There was quite a bit of Tigers injury related news today with fresh info from Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson, and Marcus Thames. And on a related roster note, Magglio Ordonez will be back for Friday’s game (the surgery went well) and Wilkin Ramirez can tell his Mud Hens teammates what it was like to drive one deep into big league bushes.
Jeremy Bonderman
Bonderman made his second rehab start, this time for Toledo. Things were going swimingly for Bonderman through 5 innings as he was pitching a 2 hit shut out. Things kind of fell apart though in the 6th inning as it went: Walk – Sac Bunt – Double – Ground Out – Homer – Error – Stolen Base – Double – Double – Strike Out. The error certainly didn’t help and 2 of the 5 runs were unearned, but there were still 4 extra base hits that inning.
His final line was 6 innings, 6 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks, 4 K’s 1 homer, 98 pitches, 62 strikes.
So this isn’t particularly fresh, but Robertson was activated from the DL after Wednesday night’s game. Luke French filled in nicely for Robertson, but he is back with the Mud Hens now.
PREGAME: Some day baseball today as the Tigers try and pick up a second sweep and extend their winning streak to 6 games. It will be Edwin Jackson going for Detroit and Kevin Millwood for the Rangers.
Millwood has a reverse platoon split this year with lefties only managing a .591 OPS while righties are at .773.
Also, there will be no Rod Allen in the booth today so John Keating will join Mario Impemba and they will entertain questions from Twitter and Facebook. You can find them on Twitter @Foxsportsdet.
POSTGAME: It’s times like this that I really love baseball. When my team is winning, and things are clicking. The defense is solid, the pitching is dependable, and the offense is doing enough. Today the offense responded when they needed to. When the Rangers started the game with a first inning run, Clete Thomas answered with a shrubbery shot. When the Rangers tied the game, the Tigers responded with a two out rally to take the lead in the subsequent inning. The result was a 6 game winning streak.
Thomas definitely had a stamp on the game with the aforementioned bomb. He also saved a run with a PERFECT gun home. But then in the 8th he struggled with a fly ball to the wall.
Edwin Jackson wasn’t quite as sharp as his past starts, but still very effective and I feel like I didn’t jinx him. But I’m still worried about that pitch count. He walked 5 on the day, but I won’t hold the last one against him as he shouldn’t have been in at that point.
Fernando Rodney’s string of retiring 16 straight hitters came to an end with a leadoff walk (and later a single). But Rodney once again notched a save, his 8th of the year. He’s pitched the last 3 games though so I’d anticipate that Joel Zumaya will be your closer on Friday night.
Harrisburg 11 Erie 5
Scott Sizemore was 2 for 5 with a homer. Alex Avila and Shawn Roof also had 2 hits. Jonah Nickerson allowed 6 runs, but only 1 was earned in 5 innigns on 8 hits and 4 walks. Ramon Garica allowed 4 runs in his 1 inning of work.
Lakeland – PPD
West Michigan 6 Peoria 2
Bryan Pounds homered as part of a 3 for 5 day. Jordan Lennerton doubled and homered. Luke Putkonen lasted 7.1 innings and fanned 5 to go along with 5 hits, 3 walks, and 2 runs. Jared Gayhart pitche 1.2 scoreless innings with 3 K’s.
PREGAME: Tonight’s pitching match-up is Justin Verlander against Matt Harrison. I don’t normally do tables in game posts, but this pitching match-up just calls for it.
Verlander
Harrison
April ERA
6.75
7.89
May Runs
3
2
May Innings
22.1
23
Current ERA
4.29
4.23
K/BB Ratio
35/8
15/1
Last Homer Allowed
4/22
4/22
Oh yeah, and they both pitched complete game shut outs on May 8th. I think we’re looking at two pitchers, one lefty, one righty who are at the top of their games.
POSTGAME: With a 5 game winning streak it is happy fun time in Detroit. Short wrap tonight as it’s been a long week already:
Justin Verlander only notched 8 K’s in 6 innings. He had a legitimate shot at getting double digits before struggling in a very long 5th inning. Over 40 pitches in the frame ran his pitch count way too high and he was done after 6 innings. But only 1 earned run and his ERA dipped below 4 all the way to 3.99.
Wilkin Ramirez homered in his debut, and not just a homer but a blast into the centerfield shrubbery.
Brandon Lyon got touched for another homer. Ugh.
Joel Zumaya gave up a couple seeing eye grounders and found himself in a bases loaded no out jam but a bounce out and 2 filthy K’s meant only 1 run scored.
Fernando Rodney finally got in a save situation and retired the side in order. That is 16 straight batters retired for Rodney.
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.
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.
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