57-50, 2nd place, 1.5 games back.
The Tigers rode Doug Fister’s tremendous fantastic complete game performance to another easy win. For the first time in a while, they beat up on Ubaldo Jimenez en route to the 6-1 victor. None of the Tigers’ RBIs came from Cabrera or Fielder, as the BooBs went 6-16 with 4 XBHs and all 6 RBIs. Jud slept well for sure.
Too Many Strikeouts Max takes the ball this afternoon looking for the sweep. His 11.08 Ks/9 leads the AL, and he’s 5-3 with a 3.73 ERA and 1.23 WHIP over his last 10. I’m going to predict that Max gets his first career CG Shutout (even a shutout would be a first) today.
The Tigers go against little used call-up spot start guy Chris Seddon, who is making his first Major League appearance since 2010. The lefty has a career 7.03 ERA, .299 BA and 1.64 WHIP. The Tigers really should put up some runs against this guy.
A few notes:
– Raburn to the DL retroactive to 8/1 with a thumb sprain. Worth up (and starting…).
– Al Al moved up to Toledo yesterday, and retired the only batter he faced.
– Schlereth began his rehab with Lakeland on Friday.
Today’s Play Wherever You Think You are Worth-while Lineup:
1. Jackson, CF
2. Infante, 3B
3. Cabrera, DH
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Young, LF
6. Peralta, SS
7. Boesch, RF
8. Laird, C
9. Worth, 2B
I prefer “supercalifragalistic” to either “tremendous or fantastic”, and we don’t have to worry about Leyland using it.
Scherzer better be in good enough form to toss a shutout because today’s lineup will be making Seddon look like Cy, as Leyland sends out the let’s-avoid-the-sweep crew.
What did Raburn do in Cleveland to get a thumb sprain? We won’t go there.
THANK YOU, KEVIN!
Let’s hope Max is supercalifragalistic today.
I’m really, really regretting that I didn’t put Cabrera in a 3B as well. Should I change it now? Or does that double jinx cancel out the previous anti-jinxing?
There goes that CG Shutout.
Scherzer needs to keep his WHIP well under 4.0 or he won’t last very long.
&*$%$^ *@#@#% Gene Lamont.
&*$%$^ *@#@#% Delmon Young.
&*$%$^ *@#@#%&*$%$^ *@#@#% Leyland for playing Delmon Young.
Tigers just traded for Jeff Baker of the Cubs…Raburn is gone.
He sprained his thumb hitch hiking to Toledo.
Although it may not seem like much, that’s actually a big improvement for the bench.
Baker has a .269/.306/.448 line in 144 plate appearances on the year, with 4 HR and 20 RBI. Kelly and Raburn together had 2 and 19.
You think so? It wouldn’t surprise me if Worth is immediately sent back to Toledo after today’s game. I would rather that they release Raburn and keep Worth, but knowing DD and JL Worth will likely be riding the shuttle back to Toledo soon.
Raburn is not on the team (15-day DL from Aug 1), so it will have to be Worth. But that is OK too. Maybe they don’t reactivate Raburn when he is eliglible until rosters expand on Sep 1? That way they wouldn’t have to DFA him.
Leyland ejected. Every cloud has a silver lining; he can learn something about baseball now by watching on tv.
Maybe he’ll notice Gene Lamont’s randomly generated hold/send signs.
Maybe he’ll log on to DTW.
You’ll know first–his will be the posts bounced for language.
If this site had a “like” button, your post would’ve earned one from me. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
TIme for Lloyd to get Mr. Below loose. Acta wants to throw 7 lefties up there, so counter it with a lefty of your own. Max not likely to go deep in this game with 68 pitches to get thru 3 innings.
I wanted to come up with a witty phrase for today’s games… but sometimes we just have to accept that Leyland is bent on “managing” aka throwing games away.
Oh yeah, 3-3 now. You gotta believe and I’ll shut up.
I thought the Tigers activated Dirks…….
When asked why Shcerzer, who had been getting hammered for most of the day, was left in for so long, acting-manager McClendon’s response was “Huh?”
Rangers are in the midst of their 21st 5+ runs inning this year. Next most in the AL is 11.
Lloyd further commented…”hey I didn’t teach Scherzer how to hit, don’t blame me”……
Blowpen sighting…
Why do we parade Coke out there when everybody in baseball rocks him….
I was thinking the same thing, so I checked his stats. Despite his ERA, his WHIP is awful. He walks waaaay too many people.
http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=457435&c_id=det#sectionType=splitsCareer&statType=2&season=2012&gameType='R'&level='ALL‘
When asked why Coke, who has been getting hammered almost every time out lately, was brought in in a tied game, acting-manager McClendon’s response was “Huh?”
With just a little help from the coaching staff in regards to such minor things as lineups, baserunning, pitching management, etc., I think the Tigers could have won a few more games already this year.
Who’s gonna help the coaching staff?
this coaching staff has proved time and time again it doesn’t learn….putting Young back in the 5 spot, and in left field is the absolute dumbest of the dumb as he responds with yet another game of NOTHING….yet there he is……..
Now that through “substitutions”, we have most of the A-team in there, maybe we can win in a walk-off.
Yes! AJax!
IBB, IBB, DY GIDP?
Young’s out of the lineup – up to Berry.
I walk Miggy and Prince….and make Young beat me
Load’em up…move ’em out…let’s go QB!
Load’em up…move ’em out…let’s go QB!
Berry to PH, I like it. Good thing McClendon is in there.
Ahh, I missed the substitution. I feel much better now.
What about Dirks?
Squeeze him in for Jim!
BERRY for Young yes…got nothing to lose there
Great move by Acta.
We’re still in control here…interesting to see who comes out to pitch in the 10th.
Benoit only threw 7 pitches in the 9th, great news for us.
&#&%*….well Young wouldn’t have gotten him in….if the line up was like it should be it would have never been Young in the first place….
Are you freaking kidding me? Lead off triple and couldn’t get him in…Wow…Epic fail… Now watch the Tigers lose this one in the 10th…
I thought the Tigers activated Dirks??????????
Get a bag of Jack’s Links as it is extra innings!
Infante came through for Cleveland by swinging wildly at balls way out of the strike zone.
There it is…and the White Sox will pick up a game on the Tigers, as they currently lead the Angels going into the 9th…
That was absolutely pathetic that they could not score a leadoff triple…
They’ve been playing incredibly well at home as of late, can’t win them all.
Lots of baseball left.
Chalk this one up to bad management. Despite the major R3L2O fail, it should have never gone this far.
Another winnable game thrown away!!!
Do you believe in miracles!
Maybe we can win them all!
Tremendous!!!! Fantastic!!!!
Wow. Dickerson’s call was awesome.
Yeah…I heard it too! The support and guidance they showed Infante was impressive too!
OMG!!!!
Still, it shouldn’t have had to go that far.
MIGGY FOR MVP!!!
And give Downs the WIN!
Speaking of Miggy for MVP – I’ve been meaning to post this.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444226904577561581102406636.html
Thanks, good read…who knew the WSJ has a sports section?
Jackson had 9 TBs. NINE.
I’d like to take credit for the supercalifragilistic triple inverse reverse jinx (check out my post at 3:23pm).
And Infante had 8 TBs, that’s 17 for the 1-2 hitters in the order!
Jackson and Cabrera could really make things bad for the Yankees particularly with Verlander leading the pack.
One of the best games in many, many years. Too bad for those Tiger fans that left the game early!
Wondering – I don’t think Infante got a full cycle…but my uncle thinks he did?? Anyone know??
Infante had a homer, double, and two singles.
Glad to see the win after some of those whacky games in Cleveland.
Bring on the Evil Empire!
No triple.
Nope–he had a triple Friday though, so maybe that was still in Uncle’s head.
Jackson had an extra one today that he might want to trade.
5 runs after bases empty, 2 outs…supercalifragilistic doesn’t even cover that. Bad things happen when your closer gives up back-to-back walks…Cleveland Fan must be having a dismal time of it right now.
Why do you think that people go ape **** crazy when Valverde does things like issue two walks in the ninth inning, even when he gets out of it? The reason why is because games/scenarios like this can ruin a season for a team. Can you imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and Valverde gave up a three run lead after getting the first two hitters of the inning? Complete and total meltdown in the Tiger fanbase (myself included) would occur and it would be justified.
And Infante (despite the one bad strikeout) seems like a perfect fit for the 2-hole…as was Dirks, before the injury…suddenly this lineup seems a lot more interesting than it did a week or two ago.
Infante now has more total bases as a Tiger since the break than Raburn, Santiago, and Worth combined.
So much can change in a week or so. After his first few games, some people were complaining because Infante’s AVR was below Worth’s!
I like the idea of Infante batting 2nd vs. LH. I also wouldn’t mind seeing them experimenting with Infante at 3B, Baker at 2B and Cabrera/Fielder at DH/1B vs LH. Leyland will want to insist on Young in the lineup though, which would mean playing him in LF in that case. Personally, I could could do without Young completely, but that won’t happen. The order vs. RH with Berry in LF batting second, Dirks in RF, Boesch at DH and NO Young, seems to be just fine.
7 runs, 11 hits, 9 RBIs from top 4 in the order.
I knew, as a dedicated fan, that I was right!!
Great game.
In response to Doug of Troy-
Yes, Jackson, Cabrera and Fielder could do a lot of damage, but with Verlander out of his zone lately, they can’t depend on him. Ever since the World Series, he seems MUCH more nervous, even before the game, and is letting that affect his pitching. Take the pressure off and I’m sure he’ll be back on track soon.
Miracles do happen ……. Miracles do happen!!!! This one leaves me speechless …… especially after I, as many others had written this game off after the top of the 10th.
If the playoffs began right now, the Tigers would be in the 1-game wild card playoff against the Oakland Inge’s.
Nice win despite the dreaded 5 spot…..