2012 Season, Game Post

Game 2012.53: Yankees at Tigers

72 Comments

Detroit Tigers, 24-28, 6 games behind Chicago. Day-to-Day injuries: 3.

Alex Avila was scratched from tonights lineup with right hamstring tightness.  Gerald Laird is out with hamstring issues.  Suddenly the move to bring up Omir Santos looks prescient.

Ramon Santiago will go into tonight’s game as the only position player available on the Tiger bench.

Stat of the Day: Detroit and Minnesota are tied for the AL lead in grounding into double plays with 56 each.  Not surprisingly, the Twins also lead the league in ground ball to fly ball ratio (1.09).  Surprisingly, the Tigers have one of the league’s lowest ratios (0.74).  So they really aren’t hitting the ball on the ground–but they are making it count when they do.

Tonight’s Player of the Pre-game:  Don Kelly.  The Donkey will do his best to not clown it up at his weakest position, while keeping his fingers crossed for the health of Omir Santos–Don Kelly is now the only backup catcher on the team (which means he will not be pinch-hit for or otherwise replaced).

Tonight’s Day-to-Day-to-Day Lineup:

  1. Quintin Berry CF
  2. Danny Worth 2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
  4. Prince Fielder 1B
  5. Delmon Young DH
  6. Brennan Boesch RF
  7. Jhonny Peralta SS
  8. Don Kelly LF
  9. Omir Santos C

72 thoughts on “Game 2012.53: Yankees at Tigers”

  1. We don’t need any LF-SS collisions in the outfield tonight.

    Speaking of GDPs, the Tiger defense has turned 27 of them (and 32 total DPs) which is, ahem, the fewest in the majors. We allow other teams to extend their ABs while we shorten our own. The players on our side making the grounders count (GDP) are Cabrera (10), Fielder (10) Young (7) and Boesch (6) – yes, our 3-4-5-6 hitters tonight are the most frequent rally killers on the team. Nice to have them all lined up like ducks in a row.

    Team BA with bases loaded is down to .108 now. Oddly, BA with runners on 2nd and 3rd is .333 amd 1st and 3rd is .310. Tip to Kuroda: if you get in trouble with less than two outs, load the bases. Although from the looks of tonight’s lineup that may not be much of a problem.

    1. Maybe they are saving him for the 2nd half Raburn Run. An outfield of Jackson-Dirks-Berry has the potential to be a lot of fun.

  4. Wish I had known it was Star Wars night at the ballpark before I did my post.

  6. On the surface, it appears that Cabby and Fielder are doing well this year,but, it sure seems like they have RBI opportunities every at bat and we don’t score many runs. A sac fly or a groundball to 2nd or SS…Cabrera w/ a popout…Berry, jackson, Dirks and Worth have done an incredible job. You would think, that they would have extremely high RBI totals…They don’t.

    1. RL3L2O Fail and GDPs tend to keep RBI totals low, and the middle of the order boys have been outstanding in one or another, if not both, categories.

    1. Boesch had a run where he had hits in 16 of 17 games, but since that ended he is in a 1 for 24 funk.

  9. where would this team be if Rayburn, Kelly, Santiago, Boesch, Peralta, Avila were just doing average. I know a lot falls on Cabrerra and Fielder…but they basically have gotten very little help

  10. Can we get six innings out of Porcello tonight? He’s at 57 pitches already after 3 IP. Provided he doesn’t blow up, I mean.

  12. Berry has K’d 16 times in 49 PA. Imagine what he could have done if he put the ball in play more. His high K rate is probably indicative of him crashing to earth, and sooner rather than later, so it would be good to get Jackson back asap.

  14. Why do you bring in Coke to face what you surely must know will be a RH PH followed by two RH bats?

    1. That’s hard to think of in the dugout. It’s a lot easier when you can watch on TV.

    2. I guess a spell was cast upon Princess Leyland, who then fell into a deep sleep.

  15. Benoit those…. might be the best two pitched batters of the entire season…excellent

    1. Benoit, who is the 8th inning guy, had to brought in for the emergency in the 7th, which effectively made him the 7th inning guy for this game and therefore ineligible to pitch in the 8th which is reserved for the 8th inning guy. Since Dotel is the backup 8th inning guy, he then has to pitch the 8th. Simple really. And it is in The Book.

    2. Turns out Benoit has forearm tightness and has joined the popular Day-to-Day list. Which does not invalidate the aptness of Vince’s answer.

  17. Worst play by play of any baseball game I’ve ever heard. Can’t wait for them to stop talking. Barely said anything about the game we are watching. Fox give us back Rod and Mario PLEASE!!!

  18. my only question is …is this the worst defensive infield ever…there have been three huge tailor made double play ground balls and the Tigers are lucky to get one out on each….

  19. Hans Solo 2.
    That’s 32 solo HRs out of a total of 51.

    Are we ready for Potato Time?

  22. Hopefully, Valverde can come through, but, walks, HBP, and an automatic stolen base every outing makes it difficult.

  24. You just can’t win baseball games at a consistent level if everybody runs at will on your closer.

    1. Kaboom (aka BLOWN SAVE)! It was destiny. This guy can’t find the plate. He is making Todd Jones look efficient.

  26. 2 HBP 3 Sotlen Bases and a walk. Why is he still in the game? Why is he still your closer? Even if he comes through…that is a joke You have to be able to hold runners, somewhat and if you can’t then you need to call some pitchouts or do something…You can not just accept that…This is why so many of us, can’t stand Leyland and his staff…when they win games, they win it despite having no attention to detail on fundamentals…They win because, they have some Hall of Fame caliber players. i do not believe that this staff adds anything to this team. The guy has thrown 5 strikes in 17 pitches…Why is he still pitching? He may get lucky,but, not likely

  27. He is still pitching…4 baserunners w/out a hit is not enough for Leyland? make them earn a run.

  30. A bleeping robot could manage this team..Leyland holds nobody accountable…He gives you a role and you need to hit under .150 for 2 months before you lose that role. Valverde has been awful all year, yes, he can get 3 outs w/out giving up a run more often than not, but, he has been bad. Tonight, he was ridiculous and SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE ABOUT EVERY LEADOFF WALK BECOMING AN AUTOMATIC DOUBLE.

  31. Two walks, two hit batsmen and three stolen bases; 29 pitches, 13 strikes in one inning. He has to go.

  32. Santos has no business being in the bigs……..and friggin’ bad managing allowing Valverde pitch when he clearly couldn’t find the plate…….how stupid can one get?

  38. Why did Leyland waste Santiago there, the Yankees probably would have walked Kelly anyway.

  40. Santos with the biggest RBI of his life.

    Team BA with bases full stays at .108 though 😉

  41. Santos did something Avila couldn’t do for over a month and a half…Drive in a R3L2O..We will take it, great outing by Porcello, but, Benoit is the best reliever that we have and we need a little bit of captain hook from leyland, when guys can’t throw strikes or hold runners.

    1. Leyland is horrible with bullpen management, and always has been. Don’t expect any changes to the way he handles the relievers.

  44. Ok Boys, the season is now officially 1/3 over so time to kick it in!

  45. Smokey obviously player of the game for his shrewed..managerial skills to leave in ValVerde to set this up…and his brilliant PH of Santiago…..Manager of the Year stuff……can we fire him now while hes on top

  46. The one plus from Valverde’s performance tonight is that he most likely won’t be available to pitch tomorrow.

  47. The worst part is I was hoping Valverde would go 1-2-3 so I could play the Darth Valvader card.

  48. As bad as Valverde’s performance was, it is incredible that we got out if that with one run. In fact I keep checking the play by play, it barely seems possible. Let’s put it this way: if Detroit had 2 HBP, 2 walks, and 3 stolen bases in an inning and only got 1 run out of it, we’d be just as upset as we are at the pitching perfornance…the Yankee blogs are not pretty places right now I’m sure (not that they ever are).

  49. We all know JL by now, Valverde likely has another 1/3 of the season as a leash. So long as he doesn’t do this every time out, we’re stuck with him. Valverde is a FA this year. Hopefully his agent will whisper that in his ear soon.

    Great start by Porcello. He’s good for one of those every 4 outings or so.

    Good news is that we’re playing for the series tomorrow. See everyone then.

  50. I am becoming so disappointed with the Tigers! It’s amazing to me that you can spend that much money and still be so terrible. The changes that need to be made now is the “skipper” needs to go and take that horrible batting coach with him.

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