76-53, 1st place, 6 games up.
Three stars from last night –
1) Scherzer. He joins Rube Marquard (1912 New York Giants) and Roger Clemens (2001 Yankees) as the only pitchers to start 19-1.
2) Dirks – 3-3, 1 R.
3) Bullpen – 3 IP, 0 H, 1 K, 0 BB.
Three goats –
1) Brookens with an awfully late change from run to stop on Pena after the Scherzer double. Pena looked ridiculous trying to read Brookens.
2) Brookens sending Infante on the Fielder hit.
3) Brookens trying to send Cabrera on the ensuing Tui hit, which Cabrera correctly ignored.
I love going into Sunday’s game with the series in hand, as a sweep will be a tall task today. There aren’t many pitchers on a better roll than today’s Mets starter Dillon Gee. Over his last 10, Gee is 4-1 with a 2.10 ERA. He’s averaging nearly 7 innings per start and a 1.11 WHIP. (Actually, there is at least 1 pitcher who has been better over his last 10, but I don’t think it’s fair to compare normal humans to Scherzer).
Porcello looks to get the Ricky P train back on tracks after it was derailed last time out against Minnesota, when he gave up 5 ER in 4 1/3. Prior to that Porcello had won 5 decisions in a row. A win today would be his 10th, joining every other Tigers starter at the 10 win plateau. Our rotation is just flat out sick.
Tigers head home after the game today for 7 v. the A’s and Indians.
A few notes:
– Casper Wells gave up 5 ER in 2/3 of an inning last night after he was called in to pitch in the 18th…all 5 of those ER came with 2 outs.
– Every division leader in the Majors is within 2 games of each other (21 games over to 25 games over).
– Has anyone else noticed that TB has caught the Red Sox? And that after the Rangers were 6 games behind Oak a few weeks ago, they are now 2.5 games up (was 3.5 yesterday)?
I’ll get the lineups out in a bit.
Maybe Lamont was the best thirdbase coach in the majors.
No, Lamont was akin to having a scratchy throat as a third base coach while Brookens is akin to having chronic bronchitis. Neither is good, but one is worse than the other.
Wells was also 0 for 7 with 4 Ks at the bat. Not a good day for the ex-Tiger.
You can’t expect pitchers to hit.
It looks like the White Sox had used Wells to finish a game earlier this season, and he pitched a scoreless inning (1 BB, 1 K). Somehow that went under the radar. It looks like he has a decent fastball (93), but he really needs to develop another pitch.
Knuckleball. All baseball players experiment with the knuckleball. It’s something they play around with during warmups when they should be taking extra batting practice.
Lineups not out yet – someone please post. Headed out.
Enjoy your day, everyone.
1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, C
6. Dirks, LF
7. Infante, 2B
8. Santiago, SS
9. Porcello, P
Bad news: Iglesias is still unavailable (elbow, HBP).
I wonder if “Three-Goat” will stick as a nickname for Brookens.
42 for Miggy! A blast!
Mets announcers on Cabrera HR: Did they serve any food on that flight?
It didn’t long for Ricky P to surrender that lead, eh? Ricky coming back to down to earth to his fifth starter status after a terrific five start stretch. We might not get much more off of Gee. Need Ricky to hold it together for two more innings and give us a chance against the Mets bullpen.
Prince has zero approach at the plate. He is just up there hacking away.
Prince very often will take a first pitch fastball right down the middle only to hack at a coule of breaking balls that follow even if they are not in the strike zone or his hitting zone .He doesn’t seem to ever look for a fastball and passes up a lot of good ones…
Dirksy!! Now 6 for his last 15 at-bats. It will really help if he continues to hit.
Need Ricky to give us one more scoreless inning then turn it over to the ‘pen.
Porcello the best hitting pitcher on the team, Scherzer’s RBI double not withstanding. Every year he seems to get as knock or two in interleague play. I know Max hit .226 as a pitcher in ’09 with the D-Backs, but I really believe that Porcello could hit that well if he was a starter in the NL. The guy can swing the bat. If he could only figure out that pesky pitching thing he’d be on to something!
Fister is good too. Then there is that hack Verlander (you know it must drive him crazy).
Nice 7th inning by Porcello.
Dirks!!! atta boy!
I thought Porcello was very good today. We should make it a rule on DTW not to judge until the day is over for the SP (I’m as guilty as anyone). But 3 ER on 4 hits over 7 is pretty darn good.
Well said Kevin! Agree.
I just feel sorry for the Mets now.
wow this turned ugly …and fast…see ya METS!
Seems like V-Mart is handling catching duties OK. Here’s an idea: let him catch a bit against AL teams, and when he does have Miggy DH. I think we can get by with Tui, Kelly or Santiago at 3B once in a while, while giving Cabrera a break from having to play in the field without losing his bat.
I see TB signed DY earlier this week, although he hasn’t played yet. BI still unemployed.
A little late to the party, but here’s an animated gif of the 9th inning for those of you who missed it:
http://i.imgur.com/ZM6rZAB.gif
Nice.
How about Victor..up to .288…..