Detroit Tigers

Indians 5 Tigers 2 (Game 2)

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Nathan is horrible but the offense was worse.

During this four game losing streak the Tigers have scored a total of nine runs. That’s putting a lot of pressure on the pitching staff.

The pitching hasn’t been good either.

Max was ok. He only allowed two runs but the Tigers needed him to pitch deep into the game but he couldn’t make it through six.

I was at the game and it was one of the most irritating that I could remember. Max stood on the mound and allowed the Indians to foul pitch after pitch off and drive his pitch count up. As a result he had to leave after five and two thirds.

High pitch counts have plagued the Tigers pitching staff for a long time. For some reason they have a religious aversion to throwing inside. They allowed hitters to lean over the plate and send their pitch counts through the roof. Now add in an abomination of a bullpen and you begin to understand why the Tigers haven’t won the World Series since 1984 and probably won’t win this year.

I’m disgusted!

Smyly is on the mound tomorrow. I’m not optimistic.

“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Indians 6 Tigers 2 (Game 1)

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I think we’ve seen this move before. The Tigers lost their third straight game, second straight to the Indians, and first of a double header.

Rookie Drew VerHagen didn’t look too bad but he only lasted five innings. We all know what happens when the Tigers need more than two innings from the bullpen.

Here’s a hint, (whisper) they don’t win.

Not that the offense was any help. They had seven hits, struck out 11 times and walked once.

Right now the Indians are 5.5 games back.

I hope Max can strop the bleeding or this could get ugly again.

“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Tribe 9 Tigers 3

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Ok. What’s going on with the seventh inning? The last two games, Verlander on Sunday, Sanchez today, Tigers starters have smoked balls for six innings, then blew up in the seventh.

Tonight, Sanchez was dealing for six innings. He was tossing a shut out, striking out seven and walking one. He couldn’t record an out in the seventh. He was charged with four runs.

Did I mention, the bullpen didn’t help him out any?

  • Ian Krol was charged with a run and didn’t retire anybody.
  • Everyday Al, got two big outs then gave up two bombs.
  • Phil Coke pitched an inning, didn’t give up a run, but walked two.
  • Chad Smith pitched an inning and gave up two runs.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise but this might be the worst bullpen in history. They suck.

If the starters can’t give the Tigers seven innings, I don’t like their chances.

Double header tomorrow.

“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural

DIRKS WAS A FINALIST FOR THE 2013 GOLD GLOVE AWARD?

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So this was supposed to be a simple re-blog of a Detroit News post, H/T Nebraska and Sark, regarding Dirksburger’s rehab setback.  But then I read the article.

This was the last sentence of the story:

“Dirks has hit .275 with 24 homers and 100 RBIs over 297 games with the Tigers, and was a finalist for a Gold Glove in 2013.”

I’m sorry, what planet were judges on who made Dirksburger a finalist for the Gold Glove on?  What team were they watching? What player were they watching?  What sport were they watching?

The idea that Dirsky was among the top fielding outfielders in MLB last year is more than insane.  It is insulting.

“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Royals 5 Tigers 2

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There goes the ’84 feeling.

JV looked pretty good for six innings then blew up in the seventh.  He’s just running bad.  And when you’re running bad everything seems to go against you.  That’s what happened to JV.

In his defense, he only gave up one hard hit ball and didn’t get much help from his friends in the pen.  Ian Krol recorded the second out but Everyday Al gave up a two run single to Omar Infante.

I really need to look up the Tigers bullpen record on stranding runs.  The eye-test says they’re an abomination.  I wonder what the numbers say?

OK, Miggy is worrying me.  He took another ofer today.  He got a bunch of hits in the first game, as did everyone else, then I don’t think he got a hit in the final three games.  This seems to be a reoccurring theme, one game he gets 3 or 4 hits then disappears for a few games.  This is not what I expect for $30 million a year.

Between Verlander and Cabrera, the Tigers are getting $60 million worth of , not good enough. “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.” Luke 12:48(KJV)

This is the worst week of the summer.  After the ASG, not baseball for two days.

“God I love baseball.” Roy Hobbs | The Natural

 

Tigers 5 Royals 1

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Before the ninth inning I was going to start complaining about the offense the last two games. I was going to cry how they’d only scored two runs each, in the last two games. Fortunately, J.D. Martinez and Alex “A Squared Money” Avila, stole my thunder.

J.D. came through with a solo shot and A Squared hit a two-run homer to extend the Tigers lead to 5-1.

The lead extension was important because it kept Joe Nathan out of the game. I didn’t want to go through another ninth inning like they did the game before. Nathan and a one run lead is playing with fire.

As it turned out, Everyday Al came in and closed out the ninth. The Tigers won their fifth in a row, third straight over KC, Freeway Ricky got his 12th win, the lead is extended to 7.5 games, and today, the Tigers have a chance for a sweep.

Win or lose this afternoon and I’m going to feel good about the Tigers going into the break. However, a ball smokin performance by JV and a series sweep might give me a bit of the ’84 feeling.

“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Tiger 2 Royals 1

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The Tigers insured themselves no worse than a split, and no worse than a 4.5 game lead at the AS break, despite Joe Nathan.

Hmmm, ‘despite Joe Nathan’, I think I’ve written that more than once this year.

I guess I should give Nathan credit for nailing down the save but he made it a lot more ‘interesting’ than it should have been. He threw 27 pitches in the ninth inning and only 13 of them were strikes. In fact, of the five batters he faced, he fell behind 2-0 to three of them.

OK, I’ve complained enough for one post, especially after a Tigers win. But here’s a note to DD, you still need a closer.

“God I love baseball.” Roy Hobbs| The Natural

Tigers Beat Royals Into A Conniption, 16-4

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The Tigers continued their offensive explosion yesterday in Kansas City.

It’s hard to single out one person, because offensively, most of the team was smokin balls.

And, there was some leather flashin too, specifically DK in the 8th(?) at first base.

The only downer is that Drew Smyly gave up four runs in 6.2 innings. I guess I should remember what Bob Feller said, only look at wins, and give Smyly credit for getting the win.

One other thing that concerns me, I hope the Tigers have some offense left for the rest of the series. Other than that, “How ’bout Them Tigers!!!!!!!!”

“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Tigers 4 Dodgers 1

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Impressive, is the best way to describe this win.  Not only did Max break the string of crappy starts, the Tigers beat a pitcher that has dominated them, Zach Greinke.

In yesterday’s post, I asked for at least seven innings with no more that two runs allowed.  Max did one better.  He pitched seven completed and allowed only one run.

Another thing that makes this win impressive is that neither Miggy nor Victor were in the lineup.  Victor still has an issue with his side and apparently, Miggy was just given a day off.

Nebraska told me that Brad Ausmus wanted to get DK in the lineup because he has hit Greinke well.  Coming into the game DK was 3-8 against Greinke, hardly a large enough sample, but Donny went 2-3 with a big RBI.

What I’m happiest about today is the pitching.  Max was great and Joba and Nathan were lights out.  If Tigers starters can go seven innings a lot of the deficiencies can be covered up.

The Tigers go to Kansas City for weekend set-to with Royals. Depending on what team shows, the Tigers could have a nice lead going into the break.

“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural