Detroit Tigers: 69-46, 1st Place (8 ahead of Cleveland).
Miggy is unreal. That pitch was in his batters box and he hit a bomb. He has the cheat codes to this video game.
–Tweet from Max Scherzer.
Max is right on: ESPN had an overhead view of Cabrera’s home run, and the ball was not just inside, it actually crossed the batter’s box. How someone can even hit a pitch like that in fair territory, much less for a home run, is beyond me.
I remember at the beginning of the season that there was a lot of talk about how pitchers had to pitch Cabrera inside to have any success against him. I guess he has adjusted to that. He still seems to have trouble sometimes hitting (or laying off) the high heat; Salazar especially had success against him that way. But I would not be surprised to see him eventually start blasting homers on pitches up around his eyes.
In the past two seasons, Cabrera has hit 20 home runs on pitches outside the strike zone (Zimmerman has the next most at 11), 16 of which have come on inside pitches.
*****
Today the Tigers look to take the series from the Yankees, with Justin Verlander on the mound, trying to build on his impressive last outing and get back to being, well, Justin Verlander.
Of course there is a simple explanation for his struggles this season: he finally stopped taking steroids, says some guy named Jack Clark. Oh wait, you mean that Jack Clark? The one who feuded with teammates, managers, and fans every place he played (he couldn’t even get along with Tony Gwynn. Tony Gwynn!). Yep, that Jack Clark. Well someone thought it would be a good idea to give him a radio show, and he proceeded to tell how he knows a guy who knows a guy, and he knows Albert Pujols and Justin Verlander have been big steroid users. Oh well, it makes for good radio right? Verlander dismissed the comments as “moronic,” but Pujols called his lawyers, and the radio station decided maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all, and fired Clark.
*****
.238 / .319 / .345 / .664
Those are Don Kelly’s numbers…er, wait, Ramon Santiago’s? Alex Avila’s? Nope, that is Prince Fielder’s line since the All-Star break. The .345 slugging % is especially baffling (Jose Iglesias has a SLG of .357 since the break).
But what about all of those RBIs? Fangraphs does an analysis of how many RBIs Prince Fielder would have if he were the cleanup hitter on every other team (if Fielder were on the Royals he would have 57).
*****
Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Prince Fielder. Seems every time I say something critical of him, he makes me look bad by having a big game. Which works for me.
Today’s Tuitastic Lineup:
(Alex Avila a late scratch)
- Jackson, CF
- Hunter, RF
- Cabrera, 3B
- Fielder, 1B
- Martinez, DH
- Tuiasosopo LF
- Perez, 2B
Avila, CPena, C- Iglesias, SS
All of our five starting pitchers have over .500 records and four of the five have double digit wins ….. not bad.
Especially considering Max has snagged 17 of the wins for himself.
Tigers are also .500 or better against every division (and the NL), home and away, day and night games, grass and artificial turf, against RHP and LHP. The only place they fall short is 1-run and extra inning games.
I’ve got a good feeling about JV today. I think he’s got it figured out.
If you noticed a drastic drop in his ERA, it’s b/c MLB changed the scoring for the Dirks misplay 2 starts ago – those 4 4th inning runs are now all unearned.
I didn’t notice that, but that was the right call.
Kevin, no insult intended, but I have learned not to trust your gut either 😉
it may be an unfair comparison, but Porcello K’d ARod 2 of the 3 times he faced him… as did Rondon the only time he faced ARod. JV didn’t have the same results…so far
the fact that Fielder is not trying to pull everything and is hitting the ball to LF is an encouraging sign
Unless he is UNABLE to pull anything right now, which it would then be a bad sign.
good point
You have to wonder. As Coleman notes in the intro, where’s the power?
JV is s little fastball happy today.
hey Hunter we would have rather seen you take that pitch for ball four, seeing that it was 6 inches outside…..and have Miggy bat with therbases loaded…
We have had our chances to put up some crooked numbers so far today ….. but haven’t!
At least LA is putting it too the Indians.
CLE just took the lead 6-5 over LAA…top of 8th
Brutal at bat by Perez there.
Yeah, I may have been a little wrong today. JV still has time to make this a respectable start.
the BOOBs ave stranded 12 so far, not a good sign…
I can’t wait till we get Omar back ….. could be early next week ….. I hope. Perez?
Iglesias is really starting to grow on me ….. another nice DD pickup!
Tui is terrible today.
The results weren’t good, but I didn’t see a crappy at bat from him. Nor from the rest of team, all game, aside from one Perez strikeout.
The Tigers are terrible base runners.
squandered several opportunities to score today…
Ump clown show + Tigers clown show = Miggy solo HR not enough.
agreed!!!
Please check the time stamp on that.
duly noted
until that!
Mo Tigers, Mo problems!
Unbelievable.
Sometimes you just have to tip your cap.
And Mariano Rivera gets the W.
that’s whacked
w/MO, i’d like to see MLB either retire the ‘save’ stat or dramatically rework the criteria that qualifies for “a save”
Bummer. Exciting series, even though we lost 2 of 3.
Tigers on the road vs. CLE 9-1, everybody else: 23-27. Lots and lots and lots of walk-offs. Still some work to do.
Alex Avila went to Detroit instead of NY, then was cleared and went to NY, then was put in the Friday lineup then scratched, played Saturday, was put in today’s lineup then scratched, now he has been placed on the DL with a concussion. Hmm. Holaday called up.
Looking forward to more Pena starts. That guy’s just fun to watch. The hits don’t hurt, either, especially when they land in the second deck.
Losing 2 of 3 isn’t good, but you’ve gotta like the way they climbed back into the two they lost. The Tigers are still playing at that winning streak level. Pity the White Sox.