2012 Season, Game Post

Game 2012.145: Tigers at Indians

52 Comments

Detroit Tigers, 77-67, 2nd place, 1 back.

After 6 2/3 innings of no-hit pitching and a 5-3 victory, the Tigers continued their push for the Central division title.  And after 6 2/3 innings of no-hit pitching and a 5-3 victory, the White Sox continued their push for the Central division title.

I think I’ll go ahead and predict a 163-game season here.

Even before the no-hit bid set in, yesterday’s game was entertaining, with the Tigers posting an un-run on the scoreboard, and Quintin Berry trying to end his perfect streak not once, but twice from second base (for his part, Avila says he did touch third).  What must Berry have been thinking?

“I had a feeling on Twitter it was going crazy.”

The Tigers look to continue their Sunday dominance (17-6) in today’s 3:05 series finale, which gives Cleveland fans time to give up on the Browns at halftime and make their way out to the ballpark.

Detroit will face Ubaldo Jimenez for the 6th time this season.  Jimenez mystified them the first three times around, and the Tigers turned it around the last two.  Today they will look to even the books with both Jimenez and the Indians (9-8 vs Detroit).

Detroit arms Rick “No Run Support” Porcello with the broom.  Porcello has only gotten an average of 1.06 runs in support over his last 6 starts. Look for the bullpen to play a big role today:  Porcello tends to struggle later in games, especially with his sinker, which batters hit at a rate of .410 in innings 5-7.

Stat of the Day: Rick Porcello has the league’s highest BABIP (batting average on balls in play, which measures how effectively the defense turns plays into out) at .346. The league average is .293.  2nd worst? Max Scherzer at .337.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Quintin Berry.  Berry draws multiple walks from the strike-zone challenged Jimenez, and creates some havoc on the base paths. Austin Jackson is a late scratch (possibly some soreness from crashing into the wall trying to save the no-hitter), so Q-Berry will be leading off and patrolling center.

Todays Broom-Brandishing Lineup:

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

52 thoughts on “Game 2012.145: Tigers at Indians”

  1. Jackson is out with some kind of a injury (knee ?) and Berry moves up to leadoff, Dirks batting 2nd.

  2. For an explanation of the Berry-trying-to-get-thrown-out-twice episode: http://beck.mlblogs.com/2012/09/16/explaining-berrys-steal-avilas-out/

    BABIP: statues in the infield can make a difference. I’d recommend more flyball pitchers, but then homeruns become more frequent. Let’s hope Berry gets hot and finishes the season like he hit when first called up.

    Jimenez may have been be walk prone this year, but in his last start vs Tigers (Sep 5) he walked only 1 in 7+ innings. He ALSO has an ERA of 5.52. Enuff said.

    By the way, Tigers are 34-22 in day games, so that bodes well. In day games thgis year they are 43-45. It would be great if they could get more getaway games and weekends on the schedule next year.

    Are night vision goggles legal?

  3. Not a good ball/strike ratio for Porcello so far. Perhaps JL should consider getting Smiley warmed up.

      1. The Twins I mean. I hope the WS are generous tomorrow too, but we have 6 games left with the Twins.

      1. Would the Tigers have home field advantage if we go to a game 193. I think they take the head-to-head record?

          1. That’s next year, when they add 4 more teams and make the playoffs a double-elimination tournament.

            2. The season will begin in February, each team will have 4 series with the new Southern Hemisphere League.

  7. No help from Leyland today either, who has apparently forgotten we need to win the division:
    –18 and counting.

  9. I’m not sure how to check this, but I’m pretty sure that Infante has been the worst defensive 2B in the AL since he’s come to Detroit.

      1. .968 with Tigers before today, 8 errors in 83 games with the Marlins, .982. I don’t know how the fielding sabermetrics rate him though. 15 errors in 128 games seems pretty high to me for a secondbaseman.

  11. just what the hell is Avila doing there? it’s Prince’s ball all the way…….more amazing non-performance….

  14. I guess Polanco didn’t fit into Detroit’s clown show defense and Infante has. Avila has done his share as well leading to 3 unearned runs.

  18. Miggy leads the league in AVG again now, .331 to Trout’s .329 (0 for 3 today). 4 HR behind Hamilton (42) and tied with Hamilton at 123 BI (Rangers just getting started).

    1. Tigers had four double play opportunities in the 4th innning that they never turned. That allowed two runs to cross the plate. The next inning Fielder swipped the runner before he hit first but the ump called him safe. Then Cabrera came up in the 7th and said enough of this business and hit number 38! A strange game that good teams overcome.

  20. While in KC for the recent 3-game series, I got a better appreciation of Villarreal. Because of his short size, the ball seems to come off his hand as a blurr instead of a 6’4″ type pitcher. He is very impressive when his control is on.

  21. this is the worst baserunning team I’ve ever seen……..it only took 3 WPs to get Berry, who’s got some speed, to 3rd…….nice

    1. Garcia is supposed to be a great fielder, but they put in Kelly, who only dabbles in the OF. Yes it was a tough catch, and Valverde was overdue to blow a save… but something tells me that they’ll regret losing this one.

      1. Looking back over the season, there have been quite a few games that they should regret losing. Sometimes you really do have to tip your cap to the other team, and no team plays perfectly, so some blown games will happen to all. However, many more times the Tigers have “regrettably” lost due to combination of failings, whether offensively, defensively, pitching or managerial judgement. In all aspects of the fundamentals (playing AND thinking AND planning) they are weak. Good teams do not fail fundamentally to such an extent and as frequently as the Tigers do. And it is not just the players underperforming. Nor JL’s lineups and pitching management. There is a bigger problem here.

  27. Cabrerra and Fieder come up with a runner on third in the ninth….no run…the lowly Indians come up with a runner third in the ninth….no problem………when its all over the inability of getting that runner in is the story of the season…together with the worst defense in all of baseball, which gave Cleveland 3 runs today..e.

  28. Even the Babe Cabrera was not enoughwhich is pretty telling about this team’s future. Valverde gave up two runs retiring one batter only because he missed a double by an inch or two when the four previous pitchers gave up 2 earned runs but retired 24 batters.

    Valverde is a fixture in the 9th inning but dirks sits games despite being the next best hitter after the babe. After delmon sat that game after his torrid hitting streak he’s been fairly ineffective.

    Finally Garcia has a rocket arm and has looked great in RF so why Kelly? Go figure.

  29. Losing the close ones always hurts. For all the reasons you all have listed; beginning to wonder if we will be playing past 162

Comments are closed.