2013 Season, Playoffs

Game 2013. Playoffs 3: Athletics at Tigers

64 Comments

1-1, 10 games to go.

Relax. Take a deep breath. The Tigers own home field advantage for the rest of the ALDS. Yes, the hitting is a concern. Dare I say a grave one. But offense can be restored as quickly as it was lost, and this offense is simply too good to disappear forever. As KW pointed out, just look at what the Giants did (or didn’t do) during their first playoff series last year. They certainly didn’t have any problem scoring runs in the World Series.

Anibal Sanchez takes the rock this afternoon. Our #3 playoff starter is the reigning AL ERA leader. How sick is that? He was incredible during last year’s WS run, posting a 1.77 ERA and .192 BAA despite a 1-2 record. He allowed 2 ER on 5 hits in 6 1/3 in Game 3 of last year’s ALDS versus Oakland, but I feel confident that things will be better today.

Selected Sanchez Splits for 2013:

– v. Oak: 1-0, 12 IP, 3.75 ERA, 1.25 WHIP (7 BBs), .596 OPS

– Day games: 4-3, 3.23 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, .589 OPS

– at Comerica: 8-3, 2.70 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, .606 OPS

Same for Jarrod Parker

v. Det: 0-1, 3.1 IP, 21.60 ERA, 3.30 WHIP, 1.345 OPS

– Day Games: 5-3, 4.32 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, .705 OPS

Johnny Peralta will get his first start of the series in LF this afternoon. Unfortunately, Dirks and Kelly have been so bad against righties this year, that Peralta’s .750 OPS versus righties will be a remarkable improvement.

It’s expected to be overcast with temperatures in the upper 50s this afternoon.

A few notes:

– Cabrera has reached base in every postseason game he’s played in – 26 in a row now.

– Today’s game will be exclusively broadcast on the MLB Network.

– For the A’s, Josh Donaldson moves to the No. 2 spot and Jed Lowrie falls to third. Seth Smith will DH for a second straight game. He’s 6-for-17 with two career homers off Anibal Sanchez.

Today’s Take the Series Lead Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, LF
7. Avila, C
8. Infante, 2B
9. Iglesias, SS

1:07pm ET start today. So take a long lunch.

 

64 thoughts on “Game 2013. Playoffs 3: Athletics at Tigers”

  1. Lets see..LA is scoring, Atlanta is scoring, Boston is scoring, Tampa is scoring, StLouis is scoring, and Pittsburgh are all scoring runs…that means something is seriously wrong here!!..I even saw Mark McGuire talking to Adrian Gonzales about hitting, actually during the game last night. And I thought all hitting coaches just stood all game long leaning over the dugout fence just staring out into space…..

  2. With Cabrera reduced to a merely human singles hitter, the whole key to the Detroit offense becomes Austin Jackson, and he has been horrible, and getting colder by the game. He has done this before, and then suddenly gotten hot. Let’s hope one of those hot streaks begins very, very soon.

    1. I take a little of that back–he did get a double in the first game. I do think he is the key to the Detroit offense right now.

  3. Ok…got the game TIVO’ed while I am at work where I maintain the mantra “the Tigers will hit, the Tigers will score; the Tigers will pitch, the A’s will K!” Thanks for soothing my sole Kevin until I get home and watch the match!

  4. Kevin…sorry to nitpick but Smith has 3 homers (instead of 2) in 17 ABs against Sanchez.

    1. Also Game 5 would be played in Oakland on 10OCT13 as another 9PM start.

  5. Bah. That’s 5 strikeouts in a row for KJax. Not the best omen. Followed up by Torii hacking at the first pitch.

  7. Watching live on MLB, Jhonny has two F7s, and honestly looked pretty comfy… love Jim “Kitty” Kaat on the mike, and thought his partner showed his lack of baseball savvy by suggesting that Chili Davis, the A’s hitting coach advised his hiiters to try to hit the ball to left. WE WILL HIT and score runs, patience my brothers… hey the Dodgers scored 13, it can happen here too….

    1. Horrible error. The broadcasters thought Miguel was carrying on later in the dugout, complaining about the condition of the infield. No idea if that’s true. Pretty weak if it is.

      1. I thought the same. But later in the game Iglesias caught his spikes in the dirt, stumbled, and couldn’t make the play. Hmm.

        1. You mean the condition of the infield? You’re right, it’s something to consider. I should let Miggy off the hook. A complaint (an assumed one at this point) can look bad without being bad. Maybe it’s not “making excuses.”

          Even so, horrible error. I thought the Iglesias play was just “one of those things.” Just getting to that ball and gloving it gets him some points, at least compared to an ordinary shortstop.

  12. 20 scoreless innings, the pitching can only hold up so long under that kind of pressure. Tigers might be toast.

  14. Miggy’s injury was turning point of our season. Should we have put him on DL? If we did, we might not have made playoffs. He played through it and now he is only a below average to average singles hitter. He carried us up till mid August. Sad to see him play this way. Pitching has been great.

    1. Isn’t that Smokey’s modus operendi ….. leaving pitchers in one batter too long.

    1. The drive Cabrera hit to right center in the 4th would of been out if he was 100%. While sad no legs in his swing; it’s been a long September for him.

  22. I’m remarkably unaffected by the performance today. I think that professionals call this “denial.”

    1. Or a manager who can manage. The players are flat, but this series could and likely should be 2-0. The way the ninth inning was handled last night is inexcusable.

      1. “The players are flat…”
        A recurring theme during the Leyland Era. You’d think that because they all love him so much this woudn’t happen so frequently.

        1. The 9th inning Saturday: Well, I didn’t really want to see Alburquerque back out there, but I can’t think of any guaranteed alternative to it. Once a man was on 3B with none out, nothing but desperation was possible. I can see bringing in your top ground ball pitcher there after the IBB, hoping against hope, but I can also see leaving Alburquerque in there to get the strikeouts you know he can get, even at the risk of the wild pitch. Still, our goose was pretty much cooked at that point, and 9 innings without a run from the offense did most of the cooking. Can’t reasonably call that a game blown by the bullpen, or the manager of the bullpen, nor did Leyland or McClendon have any bad ABs.

          We (including me) like to blame one guy, and many like that one guy to be Leyland, but it’s the team that lost Saturday, and the team that lost today.

          1. The team is losing because, to some extent, they are not prepared. At this level the little things (fundamentals and also mental attitude/toughness) can mean the difference between victory and defeat. That’s the manager’s responsibility. His role is to mold 25 guys into a team. Otherwise you just have 25 individual ballplayers on a roster. Every year for eight years the Tigers exhibit many (and sometimes long) periods of “flatness”. Teams go into slumps of course, but it is a regular occurrence with these guys. A good manager “manages” to minimize this.

          2. For the record, I don’t fault Leyland for bringing in Porcello once the bases were loaded. He could have even stayed with Al-Al at that point. Six to one, half a dozen to the other (although Al-Al does make me nervous with bases loaded given his wild side).

            The problem was bringing in Al-Al to start the ninth. Where has Veras been this entire series? Even if you bring in Porcello to start the inning, that would have been acceptable.

            The optimal choice is to let Veras pitch the ninth and hand the ball to Porcello in extras until you score and need Benoit.

            Bringing in Al-Al when you have both Veras and Porcello rested is probably the single most prominent decision that cost the Tigers game two. Yes, the hitters are flat and the Tigers could have lost another way later on, but it’s hard enough to win these games on a level playing field, all other things being equal, let alone on a playing field skewed by absolutely asinine managerial decisions.

            Get back to me this time tomorrow if I proclaim this particular asinine decision was the one that cost the Tigers the series… (and Ilitch his long overdue WS trophy)

  25. Two positives from the game: one, they actually scored some runs, for the first time in 20 innings. Two, they lost angry, thanks to Crazy Closer. Maybe that will wake them up.

      1. That would take 9 runs, wouldn’t it? .sdrawkcab tsop txen ym etirw ll’I ,snur enin erocs sregiT eht fI

  27. I also think the Tigers should protest the game. I am pretty sure Cespedes came up to bat every inning; I think they had him playing outfield and DH, and batting twice.

  28. i think Crisp does the samething..plus he gets to go one base whether or not he makes an out!!

    1. Yes, it would be a shame. We’ve all invested plenty in this season. I was rather hoping that the one season I took the time to live and breathe Tigers baseball day in and day out from the beginning of spring training to the end would end in glory to rival ’68 and ’84. Still and all, not a waste. No matter what happens tomorrow.

    2. I concur, Kevin, we deserve better, and hopefully we get to go back to Dogpatch for game 5 and reverse our road numbers….

    2. Then again, I loved Victor’s reaction and the opportunity to hear some uncensored “English as it’s truly spoken” on live TV.

      1. Jim, I think it was a combination of overindulgence and abuse. It’s how monsters are created.

        OK, Balfour isn’t a monster. But certainly an excitable boy (they all said).

  32. What little we got to see of Peralta in LF wasn’t bad at all. The throw on the sac fly wasn’t bad. Trouble is, the attempt would not have even been made on Dirks or Kelly.

    1. His throw looked like a shortstop throwing across the infield. He definitely should’ve hit the cutoff man.

  33. Bullpen was outstanding. Alvarez, Veras. Gotta hand it to them. Real bright spot. This is the rare ’13 game where you can lay it squarely on the starter. Yes, I was thinking “get Sanchez out of there” before Smith came up, like everyone. One batter too long, indeed. Didn’t mean Anibal had to give up a HR. His pitch. Not Leyland’s. Alvarez has been known to come in and be a punching bag. Coulda happened there, too.

  34. Nice to see that brief, shining moment where Jhonny tied it. I saw it all going the Tigers way at that point. How quickly it changed.

  35. Hard to believe that the A’s have struck out 40 of their 80 outs and we’re 1 game away from elimination. I hope our batters wake up along with JL so that perhaps the finest starting pitching staff in history gets a chance at the Red Sox. I do not want this season to end on such a feeble effort with hardly one ball hit deep much less no HR so far.

    1. Strikeouts are overrated–they are just another unproductive out, like a pop up or line drive to 3rd– and with the A’s are a result of 1) being selective–notice how many 3-2 counts they end up in, and 2) swinging for the fences, which apparently works sometimes.

  38. I was there yesterday and heading back today. Hope people enjoy the game and the fact that it’s not over. Crowd was super tense yesterday.

  39. Yeah, the crowd was disappointing yesterday in terms of noise. The Oakland fans are crazy right from the start and throughout the game, even if the A’s are losing. Our fans seemed to sit on their hands until the three run rally in the 4th. After that they were pretty quiet until the benches cleared in the 9th. Our regular season crowds are pretty good in terms of noise and support, but I wonder if the astronomical ticket prices for the postseason bring in the casual or corporate fan who just wants to be seen at an event like the ALDS.

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