochevar takes the mound for the Royals tonight with a 4.91 ERA, following up a solid outing against the Athletics where he allowed 1 ER and 4 hits over 7 innings. The three starts prior to that, however, didn’t go so well. In two games against Cleveland and one against Minnesota from late April to early May, Hochevar allowed 15 earned in 18 2/3 with a 1.55 WHIP. On the season Hochevar is striking out only 5.7 per 9, though he does have a salty walk rate of 2.1/9 and 1.15 WHIP. The explanation is XBH, as he’s allowed 28 of them against 19 singles, with 10 of them leaving the yard.
JV is good at pitching. Not much else needed here, other than a great post by the Onion regarding JV’s no hitter.
Maggs finally went on the DL today, with Dirks getting the call-up from Toledo.
Today’s pick to click is Miguel Cabrera. He’s a career .500 hitter off of Hochevar in 20 ABs with 2 bombs.
Lineups will be posted shortly. Dirks did not get the auto just up from Toledo JL start. Odd.
1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Scott Sizemore, 2B
3. Brennan Boesch, RF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Victor Martinez, DH
6. Don Kelly, LF
7. Jhonny Peralta, SS
8. Alex Avila, C
9. Brandon Inge, 3B
Clearly Maggs hasn’t been right all year. Time to see what the 25-year old Mr. Dirks can do. Dirks is also a LH bat and can steal a base now and again (he is 10/12 this year).
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=543108
He looks good against RH pitching, but perhaps a bit pedestrian vs lefties. Maybe a platoon with Rayburn to start, hitting no. 7?
Dirks not starting and Peralta batting 7th behind Kelly – from the mind of Leyland. Apparently Dirks first needs to see how they play in the Big Show, and it is absolutely imperative to keep the 6th slot reserved for an outfielder.
The Mudhens are in Georgia, Dirk will not be in Detroit until late. Surely this is still Leyland’s fault though.
tonight we take over 2nd place in the division. lets do this.
Now you’re talking! Glad to see Boesch in the number three slot. He will go 2-4 tonight with 3RBIs!
Verlandermeer, I like it
Verlander is getting stronger.
Boy Jhonny is on a role, Can we move him to Third and try Santiago at SS for a bit? or Don Kelly at third. I really like Inge but .207 is too low, lets see how he does here.
Ouch….. couldn’t even get a post in before he popped up.
Not much time to comment, had to take the mound for an inning for KC.
Candidate.
Thought we’d get some help from Seattle, but unfortunately the Indians pulled off another walk-off win tonight.
We’ve now won 9 out of 10 games. When was the last time we done that? May 10th, 2007.
actually it would be May 12th, 2007 when we won 11 of 12 games.
LETS GO TIGERS
WE ARE MAKIN THE PLAYOFFS. WEAK DIVISION THAT WE POUNCE ON. I DONT BEYOND IT. BUT LETS DO THIS.