PREGAME: The rubber game of the series is a matinee edition. Jeremy Bonderman returns to the rotation after battling blister and cut issues. Bondo’s last turn against the Angels saw him get lit up by the Angels and shoddy defense by Carlos Guillen.

The Tigers will be doing battle against Ervin Santana. Santana has been victimized by 11 homers this year, 9 of which have come on the road.

Catch this one on FSN if you can because Ernie Harwell will be in the booth. If you forgot to DVR it, you can catch the replay at 7pm

Game Time 1:05pm

POSTGAME: What’s not to like about today’s game? A 12-0 thumping leaves a lot of people smiling.

The offense was decidedly top heavy with 11 of the 13 hits being picked up by the top 5 hitters in the lineup (Omar Infante pinch hitting for Maggs picked up one as well).

Magglio Ordonez is simply hitting crazy good right now, and really doesn’t have a peer in the MVP race right now. These things of course aren’t decided before Memorial Day but doesn’t he have to be leader in the clubhouse at this point?

I was just thinking the other day that while Carlos Guillen was hitting pretty good his power number weren’t quite what we were accustomed to. Three homers in 2 days will help to fix that and push his slugging percentage all the way to .551.

Jeremy Bonderman was quite good. He nearly matched his season total in free passes, but it didn’t hurt because there wasn’t a lot of hard contact against him. He could have finished this game with his pitch count under 100 going into the 9th.

Instead Wil Ledezma, the much maligned Wil Ledezma, came in and picked up a 1-2-3 inning. Hopefully it is a sign he’s righting the ship. With Mesa being awful and Fernando Rodney with shoulder tendinitis the Tigers need some of the other guys to step up.

And with only one inning of relief needed today, the Tigers bullpen will be completely intact and available going into this weekend’s series with Cleveland.

Tigers 12 Angels 0

PREGAME: It will be Chad Durbin taking on Bartolo Colon in game 2 of the series.

In his last start, Durbin held the Red Sox offense at bay. In his last 3 starts he has a 2.37 ERA but he also has as many walks (8) as strikeouts over that period.

Colon got a late start on the season, but has been quite effective and able to pitch late into games. Four of his six starts have seen him pitch a full 7 innings. Part of the reason is that he hasn’t been walking people. He’s only allowed 7 free passes in 39 innings.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Things were going so well. Magglio Ordonez continued to campaign for the MVP with a couple solo homers. Pudge Rodriguez was shaking off his slump with a 3 hit night, and his out was to deep right-center. Curtis Granderson broke a string of 4 straight K’s by reaching base in every subsequent at-bat. Chad Durbin turned in another solid 5th starter type performance. And Jason Grilli was perfect for 2 innings, his best outing since a 3 inning effort in Toronto. Everyone reached base, and Brandon Inge the lone Tiger not to get a hit still walked and started a tough double play on a slow roller. A total team effort.

And then Jose Mesa happened. The strikeout of Vladimir Guerrero was encouraging, but then it was straight to the crapper. A single, a walk, and a 3 run homer made this a one run game. Inexplicably Jim Leyland left him in there to allow a deep shot to triples-ville. Finally he was lifted in favor of Tim Byrdak who did what Tim Byrdak does and fanned Chone Figgins to retire the side.

Jonesy was Jonesy.

Stuff I just didn’t understand tonight:

• Mike Reilly’s strike zone. And this is from a fan of the team that I think benefited from it. But it was all over the place.
• Mike Reilly missing the swing on the stolen base. It’s one thing to miss the call. It’s another to compound it by not asking for help.
• Jim Leyland ordering Sean Casey to steal with 1 out and a full count with Craig Monroe up. To try and avoid a double play you send the slowest runner in the game with a guy who is in the top 10 in strikeouts. Really, what’s the more likely DP scenario?
• Jim Leyland sticking with Mesa after the homer. There was no stall tactic or anything. Leyland was going to leave Mesa in come hell or high water to do the job. It has to be Leyland’s fierce loyalty to washed up National Leaguers. The Mesa signing was odd to begin with, and it only gets worse the more he plays. Forget Mesa’s 12.46 ERA for a minute. He’s now averaging a run per appearance.

Tigers 8 Angels 7

PREGAME: The Tigers welcome in the AL West leading Angels for a 3 game series.

The Tigers will send out Mike Maroth, who missed his last turn in the rotation with the flu. He was still recuperating this weekend so I don’t know if he got in his regular throwing. The last game against the Angels, Maroth wasn’t able to get the win despite a ton of run support. He was lifted in the 5th inning after amassing 105 pitches.

The Tigers will face John Lackey who has been one of the best pitchers in the AL to date. He has a 2.43 ERA and it’s not the product of luck. He’s fanned 54 and walked 14 while allowing only 3 homers over 59 1/3 innings. There aren’t any Tigers with an established track record of success against Lackey.

So the pitching match-up looks to favor the Angels, but that hasn’t always mattered for the Tigers this year.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Long time readers know that I’m a stat guy. They’re objective and largely do a good job of describing what took place between the foul lines. Unless there is a “spectacular play” stat, numbers won’t tell the story from this game.

Sure you could look at Lackey’s line of 3 hits and 1 run over 5 innings and say he owned the Tigers. It was actually the other way around. Detroit routinely hit the ball sharply only to have it swallowed in Angel leather. Whether they were at ’em balls or diving grabs, the Angels made play after play. They took away extra base hits, run scoring hits, and pretty much everything.

So it was ironic when the Tigers staged a 9th inning rally on a tweener and a snort along with some walks. But fitting to see the game end on another spectacular play.

The offense was quite good tonight without much to show for it. They worked pitchers, they earned walks, they hit the ball hard. What are you gonna do except tip your cap to the other team for making the plays?

And I’ve hammered the middle relief, but Jason Grilli and Jose Mesa did their jobs tonight and made the 9th inning rally possible.

And speaking of the rally, the Tigers haven’t seemed overwhelmed by Francisco Rodriguez. They’ve faced him twice this year, and pushed runs across both times. I was hoping he would throw a few more pitches though tonight to rend him unavailable on Wednesday.

PREGAME: The Tigers will go for the sweep today against the Cardinals. With it being a day game after a night game, and an off day tomorrow, and the series already won, I’m expecting to see the B lineup today.

The Tigers will send out an A pitcher though with Justin Verlander taking the hill. Verlander is coming off his best start of the season, a 2 run 7 inning performance against the Red Sox.

The Cardinals will again turn to their bullpen in search of a starter. This time it will be Brad Thompson making his 4th career start, and 3rd of the season. Thompson posts a solid 4.03 ERA. But, he has a below average strikeout rate (4.7 per 9), an average walk rate (2.7 per 9), and he’s allowing more than a hit an inning. The most glaring item on the stat sheet though is 7 homers in 29 innings. Luckily for Thompson 6 of the 7 have been solo shots.

Game Time 1:05pm

POSTGAME – with Pictures

Sean Casey’s doubles in 2 runs
Continue reading Game 43: Cardinals at Tigers →

PREGAME: It will be Nate Robertson taking on Anthony Reyes in the 2nd game of the World Series Rematch.

Nate has lost his last couple turns in the rotation. One was a shellacking at the hands of the Mariners. The other he was worn down by a Boston lineup that fouled off 734 pitches and ultimately out-dueled by Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Anthony Reyes schooled the Tigers in the World Series last year. This year he comes in sporting an ERA in excess of 5, but much better peripherals. His FIP (fielding independent pitching) ERA is a solid 3.80.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Well that game turned out to be way more interesting than I thought it would after the first 3 innings. Still, it’s a win and another great night for more than 42,000 fans.

• When Nate Robertson first joined the rotation, he was striking out a lot of guys but running up huge pitch counts in the process. Lately the strikeout numbers haven’t been there, but the pitch counts have. I don’t really have an answer for it.
• The consequence of the high pitch count is that the bullpen is asked to get 9 to 12 outs. That has been problematic. Wil Ledezma a)isn’t fooling anybody, b)is creating his own problems with walks, and c)hasn’t had any luck at all. Everything in play is a hit.
• Fortunately Tim Byrdak came in and fanned Albert Pujols with a runner on base and prevented anymore damage. He ran into a some trouble of his own the next inning though. Still, he’s been awesome in his first week. He has the advantage for now that he’s thowing a split finger that he just developed and so the book on him isn’t complete. But the addendum will come quickly and hopefully he can keep it going.
• Nice job by Fernando Rodney with a pretty uneventful inning.
• And then there was Jones. Only one of the balls (Spezio’s) was hit with any sort of authority. Still, that is what happens with Jones. The ball will be put in play, but usually it takes a few things to go wrong before the game slips away. That’s why Jones can’t walk people. He has no margin for error.
• Of course it was another nice game by the offense. And it was really a team effort with 5 different hitters getting 2 hits and 5 different hitters picking up RBI.
• Brandon Inge was one of the few who didn’t get in on the act, save for a HBP. But he contributed with a couple nifty plays at 3rd. The diving play in the hole was nothing short of spectacular. And he nearly started a double play on a slow chopper, still getting the lead runner.

Tigers 8 Cardinals 7