Sometimes the game story is a lot more story than game. Tonight is one of those nights as Dontrelle Willis found something. He found his command. He found his confidence. He found himself with his very first Tigers win.
Willis looked like a different pitcher tonight. He had control in his Twins start, but against the Rangers he had command. He worked both sides of the plate to both lefties and righties. He was moving in and out, up and down and working the edges of the zone. He had a very good hitting team off balance. While he did get some help from his defense on some hard hit balls, he had more than his share of dribblers and routine grounders as well.
PREGAME: Six weeks ago a Rangers team riding a 3 game win streak came into Comerica Park and got swept. Tonight a Rangers team on a 7 game winning streak returns to Detroit.
These aren’t your typical Rangers. Sure, they still slug the snot out of the ball (their slugging percentage is 32 points higher than the 2nd ranking team), but now they can prevent runs as well. The Rangers have a 4.54 team ERA. While it significantly outpaces their 5.11 FIP, there is some realness to it because they rank 2nd in terms of defensive efficiency.
In other words, Dontrelle Willis will have his work cut out for him tonight as he makes his second start. Willis didn’t have his control problems last time out, but he wasn’t fooling the Twins either and came out after 4.2 innings. He benefits in one respect that Josh Hamilton is out of the lineup, but the Rangers bring a lot of thump in Ian Kinsler and company from the right side.
Brandon McCarthy gets the nod for the Rangers. He has been susceptible to the long ball with 10 homers allowed in 38 innings. While 7 of those homers have come in Arlington, he still has a OPS allowed over 1.000 on the road. Lefties have also beaten him up pretty good so Jim Leyland has 5 in the lineup tonight.
Long time readers of this site remember a feature called the Inning Report. Reader Sam Hoff would break down the season into 18 game segments or “innings.” Why 18 game? Because there are 9 18 game segments in a season. When the Tigers completed the Oakland series that also completed the second inning. Sam is still putting these together, but he’s posting them on his site this season. So click through to read The Second Inning is over.
When looking at the first and second inning, what struck me was how remarkably consistent the team was from one 18 game block to the next. The offense scored 102 runs in the first, 99 in the second. The team allowed 84 runs in the first inning, 86 in the second. The OPS was only 3 points apart and the starters pitched less than an inning more in this inning. The only glaring number that differed was the bullpen posting an ERA that was nearly 2 runs higher – much of that coming in the Minnesota series.
Toledo 0 Charlotte 4
Danny Worth had the lone hit, a double. Brooks Brown allowed 2 runs in 7 innings on 5 hits, 2 walks, and 4 K’s. Casey Fien allowed 2 runs in his inning of work.
Harrisburg 3 Erie 4 (10 inn)
Brennan Boesch, Santo De Leon, and Cale Iorg all had 3 hits. Iorg 12 for 36 in his last 10 games with 6 of the hits for extra bases, but he still has a 10/2 K/BB ratio over that time span. Duane Below allowed 3 runs on 5 hits and 5 walks with 4 ‘s. Zach Simons pitched 3 scoreless innings and Cody Satterwhite pitched 2 and neither allowed a hit while fanning 5.
Lakeland PPD
Great Lakes 6 West Michigan 4
Brent Wyatt and Brandon Douglas each went 2 for 5. Ronnie Bourquin had 2 hits and 2 walks. Casey Crosby allowed only a walk and a home run while fanning 7 in 6 innings.
A look at all the add-on fees that teams charge for tickets. The Tigers dropped their fees this year $2.75 and are among the cheapest. Toronto is towards the top. I was shocked to find out that even buying tickets in person at the box office still incurred fees.
Steve Kornacki speculates that Jeremy Bonderman may pitch out of the bullpen while he builds arm strength. I'm not sure how that would help him build strength and stamina. Also in the article he notes that Bobby Seay has been battling some back stiffness this week.
In case you missed this yesterday, the Rays screwed up their lineup card which resulted in pitcher Andy Sonnanstine having to bat in the 3 spot instead of Evan Longoria.
Toledo 2 Charlotte 5
Wilkin Ramirez went 3 for 3 with a homer and a walk and has a 325/389/500 line. Chris Lambert struck out 8, but he allowed 2 homers as part of his 6 hits and surrendered 5 runs in 6 innings.
Erie 1 Bowie 3
Scott Sizemore doubled twice and Cale Iorg was 2 for 2 with 2 walks (he now has 3 on the season). Alfredo Figaro allowed 3 runs on 7 hits and 4 walks in 7 innings with 5 K’s.
Clearwater 9 Lakeland 8
Justin Henry was 3 for 5 with a triple. Kody Kaiser homered and walked. Mike Gosse doubled twice. Lauren Gagnier struck out 9 but allowed 5 runs in 6 ininngs.
Great Lakes 4 West Michigan 5
Bryan Pounds was 2 for 4 with a double. Ronnie Bourquin doubled and walked. Brandon Hamilton allowed 2 runs in 6 innings on 2 walks, and 6 hits with 6 K’s.
PREGAME: The Tigers are going for their third sweep in a week – of course one of those times they were the sweep-ee. The Tigers have outscored the A’s 23-2 in the first 2 games of the series. I’m going to this one though and the Tigers are 1-4 when I’m in attendance. But the 1 win was Opening Day with Armando Galarraga on the mound. So anything could happen.
Galarraga hasn’t pitched well of late, throwing lots of sliders and not enough balls in the strike zone.
Trevor Cahill pitches for the A’s. He has more walks than strikeouts (20/14) but a 3.69 ERA. He’s riding a string of 3 straight quality starts and he’s only given up more than 2 runs in a start one time this season.
Adam Everett and Ramon Santiago congratulate Curtis Granderson
POSTGAME: This one looked bad at the outset. Armando Galarraga was the-awful again, but I get the feeling this wasn’t entirely unexpected. Jim Leyland had Zach Miner up and working relatively quickly. Yes, 5 runs were plated before Galarraga was lifted, but it’s not often you have a replacement up and warm 15 minutes after the game starts.
It makes me think that there may be something beyond simple mechanical issues hampering Galarraga. I have no idea if he’s injured, but he does have a history of injuries, he saw a large spike in innings pitched last year, and he has lost the strike zone.
Fortunately the Tigers offense responded as they had all series. Detroit scored 34 runs over the last 3 games and have been responsible for 20% of the runs the A’s staff has allowed this season. In 3 games they hit 2 grand slams and 3 3-run homers. I kind of prefer that to small ball myself.
Ramon Santiago made the most of his start with a 4-4 day where he missed a cycle by just a double. Adam Everett did what he could to hold on to the primary shortstop role with 2 doubles, a single, and a sac bunt. And Curtis Granderson sealed the deal with a 3 run jack (he also had 3 walks).
Zach Miner was a pseudo starter today. He was by no means lights out but he deserves some credit (and he did get the win). He came in with runners on first and second and stranded them. He allowed a run in second inning, but when the Tigers scored their runs in the 3rd and 4th innings, he didn’t give any runs back to the A’s which let the offense take the lead for good.
The rest of the bullpenning was good as well save for 2 walks from Luke French.
This had to be a discouraging series for the A’s, to be blown out in 2 games and then cough up a 6 run early lead. Billy Beane has rightly been praised for his work with a limited budget, but A’s fans are getting fed up.
Photo Day
Today was on field photo day. It’s something we’ve done a couple times in the past. Back in 2003 there weren’t a lot of people. In 2007 it was a crushing mass of humanity. Today was something in between. It was full, but not packed and the Tigers organization did a great job of carving out areas for the kids. It is tough to make everyone happy, but I think they did a nice job striking a balance.
But I really have to give credit to the players. I don’t know if they enjoy these days or not, but if they don’t you would have no idea. Everyone I saw seemed to be having a wonderful time. The smiles seemed genuine and they took time to really try and pose for pictures instead of just walking the line. Inge was of course a fan favorite, but Andy Van Slyke probably got the biggest laughs when he was holding an infant and making faces at the kid. Willis picked up a kid and gave him a hug. Cabrera was playing with another kid.
I know that none of this stuff makes a difference in terms of wins and losses, but for fan relations it does make a difference. I’ve said it a number of times, but if a player is nice to my kid he’s earned himself my support. I’m sure that’s true for a lot of other parents as well and the team did well in that regard today.
Toledo 8 Charlotte 9
Wilkin Ramirez had himself a game with 4 hits, including 2 homers. Mike Hessman hit another homer and finished a triple short of the cycle. Scot Drucker allwoed 12 hits and 4 runs in 6 innings. Freddy Dolsi suffered the loss allowing 4 runs (2 earned) in two-thirds of an inning.
Erie 0 Bowie 4 (7 inn)
Deik Scram had the Seawolves lone hit. Jon Kibler went all 7 innings walking 2 and fanning 2.
Brevard County 1 Lakeland 0
Jordan Newton doubled. Audy Ciriaco singled and walked. Trevor Feeney allowed a run in 2.1 innings and Jay Sborz pitched 2.2 shutout innings. Robbie Weinhardt pitched 1 inning not allowing a runner and fanning 1.
Brevard County 6 Lakeland 10
Audy Ciriaco homered twice and doubled, driving in 7 runs. Kody Kaiser had a 3 hit day and he walked. Charlie Furbush K’d 4 and walked none in 5 innings. Brett Jacobson allowed 3 runs in two-thirds of an inning and Scott Green allowed 3 hits and 2 walk in 1.2 innings.
Great Lakes 6 West Michigan 13
Jeremy Bonderman pitched for the Caps, but I think you knew that already. Brandon Douglas went 3 for 4 pushing his line to 358/438/413. Brent Wyatt singled and homered.
A big chunk of the Tigers payroll was making some noise today for a variety of reasons. Let’s recap it:
Jeremy Bonderman
Jeremy Bonderman made his first rehab start for the West Michigan Whitecaps tonight. He lasted 7 innings and 94 pitches and posted an encouraging line (4 K’s, 1 walk, 6 hits, 2 runs). Bonderman thought before the game that he’d only need 1 or 2 starts to get ready. I think the Tigers would prefer at least 2 to give them more time to figure out who is leaving the rotation to make room.
Whether 1 or 2 starts is reasonable though is up for some debate. He’s still building velocity and arm strength. If this report is accurate though, it may take a little longer if his velocity was truly in the low to mid 80’s.
Magglio Ordonez
Magglio Ordonez just started to hit the ball with some authority and now it appears that he’ll miss a couple games this week. He will be away from the team Tuesday and Wednesday and the Thursday afternoon game appears up in the air as well. This is being called a personal matter and it is probably safe to assume this is related to Jim Leyland’s recent comments about Magglio having some things on this mind.
Carlos Guillen
It sounds like there is some progress in Carlos Guillen’s recuperation from a shoulder injury. He started hitting off a tee and was in the dugout carrying a bat around Saturday night.
PREGAME: Hopefully the Tigers didn’t use up all their offense last night and they have some runs left to pile on Dallas Braden. I covered Braden yesterday, so borrowing from earlier writings:
Lefty Dallas Braden takes the hill for Oakland. He has a sub 6 K/9 rate, but he walks less than half of that and keeps the ball in the park. Lefties only have 33 at-bats against him this year and they’ve only put together 7 singles and a walk. Most of the damage against Braden has been done in the later innings with a sub .700 OPS in the first 4 innings. But the third time through the lineup hitters post a 953 OPS against.
The Tigers will send out Rick Porcello. Porcello has only allowed 1 run over his last 2 games. He has walked 5 in his last 12 innings and the tigers would probably like to see that number drop a little.
POSTGAME: Starting pitch? Check. Bullpen? Check. Offense? Check. Defense? Check. Nothing at all to complain about in this one.
Porcello continues to hold his own at the big league level, showing progress with each outing. The curve ball was particularly effective today and he used his hook to notch 5 K’s. He also limited the walks to two. Early in the game he seemed to be leaving balls up a little with more balls in the air than he normally allows. But as he’s done in several of his starts, he’ll settle down after adversity and get on what seems like an effortless roll.
The infield did a very nice job making a number of tricky plays highlighted by a Miguel Cabrera web gem (at least it was a web gem prior to the late games ending).
Bobby Seay got an out and allowed a single. But Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney were perfect. It was a little overkill to use those 3 in this game, but with an off day on Monday they can still go tomorrow if need be without any repercussions.
And then there is the offense which started coming to life in the Metrodome. After seeing the Tigers slap singles around for a decent chunk of the season, it is nice to see balls banging off the fence or laced down the line. Miguel Cabrera, Gerald Laird, and Placido Polanco all had 3 hit games and Ryan Raburn picked up 3 more RBI with an opposite field homer. Things are good in Tiger town tonight.
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