Dailies

Brewers 3 Tigers 2

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They’re back!  After a brief hiatus, the two-run Tigers, returned to Comerica Park.  The Lobber was fine.  The bullpen was fine.  The bats were an abomination.  There is no excuse for offensive production, or lack there of, of this magnitude.  Victor needs to sit down for a month.  He can’t hit left handed.  He can’t run, although I thought he was safe at first.  I sound like a broken record but you can’t ask a pitching staff to hold other teams to two runs or less every night. Somebody has to step up and get a clutch, two-out, run producing, base hit, like Iggy had a few nights ago.

I’m as guilty of this as anyone, I’m always looking to Miggy, but it doesn’t look like anybody is going to pitch to him even if his numbers aren’t great in night games; not with Victor hitting .216.  J.D. seems to be coming out his funk but he’s not driving in a lot of runs and I’m not exactly sure what Castellanos is doing. The middle of this lineup looks bad.

Cardinals 2 Tigers 1

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A sweep would have been nice but I’ll take 2 out of 3, on the road, against the Cardinals, any time.  Although there wasn’t much offense to speak of Yoenis Cespedes flashed some leather.  He made a nice running catch in the second.  In the seventh, the made a good, one hop, throw to the plate to cut down Jhonny Peralta to keep the game tied.  On the back end of the throw, James McCann made an excellent pick and tag.  After the play I couldn’t help wondering if Avila would have made the play.  Speaking of A Squared Money, does he still have a job?

Am I the only one that found John Kruk and Curt Schilling’s incessant Miggy worshipping too much to take?  It was making his at-bats hard to watch.  JMC is probably the best right handed hitter I’ve ever seen but enough already.  They were acting like fifteen year old girls, in the 80’s, at a Rick Springfield concert.  Hmmm, I’m showing my age.

White Sox 7 Tigers 6

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Perhaps Brad Ausmus is trying to unseat Robin Ventura as the dumbest manager in baseball.  I can think of no other reason for leaving Joba in the game to give up the go-ahead run in the 8th. I can’t fault him for the bomb off the bat of Melky Cabrera.  He should have been out of the inning.  I’m not sure how the official scorer gave Eaton a hit on the ball that went through Castellanos’ glove but he bottom line is Chamberlain should have been in the dugout with a three run lead.

Speaking of Castellanos, what happened to late inning defensive replacements? Andrew Romine?

This was another sub par performance from Alfedo Simon.  Like Shane Greene yesterday, he had little control. It looks like the three and four spots in the rotation are going to be problems.

There is more blame to go around.  Although the offense scored six runs they left 12 men on base,  Miggy looks horrible and they ran themselves out of the ninth.

Hmmm, has anybody noticed the runs the Twins are scoring.

On the bright side, the bullpen has looked good lately with the exception of The Amazing, Everyday Al and Joba.  Also, Victor drove in four runs and hit his first homer today.

Lober tomorrow to salvage one.

White Sox 5 Tigers 2

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The Tigers have a problem in Shane Greene.  He started off ok but I think this is four bad starts in a row.  He didn’t make it out of the third today.  He couldn’t find the plate at all. That being said, the Tigers had chances.

The top of line up set the table but the middle of the lineup was atrocious.  They are going to need Jose Miguel Cabrera to get some clutch, two out, RBIs if they are ever going to beat good pitching.  This was a very disappointing game .  They lost to the dumbest manager in the game.

Not this garbage again.

Tigers 6 Royals 4

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The Tigers salvaged a split of the four game, weekend, series in Kansas City.  They were lead by Anibal Sanchez who turned in 7.1 impressive innings and earned his second win of the season.  The offense took a brief hiatus from their spring slumber and put six runs on the board and the bullpen made the early lead stand up.  The series ended a lot better than it started.

I think Ned Yost did the Tigers a favor by taking Salvador Perez out of the game when the Tigers had a big lead. Salvi destroys Tigers pitching and might have done some damage when the Royals started coming back.

Jose Iglesias left the game with stiffness in his groin. Let’s hope it is nothing serious.  Besides Miggy, he might be the last person this team can afford to lose.

Question: If you are on second base, with less than two outs, and the ball is hit to your right, are you supposed to:

A: Run to third
B: Run back to second
C: Get caught in between
D: None of the above

Tigers 2 Royals 1

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The offense is still AWOL.  However, last night, the CY Young Award winner, David Price, showed up and shut down the Royals.  Thanks to Price, the Tigers have a chance to salvage a split in this series.

In my post yesterday, I lamented the inconsistency of the Tigers offense.  Prior to the game, Mario and Rod showed a statistic validating my complaint.  I don’t have the number committed to memory but I believe the graphic showed that the Tigers lead the league both in games scoring two runs or less and games scoring 10 runs or more.  Like I said yesterday, this goes beyond this year, this is a problem with philosophy.  It is a stubborn philosophy that has plagued this team for the last 5-8 years and they refuse to change.

Victor can’t hit right now, left handed, to save his life.  Defenses play “the shift” on him and give him the entire left side of the field but he won’t take his single. I know he can run but with the way the defense is playing him he doesn’t have to.  Same thing with Avila.

I believe someone a lot smarter than me once said “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.”

Mr. Illitch, I know you are a regular reader, it is time for a different direction.  Start with DD and BA.

Royals 4 Tigers 1

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Despite giving up four runs and 10 hits in 7.1 innings, I thought Kyle Lobstein pitched very well.  We has the victim of Eric Hosmer beating “the shift” with a bunt and a few seeing eye base hits.  I guess that’s what happens when you put the ball in play.  For a fifth starter, I’m not sure you can ask for more than Lobstein has given the Tigers this season.

The offense is maddening.  I know statistically they are in the top of every category but it is the same song and dance every year, inconstancy. Ten runs one game then nothing for a week.  Even tonight when they didn’t get a hit until the eighth inning, they had base runners courtesy of walks but couldn’t even put the ball in play to plate a run.  This team is striking out at an alarming rate.  The strikeouts combined with the double plays does not bode well for winning close games.  Again, it is the same old story.  Nothing changes.  I think it is time to clean house from Dombrowski all the way down. This formula is has not, is not, and in my humble opinion, will not work.

What is the story with hitting Chris Young?  Miggy is hitting under .200 for his career against him.  Ok, perhaps he’s got Miggy’s number but what about everybody else?  Is he suddenly Greg Maddux?  WTF?

Royals 8 Tigers 1

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This was the perfect storm. The Tigers could do nothing with Danny Duffy and the Royals beat Alfredo Simon into a conniption.

There were a few bright spots.  First, Victor had two hits.  Second, The Amazing, Everyday Al pitched a scoreless inning to bring his ERA down to 9.00.

Let’s see if the Lobber can give the pen a break tonight.

Tigers 10 Indians 7

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I’m not sure how many times I’ll write this in 2015 but the Tigers’ won a battle of bullpens this afternoon in Minnesota.  Everyone they called on, Hardy, Nesbitt, Gorzelanny, Soria got the job done.

Starter Shane Greene was cruising until he wasn’t.  He starting leaking fuel in the third then exploded in the fourth.

The Tigers could have blown this game by running themselves out of a rally in the fifth. I’m not sure sure but isn’t it taboo to make an out at third?  Well, with runners at first and second, one out, and Kinsler at the plate, Andrew “Wheels” Romine decided it was a good idea to steal third.  Like Miggy in game in one, he got nailed, rally over. Fortunately, the bats came alive and beat the Twins’ bullpen into a conniption after falling behind 7-4.

For all of my complaining, the Tigers got another series win.

Of note:

  • Miggy hit two balls into a a conniption.
  • McCann had his first career HR, an inside the parker.
  • Victor was 0-5 and doesn’t look good from either side of the plate.
  • Wheels Romine was 4-4 but 1-3 in steal attempts (WTF).
  • Kinsler flashed some leather in the 8th to turn a nice double play.

Off to KC.  I hope this series doesn’t turn into basebrawl.