Category Archives: 2010 Season

2010 Season, Game Post

Game 2010.022: Twins at Tigers

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Hey, at least Scott Baker can’t be quite as good as Francisco Liriano was last night can he?

Baker goes for the Twins after getting beat up for 10 hits and 6 runs in 5.2 innings against Cleveland his last time out. Baker has continued his reverse platoon splits from last year into this young season where right handers hit him better than left handers.

Max Scherzer is coming off a strong outing that earned him a quality start on a 7 K, 2 BB, 7 inning effort in Arlington. He’s never started against the Twins.

Your lefty heavy lineup is:

  1. Jackson, CF
  2. Damon, DH
  3. Ordonez, RF
  4. Cabrera, 1B
  5. Boesch, LF
  6. Inge, 3B
  7. Raburn, 2B
  8. Avila, C
  9. Santiago, SS
2010 Season, Game Post

It’s Liriano’s world, we’re all just flailing in it

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While the Ryan Raburn error was terribly frustrating. And the Scott Sizemore error made you think, “c’mon, they’re not even in that God forsaken dome and this stuff keeps happening.” This game was all about Francisco Liriano.

Liriano spotted the fastball to both sides of the plate. He froze Tigers hitters with back door sliders and had them flailing at regular sliders that dove at their back foot. Six of the Tigers ten strike outs were off the backwards K variety. They couldn’t even muster a swing.

Credit where credit is due, Liriano put on a clinic an deserved to win.

On the other side Justin Verlander was better. He didn’t walk a batter not named Jim Thome while fanning 7 including victimizing Justin Morneau 3 times. He deserved to get out of the 6th were it not for the Raburn error, but it would have been his final batter regardless with a pitch count of 121.

At least this time out it wasn’t stuff lacking, just efficiency.

  • On a night when 12 of the 27 Tigers outs came on strikeouts, Austin Jackson didn’t have a single one while drawing the only walk, thus ending the 20 game streak. I love baseball irony.
  • Johnny Damon kept the hit streak alive.
  • Fu-Te Ni came into a bases loaded situation and got a come backer to the mound and managed to go 2.1 more innings. He picked up 2 more walks and benefitted from a wide strike zone (just ask Denard Span) but the end result is that he was able to “reset” the bullpen by staying out that long.
  • Eddie Bonine didn’t have it after being so effective and critical to the team’s win on Saturday.
  • For all the talk about the Twins doing things the right way and manufacturing runs and what not, they did strand a lead off triple with their 2-3-4 hitters up. I’m just saying, it happens.
  • Disappointing to see the Tigers play so poorly on defense regardless. In addition to the 3 errors I’d argue that Ordonez didn’t take a great route to Span’s triple. I don’t know if he would have got it, but it appeared if he angled back he may have had a better shot.

Twins 2, Tigers 0

2010 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 04.27.2010

Syracuse 0 Toledo 7
Alfredo Figaro pitched 7 shut out innings, fanning 7 and walking 1. Daniel Schlereth fanned 2, but walked 2 and only threw 10 of 23 pitches for strikes in a scoreless inning. Casper Wells singled and homered. Brent Dlugach was 2 for 4 witha double.

Erie 7 Bowie 2
Duane Below allowed just 2 hits, 2 unearned runs, and 3 walks while striking out 10 in 5 innings. Zach Simons added 3 scoreless innings. Michael Bertram and Cesar Nicolas each homered and singled. Audy Ciriaco had 2 hits pushing his average to .321. Most impressive is that he only has 2 strikeouts in 28 at-bats.

Lakeland 1 Daytona 3
Brayan Villarreal pitched a complete game with 6 strike outs, and just 1 walk and 3 hits allowed. Unfortunately 2 of those hits were homers. John Murrian singled and doubled.

Lansing 6 West Michigan 0
Giovany Soto had 8 strike outs and allowed just 1 run on 6 hits but he only lasted 4.2 innings. Mike Gosse, Avisail Garcia, and Alexis Espinoza all had 2 hits.

2010 Season, Game Post

Game 2010.021: Twins at Tigers

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Check out the post game at: It’s Liriano’s world, we’re all just flailing in it

The Tigers are back in Detroit and they welcome in the Twins. Speaking of people who are back, have you checked out what Francisco Liriano has been up to? He’s sporting a 1.29 ERA and a 2.75 FIP. He hasn’t allowed a homer in 21 innings this year and has thrown 15 scoreless innings over his last 2 starts. Sheesh.

Meanwhile Justin Verlander is still in the hunt for his ace-like ways. While Verlander has given up some hits this year, it was the 4 walks and 125 pitches in 5 innings that was most disconcerting in his last start against the Angels.

The Twins are 2.5 games up on the Tigers and they are pounding the ball with 99 runs scored in their 19 games so far. Theoretically the Tigers could be in first place at the end of the series. In April it doesn’t matter a whole lot one way or the other though so let’s not get too worked up.

Your matchup notes include Jim Thome with 7 homers and 10 walks in his 51 plate appearances against Verlander. Lefties are 1 for 20 against Liriano this year so it’s a good thing Damon is the only hook in the lineup. Magglio Ordonez has a 381/409/810 line against Liriano in 22 PA’s. Tonight’s line up has 23 strike out sin 85 plate appearances against Liriano, and that doesn’t include Austin Jackson.

The lineup:

  1. Jackson, CF
  2. Damon, DH
  3. Ordonez, RF
  4. Cabrera, 1B
  5. Inge, 3B
  6. Raburn, LF
  7. Laird, C
  8. Sizemore, 2B
  9. Santiago, SS
2010 Season, Game Post

They’re coming home

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It looked like a laugher, but then the jokes stopped getting funny, then the Miguel Cabrera had the last laugh. It’s games like this where I like to let Fangraphs tell the story.

Jeremy Bonderman looked great in the early going. He only needed 38 pitches to get through 4 innings. He pitched his way out of a rocky 5th with minimal damage, so it was quite the surprise to see him unable to finish the 6th and spare the bullpen.

And that bullpen which has been quite good and quite heavily used was vulnerable. Joel Zumaya finished off the 6th inning, but got knocked around for the first time this year. Phil Coke came on and got the first out before Vladimir Guerrero tied things up.

The offense scored early and late. Brandon Inge broke his home run drought in a big way. After sending a ball to the warning track he got angry and went homer-double-homer for a monster night. Ryan Raburn narrowly missed a grand slam and added another double.

But the biggest blast once again came from the biggest hitter. The Rangers inexplicably threw Miguel Cabrera a pitch over the plate in the 9th inning and he put it over the wall to give the Tigers a win that Jose Valverde saved easily.

A 5-6 road trip isn’t great, but it is certainly acceptable. And we get back to 7p start times, and the Minnesota Twins.

2010 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 04.26.2010

Toledo 10 Columbus 1
With a roster full of sluggers, the Tigers got some offense from unexpected sources. Mike Rabelo and Danny Worth each doubled, homered, and walked. Clete Thomas drew 2 walks and Jeff Frazier and and Max Leon each had 2 hits. Enrique Gonzalez allowed just the 1 unearned run on 6 hits, no walks and 5 strike outs. Scott Drucker pitched 2 scoreless innings needing only 18 pitches, 15 of which were strikes.

Jacob Turner to the DL

With only 1 game on the docket I was looking for something to add to the wrap. News that Jacob Turner has been put on the disabled list isn’t what I had in mind. The cause is forearm stiffness. The hope is that the Tigers are just being extra cautious and that this doesn’t turn into a case of “forearm stiffness begets tendinitis begets a visit to Dr. James Andrews begets rehab begets no improvement begets Tommy John surgery.”

Cory Hamilton gets called up from EST to fill in on the West Michigan roster.

2010 Season, Game Post

Game 2010.020: Tigers at Rangers

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The long grueling road trip is over. I’m exhausted after these 11 days and nights. I can only imagine how the players are feeling. A win tonight would mean a palatable 5-6 trip. A loss and it is a disappointing 4-7. Arbitrary you ask? Yeah, it is.

Jeremy Bonderman takes the ball for Detroit. I was going to wow you with a pitch f/x breakdown of Bonderman this season. The thing is, try as I might, I can’t classify his pitches. I haven’t trusted what gameday is telling me so I did my own k-means clustering trying a variety of variables and I got nada. I can pick out some fastballs and some sliders. The rest is noise. Hopefully the noise is effective tonight ‘cuz the pen needs a breather.

Matt Harrison goes for the Rangers. Much like Bonderman he has two quality starts and a stinker this year. The Tigers faced him twice last year and neither game he made it out of the sixth inning and the Tigers plated 9 runs total.

The lineup:

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

Detroit Tigers at Texas Rangers – April 26, 2010 – MLB.com Preview

2010 Season, Game Post

Doubled up in Arlington

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Let the Rick Porcello panic set in. He was knocked around pretty good for the third straight start, which was a shame because an interesting lineup managed to plate 4 runs in the first 2 innings.

The raw numbers don’t paint a pretty picture in this one. Four innings, ten hits, six runs, two walks, three strike outs, 92 pitches. I’m not going to sugar coat this, Porcello didn’t make the pitches he needed to when he got in trouble. When things were at their worst the balls came off the bats the hardest. But I’m still not worried.

Half of the hits that Porcello gave up came on ground balls. The second inning outburst was set up by two ground ball hits and a line drive just out of the reach of Ramon Santiago. While the bases loaded walk was inexcusable, the bases clearing double was on a pitch that was off the plate inside to Michael Young. The homer he allowed in the first inning was off the plate away.

Both the Young pitch and Murphy pitch were up too high in the zone, but he didn’t throw them in the middle of the plate either. Porcello didn’t make enough good pitches, but he also didn’t get enough good results on the good pitches he did make.

Here’s where I get accused of being an apologist. I understand that and I can live with that and I still think that Porcello will be okay. If he doesn’t, feel free to go back to this post and point out how wrong I am.

As for the offense, it was an interesting day. The bats came out strong but after the second inning they were completely silenced. Colby Lewis went on to fan 10 batters. Four of those strikeouts were caught looking.

  • Dontrelle Willis walked the bases loaded and allowed 2 add-on runs. After a strong outing against the Angels  you have to see the control problems return. Maybe it was coming out of the bullpen, but the Willis situation is fragile to say the least.
  • Fu-Te Ni walked 2 in 2 innings, but that was mitigated with 5 strike outs and Phil Coke pitched a nice inning was well.
  • The bullpen has been effective, but is in getting worn down. Jeremy Bonderman needs to go 6 innings at least tomorrow, and pray for no extra inning games.
  • Congrats to Austin Jackson on his first career homer.
2010 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 04.25.10

Toledo 3 Columbus 2
With Rick Porcello struggling the claxons are already sounding for help from Toledo. Armando Galarraga would be a candidate, and he went 6 innings today and allowed 2 runs on 4 hits, 3 walks, and 2 K’s. Robbie Weinhardt went 2 scoreless innings with 2 strike outs and Jay Sborz grabbed his 7th save. Jeff Larish homered and walked.

Erie 10 Altoona 3
Wilkin Ramirez went 2 for 5 with his 3rd homer. Cale Iorg went 2 for 3 with a double. Lauren Gagnier allowed just 2 unearned runs in 5 innings.

Lakeland 3 Tampa 5
Brent Wyatt went 3 for 4 with a double. John Murrian was a triple short of the cycle. Josh Workman had 2 hits. Mark Sorensen managed to only allow 5 runs despite allowing 13 baserunners and striking out nobody in 4.2 innings. Mike Morrison made his first appearance and threw 2 scoreless innings.

South Bend 5 West Michigan 1
Jordan Lennerton homered in the 9th to break up the shut out. Victor Larez went 7 innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, no walks, and 1 strike out.

2010 Season, Game Post

Game 2010.019 Tigers at Rangers

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Read the game wrap: Doubled up in Arlington

Rick Porcello hasn’t had an easy go of it this season. He’s managed to pitch around some struggles, but the Angels hit him pretty good. Already things like “sophomore slump” are being bandied about and with one more rough outing [air quotes]clever[air quotes] will start calling him Por-shell-o. A strong outing against the Rangers would certainly help quell that talk.

In actuality there is nothing wrong with Porcello:

porcello stats

He’s getting more ground balls, striking out more, walking less, keeping the ball in the park better, and the only thing that isn’t happening is that his balls in play aren’t being converted to outs. He’s also giving up fewer line drives. Porcello is fine.

Colby Lewis goes for the Rangers. He has 18 K’s in 17.1 innings this season, including a 10 strike out effort against the Indians. He is prone to the walk though with 10 allowed over his 3 starts.

Magglio Ordonez is sore and will get his first day off today.

Detroit Tigers at Texas Rangers – April 25, 2010 – MLB.com Preview

2010 Season, Game Post, Injuries

Wins in unexpected places

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When your team turns to an emergency starter and you get a win, the aesthetics of such a win become irrelevant. Which is fortunate because this wasn’t exactly a pretty victory.

With Dontrelle Willis battling a stomach virus the Tigers turned to Brad Thomas to try and eat some innings. Thomas wasn’t good the first two innings. He either missed the strike zone or got hammered. Even factoring in an Austin Jackson misplay, you had the feeling that the Rangers should have scored more than 4 runs in the first 2 innings. But Thomas did manage to come out for a quick and painless 3rd inning.

The Tigers then got frisky in the 3rd and 4th innings. They strung together 3 hits, an RBI ground out to get the game within 1 run in the 3rd.

In the 4th inning it was Tigers patience and a screwy wild pitch that gave the Tigers the lead. Ramon Santiago scored from second on a pitch that went through Taylor Teagarden’s 5-hole.* That was enough for the lead, but the Tigers added some more runs as they batted around.

*Does anybody else remember another game in Texas where Nook Logan scored from first base on a wild pitch?

Bullpen Dominance

The story of this game though is probably the bullpen. Eddie Bonine followed Thomas and allowed just 2 baserunners in 3 innings while getting 9 ground ball outs. Bonine threw his knuckler 7 times, all for strikes and 2 resulted in ground outs.
Joel Zumaya was next and recorded 5 of his 6 outs with strike outs. Jose Valverde handled the 9th inning allowing just an infield single.

The final line for the pen was 6 innings, 3 singles, 1 walk, and 5 K’s.

Because Bonine and Zumaya in particular were able to chew up 5 innings, it means that the rest of the pen is available tomorrow.

  • The bullpen would have had one more hit surrendered were it not for a spectacular leaping grab by Jackson. It may be his best catch of the season.
  • Jackson did keep his strikeout streak alive. It’ll end some day.
  • I liked seeing the Tigers taking advantage of the defense and picking up 2 bunt hits. I hate the sacrifice, but love seeing a guy drop one down when the 3rd baseman is playing deep.
  • Adam Everett left the game with a hamstring strain.
  • Scott Sizemore didn’t play due to ankle soreness.
  • Johnny Damon’s hit streak extends to 11 and he reached base 4 times.
2010 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 04.24.2010

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Before moving into the run down of the box scores, the Tigers minor league system has been racking up their share of co-pays this week. Add in the Carlos Guillen injury and there is quite a bit of roster shuffling to cover.

Brennan Boesch of course was promoted to the Tigers to take Guillen’s spot. Clete Thomas is on the DL but is expected to be activated soon. Ryan Strieby’s wrist is acting up and so he went on the DL. Deik Scram was moved up from Erie to take Strieby’s place. Also, Ruddy Lugo was placed on the DL following last night’s scare. Fortunately it sounds like he will be okay.

Moving down to Erie they now had a spot that needed filling Christopher White is now a Seawolve.

Lakeland of course loses White, and they already have Daniel Fields in for Ben Guez (who went to Toledo when Thomas hit the DL). They also lost Lester Oliveros and Tyler Stohr to the DL this week. Chao Ting-Tang was added to the roster to be the team’s 3rd outfielder. Austin Wood and Robert Waite were added to fill the bullpen holes.

Now with Adam Everett leaving tonight’s game with a hamstring strain we’ll see if this all gets shuffled after tonight’s game.

Columbus 7 Toledo 1
Deik Scram made his Mud Hens debut and he doubled twice, pacing the offense. Phil Dumatrait was knocked out after 5 innings, 8 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks, and 1 strike out. Daniel Schlereth walked 2 and fanned 2 in 2 innings.

Erie 4 Altoona 3
Max St. Pierre hit his 3rd homer of the season and added 2 walks and a stolen base. Jon Kibler went 6.2 innings and allowed 3 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks.

Tampa 7 Lakeland 13
Luke Putkonen allowed 3 hits and 2 runs with 2 strike outs and was lifted in the second inning. While he was hit around, it seems like an early exit. Ralwey Bishop doubled, homered, and walked. Billy Nowlin and Alden Carrithers each had 3 hits. Andy Bouchie homered. Daniel Fields singled and doubled.

South Bend 3 West Michigan 0
Jade Todd struck out 7 and walked just 1 allowing 2 runs in 6 innings. The offense consisted of singles for Jamie Johnson, Wade Gaynor, and Avisail Garcia.