2012 Season, Game Post

Game 2012.131: White Sox at Tigers

69 Comments

69-61, 2nd place, 3 games behind CWS, 3 games behind WC.

Well, after getting swept by KC while the White Sox lost 3 out of 4 to the Orioles certainly has dampened everyone’s spirits, there is still a lot of baseball left, and the Tigers could very well find themselves tied for first place on Sunday night. Isn’t this why we love baseball? So rather than focus on the negatives, which would be all too easy, let’s try to get back into this thing, one game at at time.

We’ve got our top three starters going for us, we’re at home, and we have a guy named Miguel Cabrera. We can do this.

Last time we played the White Sox, we swept them in 3 home games. We can do this.

We start tonight with the towering Doug Fister. If you can overlook his last start…Fister has been nothing short of dominant since the All-Star break. Prior to the Orioles outing, Fister had seven consecutive quality starts, and allowed 1 ER or less in 5 of those. He’s 6-3 over his last 10 and has reminded all of us of why we came to love him during the 2nd half of 2011.

It won’t be easy, as the Tigers face White Sox ace Jake Peavy tonight. After a sub-par July, Peavy has had a scorching August, posting a 2.83 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. His 9-9 record is really more reflective of poor run support than his success this season. Fielder is 9-27 lifetime off of Peavy; Cabrera is 9 for 38 and he and Delmon Young’s 1 homer each are the only Tiger homers. Note that Peavy dominates innings 4-6 (.543 OPS against), so we have to take advantage of any early opportunities as there aren’t many holes in the Sox bullpen. UPDATE – Cabrera has 2 career HRs off of Peavy.

A few quick notes:

– Jeff Baker is done, I expect him to get picked up somewhere else. It was worth a try. Prospect Avisail Garcia is up, and remember, since he got called up before Sept 1, he can be on the playoff roster.

– Al Al will be back on Saturday, the first day he’s eligible to be back. I think he’s okay for the playoff roster because he was on the DL, can someone confirm?

– If Infante has a big night (4 hits) he may reach 1,000 for his career. I like that guy a lot.

Tonight’s Hope Restoring Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Dirks, LF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Young, DH
6. Boesch, RF
7. Avila, C
8. Peralta, SS
9. Infante, 2B

69 thoughts on “Game 2012.131: White Sox at Tigers”

  2. I am stuck with the Chicago feed and i have to listen to the Hawk and his homer nonsense, so the Tigers better put a beat on Chicago to keep Hawk from spewing too much!

      1. in houston, MLB Network is running the Yankee game…and WGN has America’s Funniest Home Videos…so no ‘watching’ the game for me… which could be a good thing.

  3. Young-Boesch-Avila-Peralta looks so much like a black hole right now. If YBAP can even manage gray, we might be ok.

  6. Before you applaud the Boesch single – remember that it was a first pitch swing…

  8. The dreaded DP again took us out of the possibility of a big crooked number this inning. Hopefully Fister can shut them down this inning.

  9. Does anyone else notice that most of Fister’s pitches are up. If he continues pitching like that it’s just a matter of time that they start hitting him.

    1. That seems pretty obvious to me, though I hope those pitches were intentional. They are way up in the zone.

    1. Dan Dickerson mentioned that his swing follow-through looks like he’s still hurting.

      1. Thanks. Of course, such details are lost on the Tigers Video broadcasters… wish I could have the MLB Video broadcast with the radio commentators, but they are a few seconds behind.

  12. What a bumble by Infante! This is one of the many reasons why the Tigers will not make it. You can’t be giving the opposition extra outs.

  13. If you turn fewer DP’s than anyone but you hit into more DP’s than anyone….thats a ton of outs!!!!!

    1. He hasn’t got it tonight, but Leyland will probably insist on leaving him in for the mandatory 125 pitches.

  17. Fister 101 pitches thru 5…i wouldn’t bring him back out for the 6th…w/CWS top of the order coming up…don’t need another Dunn HR

  20. Hey Avila I know you only have 38 rbi for the entire year…but the idea is to knock the runners in….6 l.o.b so far

  21. Tigers, once again, 0-2 with a runner on 3rd less than 2 out…this will eventually doom them.

      2. What it is is that the Sox will win the division because the Tigers can’t hit a #%^*! sac fly (they are worst in the league), and they can.

  23. BTW – was anyone else listening to Dan & Jim last night when Fielder led off with a double and then Young, Boesch and Peralta recorded 3 outs on 4 pitches? They didn’t hold back.

    1. In recent years they haven’t been a team to take too many pitches, but the flailing away seems more prevalent this year to me. Boesch for sure, and Young has always been like that. What about Peralta though?

      1. Agreed. Young has always been that way, and Boesch is going to be a 4th outfielder b/c of it. But this seems to be a new habit for Peralta.

  24. i guess ‘stranding a runner @ 3B with less than two outs virus’ is contagious…let’s hope the CWS don’t get over for about another month or so.

  27. If Miggy does his Mr. September thing like he did last year, he could have another shot at the batting title.

  31. Ok, electric home field crowd, and Delmon comes through with a double to clean up the bases. Does that mean the Tigers need extra “encouragement” from the home field crowd? They can’t get fired up by themselves on the road?

  38. BAL beat NYY tonight cutting the yankee lead over BAL to just 2 games. I would love to see both BAL and TAM overtake the NYY

  39. We’re going to be a critical game here soon and a non-basestealer is going to walk to 2nd on Potato, and then score the winning run on a bleeder.

  42. Liriano – Scherzer tomorrow…with Sale pitching on Sunday (and JV iffy lately), losing tomorrow is not an option for DET.

  44. Tigers trade Jeff Baker to Braves for PTBNL…who they will probably flip to Chicago along with someone else to complete that trade…to make room for Baker, Braves release Jack Wilson, who once upon a time was was desired by many a Tiger fan.

  45. Just re-watched the Cabrera home run, which was exciting, except for the part where Lamont gives him the stop sign as he is rounding 3rd.

  46. Anybody who can’t tell Cabby is laboring is blind. Big night for him at the plate, but ugh…in the field. That 3rd inning where CHW loaded bags on infield garbage only was brutal. Hopefully, this will kick start Tigers to a sweep. It’s time for them to step up and be heard. But, Avila…oh my, that guy hasnt had a big hit in ages. He is a disaster at the plate. Hard to take and needs to be shellacked for it.

    1. He should really be at DH right now. That would necessitate moving Young to LF however, and moving Dirks to RF (Boesch goes back to the bench, at least vs LH, which is OK with me) and Infante to 3rd and playing either Santiago or….. Raburn(?) at 2nd. Hard choices.

    1. Jason Beck‏@beckjason

      Alburquerque reinstated from 60-day DL, contract optioned to Toledo, #Tigers announce.
      aug 23

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