2017 Season, Game Post

Game 2017.73: Tigers at Padres

64 Comments

For those of you who missed it, Francisco Rodriguez is no longer a Tiger. The Tigers will be on the hook for the rest of his $6 million, but at this point they decided it was better to pay him not to be on the team. Frankie will be remembered as a great closer, but he got off to a bad start this year and stayed there, pitching poorly for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. Is there a curse? Our Venezuelan contingent are all having career-worst seasons.

Bruce Rondon has been called up to take his place.  Oh wait—Bruce Rondon was on that Venezuela team too. Uh oh.

Also, after making the acquaintance of the centerfield wall, Alex Presley has been placed on the 10-day concussion list. The Tigers have brought up 29 yr old lefty outfielder Matt den Dekker. What, no Tyler Collins?

Today’s Lineup:

  1. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  2. Alex Avila, C
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. JD Martinez, RF
  5. Justin Upton, LF
  6. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  7. Andrew Romine, CF
  8. Jose Iglesias, SS
  9. Michael Fulmer, P

Pitching: Michael Fulmer vs Luis Perdomo

The Lettuce fills in for The Parsley. There is no DH, so Michael Fulmer gets to bat. Yippee.

64 thoughts on “Game 2017.73: Tigers at Padres”

  1. Coleman: No Fingers but be ready, den Dekker is a solid .236 hitter in his MLB experience. I’ve got to believe he’s better with the glove than Moya.

  2. Trivia added to the amazing 2017season.:

    Tigers are 0-6 this year against pitchers pitching their first ever MLB game ever.

  4. The Sox letting success go to their heads escaping last place are losing 3-0 behind Pelfrey….

  6. Don’t swing at any pitches… None.. Maybe he will walk 5 in a row for 2 runs.. Hmmmmm…

    Miggy 5 for 36 West Coast..but he might just be the Tigers top West Coast hitter…. Hmmmm

  7. Gameday isn’t working. Says the Tigers have walked 5 times and scored no runs and are losing. I know that can’t be true. I’ll try rebooting.

  8. I take it this Perdomo fella has some kind of wipeout slider. At least tonight.

  12. Fulmer has to stop striking so many guys out. I want to see a complete game from him.

    1. Fulmer’s pitch count 83 starting the 7th is not an issue. Problem is he’s up 1st in the 8th so we will no doubt pinch hit for him.

        1. Cool. Glad Brad agreed. No reason to burn the bench early when no one is hitting anything to begin with.

            1. Nice, Hicks. I just wanted to see more Fulmer and less bullpen. I don’t know how encouraged we should be by a runner at 2B. though. That is miles from home plate.

  13. So Brad’s gonna PH for Fuller if Iggy gets on. So is Casty down in the tunnel hitting balls. Nope he is sitting on the bench with his jacket on… Hmmm

  15. 11 pitch at bat.. Lead off Double…. Hicks.. Only excitement of the day so far. Great at Bat!

    1. What did Ausmus do to get tossed? Was he complaining about the unfairness of all those swinging strikes?

      1. Ian got rung up on a checked swing, which was a bad call. So he complained about it as he was walking back to the dugout (facing away from the ump) and got tossed for that.

        1. Aha! Gameday says nothing about checked swings. I was imagining a big swing and miss on the low strike as Ian swung for the fences. But if memory serves, he’s more of the high pitch big swing and miss guy. Not that he strikes out a lot, mind you.

          1. I think it was a bad call on the checked swing, but then those calls are not exactly a science. It was a worse call on the ejection: he was griping (understandably), but not at the umpire; he was walking away while he griped. They almost always let that go.

            Brad didn’t get his money’s worth with his argument, he just ran out, said something, got ejected, then left. One of the most boring ejections I’ve seen, notwithstanding Gibby pointing out that he trotted out there quickly,

          2. It was the first base umpire that did the tossings, by the way. I think that’s a factor; when you’ve got the plate, you know you’re gonna get some jawing. You probably feel you’re supposed to have the day off from that stuff when you’re at first.

  18. Brad got tossed for arguing Ian’s strikeout. In spite of that good fortune, we strand leadoff double.

    1. Realistically, Miggy probably should be on the DL, but that’s managements fault.

      1. How is it management’s fault? Miggy wants to play, and he won’t be bossed around by lower salary guys like Avila or Illitch.

  20. I want everyone to remember that the Padre’s run was scored because we chose to pitch to the #8 hitter with 2 outs, man on 2nd and 1st base open.

    1. Why would you not let Fulmer pitch to that guy in the second inning (or any time)? Is Hedges Big Papi or something? Intentional walk to the the #8 hitter in the second inning? Really?

      Besides, the run spared us futile extra innings waiting for Justin Wilson to give up the home run to the team that doesn’t hit any.

  21. Well, I hope we can at least see den Dekker pinch hit for Romine. Then call it a close game between two evenly matched teams in the International League, played in San Diego for some reason.

    Oh, Romine might not even come up. I forgot about JD. He’s still on the team?

      1. Just to see the new guy, Tony. He cannot be worse than Mahtook and Presley and has more experience and success. It’s true.

  26. What does this make you when you can’t even get a runner all the way to third base against the worst team in all of baseball!!!!

    What is this now, feels like 100 frickin losses in a row..??

  27. Poor Fulmer, pitched a stellar outing. Unfortunately our “potent” offense (as Rod would say), was shut down by that legendary 70’s Oakland staff.

    Oh wait, it’s just the Padres, nevermind.

    1. Padres pitching compares somewhat favorably to Detroit’s, actually. It is their offense that is in the toilet. Good news for Sanchez tomorrow. This should be lighter work for him than the Mariners.

  28. I think the more they lose, the more JD starts feeling like Trade Bait, I think it’s getting to him.

    1. He’s made comments to that effect, though not to the effect that it is getting to him. I really don’t think we can attribute poor at bats to any of this, though. He just had a lousy game at the plate. He’s either on or off, seems like. I don’t know that it’s ever been different in his time as a Tiger.

        1. How true. You might also say that baseball is 90% chance, and the other half is luck.

  29. 1 for 10 with 5 strikeouts in the last three innings. I’m not joking when I say the the double by Hicks didn’t feel like it changed the game, though I’m glad for him.

  30. Last year at this time, Detroit (38-35) was on a roller coaster of sweeps and getting swept. Soon enough they were in 2nd place and stayed there from July 3 on. Strangely enough, in 2015 it was about the same, 37-36 at this point in the season. That worked out a little differently.

    Are we merely disappointed in the 2017 team or in true despair about it? I think I’m still in the disappointed camp. I’ve lowered my expectations but still don’t think that the team belongs in last place or will stay there. I hope that we’ve reached the low point of the season. If 32-41 is doable, then so is 41-32. Let the battle cry be “.500 by Game 146!” Very inspiring.

    1. it appears the coaster car has jumped off the track these past few weeks… the fact that the ALC is quite weak this year will likely provide DET with some “hope”… but my earlier expectations (of a .500 team) would be a meaningful improvement over where i suspect this team/season is heading

      the cynic in me is waiting for the other shoe to drop, once the injuries and trades (?) start happening

      1. +1 Right now a .500 season would seem to be a moral victory (or morale victory for the fans). Fact is that the wildcard system is rigged to keep as many teams in apparent contention for as long as possible so fans don’t quit.

        1. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/06/avila-tigers-open-to-trade-talks-on-veterans.html

          DET’s next 15 games until All Star break: 2 @ SD; 10 game home-stand against KC 3; CLE 4, SF 3; and then 3 @ CLE… the way they’ve been playing, winning 8 of those games would be a surprise. I predict a 5-10 run = 37-51 AS break record, which could very well be the catalyst to restructure the team… beginning w/the MLB trade deadline 7/31…for the trade-able pieces other teams actually want/can afford

  31. John Hicks (65 PA) has displaced Warwick Saupold (83 BF) as the new Face. That #12 spot is hotly contested.

  32. Leet.. Another rookie pitcher…. We all know how that goes. As far as. 500 goes the starting rotation is good enough to get them there. However way too often 6 times so far the offense does nothing. Last night that was the perfect pitcher to beat Detroit.. Do not throw strikes. He walked 6..threw easily another 25 pitches that were also balls. Tigers swung at 18_20..Iggy and Miggy and JD were the worst. I bet they didn’t see 10 total strikes in their 12 AB X 3 strikes and your out…. 6K’s…pitchers like Hughes, Santana, Jimenez, and many more been beating the Pussycats that way for years. Swing swing swing… Watch a Red Sox or a Yankee game once. Amazingly different. They actually take balls and hit strikes. Alex Avila is a very rare exception. VMart used to be an exception. Now he hacks like the rest of them. Look at his results…
    Tiger problems
    1. Pen
    2. Plate discipline
    3. Brad’s lack of leadership
    4. Defense
    That is all…… Have a good day!

  33. The first step in the firing of Brad Asmus occurred today. Article in Free Press… Avila defends Asmus with the “vote of confidence”… That means fired by All Star break…

  34. As if all the items Jud mentioned aren’t making me feel bad enough, I turned on Fox to watch the start of the Red Sox – Angels game and they went on and on about what a great year Cameron Maybin is having. Of course we got so much for him that it is probably OK for us to have tried about 6 players in CF so far this year. Based on that trade it’s going to be scary to see what Big Al gets for JD and the other one or two players we have that other teams may want.

    1. Just goes to show you how much they expected from JaCoby Jones. They did get a good prospect (Alcantara) and a bit of a payroll reduction. But yeah, a failed gamble as it appears now. Note, however, that if Maybin had gotten off to the same start with Detroit (sub-.200 on May 15), the current reviews would be a bit more mixed. Or he might have been traded early in the season with no dissent from us.

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