2011 Season, Game Post

Game 2011.147: Tigers at White Sox

17 Comments

The D (for Domination) train rolls into Chicago tonight as the Tigers look win 10 in a row for the first time since 1968.  The Tigers now find themselves perched at number 4 in both the ESPN power rankings and the MLB.com fan rankings, and their 9 win streak matches the longest since 1984.  1968 and 1984 were good years.  Who was around in 1968?  Tell us a little about that season.

Porcello goes for this 14th win tonight in 28 starts.  A Porcello win would give the Tigers 3 14+ game winners for the first time since 1984 when the mustache brothers dusted batters and other things (Morris, Wiltcox, Petry).

John Danks takes the ball for the Tigers, and I can’t imagine that he’s too excited about this one. He was rocked by the Tigers 10 days ago, and they haven’t lost since.  He followed that up with 4 ER in 6 IPs against Minnesota last time out.  Interesting Danks stat – his worst innings statistically this year are the 1st and 6th.

We haven’t talked about it much over the past week because there has been so much else going on, but Alex Avila continues to hit and play superb defense.  It sounds ridiculous, but is he the best catcher in the Majors?  He’s overwhelmingly the first catcher taken in a recent ESPN fan poll.

A few notes:

– Injury Updates – Joel Zumaya, Brad Thomas and Brennan Boesch are injured.
– Division playoff tix went on sale today at 10am, and off-sale at 11am.  Did anyone get them?
– Great article on Grandy on ESPN.com today.  Hard to argue with the team’s success this year, but we can all still pine for the guy.
– This comes from Fangraphs’ latest power rankings: 10. Detroit: Last week – 10, WAR% – .556 (9), FAN% – .512 (12), TOTAL% – .551
Intriguing idea for the Tigers this offseason — take the $26 million coming off the books from Carlos Guillen, Magglio Ordonez and Brad Penny, and give it to Jose Reyeson a four year, $100 million deal (with the idea that you pay more for less years given his injury issues). Then you move Jhonny Peralta to second base, stick Brennan Boeschand Ryan Raburn in the platoon that they’ve always been destined to share out in right field, and ka-boom! — championship offense.

Tonight’s Pre-Player of the Pre-Game

AJax – he’s riding a 15 game hitting streak against the White Sox, batting .403 with 3 HRs and 9 RBIs during that time.

1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Magglio Ordonez, RF
3. Delmon Young, LF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Victor Martinez, DH
6. Alex Avila, C
7. Jhonny Peralta, SS
8. Ryan Raburn, 2B
9. Brandon Inge, 3B

 

17 thoughts on “Game 2011.147: Tigers at White Sox”

  1. The Tigers certainly are on a roll and if Porcello can shut down CWS tonight, you know they’re running on all cylinders – seeing as Porcello is 1-4 lifetime versus the White Sox with a 7.46 ERA in six starts

  3. Here’s some ’68 stories….I was 13 in ’68 and it was my second season as a fan. I listened to the Tigers on WJR at night and every morning that summer, I delivered about 80 copies of the Detroit Free Press to peoples’ doorsteps. (A News/Freepress strike ended that Spring allowing me to get a route.) As I delivered the papers I would read a customer’s sport section on the previously night game. That year, the Tigers had 27 come-from-behind wins. I made about 12 games or so and the one that stuck out was a twi-night double hitter against the Orioles. BTW, my Dad and older brother went to game five of the World Series and my brother still has his scorebook that he hopes one day Al Kaline will sign. BTW, their tickets cost $4 each! I have my Dad’s ticket in a frame at my office. Also today posted a #7 at my door and told folks who asked it was the “Magic Number.”

    Enjoy this as this has been a great year for the Tigers and like in ’68 every player has stepped up to the plate to contribute; of recent Inge. One of the best things about this season is not having to wring our hands talking about the post-all star game collapse. Leyland has to be glad about that too! The Tigers at 27-11 since 01AUG11. Now…what can we do to keep Tampa Bay from winning the wild card???

    1. I also remember that season; I was 12 [turned 13 in September]. My dad took us to see Denny McLain win his 21st game v Washington Senators…..score was 4-0……..and it was still July! And I remember Gator [Gates Brown] winning both games of a doubleheader v RSox with clutch hits…….

        1. ok, I’ll tell ya another one: Denny’s 30th victory. This was a Saturday afternoon game at Tiger Stadium, and they televised it even for us Detroiters [they NEVER did that in those days; only maybe half the road games were televised.] In fact, I’m 95% sure the date was September 13. The Oakland A’s were the visitors. I was not at the ballpark; saw it from home. Reggie Jackson hit 2 HRs, and, as usual, the game went down to the bottom of the ninth with the Tigers trailing by a run. Denny was the pitcher of record. A walk, a hit or 2…and up comes Northrup with the tying run on 3rd. He hit a ground ball to first [like a high-hopper]….Danny Cater [Oakland 1B] fielded it and threw wildly to home….allowing the tying run to score. Then the Tigers proceeded to score the winning run and get Denny his 30th. In those days, we called ’em a “Last Licks” win. I remember Dizzy Dean [the last 30 game winner] interviewing Denny after the game. It was as exciting as it could possibly be….especially with a nation-wide audience. There’s many things of that magical 1968 season that I’ll never forget……

          2. Thanks for the great memories and uncovering old braincells. When Denny won his 30th, we were headed for College Station, Texas to take three of my brothers from Detroit to Texas A&M to start school (one senior and two freshman). We stopped at a friend of my Dad’s who lived in St. Charles, MO to watch the game on NBC game of the Week. I recall seeing Dizzy Dean coming to the mound to meet and hug and congrat Denny on his 30th win. At that time I didn’t know who Dizzy was nor his treatment of Hank Greenburg in the 1934 World Series. When we got back home, it was almost World Series time. My other brother who was a Senior at Mumford, mailed away for tickets. The papers reported you had a 1 in 7 chance of being drawn for tickets. He ordered tickets for game 5 thinking he would have a better chance for those. As it happened, that was the best game of the series with:

            – Jose Feliciano singing the National Anthem and causing Mickey Lolich not enough time to warm up (allow him to give up some runs in the 1st).
            – Willie Horton’s great peg to Bill Freehand who blocked the plate on Lou Brock.

            – Al Kaline’s career pinnacle hit that put the Tigers ahead for a game win. In fact after that hit, the Tigers always led the score for the remainder of the series.

            Meanwhile down in football Texas, my brothers snuck what little time they had to watch the bits of the games at a TV in the A&M student union.

            I also recall proudly delivering the Detroit Freepress with the headline words “We Won!” to each of my customers’homes. After a night of watching the celebrations that included television footage for fans running down the runway with the Tiger’s aircraft (just like Kramer straight out of Seinfeld), I felt the city was mine and the Tigers in the quiet of a 5AM morning.

  5. so maybe this is what yankee and red sox fans have felt like over the past few seasons… having an offense that can keep you in any game

    i only hope it continues deep into October

  6. I secured two tickets for Game 3. The internet was a buzz this morning. Traffic was unbelievable. Long time season ticket holder. No presale unless I missed the email.

  8. ever the optimist

    no band wagon here. hope everyone can see the quality moves and quality play from throughout the season, and from through careers.

    i can’t help but feel this late season roll is things the post season are made for. keep it rolling through the post season. it’s all about momentum.

  9. Momentum in MLB, is tomorrow’s starting pitcher. In the playoffs, we’ll have Verlander, Fister & Scherzer. The top two, I have a lot of confidence in. In the latter, I’m ok with.

  10. a 10 game winning streak and 23 games over .500 is awesome, but here is a little perspective: the Tigers are 44-21 against AL Central teams and .500 against everybody else.

    i’m not trying to step on the Tiger-buzz, just pointing out that when they hit the playoffs, the teams they will be playing (yankees, red sox, rangers) won’t be from the AL Central.

  11. Angus — I’m a 27 game season ticket holder and I got an email a few weeks ago and took advantage of the opportunity to spend a lot of money to buy the whole playoff package (hope not to have to use the tiebreaker ticket!). But other season ticket holders around me hadn’t gotten an email or got one later — odd, I thought. Different this year was a supposed chance to choose your seats — but there weren’t many infield box seats left when I had my window to choose a couple weeks back. Haven’t received them yet but the money’s been transferred……

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