The Cleveland Curse continues. Verlander takes the mound looking to keep this from becoming the Hey, It’s Football Season! Series. If he is going to get any run support this time, look to Cabrera, who has hit Carrasco at a .375 pace.
Today’s Every Day Andrew Lineup:
- Kinsler, 2B
- Maybin, CF
- Cabrera, 1B
- V Martinez, DH
- JD Martinez, RF
- Upton, LF
- Saltalamacchia, C
- Romine, 3B
- Iglesias, SS
Why do I have the feeling JV needs to throw a no hitter to have a chance fora win?
Maybe there *is* an offensive problem, Jud. Sometimes. But probably only half the time at most. Like, when the Tigers are batting.
And the other half the time Loon the problem is pitching!….but only when they are in the field!
Iglesias sat glued to third while two WPs scooted away from the catcher. I have no idea what he was doing.
Our offense got a leadoff hit off the starter and managed 2 hits off 6 different Indians pitchers. Meanwhile JV has shut them out on 1 hit. JV is done and Alex Wilson will come in.
39th steal from a throw away player. What’s that worth?
Make that 40 steals. Anyone miss McCann?
Ask me again after the Saltalamacchia HR. Or strikeout.
What? A pinch hitter? OK, I miss McCann.
And Castellanos.
And Jhonny Peralta, as well as Marcus Thames and Matt Tuiasosopo.
Also, I don’t miss McCann anymore.
Well one thing I’m sure of is that the 2006 or 1984 teams will not win anything again no matter how much we celebrate them. Neither will the 2016 team the way they are going although I admit it has been a better season than I expected earlier in the year.
Well, we do hate small ball.
I need to stop being surprised that the Indians keep beating the Tigers.
Blah!
Well, the saga continues. Glad to see our offense is still creating havoc with our chances to win. Also my hat off to Brad for sticking with J Wilson after two non intentional walks and a couple of wild pitches.
It was a strange couple of innings, bottom of the 9th and 10th. I was thinking both “Why are they tempting fate?” and “So what – what do they have to lose except for the game?”
There was at least high drama in the Tigers 9th when they tried to manufacture a run. Detroit’s small ball strategy, often misunderstood, is to put a slow runner at first base with two outs.
When you can’t score a run in 10 innings, losing is the right thing to do. I tip my cap.
Well I was right..he needed the no no!……another Pussycat lock of offense….put a fork in these guys ..they are done!
From May 15 to August 31, the Tigers were 57-40. That was a pretty good season. They fell out of the playoff picture for good, it would appear, on September 6, with the 2-0 loss to the White Sox, which is perhaps fitting.
The dangerous offense that every opponent mentions, every game, has trouble scoring runs like they should. What to do? Would a different and more strategic manager solve the problem? Who would he have to work with? Who do you swap out in order to get the more athletic and agile guys in? Or who do you add and subtract for more production? The two positions where there’s an offensive problem are where you don’t want to trade that for a defensive problem.
Jud is probably right that the offense is the problem. So maybe they get it together in 2017. Maybe the pitching has seemed like more of a problem to me because of the way the original plan fell apart, Sanchez and Greene and Zimmermann and Pelfrey all tanking. But it could have been so much worse without Fulmer, Boyd, and Norris. Not to mention Verlander, ace once again. I’m pinning my hopes for 2017 on pitching. That’s what carries Detroit whenever they get somewhere.
Justin Verlander has held opponents to a .208 BA, best in the AL, 2nd best in his career (best was 2011, where – oddly enough – the one other spike in his HR allowed was). Oh for one more reliable starter over the course of the season.
I declare Jordan Zimmermann and Justin Upton to blame for everything.
Today’s 9-pitcher complete game shutout was historic, as you may have heard.
Verlanders turn to pitch was Friday. Was that Brads decision or Nat tv to go Sat. Bullpen by committee and they can’t score.Verlander is a 20 game winner with any hitting at all.Go LIONS
IF Pelfrey(and I don’t think so) is given the chance to pitch again why not try what the tribe did it couldn’t be any worse. Well it could. Can Ver pitch back-back games(Wilbur Wood)still 0 runs for the offense? It’s still hard to give up.
As Churchill said: We will never surrender.” If Detroit fans gave up only the Red Wings would have fans.
The Tigers look tired….and slow..even the fast guys are slow, or non aggressive…1-5 this week have ZERO life in them..The whole team plays old!. NO RBI from 1-5 in the past 4 most important games of the year this week!..no energy!
Actually that is one of the many problems the Tigers have: AGE. But as I said a long time ago on this web site, great pitching almost always dominates great hitting, especially in the post season. For the future, I would try to move V-Mart so Miggy can work his way into the DH spot almost full time. We have a core of promising young starters but JV is also getting older although his own attitude won’t let him fail for another year or two. In his last 10 games JV has taken the loss in 3 games in which he went 7 innings or more. He is a stud. The ball pen is inconsistent and our closer is very old but effective. Do you think it was an accident that Francona was able to “manage” 9 relief pitchers to a 1-0 victory? Also, Jud as you have noticed many times in the past 3 seasons, our fundamentals really SUCK. It goes from base running to bunting to not even hitting the cutoff man on occasion. Doesn’t that seem to point to a management problem? And not just Brad but the entire coaching staff. On the last day they should all be terminated along with the training and medical staff (you really don’t need to ask why). Some of them could be rehired on an individual basis but only with the approval of a new manager that hopefully Al Avila is already looking for. The Tigers may not have had a truly serious contender this year but can you tell me we haven’t squandered at least 6 wins this year due to management ineptness? In our division where would have 6 more wins left us?