Josh Phegley

The Incredible Iggy

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OK, I know it is a small sample, but Jose Iglesias has become my favorite Tigers player.  In fact, he is officially my second favorite active player behind former Tiger Curtis Granderson.  (I can’t help it.  I’ll always like Curtis and I hope to see him back in a Tigers uniform next year.)

But I digress. Besides Iggy’s glove, he has hit a lot better than I was told to expect.  Also, he brings dimensions to the game the Tigers are lacking, spark and speed.  Both of these attributes were displayed in yesterday’s game, before the pitching staff started throwing batting practice,

In the top of the 3rd, with one out, and Tigers offense pretty much silent for the first few innings, Iggy laid down a bunt single.  Austin Jackson followed with a single and Iggy did what the Tigers as a team have a hard time doing, he went from first to third on a base hit and came around to score on Prince’s homer.

In the top of the 4th with the game tied at 3, the Tigers loaded the bases with one out.  Iggy hit a double play ball to third baseman Will Middlebrooks but was able to beat the relay.  Iggy’s hustle allowed Don Kelly to score the go ahead run.  These are two plays that the rest of team just doesn’t make.

So as a little tribute to Iggy, I found this highlight video from 2012.

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

UGLY! Tigers Fall To Sale, White Sox 6-2.

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What started out looking pretty good turned really ugly, really fast.

The Tigers got on the board in the first with a Miggy solo shot.  Brayan Pena put the Tigers up 2-0 after two with an RBI double, but the Tigers would score no more tonight.

Chris Sale pitched a complete game.  He allowed two earned, walked 0 and struck out 6 on 109 pitches.

Doug Fister started out well but seemed to fall apart in the 4th inning.  With 1 out Gordon Beckham singled.  Fister got Alexei Ramirez to pop out but then walked Adam Dunn and the wheels began to fall off. A wild pitch moved the runners up to second and third.  A walk to Konerko loaded the bases and another wild pitch scored Beckham and the White Sox were on the board.  Fister got ex-Tiger Avisail Garcia to end the inning but Fister could never really recover.

Fister came out for the 5th, gave up three more runs, and the Sox never looked back,  In Fister’s defense, he ran in to some bad luck.  With one out and runners on first and second, Gordon Beckham hit a ground ball back to Fister, which at first was looking like an inning ending double play, but the ball went off of Fister’s leg past Infante and into right field and the Sox were rolling.

The Tigers had chances to score, they touched Sale for 9 hits but couldn’t get the big knock when they needed it.  A big part of the Tigers’ offensive struggles were that Jacskon and Hunter were a combined 0-8, which meant Miggy was always hitting with nobody on base.

The Tigers left 16 men on base tonight, Omar Infante, back in the lineup, for the first time in over a month was 0-4 with 6 LOB.

I’m starting to worry a little bit.  Since the streak ended, the Tigers have lost 3 of 4 to bad teams, the Yankees and the White Sox.  Everything that seemed to be going so well suddenly isn’t.  Fister was not good tonight.  He wasn’t horrible but he had trouble with the strike zone and didn’t put in a quality start.  Even more concerning is Al Alburquerque out of the pen.  The Amazing Al has been more of an abomination lately.  Tonight, for example, he pitched one inning, gave up 5 hits and 2 earned runs.  I don’t think he’s an option out of the pen anymore, he’s a nightmare.  And, where is the clutch hitting?  We could have used a big hit from Infante, but I’ll cut him some slack, since this was his first game back.

On the bright side, Iggy is really flashing leather.  He made an unbelievable play in the 6th. Josh Phegley hit a chopper that got over Fister’s head and looked like a sure infield hit.  But on came Iggy, who dove, barehanded the ball, and threw to first with both feet off of the ground to get Phegley at first.  Iggy also chipped in offensively with an infield single.

Bruce Rondon looked pretty good.  He came on in the 8th to clean up the Amazing Al’s mess.  With runners at second and third and nobody out Rondon surrendered a Texas Leaguer that got over the drawn in infield and a sacrifice fly but got Gordon Beckham to ground into an inning ending double play.  This was not a bad outing for Rondon considering what he inherited.

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

Today’s Game Sucked…

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that’s the only way I can describe it.  It was lack luster from beginning to end.  Perhaps it was just one of those days.

The really shitty part is that the Tigers lost 2 out of 3 to the White Sox, at home, and see their lead over the Indians fall to 2.5 games.  This series is almost as bad as getting swept by the Angels a few weeks ago.

Victor continued his torrid pace, Miggy hit a homer and so did Tui.  Which begs the question, why can’t Tui play the whole game.  Does he always have to bring Dirks in late?  For what purpose?  Dirks isn’t hitting and the last time I checked nobody is going to mistake him for Willie Mays in the outfield.  Let Tui play the whole game.

The killer, obviously, was the grand slam Sanchez allowed to Josh Phegley in the 6th.  The Tigers did have their chances to come back but just couldn’t do it today.  Oh well, it is hard to complain about the offense lately.  They can’t be expected to score 7 every game. (Or can they 🙂 )

On the bright side, Victor had another 3 hits today raising his average to .260.

Also, what is the story with Evan Reed?  He made another throwing error today.  Going from memory alone, I believe he has made 3 or 4 errors in his short time in the big leagues.

The Rangers come to town tomorrow.  The Tigers need a good start from Fister.

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