In honor of the wonderful job the Tigers Bullpen has done five games into the 2017 season, let alone the last 10 years, I’m starting a new twitter hashtag campaign, #NiceBullpen.
Bruce Rondon’s ERA is 40.50, is that good for your setup man? Fear not, he has run into some bad luck, opponents are only hitting .500 against him.
Kyle Ryan, Anibal Sanchez, Alex Wilson, and Shane Greene haven’t been much better.
Does Rondon look any slimmer to anyone?
If anything, he looks like he put on a few.
By now Tigers and baseball fans have heard that Bruce Rondon was sent home from the team for what manager Brad Ausmus would only say was “lack of effort”. I was listening to MLB radio and heard that this has been a problem with Rondon in the minor leagues as well.
I’m not a professional athlete so I don’t claim to know the trials and tribulations of one. However, I don’t get it. If Rondon doesn’t want to put forth the effort to be a MLB pitcher, what does he want to do? I don’t know his family situation, or the way he was brought up, but I can only guess that he wanted to be a baseball player.
By reaching the major leagues, or the minor leagues for that matter, he’s part of an elite (eye-leet) group of people. Does he have any idea how difficult it is to ham & egg it like the majority of us? Does he have any idea how difficult it would be to make the kind of living he’s making, or possibly could make, outside of baseball in a 9-5 job?
Unfortunately, I’m a glass is half empty kind of guy, people that know me can attest to that. I constantly struggle to see the positive side of things and I know that comes through in my blog posts. For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to highlight the positive things in Tigers games. It is a small exercise that I hope will carry over into other facets of my life. Most importantly, I’m hoping it will be a reminder to me to count my blessings. Perhaps it would benefit Bruce to do the same.
Daniel Norris was smokin’ balls for five innings. In fact, he had a perfect game going but was lifted after throwing just 62 pitches. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I understand trying to protect a young arm but how many more times in his career will Norris be perfect through five complete. Couldn’t they have extended his outing and then skipped his next start?
In any case, the Tigers were two outs away from completing their first combined no-hitter in team history until Neftali Feliz allowed a triple in the ninth and eventually blew the save.
Fortunately, they rallied in the 10th for the win. It was least the offense could do. They have scored a combined four runs in the first three games of this series while they have pitched well enough to be 3-0. They will try for a series split tomorrow with JV on the hill.
Bruce Rondon was dismissed from the team. Brad Ausmus cited “lack of effort” as the reason but refused to elaborate. I wonder what his issue is? I had heard he was upset about losing the closer’s role but can what he was doing be considered closing? He was atrocious.
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.
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.
Yesterday, I said the Tigers deserved to be in last place.
Last night, the Tigers deserved to lose. They didn’t.
The Tigers, circa 2015, showed me a stubbornness that you usually find in contenders. That’s not to say this was a Russian Symphony. Nope. This was still my seventh grade band class. This was still a cacophony of nonsense.
However, it is early September. The season has been an abomination. The park was empty, by Tigers’ standards, and there were plenty of excuses to pack this one in and go home but they didn’t. They wouldn’t. That says something about these players and that says something about Brad Ausmus.
For this post, I have to break it down to the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good, nothing new here:
The Bad:
The Ugly:
Nebraska – God Speed!
This was actually a pretty well played game. It lacked offense but I like a pitcher’s dual once in a while; just as long as I don’t have to tip my cap to every ham & egger toes the slab against us. Both Price and Tillman were smokin balls. The Tigers should have cashed a run in the bottom of the first when they had a runner on third with one out but Tillman looked like a top of the rotation guy last night.
David Price gutted out seven impressive innings allowing a single run on a solo shot by Manny Machado while striking out 12 and walking 1. Alex Wilson did what he does and pitched a clean 8th. Krol got a LONG out to lead off the 9th. Then Rondon essentially put the game out of reach by giving up two runs. He needs to a bus ticket south about an hour.
Rondon did not pitch well and I can’t and won’t defend him. But Anthony Gose could have bailed him out by making a catch he makes 9 out of 10 times.
It seems like things just are not working out for this team. It doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Unfortunately, I listened to 97.1 for a few minutes yesterday and some blow hard was talking about how if he were a season ticket holder he would be offended if the Tigers traded David Price. I am a season ticket holder and here’s what offends me, charging $10.50 for three chicken fingers.
Perhaps for only one game but Justin Verlander looked liked the Cy Young JV. He was, in two words, SMOKIN BALLS. Unfortunately, he turned over a five run lead to the bullpen in the ninth and they couldn’t hold it.
Despite the meltdown from Bruce Rondon and Joakim Soria there was a lot to like about this game. The offense scored six more runs, JV was on fire and Yoenis Cepedes made a nice catch in left to rob Joe Mauer of a double.
I’m trying not get upset at what the Tigers don’t have anymore. They haven’t had a bullpen for as long as I can remember so anything they get from them I’m gong to consider house money.
Flashin' Leather 