As my turn comes back around in the rotation I look back and see there has been all of one Tiger victory since I have last manned the DTW keyboard. In fact the Tigers haven’t won a series since the last time they played Boston, May 16-18, which seems so long ago now, before the Zubaz gear, before this awful 4-13 stretch. Maybe Boston will snap them out of it and remind them that they used to win baseball games.
Below are the days/times (in EST) and projected starters for the Boston Series:
Boston at Detroit
Friday June 6 – 7:05 Drew Smyly vs Rubby De La Rosa
Saturday June 7 – 7:15 Max Scherzer vs Jon Lester (L)
Sunday June 8 – 8:00 Anibal Sanchez vs John Lackey
As so often happens when Boston is involved, two of the games will be nationally televised: Saturday on Fox, and Sunday on ESPN, thus the different start times.
Last time the Tigers faced the Red Sox, they were a team on a roll. Sure, they had some bullpen troubles and were struggling to put a major league shortstop on the field, but that was more than made up for by great starting pitching (best in the league), and a lineup that was at the top of the league in hitting, and was also able to manufacture runs with base running and situational hitting.
Suddenly the pitching and hitting have simultaneously gone south: the bats are in the vicinity of Biloxi, MS: they have scored a league lowest 34 runs over the last 14 days, putting up an anemic BA of .233 (.649 OPS). The pitching is in Boca Raton, ranking 15th (because that’s as low as it goes) in OPS against (.836), and this time it’s the starters, with the exception of Anibal Sanchez, who has only given up one run in his last two starts.
What is to be done? Beats me. It can’t hurt to bring up Suarez and try him at short…except it did, his knee, on an awkward slide into second (there’s something for you to work on Mr. Vizquel). He is day-to-day. Is today the day? (Nope).
If the Tigers are going to get well today against the Sox, they are going to have to do it against the dreaded Young Unknown pitcher, Rubby “Cy” De La Rosa.
Best wishes from DTW to Red Sox hitting coach Greg Colbrunn, who has been hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage.
Today’s Avila’s Batting Where? Lineup:
- Kinsler 2B
- Hunter RF
- Cabrera 1B
- Martinez DH
- Avila C
- Jackson CF
- Castellanos 3B
- Romine SS
- Davis LF
It looks like we would have been better off keeping the team we had at the end of last season. All these changes in players and views on how we are going to play a new type of game going forward ….. and we are going backwards.
OMG are we in the process of a redesign?! Say it is so.
Both Boston and the Tigers are elated to be playing each other…instead of someone good…we certainly don’t want to try and beat one of those darn playoff teams
Nice format also boys..this new look makes us look more high tech! especially considering low tech guys like me blog here!
Like the new format, crisp and clean ….. hopefully it starts a Tiger turnaround.
I see Kinko screwed up the lineup card and put Mr RBI himself in the 5spot….when was the last time Avila drove in a run anyway..2012 or 2013???
Nice format change…but will take some getting used to.
I notice in the first 7 rounds of the MLB draft, DET drafted only two pitchers… and possibly even more telling, they drafted two catchers.
RE: as for these next three games, my disdain for BOS is only surpassed by the NYY – so taking 2 of 3 would be great, but the way things have been going the past 17 games, I may settle for not getting swept.
Lots of formatting issues still guys. If you need help, let me know. I’ve built a few WordPress sites in my day.
Hello All – I didn’t expect our developers to make the changes on the fly. This is the first I’ve seen of it since we finalized the theme. I thought we’d go to a dev site first.
But it does look much better. Just bear with us for a few days as we work out the kinks. More to come. So long as it doesn’t upset normal posting and commenting, I’ll let it be for now.
(KW – we may definitely take you up on that).
Well, this is interesting.
Wow, that is some OPS-against for Tigers pitching. Don’t think I’ve seen an 8 before the decimal place there before. They must be stranding more runners than I thought.
I blame the developers.
Strangely, I have a good feeling about the Avila-Jackson 5-6 thing. Don’t ask me why. It makes no sense.
Nice re-design. Clean look. Kudos.
I’ve been reading that it might be time for BA to rant on his team for poor effort/execution but I don’t think so. It’s veteran leadership, not an ass-chewing from the manager that will lead the way out of this mess.
It would be nice to see a member of the multi-millionaires club put this team on his back and just carry it for a while. Where the hell are Al Kaline and Willie Horton (or maybe Kirk Gibson) when you need them? It’s time for someone to step up.
Goodness. Just like that down 1-0. No rest.
I’m not sure batting Avila 5th is the answer.
Being a home game, shouldn’t Jackson be batting 5th?
Monday nothing, Tuesday nothing, Wednesday, Thursday nothing. Friday for a change a little more nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. “The Fuggs”
“Who dealt this s**t anyway?”
Caesar Salad time!
Someone is whispering “Suarez” in Romine’s ear at bedtime.
Miggy Muckup.
Sacrifice fly-double play. Only the Tigers.
That’s an old school Tiger inning, 4 hits, 1 run.
Potentially there was a chance to score more, but the rules only allow one sacfifice fly-double play per inning.
Going into the bottom of the 5th, they have held the lead for one inning, that’s an improvement.
Fireworks after the game tIII morrow..to tell you the truth I would rather see some Tiger fireworks DURING the game
No this is more like it!!! I could take this for a couple weeks in arow!!
Interesting new site design. Where is the “edit” button?
The old error on a routine ball and here we go again and again…….
Ajax has got to learn to take control of balls hit to his area and not give way to Hunter.
Good start by Smyly
Ajax has to learn……(..you can stop right there)
Smyly nice job tonight. You did your job….next!
And Krol did his job
…already starting to feel 9th inning anxiety setting in
that helps ease the stress… how many ‘insurance runs’ are enough?
Who’s drinking heavily already?
And Joba did his job.
Joba. His job….next!
I am not watching the 9th let me know how it goes!
Whats become of players who break bats and smash water coolers when they strikeout with runners on? Sometimes these Tigers are a little too mellow for me. I’ve had enough of the “Oh well, another loss – lets get ’em tomorrow” mindset. I wish it appeared a little more often that the outcome matters as much to them as it does to me.
Nail-biting time. Let’s score some and make this Nathan-proof.
You could say Victors aging well.
Jacksons 18 sac fly for his 18th RBI
Having AleKKs bat 5th worked out tonight as it gave Holaday a chance to hit there. +.5 for Ausmus.
how about a boring top of the 9th for a change?!
Doc…nice triple
too bad it will put you back on the bench tomorrow!
I think we have discovered a solution to a successful Nathan outing: non-save situations only!
A win. What is that.
where have these guys been?
Boys this is 1-0……..not the 5th out of 18
The half full theory!
POG…Avila…gets hit in the head…Holaday triples…easily winning POG honors!!!
Two comments.
1) In case you missed my post above, we’re only about 1/2 done with the redesign. Please reserve judgment for another several days. Hopefully the core functionality won’t be affected in the meantime. Seems to be okay. You’re gonna like the finished product (yes – we’re working on in comment editing!).
2) I went outside after the win to pull in the car. Smells like summer.
Very nice Kevin….remember, it’s not whether your win or lose, its how you look playing the game!
Is Joe Blow back, or was this just an aberration?
Nothing we don’t already know, but still a worth a read: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/whats-eating-the-tigers/
Infielder Danny Worth has accepted his outright assignment and will head to Triple-A Toledo, Chris Iott of MLive.com tweets. The Tigers designated Worth for assignment on Wednesday after he hit .167/.217/.190 in 46 plate appearances.
No surprise there. Nobody was going to sign him, so what else was he going to do? When was the last time another team claimed a Tiger that was DFA’d?
I believe it was Tuiasosopo by AZ when DET waived him in the off-season to add Castellano…but you’re right, other teams claiming DET rejects doesn’t occur that often
And I was thinking just in-season claims. The quality of our own rejects is generally so poor that other teams don’t even bother to get minor league help.