Detroit Tigers, 54-50, 2nd place, 2.5 3 back.
Well, maybe the less said about the past two games the better. It was a bit annoying that they started the game in the rain, played in the rain, then called the game once it became official (with bases loaded no less).
Although that was all fine with Jim Leyland.
By the way the early conclusion of the game ended Verlander’s streak of 6-inning plus starts. After the game Verlander tweeted: “Thx to all who followed the streak. Was an honor to be mentioned in same breath as Carlton, Gibson #legends. Now let’s start a win streak..”.
After seeing Delmon Young ripped here last night, Leyland has taken the drastic move of bumping him to 6th in the batting order.
Stat of the Day: Doug Fister has been the staff ace in the 2nd half: 3-1, 1.80, with a team-leading 31 Ks.
Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Brennan Boesch. Leyland got all crazy and swapped Boesch and Young in the 5 and 6 spots, lets see how Boesch does.
Today’s Not-Set-In-Stone-After-All Lineup:
- Austin Jackson CF
- Quintin Berry LF
- Miguel Cabrera 3B
- Prince Fielder 1B
- Brennan Boesch RF
- Delmon Young DH
- Alex Avila C
- Jhonny Peralta SS
- Ramon Santiago 2B
As pathetic as that 5~6 switch is…it might be the first move Mumbles has made in years towards accountability….I bet he apologizes 5 times today to Young for this drastic move
Moving Young out of the five-hole is accountability. Replacing him with Boesch is not.
Tweedle Dee (Young) switched with Tweedle Dum (Boesch), Santiago gives Infante the day off at 2B. Why not Rayburn for Berry while we are at it?
how about Laird for Avila…what has Avila done all year…..besides his one game winner…RBI in the 20’s yet and he has played all year!!!
Primarily, he bats lefthanded, a key ingredient in Leyland’s R-L-R-L-R-L-R-L-R-L-R-L-R-L way of setting the lineup, although, to be fair, he has deviated from that dictum a bit tonight. Secondarily though, RELATIVE to Boesch, Young, Kelly, Santiago, and Raburn, he doesn’t look too bad, with a fairly decent OBP.
How long does Porcello last and how many runs does he give up before he gets pulled?
Does Below get work tonight? (bad sign if he does, the Tigers will be losing).
I still think mcclendon should be fired.
+1 for Boesch hitting 5th.
-1 for Young hitting 6th.
BOOOBS rally.
WOW! when it works, it is a thing of beauty… time for my old buddy, Bobby V. to get some ESPN face time, he never misses a chance to be in the drama, does he?
Awesome display of Tiger power.
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t Delmon batting 3rd when he and Kelly went back-to-back with homers against the Yankees in game 5 of last year’s ALDS?
Wait–wouldn’t that make Kelly the cleanup hitter??
You are correct, Kelly-Young back-to-back, Kelly batting 2nd, Young 3rd, Tigers win game (and series) 3-2.
With a rested BP, time to pull Porcello.
Late, as usual, and with the wrong guy, but we’re still up by 2 – for now.
All Coke should be used for is for mop-up or the occasional one-LH batter situation:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/8350/situational;_ylt=Ag.qY4YUZNeWF30ejBeXEn6FCLcF
Yeah, not sure what has happened to Coke lately, but he looks anything but reliable right now. I’m not even sure we can count on him to come in and get one left-handed hitter out right now, much less give him a full inning. Coke was left in to start the 7th to specifically get Carl Crawford out, but instead gives up a bomb to deep right-center. He also failed to get a left handed hitter out with two outs and a man on third in the 6th inning tonight. Coke was primed to be fitted for the goat’s horns if the Red Sox would have come back and pulled this one out. He allowed two different lefties todrive in runs and his specialty is supposedly getting those guys out. I don’t trust Phil in key situations right now. Give me more Villareal in the 7th inning going forward, regardless if the hitter is right handed or left handed. I have much higher confidence in BV than I do in PC going forward.
Yep, once again Ol’ Smoky tempted the fates by staying with Porcello too long tonight. Not sure what more Leyland needed to see after the 5th inning. It was clear at that time that Porcello was running out of gas. Its not like our bullpen really needed a 7 or 8 inning start from Ricky P, just make the move Leyland. I swear he loves to make things harder than they need to be.
Maybe Miller has found his niche, as a LOOGY type.
Nice win, they really needed that one. The back-to-backs by the big boys were a thing of beauty.
Agree…that and the ahhh sound of the Red Sox fans as Cabera’s homerun flew over the Big Monster at Mach 0.83 was priceless!
The unholy 4 actually contributed today for the first time in 11 games…don’t go out and oder those series tickets yet…
Hard to believe that it might take Rayburn two full years to match Inge’s numbers this year in Oakland