PREGAME: One thing about the divison race has become increasingly evident. The Twins won’t lose. So the Tigers just need to respond by not losing too. Simple right?

Nate Robertson gets the start. I’m sure after watching Eddie Bonine take a loss last night he’s just chomping at the bit.

Freddy Garcia is still alive and pitching tonight for the White Sox. Not only is he still alive, he has a streak of 6 straight quality starts. Egads!

Detroit vs. Chi White Sox – September 26, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME:

[audio:http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/onemoretime1.mp3]

This pretty much tells the story:

This one got off to a scary start. Nate Robertson didn’t have the good stuff tonight. The way some of his breaking balls stayed way out side had me wondering if the groin, g-g-groin, g-g-groin (Cheers reference) injury was flaring up again. He surrendered all 5 runs, and it could have been worse without some nifty defense from Carlos Guillen in left field and a heck of a double play turn by Adam Everett.

The offense will get a lot of attention (and rightfully so) for awaking from a 13 inning scoreless slumber. It turned into a blow out thanks to some hard hit balls, and some weakly hit balls hit to the right spot, and some routinely hit balls that went between infielders.

But could it be that on this night the star is a mop-up man who threw 2.2 innings of scoreless ball to keep the game from getting out of hand and allowing the offense the opportunity to get back into it? Alfredo Figaro’s 1 hit performance tonight was huge, huge I say.

One thing that is, um, mysterious, is why use your primary set-up guy for 2 innings in a blow out? Especially with Seay day-to-day? I don’t get the Brandon Lyon usage.

• Everybody hit except for Brandon Inge who has 6 K’s in his last 8 plate appearances. Use the game link to see the box score. Lot’s of hits (20) all around.
• Zach Miner with another strong performance.

PREGAME: The Tigers enter into their final road series of the season. They’ll face a White Sox team who was eliminated from the division crown last night. They’ll face a White Sox team who was just swept by the Twins despite having Mark Buehrle and John Danks go in the series.

The Tigers send out Eddie Bonine. Bonine makes just his 3rd start of the season, but it his second against the White Sox. Back when the White Sox were hot on the Tigers tails Bonine was called on to pitch the backend of a double header and he held the sox Sox to 3 runs in 6 innings.

Jake Peavy makes just his second start since the trade that sent him from the Padres. In his first time out he allowed just 3 hits and 2 walks over 5 innings to the Royals, but 3 runs came around to score.

Detroit vs. Chi White Sox – September 25, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I can’t really add much that won’t show up in a regular game story. Eddie Bonine allows 2 hits and takes a loss because the offense can’t get anything done. Heck the offense could barely put balls in play with 12 K’s. And Inge made an error. And Adam Everett was used as a pinch hitter for the designated hitter.

PREGAME: At least the Twins won’t win tonight. Aside from that though, a loss for the Tigers would  be very disappointing. I know there are reasons why you play the games and all that, but this match-up tilts heavily in the Tigers favor.

Justin Verlander has owned the Indians this year allowing 1 run on 9 hits over 3 starts. And he’s fanned 30 Tribe batters.

Meanwhile, Carlos Carrasco is a highly touted prospect who has struggled in his brief big league career. He debuted against the Tigers and they took him deep 3 times for 6 runs in 3 innings. He’s improved slightly in his 2 subsequent starts allowing 5 runs and then 4 and going 1 inning longer in each effort.

Detroit vs. Cleveland – September 24, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME

[audio:http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/onemoretime1.mp3]

It wasn’t the slam dunk that I thought this game would be, but it is still a W, still a sweep, and still a 4 game winning streak.

The offense did their part with Carlos Guillen headlining the BOOBs (bottom of the order boys). The boys got on a single, first to third, kind of roll in the 4th inning and they plated 4 runs without an extra base hit.

Guillen has killed the ball in this series and he followed his big night with a 3 for 3 plus a walk effort tonight. His last hit, a double, came right handed making it hard to take him out of the lineup – and a little bit easier to take Granderson out against tough lefties.

Brandon Inge looked more like April Inge than August Inge and he came up with 2 hits, including a double. He also ended the game with a slick diving play – also reminiscent of April Inge.

Verlander had moments of dominance (11 K’s is actually quite a few moments), but he escaped what looked to be a big inning in the 3rd allowing only 2 runs. Verlander does an excellent job of mixing pitches – until he gets in a jam. Then he shakes off every off speed pitch and just wants to throw 98 past everybody. Sometimes it works. This time the Indians laid off the high heat. The pitch sequence once the Indians put runners on 2nd and 3rd went:

Toreagas: 6 fastballs
Brantley: Change-up and then 5 fastballs
Carroll: FB-Change-Curve-FB-FB-FB-FB-Change
Choo: 6 FB
Hafner: 4 FB

I understand the fastball is his best pitch, but what’s the harm in the occasional change-up, curve ball, or slider? Twenty-six out of thirty pitches were fastballs.

• Fernando Rodney had the two quick outs before everything got dicey. Heck, he was up 0-2 on Choo before the 2 run homer. And he had Hafner at 2 strikes. Sadly he’s probably burned for tomorrow. Happily Brandon Lyon was efficient. Sadly, something appeared up with Bobby Seay.
• How big was Ramon Santiago’s stolen base in the 8th inning? By getting to second he scored easily on Placido Polanco’s single (also very big, don’t mean to underestimate that) and that proved to be the difference.
• The defense also came up big once again. Inge’s game-ender was already mentioned, but Polanco also made a nifty pick to start a double play.
• Also look back at the play that Miguel Cabrera made coming home with the ball in the 8th inning to gun Hafner at the plate instead of taking the sure out. The run looked expendable at the time. As an aside, did anybody notice how surprised Lyon was when Cabrera gunned it home? Lyon was running to cover first and had to hit the deck when Cabrera threw to Laird.

PREGAME: The last time the Tigers went into Cleveland it looked like a sure sweep for the good guys. The Indians had just traded Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez and they were done. The Tigers were starting Edwin Jackson in the first game and there was reason for much confidence after the Tigers scored early. Turns out they lost 2 of 3 and needed extras to win that 3rd game. So while the match-ups look good I’m not taking anything for granted.

Jackson has been struggling but the Tigers thing it may be attributable to the fact he was tipping his slider. Jason Beck looked at Gameday data and noted that opposing hitters have been attacking his fastball. I really do believe these things happen quite frequently, but I’m always suspect when team’s make this kind of announcement prior to a game and view these things as attempts at either gamesmanship or changing a pitcher’s psyche.

Aaron Laffey takes the ball for the Indians. Laffey’s numbers aren’t particularly inspiring and the Tigers have gotten to him for 9 runs over the 2 starts he’s made against them this year.

Now for some bonus good news. Tim Bryant at Fox Sports Detroit passed a long a note that the series will be broadcast in HD. Indians games typically have been in standard def because the Indians don’t use a regional Fox Sports network and the HD broadcast capability isn’t usually available. Because this was a very late addition it is unknown if Dish Network will have the HD feed as we go to press.

Detroit vs. Cleveland – September 22, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME:

[audio:http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/onemoretime1.mp3]

So on a night with a microscopically small strike zone who would figure Fernando Rodney of all people to record a 3 out save with only 10 pitches? Yeah, I’m not raising my hand either.

Rodney’s effort capped a very satisfying win. I’m still skeptical about the Tigers fixing Jackson’s pitch tipping, but he didn’t allow a run thanks to 3 double plays. He only had 6 first pitch strikes and there were a number of hard hit balls. But if anyone had some good luck coming his way it was Jackson.

The Tigers also had a number of hard hit balls, the first 4 hitters had nice swings, but…they were also at people. Miguel Cabrera hit the ball hard 4 times, and had 1 hit and a double play to show for it. And with Ordonez on base 4 times, there were numerous unfortunate RBI circumstances.

But if there was a star of the game it had to be Ryan Raburn. He gunned down a runner in the first. He hit the homer that was the difference in the game for much of the tilt, and he singled and walked. Little Jimmy Jackson had himself a game.

The Tigers took care of business tonight. One more time.

PREGAME: Look, I’m as nervous as the next guy about this game. The Tigers are not playing good right now. But let’s look at the worst case scenario here. If the Tigers lose they still have a 1 game lead and they never have to go to the Metrodome again. Ever. A better case scenario is they win, and never have to go to the Metrodome again. Ever. Either way there is a silver lining.

Nate Robertson returns to the rotation due to the knee induced suckitude of Jarrod Washburn. The first time he returned was due to the elbow induced suckitude of Armando Galarraga. Robertson was solid for 2 starts and then incurred pelvic induced suckitude of his own. But a bullpen session on Thursday was encouraging enough to put him back in the rotation.

Scott Baker goes for the Twins. The Tigers have actually gotten to Baker twice this year getting him for 6 runs in August and 5 runs in May. Baker is much better at home where he’s limited opposing batters to a .637 OPS. He also has a crazy reverse platoon splits where he has allowed 21 of his 25 homers to right handed batters despite facing each side in the same amount of PA’s.

Your, “c’mon Marcus” lineup is

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Thames, DH
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Ordonez, RF
6. Guillen, LF
7. Inge, 3B
8. Laird, C
9. Santiago, SS

Detroit vs. Minnesota – September 20, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME:
[audio:http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/onemoretime1.mp3]

For those of you who don’t frequent Comerica Park, or don’t pay attention what happens when the Tigers win, their victory music is One More Time by Daft Punk. Hopefully we can say one more time a few more times before the end of the season and I’ll continue to post it after wins until the copyright police come after me (and to try and stave that off, you can find One More Time on the album Discovery. You can also download it legally here).

Continue reading Game 2009.149: Tigers at Twins →