2014 Season, Game Post

Game 2014.25: Tigers 9, Royals 2

25 Comments

I wasn’t going to tell you, but since you asked:

THE LINEUP

LF Rajai Davis
2B Ian Kinsler
1B Miguel Cabrera
DH Victor Martinez
RF Torii Hunter
CF Austin Jackson
3B Nick Castellanos
C Bryan Holaday
SS Danny Worth

P Drew Smyly

Just when things were getting to be a muddle of too many days off, despair over the bullpen, and grumblings about the hitting, Detroit (15-9) has gone and snapped off three wins in a row, all of them games with plenty to like. Good times.

POSTGAME: In the time it took to throw 17 pitches, only 17 pitches had been thrown, and as a result, the game went on for what seemed like hours. But seriously… or even more seriously…

YOU SAID IT

Jim EggersUSMC May 4, 2014 at 12:35 am

I switched to Pepsi a looooong time ago…..no more COKE!

Kevin in Dallas May 3, 2014 at 11:10 pm

It’s unfortunate, but he has no place in a major league bullpen. A move is going to be made soon.

You speak the truth, Kemo Sabes. Leave it to Coke to blow another shutout for the team. As Vince says, enough is enough. This really can’t go on. If you can’t relax and do your thing and get a few outs with a 9-run lead, when can you? OK, so he did he got a few outs eventually.

LET ME REMIND YOU

Danny Duffy seemed too amped up to pitch well, and yet he held the Tigers scoreless for 3. Detroit really had him on the ropes in the 4th and let him get away (then again, he was leaving anyway)… Drew Smyly was good and efficient, but not without big help from his defense and some close calls on three flyballs down the lines that might have snuck over the fence fair had his angels been on break. Still – he was quite good. I can get behind the talk of him going back to the bullpen on the condition that he gets to come in only in relief of himself… Austin Jackson won the defensive CF contest today with a couple good catches, one great, and Torii Hunter made a great catch (and a great roll), and Rajai Davis made a spectacular play to run down Danny Valencia’s apparent double, wheel, set, and make a perfect throw to 2B to gun him down. Game-changing plays, all of them. Outfield defense tonight, +++… Miguel Cabrera should get credit for stealing home on the Nick Castellanos sac fly to shallow left. Alex Gordon isn’t the only guy he fooled. Brilliant. One-dimensional player? That run was big and stayed big for a while… Bad day on the bases for Ian Kinsler. Caught napping on the pickoff (the rumors preceded him), and since when is halfway between second and third the time to look to the outfield and slow down? Oh well, maybe he picked up the sign from Dave Clark late or something. It sure looked odd, and he was dead on arrival at 3B… The Tigers 9th was everything the 4th should have been. The Danny Worth double was encouraging, nothing cheap there, and how great is it to have a backup catcher who can motor? And that was only the beginning. Before Hunter’s blast, I was thinking how long it seemed since his last big blow. Probably not as long ago as I thought, but he does come up with runners on often enough, about time anyway… You could say the Tigers should have gotten even more out of the 6th – Worth left the bases loaded – but it was a great inning. Both runners advancing on a productive out (boy were the Royals sloppy defensively) and the classic Castellanos swing delivering the runs… Thoroughly convincing win, great game.

25 thoughts on “Game 2014.25: Tigers 9, Royals 2”

  1. Speaking of good times, I won a large handful of $$ when California Chrome won the Kentucky Derby. Yeah I know, he was favored, everybody and their brother had him, but not MY brother , he ran 4th…. Tigers on their way to a W too (not withstanding a blowpen incident)

    1. sneaking peeks as I jump between NHL and the mrs.’s stuff… will watch and parse later…looks good so far

  3. hey, who in the hell are these guys doing the tv broadcast tonight?

  4. Well, that settles it. We absolutely have to move Smyly to the bullpen.

      1. I think jud meant that 3 LH batters came up and they all took Coke downtown in the same inning………who new!!!

  11. Coke faced 3 LH batters and they all got hits. This has been going on for the better part of two years. Enough is enough.

    1. It’s unfortunate, but he has no place in a major league bullpen. A move is going to be made soon.

  12. As of right now the way I see it theres only two types of batters Coke can’t get out……RH and LH…he is lights out against guys who don’t bat against him!!!

  14. Forgot to mention the bunt by Davis. Awesome. Love a good bunt. It’s like kicking the other team in the shins.

    1. Davis seems to be one of those guys who can’t sacrifice bunt, but can bunt for a hit. Hunter also. Holaday can do both.

      1. True. The sacrifice bunt (which I took for granted as sound strategy forever) is a bit of a strange concept anyway. Why *not* bunt for a hit if it’s going to be a bunt, always? The sacrifice bunt should be reserved for the situation a) batter can’t hit or even bunt very well and b) runner can’t steal a base (which makes you wonder why it’s so important to get him to 2B when it might take two batters to get him home from there).

        What’s really great is bunting for a hit and then scoring. The way Davis scored – bunt, steal, to 3B on a sac fly, single – is one of those things that makes this team so much more fun to watch than they used to be.

  15. Outstanding starts by Smyly and Porcello, if they can both remain consistently solid/good, that should help minimize some of the bullpen weakness.

    Can’t say enough about how important the AL Central wins are… last year, DET finished with a 15-4 record against CLE, who ended finishing 1 game behind DET.

    1. Attending the 3-game series and KC and both looked great. Little Ricky ended four of the seven innings with Ks (two were KCs). Smyly followed suit and finished his seven innings with a KS. That should give him such much needed confidence to becoming a good 5th starter. Meanwhile how about the three defense outfield plays last night with Torii and Austin making good catches and Davis making a strong peg to second to toss out Gordon trying to stretch a hit to a double? Also Aumus set up Verlander well resting Avila for a Sunday afternoon start.

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