The post game can be read at Verlander is Back

The Tigers wrap up what seemed to be a very quick home stand. They won both series already, and a win today would be icing on the cake. Of course with the ace on the mound for Detroit the team and fans are looking for something more than a solid effort on get-away day.

Justin Verlander did a good job against the Twins in keeping them off the scoreboard. He would have had 6 shutout innings were it not for a Ryan Raburn error that allowed an unearned run.

But even with the nearly 6 innings, he went over 120 pitches for the second consecutive game. For the season he is at 4.42 pitchers/plate appearance. The league average is typically in the 3.7-3.9 range. While it seems like more pitches are being fouled off, this rate is only 2% higher than his career norms which means just 7 additional fouls over the 5 starts.

Jered Weaver takes the ball for the Angels. He held the Tigers to 2 runs over 7 innings in Anaheim. His 34:6 strike out to walk ratio is particularly impressive (and daunting). He’s allowed 5 homers this year, 4 of them to right handers. This probably doesn’t mean a lot, but in his 5 starts the leadoff batter is 0 for 5 with 4 strike outs.

Los Angeles Angels at Detroit Tigers – May 2, 2010 – MLB.com Preview

The Tigers look for the morning storms to move out of the area so they can get in an afternoon tilt against the Angels. It will be Jeremy Bonderman taking on Scott Kazmir.

Kazmir has had a tendency to walk people in the past, but when the two teams hooked up earlier this season he fanned 7 Tigers hitters without issuing a free pass as he picked up a win. He followed that up by walking 4 Yankees in 5.1 innings though so I don’t know that the control issues are corrected.

Jeremy Bonderman was nearly great his last time out, humming through the first 5 innings before things got away from him in the 6th. At least he was efficient needing only 74 pitches to get through 5.2 innings.

It’s Rick’s turn. Dontrelle Willis is figuring stuff out. Jeremy Bonderman is showing glimpses. Justin Verlander didn’t allow an earned run last time out. It’s Rick Porcello’s turn flip the switch.

Whether it has been bad luck (.427 BABIP, 12.7% line drive rate, 63% LOB) or bad pitching, Porcello is getting knocked around and giving up way too many runs. He didn’t make it out of the 5th inning when he faced the Angels 2 starts ago.

Joel Pineiro is on the bump for the Angels. The Tigers got him for 9 hits in 7.1 innings out in LA, but they managed to not score any of those baserunners.

The Johnny Damon goes for RBI 1500 lineup is:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Damon, DH
3. Ordonez, RF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Boesch, LF
6. Inge, 3B
7. Laird, C
8. Sizemore, 2B
9. Everett, SS

Los Angeles Angels at Detroit Tigers – April 30, 2010 – MLB.com Preview

There will be considerable focus on the Denard Span play (pictured in a series of screen grabs above) as it comes with considerable controversy. That play though was only a part of what proved to be an offensive onslaught by the Tigers. Detroit didn’t win because of that call, but it was a large factor.

When Damon came up with 1 out and Austin Jackson on first the Tigers win expectancy was 40.4%. After the play that had pushed through to 55.1% with the go-ahead run getting into scoring position with 1 out. The run expectancy went from 1.16 to 2.09. If the play is ruled as a made catch and Jackson returns to first, the run expectancy drops below 1.

Here’s the thing though, the play would not have ended the inning, like Ryan Raburn’s play the night before would have. The Tigers still followed with a walk, a HBP, and 3 doubles before the Twins recorded another out.

You can consider the Tigers fortunate to get the call, but the team had already closed a 6-1 deficit to 6-5 at that point and they went on to plate 6 more runs while keeping the Twins at bay. A game without controversy is always preferable, but this isn’t a Paul Emmels induced win.

Max Scherzer

Scherzer got banged around and once again the Tigers had to turn to their bullpen early. Scherzer was neither efficient, nor effective. To his credit I guess he didn’t walk anybody on a night when the zone seemed to be quite tight.

The bullpen

Brad Thomas struggled in his spot start, but he was a big factor in tonight’s victory and earned the win. He held the Twins off for 2.1 innings and bridged the gap from Scherzer’s short night to the more dominant back of the pen pitchers. Phil Coke managed to get Jim Thome out along with 5 other outs while allowing just 1 hit. Jose Valverde finished the game, and he issued the only walk of the night by Detroit pitchers.

The bullets

• Johnny Damon continued his hitting streak
• Austin Jackson didn’t strike out for the second game in a row.
• Magglio Ordonez had 3 hits and is at 1999 now for his career
• Good things happen when Brandon Inge homers and doubles in the same game. Well, at least this week that’s been the case.
• Brennan Boesch absolutely smoked his bases loaded double and he was just a little bit of air from a grand slam.
• The biggest damage came on 3 straight pitches when Boesch, Inge, and Ryan Raburn took the first pitches they saw and each laced doubles.
• With Ni going 2 innings yesterday, and Thomas and Coke each going 2 today, it will be interesting to see how Jim Leyland will deploy his southpaws tomorrow. But he did accomplish his goal of resting Joel Zumaya for two consecutive days.
• Paul Emmel made the call on the Span play. Emmel was the ump who tossed Span on Tuesday night. There will be no love lost between Span and Emmel and I’m sure he’s enemy number 1 in Minneapolis tonight.