2011 Season, Game Post

Game 2011.53: Twins at Tigers

45 Comments

Happy Memorial Day everyone!  Summer is here, and no better way to celebrate the beginning of summer than with some Tiger baseball.  And Twins.

Spring ended on a pretty nice note, as Justin Verlander was back to his dominant self and shut down the Red Sox machine 3-0, the AL-leading 8th Tiger shutout of the season.  Verlander was pulled with 2-out in the 8th, because he was at 135 pitches and seemed to lose the strike zone, but it should be noted that his 135th pitch was 100 mph.  100.

With the streaky Tigers this season, a win has usually meant more are coming (as has a loss).  Normally, the Twins have not exactly been the best team to start a win streak against, but this year is not a normal year for Minnesota.  Their team batting average is a woeful .237, they have an AL-worst 3.43 runs per game (Detroit is at 4.23, league average is 4.26), their team ERA is a league-worst 4.77 (Detroit is 4.26, league average is 3.86).  So, not surprisingly, they also have a league-worst record at 17-34.

In the brief 2-game series the teams already played the Tigers battered the Twins pitching for 19 runs in 2 games.  But the Twins will start this series off with the one bright spot in their rotation, Nick Blackburn, who is 3-0, 1.72 for the month of May.  The Tiger least likely to get to Blackburn might be Jhonny Peralta, who is 3 for 20 lifetime against him.

The Tigers offer the Twins a Penny for their thoughts, as Bad Brad Penny returns after his 3 shutout innings against Tampa Bay were disappeared by the rain.

Today’s Player of the Pre-Game:  All U.S. Service members who have given their lives serving the country.

Today’s Memorial Day Lineup:

  1. Austin Jackson CF
  2. Andy Dirks LF
  3. Brennan Boesch RF
  4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
  5. Victor Martinez DH
  6. Jhonny Peralta SS
  7. Alex Avila C
  8. Ryan Raburn 2B
  9. Brandon Inge 3B

45 thoughts on “Game 2011.53: Twins at Tigers”

  1. Happy Memorial Day all, and a thank you to all of our Servicemen and Veterans.

    Let’s go Tigers.

  2. Our hot hitting new 2nd basemen is hitting 8th? Geesh, I figured he’d be hitting 2nd with that blistering .195 AVG of his.

  3. League Strikeout Leaders:

    1 Adam Dunn 69
    2 Austin Jackson 62
    3 Peter Bourjos 58
    4 Ryan Raburn 56

    It’s not really fair to Raburn though, since he only has 162 PA and they all have over 200. He may never catch up batting 8th.

    1. Good thing I’m rolling with three of those guys on my Scoresheet team.

    2. May Rayburn Watch:
      5 for 54 (now 55) with 21 Ks.

      With a near 40% K-rate he still has a chance. Besides, the 2B hitting 8th experiment will end soon, at which time he will be back hitting 2nd.

    1. Apparently Penny didn’t get the memo that they are hitting .237 as a team….

  8. Oh for crying out loud, this is a complete meltdown…And with our offense, I don’t see us coming back to win this one…

        1. Several reasons Penny was left in so long. One, some, or all may apply:
          1. Leyland wanted to show Penny he had confidence in him.
          2. Penny hadn’t reached his pitch/inning limit yet.
          3. Smokey was out on a long cig break and didn’t notice what was going on (Tigers were up 3-0 when he left).
          4. There was no one warmed up in the bullpen.

  10. The bad news is that Rayburn grounded out. The good news is that he made contact. Progress.

    1. The good news is that the line drive to the wall in left last inning was fielded by Dirks.

  11. Wow…have the tides turned in this game…It’s pretty sad when you’re only down by two runs in 5th and it feels like an insurmountable deficit….

  13. OK, brand new ballgame. It looks like the winner will be determined by the battle between each teams blowpens.

  14. Let’s hope they can get the win for newcomer David Purcey!

    1. They are still showing Purcey wearing a Blue Jays cap on the Yahoo Game Channel

    1. Just as Rod was talking about how Lloyd was spending a lot of time with Raburn, and I was thinking, uh oh, he may never have another hit…

  16. How can you go up there with the bases loaded and no outs and not take the bat off your shoulder?

    2. I didn’t understand why Wells was not protecting the plate on a 1-2 count though.

    1. Maybe the shock of the 7-9 hitters leading off an inning by getting on base was just too much

  19. Jim Leyland, you are being cited for Contributing to R3L2O Failure–you should have left the Dirks in there, he puts the ball in play.

  25. And Ryan Raburn joins an exclusive list of .195 hitters who are pulled for late-inning defensive replacement

  28. Ok guys, this is my first Should Have Lost for the year.

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