Detroit Tigers, 75-67, 2nd place, 1 back.
OK, let’s try this again. Rained out yesterday, Justin Verlander still has the ball for tonight’s game against Cleveland and Corey Kluber. You may remember him: Cy Kluber beat Detroit (3-2, naturally) on Sept. 3 for his first, and only major league victory.
The result of pushing back the Verlander start will be that the last game against the White Sox will now feature Doug Fister against Gavin Floyd, instead of Justin Verlander vs Chris Sale, a swap that seems to favor the White Sox (despite Sale’s brilliant season he has struggled against Detroit). Although Drew Sharp seems to think otherwise, for reasons I can’t quite make out.
As a couple of commenters here (stephen and Mark) noted, there was something odd about the moving of Ryan Raburn to the DL, now that rosters have expanded to 40. What this move does do is actually free up an extra spot on the postseason roster. If a player on a team’s roster is on the DL on Aug 31 he is eligible for the team’s postseason roster; if that player is also on the DL at season’s end, he can be replaced by any player who is in the team’s organization as of Aug 31.
What does this mean? It means that Al Alburquerque could replace Raburn on the eligible list.
Not that that has anything to do with the Raburn move, as Leyland says. But if it had, he couldn’t have set it up better: first Leyland says Raburn is “talented,” causing fans to groan everywhere. Then he says that Raburn looks “sluggish.” Then they find a quadriceps strain (dang! and he was so talented!) that gives them some roster flexibility.
First things first though: let’s get these guys into the postseason.
Stat of the Day: The Tigers are the only Central team with a winning record within the division–and that’s with a 6-9 mark against Cleveland.
Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Delmon Young. Happy Birthday!
Todays Rain-Delayed Lineup:
- Austin Jackson CF
- Andy Dirks LF
- Miguel Cabrera 3B
- Prince Fielder 1B
- Delmon Young DH
- Brennan Boesch RF
- Jhonny Peralta SS
- Alex Avila C
- Omar Infante 2B
Good tto see and hear lots of Tiger fans at Progressive Field. And, a great start!
atta boy…Birthday boy!!!
pretty sure Boesch knows he is playing for his Tiger life these last three weeks. Hope that pressure helps him to respond like that at bat….
Leyland: –20 and counting.
And wow. Ryan Raburn has some value after all! As a placeholder. Sneaky move, but good strategy.
There are 20 games left. The Tigers have to wiin one more game than the White Sox to tie them for the division and two more to win the division. During the last 20 games Tigers have won 10 and lost 10 and White Sox 9 wins and 11 losses.
Twins and Royals will decide on a ROAD TRIP. Be afraid, vey afraid.
Yeah, I was in KC for that 3 game series two weeks ago!
OK, but you never did tell us…did Delmon’s ball go out or not?
We were five rows behind the on-deck circle and looking down the 1st base line…but by then I had too many Bannister brews to see beyond 1st base!
But it went out!!!!
why does Bosh hold up there when the ball was hit. Did he think with 2 outs the SS woud throw him out if he went………no…..Then Lamont sends him anyway even though the LF had the all prior to the turn at third…….this stuff is so irritating to see every single day
Are you insinuating that Lamont is NOT the best 3rd base coach of all time?
It was BB ´s fault.He had to be running on contact with two outs
Prince of Motown with a thristy golden glove!
Prince with the D……yea!!!!!
I guess it is nap time for Tabbies. Hope the lead holds up.
That strike three pitch to Choo should be banned…
JV with a great timely outing…pitched out of some jams… good sign for him in mid-Sept.
i have a feeling CWS is going to role over the depleted Twinkies, so W’s are critical
Their pitching might be depleted, but they have scored more runs than the Tigers. Considering they were at the bottom of the league for most of the season, I don’t think you can take their offensive potential for granted.
By the way, Tigers are 10th in the league in HR and 8th in Runs Scored. If the pitching doesn’t hold up, even though it looks very good at the moment, I don’t think we can expect the bats to pick up any slack. I’m a little worried about Verlander. Even though he pitched 7 shutout innings tonight and pitched out of jams in 3 consecutive innings, it wasn’t exactly a dominating performance.
agreed they’ll be a factor down the stretch…but CWS have their number – the Twins, who are 6-13 at home since July 31, and they’ve dropped 10 of the last 13 home meetings with Chicago.
do you know why is Mauer not playing tonight?
It could be back spasms, a recurrent issue with him. Gardenhire also tends to give Mauer a fair amount of time off and he gets rotated between C, 1B and DH. A good idea since he is actually rather fragile. At 6′ 6″, he is way too big to be a catcher and I think all the bending and stooping contributes to his back issues, but what do I know. I think it would be better for him and the team if they switched him to 1B or LF and left catching entirely out (most importantly he’d need less rest), but, unfortunately the Twins, who ironically used to be very deep in catching prospects, now have none in their system. What happened? Well, they traded them all away for marginal or non-existent ML talent. The Bill Smith regime as GM was not a happy one for the Twins, but with the return of Ryan things will likely get better. In the meantime the damage was done and it is going to take a while for them to rebuild.
Who needs a 7-man bullpen when you have Benoit and Valverde.
Thats. Because you need four different guys for the 7th at times …plus Coke is one of the 7
the Valverde portion of that tandem can be nerve wracking
If I were Leyland, knowing we are now in a pennant race, I would pitch them every day.