Jack White, from the White Stripes, has created a song called Battle Cry that Ian Kinsler is using for his walk up music.
Apparently, Kinsler and White became friends about a year ago and are now in the baseball bat business as investor is Warstic.
Ian Kinsler
Tigers Win, Kinsler Gets Picked Off Again
In a previous post, I wrote about Steve Chilton’s speech at the annual dinner held by the Detroit Baseball Society. Chilton started off his speech with a story about his mother who passed away over the summer. He said he was called to the hospital late at night because his mother wasn’t doing well. When he arrived he sat next to his mother’s bed who was sleeping. Sometime early in the morning his mother awoke and said to him, ‘Kinlser got picked off again.”
Those were her last words.
Last season Kinsler made a habit of getting picked off of first base. Yesterday afternoon, he graduated to getting picked off of second base. Kinsler doubled with one out, in the top of the ninth, and then was promptly picked off of second base. Let’s hope this doesn’t continue.
I’m not holding my breath.
Tigers 4 Yankees 1
The Tigers have started this road trip off well. With Today’s 4-1 victory, they took a series in the Bronx two games to one.
Once again, Michael Fulmer was smoke balls! He hasn’t allowed a run in his last 28 1/3. Everyday Ian Kinlser had two more RBIs today giving him seven in the last two games.
This series win game without much help from Jose Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez.
It is off two Chicago for a series with the White Sox. Tomorrow the Tigers have a date with “Big Game?” James Shields.
BIG WIN! Tigers 3 Blue Jays 2
I haven’t seen a comeback win like this in a long time.
For eight innings the Tigers could do nothing with Aaron Sanchez. He struck out 10 and allowed one hard hit ball, a double off of the bat of Justin Upton. That all changed in the ninth.
Iggy led off the ninth with a single. Kinlser doubled him in. Romine, playing in place of Maybin, IMHO a questionable move, bunted Kinsler to third. Then Jose Miguel Cabrera stepped to the plate. Miggy didn’t look good in his first three at-bats but when Jays reliever Osuna came up and in on the Big Man, I had a feeling the deal was done. Two pitches after the brushback, Miggy launched a one hop double off of the center field wall to drive in Kinsler and tie the game.
Hat Tips go to Ian Kinsler for driving in the first and winning runs, Tigers starter Matt Boyd and relievers Shane Greene, Blaine Hardy and Bobby Parnell for keeping the game close. Also, a huge Hat Tip to Nick “The Quick” Castellanos for flashin’ leather at third. I dare say, Nick has improved considerably in the field.
Five in a row!
Sweep tomorrow?
Tigers 11 Blue Jays 0
Michael Fulmer, again, was smokin’ balls! The offense did their part scoring 11 runs.
What is interesting about the Tigers’ offense is that it is scoring runs with little contribution from Jose Miguel Cabrera.
Miggy is slumping right now and I’m getting a bit concerned. He never seems to struggle this late in the season. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
It looks like Justin Upton and James McCann are perking up at the plate which is good news and Cameron Maybin and Ian Kinsler are doing what they do.
Right now, things look good, let’s see how the rest of this series goes and what they do on the road.
One game over .500 isn’t too bad right now.
Tigers 10 Twins 8
It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t easy. It was, however, a win.
This team is in a lot of trouble if they can’t field better than what they displayed on Monday night. Three errors almost cost the Tigers a game in which they lead 8-0 after the first inning.
The pitching is what it is but the Tigers can’t afford to give any team extra outs.
One good sign is that K-Rod pitched another clean 9th inning for the save. Perhaps he’s getting on track?
I’m not overly excited about the 10 run outburst. I hope you’ll excuse me, but I’ve seen the show before. Let’s see what they do the next 5-6 games.
A win is a win and I’ll take it.
Tigers 6 Twins 4
It looks like the Tigers are going to be the spoiler – whether they deserve it or not. They pulled last night’s game off, somehow, finding a way to win, when they didn’t deserve it. They overcame three infield errors and a sacrifice fly to second base to beat the Twins 6-4.
With one more win the Tigers can avoid a 90 loss season.
Rajai Davis came through with a big two out, two strike, two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth and Neftali Feliz closed it out.
Davis’s homer came after Nick Castellanos lead off the eighth with a double but both James McCann and Dixon Machado took third strikes, failing not only to score Castellanos, but even to advance him to third. These are the situations that I start doubting the competence of Brad Ausmus. It is the bottom of the eighth in a tie game. Your #6 hitter just lead off with a double. Why aren’t you having McCann bunt him over to third? You only need one run and it is late in the game.
Tigers 6 Royals 5
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.
Angels 2 Tigers 0
Randy Wolf pitched a gem. Unfortunately, Matt Shoemaker did him one better. For some reason the Tigers just can’t hit Shoemaker, even the Mighty Miggy.
No conniption shots today.
The Tigers dropped another game and another series. There wasn’t much to get excited about other than Wolf’s pitching and two nice throw outs by Alex Avila. A Squared Money displayed a Bazooka and Kinsler helped him out on the back end with a nice pick and tag on the first one.
Tigers 15 Cubs 8
The Tigers completed a mini two game sweep of the Cubs by pounding their pitching staff into a conniption for the second straight night. There was a lot to like on offense, not the least which was Nick Castellanos’ two home runs, his second a grand slam.
I really like Tyler Collins. He had a double in the eighth inning that drove in a run but what really impressed me was his ability to bunt runners to second and third in seventh. He seems like he is a good guy to have off the bench. I remember his pinch hit home run in Cincinnati a few months ago. He seems like he can do things at the plate that not lot of other guys on this team can do. He may not be an everyday player but like I said, a good guy to call upon when needed. (I didn’t like the fly ball that fell between him an Gose in the eighth but I’ll give him a Mulligan for getting that bunt down.)
Fifteen runs today. Ten runs yesterday but no amount of runs makes me feel comfortable.
How about Miggy flashin’ leather at first?
It looks like Daniel Norris is done for the season with an oblique strain.
Just when I start bragging about Kinsler he makes two bone head plays at second. I thought, for sure, the second one was going to blow up.
Two in a row. A win tomorrow makes a winning streak.
Flashin' Leather 