43-38, 2nd place, 0.5 GB Cleveland.
Porcello suspended and Sanchez returning.
Lee Panas checks out the D of C’s in the D.
Long-awaited return of the heavy lumber will save our city.
Long-awaited return of the heavy lumber will save our city, this time without the sarcasm.
Tonight’s lineup:
CF Jackson
RF Hunter
3B Cabrera
1B Fielder
DH Martinez
SS Peralta
LF Dirks
2B Infante
C Avila
The clown show is starting early ….. not good!
This one might be over already, with our bats in hibernation!
This is going to be a long week.
I smell fermentation! Nice bottom of the order rally.
Someone woke up the sleeping Tiger …… and he’s angry!
A mighty roar… and then ZZZZZZZ.
I like our chances for a Fister rebound here.
Well screw that.
Why didn’t Smokey pull Fister after the 1st, and he gives up 2 more runs in the 2nd! The Blue Jay manager pulled his starter after he got bombed.
There is such a thing as a 100 pitch minimum rule in Leyland’s reference book “How To Manage A Baseball Game” by Jim Leyland.
Seriously though, I think his big fear is burning through the bullpen now when he might need them some other time.
Smokey is fortunate that Fister got it together after the first 2 innings!
It’s the “confidence thing”. Fister lasted 105 pitches, which proves that it works. For the same reason V-Mart will bat 5th through the remainder of his contract (I am predicting that Leyland gets extended for another year before season’s end based on the same “confidence thing” from DD).
Leaving Fister in was the right thing to do. We can’t eat up bullpen innings with no off days in the foreseeable future. Fister has proven himself.
I agree, but if Fister had gotten hammered in the 3rd again, we’d be whistling a different tune.
Sometimes I think the fear of using up the bullpen gets overplayed. There is always the opiton-in/option-out ploy with Toledo that can be put to use. In fact they have been doing this pretty regularly anyway even when there has been little stress on the bullpen during that long phase of quality starts. It’s a little tougher on a road trip perhaps because of the travel distance, but still doable. The guys I would be concerned about “blowing out” would be the late men (Smyly and Benoit), but in lopsided games they aren’t going to get any work anyway. There are plenty of good pitching reserves at Toledo, which for some years has been effectively used as an extended bench.
Rally time.
Never have a “Spark” sac. bunt. Leyland -1.
I hope Miggy is OK …. he looks in discomfort.
Martinez line vs LHP: .211/.252/.274/.526
Is there a law against platooning this guy? And he bats 5th no matter what.
I bet he loses those ABs very soon here.
A come-back win ….. excellent!
Except when Coke pitches maybe our bullpen is getting going. Temporarily at least.
Kuddoddo”s to Avila who contributed today….that’s at least the third time he has done that this year….which computes out to approx $1.5 mil per contribution…….nice gig!
Interesting analysis of catching defense from Panas. So, Avila is not only a black hole in the lineup, but he is a well below average defender to boot and worse than Pena in both categories. And this young man in an old man’s body is somehow going to be our Spark.
Belated kudos to Porcello (Leyland) for the retaliation HPB in Toronto – those things can’t be tolerated. Apparently getting suspended for 6 games and missing a turn in the rotation is a small price to pay to make a point and can be tolerated. I guess that’s baseball.
I hope Tui has worked on his Spanish while he has been out so he can keep Santiago company on those long stretches on the bench.