2011 Season, Game Post

Game 2011.58: Tigers at White Sox

37 Comments

Today is the rubber game of the 3-game series with the White Sox, after which Detroit bounces off to Texas to take on the Indian-destroying Rangers, who will be already underway in Cleveland by game time.  If all goes well Detroit could be 2 1/2 games out of first when today’s game ends.

So, yes, the losing streak was only one game this time.  Because:  Justin Verlander. And: Miguel Cabrera.

After the game, the Tigers took advantage of a little-known change in MLB rules and called up Adam Wilk to replace David Purcey, who was placed on paternity leave (twins!).  Normally, a player has to spend at least 10 days in the minors once he has been sent down, which means Wilk would have been unavailable (which means the lefty would likely have been…Brad Thomas.  Eek!).  But last season in a fit of family-friendliness, MLB added a specific exception to the 10-day rule for players called up to replace a player on paternity leave. Who knew?

And Phil Coke is back, and scheduled to pitch Wednesday, which means that Oliver is to be a hen-in-the-mud, although it is not official yet.

And Magglio may join the team in Texas, so hopefully Omir Santos didn’t unpack all of his bags.

Today Bad Brad Penny aims to revert back to Good Penny, or at least Brutus.  The Tigers draw the always tough Jake Peavy.  Especially against Miguel Cabrera, who does worse against Peavy than against any other starting pitcher he has faced on a regular basis, 2-for-22 (.091). Brad Penny has as many hits against Peavy.

This will be the first time that 2 pitchers with 5-letter names starting with P faced each other since April 11, 2008.

Today’s Player of the Pre-Game: Brennan Boesch

One of the lefties will need to step up today for the Tigers.  A Boesch baesch would be just the thing.

Today’s No-H Lineup:

  1. Austin Jackson CF
  2. Don Kelly 3B
  3. Brennan Boesch RF
  4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
  5. Victor Martinez C
  6. Andy Dirks LF
  7. Alex Avila DH
  8. Ryan Raburn 2B
  9. Ramon Santiago SS

37 thoughts on “Game 2011.58: Tigers at White Sox”

    1. Peralta went from goat to being irreplaceable in about 4 weeks. Funny how opinions can change after a 100 good AB’s.

  3. PLEASE get rid of Ryan Rayburn.
    I am so sick of watching him play. He is such a liability in the field.
    You could make a “low-lite” reel of all of the terrible plays that he has made.

    And to make it worse, they never give him an error in the outfield, because he doesn’t touch the ball on many of his miscues. He gets turned around on a simple play or breaks the wrong way and then the pitcher ends up giving up “earned” runs, when they should be unearned, due to Rayburn’s miscue.

    A Little Leaguer wouldn’t make the miscues that Rayburn makes.

    I cannot stand him and his ability to strike out every time there is a man in scoring position.

    2. In other words, we want Rayburn to turn it around when he’s at bat, but not when he is in the field.

  4. Anyone see Cabrera give Pierre a little shove? Pierre almost fell over with a tiny prod from Miguel.

    1. I saw that, too, and figure they’re just old drinking buddies giving each other a hard time.

  5. Penny should have had a 1-2-3 inning in the first – both grounders to Kelly/3B (before Konerko’s double) were playable – hit hard sure, but routine hops. That was an inning where the Tigers could have used Mr Inge.

  11. He was due. He was really due. He was really really due, the definition of due.

      1. Rayburn’s last extra-base hit was May 7th. Hils last HR was April 30.

  13. you know that’s just great coaching by Jimbo to stick with him making out after out after out after out after out after out,,,,,just to have him in the right situation….amazing coaching!

      1. I remember Raburn doing this the last few seasons. He starts off lousy, then when you least expect it, he turns into the next Champ Summers.

  15. I hope the bullpen is rested, because I am not sure Bad penny can hold the lead.

  20. Whats happening with the Posting getting cut off during the game….anyone know??? I truly miss our conversations!….. /seems like it happens alot

    1. Sometimes it seems to be selective – I have been getting cut off quite frequently, while it appears not to affect others – but today it looks like everybody got hit.

    2. It has happened to me a few times, and once it does, it usually takes quite a while before I can post. At first I thought it was happening on busy posting days, but then it happened once with only 10 posts up. I’m not sure what to think.

      I do know when I tried to re-post the same post, I got the “hey, you already said that” bit, so the site knew what I posted, even if it didn’t post. Hmm.

  21. For what its worth, Sunday’s win over the White Sox puts the Tigers record one game better than what they were last year after game 58. Hopefully they can keep it going with the return of Mags.

    1. I’m going to be optimistic about Maggs.

      In 2009 everyone was ready to write him off because he has such a bad start to the season, but he was understandably distracted by his wife’s cancer.

      This year, he got off to a bad start because his ankle wasn’t better yet.

      So far, he has always hit or had a good reason for not hitting well. Obviously someday he’ll just be too old. But for now I’m hoping his ankle is better and he’s ready to hit .300+ again.

      1. Obviously, DD shares that optimism, because he saw fit to re-sign Maggs. I hope so, too, because he could represent a crucial bat, even if he isn’t hitting for great power. Simply replacing a .200 average with a .300 average in the lineup would be a nice step up.

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