2013 Season, Game Post

Game 2013.153: Mariners at Tigers

82 Comments

88-64, 1st place. The Indians lost. Or maybe they won. Whatever. (I’m pretty sure they lost. I’m going to go out on a limb and say the magic number is down to 5.)

Last night: Seattle 8, Detroit 0. The Tigers got in some early World Series practice. #5 starter Justin Verlander carried a no-hitter into the second inning. Was Iwakuma that good, or were the Tigers that bad? Two bases-loaded situations early came to naught. The bullpen came on to save us from a dull, ordinary shutout loss. And how about that Phil Cuzzi strike zone, eh?

Cabrera: The best hitter on the planet wasn’t.
Fielder: Got the Tigers on the just foul board with a just foul HR.
Martinez: IF single! Honest. Stole a base! OK, it was a wild pitch.
Tuiasosopo: Struck out with the bases loaded. Extenuating circumstances, but still. Busy in LF. Has a Scrappy Guy thing going, apparently.
Perez: Good energy. Seriously.
Other Guys: There, somewhere, if the box score is to be believed.
Verlander: Don’t be surprised if the crafty veteran edges out Smyly for a spot in the rotation next year.
Coke: DFA.
Alburquerque: Clown Showque. Not often you can give the pitcher alone both a wild pitch and a passed ball on one play that scores 2 runs with 0 for 97 Henry “Tattoos Age Poorly” Blanco at the plate. Too early for the WS, but a classic nonetheless.
Putkonen: Go ahead, add insult to injury. Why not.

AlburCokey lives again!

Now the time is here
AlburCokey will spread fear
Vengeance from the grave
Kill the Tigers they once saved

But I’m not bitter.

Still time for Detroit to take this series the way they should. Day game, Doug Fister on the slab. Eventually, given enough games and at bats, the Tigers could – in theory – hit a Mariners starter. I propose a series extension. I’m sure the White Sox would prefer a trip to sunny L.A.. As well they should.

82 thoughts on “Game 2013.153: Mariners at Tigers”

  1. always nice to see a Sabbath reference.

    as for the ‘current state of this team’… seems to be more questions than answers during this stretch run…i’m not getting the warm & fuzzy feeling heading into the playoffs – and maybe from the contrarian perspective, that’s a good thing.

    1. Always good to see someone who *recognizes* a Sabbath reference.

      Funny that they also have the song “WAR Pigs.” Saber guys should be all over that song.

  2. This isn’t even funny. And to think “they” may make Verlander the starting pitcher in game one of the playoffs, OMG. That is if they even make it to the playoffs, I also have no fuzzy warm feeling about that either. If the Tigers don’t get the BATS and the Pitching going it will be over in 4 games. The bullpen sucks, except for a couple of guys, and the bats seam to have gone up in smoke. I have never seen so many BAD swing and misses in my long time of watching the Tigers on TV. Better get it Going and Keep it Going Boys, or you too will be going (Home for the winter). I Love the Tigers, it’s so sad to see them playing so bad at this time of the year, I hope they can turn it around.

    1. They’ll make the playoffs. Just a bad spell, in which they’ve been able to play .500 ball. Every team goes through streaks like this.

      1. They’re in the playoffs. In like Flynn. No worries there. How far they’ll get…

        We all get frustrated by the bad or mediocre stretches. Myself, I get alarmed by really bad plays, like Santiago and Martinez letting the nearly-fair popup drop. How embarrassing that must have been. However, I try not to let myself get carried away into criticism that the team isn’t trying or doesn’t care, etc.. You’d just hate to have it all go up in smoke because of some terrible misplay. Or a terrible 3B coach.

  3. Maybe when you make 5-20 million a year and you NEVER held accountable for anything you do on the job you just show up and go at it the next day. Your position on the team is secure, the manager loves you, and that 100,000-500,000 dollar paycheck will be there every other friday no matter what you do….that my friends is the life of a Detroit Tiger…nice gig!!!

    1. High tax bracket, though. That’s gotta blow.

      Seriously… would paying them less and making their jobs more insecure make them work harder and play better? Would that work on us?

  4. Where is Kevin when we need a “They’ll be OK. We’re fine”? 😉

    Seriously, I don’t think yesterday’s loss is that big of a deal. Iwakuma is good – very, very good. The Big Boys can’t do it all by themselves every day, and they were accompanied by several of the Itty Bitty bench guys – not a recipe for a lot of runs against a pitcher of quality. Plus Verlander was Verlander and Coke was Coke – not a recipe for preventing a lot of runs. The good news is that Coke got shut down with arm soreness. When they medically evaluate him perhaps they will find out he has had soreness for the last two years, which would go a long way to explaining his crapitude in that time. Anyway, Coke going on the shelf should be cause for relief as we should no longer (!?) have to worry about him being on the post season roster. Gratitude my friends, gratitude.

      1. When they medically diagnose Coke, I think the official diagnosis will be “crapitude.” The arm soreness is a psychosomatic side effect.

  6. 1. Austin Jackson, CF
    2. Torii Hunter, RF
    3. Miguel Cabrera, DH
    4. Prince Fielder, 1B
    5. Victor Martinez, C
    6. Omar Infante, 2B
    7. Matt Tuiasosopo, LF
    8. Ramon Santiago, 3B
    9. Jose Iglesias, SS

    Thursday Getaway Day Lineup.

    1. Actually not bad. Miggy gets a break, Tui gets a shot at getting back on the post season roster, and V-Mart gets some C time in in preparation for the WS. Santiago has been decent lately.

      1. Yeah, not delivering the big hit despite repeated opportunities (when he gets any opportunity at all). Tui isn’t bad defensively and has some versatility, but he lives and dies by the bat far more than Dirks or Kelly just the same. I think he’ll get his shot at starting in LF elsewhere. Still think he’s good, still know that he’s not a fit for the Tigers long-term.

        On the other hand, I don’t think any position player will be dropping off the playoff roster based on September. Peralta will be added to the bench, and there will be no other changes. Why *would* there be?

  9. het Tui the guy threw 9 consecutive balls…you take a strike or…if that was your pitch you gotta do more than ground out to second!!!

  10. Hey Y’all…Dan and Dave says the Tigers are selling Suites for the Playoffs. Let’s pass the hat at DTW and collect enough to buy one to enjoy the playoffs together. I’ll take a seat in the suite between Loon and Kevin along with a can of Strohs and my scorebook!

      1. Deal. Haven’t had a Stroh’s in a while. They still make it? Why? (To think I used to drink it…) No, really, I’d try one. The taste of nostalgia.

        1. It’s not the same stuff now–now it’s made by PBR. I wonder what happened to the old copper kettles? Got to find some of the vintage stuff.

          1. Stroh’s made by Pabst? That’s.. that’s… well, it’s unnatural, is what it is. Those were the rival beers when and where I grew up. I did see a Stroh’s can a few years back and it didn’t look the same at all. It’s not Stroh’s without that can, no doubt about it. Actually, it’s mostly about the can. Same with Pabst, really. Grainy, awful stuff, but you can’t beat that color scheme and logo.

            It could have been worse. In some places, people grew up with Old Style. OLD STYLE! The stuff that makes Milwaukee’s Best taste like [insert your favorite quality beer here].

      1. Why didn’t Iglesias bail on that pitch? I guess only he could answer that. Glad it’s only a bad bruise.

  13. hey Tigs I know hard hard it is for you to score 3 and bang out 5 hits..but it ain’t going to be enough today!!!

    1. … but Infante did single after Victor. On the other hand, Martinez couldn’t have scored. On the other hand, why wait one more batter to pinch run Perez? On the other hand, it was a hard single by Infante that Perez might have had a hard time scoring on. On the other hand, why on earth would you send Dirks to bat against Furbush? If you don’t want Tui, you’ve got Pena, Castellanos, Scherzer… Oh well. They won.

      Prince was out. Horrible slide, tucking instead of extending the leg. Awful. “Work hard” on your baserunning skills when you have some time, Prince. On the other hand, poor tag by Zunino (close, but I think he had time to bring it down instead of tagging Fielder in the face). Zunino set himself up for the call he got.

      The worst of it is that Fielder hadn’t even touched 3B when the LF was picking up the ball. That means HOLD HIM. Brookens… is his judgment that poor, or is it a combination of poor eyesight and bad judgment, or…? What? The Tigers got lucky, but I am so fed up with this that you can put me on the bandwagon with the haters. I am so ready for Leyland and his band of idiots to head out of town after the season is over.

    1. Winning teams have the calls go their way more often than not I think. Remember the number of close calls that went against in the bad old days?

  20. Congratulations Mr. Dirks, you now lead the team in striking out with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 out.

      1. Castellanos of course, and he even plays LF. The cynical side of me wants to think that Leyland can only count to 24.

  23. as much as I am against allowing Peralta to come back I have had it with Dirks and Tui…they both add nothing to the team…

    1. I’m not going to give him too much credit for striking out Nick Franklin with 2 outs and a man on 1B. It’s an out, job done, OK. Still remembering a few recent outings where the job wasn’t done. I seem to have a better memory for those things.

  26. It should be duly noted that lately Leyland has been going with the LHP vs RHB and RHP vs LHB matchup philosophy. Good for surprise value and you have to keep them sharp.

  28. and duly noted Mumbles should have done that LHP- RHB etc with Coke last night…he gave up two bombs to RH hitters..even though it didn’t mean much with the shuout!!!

    1. Well said.

      We will clinch our 3rd AL Central title in a row this weekend. I know the division has been down (although its decent this year), but I swore never to take any playoff appearance for granted after suffering through 20 years of irrelevancy.

  30. Where does Benoit rank in Tiger MVPs this year?

    1a & 1b) Scherzer/Cabrera
    3) Sanchez
    4) Benoit?

  32. Cleveland isn’t even thinking division…they are in a death struggle for a wild card spot..it will go right to the last day!!

  33. Tigers pitchers have 1,323 strikeouts, five more than the previous team record set last year

    the 2003 Chicago Cubs have the MLB record with 1,404…though a bit easier in the NL w/pitchers batting

    1. We have a great chance at breaking that this year. This could be looked at as one of the best rotations in a long time.

    1. a funny quote to go along with it:

      While Fielder grabbed a chip, he resisted the urge to dip it in the cheese.

      “I thought about dipping in the cheese, but he might double dip,” Fielder said.

      Asked how the fan reacted, Fielder said: “I don’t think he even noticed it.”

        1. I enjoyed seeing that nacho move, but the inning went south right after that. It seemed to have a bad effect on Fister. Maybe he noticed and got offended that his first baseman was snacking after not getting to the (unreachable) foul ball.

          2. Fister looks like he lays off the nachos. Prince would’ve never tried that in Milwaukee with CC Sabathia on the mound without sharing.

  36. In the if you can’t beat him, sign him category, if the Tigers got Iwakuma, where would they find an interpreter who speaks fluent Japanese and mumbles…

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