2013 Season, Game Post

Game 2013.124: Royals at Tigers

33 Comments

72-51, 1st place, 6 up on Cleveland and 7.5 on KC. Ho-hum, just another day…

Miggy2

As you can see, Miggy pounded the ball into a misshapen lump and shot it right out of the screen.

OH! How sweet it is. A game like last night’s 6-5 win over the Royals is one of those up and down, back and forth affairs where you’re telling yourself near the end, “Well, no matter what, it was a good game,” knowing full well that if the Tigers lose, what you’ll really feel is what Kevin has expressed so well: “I hate baseball.” Well, we LOVE baseball now, don’t we? The Tigers had to pull this one out, to avenge the blown call and the ejections. Just like against the Phillies. Yeah.

Before Miggy brought us into his legend yet again, it went sorta like this:

The Squeeze: Can you believe it? Leyland called it, Iglesias and Infante executed perfectly, and you would not be mistaken to call this play every bit the game winner Cabrera’s home run was.

The Blown Call: Terrible call on the “WP,” aka Escobar foul ball. Unforgivably bad. But if you think the tying run scored because of it, I say you’re stretching it.

The clutch: Miggy’s double to put the Tigers up 4-3. Wasted. Prince’s shot to put the Tigers up 5-4 (view the video frame-by-frame, and his bat is still a blur). Wasted.

The narrow escapes: Fister all evening. How did he manage to go 6.1? Great curve, though, and I suppose he got nickel-and-dimed – and clown-showed – some. Veras by the skin of his teeth (and some Princely body parts), and the usual Benoit Show.

The Clown Show: The Pena throwing error. The Holaday throwing error (which the Amazing Mr. Iglesias has a share in; Holaday’s second crap throw on a SB was all on him.) Santiago’s ridiculous error which should absolutely be ruled an error. What was he looking at? Was he awake when the ball was hit? The game itself nearly bounced past him. Sheesh.

Anyway…

I was thinking about the (now) 60-23 in quality starts and the flip side of it, 12-28 in non-quality starts. And eventually came up with:

Hats off to the starter wins: 60
Decent non-QS + win: 5
Bad non-QS rescued by bats/bullpen: 7

QS wasted by bats and/or bullpen: 23
Blame the starter losses: 13
Non-QS blown by the bullpen: 8
Non-QS blown by the bats: 4
Decent non-QS blown by the bullpen: 2
Decent non-QS blown by the bats: 1

If that doesn’t blow you away, I’m guessing you would also say that Miggy is “putting up decent numbers.” Yeah. He’s batting a “solid” .358.

Wondering whether there’s anyone who gets Miguel Cabrera out took me down the following avenue. I invite you to check out the following matchups. If you’re too lazy to look up the numbers yourself, I’ll do you a favor by giving you the hint “first name = good news, second name = bad news.” I could have mixed it up just to confuse you:

Miguel Cabrera v Phil Hughes… and v David Price
Prince Fielder v Ervin Santana… and v Kevin Correia
Victor Martinez v David Price… and v C.J. Wilson (and Doug Fister, for laughs)
Torii Hunter v Jon Lester… and v Clay Buchholz
Austin Jackson v Luke Hochevar… and v Chris Sale
Omar Infante v Mike Pelfrey… and v Mark Beuhrle
Alex Avila v Jeremy Guthrie… and v Corey Kluber
Brayan Pena v Derek Holland… and v Chris Sale*
Don Kelly v Justin Masterson… and v Phil Hughes
Matt Tuiasosopo v Gio Gonzalez… and v John Danks
Ramon Santiago v Bartolo Colon… and v Felix Hernandez
Andy Dirks v Jeremy Guthrie… and v Ubaldo Jimenez
Justin Verlander v Nick Swisher… and v Billy Butler
Max Scherzer v Alexei Ramirez… and v Alex Gordon
Anibal Sanchez v Josh Willingham… and v Seth Smith
Doug Fister v Asdrubal Cabrera…. and v Michael Brantley
Rick Porcello v Alexei Ramirez… and v Carlos Santana
Joaquin Benoit v Derek Jeter… and v Lance Berkman
Jose Veras v Alex Rios… and v Kevin Youkilis
Phil Coke v Denard Span/Ben Zobrist… and v Chris Davis
Al Alburquerque v Asdrubal Cabrera.. and v Alex Rios
Drew Smyly v Joe Mauer… and v Paul Konerko

*Here’s some consolation: Martinez, Hunter, and Tuiasosopo eat him alive.

I don’t know what the following means, but we like to look at numbers, so here are some more to look at. This is combined runs & the Tigers record in corresponding games:

< 5: 12-14

6 – 11: 41-26

12 +: 19-11

I guess it might be a bit of a surprise that Detroit is so close to .500 in the < 5 category.

And now more from the Let’s Be Appreciative department:

1. Let’s not forget that at the time of his suspension, Jhonny Peralta was arguably the best all-around SS in the American League. His contribution to the success of the team was not small. I doubt that PEDs had anything to do with it. Plus, he kind of brought us Jose Iglesias. Could be a retroactive MVP thing happening here.

2. Last night’s game notwithstanding, the Tigers have become a pretty good defensive team while we weren’t looking. With the addition of Iglesias, I’d say more than a shade above average. The only liabilities that come to mind are 3B Cabrera (and this is moderated by his ability to confuse you with great plays), IF Santiago (not be confused with a late-inning defensive replacement at ANY position any longer, I’m afraid), and maybe the catchers, slightly. OK, some of the pitchers are pretty scary (in the wrong way) as defenders. OK, so maybe the Tigers are merely average defensively. That’s still an improvement. It’s trending upward.

3. As Coleman pointed out, AlburCokey(TM) appeared in two consecutive games on the same day without a) increasing its ERA, b) blowing a lead or a tie, or c) frightening us badly. I’m not sure what to make of it, but this has to be called good news, even in a losing cause.

Looking ahead (never too early to speculate), it goes without saying that some 2013 Tigers won’t be 2014 Tigers. The following ordered list of “top prospects” isn’t a wish list, but an educated guess list. Some of it’s pretty obvious:

1. Octavio Dotel
2. Jhonny Peralta
3. Ramon Santiago
4. Matt Tuiasosopo
5. Phil Coke
6. Al Alburquerque
7. Doug Fister
8. Joaquin Benoit
9. Alex Avila

In an earlier draft I made the flip comment that Dotel and Avila would be retiring. The notion of Avila retiring is pretty bizarre speculation. But hasn’t he struck you all season as a guy who doesn’t want to be there? I mean, seriously. And he would seem to have an off-the-field career in baseball ahead of him, yes? Maybe it’s not so bizarre to speculate that we would take a few years off from the grind for family reasons before coming back to the organization in another capacity. That speculation aside, the catching situation in 2014 is ripe for all kinds of speculation.

Max Scherzer’s only non-quality start since May 21* was an 8 IP, 4 R affair against Texas that you’d have to call decent and winnable; it’s where he took his only loss of the season. In Detroit, sadly enough. He’s faced the Royals twice, first time at home not so good (but a win), next time in KC an outstanding effort (and win). Is there anyone else we’d rather have on the mound today looking for the series win? I’m thinking that the bats have awakened now – nap time was Friday. Nap time is over.

*By my calculations, that is about 3 months ago.

Go Max. Go Miggy. Go Tigers. I don’t like Matt Tuiasosopo. Never did, never will. His flash in the pan time has come to an end. I hope he’s not even in the lineup today. Bruce Chen is going to hang 3/4 of a golden sombero on him if he is, and he’ll probably commit 7 errors in LF and get thrown out at home twice (despite never reaching base)…

33 thoughts on “Game 2013.124: Royals at Tigers”

  1. I don’t have so much of a problem with the blown call. Umpires are human. Players make errors, umpires blow calls, it happens. The difference is that the players don’t get to be prickly lunkheads about it afterwards. The umpires seem to have very quick triggers these days for ejections (especially for the Tigers it seems, but that may be home team bias). Cabrera and Pena both were ejected for saying things without even looking at the umps or gesturing; in the old days that was called not showing up the umpire and was rewarded with a longer leash. It seems the more the umpires get questioned (replay, anyone?), the more you get the umpires playing the Authority Card.

    1. “We work on comebackers every day in spring training…”

      What about after spring training?

  4. I forgot to mention a crucial play in the game, the last Royals out. The bunt by Getz was a good one, and Prince made the only play he could and a very good one on it (I wonder if Fielder getting hit in the uh-ohs the inning before had anything to do with testing him here). Getz acted like Prince had missed the tag. The one replay I saw was from an angle you wouldn’t use to determine the matter in a court of law. But I’m taking it as a good play on both sides where the correct call was made. It was big, but I was still reeling from the Cabrera HR and forgot to mention it.

  6. Last season Miggy finished on a hot streak. From Aug 1 til the end (57 games): .344/.411/.670/.1.081 AB/HR: 11.16 19 Hr, .54 RBI

    This year he is even hotter (although maybe he won’t be able to keep up his current pace). From Aug 1 til last night (14 games): 356/.424/.780/1.204, AB/HR: 8.43, 7 HR 18 RBI.

    When do opposing pitchers start to wise up and begin intentionally walking him more frequently?

  7. we talk about Miggy so much because we should ….we somewhat overlook the dominance of Mad Max over the past 18 months…Pretty amazing in itself.

    1. Part of that is that Scherzer only dominates every 5th game, while Miggy dominates every game.

  8. even though the Tigs only pick up one game in the standings if were fortunate enough to hang on today…Yesterday and today aren’t daggars to KC…they are bombs…just like Cleveland last week

    1. agree that it has to hurt KC. they were thinking about possibly being 4.5 back, now it’s 8.5.

      long way to go yet, but hopefully that will cool KC off.

  9. what year was it when a Tiger catcher last threw out an attempted sttealer….and what is the record for consecutive steals given up?

    1. The catcher position, like LF, is a rotation of so-so players. You may have to go back to the I-Rod era.

  10. another amazing thing about what Miggy is doing is the number of pitchers he is doing it against..Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Rose, and Bonds somewhat would get 4 AB against the same pitcher..Miggy alot of times sees 2-3-4 different pitchers each game.

    1. Miggy apparently subscribes to the “see the ball, hit the ball” theory. I wonder if he even needs to show up for those pre-game strategy sessions where the players talk about and review what the current opposing starter is throwing, etc. He’s just a naturally great hitter and it doesn’t seem to make any difference who is dishing it up to him.

      1. Career lines:
        vs RHP: .321/.387/.570/.957
        vs LHP: .322/.435/.570/1.005
        Nobody is safe.
         

  11. I did read an article about how much time he spends studying pitchers….but the article also said how he can remember what almost every pitcher has done to try and get him out!

  12. That will be Max’s last inning I suppose. Let’s tack on some insurance runs to insulate us from any potential blowpen action.

  18. the Tigers are on pace to win 95+ wins…in order for KC or Cleveland to get to 95 they need to do some serious winning on a pace they have not been able to do so far.

  19. The Tuiasosopo reverse jinx didn’t work so well. Laid it on a bit thick, reverse jinxed him right out of the lineup.

    I guess only the unintentional reverse jinx stands a chance, See Santiago.

  20. I think the Miggy and Max show is my favorite, and hope that it is still on well into October, and possibly November

    1. C Alex Avila was eligible to come off the seven-day disabled list for concussed players, but Detroit is taking the conservative approach. He might not be ready when the Tigers start a series on Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins.

      i wonder if DET didn’t have Pena, and/or if Avila was hitting better than .200 if they’d be taking “the conservative approach”

  22. Now that the Royals 5 game series is safely over, the Tiger’s magic number is 32.

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