Jason Kipnis Flashes Leather to end game against Twins.
“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Jason Kipnis
Mighty Miggy!
The Mighty Miggy hit his 39th home run, a solo shot, in the bottom of the 9th to give the Tigers a 6-5 win and even this 5 game series with the Royals.
Despite leaving 9 men on base, the Tigers offense was able to bail the pitching staff out tonight. The pitching wasn’t horrible but it is not what Tigers fans have come to expect.
Doug Fister lasted 6 and 1/3. He surrendered 3 earned. Fister walked 2, struck out 6 and gave up 10 hits.
The top of the 4th inning featured one of the strangest plays I’ve ever seen. With Chris Getz on first base and nobody out, Fister threw a pitch that Alcides Escobar foul tipped behind home plate. Home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski ruled it a wild pitch. While Brayan Pena was waiting for the umpire to hand him a new ball, Chris Getz ran all the way to 3rd base. If it wasn’t for Doug Fister, realizing what had happened, and retrieving the ball, Getz would have scored. As it turned out, Getz ended up scoring when Escobar doubled to tie the game at three.
Jim Leyland and Brayan Pena, furious at the call, were both thrown out of the game. Replays showed that the call was blown. It was clearly a foul tipped ball.
Withe score tied at 4 in the bottom of the 7th, Prince Fielder homered to give the Tigers the lead back 5-4 but the bull pen couldn’t hold it. Jose Veras allowed the tying run in the top of the 8th and the stage was set for Miggy’s heroics.
Royals reliever Aaron Crow came in to pitch the 9th with Miggy leading off. Crow fell behind Miggy 3-1 and I was sure he was just going to put him on. And in fact, he may have been trying to. The 3-1 pitch looked to be about 6 inches off of the plate away, but Miggy expanded the strike zone and did what he does. He hit a bullet over the right field fence giving the Tigers a much needed win.
The running game is becoming a big problem for the Tigers. They can’t stop anybody from running and this deficiency is compounded when the pitching staff gives up walks. They need to find a way to address this but I’m not sure they have the tools to do so. Neither Pena, Holaday nor Avila have been very effective at throwing this year. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite the Tigers in a crucial situation, like a playoff or World Series game.
On the flip side of the coin, the Tigers did a bit of running themselves tonight. They scored their third run in the bottom of the second on a suicide squeeze. With Infante on 3rd and one out, Iggy, laid down a bunt that not only scored Infante but gave Iglesias another infield hit.
With a win tomorrow, the Tigers can win the five game series 3-2.
Update, Cleveland Indian’s second baseman, Jason Kipnis, tweeted this today, “Dear Miggy… You’re making the rest of us look bad.. Knock it off! – MLB Hitters”. Hat Tip to Sark for showing me the Kipnis tweet. I have retweeted the Kipnis tweet and it can be seen on the right side of this page.
“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural
A SQUARED MONEY!
Things weren’t looking good for the Tigers. This was a pitcher’s dual but going into the 9th inning the Indians had managed to scratch out 2 runs against Anibal Sanchez and led the first game of this crucial, 4 game, series 2-1.
The Tigers had some base runners in the first two innings but couldn’t push across any runs. From then on, they were dominated by Indians starter Corey Kluber. Kluber pitched 7 and 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing 6 hits, striking out 6 and walking one. He was ahead of Tigers hitters all night.
The Tigers ran themselves out an inning in the 8th when Austin Jackson got thrown out at second. After Torii Hunter singled, Ramon Santiago was held at third by Tom Brookens. Apparently, Jackson didn’t see Santiago getting held up and rounded second. Right fielder, Drew Stubbs threw behind Jackson and instead of the bases loaded with 1 out, the Tigers had runners and first and third with two out. Miggy grounded to second to end the inning.
The Indians brought in closer Chris Perez to pitch the 9th and the Tigers pounded him. He gave up all four Tiger runs and didn’t record an out. The big hit was a three-run homer off of the bat of Alex “A Squared Money” Avila. Alex has had a tough year at the plate but he’s had some big hits. None bigger, at this point, than this homer.
Anibal Sanchez pitched well today. He went 7 and 2/3, gave up 2 earned on 4 hits, struck out 11 and walked two. Although he didn’t get the win, it is fantastic that this performance wasn’t wasted.
The Indians Jason Kipnis was flashin leather tonight. He robbed Dirks and Iggy of base hits.
Coincidentally, it was a year ago to the day, August 5th, 2012, that Indians closer, Chris Perez, had a meltdown in a Sunday, afternoon, game at Comerica Park. Last year, Miggy hit a big home run off of him. Tonight, it was A Squared Money! Perhaps he should take the 5th of August off in the future.
IMHO, Miggy looks like he’s still not 100%. It might be a good idea to put him on the 15 day DL and get him nice and healthy for the final stretch? I’m not sayin’. I’m just sayin’,
JV is on the hill tomorrow. Tomorrow would be a nice time for him to return to his form of the last two years.
“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Flashin' Leather 