7 IPs, 8 H, 0 BB, 2 ER. Fist-bump for Fister.
Ryan Raburn has a 1.111 OPS Post All-Star game.
Tigers have welcomed the Rangers bullpen help with game deciding home runs in back to back nights.
Cle lost, CWS lost.
Tigers go for the sweep today.
It won’t be easy against Alexi Ogando. Ogando went from the A’s farm system as a 19 year old outfielder, to the Department of Homeland Security detention center at age 22, to the Rangers farm system at 26, to pushing Neftali Feliz out of the closers role into the starting rotation, and then into the rotation himself. And he’s flourished. As a starter this year he’s posted a 2.88 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 2.12 BAA, with only 2 pitches. A fastball that hits 96 and moves, and a devastating slider. After a tremendous April and May which saw Ogando at the top of the leaderboards in ERA, WHIP and BAA, he was roughed up a bit in June. But he rebounded with a strong July and will be looking for this 11th win of the season this afternoon.
Tigers send out Brad Penny with the janitor’s broom and hopefully a happy face, as he will likely be caught by VMart today for a day game with another game tomorrow. If you will recall, Penny was blasted last week by LAA, and had a few choice words for Martinez as the two seemed out of sync all game.
Someone help us out with the lineup when it’s posted.
Dirks CF
Kelly 1B
Boesch LF
Cabrera DH
Martinez C
Guillen 2B
Betemit 3B
Raburn RF
Santiago SS
4 non-regulars.
Looks like a lefty line-up + a Sizzling Hot Raburn.
looks to me that JL pulled names out of a hat to put together today’s lineup… that or he just doesn’t like Penny…or thinks he’s going to throw a shutout… and the Tigers won’t need much offense today
I can understand resting Avila – night game followed by day game, and maybe Jackson, but also sitting Peralta and Ordonez. The Tigers all just had a day off (w/o travel) a couple days ago…
Beck tweeted: “Peralta 0-for-5, 2 K’s, 1 ball hit out of infield this year vs Ogando. Santiago 2-for-4 off Ogando.”… so that’s one argument.
As for Ordonez and Jackson, I’m not so sure we can’t expect better results from Dirks and Raburn.
I would have considered skipping Penny’s turn in the rotation given the off day we had last Monday. Porcello today and Verlander tomorrow.
Right handed hitters have a .178 AVG vs Ogando.
Peralta is 1 -8 with a .125 AVG vs Ogando
Ordonez is 0-3 with a .000 AVG vs Ogando
Don Kelly has a home run vs Ogando
Almost a clown show triple play.
Bad Penny is starting to make an appearance today…
This could get ugly…..It is quite evident that Penny is now the weak link in this rotation….and he is only getting weaker as the season progresses. Any chance he gets the boot and replaced by Jacob Turner?
Def a chance in Sept.
Another option that I wouldn’t be opposed to is demoting Penny to the bullpen and giving Below a couple of turns in the rotation. We need a lefty starter (don’t currently have one) and Below has been decent in his limited time in the bigs. If Below falters, then I would consider trying Turner. For the time being, I’d let Turner marinate a bit longer in the minors (even though he looked good in his big league debut vs. LAA).
Well…at least the offense is making their guy throw a lot of pitches. Maybe we can get into their bullpen early. Of course, to make a comeback feasible, Penny is going to have to actually stop being a batting practice pitcher…
Of course the 7 Ks by the offense isn’t exactly pretty….
Penny has not been that bad today… so far. Most of TX hits have been of the seeing-eye variety, and all of them singles. Probably academic anyway – Ogando + today’s Tiger lineup = not many runs
Raburn showing off in the field again
I like the new Tiger baserunning strategy, do the opposite of Lamont signals
Two consecutive scoring plays where the runner took an extra base – is that legal?
Not sure I understand the reason for bringing in AA with 2 out and non on.
I’m guessing they wanted to see how AL looks and this is a non-pressure situation. A healthy AA down the stretch will be key to winning the division. Edit: Al looked good out there today. Hopefully his elbow is not barking when they get to KC this weekend.
You nailed it.
I just don’t get the change-pitcher-in-middle-of-inning-when-nothing-is-going-on strategy.
Now we just need Boston and NY to win again. It makes me sick to say that.
“Again” is the key word. I saw somewhere that NYY is batting .533 over their past 8 games or so…
I’m now convince Tigers win the division because no other team finishes above .500. Then again, Twins might pass the White Sox and Indians in a week. If they’re in second and within 5 games on 9/1, that my friends is the doomsday scenario.
as we can all painfully recall, a few years ago the Tigers had a 3 game lead over the Twins with four games remaining, and the Twins won the division… that truly was one for the history books, and a glaring reminder of why every game is crucial.