Thanks to some late inning heroics by Boesch & Boston, the Tigers woke up today up 3 games in the AL Central. Prior to last night’s win, the Tigers were 3-6 in their last 9 series openers, and are now 15-19 for the year (according to my front of several Post-Its math). A win tonight guarantees a series win, with a day game to follow and then a weekend set in Kansas City. The Tigers then face the Indians and Twins in 9 out of the next 12 in what should be a pivotal two week stretch for the Central Division.
Doug Fister gets his first start for the boys in blue tonight. Fister is a tall and lanky 6-8, 210 righty (who bats lefty!) out of Fresno State. Fister is in his 3rd year in the bigs, and he’s been improving every year. He started 10 games in ’09 for Seattle, 28 last year, and then 21 this year before the trade. He doesn’t strike out many, but he’s trending in the right direction (kind-of 5.31/4.89/5.48 K/9). His real strength is that he doesn’t walk many (career 1.88 BB/9) nor allow many hits (just over 1 per inning). He doesn’t throw hard, but he throws a two-seamer, curve and slider with regularity, and effectively. He surely benefited from Safeco, so while his numbers should dip a little at CoPa, there is no reason why he can’t have success as a #4 or #5 starter here.
Matt Harrison climbs the hill for the Rangers. Harrison has been nails over his last five starts, going 3-0 while posting a 1.16 WHIP and 2.04 ERA, but he is 1-3 with a 7.11 ERA in six career games against the Tigers. Harrison is hittable, but he really limits the walks.
Guillen gets the day off to work on his home run trot, and because Raburn is 6-9 lifetime off of Harrison.
Your Please AJax, just take one pitch, Lineup is:
1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Brennan Boesch, LF
3. Magglio Ordonez, RF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Victor Martinez, DH
6. Jhonny Peralta, SS
7. Ryan Raburn, 2B
8. Alex Avila, C
9. Wilson Betemit, 3B
Samara Pearlstein welcomes Fister to Detroit:
http://roarofthetigers.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/why-doug-fister-is-perfect-for-detroit/
Did Gene Lamont send Martinez home on that play?
The relevant question is when do we get to send Lamont home?
Well if we can send DD home, and get a good GM, then that GM will take care of that request lickety-split.
DD is a very good GM.
Magglio is a DP machine….
He is rounding into form (he was a DP machine in his best seasons)
Jim Leyland is a much-maligned genius. The move to sit Guillen for Raburn is paying off, and who in his or her (hi kathy) right mind would’ve guessed that?
JL was right-on-time with his Raburn decision
Raburn has been playing good for the past month. Don’t take a genius to figure that out. His defense has been good too.
9 for 24 since the AS game after tonight.
Hi!
Fister looks pretty good. Mr. Rugburn always plays best when he has to come off the bench.
Rayburn should be regarded as a valuable reserve, nothing more. And only from July on.
Beteminge
9 for 33 with 16 Ks since joining the Tigers.
Stranding too many baserunners against a good Texas offense….
This could be a good win for Fister!
Valverde does a flair for drama
Now officially a 4-game lead.
the schedule over the next three weeks heavily favors the Tigers in this Division…Hopefully they will continue to build on this +4
Yeah………..but Ol’ Smoky is really doing his team a disservice by not having JV pitch Friday in KC instead of Saturday. IF JV pitched tomorrow night (its on his normal turn in terms of four day’s rest), then he could pitch the finale in the CLE series. He still could pitch the finale in the CLE series, but the latest rotation projections that I’ve seen have JV going Saturday night in KC while missing the CLE series entirely. JV would then pitch at BALT a week from Friday for his next start. Leyland has got no Scherzer and no Verlander for a series against the team closest to us in the division race. That seems kind of odd, especially when it is entirely avoidable with the day off this past Monday and having next Monday off as well. It seems as though Ol’ Smoky almost wants to make the race more exciting by keeping the door open as long as possible for CLE, CWS, or MINN to walk through.
That’s rather one sighted. JV isn’t the only pitcher capable of winning games on the staff.
Porcello’s is 4-0, with a 2.32 ERA, and 1.09 WHIP vs CLEVELAND.
Looking ahead, Porcello is lined up to have:
KC, CLE, MIN, TB, MIN, KC, CLE, CHW, OAK, BAL, CLE
So he should get CLE 3 more times!
Verlander is lined up to have:
KC, BAL, MIN, TB, MIN, CHW, CLE, CHW, OAK, BAL
Those next 6 games following BAL are huge!! We should have the division clinched before his last game vs BAL.
Jerry, don’t worry too much about the little stuff, the way it looks Verlander will likely pitch the 1st game of the play-offs. That’s what we want, isn’t it?
We need it to be at +14 or so.