Chris Sale

Blue Jays 7 Tigers 2

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Well the winning steak ended at five.  The Blue Jays pounded Jordan Zimmerman for seven runs.  He didn’t have it today.

The home-stand was great, The Tigers went 5-2. I’m glad I wasn’t betting these games because it was a home-stand of surprises.

I didn’t think the Tigers would win the matchup on Saturday, Pelfrey against Sale.  I didn’t like the Sanchez/Boyd matchup yesterday and I would have bet the farm on Zimmerman against R.A. Dickey this afternoon.  I guess that shows how much I know, or don’t.

It is back to the road and let’s hope it is better than the last two.

Tigers 5 White Sox 2

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The Tigers completed the sweep of the White Sox on Sunday with a 5-2 win at Comerica Park.

This team seems to be Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde and it seems to coincide with whether they are at home or not.  They seem to play well at home and not so well on the road.

What I really liked about this series is that they beat Chris Sale on Tuesday afternoon.  Sale is a perennial Cy Young candidate but they found a way to beat him.

More good news, Zimmerman, Pelfrey and JV all pitched well.

Let’s see what happens with the Blue Jays in town.

 

White Sox 2 Tigers 1

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The Tigers lost their third game in a row.  This is not the way I was hoping they’d close out the season.  I guess this was no surprise.  They usually don’t do much against Chris Sale.

On the bright side, Alfredo Simon pitched a gem.  He threw an eight inning complete game allowing only two earned on five hits.  He only struck out one and walked one but he pitched more than well enough to win. Unfortunately, he got little help from the offense.

Notes: Chris Sale set a White Sox single season strikeout record when he Kd James McCann for his 270th in the second inning.

Royals 10 Tigers 3

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The four game winning streak came to an end today.  Alfredo Simon was atrocious and the offense couldn’t come up with 11 runs to complete the sweep.

On the bright side, Miggy had another hit and RBI, although he was only 1-4 and did leave four runners on base. Victor had another hit and RBI and was 1-2 with a walk.  Additionally, this was the second straight series win.

Simon is a free agent at the end of the season and I’m wondering if the Tigers are going to make him an offer. He does have 13 wins but his ERA is 5.21 and he is wildly inconsistent.  Perhaps, for the right price, he’d be ok for a fifth starter or long relief, but I don’t think he can be counted on for much more.

The White Sox come to town tomorrow and it looks like the Tigers might miss Chris Sale which I’m not sure is much of a break. Sale has really struggled down the stretch, as he did last season, which probably cost him the 2014 A.L. Cy Young Award.

Is it just me or does it seem like J.D. is struggling?

Hmmm Look Out Below?

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Before the start of the 2015 baseball season, at the draft of one of my fantasy baseball leagues, regular reader, Sark, predicted that the Minnesota Twins might be a threat in the A.L. Central this season.

I really wasn’t sure what to make of this prediction.  I didn’t like their dismissal of Ron Gardenhire, perhaps my favorite manager, and I didn’t see any big improvements they made made to their roster, although I didn’t follow them that closely in the off season, and after the Tigers torched them to open the season, I didn’t think much more about them. But did anyone notice that they swept a four game series from the White Sox this weekend?

Thursday they beat Chris Sale into a conniption hanging nine runs on him in three innings.  Friday they beat them 1-0. Saturday they won 5-3 and today they finished off the sweep with a 13-3 annihilation.  They are now in third place, one game over .500, and 7-3 in their last 10.

Sark, you may be on to something.  It’s early, but as Nebraska says, “we shall see”.

Tigers 6 White Sox 1

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That’s why they play the games. I had this chalked up as a loss when I saw the pitching match-up. That shows how much I know.

I have not said this very often in the last two years; JV was smokin balls. I thought I was time warped back to 2011. He out pitched that sack of garbage Chris Sale.

Until the sixth inning, I was a Sale for CY Young booster, but anybody that can be that stupid doesn’t deserve to win it.

Like Nebraska says, ‘you can’t fix stupid.”

Just when I think Miggy is back he K’s four times. WTF?

Hat tip to J.D. and Rajai, they led the offensive charge this afternoon.

The Tigers are in first for another day.

Twins tomorrow.

Max Stops The Bleeding

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Let’s hope it isn’t a band aide on a hemorrhage.

There’s no other way to say it, Max was smokin balls! Not only did he get the win but he got his first complete game as well.

The Tigers finally got an Ace to beat an Ace. Chris Sale was good but Max was better.

Is Bryan Holaday the number two catcher?

“God I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs ! The Natural

 

Tigers 7 White Sox 6

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WOW!  Do I feel like an ass for leaving this game in the top of the 9th.

For the first 8.5 innings, I saw exactly what I expected.  After scoring 12 runs last night and facing who I believe to be the best pitcher in the American League, Chris Sale, the Tigers offense did next to nothing.

Chris Sale was dealing.  Except for Miggy, who had two hits against him, the rest of the lineup was completely and thoroughly dominated.

On the Tigers side of the ledger, Fredrick Alfred Porcello was fantastic.  For 6 and 2/3, Ricky was almost as good as Chris Sale.  Almost as good.  This was a match-up between an Ace and an Ace in waiting.  Ricky allowed only 6 hits and 2 runs while walked nobody and striking out 9.

I’m not sure what has gotten into him but Ricky has been getting a lot of swings and misses lately.  He struck out 10 in his previous start and 9 more today.  If Ricky and Iggy can stay healthy, Porcello will make a bid to win 20 games next year with an ERA well under 4, perhaps 3.50.

Tui was flashin leather tonight.   Jose Veras came in to relieve Ricky.  With two outs and the left handed hitting, White Sox catcher, Bryan Anderson at the plate.  The defense was shaded towards right.  Anderson hit a wounded quail to shallow left field and Tui made a fabulous diving catch to end the inning and save a run.

What can I say about Good Ole Dirksy?  He pinch hit for Tui in the bottom of the 9th with two on and nobody out and delivered a 3 run shot to pull the Tigers to within one run, 6-5.  Good for Andy.  It would be great if got to his 2012 form in time for the playoffs.

After Dirksy’s blast Infante walked bringing Santiago to the plate.  Ramon bunted Infante over to second.  I’m not sure how I feel about this play.  Generally, I don’t like bunting a guy from first to second.  In this case I didn’t particularly care for giving the White Sox pitcher an out when he was having trouble finding the plate.  Couple that with the Tigers’ bats perking up and nobody out and my initial reaction to the sacrifice was revulsion.  Looking back on it, however, it was the bottom of the 9th.  The Tigers were trailing by only a single run and it did get the tying run into scoring position.  It worked out this time but I’m still not sure if I would do it again should the occasion arise in the future.

Other than his inability to run, Miggy looked like his old self at the plate today.  He touched Sale for two hard hit singles and singled in the Tigers’ first run in the 9th.  He left the game with groin tightness and is listed as day to day.  It might be time to give him a day off.

Austin Jackson is struggling.  He was 0-5 with a walk tonight.  He had two hits last night, going 2-6, but he was 0-5 in the final game against the Mariners.  That makes him 2-16 in the last three games.  He needs to get on base so Miggy and Prince have a chance to drive in some runs.  That being said, AJax is a streaky hitter so hopefully he’ll go on a hot streak in time for the postseason.

The Amazing Al pitched well tonight.  He pitched two scoreless innings, the 11th and 12th, and got the win.  He allowed one hit, one walk, and struck out two.

Paul Konerko flashed some leather tonight as well.  He made a game saving, temporarily at least, backhanded pick in the 12th, on a throw in the dirt from third baseman Conor Gillaspie

The magic number is 2.

Sanchez is on the mound tomorrow.

It would be nice if the Astros could help the Tigers out tomorrow but I’m not counting on it.

God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Tigers 12 Indians 5

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The Tigers beat up on the White Sox and their pitching tonight and got Max Scherzer his 20th win of the season.

They jumped on White Sox starter, Dylan Axelrod, early and often.  The Tigers put 7 runs on him and got the bullpen for five more.

Scherzer put in a quality start going 6 complete, allowing 6 hits and 3 runs, while walking 1 and striking out 3.

The Puppet Master had Good Ole Dirksy in left field tonight and he paid dividends right away with a two run single in the first to give the Tigers an early two run lead.  Dirks would finish the game 3 for 4 raising his batting average to .261.

A few areas of mild concern are Miggy and Jose Alvarez.  Miggy was 1-5 tonight and left 6 runners on base.  Jose Alvarez pitched one inning and allowed 3 hits and two earned runs.  I say mild concern but I’m a little more than mildly concerned about Miggy.  I know he’s still hitting .346 but his batting average has been slowly dropping this month and he’s been struggling to drive in runs.  I hope it is just a little slump but I can’t help worrying about his nagging injuries.  It is going to be hard to make long playoff run with Miggy struggling to drive in runs.

The good news is that the Tigers won, Max got his 20th, and the magic number is down to 3.  Hopefully, they can clinch this weekend.

I hope the Tigers saved some runs for tomorrow because they’re going to need all they can get.  They’ll  face White Sox ace, and Cy Young contender, Chris Sale.

I’m looking for a big game from Ricky tomorrow.

God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural

Tigers 1 White Sox 0

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Anibal Sanchez continues to make his case for this year’s AL Cy Young award.  He improved his record to 14-7 and lowered his league leading ERA to 2.50.  Anibal was masterful tonight in spite of an asinine strike zone from home plate umpire Larry Hanover.

Even with a strike zone that nobody could figure out, Sanchez managed to pitch 7 and 1/3 without allowing any runs.  He gave up only 5 hits, walked 4 and struck out 10.

A few weeks ago I thought Max Scherzer had the Cy Young locked up but Anibal is right on his heels along with Yu Darvish of the Rangers and Chris Sale of the White Sox.

The offense was pathetic tonight which is pretty much what I expected.  After scoring 9 runs last night. the Tigers managed only 1 run on 10 hits.  They were 1 for 11 with men in scoring position.

I’m not sure what the issue is but Miguel Cabrera doesn’t not look good at all.  I’m not sure if he just needs to get his timing back or if his injuries are plaguing him much more than we are lead to believe.  However, if continues hitting the way he did on this road trip, the Tigers are in trouble.

Veras, Smyly and Benoit were aces coming out of the bull pen to preserve the 1-0 win for Sanchez.

Nick Castellanos was 1-4 tonight.  I thought his most impressive at bat came in the first inning.  After falling behind 1-2 he worked the count back to even.  He then fouled off three pitches then took ball three to move the count to full.  He ended up striking out but he did make Jose Quintana throw him 9 pitches.

The Tigers lead in the central is back up to 6.5 games courtesy of the Indians loss to the Royals earlier in the day.

This was a nice win.  After losing the opening game, and third in a row, they managed to win the final two and take the series.

The Royals come to Comerica Park this weekend.  Friday’s game features Justin Verlander against Bruce Chen.  Let’s hope it goes better than the last time these two faced each other.

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