Perhaps Jason Castro did the Tigers a favor last night with his walk off home run. Four of the bullpen arms had been there and gone, and eventually someone was going to have to go multiple innings, and that fell to Blaine Hardy, who wasn’t quite up to the task.
Not that it mattered: the Tigers looked like they could have played another 9 without scoring, so maybe Castro saved the rest of the pen from being used up too. After Castellanos homered in the 4th, the Tigers managed only 1 hit in the next 7 innings; that’s 1-for-24 (.042) for those keeping score at home. Of course they could have hoped for another error-walk-error combo, but that could have taken a while.
And how about that Altuve guy? He either knocked in or scored the first 3 runs of the game, went 4-for-5, and stole 2 bases–including home when Alex Avila made an ill-advised pickoff attempt at first. Now there is some legitimate cap-tipping material (Altuve, not Avila).
We won’t discuss the Detroit base running. At least not today.
The Tigers get a break today, and face Brett Oberholtzer instead of the originally scheduled Dallas Keuchel. Oberholtzer is also a lefty, but not a Cy (2-6 4.76).
Today’s Yay, No Keuchel Lineup:
- Davis, CF
- Kinsler, 2B
- Cabrera, DH
- V Martinez, 1B
- JD Martinez LF
- Hunter, RF
- Castellanos, 3B
- Holaday, C
- Suarez, SS
Holaday gets a start against the lefty after the long night for Avila behind the plate, Miggy gets a “rest”at DH, which usually doesn’t work so well, and maybe Davis can raise a little havoc on the bases. Tigers have been short on havoc lately.
Caught a Cabrera bomb in BP – quite a power display by him – couple over the 436 mark
My daughter has her first souvenir
Astros starter Kuechel is for real, so Scherzer needs to be sharp
Keuchel got bumped for Oberholtzer, so hopefully Miggy will launch one!
That line drive VMart hit into the stands down the 3rd base line almost took my hand off
Suarez in the first let that ball threw looked like a little leaguer. Let Astro string some hits together. Defense wins championships.
I guess it might as well be Keuchel out there. This is old style Tiger baseball: swinging for the fences on every pitch, which leads to either a lot of runs or a bunch of warning track flies and a shutout.
Agree – lotta big swing produced popups and warning track outs
Need to string some line drive hits together, now 2nd time seeing Cy Oberholtzer
BTW – about a 50/50 DET – HOU fan ratio here today
Bottom rally!
Davis has a lot of skills , but his inability to hit a good ball with RTL20….Staggers the imagination!
That was disappointing.
Key inning for Max
74 pitches for Max – and a big drop off after Springer
Astros fans around me looking at DET batting stats vs HOU batting stats – and wonder how can HOU compete w/DET – good question, but they did last night and are today
3 more quick outs from the middle of the lineup against Cy Oberholtzer. I feel a nap coming on.
Altuve has more hits in these two games than Hunter, Jackson, Cabrerra, Martinez and Martinez all added together…Does that tell you anything about these games!!!!!!
Hey Max , you can have 100 K’s in this game and it ain’t gonna matter…the sluggo offense is at work today just going thru the motions!!!
Bottom of order providing all the offense thus far
Castellanos shoulda scored there
Especially with Davis coming up
And there’s the double-fail by Davis.
Guess we needed Miggy on second there…. he would have run thru the sign
Hey Davis how about just take every pitch and pray for a walk!!!!!
That was ball 4 that Kinsler fouled off, then ball 4 again that he popped up.
Iffa woulda coulda…
…and Cabrera will lead off the inning (8th ) for the. 3rd time tonight…not a recipe for success
I can’t decide what’s more annoying… Kinsler swinging at ball 4 with Cabrera on deck, or Hoes making the highlight reel with that catch….
Not that Cabrera is doing anything.
We’re gonna get them THIS inning.
Miggy and V-Mart 0-for-15 for the series. They’re due!
Davis strands his 6-7 runners of the day….nice gig!!
You have to be kidding me!!!!!!!!
I didn’t even have time to complain about the Avila at bat!
Blowpen alert.
Funny that Asmus PH Avila for Holaday and yet would never ever ever PH Holaday for Avila despite the 70 point difference in their BA
That game was one swing away from back to back pathetic games…..but there are no bad wins…so Thanks Kinsler, Scherzer, Coke, Casty, and that closer guy!!!
…never a doubt ha?
This game shows how close the difference between first place teams and last place teams. First place teams find a way to win and last place teams find a way to lose….and it seems its a lot easier to lose games like this than to win games like this!
Love going to AAA games…both Oberholzter and Hoes ( unfortunate last name there) were in Tacoma last weekend -now in the show this weekend….