Thanks to a real gem by Max Scherzer and a couple of clutch hits by Rajai Davis and Victor Martinez, the Tigers are now on a 6-game winning streak, and have the best record in MLB. How about that?

What better time to debut new 22-yr old left-hander Robbie Ray, the main piece of the Doug Fister trade (Fister is scheduled to make his own season debut on Friday).

As we predicted yesterday, Jose Ortega was optioned to Toledo to make room for Ray, which was indeed the predictable move, no matter how much we want Phil Coke to disappear. In case you don’t remember Ortega, he last pitched in the last Tiger loss, which was oh so long ago.

In case you missed yesterday’s postgame, I pointed out that Victor Martinez is quietly putting together a team MVP type of season. Among his accomplishments: he has been the hardest player in baseball to strike out, with what is now 4 Ks in 113 plate appearances. What I didn’t know was that the called 3rd strike he took last night was his first called 3rd strike since May 21 2013. Wow  (courtesy of tweet from Jason Beck).

Tonight’s You Can Call Me Ray Tiger Lineup:

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. V. Martinez, DH
5. J.D. Martinez, LF
6. Jackson, CF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. Avila, C
9. Worth, SS

J.D. gets the start against his former team.

Postgame

That makes 7 in a row, and the Tigers are still in single digits in the loss column. Despite the 9th inning foolery, the game was great for Detroit on both sides of the field. Robbie Ray pitched well and was composed. He only gave up 5 hits, 2 of them infield hits, and nothing hit really hard; an awful lot of routine outfield flies and, even better, only one walk. Nothing like a rookie who is not afraid of the strike zone. Yes, it was just the Houston Astros, but last time I checked they were a Major League Baseball team. Thumbs up Robbie The Railroad.

Miguel Cabrera also had his best game of the season, with the rare long ball (3), on 4 hits, 1 of which was an RBI single through the right-side hole created by the shift. I don’t foresee an awful lot of shifting on Cabrera in the future.

Let’s do this again tomorrow, shall we?

Detroit finished off its road trip in grand style, sweeping the White Sox and Royals in back-to-back series. Now without so much as a day off in between, the Tigers return home for a 7-game stand before heading out to the East Coast, also without a day off in-between. This will give the Tigers 13 total games in a row without a day off.

Home stand schedule and prospective starters:

Astros at Tigers

Monday        May 5    7:08     Max Scherzer vs Jarrod Cosart

Tuesday       May 6    7:08     Robbie Ray (L) vs Brett Oberholtzer (L)

Wednesday   May 7    7:08     Rick Porcello vs Brad Peacock

Thursday      May 8    1:08     Drew Smyly (L) vs Dallas Keuchel (L)

Twins at Tigers

Friday         May 9     7:08     Justin Verlander vs Phil Hughes

Saturday     May 10   1:08     Max Scherzer vs Kyle Gibson

Sunday       May 11   1:08     Robbie Ray (L) vs Samuel Deduno

The interest in the current Astros series of course (besides featuring two lefties for each team) is the debut of Robbie Ray, the key piece in the Doug Fister trade.

As Ray comes up of course, the key question is who will go down? It’s got to be Phil Coke, right? The story linked above points out that dumping Coke will leave the Tigers with only one lefty reliever in the bullpen, but if Ray stays, won’t Smyly be back in the pen? Besides, Coke doesn’t get out lefties any better or even as well as any of the right-handers, so I don’t consider him a lefty in the bullpen. At any rate, it would be logistically easier to simply demote Jose Ortega or Justin Miller; I expect Ortega to get the short straw this time. (The team has already made room on the 40-man roster by outrighting Jordan Lennerton to Toledo).

At 26%, the Astro–otherwise known as Bud Selig’s gift to the American League– have the 3rd highest swing-and-miss percentage in all of baseball.  Look for Max to light up the K column of the scoreboard.

Postgame

When Prince Fielder was traded, there were some people (not here, to our credit) who wondered where the RBIs would come from, and who suggested that everyone would just walk Cabrera without a Big Batsman behind him.

The season is now exactly 1/6 of the way over, and the 1/6 MVP of the Tigers is Victor Martinez, who is quietly picking up the slack from the denatured Miguel Cabrera, and who turns out to be the one they all pitch around–Martinez is now 2nd in the AL with 7 intentional walks (2nd only to Prince Fielder, who has been intentionally walked more than any .690 OPS batter in history).

At any rate, in addition to leading the team with a healthy .901 OPS, Martinez has been the hardest man in baseball to strikeout–only 3 strikeouts in 109 plate appearances–and has been about perfect with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 out. Tonight he added a huge insurance home run to tilt the scales in Max’s favor in a great pitching battle, and here are the Tigers with a 6th consecutive win.

1st place Detroit (16-9) wraps up the series (and the road trip) against still 2nd place Kansas City (14-15). Mention of anything related to brooms is strictly prohibited until the game is concluded. A Royals fan would bristle at the suggestion.

We have intercepted the encrypted message, and our code-breakers have deciphered it as follows:

THE LINEUP

LF Rajai Davis
2B Ian Kinsler
1B Miguel Cabrera
DH Victor Martinez
RF Torii Hunter
CF Austin Jackson
3B Nick Castellanos
C Alex Avila
SS Andrew Romine

P Justin Verlander

POSTGAME: Didn’t seem like either side played well at all today. I don’t know what’s so hard about hitting a guy holding a stick from 60 feet away, especially when he’s standing still, but time after time after time, the ball-throwers kept missing badly, except for once. Fortunately, the judges awarded more points to our side. But seriously… or even more seriously…

YOU SAID IT

Vince in MN May 4, 2014 at 3:20 pm

I wasn’t going to tell you, but since you asked:

THE LINEUP

LF Rajai Davis
2B Ian Kinsler
1B Miguel Cabrera
DH Victor Martinez
RF Torii Hunter
CF Austin Jackson
3B Nick Castellanos
C Bryan Holaday
SS Danny Worth

P Drew Smyly

Just when things were getting to be a muddle of too many days off, despair over the bullpen, and grumblings about the hitting, Detroit (15-9) has gone and snapped off three wins in a row, all of them games with plenty to like. Good times.

POSTGAME: In the time it took to throw 17 pitches, only 17 pitches had been thrown, and as a result, the game went on for what seemed like hours. But seriously… or even more seriously…

YOU SAID IT

Jim EggersUSMC May 4, 2014 at 12:35 am

Kevin in Dallas May 3, 2014 at 11:10 pm

And now, another DTW Exclusive:

THE LINEUP

2B Ian Kinsler
RF Torii Hunter
1B Miguel Cabrera
DH Victor Martinez
CF Austin Jackson
3B Don Kelly
LF J.D. Martinez
C Alex Avila
SS Andrew Romine

P Rick Porcello

POSTGAME: At Kauffman Stadium this evening, the Detroit Tigers American League baseball club scored 8 runs, and the Kansas City Royals American League baseball club scored 2 runs. After some deliberation, it was determined that the Detroit Tigers had won the contest.

YOU SAID IT

Vince in MN May 2, 2014 at 10:36 pm

Jim EggersUSMC April 30, 2014 at 1:41 am [edit]

12-9, 1st place. Not enough games up.

Hello All.

Long time no talk. All these days off are making me wonder if it’s really baseball season. You know, the sport where there’s a game on 6/7 days. Always something to do? Ahh, memories.

The Tigers have played 21 games so far, fewest in the ML by 3, and 8 less than Arizona, who may be officially eliminated by June 1. This just means that there will be a bunch of day night double headers or 1 game series(s) in September.

Oh, and by the way, this is a two game set against the Pale Hose. When did we go to two game sets?

JV v. Quintana tonight (8:10 ET), Scherzer v. Noesi tomorrow afternoon (2:10 ET).

Update: 50% chance of rain tonight.

1. Davis, LF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Hunter, RF
6. Jackson, CF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. Holaday, C (Avila a late scratch – back spasms?)
9. Worth, SS

POSTGAME:

– I’m torn as to whether I’m concerned that JV has a 1.35 WHIP and not even a 2/1 K/BB ratio, or amazed that he’s 3-1 with a 2.48 ERA in spite of those stats.

– Holaday made his play of the year with that squeeze. I don’t think anyone else knew it was coming, but AJax certainly did react quickly.

– Since going 0-4 on April 21, Cabrera is 11/26 and has raised his average to .270 from .206. I said two weeks ago that he’d be at .300 by the end of last week, I think I’ll be about 10 days off.

– Holaday may have been the player of the game, but the turning point was Joba’s K of Viciedo after a 3-0 count where the next ball would have loaded the bases.

– Sweep tomorrow.

In case you missed yesterday’s postgame, Anibal Sanchez has gone on the 15-day disabled list with a middle finger laceration, and his spot on the roster has been taken by Justin Miller. Alex Avila is also off of day-to-day status and back in the lineup.

Well today is Sunday, and that means Justin Verlander is pitching, with the Sunday Lineup behind him.  It is also the rubber game of the series with the now 2nd place Minnesota Twins, who would pull to within percentage points of tying Detroit for 1st with a win.

Not that the Twins should scare Justin–he has won 9 straight against Minnesota, and has never lost at Target, despite that Mauer guy who has Verlander figured out to the tune of .371 lifetime. All eyes will be on the pitch counter today, what with the bullpenalooza fun this season.

Minnesota sends out Kyle Gibson (3-1, 3.63) who has never faced anyone in the Tiger lineup. I’ll go with Hunter to stay hot. I was going to pick Cabrera until I saw him at DH.

In case your attention begins to wander with the bottom of the Sunday lineup at the plate, you might want to check out this interesting New York Times study on the boundaries of baseball fandom. They have mapped fan preferences by zip codes using Facebook data, and have been able to determine pretty clearly the geographical point at which, say, one is a Yankee fan rather than a Red Sox fan.  If you enlarge the interactive map and mouse over it will give you fan breakdown by county.

Today’s Because the 3rd Baseman Bats 6th, That’s Why Lineup 

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, DH
4. V. Martinez, 1B
5. Jackson, CF
6. Kelly, 3B
7. J.D. Martinez, LF
8. Avila, C
9. Romine, SS

The Tigers got their Central Division road trip off to a great start with a 10-6 win in last night’s opener. The Tigers pounded out 15 hits, including multiple hit games by Rajai Davis, Torii Hunter, Nick Castellanos, and Miguel Cabrera.

Detroit will try to keep the bats hot against Minnesota starter Phil Hughes (1-1, 6.43), who has had his problems with the aforementioned Miguel Cabrera, to put it mildly. Cabrera is a career 14-for-25 (yes, that’s .560) with 5 home runs against Hughes. I’m going with Miggy as my Player of the Pregame pick, and maybe we can put to rest the conversation about his slump.

The Tigers hand the ball to Anibal, who is still looking for his first W of 2014.

Alex Avila is day-to-day after bruising his shin sliding into an out at home in the 2nd inning last night, and will be replaced in the lineup by Bryan Holaday. Holaday had a couple of bad throws last time out, one of which he was interfered with on. That was the last time since 2006 that a game ended on a strikeout/interference double play (and by the way, interference calls are not challengeable).

What Holaday did do well, according to Max Scherzer, was calling a good game. Max raved about Holaday’s “great plate-sequencing.”

“He’s a young catcher who does his homework,” Scherzer said. “He’s really prepared. I really can trust him.

Today’s Plate-Sequencing Lineup:

1. Kinsler 2B
2. Hunter RF
3. Cabrera 1B
4. V. Martinez DH
5. Jackson CF
6. Castellanos 3B
7. Romine SS
8. Holaday C
9. Davis LF

Postgame

In the first inning Miguel Cabrera continued his dominance of Phil Hughes by doubling in Torii Hunter. When he hustled to take third and was sacrificed in by Victor Martinez, this game had the look of one of those good ones. It was not to be. Hughes mowed through the Tiger lineup for the next 5 innings: in inning 2-6 he gave up one hit and no walks, with 5 strikeouts.  When the hapless Jose Ortega couldn’t find the strike zone, the game became another chapter in the blowpen saga, but the reality is that the bats couldn’t get going either. There were last hurrah attempts in the 8th and 9th, but the Twins held on.

Anibal Sanchez’ 3rd inning injury, originally called a blister, is now being called a laceration, and has landed him on the 15-day DL. Justin Miller boomerangs back from Toledo to replace him on the roster. I am assuming that this also means that Drew “Back in the Starting Rotation” Smyly will take Sanchez’ next start.

Thumbs Down:

• Sanchez/Ortega/Coke. The Tiger pitchers were playing coy with the strike zone, and ended up walking 8 batters in 7 innings.
• Bryan Holaday. I won’t blame his “sequencing” for the pitching woes, but his arm went wacky again, this time leading to a run on a bunt attempt.
• Brad Ausmus. It’s not the obvious issue, which is why go to Ortega instead of Smyly. I assume as soon as Sanchez went down, Smyly became a Starter again. But why pinch hit Alex Avila for Holaday to lead off the 8th inning? I’m sure Jim “never pinch hit for the catcher” Leyland will do some advising on this. But pulling the catcher to put in a slowster .220 pinch-hitter to lead off just didn’t make sense, and of course that left Avila to end the game with a hapless at bat against the lefty closer.

Thumbs Up

• Torii Hunter. In the 8th with 2 on Hunter caught replacement 3rd baseman Florimon napping at 3rd and put down a perfect bunt single, loading the bases for Miguel Cabrera (who should probably get a thumbs down for the resulting at bat). It was a brilliant play and well-executed.
• Al Alburquerque. Really? He did give up a bomb that could have cost the game if Cabrera had managed to get a run home. But his slider was devastating (4 strikeouts in 6 batters), and he didn’t walk anyone (and the Twins lead the AL in drawing walks). There is a glimmer of hope for Al-Al.

Tonight the Tigers begin a 10 day, 8 game road trip through the Central time zone contingent of the Central Division. Below are the dates, times (in EST) and projected starters for the series. We see Jose Quintana again (already?) but otherwise we don’t face a lefty in the series until we close out the trip with the surprising successful  Jason Vargas (2-0, 1.54).

Because of the spacing of the off days, the Tigers will probably go through the road trip without a start by Drew “Back in the Bullpen” Smyly.

Tigers at Twins

Friday            Apr 25 8:10   Rick Porcello vs. Kevin Correia

Saturday        Apr 26 2:10   Anibal Sanchez vs. Phil Hughes

Sunday          Apr 27 2:10   Justin Verlander vs. Kyle Gibson

Monday         Apr 28   *off day*

Tigers at White Sox

Tuesday        Apr 29 8:10  Max Scherzer vs. Jose Quintana (L)

Wednesday    Apr 30 2:10  Rick Porcello vs. Erik Johnson

Thursday       Mar 1   *off day*

Tigers at Royals

Friday            Mar 2 8:10    Anibal Sanchez vs. Jeremy Guthrie

Saturday        Mar 3 7:10    Justin Verlander vs. James Shields

Sunday          Mar 4 2:10    Max Scherzer vs. Jason Vargas (L)

Friday’s game against Kansas City starts a string of 13 consecutive games with no time off.

The Twins have been a mild surprise so far this season: after beginning the season with preseason predictions of 100 losses and an 0-2 start, they have gone 11-8 including taking 2-of-3 from Tampa Bay in their previous series, the last two games of which saw them put up 15 runs on 24 hits.

Postgame – Tigers 10, Twins 6

In a season that has so far been full of games that could have gone either way, the Tigers came out on the winning end of a game that could have been a blowout and could have been blown.  Detroit got to starter Kevin Correia early, starting the 2nd with a 2-base error, a Castellanos home run, and a single. When Romine doubled to deep center (Romine?) the 2nd had the loos of a classic big inning. But Avila was sent home from first, was thrown out (and injured) and the Twins got out of the inning only down 2-0.

No matter, the Tigers came back in the 3rd and put up a big inning in earnest going through the whole lineup and scoring 7 (Cabrera actually was responsible for all 3 outs in the inning). Then all that was left was a little nail-biting as five bullpen pitchers tried to finish up the job for the endurance-challenged Rick Porcello.

Thumbs Up

• Rajai Davis. Davis had his 3rd consecutive multi-hit game. He hits at the top of the lineup, he hits at the bottom of the lineup, he hits for what is now a .354 average.
• Nick Castellanos. He continues to show power; his shot in the 2nd set the tone for the game.
• Rick Porcello. Another solid start against, a hot Twins lineup.

Thumbs Down

• Rick Porcello. Kid Rick seems to run out of gas about the 6th inning every game. Even with a very good 5 innings, that leaves a whole lot of bullpen time.
• Dave Clark. Maybe Gene Lamont called that one from the bench. It sure did conjure up visions of Lamont and Tom Brookens when Clark sent slowster Alex Avila home from 1st on Romine’s double. There is an old rule of thumb about never making the first out of the inning at home. I generally like the aggressiveness on the bases of this year’s Tigers, but I think this was the wrong person and wrong situation for it.

YOU SAID IT

StorminNorman$ April 24, 2014 at 2:45 pm

A White Sox offense that just won’t leave us alone deserves a dose of Max Scherzer. Detroit gets to face a lefty in Jose Quintana, and I think that’s good news. The main thing is that they get to bat again and might score some runs, and it might not take so many this time, especially if Max can go (9? Please? Please?), oh, let’s say 8 innings.

How demoralizing would not salvaging this series be? Well, 10-9 sounds a bit ugly, but some good things have happened last three games, more than you’d think in dropping two of them.

Dan and Jim brought up the interesting statistic of how the Tigers have been badly outscored in 1st and 9th innings but own the rest. So I’ll throw a few team stats out there today.

Tigers starters are sporting a seriously impressive 2.96 ERA and 1.20 WHIP, nearly the best in the AL. And we know that they are the best. The opposition is batting .240 against them, good for a fairly high rank there. Few teams are getting 6+ IP on average from starters. It might surprise you to know that the Tigers are.

Things are a bit different for the bullpen. Worst ERA at 5.60 (!), WHIP ugly at 1.36 but middle of the pack as far as the AL goes. Batting average against is a clearly unacceptable .271 –  a starter can get away with that, but not an entire pen. And they are more prone to the long ball than even the Orioles or Astros, their miserable companions at the league bottom.

Interesting is how the staff as a whole is handling LHB (.223) vs. RHB (.285).

Detroit is climbing the ladder in Defensive Efficiency (10th), and they are 4th in double plays! We’re only at 18 games, but still, I think you would have to go back a number of years to find the Tigers high in the DP rankings. Maybe even at 18 games.

You might also have go back some to find the Tigers above average in the team Power/Speed Number (see bbref team stats), but that’s what they are right now. For a team not scoring a lot of runs per game, the Tigers are (mostly) quite the above-average offense. They strike out only 17% of the time and put the ball in play 71% of the time, and in case you were wondering, those are very good numbers.

But let’s try to find some awful stats, because those are our favorites. Well…

* Tigers have a .700 OPS against RHP (.842 against lefties)

* Detroit’s Sunday OPS (3 games) is .499 (1 HR in 93 AB)

* Tigers are batting .172 in the 1st inning

* Hey, how’s that 1st inning pitching? 7.00 ERA, 1.94 WHIP

* Hey, how’s that 9th inning pitching? 8.35 ERA, 1.80 WHIP

* Friday is not a good day to be a Detroit pitcher – 21 ER in 3 games,  7.27 / 1.58 / .306

I’ll leave it to you to find some unusually positive stats, because there are plenty of those out there, too. Probably more of them. Remember, 10-8 = 90-72. The way the AL Central is shaking out, that could be a winner.

POSTGAME: I got to see this Sox-Tigers game. What did I see? A Tigers victory that survived the worst bullpen in MLB and the two worst defensive plays all season, Torii Hunter’s three-base error (scored as a triple for the unstoppable Dayan Viciedo) and Bryan Holaday’s physically and mentally misguided throw into (eventually) CF that made it 5-4 (and his 9th inning crap throw to 2B wasn’t better). The only thing dumber was clumsy Jose Abreu interfering with Holaday for Nathan’s gift third out. Maybe the White Sox weren’t at their best, either. Four straight days in Detroit might be the equivalent of not eating your Wheaties, I don’t know. For Chicago White Sox-type people, I mean, of course. Nice area.

Max Scherzer went a good 6 and could have gone 8, pitch count be damned. But no. The Tigers did as much as they had to against a pretty good Jose Quintana, and more still against the Sox bullpen. All drama should have ended at 5-2, when Miguel Cabrera’s deceptively hard-hit grounder past Alexei Ramirez (quite a show at SS today, tip of the cap) drove in what turned out to be the winning runs. But then Ausmus had to go and take out Max, who was just fine.

That bullpen. Nothing to like. Ol’ One-Pitch Al came in for the 7th, no confidence but no runs. Joba Chamberlain, then, and between him getting slapped around and the defense getting indefensible, it looked lost. Late inning offense that included smartness on the bases saved the day. (I like 3B coach Dave Clark’s style. I don’t think I’d like to miss or run through any of his signs. He looks kinda big and mean. Closer Joe Nathan just looks kinda big and lost.)

In between Miggy’s big single and the sky falling, there was a clutch 8th inning that saw Holaday redeem himself with a solidly hit RBI single, and when Rajai Davis’s second line shot to deep LF on the day (the first had left the park) was good for a double and a 7-4 lead, our comfort level going into the 9th improved to one of mere agonizing doubts and heart palpitations.

The White Sox struck out 15 times today, 10 of those belonging to Max. Nary an authentic double play was turned by either side, which seems odd in a game with 26 baserunners and 12 groundball outs. Hmmm.

I went without audio, but I take it that Danny Worth was awarded the IF hit by virtue of the transfer rule, whereby the ball coming out of  1B Abreu’s glove 10 minutes after Worth was called out made him safe. That silliness is going to go against us one of these times. Oh, I guess it already did. Romine. Remember?

Tigers are hitting again (forget the bullpen), Tigers are 11-8 (forget the bullpen), Tigers hit the road with a win at their backs (forget the bullpen). There’s really no reason to dwell on the bullpen. Exhale.

YOU SAID IT

Only Tiger Fan in Mississippi April 23, 2014 at 6:46 pm

I think he meant “Julio.”

Andre Rienzo vs. Drew Smyly in the penultimate game of the series. May the real Drew Smyly please stand up. No more talk about “rust,” now.  May the sweet swings of Miguel Cabrera and Alex Avila continue, so that we can move to worrying about/picking on someone else for a change. May the bullpen not be plagued with sudden and retroactive elbow inflammations like they were last night.

Interesting times, interesting opportunities for new additions J.D. Martinez, Danny Worth, and – it now appears – Justin Miller. Andrew Romine is suddenly getting on base and making a difference when he does, and his defense at SS, well… do you suppose it could get to the point where the Tigers have to make a decision down the road? You know what I’m taking about. That’s optimistic at this point, but Worth mentioning. (Although it’s not Worth I’m alluding to.) I might have to get over my dislike of Rajai Davis’s approach at the plate. He’s getting on base somehow, and when he does, watch out, cause it’s a whole new ballgame that we Tigers fans must still have a hard time quite believing. And Nick Castellanos, man, is that guy gonna be good. He’s already good.

These White Sox series are killers, especially weekday ones. I’m blacked out of (live) Sox games on mlb.tv, can’t watch live (but love listening), and there’s just no time to watch the game after the game and also write on a deadline. Be my eyes. Tell me what you’ve seen this series, and what you’re seeing.

POSTGAME: You could say that Drew Smyly and Andre Rienzo pitched to a draw. The Tigers got a lot of bang for very little buck against Rienzo, as they continue to struggle against right-handed starters. They haven’t really put the hurt on one yet, have they? Smyly had another long 1st inning and overall couldn’t be called unhittable, was indeed often hit hard, but he settled down and started to rack up the Ks. Say what you will about pitch count – I say it was a mistake to lift him after 6. You can’t trust this bullpen with a 2-run lead for 3 full innings. You just can’t.

Nascent Tiger killer Jose Abreu hit another one out to CF, but the real question is how you can let negative-BA Paul Konerko go 3 for 4. The Tigers offense only had two lively innings, but we can take heart in how fast they can go from 0 to 60. It seemed to take about 10 seconds for 4 runs and the lead in the 4th, with a nicely set up 2-run single from J.D. Martinez (first RsBI as a Tiger) and a first-pitch two-run HR for Austin Jackson. However, the White Sox also have an offense capable of quick explosion, and explode they would.

The game turned on Evan Reed’s walk to Tyler Flowers to load the bases in the 7th. Missing with four straight fastballs – to Flowers – sorry, folks, that puts Phil Coke last night to shame. Ian Krol would have been better served risking the walk to Marcus Semien. Instead, he served up the grand slam. I was deflated, but didn’t feel like it was over. Justin Miller ended the parade of bullpen failure over the last two games with quiet effectiveness (and maybe a bit of help from the Sox and the home plate ump), and now the bottom of the 9th could mean something.

And it did. The Tigers didn’t even score, let alone win, but how close they came made it all worthwhile. Clutch hitting, smart baserunning, and outs that were hit hard, including J.D.’s home run bid to CF. Also worth remembering, amidst the gnashing of teeth over the bullpen, are the fine plays over the first 3 innings to erase baserunners, two involving Smyly and one a very athletic CS at third courtesy of Alex “The Bat” Avila.  Gotta call it a good game.