Before we complain too much more about “The Throw” last night, let’s remember that even had that play been made, we would have still had to score a run somehow (which requires hits), and then likely asked another reliever not names Benoit or Valverde to pitch a scoreless inning.
Today’s task doesn’t get any easier, as the Tigers run out Omir Santos and not Miguel Cabrera (congrats on the new kid big guy) against Jeremy Hellickson. Oh, and Boesch re-injured his thumb last night (2nd degree sprain), so we’ll need the bench guys to step up. No word on his return.
Today’s Series Winning Lineup:
1. A Jax – CF
2. Santiago – 2B
3. Young – LF
4. V-Mart – DH
5. Betemit – 3B (yeah, that’s 5th)
6. Kelly – 1B
7. Peralta – SS (I don’t get this)
8. Raburn – RF
9. Santos – C
Ugh. Hellickson must be one happy camper right now.
He really kind of looks like there are 18 other places he’d rather be at the moment!
Wow this is the craziest lineup we have ever had, oh my!
That is the most ridiculous line up I’ve seen all year!
That is a crazy lineup! Two catchers and two 3rd baseman. AJax is awesome, but man, he’s going to have his work cut out for him trying to cover the entire outfield.
Two 2nd basemen as well!
Impressive! Hellickson fans 4 Tigers in one inning… and not one of them was Raburn or Betemit.
Expectations are not to high today – as Kevin pointed out, it would be a great day for some bench/role players to step up
I’d like to say that I posted the lineup in jest as a commentary on the lineup overall. So we’ll leave it at that.
I figured there was some “intent” to to lineup post : )
that’s “the” lineup post.
So far the Minor League Line-up has delivered and Fister is pitching a pretty good game. This would be a nice one to steal today!
Sounds like the Ump missed that one.
Watching the gameday replays it is really hard to see if he actually tagged him, though, to me, it looks like he just missed him.
DD & Price seemed to think that he whiffed. I believe everything they say. As opposed to Rod & Mario, where I believe the exact opposite of what they say.
Rod Allen just said it was Shin Soo Choo that AJ threw out. It was Fukodome. What’s wrong with you Rod, do you think all Asians look alike?
What a victory! Absolute steal of a game and series for the Tigers.
Great win!
Not only a great win, but a great series in Tampa Bay… with the exception of last night’s weird ending.
I was wondering, though, why hasn’t Leyland started Martinez at 1B at all this year? Didn’t he play a little 1B in Boston and Cleveland? That way Avila could have been DH?
Still resting VMart’s hammy.
Beck’s article today says “With Boesch out and Miguel Cabrera on paternity leave, Leyland looked for ways to keep Alex Avila in the starting lineup. He debated using him at DH, but the team medical staff said Victor Martinez wasn’t ready for first base. He debated using Avila at first base, but worried about him getting injured on a freak play at a position he hasn’t played since college.”
Will no one rid us of this nemesis? Indians and White Sox both put waiver claims on Jim Thome from the Twins
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/08/waiver-rumors-bell-white-sox-reds-wright.html
Just read that the Rays have scored 9 runs in Hellickson’s 9 losses.
MLB Tonight just spent a lot of time on the double play to end today’s game, and Inge’s throw to 2nd to end last night’s game.
The consensus is that Joyce was on a straight steal, not a hit & run, despite what Maddon said. The reasons were a) hitter swing too hard, and b) Joyce didn’t look to the plate until step 6. Generally, on a hit and run, you look after step 3 to see what happened.
Also, the guys made a pretty compelling argument that Santiago was to blame for the play last night, not Inge. Going to 2nd makes sense b/c of the distance, and Santiago broke way late.
Maybe Santiago should have just never budged an Ingch, forcing Brandon to take the better option. lol, that could have been a sweet replay…
“Here’s the hard hit grounder, Inge with the scoop, look at Santiago as a perfect statue for the whole play, and Inge throws him out at first! Great job by Ramon to be completely frozen during this clutch time, that’s smart baseball!”
Anyone else think Granderson is going to edge out JV for AL MVP?
Granderson might win it, but he won’t edge out JV. I don’t think JV will even be in the top 3, there’s a pretty strong perception out there that pitchers shouldn’t win the MVP. (I know it does happen occasionally.)
Now, if JV wins his last 7 starts and finishes 26-5 with a sub 2.00 ERA, then forget everything I said above.
I think JV has a decent shot if he can get to 25 wins. The last time a pitcher won 25 games was 1990 (Bob Welch, OAK, 27). This number would catch the eyes of the voters who probably wouldn’t vote for a pitcher in the first place. Also, this stat is probably the most important pitching stat to these old-timers, anyway.
But, with only 7 starts left, he really needs to continue his roll for this to happen.
It also doesn’t help that Leyland said a pitcher shouldn’t win MVP.
Well I personally could care less about baseball awards. The WS is the only thing that really matters, and even if JV wins it I’m sure his agent would use that as leverage to get more money on his next contract. There is no sound or consistent logic used to determine the winners, therefore to me it’s devalued because MLB doesn’t manage their sport well to make it matter and to use it to increase attraction and respect for the game unfortunately, otherwise I might feel different. It still would be cool to see him win though since it’s so hard for a pitcher. The one thing JV does have to his advantage is that Granderson may lose some offensive-minded votes to Bautista who has better output per PA by far, or to Adrian Gonzalez who also has monster numbers, plus he has about a dozen and a half more PAs this year, so he was utilized more for his averages which does count towards the totality of offense provided to the team. That .348 BA will make a couple of voters shy away from Grandy’s .278 perhaps.