Dailies

Tigers 5 Mariners 4

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The Tigers won the series finale and took two out of three from the Mariners with a big 5-4 win this afternoon.

Anibal Sanchez didn’t pitch great, but well enough to give the bullpen a bit of break.  He lasted 6.1 innings, allowing four runs, three earned on five hits.  I guess it qualifies as a quality starts but his walks were high, five, and he continues to give up home runs. However, given the starts they got from Ryan and Simon and the way the offense is to click, this looked like a gym.

What is the story with Jose Iglesias wearing his sunglasses on his hat instead of over his eyes.  He made one error and almost made another one.  With the struggles the pitching staff is having the last thing they need is to have to throw extra pitches and get extra outs.  If it’s sunny enough to get your sunglasses out why not put them over your eyes?

Off to Minnesota.

Mariners 7 Tigers 6

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In yesterday’s post I mentioned that the Tigers have no answer for the 3-5 starting slots and unfortunately Kyle Ryan doesn’t provide one.  The offense staked him to an early three run lead that he promptly squandered.

Ryan couldn’t complete three innings and he departed the Tigers were down 5-3.

All things considered the pen did a good job. They were called on to pitch 7.2 innings, allowing 9 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 walks, and struck out seven.  If that were the starters line the outcome would have probably been different.

Alex Wilson pitched another 2.1 strong innings last night and, ‘where would the Tigers be without him’? How many more times can they call on him and ask him to pitch multiple innings?

I’ve been very critical of Nick “The Quick” Castellanos. Last night, he followed up the first four hit game of this career with a two run shot.  I hope he stays hot and consistent. I really don’t want to see him traded.  I’d like to see some home grown talent on this team.

Tigers 12 Mariners 5

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If my memory serves me correctly, the only two places the Tigers play worse than Seattle are Anaheim and Yankee Stadium, so it was nice to start this road trip off with a win.

Alfredo Simon continues to be a mess. He allowed five runs in five and two thirds  Luckily, the bullpen showed up tonight with good performance from Blaine Hardy, Ian Krol and Bruce Rondon.

Everyone got in on the 12 run, 19 hit parade except Ian Kinsler who was an absolute abomination at the plate. He went 0-5 and hit into two double plays.

Don’t look now but Nick Castellanos has started to hit the last few games.  He had four hits tonight including a home run,

All-Star J.D. Martinez had three hits and raised his average to .290 with another homer and three more hits.  He is basically on Miggy like tear right now.  I hope he continues this pace.  With JMC on the shelf, the Tigers are going to need it.

Victor seems to finding his form again. At the risk of sending this offense into a tailspin with the my fingers and keyboard, this offense is firing on all cylinders, the only problem is the Tigers only have two starting pitchers.  After Price and Sanchez I’m not sure where they turn for the 3-5 starting slots.  I guess if they score 5+ runs a game they might be able to squeak by for a while.

Doesn’t it seem like this is 180 degrees opposite of the first two months of the season?

I’ll the take W any way they can get them.

Blue Jays 10 Tigers 5

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The Blue Jays avoided a sweep by putting 10 runs on the Tigers pitching staff, seven off of former Cy Young winner, Justin Verlander. For four innings JV looked pretty good. He surrendered only one run in the first off of a bloop double and a ground ball single then retired 13 straight.  He got into trouble in the fifth and that was all she wrote.

Ausmus found no relief in the pen either. VerHagen, Wilson, Hardy and Farrell didn’t look very sharp collectively. That being said, when a team scores seven off the starter you probably aren’t going to win too many of those games.

I was really impressed with former Tigers prospect and current Jays second baseman Devon Travis.  It is a small sample size but he looks like a keeper. I’m not sure if you saw Mike’s comment, from Minoring in Baseball, from yesterday’s post.  Yesterday when McCann picked off Travis at first it was an “all Whitecaps play, McCann to Avila, picking off Travis.”  There is something nice about homegrown talent.  Unfortunately there is not a lot of it on the Tigers.  Which brings me to another thing I’ve been thinking about.

Dave Dombrowski’s philosophy seems to be draft power arms then trade them for what you need to fill out the roster.  It is hard to argue with the success he’s had with the trades he’s made.  The Tigers have gotten the better end of the vast majority of his deals.  However, shouldn’t baseball be littered with former Tigers pitchers?  The only one I can think of that is still around is Andrew Miller?  Is the scouting that bad that nobody the Tigers scout and draft ever pans out anywhere?  I guess Cameron Maybin looks like he’s turned things around but he’s not a pitcher, but who else?

Tigers 8 Blue Jays 3

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Make it two in a row over the Blue Jays and two in a row scoring eight runs.  The highlight of the game however, was a fantastic catch by Alex “A Squared Money” Avila who played his first game at first base filling if for the injured Jose Miguel Cabrera.

Avila was 1-3 at the plate with a walk and a K and didn’t exactly tear the cover off of the ball but I think there is an outside chance the his bat could come alive if he continues to play first base.  There is no chance he is going to hit playing catcher but a first there may be a glimmer of hope.

Home run derby contestants, fear not, you don’t have to be on a major league roster to pitch.  If you remember, a few years ago Bryce Harper’s father pitched to him in HRD so I’m pretty Joba is still available.

Alex Avila 7/4/2015
Alex Avila 7/4/2015

Pirates 8 Tigers 4

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There’s an old saying in baseball, ‘if you can’t pitch, you can’t win’, and right now, the Tigers can’t pitch.  I spent the first two months complaining, rightly so, about the offense, and now the pitching staff can’t hold opposing teams to under five runs a game.  Guess what, Toronto comes to town tomorrow.  It isn’t going to get any easier.

A reliable source and friend of this blog, Nebraska, has passed along an unsubstantiated rumor. He heard that the Tigers are going to send Nick “The Quick” Castellanos, Alex “A Squared Money” Avila, and a third player to the Cincinnati Reds for Johnny Cueto.  If the trade happens, Nebraska’s sources are usually pretty good, I’m not sure what the purpose is.  I’m not going to cry about losing Nick the Quick or A Squared Money, but what do the Tigers need with a rental like Cueto?  Is the front office delusional? Do they really think this team can compete?  I don’t.

McFly, is anybody home?

Pirates 9 Tigers 3

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After the 14 inning affair Tuesday night the Tigers needed innings on Wednesday from Alfredo Simon.  They got 5.2. To be fair, it wasn’t all his fault.  The defense made two errors behind him but Simon was up in the strike zone all night and surrendered six earned runs on 15 hits.

Basically, the Pirates beat Simon into a conniption and I don’t have the adjective to describe what they did to Joba. I don’t think “conniption” accurately describes the type of beating they put on him.  Try to remember the beating Freeway Ricky put on Youk in Fenway a few years ago.  Or perhaps think of the whooping Nolan Ryan put on current White Sox’s manager, Robin Ventura, you know, the Dumbest Manager In Baseball.  If you take those two beatings, multiply them by 1000, you may begin to get an idea of what the Pirates did you Joba last night. When Joba left the mound he didn’t know whether to crap his pants or wind his watch.

DD needs to trade David Price soon  He’s not re-singing here.  This team is not making the playoffs. They need to get something for him.  This rotation is a mess.  When you subtract Price, you don’t have much left.  Is it too early to start thinking about next year?  I’m not so sure.

Pirates 5 Tigers 4

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Well 5-4 seems to a popular score.  While I don’t like coming out on the losing end, the four-run Tigers are much better than the two-run Tigers.  I’m impressed that the Tigers have been finding ways to claw their way back from deficits, especially late in games. J.D. came up with another big homer home run last night to even the score, his 20th.

I’m not sure what to make of J.V. Perhaps it’s too early to tell. This could basically be his spring training.  He only allowed two earned in 6 plus but he did allow twelve base runners.  I guess when push comes to shove, the Tigers are 39-37, basically right around a .500 team.  I has hoping for more, but ‘hope is not a strategy’, and this is probably what we are going to get.

Tigers 5 White Sox 4

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The Tigers got their first win of the season when trailing after the 7th and it didn’t look like they were going to get their first Sunday either.  They were doing nothing with Jeff Samardzija until James McCann led off the eighth with a single.

The four run, eighth inning, rally was even more impressive because the Tigers got nothing from Miggy.  Samardzija was able to blow three 95 mile an hour fast balls by him, the last up and away, for the first out of the eighth, with bases loaded.  Luckily, he tried to do the same thing to Victor who took the first pitch and cleared the bases with a double.

It looks like, when the bases are loaded Miggy, is trying to hit a home run instead of just a single or a sac fly and as result he’s striking out.  I believe he is 0-5 now with the bases full this season.  Usually, especially with RISP, he’s fine with taking the pitch the other way between first and second.  I guess it’s hard to complain about a guy hitting .350 but he did leave five runners on base yesterday.

Anyway, big win.  Even thought the White Sox suck, they’ve played the Tigers fairly even this year.  At this point, every win is big.  The Tigers are basically a .500 team so far.

White Sox 8 Tigers 7

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This game had to end this way.  How could it end any other? When a mistake is so egregious, so odious, karmic law requires that the committer of said infraction is harmed by his own misdeed.  That’s exactly what Brad Ausmus and the Tigers got today.

I’m a believer in liberty and the free flow of information.  However, if there is a “book” that told Brad Ausmus he needed to pinch run for Victor Martinez, in the bottom of the ninth inning, when he was on first base, with two outs, that “book” is the first one in history that I want burned.  Please.  Every copy needs to be collected. Placed into a fire place.  Doused with gasoline and set ablaze.

Brad.  Didn’t you go to Dartmouth?  Isn’t Dartmouth an Ivy League School?  Aren’t we told that Ivy League Schools are elite (eyeleat) institutions?  Don’t you have to be smart to get into those schools?

There was less than a 31% chance that Cespedes was going to hit safely?  Much less than a 31% chance that he was going to hit for extra bases.

Where did you learn your trade?

For as mad as I am at Ausmus, did anyone hear Kinsler’s comments after the game?  The little baby doesn’t like the fans booing the team.  Generally, I’d agree with him, but it comes with the territory. Fans pay a lot of money to watch jackasses like him play.  While I chose not to boo, because I think it is rude, it is classless for babies like him to complain about it.  He should take lessons from Ryan Rayburn.  Rayburn took a lot of crap when he was here and he took it with class.  I’ll always have respect for him.  Kinsler, on the other hand, is on the Joe Nathan list.  Get your head out of your ass jackass, hit better than .257, come up with a clutch hit once in a while, the 10th inning today would have been nice, and maybe you won’t get booed. – Jackass!

This video is for Brad Ausmus and Ian “Diaper Boy” Kinsler.