2008 Season, Game Post

Game 18: Tigers at Blue Jays

117 Comments

PREGAME: It’s an afternoon tilt today as the Tigers behind Jeremy Bonderman take on Dustin McGowan and the Blue Jays.

McGowan is off to a pretty good start this season. He sports a 3.71 ERA and has fanned 16 in 17 innings of work. But he hasn’t made it past the 6th inning because his pitch count has become elevated. The Blue Jays had to go to their pen early last night so making McGowan work could have benefits for the rest of the series.

Bonderman is coming off a pretty solid outing. He went 6 1/3 and probably could have gone farther were it not for 3 errors by his defense. He also fanned 5 which was a nice sign after he K’d only 3 in his other 2 starts.

DET @ TOR, Saturday, April 19, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 1:07

POSTGAME: In a lot of ways, a loss like today’s is much more irksome than the shellacking they took in Cleveland. In the Indians game they were just flat out beat. In today’s game, there were several opportunities to swing the game in the Tigers favor yet they couldn’t take advantage.

Bonderman was awful, but he kept the damage to a minimum. Six walks though keeps him in line with the rest of the staff. Bonderman said he couldn’t find his slider, but I think that was only part of the problem. In the inning where he walked in a run, he was getting ahead of hitters. But he kept throwing the slider to the same spot. The hitters knew the slider was coming, and they knew where it was coming so it was easy to lay off. It’s a pattern we’ve seen from Bonderman in the past.

And once again he was the victim of an unearned run and this one decided the game.

Still, the offense had their chances. Twice there were 2nd and 3rd no out situations and twice they only came away with one run. I’m not one to harp on the LOB stat too much, because I tend to think it works itself out over the course of a season. But their inability to cash in cost them in a very winnable game.

117 thoughts on “Game 18: Tigers at Blue Jays”

  2. I just think that Jeremy Bonderman is due for a lights-out performance. And we may need it because Dustin McGowan is a tough and could keep the Tiger bats in check, if he has his game on.

    I’m just hoping for a split in this series. A win today would make that the worst outcome possible going forward.

  3. I’m feeling very good about today’s matchup. This will be the weakest lineup that Bonderman has faced yet, in my opinion, and he’s coming off a pretty good performance. Happy Bday Dylan. I just put a hundo on the Tigers, so they will come through for us.

  4. I think Bondo needs a good outing, 7.2 IP 8k’s 1BB

    How about a good 3-2 game with a Gullien HR in the top of the ninth and a save by Jones.

    Steve

  5. Anyone out there use Yahoo mobile alerts to get the final score of the game? I’m leaving for Ecuador tomorrow and will be away from civilization for about 2 weeks, but I do expect my cell phone to work occasionally and I’d like to get the scores. I just can’t get this Yahoo alert to work though. Is there another, preferably free, service out there?

    Let’s have a good game and happy birthday Dylan.

  6. Am I the only one watching from afar that doesn’t exactly miss the wisdom and witticism of Rod Allen?

  10. No game on MLB EI, thanks to FOX, Radio only for me today. Enjoying Jim and Dan outside, its 82 in Rochester NY today.

    Yard work…………., hey maybe Sunday after Church (while the games on)

  11. That’s weird, you buy the TV package and it gets blacked out, but not on the web. Doesn’t make too much sense.

  17. The last time Bondo got one of those 1-2-3 double plays he pitched the rest of the game and we shut out the Angels 12-0.

    Hopefully it’s a good omen.

  18. 1-2-3 DP…prayers answered….though part of me expected Bonderman’s throw to Pudge to fly to the backstop.

  20. Mike in CT, I was just thinking the exact thing……. Lets not use Grilli today or any day until August

  21. How the hell did we get out of that one. Geeesh. Bonderman’s slider looks like he’s puking the ball to the plate.

  23. Question…when was the last time that Bonderman’s slider was actually working? Maybe Chuck Hernandez can answer that one.

  24. 5 BB in 2 Innings, that concerns me, given his elbow problems last year and the consequent lack of control as a symptom.

  26. One good problem that the Tigers have is the depth of their position players. Raburn is a solid player who would get a lot more playing time on many other teams.

  27. How frustrating was that?! 1 inch from a 0 out 2 run bomb, and then we only get one. Not to mention the weird diving play in the infield to end the inning. Sheff…get it together dude.

  28. Chris, I could agree more, Jones isnt hitting. Lets go with Rayburn and Thames in left.

    Bummer on the HR… and now the inning. Lets hope Bondo goes 1-2-3 to recover

  29. Don’t forget against the Tribe, Inge just missed a HR and settled for a double and the Tigers didn’t score.

  32. One thing I am concerned with all of our starters is that they are not striking anyone out.

  33. This game is going to give me gray hairs. Man, we need to bust this game open right now.

  34. “One thing I am concerned with all of our starters is that they are not striking anyone out.”

    Strike outs are nice, but I think they are a bit overrated. I’m not concerned that the Tiger starters are not striking people out. I’m concerned that they are often struggling to throw strikes and walking people.

  36. Not a good AB by Carlos. I understand that you have to swing at pitches that seem hittable. But McGowan is not sharp today and if you get him behind on the count, you are more likely to be able to get a really good pitch to hit. Plus, it gets us to the bullpen sooner.

  37. Good grief, can Bonderman just throw a strike? It’s Joe Inglett for pete’s sake.

  39. I think this is going to be a 5 inning game for Bondo. Joe Inglett made him spend 12 pitches on a BB. That’s about 2/3 of an inning.

  42. Bondo Strike/Ball ratio is way off. It should be 66/33% Strikes to balls and he is certainly not there today !!!

  44. This is why the at bat with Carlos was such a turning point in this game. McGowan was struggling a bit with his control, running up his pitch count and getting in trouble. Guillen hits into a GIDP on the first pitch, ending the 4th inning in an instant. Now McGowan, with his pitch count on track, gets his composure on track as well and is poised to go into the sixth or seventh innings for a strong performance.

  48. Well, at least he finished the inning pretty strong. Now we need to get something going and hope the BP can get us through.

  49. Bonderman has done a decent job today battling when he clearly doesn’t have his good stuff. Somehow he kept us in this thing (no thanks to Cabrera’s error).

    If we can somehow scratch out a couple runs, we can steal this game.

  50. About one inch on Rayburns ball and a stab at third by Miggy and we are winning. Bondo has not been pretty but we are in the game.

    Lets get a few here

  51. According to fangraphs, Bonderman’s average fastball has gone down 1.7 MPH since 2006. Weird.

    Verlander has gone down by 3.2 MPH in the same period, btw

  52. Can someone tell me the score and inning………….I am stuck in California and no info…………..

  53. It’s always a killer when a team gets an unearned run, Carlos ought to know after his fiasco last week. The game is still close.

  55. Oh dear god, here comes the Grill man. This could get out of hand in a hurry…

  61. Thanks Kathy……..I am soooooooooooooo out of touch when the games are blacked out on Sats…….and I haven;t learned what website gives play by play if any

  63. Wow. What a stupid idiot Gibbons.

    He has one out and a guy on third with David Eckstein up and…PUTS ON THE SQUEEZE? Against Grill. Anyway, Eck pops it up to the pitcher and Grilli throws to third to complete the double play. Wow.

  64. Wow Grilli is a lucky SOB. Good for him, I suppose.

    Now let’s score some runs.

  73. Gonna take a 2-out hit from Raburn, who’s stung the ball all day. C’mon Ryan!

  78. Anyone have the stats for Grilli AFTER the first inning he appears? I’m currious if its lower than his overall ERA.

  79. I can’t believe I’m typing this, but….

    Nice inning by Grilli.

    Man, does that feel weird. OK, come on offense!

  81. I need Sheff to act like a future hall of famer this inning and at least get a base knock. New pitcher, let’s do this.

  84. Yes, Mark, I know what you feel. Just seeing him come in raises my BP 40 points, but once in a while he does it right. It’s just hard to believe someone in charge hasn’t noticed how often he does it wrong.

  86. Seems as though Leyland NEVER pinch hits in close games unless its a L/R matchup situation.

  89. Disclaimer – I still love Cabrera and wouldn’t change a thing about the offseason pickup. His bat’s coming alive and he’s a huuuuge part of and addition to this team.

    But I’m still not a fan of the errors at 3B. Updating the stats I posted a few days ago (with the same shaky extrapolation) we see that… he now has 5 errors in 18 games, which projects out to 45 errors for the season.

    I think (and hope) things will improve over the course of the season, but it’s one thing about him that’s still bugging me.

    Inge had 18 last year.

  90. By all rights we should have lost this game already. So if we can somehow pull something out, that would be awesome.

  91. greg — Grilli has a combined 5 earned runs from his first innings (4.2 IP), while he has no earned runs from the remaining 3.1 IP

  92. There is always going to be a constant comparison between Miggy’s and Inge’s defense. Miggy will just never be as good defensively although he appears to be improving despite the errors just as Inge will never be Miggy at the plate.

  96. April in the D has been pretty good for Detroit economically. Hope it continues all month.

  97. Interesting, thanks Dave. Obviously its too small of a sample size to draw any conclusions, but I wonder if he’d fare batter as a starter, or at least situations where you get 3-4 innings out of him.

    He’s got the velocity and decent movement on his pitches, but it seems that early control problems and mistake pitches do him in.

  98. Grilli’s actually pretty effective with a couple caveats: never let him throw to left-handers. Or at home.

    Other than that, he’s awesome!

  101. Boy, bullpen did the job today, kept us close. Really nice job by Rapada who worked around Raburn’s error.

    Any chance we can push this thing to extras? BJ Ryan is very tough, but is he healthy? And we’ve got some good righty bats for him.

  102. Never thought Miggy would wear his socks up but he seems pretty comfortable with that look!

  103. Wow, that slider dove, that is a nasty pitch. Ryan got the favorable call on 2-1, though. That pitch was inside.

  104. a really strange base hit by pudge keeps the game going

    UPDATE: for about five seconds.

  110. How about Pudge? Didn’t hit the ball hard all day and gets three hits.

    Okay, he hit the sac fly pretty hard.

  113. I think tomorrow’s game is the must win and likely the best chance to get a split in this series. God I hope Nate has his stuff because I’m not too optimistic about Monday. As much as I want to see Galarraga pitch again, I don’t like the chances of getting lightning to strike twice.

  115. Chris:

    I’m far more optimistic about Galarraga pitching well as opposed to any of our other starters.

  116. good point galarraga has pitched the best lately but, i don’t think that will last. they will figure him out eventually if they can’t fix the starters its gonna be a long year. rogers can win some games on grit, Robertson should win tomarrow if his whatever muscle holds up. Verlander and Bondo are scarry

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