It’s interleague time, the good kind this time. Most National League teams don’t carry a DH type of guy; they have an extra Romine type of guy. So when it comes time to pencil in a DH, there is usually some .230 hitter batting 7th, which gives the home team an advantage. OK, theirs is long-in-the-tooth Ryan Howard, who does have some power, but is batting all of .161. The Phillies on the whole have been having trouble using those wood things you swing at the baseballs: their team OPS is a ridiculously low .651. In other words, they are team Anthony Gose. Their starting pitching though has been another story, and they have been managing to win without scoring much.
Tonight seems like it might be the night. Everything’s all right. Mike Pelfrey might get that W, that has eluded him for so long. Cabrera is fine and in the lineup; Upton is a late scratch, but…Moya.
Today’s Lineup:
- Kinsler, 2B
- JD Martinez, LF
- Cabrera, 1B
- V Martinez, DH
- Castellanos, 3B
- Moya, LF
- Maybin, CF
- McCann, C
- Iglesias, SS
Miggy continues his magic! Clark makes a bad mistake sending VMart. I hope he learns from such. Fortunately VMart manned up and didn’t slide. Meanwhile Rod Allen sure backs up Clark on his decision. Meanwhile poor Nick continues to get rob of RBIs and run scored potential batting in the no mans land position.
Oh Victor, you lovable tortoise you.
As Joe Garagiola used to say about himself: He has deceptive speed, he’s slower than he looks. Good news is he didn’t try to slide as was pointed out.
VMart was too tired to slide after chugging from first!
Maybin is an awesome sparkplug!
I just hope Brad doesn’t have to rest Maybin anytime soon.
RISP let down, so far… certainly have had their chances against Velasquez
Pelfrey reaching his saturation point (5th or 6th inning has been when things been going south for him), gonna have to put some runs up fast if DET is going to get Pelfrey that elusive (for him anyway) win.
Velasquez will be done after 5.
he begins the inning already with 87 pitches thrown – and he’s only thrown over a 100 3X this year
one of those a 113 pitch 16K shutout
NICE X2!!!
Curly fry time! All solo’s
Teresa and I will enjoy curly fries tomorrow!
could have used one of those dingers when DET had runners on…
Ok, let’s take advantage of this and not send Pelfry out in the sixth.
Too late, but your instinct was right. Now he could get tagged with the loss if he is really unlucky.
I thought HR Derby ended decades ago.
Philly fans want some curly fries too!
If he survives this inning I hope we have the decency to get him a run in the bottom of the 6th.
Let’s give the Tiger bullpen an A+ for 3 innings work with 6Ks and only one hit!
Wait a minute, what was that, bullpen? DO NOT TEASE ME LIKE THIS!
I never knew mediocrity could feel so good!
back to .500
JV tomorrow, then Sanchez for the getaway game on Wednesday…then out west for 3 w/OAK then 3 w/LAA before starting a tough June schedule NYY, CWS, TOR, KC, SEA… pitching (‘improved’ pitching that is) will be critical
As you may know the past years road trips to Oakland and Anaheim are very challenging and wins are few. Let’s hope the home mojo goes west with them.
good point, last year DET went into LAA w/a 28-20 record and lost 4 straight at LAA, and then returned home and lost 4 more games (3 against OAK, 1 against CWS) – then hovered around .500 until August until ending up 13 games under .500, good enough for last place in the ALC.
…this year OAK & LAA have had some pitching issues (Sonny Gray and Reddick to DL), so DET offense really needs to keep it going out west. LAA has been death valley for DET for the past several seasons: 0-4 in ’15; 1-3 in ’14; 0-3 in ’13; 0-3 in ’12; 1-2 in ’11…
Great analysis Norm…Of all those games, I recalled Little Ricky Porcello getting spanked at the Rally Monkey World Arena something like 13-1. We don’t need to go in there and do the same this year and then return home with that attitude! I wonder if Brad has thought about such and what steps he is taking. Vision…leadership…its more than filling out a line up card!!!
Victor has been hitting shots all around Detroit the past weekend with nothing to show for it…glad things fell his way today