2015 Season, Game Post

Games 2015.143-145: Tigers at Twins

76 Comments

Key Series for the Twins as they are 1 game behind Texas for the 2nd wild card spot. Texas starts a 4 game set with the Astros, only 2 games behind the ‘Stros for the division. September baseball is fun for other teams.

Tonight’s lineup:

1. CF Anthony Gose

2. 2B Ian Kinsler

3. 1B Miguel Cabrera

4. RF J.D. Martinez

5. DH Victor Martinez

6. 3B Nick Castellanos

7. LF Steven Moya

8. C James McCann

9. SS Andrew Romine

76 thoughts on “Games 2015.143-145: Tigers at Twins”

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  4. #55……my only question is can Cabrerra win the BA title if he doesn’t get another hit the rest of the year. He has dropped 30 points in two weeks!….

    1. I think he may have already had his last hit of the season. They may need to sit him a few days to save the title. Then again, maybe Brad doesn’t want to suffer alone.

  5. Ya I don’t think Brad undetstands that sitting thing at all. After all V Mart will bat 5th tomorrow and hasn’t driven in a run in a frickin month, besides being 0-20 RISP….he surelyvwon’t be sitting Miggy!

  6. I see Brantley is second in hitting at .320…be pretty ironic if Brantley beats out Miggy seeing that batting .800 against the Tigers helped put him at .320 to start with!

  7. WHAT is wrong with VMart? He gets RBI 1B, but then goes brain-dead on the basepaths to kill small rally. Is entire Tigers team under some ancient “Little League Curse” or something???

    1. if the season ended today, DET would have the 8th pick in the draft…perhaps they’re going to play for a better draft position?

  8. I had to log on…Victor has more hits today then he has in weeks. Plus a whole RBI…prolly be lookin for that raise now!…

    Miggy looks like he’d rather be anywhere rather than the ballpark. He gets in those funks. He says he doesn’t care about the batting title…..I guess he is right!

      1. Three balls within one foot to either side of him tonight, he is so bad the are called hits because he doesn’t even come close to getting his mitt on the ball. on the triple in the 3rd they might of had a play on the runner, but Casstallanos was three feet behind the bag catching the throw. He wasn’t even on the TV screen on a ball that bounced directly over the bag. ….

  11. Hey Brad if you would have done stuff like stealing , hit and run, squeeze during the season you might not have gotten fired. In 140 game that might be the first hit and run then squeeze all year.

  12. Theres another thing I thought we would see all year Rondon throwing that heater 97-98-99 on 2 out of every three pitches ….here it is ..try and catch up to it..locate it!..!…finally!…good game tonight.. Simon..Victor…Romine..Collins..VerHagen..McCann….Wilson…Rondon..lot of contributors!

    1. It has flown a bit under the radar, since he has only pitched in DMNC games (Don’t Matter, Nobody Cares), but it looks like VerHagen can actually pitch, I’m very encouraged by how he has done.

    1. IF FIRING ASMUS (IN THE PRESS)WAS PREMATURE, HIRING GARDENHIRE NOW (IN THE PRESS) IS ALSO PREMATURE. WE DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHO WILL BE AVAILABLE IN OCTOBER SO HOW CAN YOU FOLKS BE HOT TO TROT FOR HIM AT THIS POINT? HE HAS NEVER WON THE BIG ONE, AND IN 6 PLAYOFF APPEARANCES HE WAS 6-21. I’M NOT SURE HE EXISTS BUT I’LL BET MR. ILITCH IS LOOKING FOR A BASEBALL SCOTTY BOWMAN. HAVE YOU NOTICED WHERE SCOTTY WORKS NOW? IT’S NOT ABOUT MAKING THE PLAYOFFS IT’S ABOUT WINNING THE WORLD SERIES. OR IN SCOTTY’S CASE THE STANLEY CUP. AT LEAST JIM GOT US THERE A COUPLE OF TIMES.

      1. i agree Tony that the point of the exercise is “winning the World Series”… i also am not sure Gardenhire is ‘the solution’, but i’m fairly certain Ausmus is not.

        …as for JL, he did get DET to the WS twice, but his WS record w/DET: 1-8

      2. Whomever the new skipper is he better have four important traits.
        1. A strong Latino connection, with that being him or his right hand man!
        2. The ability to hold players accountable for lack of concentration, afterall you only work 4 hour shifts, 162 days a year. The Tiger “lack of concentration along with total mental lapses are as big of a 2015 problem as anthing else.
        3. Bring in someone to develop these young pitchers
        4. Someone who has some imagination! You don’t always get 3 hits in arow to score runs. In fact it doesn’t happen very often in Detroit.

  15. Typical Ausmus “comatose-style” management: McCann = GIDP. Next AB = speed on 1st (Marte), 0 out = swings for fences, 3-pitch K. At least he didn’t make any contact with the ball. Next, Avila = GIDP.
    McCann is another one who can’t (or won’t) bunt??

      1. Agree. So in a 1-run game late, why doesn’t he try it? After that, even if Avila can’t move Marte to 3rd on ground ball, there’s good chance Romine can drive him home, etc., etc., etc.

        1. Brad doesn’t think that way is the simple answer. He faces this situation 40-50-60 times this year and has yet to change what he does

          1. Which is, scrunch up his nose once or twice, spit out some seeds. look over at Lamont, then back toward the field, and blink.
            (Btw, that’s not a series of signs; it’s just a personal routine).

  16. Hey Miggy if you don’t want to play let coach know. You slowly drag your butt all the way to the plate, then throw your bat meekly at a pitch in the LH batters box, then drag your bat back to the dugout…gee thanks…i guess $25,000,000 doesn’t go as far as I thought it would……you made $60,000 on that piece of crap at bat!.

    1. Tiger pinch-hitters are now hitting .145 with a .436 OPS. In other words, even Alex Avila is hitting better than Tiger Pinch Hitter. So Brad should save the Pinch Hitter for a situation where he needs that .145/.436 bat.

      Amazingly enough, the Tigers are only second to last–the Twins are worse (.138/.387). And the league average is a skimpy .217/.628. For some teams, pinch hitting only makes sense in inter league games. I guess they don’t make Gates Browns anymore.

      1. Sure do miss The ‘Gator and the electricity you could feel in the stands at Tiger Stadium when he walked to the plate in the 9th inning, Tigers down by 2 with 2 men on. You EXPECTED something good to happen.
        Pinch-hitting AND knowing how and when to use PH’s was an artform back then. Hell, I was at the park one night—-it was late, maybe extra innings, Tigers were behind and batting, bases loaded. So what does Mayo Smith do? He sends a pinch-hitter to the plate ——#16 Earl Wilson, a pitcher! What does Wilson do? He hits one into the lower deck in left field for a Grand Slam!
        Crowd goes wild and the Tigers win!
        Anyone here remember seeing or listening to that game?

          1. Yeah, that could have been interesting. Of course first you need a manager with some imagination. Creative things just don’t happen with men like Jim Leyland, or his understudy, Brad Ausmus.

  19. 8 guys outta the pen..and a win!…nice job again. I say the players had a informal meeting and they decided if they tank the rest of the games their buddy Ausmus will be gone for sure. Then they might bring in a guy that actually makes you run hard to first base, and they might even have to actually pay attention during games..and work hard and stuff!…as you can see Miggy isn’t buying in….but otherwise lots of contributors again tonight…a rare series win…day off tomorrow..Life is good!

  20. Hey Kevin… looks like TEX is for real… as they really roughed up Dallas (Keuchel) in Arlington.

    HOU is quite a dichotomy – home record = 48-24; away record = 29-45

    Keuchel – home ERA = 1.49; away = 3.82

    …and Minute Maid park is a hitters park

  22. Don’t know if anyone is here during this game against Royals, but that was yet ANOTHER Tiger thrown out at home (by 10 feet). We must be proud of owning that record…..

  23. My comment is this..if someone could teach JDMartinez the srikezone he would be dangerous..He watches Victor be selective pitch sfter pitch after pitch then walks to the plate and swings at anything coming in the area code of Detroit! I bet 75% of his outs are out of the strikezone.

    1. Most likely a fact. He loves ’em in the dirt, just off outside of plate, sometimes one-bouncers. (Still, Nick C is worse for that).

  24. I just had a scary thought, yet a precedence has already been set. Two years ago they hired an ex-catcher with no previous managerial experience. So in 2016, could it be Alex Avila?

    1. I’d like to see Avila in the coaching staff somewhere. They are firing several minor league guys. He has to start in the minors somewhere…..lesson learned….maybe!

  25. Now thats some seriously good baseball right there to get 2…why why why can’t we do that more often!!!!

  29. And here we go again! I guess many managers would have pulled JV after that single also. I’m the kind of “dumbass” who would have given him 1 more batter, even with 114 pitches.

    1. Yes, exactly! And I can explain it further: I’m not 2nd-guessing Ausmus here; I’m 1st-guessing him. I started saying to myself, “no, no, no, no” as soon as I saw B A come out of dugout to get JV. 114 pitches is NOT JV’s ceiling —–he’s a workhorse. And at that point, all he gave up was 1 clean single to their best hitter. It’s HIS game; he wants it, 2 outs. I didn’t feel like he had lost control of game, or was gassed.
      End of rant.

  34. My criterion for judging how much I like the new manager (whoever and whenever he may be) will be how much unlike Ausmus he is.

  35. Fantastic PH —–Gates Castellanos. Lower that team avg a little more….
    That’s it for me; I’m going to bed. Catch the linescore tomorrow.

  36. Perez was 20-41 lifetime vs JV (.488) and Wilson’s last 5 outings no ER…and JV was at 115 pitches…coulda/shoulda left him in for one more out, but i can see pulling JV against Perez.

    Not usually one to defend Ausmus bullpen decisions, but in the grand scheme of things this game means nothing and DET is on the hook for another $122M to JV through ’19, w/another $22M vesting option in ’20… if DET plans on getting a decent ROI on JV, they need to protect their investment

  39. As far as JV goes my money is on him excecuting what he wants with the game on the line. I don’t care how many innings Wilson has gone scoreless. In that situation game on the line you play your horse. Thats why you are paying him $2500000000000. He earned that chance. just my opinion!

    1. Agree. I will add that (again) 115 is nothing to JV; he’s a horse, he’s gone 130 multiple times. More importantly, at that point in the game, there is NO ONE in the ballpark more focused and concentrating on getting that final out. Hot as he may be, Wilson is still a “cold arm” coming into the game. How do we know he wasn’t playing checkers or something in the bullpen, before being told to warm up? Maybe not true; maybe he IS focused. But we know for sure that Verlander is. Again, all he did was give up a base hit to their best guy. 115 —-who cares? Leave him in to get 1 more out and finish!
      And I would have delivered this identical rant, if you had asked me what I thought, BEFORE Wilson toed the rubber, score still 3-1.

  40. One more thing:
    “There were a lot of positives tonight,” Verlander said after the team’s 12-inning, 5-4 walk-off win against the Royals. “I’m a big believer in positive energy, positive vibes, and I don’t think that was a good situation to boo. We have a lot of good things going, here comes our reliever in to a bunch of boos — obviously he knows they’re not for him — but I just didn’t think that was the right situation. I wish they were a little more positive in that situation.”

    I agree with JV totally.

  41. Ausmus quote after the game about removing JV…”it was a no brainer”…now read into that what ever you want!

    1. If you recall, “It’s a no-brainer” was one of Leyland’s catch-phrases. After I heard him say that a few times, from then on, I always thought, “He’s right; Jim is a ‘no-brainer’ manager.”
      And Ausmus is his younger clone, so…………….

  42. Ausmus’ job is to win games, not cater to the whims of starting pitchers or fans. Just wonder how many of the Brad-bashers would have come to his defense had JV stayed in the game and given up the two-run shot to Perez. Your defense of Brad would have been something like, “Is Ausmus nuts? 115 pitches already, and Ausmus leaves him in to pitch to a guy who’s hitting .480 against him. Fire Ausmus.” That would have been his defense.

    1. That’s the logical assumption, to think that everyone here’s opinions are result-based only, and we second-guess our silly heads off. Well I can’t speak for everyone, but I can assure you that what I felt quite strongly when Brad came out to pull JV, that leaving him in for 1 more out would be the better choice, is the opinion I stick with, whatever happens.
      2nd-guessing is easy, and it’s hardly fair. I like to 1st-guess, i.e., put myself in skipper’s shoes and decide what I would do, on the moment the situation arises. That’s why often I like to voice my opinion here before the result happens. I’m not always right, but I don’t mind putting myself in a position where I may have to eat my words, if I feel strongly about an in-game decision. Had JV stayed, and surrendered the 2-run knock, you wouldn’t have heard me bashing Ausmus, since that was the decision I would have made. I won’t change my coat mid-stream.

      1. Agree…thats why JV makes $25 mil..to be in that situation. Succeed or fail. Theres no way I even think Wilson, Hardy, Rondon, Ver Hagen, maybe Soria should face this situation instead of JV…..
        ..I will agree with you TB one one thing though. Win or lose…Fire Ausmus!….just my opinion also.

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