The Tigers couldn’t manage anything against Cy Danks, and now they get to turnaround and start a 4-game series with the Angels against Joel Pineiro, who held Detroit to 1 run on 5 hits on the 4th of July. The Angels have an AL best team ERA (3.28), and 1.61 over their last 7 games, including last night’s no-hitter against the Indians.
Despite last night’s lack of offense, the Tigers as a team have been hitting well–over their last 9 games Detroit is hitting .291.
Since it’s a day game, the Tigers send out Brad Penny. Penny has somehow managed to end up with 14 of his 21 starts during the day.
In other news, Detroit still seems to be a player in the Hiroki Kuroda rumors as the trade deadline approaches. (Kuroda pitched 6 innings of 1-run baseball against Colorado yesterday). Danny Knobler of CBS Sports reports that the Dodgers have scouts watching the Tigers A-ball team
Today’s Player of the Pre-Game: Don Kelly
The Donkey was profiled in the New York Times of all places.
Today’s Rain-Repelling Lineup:
- Austin Jackson CF
- Brennan Boesch LF
- Magglio Ordonez DH
- Miguel Cabrera 1B
- Victor Martinez C
- Jhonny Peralta SS
- Carlos Guillen 2B
- Andy Dirks RF
- Don Kelly 3B
Thanks for posting the article on DK. Good stuff.
I agree. Danny Knobler can tweet with the best.
This is not going well.
In for a Penny, in for a Pounding as the old saying goes.
Seems like Penny has one bad inning early, then is good for the rest of the game.
Bonderpenny certainly seems prone to the Early Inning Crooked Number Syndrome.
I hate umpires. They all suck.
Leyland is a genius. In six years of managing the Tigers, that play has worked, what, once?
what play? He got ejected.
Why did Leyland get tossed? Was he arguing the call at third when Dirks got thrown out?
A pitch hit AJax in the hands and ump called it a foul ball.
Great.
Bad Penny.
This is getting ugly. *exasperated sigh*
This is ridiculous now. Brad Penny and VMart are yelling at each other, Looks like they are about to start throwing punches.
I wish I could hear Rod and Mario’s positive spin on the situation.
C’mon Maggs, a soft single to right to keep the rally going.
Teams sure do like to run on Martinez, don’t they?
Come on Tigers! You’ve scratched back this far, now is not the time to strand baserunners, especially when they are handing out free passes!
Anybody know how many bunt hits Jackson has this year? I have the feeling he hasn’t got too many, but should be bunting more to take advantage of his speed.
Purcey is up to his usual shenanigans….Can we send him back to Oakland, honestly, they can have him free of charge.
He should have gotten the boot two weeks ago, but Leyland loves those “situational” lefties, so here we go again.
Great, now we’ve got the human base-on-balls on the mound
How the heck can Leyland keep putting Purcey in!?!?!?! This guy is awful!!!!
If you look up Blowpen on Wikipedia you’ll find a picture of Purcey
Not Leyland’s fault. He was ejected right? Right!
Great repeat appearance by Purcey….Leyland should be fired for bringing him in and then leaving him in after falling behind two straight hitters….This game was close…but it’s about to be blown wide open…Thanks, Purcey and Leyland, you two are a perfect pair.
In this instance I think you have to fire the hitting coach (McClendon).
And Leyland is leaving him in…..Wow…
And Lloyd yanks him mid-batter with a 2-0 count. I can’t remember the last time I saw THAT. OUCH.
I forgot Leyland was ejected….this just goes to show the stupidity is top to bottom in this organization….
I thought this was actually a smart decision.
Purcey should not pitch one more pitch in a Tiger’s uniform.
Boy, that 5 spot may come back to really hurt us.
Well, except for Penny, Purcey and Coke, the pitching wasn’t that bad today.
Can cursing be allowed now that Billfer is gone? Things would be much more relaxed around here.
after the past two game all i can say is ‘thank god the Tigers are in the AL central’
…as i’ve indicated before, 86 games very well may win the AL Central, which would mean they would have to win 31 of the remaining 57 games… definately do-able even if they don’t trade for a #5 starter.
Winning division games (especially against CWS, CLE & MIN) will be crucial.
Team stats before today’s game:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/DET/2011.shtml
The hitting isn’t bad, but the pitching is dreadful. Note that in both the OPS+ and ERA+ columns, 100 is the average.
With the exception of JV, pitching has been the Achilles heel for the Tigers this year.
In 2006 the Tigers finished the year with a 3.84 team ERA – the Tiger’s current ERA (before today’s 12 run game) was 4.21 good enough for 10th place in the AL. If you factor out Verlander, the Tiger’s ERA is 4.64, which would be 13th in the AL, just ahead of last place Baltimore.
With the Tiger’s offense they could/should be 15 games over .500, instead of just five. To further illustrate a pitching contrast, the Angels, who lead the AL in team ERA have scored 61 fewer runs and have a team batting avg of .251 (vs the Tiger’s avg of .266) but the Angels are ten games over .500.
OK, with that said, i’m finally ready to trade Raburn for Ubaldo Jimenez 😉
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/
•The Dodgers sent a scout to see third base prospect Nick Castellanos, writes Danny Knobler of CBS Sports, but they doubt the Tigers would move him for Kuroda.
•Kuroda’s contract stipulates that he will be eligible for conventional Article XX(B) after the season, writes Jon Paul Morosi, so he is a candidate for draft pick compensation if he maintains Type B status.
Sad baseball news: Hideki Irabu is dead of an apparent suicide.
http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/ex-yankee-irabu-found-dead/?hp
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/07/ubaldo-jimenez-rumors-friday-1.html
The Tigers contacted the Rockies about Ubaldo Jimenez yesterday and they’re far from the only team in the mix. Here are the latest rumors, with the most recent updates up top:
•Any Jimenez deal with the Tigers would “almost certainly” include Jacob Turner and/or Rick Porcello, according to Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com (on Twitter).
I don’t see where trading Porcello (or including him in a deal for Jimenez) solves the missing 5th starter issue for the Tigers.
Seeing as DD and JL are in their last year of their contract, its possible they would be more apt to mortgage the future (trade some top prospects) to get a quality starting pitcher who can help them win the AL Central – with the Twinkies having an off year, they might not get a better shot at the division crown.