Really bad outing by Verlander yesterday, its going to happen. I thought that Vince in MN had a great point regarding Verlander’s transition into a finesse pitcher. If you need any more evidence than what you’re watching, check out his K and BB rates. His K rate this year is a 6.7/9, the lowest it has been in 8 years. Only his rookie year had a lower K rate (6.0). Meanwhile, his walk rate has been jumping at an alarming rate over the past two years, as he struggles to put away hitters with dominant stuff. This season it is a 3.7/9, which is the highest since it was 3.9 in 2008 (when he went 11-17). I think it make sense that he’s walking more as he tries to pitch around some hitters rather than through them.

He’s still one of the best, and he’ll get it sorted out.

Not a lot of time to dwell on it, as first pitch is less than an hour away.

Today’s Let’s Not Get Swept By the Indians Lineup:

1. Rajai Davis, LF
2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
4. Victor Martinez, DH
5. J.D. Martinez, RF
6. Austin Jackson, CF
7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
8. Bryan Holaday, C
9. Danny Worth, SS

Postgame:

The entire game was a long drawn out kick to the groin. Can’t get out of there fast enough. Some pitching tomorrow would be a welcome sight.

We’ll likely have another dozen or two games just like this throughout the remainder of the season. It’s every true fan’s curse.

You know, as you peruse through the AL stats leaderboard and notice that Miguel Cabrera is 2nd in the AL in batting at .325, behind some old guy, 2nd in the AL in RBI, 5th in XBH and 8th in TB, you may forget that the Tigers have played an average of 5 games less than everyone, which equates to 20+ PAs for Miggy.

Last night’s game as about as exciting as one can get where you lose to the Indians in extra innings. Starting pitching was bad, Coke was bad, yet the Tigers were in a great spot to win in the late innings.

In other news –

– Romine/Worth here to stay. Drew wasn’t really discussed, says Brad Ausmus.

– No word on whether Joba owns Zubaz stock. Since Miggy is wearing the t-shirt: have fun.

Gotta win tonight if we want to take the series.

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Jackson, CF
6. Castellanos, 3B
7. Avila, C
8. Worth, SS
9. Davis, LF

Standings Check:

Det   27-12   —
KC    22-21    7
Min  21-21    7.5
Chi   21-24    9
Cle   19-25   10.5

My car had a mechanical failure and I sat around in my work parking lot in Jams all day.

Lots to talk about, coming post-game.

Tonight’s Put Kelly in Coach Lineup:

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, C
5. Kelly, CF
6. Castellanos, 3B
7. Avila, C
8. Romine, SS
9. Davis, LF

Postgame:

Corey Kluber struck out 7 of the first 12 outs he notched, and only 1 of the last 9.  His stuff was NASTY early on. BOOBS did a hell of a job to tie it up; twice.

I don’t think it’s useful to gang up on Romine’s (lack of) hitting. He was our third option at SS, and is doing a fine job defensively.

Smyly got lit up like a christmas tree. A 2.4 WHIP, over 5 innings, should not keep you in the game. The Indians are not good.

Coke was terrible, again. And yet his ERA plummeted by over 1/2 a run.

JV up tomorrow.

Happy Mother’s Day Moms of DTW, and DTW Moms!

Nice win yesterday, another “complete game”. Starting to get spoiled by these.

Miggy had a troubling R3L2O strand in the 1st yesterday. For the year, he’s 2/12 in that situation with a .432 OPS. For his career, he’s got a 1.046 OPS in the same situation. He does have 2 sacrifices, but his 31% score rate this season is well below his career average of 55%. Also concerning – his HR% this year is 2.9%, well below his career average of 5.1%; and his BB rate is 5.9%, versus a career 11.1%. His K rate is about the same, 18.4% versus a career 16.9%. The good news is that his LD rate and XBH% are very near career averages, and he’s on pace for a normal number of RBI. My unofficial and officially uninformed diagnosis – just a bad slump.

Rookie Phenom Robbie Ray (admitted overstatement)) gets the ball today for the rubber match v. the Twins. If he gives us a few more outings like the last one, then we’ll call it as we see it. But for now, I’m enjoying the minor league pitching depth. Another nod to DD.

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Kelly, 3B
6. Jackson, CF
7. Avila, C
8. Romine, SS
9. Davis, LF

 POSTGAME:

Awful loss. It starts with the HBP and the BB by Chamberlain. Even if Davis doesn’t make that error, are we confident that Joba gets out of the inning? Late inning guys have got to pound the strike zone (which is why Albuquerque isn’t an 8th inning candidate). Hanrahan is going to be given the 8th inning with a big bow on it in another 5 weeks.

You really can’t lose division series at home to the Twins. Frustrating.

It’s a long season though, we’ll get ’em tomorrow.

Make sure you call your mom.

Quick turnaround today with a couple of Mother’s Day Weekend afternoon games. Hopefully the weather is as beautiful where you are it is here in Dallas today.

Hughes now owns nearly 20% of the opposing victories versus the Tigers this year, and last night was Verlander’s first loss agains the Twins since April of 2010. I was so much younger then.

That’s the second straight start where Verlander has allowed crooked numbers in the 7th after 6 shutout innings.

The Tigers will honor Leyland in a pregame ceremony today. Check out JV’s tweet – https://twitter.com/justinverlander/status/465140994879799296. The Tigers have been one of the top franchises in all of basball for nearly a decade now, and Leyland was a big part of that. I believe that he instilled a expectation of winning. Thanks Jim.

AL K and ERA leader Mad Max rights the ship today.

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Jackson, CF
6. Kelly, LF
7. Castellanos, 2B
8. Avila, C
9. Romine, SS

Well, the Tigers haven’t won since before the NFL draft. This is troubling.

Quick standings update.

Det 20-10    —

Chi  18-18     5

KC   16-18     6

Cle  16-19    6.5

Min 15-18   6.5

Not a whole lot to complain about coming off of an 8 game win streak, though Cabrera still looks off. He’ll get fooled now and then, everyone does, but I can’t help but wonder if he’s taking ABs off. Fielder went through the same thing for 1/2 of 2012 and all of 2013.

Sorry for the short post, but I always seem to be up on my birthday. We started drinking at work…and now I need to get to dinner. But more tomorrow.

Normal RH lineup v. Phil Hughes. Whom the Tigers have hit in the past – 6-6, 4.34 ERA (11 starts)

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B (15-31 lifetime v. Hughes, 5 HR
4. Martinez, DH
5. Jackson, CF
6. Castellenos, 3B
7. Avila, C
8. Romine, SS
9. Davis, LF

Postgame:

I was only following along via the greatest app known to mankind, but it looks like Phil Hughes showed what the Yankees Twins thought he was all along tonight. Sometimes you just gotta give credit where credit is due. Tigers made it interesting late, but it wasn’t enough. 1-9 RISP will do it for you.

Interesting stat of the night – Verlander’s 1.29 WHIP tonight lowered his season WHIP. 1.29 is good, but not what we expect from an ace. The dozier 5 pitch walk in the 7th, with 3 of those being buried in the dirt, killed JV. Yes, Brian Dozier, he of a career .239/.695 OPS. You wouldn’t think that Verlander really needs to fool him with 2 out in the 7th. The last two pitches of the AB were off-speed pitches. I don’t get it. But I’m not complaining (too much).

The NFL draft has been our kryptonite in 2014.

Jim EggersUSMC April 30, 2014 at 1:41 am [edit]

12-9, 1st place. Not enough games up.

Hello All.

Long time no talk. All these days off are making me wonder if it’s really baseball season. You know, the sport where there’s a game on 6/7 days. Always something to do? Ahh, memories.

The Tigers have played 21 games so far, fewest in the ML by 3, and 8 less than Arizona, who may be officially eliminated by June 1. This just means that there will be a bunch of day night double headers or 1 game series(s) in September.

Oh, and by the way, this is a two game set against the Pale Hose. When did we go to two game sets?

JV v. Quintana tonight (8:10 ET), Scherzer v. Noesi tomorrow afternoon (2:10 ET).

Update: 50% chance of rain tonight.

1. Davis, LF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Hunter, RF
6. Jackson, CF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. Holaday, C (Avila a late scratch – back spasms?)
9. Worth, SS

POSTGAME:

– I’m torn as to whether I’m concerned that JV has a 1.35 WHIP and not even a 2/1 K/BB ratio, or amazed that he’s 3-1 with a 2.48 ERA in spite of those stats.

– Holaday made his play of the year with that squeeze. I don’t think anyone else knew it was coming, but AJax certainly did react quickly.

– Since going 0-4 on April 21, Cabrera is 11/26 and has raised his average to .270 from .206. I said two weeks ago that he’d be at .300 by the end of last week, I think I’ll be about 10 days off.

– Holaday may have been the player of the game, but the turning point was Joba’s K of Viciedo after a 3-0 count where the next ball would have loaded the bases.

– Sweep tomorrow.

Happy Easter everyone. Hopefully you’re spending the day relaxing with family (or without – which may be the shorter route to relax).

Porcello takes on Hector Santiago in the actual rubber match of the series. This is a rematch of a late July game last summer when Santiago was in a White Sox uniform. The Tigers took advantage of 5 BBs in 6 innings to score 6 runs (3 earned) on their way to a 6-2 run.

Porcello has had one great start and one awful one, as he continues to earnestly spin the this could be his year hamster wheel (TIL that “hamster” doesn’t have a ‘p’).

In other news:

– Alex Gonzalez’s Tigers’ career is over. Worth up.

– Valverde out as the Mets closer already.

– I love the NFL Wild Card and Division round weekends b/c of the two games per day, but this may be my favorite sports time of the year. NBA/NHL playoffs and spring baseball. It’s hard to beat. I’ll be settling in for a nice afternoon here in a few hours.

1. Davis, LF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, DH
4. Martinez, 1B
5. Hunter, RF
6. Jackson, CF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. Avila, C
9. Romine, SS

Game 13 Postgame: Well, that sucked.

Game 14 Pregame:

You know, you gotta win series at home, so today is the linoleum game of the series if they are gonna have a chance at winning the series.

Rationally, if you’re going to lose a game, it may as well be their 1 v. your 5. Smyly was in trouble early, as he got out of a runner on 3rd 1 out situation in the first before the floodgates opened in the 2nd and 3rd. The Tigers gave the fans something to cheer about with rallies in the 7th and 9th, but the game was never really in question. Cabrera, uh, needs a few hits.

In case you are wondering, the Tigers have only given up the 2nd most stolen bases this season in the American League. The .810 success rate against is 4th worst in the AL. It’s early, but this could be a problem. The throwing arms aren’t going to get any better, so the pitchers will have to a) give up less hits and b) pay even more attention to runners. Even those on 2nd.

I had to look this up – the Tigers threw the 4th most pitches in the Majors last year. Once we catch up on games I’ll be curious to see where we stand as a staff. I watch a lot of Rangers games and a number of other games, and I don’t see many other teams wasting as many pitches as we do. I wonder if going for Ks or painting corners is a club philosophy; or if this is simply the innocent byproduct of having two tremendous power pitches on the staff. I’m leaning towards the latter, but man am I tired of starters not ever reaching the 7th.

Davis into the lead-off spot. I’m not crazy about Martinez/Hunter/Jackson. They just don’t seem to fit. I really want Jackson to learn to take a walk and steal a base and bat lead-off. Is that possible?

1. Davis, LF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Hunter, RF
6. Jackson, CF
7 .Castellanos, 3B
8. Holaday, C
9. Romine, SS

Game 14 Postgame: 

That’s pretty much what I expect every game to be like. Scherzer was tremendous. He was really only ever in trouble in the 4th when he walked two and a steal of 2B was overturned in the Angels favor. 3 H, 2 BB, 9 Ks in 7 innings. Salty.

Joba Chamberlain has become the defacto 8th inning guy. This isn’t necessarily good news, but just news. Good job tonight Joba, keep it up. Nathan can give up all the 4 run lead HRs he wants. Better than bad walks.

Castellanos’ bat is quick.

BOOBs – 6-14 with 3 RBIs and 3 runs.

Gotta win the series tomorrow.

Tigers made a move today to replenish a worn out bullpen, by bringing up righty Justin Miller from Toledo and sending down Tyler Collins. Since they have 10 games left on this home stand, and Collins has to stay down for 10 days, Miller should get a nice audition before the Tigers have to think about making another move.

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Jackson, CF
6. Kelly, 3B
7. Avila, C
8. Romine, SS
9. Davis, LF

Castellanos gets the day off against the tough righty Weaver.