Baseball

Tigers 6 Royals 5

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I never thought I’d be typing this but more good news from Comerica Park.  For the second straight night, the Tigers beat the Royals in extra innings, making it four wins in a row.  This is the first four game winning streak since starting the season 6-0.

The good news keeps on coming.

Ian Kinsler had the walk off solo shot in the bottom of the 11th.  After a rough start Kinsler is staying hot. He’s hitting .348 since the all-star break and leads baseball in multi-hit games.

Miggy had two more hits and drove in two more runs and all of the sudden Victor’s bat has heated up. Vmart was 2-2 with two walks and a two run-homer.

There is even good news out of the pen. No not Bruce Rondon, who struggled again tonight, but Neftali Feliz and Tom Gorzelanny got the job done in extra innings and held the Royals down until the offense could win it in the 11th.

If you missed the game, the Tigers thought they won in the bottom of the ninth, but for the first time in MLB history, in the re-play era, a walk-off win was reversed.  Kinsler was originally called safe at home on a sac-fly by Andrew Romine but was called out after re-play.

I guess that’s why we continue to tune in, you never know what you’re going to see.

Tigers 5 Royals 4

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Justin Verlander was smokin balls! He pitched a gem. He pitched 8.2 innings and allowed only one earned run. He didn’t get the win but that wasn’t his fault.

More good news, Jose Miguel Cabrera had two hits, a walk and a sac fly to break out of an un-Miggy like 0-20 slump.

I can’t blame BA for taking out JV. Unfortunately, Brad Ausmus is in an Impossible situation. Even when he makes the “correct” decisions his players rarely get the job done.

Nice win. Perhaps a series win? We shall see.

Thoughts on Bryce Harper

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I really hadn’t seen much of Bryce Harper until last year’s playoffs.  After seeing him compete against the Giants in the 2014 National League Division Series, although in a losing effort, it was hard not to be impressed.  He was the only one to come through for the Nationals and he was only 21 years old.

While Harper was hitting clutch home runs his more seasoned counterparts, Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche, did nothing.  Werth and LaRoche hit .059 and .056 respectively and neither had an RBI.  Meanwhile, at 21 years of age, Bryce Harper hit .294 with three homers and four RBIs.

In past seasons Harper had a hard time staying healthy but he has this year and he’s putting up MVP type numbers.  Last night he hit his 40th home run of the season, making him only the seventh player in MLB history to hit 40 in the season in which he was twenty-two.  The previous six players to accomplish the feat are Alex Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Johnny Bench, Eddie Mathews (twice), Joe DiMaggio and Mel Ott.

Tigers 7 Twins 4

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Daniel Norris looked good in his first start coming off of the DL.  He only gave up one run in 4.2 innings.  It is a shame he was on a low pitch count and had to come out of the game because the pen couldn’t hold his slim 2-1 lead, nothing new here.

The Tigers offense battled, despite hitting into four more double plays, and finally took the lead for good in the top of the 12th.  They also got a huge boost from Ian Krol who picked the entire bullpen up, including VerHagen and Hardy who were not good tonight. Krol pitched three scoreless innings, the 10th, 11th, and 12th, after Bruce Rondon blew a 4-3 lead in the 9th.

Blaine Hardy has been struggling for the last week or so.  Yesterday’s and tonight’s outings may not show up in his numbers but he’s not getting the outs he’s called upon to get and not stranding runners.

J.D. hit his 37th homer of the year and recorded his 95th and 96th RBIs.  With Miggy struggling, I guess J.D.’s quest for 100 RBIs is what I’ll be tuning in for.

Tyler Collins had a good night, he drove in two runs and had a nice outfield assist.

This game meant and series meant nothing to the Tigers but the Twins missed a chance to improve their position in the Wild Card race.

Tigers 5 Twins 4

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Alfredo Simon pitched well, better than his final line indicated.  He ran into some bad luck in seventh but this was a quality start. Both VerHagen and Simon’s outings would look and feel better if they had a little luck but both pitched well.

Victor Martinez had three hits and should have, should have, had four. This is his first three hit game since July according to Mario Impemba.

James McCann had three hits, raising his batting average to .276. I didn’t realize, he hasn’t made an error all season.  This is a very impressive rookie campaign.

Drew VerHagen and Alex Wilson both looked good out of the pen and the Tigers have a chance for a series win tomorrow night.

The Twins missed a chance to pick up a game on the Yankees and Blue Jays who both lost tonight.

UPDATE: I almost forgot to mention the perfectly executed hit and run and safety squeeze the Tigers pulled off in the top of the ninth inning. These two plays resulted in the fifth and winning run.  My first thought was, bravo.  My second thought was, ‘where has this been all year?’ In any case, I guess it is better late than never.

Twins 7 Tigers 1

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J.D. continues to hit the ball hard and Kyle Ryan looked good in out of the bullpen.  I was really happy with Ryan’s performance because Ausmus had to make another early call to the pen and Ryan delivered 4.2 solid innings.  Ryan and VerHagen just might be long relief options for 2016.

Andrew Romine is a solid utility player that can flash leather at any position and can swing the bat just enough.  I haven’t said enough about him this year.

I’m not sure if anybody else noticed but Nick Castellanos has similar offensive numbers to Minnesota’s All-Star second baseman Brian Dozier.  Nick “The Quick” is hitting, .250, with 15 hrs and 68 rbis.  Dozier is hitting .239, with 27 hrs and 70 rbis.  The homer are way higher for Dozier but he only has two more runs batted in. I know you expect more power from third base but I I couldn’t help it, the numbers just struck me as interesting.

Tigers Split Doubleheader With Tribe

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In losing game one JV pitched better than his line although his two walks and hit batter came back to haunt him. He didn’t get hit hard he just ran into some hard luck when a few bloopers found the outfield grass. Of course the offense and bullpen didn’t help him out either.

In game two Randy Wolf only lasted three innings but limited the damage to two runs and the offense and pen came to his aid, the opposite of what they did for JV in game one.

Basically this doubleheader was a microcosm of the 2015 season.

On another note, Miggy is really struggling. Despite hitting the ball hard a few times he looks bad at the plate. In game two he came to bat with the bases loaded twice and struck out and grounded into a double play. As always, it’s hard to complain about the Mighty Miggy but he’s pretty much one of only three reasons left to tune in the rest of this season so when he’s on a bad run it makes the games even harder to watch.

J.D. just might get to 100 RBIs.

Rays 8 Tigers 0

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The Tigers failed to complete their first three game sweep since very early in the season.  The Rays absolutely mutilated Tigers pitching and the offense did nothing.  The game was pretty much decided when Miggy struck out in the bottom of the fifth with the score 3-0, with runners on second and third and two out. After that, the Rays added on and the Tigers never threatened again.

I heard a rumor.  Supposedly Ron Gardenhire will be the next Tigers manager. Again, supposedly, it is a “done” deal and will be announced shortly after the season is over. The comments are not too complimentary of the former Twins manager on the site the rumor is posted on.

I’m not sure what to think to think anymore.  Gardenhire was one of my favorite managers for a long time but Sark made me rethink that position. Paul Molitor seems to have done a good job with the same team Gardenhire had problems with. Also, I’m not really sure what to think about the job Ausmus has done. The Tigers have had horrible injuries to key players with no farm system. Ausmus can only call on who he has available.  What else is he going to do?

After the first two months of the season, the Tigers have had two reliable arms out of the pen, Wilson and Hardy.  They had 1.5 reliable starters, David Price and Alfredo Simon. After Price got traded, Verlander became serviceable but Simon fell from half a reliable starter to a quarter of a reliable starter.

The offense has been pretty much feast or famine.  I guess the one thing I could put on Ausmus is the atrocious base running.  The Tigers make so many outs on the bases that it is hard to stomach and it costs them especially in close games.  Also, Dave Clark might be the worst third base coach in the history of baseball. But it is hard to put this abomination of a season on the shoulders of BA.

This team is a mess and I’m not sure a new manager is going to fix anything.  This team seems to play hard for BA for whatever that is worth.