81-58, 1st place, when do magic numbers become a thing?
I’m up against the clock today, friends, so just a quick intro to get the discussion going.
You don’t see too many 0-4 nights for Cabrera, makes me wonder if he was really okay. He’s out again today, and now I really wish that he had sat yesterday.
Jason Beck did a whole post on yesterday’s Pena out at the plate; gist of it is that Leyland blindly supports his coaches, even when his coaches admit that they are wrong. We’ve discussed this before. This looks bad from the outside, but it’s part of the reason why players and staff are so unwavering in their admiration for Leyland. And he’s winning, so I’m okay with it.
Today’s Can We Win a Playoff Game Without Miggy* Lineup Is:
1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Fielder, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Dirks, LF
6. Kelly, 3B
7. Infante, 2B
8. Avila, C
9. Iglesias, SS
*Tigers are 10-2 without Miggy this year
with Cabrera sitting tonight, i’d give Castellanos a shot at 3B… and yes, I know JL said he wouldn’t play him at 3B…and Dempster is a righty (hence lefty Kelly)
Castellanos is not going to play 3B – ever.
BOS has won 7 of the last 8 Dempster started, even though he’s been fairly mediocre in those games.
In 4 career games against Porcello, BOS is batting .377 against him (ERA = 9.00); DET will need to go ‘Dempster diving’ to provide the run support necessary for a W.
Take heart. Lester’s numbers against the Tigers were horrible, too.
unfortunately history repeated itself, and Porcello’s (9.00) ERA against BOS actually got worse
Yeah. Wasn’t pretty, in the end. Done in by the long ball.
Had the team brain trust dealt with Miggy’s injury(s) properly he would be ready and 100% good to go for the playoffs. They have squeezed the lemon too hard and I doubt he will be anything but gimpy at the best when the playoffs roll around.
Individual player records are important for the brain trust too, since some of the gilt rubs off on them.
Miggy wasn’t willing to sit and it would have been a tough choice even if had been. The worry here subsided when he was hitting 11 HR in 20 games. The worry will again subside, I imagine, any time Cabrera is hitting well. But the situation remains the same and will for the rest of this season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this all crops up again next season. He’s been gimpy for two months.
Miggy’s been squeezing his own lemon. We’d all do the same, given the same lemon. No turning back now.
You’re right “no turning back now”. All we can do is see how everything shakes out.
Allowing Miggy to play while injured is going to come back and bite management where the sun don’t shine …… and it looks like it is starting to happen already!
Avila is not very good at baseball right now.
that could be the understatement of the evening
11 pitch AB, like VMart just had are brutal on one’s pitch count
the problem with the Avila thing is management will blame this season on the concussion even though he has been terrible since opening day..They will say we get him right physically and he will be the stud he never has been again….they will ignore the facts that he has less hits, runs, rbi, runners thrown out, than any starting catcher in baseball……but he does call a good game
by “management”, I guess that would include Vice President, Assistant General Manager, Al Avila
hard to believe these two lineups have been shut out more than any other two teams in all of baseball
Did I mention that Avila isn’t very good at baseball?
yes, but it bears repeating… every couple innings
Avila has one throw out steal attemot since the All Star break…I don’t recall it!!!
I think he has the final say….haha!..well what do you think dad…I mean Al
Avila had a VERY good season two years ago. But he appears to have Boesched.
Maybe he has been concussed longer than we think.
Got on late, what happened to Igles? Why is Porcello still pitching?
Iglesias left the game with bilateral shin splints and is day-to-day
…but meanwhile Avila says he “feels great”
Put him at shortstop.
If he really has shin splints he won’t recover until the offseason.
I’m more worried about losing Iglesias than Cabrera. Maybe it’s just the “no warning” aspect.
Yeah, Alburquerque with the bases loaded, that should work.,,
We need to have a little talk with Mr. Leyland about handling the pitching staff out in a dark corner of the parking lot after the game.
Why is AlAl still pitching? I mean at all.
Nearly as difficult to answer as “Why are we still watching?”
Train wrecks can be fascinating for some reason.
Yup. I’m still watching this one.
Al why didn’t u walk that first guy??? sheeesh!
Watching the replay, he knew what pitch was coming. Are we tipping pitches? Are they stealing signs? Or are our tendencies just too predictable?
OK “knew” is too strong a word. He was definitely looking for that pitch though.
that spiraled out of control in a hurry…beginning with JL bringing Porcello back to start the 6th inning…or leaving him in after he walked the Nava (leadoff)… and then bringing in ALBQ w/the bases loaded and nobody out?!?! …I mean c’mon!
Hey, Alburquerque nearly struck out the side. He has “great stuff.” A “wicked slider.” So what if he allows 7 runs to score every now and then.
The bottom line guys, is the fact that the Tigers ARE in firs place DESPITE Capt Mumbles and his cronies….Not because of them!!!!
Amen! Luis Pujols could mange this team to an AL Central title with all the talent on the roster plus the lack of talent on the other AL Central rosters in comparison. I totally agree that the Tigers win in spite of Ol’ Smoky and his band of blind third base coaches (Brookens and previously Lamont).
This is definitely an NPR game (Not Playoff Ready).
It was nice to see Quintin Berry, though. I notice he scored from 1B on a double. Is that allowed?
Porcello, it seems to me, consistently looks and pitches tired by the 6th inning. Odd for a young guy.
I have heard rumors that teams can score a lot at Fenway.
Hearsay.
This is actually a pitcher’s duel, and the Tigers are clearly much better tonight at throwing BP.
Bondo! Gettin’ it done.
Evan Reed’s warming up. Does this mean surrender?
Well one good thing is that this kind of game brings their pathagorean more into line.
That was the plan. Leyland’s no fool. He knows the value of an in-line Pythagorean.
Is this better or worse than some of those games against the Angels?
I mean, at least they have the excuse “vs. Red Sox at Fenway” here.
I’d like to see the Red Sox try an on-side kick here, to see if they can run up the score. It could be useful for tie-break purposes at playoff time.
The Red Sox need all the runs they can get, because I see the Tigers battling back into this one.
Lots of ballgame left.
You bet. Martinez was robbed there. Dirks, too. The Red Sox luck is gonna run out. Tigers are on the cusp here.
The tying run is at the plate…. 5 games from now.
Seems like they’re on something.
Yeah. #%^*!
Excellent time for a day off tomorrow.
You said it. I’d hate to have to write a game post with this one fresh in memory.
How many home runs for Boston now? 10? I’ve lost count.
An out is recorded!
I’m guessing 3 (maybe 4) of the guys pitching for the Tigers tonight won’t be back next year. And I’m not basing that on just this one outing, but let’s say tonight put an exclamation point on what I would describe as questionable value.
Yes, exclamation point. All joking around aside, I’m disappointed to see bullpen guys get knocked around in situations like this. I’m watching to see them pitch as if the score didn’t matter, like it’s just another opportunity to excel. And when they do pitch well in a hopeless cause, I’m not less impressed by it. Bondo and Reed were just sad.
Leyland to relief pitchers: “Let’s get this thing over and get outta here. Don’t worry about finessing ’em, just throw fastballs”.
Boston manager Farrell to Red Sox hitters: “They just want to get out of here. They’ll throw nothing but fastballs. Batting practice. Have fun”.
The headline:
“Jim Leyland says Tom Brookens was wrong to question himself: ‘I thought it was a great call'”
What would be funny is if Brookens admitted he was wrong to question himself…
“Jim Leyland says Tom Brookens was wrong to question questioning himself: ‘I thought it was a great question'”
Infinite possibilities here. It all ends with Brookens going to manage the Mud Hens and leaving us in peace, a happy ending indeed.
Tigers were 1-4 RISP….I knew it would cost them someday…today…haha. they needed to be 22-25
It’s just one loss. Still gonna win the Central.
It might not be the last time they face the Red Sox this year, either. If they need a little extra motivation then, maybe they should remember this game.
Yeah. Not very encouraging though as far as a playoff preview. And–partly because of this series–the majority of that playoff game will be in Fenway.
The only really important issue from this game though is the status of Iglesias.
That should be “playoff series” above, not “playoff game.”
Probably, but is amazing how drastically different a loss like this can make me feel about our chances to finally bring Ilitch a World Series title. I was encouraged to see the Tigers engage in playoff type baseball the last two nights at Fenway. After tonight those games seem as if they were played a month ago.
The other worrisome thing is that CLE just won’t fold up the tents and go away. Lead back down to where it was a week ago, 6.5 games. The lead was 8.5 games after opening this series with a win two nights ago. Next on tap for the Indians: the Mets in CLE. We all saw how “dynamic” that Mets team was two weekends ago. Yeesh.
Not only that, but we face Big Game James on Friday, Duffy (who baffled us the last time KC was in town), and Bruce Chen who generally shuts us down (although we got to him in the most recent series versus the Royals). As a “glass half empty” kind of guy, color me worried that this race is about to get uncomfortably close again.
Good thing is, CLE faces KC six times. They also have a series with TEX at some point soon….and they are done with us.
Not an ideal situation for them, obviously. They are rather annoying though…I’ll give you that. The division isn’t the laughingstock that the media predicted in April.