I just found this post on reddit. This poster took a trip to the Field of Dreams movie site. The pictures are pretty cool.
Check out the rest of the pictures here.
“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Field of Dreams…
Month: July 2013
Porcello, Perez Lead Tigers Past White Sox
Ricky Porcello pitched 7 scoreless innings and Hernan Perez had two hits including a triple to pace the Tigers to a 6-2 win tonight in Chicago.
After the first inning, Ricky looked strong. He recorded 9 ground ball outs, walked 3 and struck out 1.
I was a little worried in the first as I thought Porcello was getting squeezed on the inside corner to lefties and the outside corner to righties. In the bottom of the first with two out, Alex Rios singled and stole second. Then it looked like Ricky struck out Adam Dunn but didn’t get the call and Dunn went to first base. The same corner gave Porcello problems when Konerko was at the plate. Konerko walked to load the bases. At this point Porcello could have come unglued but held it together and got Jeff Keppinger to ground out 5-3.
From then on, Porcello really didn’t face anymore trouble. He left the game after 7 innings and 93 pitches. Keep in mind that he threw 25 pitches in the first inning.
Al Alburquerque came on in the 8th and retired the Sox 1-2-3. Leyland sent him back for the 9th and he walked the first two batters he faced. This brought Benoit into the game who gave up a two run double to Konerko but retired Keppinger, Gillaspie and Viciedo to end the game.
A few things have me scratching my head.
- Tuiasosopo started and was replaced by Dirks again. I heard Leyland in an interview say he was trying to protect Tui from getting “eaten up” by a tough right handed pitcher. But what about Dirks? He’s not exaclty tearing the cover off of the ball.
- If Benoit is the closer, why is he being brought in when the score is 6-0? The only thing I can think of is that Leyland wants him to get used to pitching the 9th.
- Jackson and Fielder are struggling. If those two don’t hit, the Tigers can be in a lot of trouble.
- What is going on with Alex Avila? I had hope after his 3 hit game a few nights ago and he did have two walks today but his other at bats were horrible. He got caught looking both times and seemed like he didn’t have a clue on what was going on.
- It looks Alburquerque is a one inning pitcher. When he came out for the ninth he couldn’t find the strike zone and this seems to be his MO.
- The Tigers need Miggy back.
“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Scherzer Goes to 14-1. Tigers Beat Sale, White Sox 7-3.
Max Scherzer improved his record to 14-1 tonight as the Tigers beat Chris Sale and the White Sox 7-3.
There was a lot to like about tonight’s game, not the least of which, is that the Tigers beat White Sox ace, and arguably the best pitcher in the American League this year, Chris Sale.
True, the Tigers were helped by three White Sox errors but good teams make other teams pay for giving them extra outs. Additionally, the Tigers who had a hard time scoring after the sixth inning before the break, scored one in the seventh and three in the ninth to seal the deal.
Both pitchers pitched well. Scherzer went 8 innings, allowed four hits and two earned runs while striking out 5 and walking none.
Sale pitched 8 innings as well, he allowed 4 runs but only 2 of them were earned. He struck out 11 and walked 3.
The Tigers bullpen was pretty good tonight as well. Phil Coke came on to start the ninth and got Alejandro De Aza to ground out to second base. That was the only batter he’d face as Jim Leyland brought in Bruce Rondon to relieve Coke with one out.
Rondon got Alexei Ramirez to ground to short for the second out but then had a hiccup. He allowed a double to Alex Rios. Rios took third on a wild pitch and scored on a balk. But Rondon struck out Adam Dunn to end the game and give the Tigers the first game of the series.
Victor Martinez continued his torrid pace with 4 more hits and 3 RBIs raising his batting average to .270.
Torii Hunter had two hits including a solo shot off of Sale in the 7th.
The big concern is the health of Miguel Cabrera. As I wrote yesterday, something seemed amiss with the reigning AL MVP, and apparently there is. It looks like he has a back/hip injury. Let’s hope it’s nothing serious.
On another note, I like the way Leyland is using Phil Coke. It looks like he’s just using him for 1 or 2 hitters to hopefully get his rhythm and confidence back. Let’s hope the recent success continues.
“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry…
are the fields in which Boston Red Sox, relief pitcher, Craig Breslow earned his bachelor of arts degree from Yale University.
Breslow graduated from Yale in 2002 and was drafted in the 26th round by the Milwaukee Brewers that same year.
Here‘s a link to his wikipedia page.
Breslow is a pretty good pitcher on top of being smart, he has a career 2.97 ERA.
Here is a link to his Baseball-Reference page.
“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Tigers, Fister Salvage Game in KC
Doug Fister pitched 6 strong innings and the Tigers avoided a sweep at the hands for the Royals with a 4-1 on Sunday.
Fister allowed 1 run on one hit, a home run to Miguel Tejada in the bottom of the second. He struck out five and walked one in his 6 innings of work.
Miggy started the scoring for the Tigers in the first inning with his 31st homer of the year, a solo shot, to give Fister and the Tigers an early 1-0 lead.
The bullpen was excellent, again, with Smyly, Rondon, and Benoit each pitching an inning to close out the game. These three are looking very good coming out of the pen. I might be able to make a case for Smyly as the team MVP at this point in the season.
Offensively, Fielder, Martinez, Peralta, and Dirks had two hits apiece.
Another encouraging sign was that the Tigers were able to add on runs late, scoring 1 in the 7th and 1 in the 9th to extend the lead and give the bullpen a little bit of a cushion.
Don’t look now but Benoit might be the missing, closer piece, as he recorded his 9th save.
On a side note: I know he hit a homer today and he is still batting .360 but something looks, not right, about Miggy. I’m not sure if he’s just expanding the strike zone too much or his back in bothering him more than anybody knows. I hope I’m wrong, I just have a weird feeling. That being said, he did make a really nice play at third on Tejada in the bottom of the 4th. Like I said, perhaps I’m wrong. I hope I’m wrong.
The Tigers are off to Chicago tomorrow with Scherzer on the hill.
“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Tigers Lose Two In A Row. Verlander Terrible!
Well, my predictions from yesterday are already starting to fall apart.
I was expecting Verlander to be lights out in the second half but his first start after the break was nothing short of horrible.
The Tigers lost to the Royals, again, 6-5.
Verlander pitched 5 and 2/3 allowing 6 runs, 5 earned, he struck out 3 and walked 4, including Eric Hosmer in the bottom of the 4th with the bases loaded to force in a run.
With the Tigers down 5-3 going into the 5th, the offense scored two runs to tie the game on an Alex, A Squared Money, Avilla single but Verlander gave the lead up for good in the bottom of the 5th when he allowed a two out home run to Mike Moustakas.
I’m not sure what to say about JV. His velocity seems ok but his command is terrible. His curve-ball and slider weren’t coming close to the strike zone. I guess the only thing to say is what I saw, he looked TERRIBLE. If not for his track record, you’d think he was a back of the rotation guy auditioning for the bullpen. If he doesn’t get straightened out, the Tigers are in trouble and my fifth prediction from yesterday is not going to happen.
On the bright side, Alex Avila had three hits and two RBIs. Prince had two hits. Victor had three hits. Alburquerque and Smyly were good out of the bullpen allowing no runs, one hit and striking out three combined. Also, the Twins beat the Indians again today so the Tigers still have their slim lead.
This is not what I was expecting coming out of the break.
Hopefully, Fister can salvage a game tomorrow.
“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Tigers Bats Still On Break
The Tigers lost 3-1 in Kansas City tonight and could only muster 3 base runners.
Royals pitcher Ervin Santana pitched 7 and a 1/3 allowing two hits, 1 walk and 0 runs.
Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez was wild but pitched well. Sanchez pitched 6 innings allowing only 1 run on 2 hits. He struck out 3 but walked 5. It seemed like he was in trouble most of the game but managed to get out of jams.
If there was anything to like about this game, Phil Coke went 2/3 of an inning allowing a hit and striking out 1 and Bruce Rondon pitched an inning and a third with 1 strike out.
This was the seventh time the Tigers have been shut out this season.
Kansas City center fielder, Lorenzo Cain, made about 4 good catches in deep center but that was about all the Tigers did to threaten. Torii Huner flied to center to end the game leaving Miguel Cabrera on deck. It would have been nice to see the big man come to the plate in the top of the 9th with a chance to do some damage abut Royals’ closer Greg Holland was too good.
Let’s hope JV has a good outing tomorrow and the Tigers start hitting. This was not how I was hoping the second half would start.
Here’s a few thoughts on the Tiger second half:
- Fielder will start to hit and raise his average to over .280
- Justin Verlander will return to form
- Phil Coke will pitch the way he did at the end of last season. (I just can’t give up on Coke yet. I’m biased because I’m like him but I have faith in him.)
- Bruce Rondon will shore up the bullpen
- The Tigers will win the World Series, ending a 29 year drought, by beating the Cardinals in 6 games.
This is my story and I’m sticking to it? Or at least until they start makin’ me mad again. 🙂
“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Raise the Jolly Roger or Walk the Plank? Pirates Midseason Analysis
This is a pretty nice entry about the Pirates.
So, here we are again. For the third year in a row at the All-Star break, the Pirates are in contention for a spot in the postseason. Do the Buccos have what it takes to hold on the rest of the way this season, or do they sputter out in another epic collapse like last season? Sean Meyers and Patrick Williams break down the 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates.
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National Pastime or Past Its Time?
Fantastic post from Black, White & Read. The Louisiana Lightning Picture reminds me of a magazine my Mom bought me when I was a kid. The cover had the same picture with the headline, “The Fall and Rise of Ron Guidry”.
It was about 10:45 pm last night and I just finished watching Around The Horn, Pardon The Interruption and First Take on my DVR when I remembered the MLB All Star game was on. I quickly turned to the station in time to see Neil Diamond singing ‘Sweet Caroline’ and the crowd singing along with him. It seemed like a nice moment and I thought they were going to go into a commercial break but then I heard the beginning of Metallica’s, ‘Enter The Sandman’
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AL Wins ASG 3-0. Home Field for Tigers?
The American League will have home field advantage in the 2013 World Series courtesy of their 3-0 win in the All Star Game.
The game was dominated by pitching. Max Scherzer pitched the first inning and shut the National League down 1-2-3, striking out Cincinnati’s Joey Votto to end the first.
The AL pitchers shut out the NL only allowing three hits.
Miggy scored the game’s first run when he led off the top of the 4th with a double and scored on Jose Bautista’s sacrifice fly.
Notes:
- Leyland had Mariano Rivera pitch the bottom of the 8th to make sure he got into the game. The thinking was that if another pitcher came in a gave up the lead, and the AL failed to tie it or go ahead in the top of the 9th, Rivera would not be able to pitch the bottom of the 9th.
- Prince Fielder legged out a lead off triple in the top of the 9th but failed to score even though Nelson Cruz followed him with a ground out to second base. It didn’t appear that the infield was playing in so I can’t figure out why Fielder didn’t attempt to score.
- Jhonny Peralta singled in his only at bat in the 8th
- Chicago White Sox’s pitcher, who could be the best pitcher in the American League, pitched the 2nd and 3rd and got the win.
- Yankee’s reliever Mariano Rivera was name the ASG MVP.
- Miguel Cabrera batted three times, was 1-3, and was replaced by Manny Machado in the bottom of the 6th.
Hopefully the Tigers can parlay this win and take advantage of home field in the World Series. It would be the first Tigers championship in 29 years.
“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Flashin' Leather 