2012 Season, Game Post

Game 2012.128: Tigers at Royals

53 Comments

Detroit Tigers, 69-58, 2nd place, 2 back, 1 back for WC spot.

The Tigers hit the road after a successful 6-3 home stand (that somehow didn’t feel like 6-3) with a little mini-trip to KC for three, before returning for a big series against Chicago.

Kansas City shouldn’t be taken too lightly: less than 2 weeks ago they did the Tigers a huge favor and swept the White Sox in 3, and this after taking 2-of-3 in Chicago earlier in the month. In fact the Royals have accounted for 5 of the last 8 White Sox losses.

Justin Verlander takes the mound, and should be taking tonight’s outing more seriously than the last time he was in Kansas City, when he started the All-Star game, tried to light up the radar gun, and was instead himself lit up. The Royals uniforms in the batters box should be a welcome sight: JV is 14-2, 2.36 career against KC, and 9-2 1.83 at Kaufmann. Excluding All-Star games.

Tigers go up against Luis Mendoza, who, unfortunately, struggles with command, which against the Tigers is not a bug, it’s a feature.

Miguel Cabrera will be back at the hot corner, Dirks is bumped down to the 2-spot, and Delmon Young keeps his temporary hold on the 5th spot.

Stat of the Day: Tiger pitchers are on a hot streak. Over the last 5 games they have gone 4-1 with a 1.53 ERA, a team 0.894 WHIP, and a .190 batting average against.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Miguel Cabrera.  Let’s hope the ankle holds up, and Jeff Baker stays scarce.

Todays Q-Brera Lineup:

  1. Austin Jackson CF
  2. Andy Dirks RF
  3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
  4. Prince Fielder 1B
  5. Delmon Young DH
  6. Alex Avila C
  7. Jhonny Peralta SS
  8. Omar Infante 2B
  9. Quintin Berry RF

53 thoughts on “Game 2012.128: Tigers at Royals”

  1. This is the line-up that I think can do some big offensive damage …… I predict a bucket full of runs tonight.

    1. And I like Berry batting in front of Jackson as we go into the second time through the order and beyond – Berry-Jackson-Dirks is a nice setup for Cabrera-Fielder.

      1. Sale got hammered by the Os tonight and is gone after 4 innings. Maybe he and Verlander are thinking ahead to Sunday’s game.

  4. JV you have four of the best pitches in all of baseball…why do you try and get by with only using only one of them….that 93-94 ain’t gonna cut it.

  12. This is the first time the Tigers have scored more than 5 runs since Aug 14. And we haven’t had an old fashioned slugfest since the Yankees series (Aug 8.)

  15. I think Leyland is leaving JV in for his 125 pitches; should hit it about the 5th inning.

  16. I guess when the other team hits a potential DP we should be happy that the Tigs get at least one of them….just sayin

  19. Delmon Young vs. RHP (before tonight):
    since Aug 1 .275/.309/.471 in 51 AB
    For the season .259/.296/.375

    OK, he’s popped a few homers lately, but is his recent production something we should really be getting excited about. With all the “hot hand” stuff going around lately, I thought he was doing better than this. I guess is is mostly against lefties. He still looks mostly like a platoon player to me.

  21. Peralta..no range…can’t hit (but homers once in a while)…average arm…….plays everyday!
    😉

    1. Because he is left-handed, and the batter is left-handed, which means he couldn’t possibly get a hit, and…oops.

  31. I was watching the Royals MLB.tv feed – even their announcers thought it was a HR.

  32. Coke…1h…..0 runs…1/3 innings…does the job again…they will interview him and “he done good again”,,,,,,

  33. Phil Coke can no longer be trusted in big situations where we need an out. The drop off this year has been precipitous for Coke and hopefully he is wearing a different uniform in 2013. I’ve had it with the “softball player”. I call him that because he looks like the typical semi-out of shape guy that plays in your local men’s slo-pitch softball league. Seriously, tell me Coke wouldn’t look right at home wearing a softball jersey with “Andy’s 24 Hour Towing” emblazoned across the front of his uniform.

    1. Coke has been miserable for the last few months, not just lately. Everbody but Leyland can see this. They sent Below down because he wasn’t getting enough work, but meanwhile Coke continues to get regular work and flubs it almost every time. His favorite pitch has become the hanging curveball and he throws a lot of them. Where is Jeff Jones when you need him.

  35. Anyone else hear that stat on the Tiger postgame show on FoxSportsDetroit. Since 2006, DET is 45-23 versus KC from April-July and 24-23 versus KC in August and September. THis highlightswhy I didn’t like having them ten times in the last 35 games of the season. I don’t know how KC plays so poorly every year from April-July and then is able to be such a pain in the ass to teams in August and September, yet they seem to do it year after year.

  36. No a comfortable stat Jerry. Meanwhile, I am still not convinced that DY’s ball was not a HR. I saw the replay 10 times and then the reverse angle it looked foul. I still can’t understand how it looked fair to be sure from the distance angle. This was one of the most frustrating losses of the past few years. With JV looking this bad in what should have been an “auto” win. Now we are resting the series early on Sanchez. This team just cant get it all together…

  37. It’s gotta be a HR based on where it landed.

    Our D (or lack of it) lost this game. That 2nd inning was embarrassing. Missed out on a good opportunity to pickup a game.

    Running out of games…

  38. Inherited runners-scored? Downs 2-0, Coke 1-1 . Downs did the job. Coke failed
    Coke: IS% : 27 %
    Coke last 10:8.10 ERA 6.2 Inn. 15 hits 6 runs. 3 BB
    JV leads MLB in numbers of pitches. He was the leader in 2011 and 2009. Second in 2010. He is paying for that.Now, those 124 and 132 pitches in a game are taking the toll.
    He has a better ratio of SO /9 inning than last year and is allowing less HRs.But he is giving more walks and his BAA is 20 points higher. He had some luck last year with the BAA ,no more luck
    DY is showing that the LVP is for Berry and Boesch

  39. No matter what his name is, you don’t leave your starting pitcher in to get hammered; if you are trying to win anyway. And then to be followed by putting in your worst relief pitcher in a critical situation – ones at which he has repeatedly failed. Chalk this loss up to our peanut brained manager.

  40. I will gladly chalk this one up to our peanut brained manager. I am so done with Ol’ Smoky. If I knew that it was a guarantee that Leyland would get canned if the Tigers missed the postseason, I would be truly torn on what to root for down the stretch. That is saying something because everyone that knows me is aware of how I live and die with each Tiger win or loss, but that just goes to show how over Leyland I am.

    Is it too early to beat the Terry Francona drums in Detroit?

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