2012 Season, Game Post

Game 2012.84: Royals at Tigers

33 Comments

Detroit Tigers, 41-42, 4 1/2 games behind Chicago.

Well, here we go again.  The Tigers have their 9th shot at getting to the .500 mark since May 15, and are 0-8 so far at it.

They will have to do it against the Royals, who will go all-lefty on the mound for the 3-game series. The first lefty up will be Jonathan Sanchez, future topic of Worst Trade lists (the Royals traded Melky Cabrera, who is tied for the NL BA lead at .356).

Sanchez has had trouble finding the plate: he has given up 40 BBs in 46 innings, including 6 each in his last 2 outings.  The Tigers have had recent success with an aggressive approach at the plate.  It will be interesting to see if they change this up against the struggling Sanchez, or continue to whack away.

Detroit sends out Drew “Four-Inning” Smyly, who pitched against the Royals in April and held them to 1 unearned run in 6 innings.

Justin Verlander says cheer up fans, the 2nd half will be better.

**********

Yesterday’s game had a little of everything: a rain delay, two consecutive outs at the plate (nice throws by Cabrera and Raburn; nice plate-blocking by Laird), a little 3 Stooges action on a pop bunt, in which Fielder almost took out Laird (I guess that makes Laird Larry); dodge ball on the mound, which led to an early exit for Porcello; big hits by Jackson and Cabrera and a really big hit for Fielder (if you wait long enough, the 3-run homers will come).

But with everything that happened, Jim Leyland said the key to the game was the clutch relief performance of Darin Downs, who relieved Porcello after he took a line drive off of his bicep. Downs must have felt some sympathy for Porcello.  Nicknamed The Pitcher Who Lived, Downs suffered a fractured skull from a line drive in AA in 2009.

Stat of the Day: Detroit passed Minnesota, and is now only the 2nd worst team in the league in bases-loaded hitting (.219 BA, .531 OPS).

Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Austin Jackson.  AJax is hitting .400 with 6 RBI over his last 6 games, which doesn’t match what Cabrera has done in the same span, but Cabrera gets funny sometimes when he is at DH. Jackson stays hot against the all-lefty menu.

Today’s Clown Show Alert Lineup:

  1. Austin Jackson CF
  2. Quintin Berry RF
  3. Miguel Cabrera DH
  4. Prince Fielder 1B
  5. Delmon Young LF
  6. Ryan Raburn 2B
  7. Jhonny Peralta SS
  8. Alex Avila C
  9. Ramon Santiago 3B

33 thoughts on “Game 2012.84: Royals at Tigers”

  1. I think the defensive alignment should be:
    Jackson: LF-CF
    Berry: CF- RF
    Young: Rover

  2. Mumbles said after the game Rayburn did ” real good” yesterday. So I guess 0-3 but with no K’s must be real good…Maybe we have to lower our expectations a bit!….

  3. God I love this lineup. And the defensive setup – ew la la. Lots of fun in store for all.

  6. Hi everyone,
    At the game. Fielder has Long sleeves on. Its 94 but a decent breeze.

    Steve

  7. It would be great if we could get six innings out of Smily tonight – with all the Ks he has already thrown 64 pitches.

  8. It looks like the circus is giving an evening performance starting this inning.

  10. Yut tut tudda dudda ….. all Comerica needs is the pipe organ like at the circus

  11. Imagine where the Tigers would rank defensively if Mr. Rayburn-Young wasn’t the official scorer.

  12. Fielder almost took out Laird on a popup yesterday. Today, with both Young and Raburn in the field, could there be a possibility……

  14. DY makes amends for his previous faux pas in left field ….. it looks like his bat might be heating up.

    2. And he Ks Francoeur with a 95MPH Brylcream Fastfall, setting him up with a couple of 88MPH Spitters.

    1. Well, the White Sox are actually serious about winning the division I think. I mean, they have even gone out and improved their team lately.

  21. BTW – Rangers fans are ready to jump off a bridge after a little 3 (maybe soon to be 4) game losing streak.

    Just a little perspective. Always looks worse from the inside.

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