Curtis Granderson made a spectacular catch on Friday night, saving the game for Justin Verlander and the Tigers. There is an unfortunate by-product of this play though and that is the proliferation of a new moniker for Granderson. Unsatisfied with calling him by name, or even by Grandy, ESPN has taken it upon themselves to dub him “The Cougar.”
Look, I get the play on the initials with CuGr. Cute. In addition to it being especially contrived, it is the Demi-Moore-ization of our centerfielder that I take issue with.
Nicknames can come from a number of places. I have no problem if they emerge from the clubhouse and if teammates call Dane Sardhina “Pineapple” who am I to argue. If it is a simple shortening of a name, that is fine too. The Cougar is just dumb..
This concludes the inaugural meeting of B.A.N.A.L (Bloggers Against Nickname Abuse).
Lehigh Valley 5 Toledo 3
Mike Hessman hit 3 doubles. Don Kelly was 2 for 2 with 2 walks. Jeff Frazier also had 2 hits. Ruddy Lugo allowed 6 hits and walked 4 in 5.1 innings. Fu Te Ni allowed a solo homer and 2 other hits in 2.2 innings. Clay Rapada struck out one in his inning of work.
Bowie 5 Erie 6
Cale Iorg went 2 for 4 with a double. Andy Dirks also had 2 hits. Deik Scram homered and walked. Jonah Nickerson struck out 6 and walked 2 in 6 innings of 3 run ball. Josh Rainwater pitched 1.2 innings with no baserunners allowed.
Lakeland – DNP
Clinton 8 West Michigan 9 (13 inn)
West Michigan has played their share of marathon games this year. In today’s they came back from 8 runs down. Ben Guez homered and doubled. Ronnie Bourquin went 3 for 6. Brent Wyatt doubled, tripled, and walked. Brandon Hamilton got knocked out in the 2nd inning after allowing 6 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks. Jared Gayhart pitched 4 scoreless innings with 3 K’s and a walk. Tyler Stohr pitched the last 3 innings allowing just 1 hit with 4 strikeouts.
PREGAME: First of all, happy Mother’s Day to all the Mom’s out there. Now onto the game as the Tigers go for the sweep of the Tribe.
So how would you like to be Rick Porcello today? He’s sitting there in front of his locker before the game. A teammate slides up next to him and says: “You know, the Indians haven’t scored in this series. Don’t screw it up.” Or course Porcello can point to earlier in the week when he tossed 7 shutout innings against the Twins and perhaps get credit for starting this 3 out of 4 game shutout string.
On the other side it will be Anthony Reyes. Reyes hasn’t pitched that poorly this year. While he does have a 6.84 ER, he has done a reasonable job keeping his team in the game, giving up more than 4 runs in just one of his 5 starts. The peripherals aren’t impressive though with 12 walks and 14 K’s and 4 homers allowed in 25 innings.
POSTGAME: Hey, it’s a sweep. And a sweep of a divisional foe. And the rest of the division lost today. And the Tigers moved into a tie for first place in the Central. And they’re 4 games over .500, someplace they haven’t been since the end of the 2007 season.
Rick Porcello allowed a run. Bum. Kidding of course. Porcello wasn’t particularly sharp early on, but his curve ball was in full hammer form and he did rack up 5 K’s in 5 innings of work. Not a bad outing at all.
Offensively the Tigers didn’t wait until the 7th inning stretch to get things going. Were it not for 4 double play balls this could have been a laugher.
And then there was Fernando Rodney. Rodney struggle with his fastball control on Saturday night. As a result he threw a ton of pitches and I was surprised to see him come out in today’s non-save effort. Things looked pretty good early on as two outs sandwiched a Jhonny Perralta single, and he got ahead of Grady Sizemore. The fastball command was there. And then it was gone. Sizemore ended up walking and things got way too interesting. What looked to be a “get back on the horse” effort quickly turned into one that could be invoking too much self doubt.
Maggs reached base in 5 of his 8 PA’s this series. Could this be something?
Granderson out played Grady defensively this series. This will not be debated.
Bobby Seay had a few struggles of late, but pitched an easy 1 2/3 innings
How long does Eric Wedge stick around? The Indians now have the worst record in baseball.
Jeff Larish making the most of his opportunities with a homer and a triple the last 2 games.
Lehigh Valley 7 Toledo 11
Jeff Frazier (newly promoted), Don Kelly (playing centerfield), and Wilkin Ramirez all had 3 hits. Brent Clevlen and Brent Dlugach homered. Lucas French allowed 3 runs on 5 hits, 2 walks and 3 K’s in 6 innings. Matt Rusch was touched up for 5 runs in 2.2 innings.
Bowie 5 Erie 7
Scott Sizemore was 2 for 5 with a homer and is hitting 324/423/562 and at this rate could be a factor in a Placido Polanco contract extension. Ryan Strieby hit his 9th homer. Max Leon and Brennan Boesch each had 2 hits. Luis Marte fanned 7 and walked 1 in 5 innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits. Cody Satterwhite allowed a homer, but also fanned 4 and walked 1 in 2 innings of relief.
Robbie Weinhardt - cr Roger DeWitt
Brevard County 3 Lakeland 2
Jordan Newton tripled and singled. Thad Weber allowed 3 runs on 6 hits with a walk and 6 strikeouts in 7 innings. Robbie Weinhardt walked 1 and fanned 2 in his inning of work. (I’ve decided I really like Weinhardt so every time he pitches you’re going to hear about it in the wrap.
Clinton 6 West Michigan 2 (15 innings)
Brandon Douglas went 3 for 6. Billy Nowlin singled and added 2 walks. Mauricio Robles allowed just 2 hits in 5 innings of shutout ball. He also struck out 7 and walked 4. Robles now has 47 strikeouts and 13 walks in 31.2 innings for a 2.56 ERA. Victor Larez allowed the 4 go ahead runs in the 15th inning on 6 hits and a walk.
PREGAME: The Tigers hadn’t won a Friday night game this season until last night. They haven’t lost a Saturday or Sunday game this season. Hopefully that trend continues one this weekend.
Another trend is that the offense goes into hibernation when Edwin Jackson pitches. The Tigers have provided a whopping total of 8 runs of support to Jackson this season. Some early runs would be nice tonight.
The Tigers will go with a lefty heavy lineup against Fausto Carmona. Carmona has allowed 59 baserunners in 35 innings this season. This should spell runs but the Tigers have had struggles of their own offensively of late. Carmona has always allowed a plethora of baserunners, but with his sinker he also gets his share of GIDPs. The Tigers will try to mitigate that risk with a speedy lineup featuring Granderson/Anderson/Thomas.
POSTGAME: Was anyone else nervous that Edwin Jackson was going to get screwed again? Here he is pitching another gem (and each one seems to be a little better) and his guys can’t get the bats going. Fortunately, the Tigers finally got to Carmona by staying patient.
Back to back walks, a nicely executed sac bunt by Brandon Inge, and a grounder by Gerald Laird scored Granderson for the go ahead run. The Tigers added on 3 more, but it turns out they only needed the one run as the Tigers tossed back to back shutouts for the first time since the summer of 2006.
Fun fact of the night anyone? Detroit picked up their 16th win tonight. Last year they also got their 16th win on May 9th. The difference was they had 21 losses at the time.
Granderson got on base 3 times tonight.
Fernando Rodney seemed to struggle with his fastball command for the first time this year. He walked only his 2nd batter of the year, but went to other 3 ball counts.
Jackson only has 11 walks in his 7 starts this year. A quick check of his 2008 game log in his “breakout” season and the best 7 start stretch I could find was 14 walks (June 21st to July 30th). And he didn’t have the 35 K’s to go along with it (he had 16 K’s over that stretch).
Justin Verlander has turned in 3 remarkable outings in a row amassing 31 strike outs as hitters can’t catch up with his heater or their knees buckle with the curve. But very quietly Verlander has added a slider to his repertoire.
This pitch received significant attention from Rod Allen and Mario Impemba last night when he picked up a swinging strike with it against Kelly Shoppach. But he actually began throwing it as early as the April 27th Yankees game. The pitch was first noticed by Eric Cioe (who comments here on occasion) and he posted about it at Motown Sports.
Lehigh Valley 5 Toledo 4
Wilkin Ramirez homered, singled, stole 2 bases, and walked. Ryan Roberson also went deep. Eddie Bonine allowed 3 runs on a walk, 5 K’ss and 7 hits in 7 innings. Freddy Dolsi blew the save allowing 2 runs on 3 hits in the 9th inning.
Bowie 3 Erie 4
Alex Avila was 3 for 3 with a walk. Ryan Strieby homered and doulbed. Scott Sizmore and Gene Roof add 2 hits each. Brooks Brown allowed 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks with 1 K in 7 innings. Josh Rainwater pitched 2 innings and allowed a run on 2 hits and a strike out.
Brevard County 5 Lakeland 3
Christopher White doubled and tripled. Michael Bertram added 2 hits. Duane Below struck out 4 in 5.1 innings but allowed 4 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks. Brett Jacobson struck out 3 and walked 1 with 2 hits allowed in 2.2 innings.
Clinton 5 West Michigan 0
Ronnie Bourquin doubled, one of only 4 hits for the Whitecaps. Luke Putkonen surrendered 4 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks with 5 K’s in 6 innings.
PREGAME: Did you know the Tigers are 0-3 in Friday night games this year? Hopefully that doesn’t have a bearing in tonight’s game. Regardless, it has to go better than last night’s game against Mark Buehrle doesn’t it? Then again the Indians are probably thinking the same thing after the Red Sox hung 12 on them – in the 6th inning – last night.
POSTGAME: This is one of those postgame’s I struggle to write. There are so many different ways to write the story with lots of irony and symmetry and in general awesomeness. Fortunately it is a happy story which makes it a little easier.
Justin Verlander was amazing again. He’s been money in his last 3 starts, and the one thing that may have been holding him back a little (and I mean a little) was efficiency. No problem with that tonight as he notched a complete game shutout. He fanned 11 Indians tonight, the second time he’s turned that trick in a week. And this is a team that had beat him like that annoying drum in the bleachers over Verlander’s career.
It was only a couple weeks ago that people were questioning who the ace of the Tigers staff was. There is no question in my mind as we sit here tonight. Verlander has actually been pitching good the whole year, save for that Toronto stuff. But he was being undone by ridiculously poor defense. Tonight, things evened out a little. Here’s where that irony comes in.
Polanco made a leaping grab of a liner, Raburn laid out for a ball and came up big, Everett started a nifty double play on a liner, and Curtis Granderson made a nice play in centerfield.
Yeah, that was kind of an understatement. Amazing, unbelievable, athletic, super hero-ish, game saving, those are probably more apt descriptions. And this is where some of that symmetry comes in. Grandy and Grady are two of the best centerfielders in baseball. And here was one robbing the other, not only of a home run, but a walk off home run. Granderson’s career signature play has probably been the time he robbed Wily Mo Pena in left-centerfield. Does this catch top that one?
As for the Tigers run, it scored with out a real hit. Heck, it scored without a ball leaving the infield. The run was the result of a walk, Curtis Granderson stealing 2nd on a hit-and-run where Placido Polanco whiffed (Polanco is 10th in baseball in contact %) and Grandy was dead at second except Kelly Shoppach threw the ball high. A bounce out advanced Curtis to third. And the run scored when a second baseman failed to throw a ball quickly enough on a routine grounder. And that was the difference.
Other stuff:
Justin Verlander now has the Tigers last 3 complete game shutouts.
Verlander has 56 strikeouts this season. Last year he got his 56th strike out on June 16th
Brandon Inge has all of the Tigers webgems this season. I think, and I’m going out on a limb here, but Grandy’s catch might just sneak in there tonight.
The highlight reel is here. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of seeing that catch (please disregard the nicknaming of Curtis as “The Cougar”:
Do you have a bad taste in your mouth from last night’s Tigers/White Sox game? Get rid of that bad taste with Bacon Lovers Night at tonight’s Toldeo Mud Hens game. The first 5000 fans will receive bacon scented air freshners and bags of bacon flavored sunflower seeds will be handed out after the game.
*I realize this post barely has anything to do with baseball, but it is a Tigers affiliate and I do like bacon. Plus I have 5 yards of mulch to spread today and have limited blogging time. It’s kind of a shame I wasted it on this.
Toledo 1 Pawtucket 8
Jason Tyner, Danny Worth, and Dusty Ryan all had 2 hits. Chris Lambert was lit up for 7 runs on 9 hits in just 3 innings.
Erie 9 Harrisburg 6
Erie finally got to play a game this week. Ryan Strieby was 3 for 3 with a walk including 2 homers. Max Leon also had 3 hits while Scott Sizemore (homer/single)and Jeff Frazier (double/single) had 2 each. Alfredo Figaro returned to the mound and allowed 5 runs on 9 hits, no walks, and 4 K’s in 5.2 innings.
Erie 6 Harrisburg 7
Cale Iorg homered twice and boy did he need it. Scott Sizemore also homered and doubled. Ramon Garcia pitched 3 innings of 1 hit ball and Zach Simons added 2 of the same. Zach Simons allowed 5 runs, only 2 of which were earned and Cody Satterwhite allowed 2 runs as Erie surrendered 7 runs in the last 2 innings of the game.
Brevard County 1 Lakeland 2
Andy Dirks had 2 hits, so did Kyle Peter. Andrew Hess fanned 7 and walked 2 in 6 shut out innings. Scott Green struck out 3 and walked none, but he also allowed a run on 3 hits in 1.2 innings.
Beloit 0 West Michigan 2
Gustavo Nunez had a 3 for 3 night. Chao Ting Tang had 2 hits. Casey Crosby fanned 7 and walked 3 in 5 1 hit, shutout ininngs. Jared Gayhart pitched 1.1 scoreless innings and dropped his ERA to 1.53.
PREGAME: Let’s try this one again. Both teams pushed their pitchers back a day meaning Zach Miner gets skipped and Armando Galarraga gets the ball for Detroit. The Tigers will miss Jose Contreras and get Mark Buehrle. Everything I wrote yesterday still applies so just look there.
POSTGAME: Mark Buehrle was really really good. The 6 perfect innings to start the game should have been a clue. But in most of these type games there is a great defensive play or an at ’em ball or two. Not so much in this one. Just a parade of weak ground outs only interrupted by the occaisonal pop-out. Working a 3 ball count or a 15 pitch inning were reasons to celebrate.
With that in mind, the fact that Armando Galarraga was the latest Tigers pitcher to experience a big inning became largely irrelevant. It started with a questionable 4 pitch walk and got worse from there. Galarraga got two outs but then walked Jim Thome after getting aheadd. Jermaine Dye ripped a single. Paul Konerko doubled on a nice pitch off the plate, and AJ killed a hanging slider and that was the ballgame.
Dontrelle Willis has a start scheduled for next Wednesday against the Twins. This will end his stint on the DL due to anxiety disorder. I don’t really know what to expect from Willis, but as Jim Leyland said:
“I think that’s good. I think it’s time to find out. The report is that he’s throwing pretty much around the plate all the time, 89-93 (mph) with his fastball, throwing some breaking balls, some change-ups, using all his pitches.
“I think it’s a huge thing for us, definitely. I’m all for finding out. I’m hoping he’s really good. Having a left-hander in the rotation would be really good for us.
“Regardless, it’s time to find out.”
Indeed it is.
Zach Miner is the one getting bumped from the rotation and he will be in the bullpen. No announcement has been made on who will head off the 25 man roster, and that decision likely won’t come until closer to the start.
