PREGAME: The Blue Jays come to town. Shaun Marcum is on the mound for Toronto. He struggled in his first 3 starts off the DL allowing 17 runs in 14.2 innings and 5 homers in those 3 games. But in his last start he got well holding Oakland to 1 run in 7 innings with 7 K’s and only 2 walks. Whether that means he’s back to the low 3’s ERA pitcher he was earlier in the year, or it was a product of facing the A’s remains to be seen.

For the Tigers it will be Justin Verlander. Verlander made progress in his last start before his line was blown up in his 8th inning of work. Oh yeah, and he threw 130 pitches.

TOR @ DET, Monday, August 11, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: The weather was perfect. Outside of that, I’ll go bulleted list style:

• I have no idea if Verlander’s previous outing impacted the current one- at least in terms of performance. He was lifted around the 80 pitch mark and so that was probably a factor in not letting him pitch through it.
• Control didn’t seem to be a problem, with his first ball not coming until pitch number 15. I was at the game, and haven’t gone through the pitch f/x data so this is pure speculation, but I’d say he was just chucking the ball over the plate to try and get quick outs. I base this mostly on the knowledge of the length of his previous outing, and the number of scorched balls coming with 2 strikes.
• I’ve seen a decent number of homers to straight away centerfield at Comerica. They’ve all been well hit of course, but given the sheer vastness of the outfield, you never really know if they’re gone. Cabrera’s was a no doubter off the bat.
• The Sheffield situation wasn’t pretty. He was awful again today, and the boos just rained down in a grilli-esque fashion. I’d say it was probably even louder than Jason received.
• Jason Beck transcribed Leyland’s quotes in response to the Sheffield article. I agree completely with the skipper on this.
• I don’t get too worked up about guys not sprinting all the way down the line on every ball. A comebacker to the pitcher and you’re out before you get half way down the line. But Sheffield hit a groundball down the third base line. It wasn’t hit hard and it was fielded behind the bag. Chances are he would be out, but it wasn’t a given. Sheffield ran half speed. It should have been a close play but he was out by 3 steps. That is inexcusable from anyone, but especially the leader he fancies himself.
• The game seemed very blah, due in large part to Verlander getting rocked and the offense not clicking. But outside of Sheffield guys were playing hard. Renteria laid out and made a nice stop on a ball up the middle. Maggs made a nice diving play, as did Miguel Cabrera.

PREGAME: Remember when the Tigers bludgeoned the Royals for a series sweep a few weeks back? Yeah, that was the last time they won a series. They have a chance to turn the feat again this afternoon.

It will be Nate Robertson taking the mound for the Tigers. Robertson has been horrific with a 6.11 ERA. He’s allowing 1.3 hits PER INNING. He has been much better at home (4.45 ERA) and much better during the day (4.47 ERA). So maybe he doesn’t blow up today.

Greg Smith takes the ball for the Athletics. He turned in a quality start his last time out against the Blue Jays. He has an okay strike out rate 5.95 and a poor 3.92 walk rate. But he hasn’t given up a lot of hits. He’s given up 62 fewer hits than Robertson in the same number of innings. Lefties have managed only a 572 OPS against him this year. And don’t swing at the first pitch. He’s only allowed a 172/169/328 line when the first pitch is put in play.

OAK @ DET, Sunday, August 10, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Well this was a nice clean, crisp win. Nate Robertson was in and around the strike zone and efficiently marched through the A’s order for 7.2 innings. In the process he dropped his ERA to the right side of 6.00. Fernando Rodney picked up the last 4 outs, including stranding the runner he inherited, allowing only a double along the way.

The offense had a controlled approach, not offering at pitches out of the strike zone for the most part. They drew 10 walks, though only 2 came around to score. But they did enough to build a comfortable margin by the end of the game.

Gary Sheffield had a kind of cycle of futility. He was 1 for 1 in GIDP opportunities. He also popped up with a runner on second and no outs. And he K’d both looking and swinging.

The only other bad thing about the game was that Curtis Granderson struck out bunting. Grandy has looked so good in so many facets of the game, but his last couple bunt attempts have been awful. I believe it was just last week he popped up a sac bunt attempt.

PREGAME: After spending basically every waking minute since the All Star break on the road, the Tigers return home for the awhile. This was the part of the schedule, where if the Tigers kept things close, they could make their run. Except they didn’t keep things close.

As for the game at hand it will be Kenny Rogers and Dallas Braden. Braden is making his 4th start and he’s had mixed results. The Tigers faced him 3 times last year and beat the stuffing out of him the last two times lighting him up for 14 runs in 6.1 innings over the 2 games.

With the exception of the Royals game, Rogers has been awful since the break. he hasn’t recorded an out in the 7th inning, and in his last start he threw 109 pitches before being lifted in the 4th.

OAK @ DET, Friday, August 8, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

PREGAME: I’m going out to enjoy a lovely day on the beach. When I settle in tonight I’ll see if the Tigers as a collective team have anything left – like pride, or if they simply mail in the season. Zach Miner and Javier Vasquez. Last time this pitching match-up was a win. The bullpen should be well rested after they only had to get 1 out last night.

DET @ CHW, Thursday, August 7, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Nothing to complain about in this one. Zach Miner was solid. The offense was good with the Carlos Guillen and Miguel Cabrera reaching base in each of their 5 respective plate appearances. Ryan Raburn made a bacon saving diving catch. Fernando Rodney was okay enough, and did K 2 without walking anyone. My man Bobby Seay was rocky, and Ramon Santiago had a 3 K game with an error. But otherwise good times. Now the Tigers just need to win 8 of their next 10 and we can all get excited again.

PREGAME: Yeah. Justin Verlander attempts to make it through 7 innings in under 140 pitches. John Danks chucks the pill for the White Sox. Sorry. I just can’t muster more. Last night still burns too much.

DET @ CHW, Wednesday, August 6, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

PREGAME: Here we are at one of those critical junctures where if the Tigers lose, even the optimists have to call it a season. It reminds a lot of a series like this 2 months ago where Detroit improbably swept the White Sox. Of course that series was in the confines of Comerica Park.

It will be Nate Robertson taking on Gavin Floyd. Robertson has been the awful in 2 of his last 3 starts. Both of those came on the road. Both of them he was showering before the 4th inning started. And in both of them the team gave him a ton of run support. In between he picked up a quality start against these same White Sox.

Floyd’s ERA is 2 runs lower when pitching in Chicago. He has allowed 11 homers in 76 home innings, and the Tigers have been known to hit some homers, so that might be good.

As for all those changes Leyland was talking about, there were no roster moves, and other than Ryan Raburn starting in left (5 for 12 off of Floyd) there’s really nothing of note.

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

Game Time 8:10

POSTGAME: Oh Holy Hell.

I’d like to say something about Polanco’s game. Or Fernando Rodney being the man. Or Ryan Raburn’s 4 hits. Or Nate Robertson making it through 5 innings. Instead…

Oh Holy Hell.

Farnsworth has allowed more homers than all but 25 AL pitchers. All 25 are starters. Edgar Renteria had had a good game with 3 hits and some nice defense…until he booted a routine grounder. The game should have been over. Joel Zumaya should have thrown something that wasn’t a fastball.

Oh Holy Hell.

PREGAME: Detroit will face James Shields. Shields is really good and he owned the Tigers last year. But that won’t really matter if the starting pitching can’t keep the team in the game and help out the bullpen a little. It’s been a week since a starter made it through the 6th inning with Zach Miner last doing it against the White Sox. Only once in the last 12 games has a starter recorded an out in the 7th inning. Coincidentally that one time was Armando Galarraga who will be starting today for Detroit.

DET @ TBR, Sunday, August 3, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 1:40

POSTGAME: Well, Armando Galarraga was great again. Bobby Seay was great again. The offense was good enough, getting a small lead (Ordonez x 2), adding an insurance run (Sheffield), coming back to tie the game off their closer (Granderson), and taking the lead (Cabrera). But it was undone by Farnsworth, Rodney, and Leyland. That list is in chronological order, not in order of crapulence.

Leyland’s negligence in the final inning will be the subject of a future post.

In the end it is another entry into the poll for worst loss of the year.

PREGAME: It will be Kenny Rogers and Andy Sonnanstine tonight. Rogers wasn’t too good his last time out, getting knocked around for 5 runs and 9 hits in 5.2 innings. His pickoff move should at least provide a speed bump for the Rays game.

Sonnanstine will give up his share of hits, but he typically doesn’t walk many with only 23 free passes this season. He doesn’t really have platoon splits to speak of with lefties and righties hitting an OPS of 794 and 780 respectively.

DET @ TBR, Saturday, August 2, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 6:10 – FSN will begin coverage at 7:06 when Fox’s national exclusive window expires.

POSTGAME: The offense hasn’t been too efficient the last 3 days. At the same time the starting pitching has been offering up pretty deflating performances. Tonight it was Kenny Rogers turn. He some how fanned 8 batters, but it took him 109 pitches to record 10 outs. That should tell you most of what you need to know about this game.

As for other lowlights, the Tigers turned a bases loaded double into 1 run and an out. I wish I could tell you what happnned, but as Rod Allen said, “there’s some blame for everybody in that one.” Inge let a couple more run scoring pitches get by him. Guillen booted an easy out. It was all kinds of ugly. Freddy Dolsi wasn’t good. Casey Fossum wasn’t good.

Highlights? Miguel Cabrera keeps drilling the ball. Curtis Granderson keeps drilling the ball. Kyle Farnsworth pitched a 1-2-3 inning.

PREGAME: Anyone else still tired from last night? Hopefully Justin Verlander went home early and got a good night’s sleep. The Tigers used 10 innings worth of bullpen last night and need Verlander to be more efficient than his 110 pitch, 4 inning outing against the White Sox. The Tigers bullpen presumably consists of Freddy Dolsi, Joel Zumaya, and Clay Rapada who was activated with Todd Jones hitting the DL.

On the other side it will be Fausto Carmona. Carmona didn’t make it out of the 3rd before surrendering 10 baserunners to the Twins in his first start off the DL.

DET @ CLE, Thursday, July 31, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 12:05

POSTGAME: No offense to speak of. Verlander throwing oodles of pitches. Tigers pitchers combining for 6 walks and 2 HBPs. A pretty crappy end to the series.

This is 2 bad outings for Verlander in a row. Is this a blip, a bump? Are his mechanics bad? Is it a result of the heavy workload he’s carried this year? A bigger topic woth a deeper dive I suppose.

PREGAME: Cliff Lee is one of the best in the AL this year. Nate Robertson has been one of the worst – at least in terms of ERA and hits allowed and batting average allowed.

Sorry it’s a short post today. There’s some other news going down

DET @ CLE, Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME (scene from the National Spelling Bee)
Moderator: Please spell Excruciating
Sweaty Genius Kid: Could you please us it in a sentence
Moderator: The Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians game last night was excruciating
Sweaty Genius Kid: Excruciating. E-x-c-r-u-c-i-a-t-i-n-g. Excruciating

I guess you can say the Tigers stole one last night. Nate Robertson was awful and only a game ending after 5 hours prevented me from dumping a bucket of vitriol all over Nate. But I got tired and decided to write the post game the morning after. I’ve mellowed.

The pen was, um. Well they only allowed 4 runs in 10 innings of work. And they worked really hard. They threw lots of pitches. Rodney got spanked. Jones got spanked. Fossum nearly got spanked. Seay was a little shaky before becoming a stud and fanning 5. Basically the bullpen for today’s game consists of Joel Zumaya and Freddy Dolsi (only 11 pitches). So if Farnsworth joins the team in time it would be helpful.

But now for the really good: The offense was excellent. Yes, they left some scoring chances on the table in the late innings, but I can’t knock an offense that scores 14 runs. There had to be some timely hits in there somewhere. Special acknowledgment for Miguel Cabrera who is kinda good. Also, Curtis Granderson had 5 hits. Four of them came on opposite field 2 strike singles, and 3 of those came off of left handers.

While the game itself was down right maddening, the multiple comebacks were sublime. And the fact that the biggest part of the comeback came against one of the best pitchers in baseball this year just makes it sweeter.

Indianapolis 3 Toledo 5
Kody Kirkland homered twice. Timo Perez doubled twice. And Clete Thomas singled twice (plus he walked). Chris Lambert went 7 innings and allowed 3 runs on 4 hits, a walk, and 4 K’s. Clay Rapada got the 2 inning save fanning 2.

Erie 11 Akron 5
Casper Wells hit for the cycle with 5 RBI. Wil Rhymes went 4 for 5 and was missing the homer to complete his cycle. And a bunch of guys got 2 hits each. Lauren Gagnier allowed 4 runs on 8 hits in 6 innings.

Lakeland 7 Tampa 0 (in progress)
I’m guess this one was delayed since it’s only in the 4th as I write this. But James Skelton homered and tripled, so that’s noteworthy. Jonah Nickerson is throwing 1 hit ball through the first 3.

West Michigan – PPD. But check out this story from Andrew Hess and his hotel experience.

Oneonta 10 Aberdeen 5
Bryan Pounds homered and singled. Billy Nowlin went 4 for 5. Hayden Parrot, Wade Lamont, and Mike Gosse all had 2 hits. David Stokes allowed 3 runs on 9 hits, a walk, and 6 K’s in 5 innings.

GCL Tigers 5 GCL Blue Jays 3
Alexis Espinoza was a triple shy of the cycle and picked up 4 RBI. Luis Palacios was 3 for 5 with 2 doubles. Victor Larez struck out 5 and allowed only 3 hits in 5 innings. Brandon Hamilton allowed 4 hits and 3 unearned runs in 2 innings.

PREGAME: After a lackluster effort the Tigers can hopefully muster some offense against Matt Ginter. You may remember Ginter as a former Tigers pitcher and an accomplished banjo player. The Indians picked him up and he’s allowed just 3 runs in 2 starts with no walks.

Armando Galarraga takes the ball for Detroit. He had that whole perfect game thing going on in his last start against the Royals. I was hoping he’d get it just so I could see if he was capable of smiling. He’s faced Cleveland twice and has 10 K’s against 2 walks in 12.1 innings.

DET @ CLE, Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: The Whipping Boys came through again tonight. The triumvirate of Edgar Renteria, Gary Sheffield, and Brandon Inge all had 2 out RBI doubles tonight, and Inge added 2 run homer as well. Actually every one had a hit or two tonight, but those 3 came up with 7 of the 8 RBI. Considering Chris Guccione’s dynamic strike zone everyone fared well.

Armando Galarraga fared okay, but wasn’t quite as sharp as his past outing – which would be quite tough to do in all fairness. The bullpen kind of got the job done, but man – those freakin walks.