2014 Season, Postgame

Postgame 7: Tigers at Dodgers

20 Comments

I only watched enough of the 9th to become, in order, frustrated, worried, concerned, scared, enraged, relieved, excited, anxious, and finally, content.

Joe Nathan is a problem. He has now allowed 5 ER in 3 2/3. Blowups will happen, I’m not worried about that. The problem is 4 walks. There is no excuse for not pitching to hitters as a closer. I’m sure that DD, Jones, and Ausmus are meeting on this right now. My guess is that one more blown save for Nathan and he’ll go on the DL.

Castellenos’ HR was a bomb. I’ve only watched the replay, but man did that thing get out fast.

Krol was the star last night. He should have earned the save.

In any event, it’s a win going into an off-day. Could be worse.

20 thoughts on “Postgame 7: Tigers at Dodgers”

  1. “Joe’s the closer,” Ausmus said. “He’s pitched well against the guys on that roster. It wasn’t his night, but there was no question in my mind Joe was pitching the ninth.”

    1. Totally. I didn’t see why not. As I watched disbelieving that Nathan was still out there, it occurred to me that Ausmus might be risking the loss for the possibly bigger issue of seeing where his closer, this big piece of the 2014 puzzle, was really at. Maybe he had to see whether Nathan, battling dead arm in an increasingly stressful inning, was a guy he’d have to rest or count out for a while.

  4. We let Veras go…we didn’t even make an offer to Benoit..we let ValVerde go..( ok that one I understand)an all we talk about is spring was how Coke was improving. WE TRADE the best pitcher I saw this spring Alvarez….we send down two of the other best pitchers I saw this spring Ray and Ortega…..who is responsible for this decision making…is this a DD thing…An Asmus thing…we no longer can blame Leyland…but someone sure has us in a bind……where would we be right now if Smyly didn’t come out of the pen twice..I actually hope their considering putting him back there and bringing up a starter. KROL has been solid..Joba kind of ok…AlAl kind of OK…13+ runs in the 9th inning and 13 runs in innings 1-8….

    1. I don’t miss Veras and Benoit when I think about the 2013 ALCS. Or otherwise, really.

  6. Kinda lost in our bullpen misery is the great job Casstilanos is doing…outstanding start!

    2. Only way Nathan gets time away from the role (as with Johnson) is if he goes on the DL.

  9. I spotted Victor framing a pitch into a strike at one point. After that outstanding throw on the pitchout to start things off, he wasn’t looking so good or comfortable out there – he’s certainly looked smoother. He was having a hard time locating anything he blocked that bounced away, that’s for sure. Oh, his game winning HR was all right, I guess.

    Kinsler’s baserunning was huge. Krol was outstanding.

    Chamberlain’s gotten burned a bit unfairly last couple games. Ball four Tuesday was close, and it gets him the loss after striking out the side the inning before. Then it was a dinky little IF single again one batter faced that put him on the hook.

    I wonder if they’d consider Castellanos in LF, Cabrera at 3B, and Martinez at 1B for sone of the interleague games.

    1. And the Tigers would be a miserable 3-2 without those wins from, nay, BY Nathan. It falls to the A’s to demote Joe Nathan, I guess.

  11. Where is Putkonen…no appearances..no stats..anyone know..is he even on the 25 man roster???

    1. Maybe he is going to be the mopup guy, the one who only pitches when we are losing, similar to the way Leyland used Below. There seem to be a lot more similarities than differences between Leyland and Ausmus so far, so I wouldn’t be surprised.

      1. Other than the first Orioles game they have all been nail-biters. Everyone knows Putty Time is when you have a blowout game, because…well, just because.

Comments are closed.