After last night’s deflating loss, of a type we’ve seen before this season and would rather not see any more of, the Tigers send out RHP Rick Porcello against Angels RHP Garrett Richards. Porcello missed his last start due to an off-day shuffle type thing; instead, he turned in a perfect two innings in what I think was his first regular-season (at least) bullpen appearance ever. Nice. Richards started the season in the bullpen and had a so-so outing in his first start against the Astros a week ago. Porcello looks good in 66 PA against current Angels: .608 vs. .769 career OPS-against and strikeouts at twice his career rate. Richards’s history against current Tigers can be summed up in one 2012 start against them in which he pitched 7 shutout innings.
Today’s “Ah, I see the problem” lineups (note: I think some of the splits were current before last night’s game – see Bourjos):
CF Jackson 333/398/440 RISP .364, 4 RBI
RF Hunter 418/451/597 RISP .214, 6 RBI
3B Cabrera 348/416/493 RISP .455, 14 RBI
1B Fielder 328/427/625 RISP .333, 14 RBI
DH Martinez 196/313/214 RISP .125, 4 RBI
LF Dirks 190/300/214 RISP .273, 4 RBI
SS Peralta 302/333/413 RISP .250, 7 RBI
C Avila 189/218/302 RISP .053, 0 RBI
2B Infante 255/278/255 RISP .267, 4 RBI
CF Bourjos 267/298/489 RISP .000, 1 RBI
LF Trout 293/387/484 RISP .231, 4 RBI
DH Pujols 309/426/491 RISP .300, 7 RBI
RF Hamilton 200/254/367 RISP .143, 5 RBI
1B Trumbo 323/354/468 RISP .167, 4 RBI
2B Kendrick 263/306/368 RISP .182, 4 RBI
C Iannetta 273/333/432 RISP .143, 4 RBI
SS Harris 263/286/474 RISP .000, 1 RBI
3B Jimenez 474/524/632 RISP .333, 0 RBI
POST-GAME: Angels 10, Tigers 0. Two games for the price of one. The first one lasted 1 inning. This was followed by an 8-inning exhibition game that the Angels also won, and despite the 1-0 score it was as boring as a ST game, which it kind of was. The only reason Porcello earns a “Not So Good” is one fat pitch for a slam. His first inning was an unlucky one of historic proportion, at least 6 very cheap hits among the 9 the Angels put up, any one of which for this or that could have been an out and closed the door before Trout put the game away.
Turning point: Angels going to bat in the first inning.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Garrett Richards, Mike Trout
HONORABLE MENTION: Drew Smyly
NOT SO GOOD: Rick Porcello
The wheels are starting to fall off, and it’s only the first inning.
On the bright side, the game is blacked out where I am.
We don’t need wheels as our team is run by a bunch of hamsters that excel in running around in circles within a stationary object. We can still spin around and around as much as our hearts’ content.
Get Don Kelly warming up!
You leave RP in to eat up some innings.
Well congrats to Trout for his first grand slam ever. Sucks that it has to happen when we give up 9 in the first inning, yikes! But still have to give props to Trout, I love that guy and think he is a fantastic baseball talent that deserves to be appreciated and respected.
Mercifully, I missed the first inning. Looks like there were 3 IF singles. How many of those would have been outs by more fleet- footed infielders?
None.
We needed a Tiger Stadium deep grass infield.
I think sheer luck accounts for all those cheap hits, Kevin, IF and otherwise. I count 6. The best defenders in baseball would have been hard-pressed to take any of them away, IMO.
Look at the bright side–at least they have a hit.
RP’s trade value sure took a hit today.
Richards has a perfect game going less a hit and WP. Tigers bats have gone further south.
what was JL thinking leaving the kid in there to pitch after throwing 45 totally hittable pitches in 1/2 an inning?? Not a single swing and miss. I’m a huge JL supporter but that decision has me scratching my head. I would’ve pulled the kid after the 5th run crossed home — in the first damn inning.
Porcello is a ground ball pitcher who who pitches to contact, not a K guy looking for swings and misses. He was getting ground balls and weak contact. He’s also a veteran, not a kid, and you give a veteran every chance to pitch out of trouble in the early innings when he’s getting nicked rather than slammed. Whoever you put in could have just as easily allowed the slam to Trout.
This is a waste of a good start by Smyly.
A pitcher’s duel minus the first inning!
3 runs in the last 43 innings. That’s Miami Marlins baseball.
You could also refer to it as “Jeff Molby” baseball since he has clearly been a DD supporter and advocate. This is what you get with DD baseball, a team that can somehow possibly score only 3 runs in 43 innings. It can happen to anybody that has an awful offensive roster design.
But to do it while spending $150MM, now that’s impressive.
It can happy to anybody at any time. That’s why you play 162 games.
Obvious the last couple games were as ugly as they get, but the Angels are a quality ballclub with a $150m payroll of their own. They’re gonna win some games too.
Bottom line: if we win today, it’s a 5-4 West coast road trip and I’ll take that every single time.