Freeway Ricky was bad.
The offense was bad.
The Tigers are now 1.5 games behind the Royals
They only good thing from this game is that Miggy had two doubles and a walk.
I just hope they don’t get swept. I thought today was a must win game. I don’t like their chances tomorrow or Sunday.
One more thing, up yours Nathan you shit bird!
“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural
For the seventh time in nine road games the Tigers lost.
I feel like an idiot for tuning in every game and hoping for a different outcome.
The Tigers aren’t doing anything well. Perhaps Brad Ausmus should consider playing his best defensive team and seeing what happens. It’s not like the offense can get much worse.
By playing defense first maybe they can help the struggling bullpen. The Tigers can’t afford to give anybody extra outs. Their pitching and offense can’t overcome the defensive miscues that plague this team on a regular basis.
Victor is going to have to sit in NL parks. Ever since his injury he hasn’t been doing much anyway and Cabrera can’t play third. Romine has to play short. I’m not sure what to do at third, maybe DK? Actually, I’m not sure what to do with the outfield either. On queue, the minute I commented on how well J.D. Martinez was playing in the field, suddenly he can’t pick the ball up anymore. Torii is old, I don’t think Davis is much of a fielder and I’m pissed at Carrera.
What a mess.
“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural
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FINALLY! Somebody stepped up on offense and it happened to be three rookies. For eight more innings the Tigers offense continued to look horrible.
Miggy set the tone for ineptitude in the first inning when he popped out with Davis on third and one out. Miggy looks horrible. He lo0ks off balance and he’s swinging at pitches I’ve never seem him swing at before.
Fast forward to the ninth inning. The Tigers trailed 4-2 with Casey Janssen in to close the game for the Jays. Janssen has converted 92% of his save opportunities in the last two years. J.D. lead off with a double. After Avila grounded out Castellanos tied the game with a bomb to left field. Eugenio Suarez followed with another home run and the Tigers had the lead 5-4.
The ninth inning was not a good one for Joe Nathan but he managed to wiggle out of a bases loaded jam and convert the save opportunity.
This is only one game but other players need to step up until Miggy and Victor get straightened out, if they can get straightened out.
Ian Kinsler deserves an honorable mention. He was 3-5 with two RBIs.
Note: I’m not sure if J.D. is a rookie but I consider him one.
“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural
The offense is so miserable that it I can’t write about Ricky’s start.
This team doesn’t deserve to make the playoffs. I’m still sticking to the post I made right before the Price acquisition, this team needs to be blown up, not just tweaked. We’ve had to sit through the same shit for the last 3-4 years. The offense scores 10 runs one game than hibernates for two weeks.
BA should have left Miggy on the bench. Miggy contributed a very disappointing at-bat. The same is true with Victor when he bounced into an inning ending double play
They make me sick. The whole lot of them.
“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Freeway Ricky lasted eight innings, gave up two runs, struck out 10 and got his 13th win.
The key to tonight’s game was the first inning. It looked like a rare Kinsler error kind of made Ricky uncomfortable. He walked the next batter and had runners on first and second with two out. But the runner at second, Corey Dickerson, tried to steal third. Avila threw him out to end the inning. I was at the game. At the time, I had a bad feeling like this might be a short night for Porcello. Dickerson did him a favor.
After the second inning, when the Rockies scored two runs, Ricky had no trouble setting down a depleted Rockies lineup.
A few game notes:
“God I love baseball.”-Roy Hobbs | The Natural
It’s nice to get a win after three horrible losses but pardon me if I’m not going to sing the praises of this six run outburst.
The Tigers jumped out to a big lead with six runs in the first. However, after the second inning, they made Noesi look like Nolan Ryan.
A note on Miggy: I know my complaining about him seems insane but here’s why I’m a little disappointed in him this year. The Tigers have a streaky offense. In previous years, the Tigers could count on Miggy to give them professional at-bats while surrounded by ineptitude. This hasn’t happened this year. It seems like when the team is going well Miggy is going well. When the offense is sucking Miggy is sucking.
Miggy’s season reminds me of Jeff Weaver circa 10 years ago. Jeff was a good pitcher but he wasn’t a stopper. He couldn’t be the guy that stopped a losing streak. Similarly, readers might remember Sark talking about needing a fireman out of the pen, someone that can come in and stop the bleeding. Miggy used to be the offensive fireman but not so much this year.
I guess I need to cut him some slack.
“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural
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Despite not getting a quality start from Anibal Sanchez the Tigers were able to take the rubber game of their three game set in Phoenix.
Joba bailed Anibal out in the seventh by getting a double play on the only pitch he threw. At the time, the Diamondbacks had cut a 7-0 Tigers lead to 7-5 and had runners on first and second, with one out.
Blaine Hardy pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings.
Eleven runs is an offensive explosion I just hope they don’t go another five games with two runs or less.
Miggy had two hits including his 15th home run and RBIs, 78, 79, and 80.
Congratulations to Alex Avila on his 100th double. I still don’t think he should be playing every day. He struck out three more time today giving him a total of 95 for the season. Ninety-eight games into the season and Alex Avila has Kd 95 times. I hate to say this because I was his biggest supporter, he needs to relegated to the backup role. I’m not saying Holaday is the answer, but how much worse can he do?
Austin Ajax Jackson had two more hits and three RBIs this afternoon. He has quietly brought his batting average up to .270.
“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural
I didn’t get to see a minute of this game. I got on a flight at noon and didn’t arrive until the game was over.
From perusing the box score however, it looks the same tried and true recipe was used to salvage the last game of this four game debacle.
Drew Smyly pitched seven complete and allowed only one run. Instead of relying on the bullpen for 3 or 4 innings, only two were required.
Joba continued to show that he is the only reliable arm out of the bullpen. He pitched a scoreless 8th, although he did walk two.
Joe Nathan pitched a scoreless ninth in a non-save situation.
It looks like the offense came alive, scoring five runs. Miggy took an ofer but it looks like Ajax, Torii, and Costellanos had good games.
Although, I like him, he seems like a decent guy, I’ve been pretty critical of Austin Jackson. But he seems be coming on a bit lately. He had two hits today and his batting average is up to .264.
Off to the Valley of the Sun for a three game series with the Diamondbacks.
“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural
There goes the ’84 feeling.
JV looked pretty good for six innings then blew up in the seventh. He’s just running bad. And when you’re running bad everything seems to go against you. That’s what happened to JV.
In his defense, he only gave up one hard hit ball and didn’t get much help from his friends in the pen. Ian Krol recorded the second out but Everyday Al gave up a two run single to Omar Infante.
I really need to look up the Tigers bullpen record on stranding runs. The eye-test says they’re an abomination. I wonder what the numbers say?
OK, Miggy is worrying me. He took another ofer today. He got a bunch of hits in the first game, as did everyone else, then I don’t think he got a hit in the final three games. This seems to be a reoccurring theme, one game he gets 3 or 4 hits then disappears for a few games. This is not what I expect for $30 million a year.
Between Verlander and Cabrera, the Tigers are getting $60 million worth of , not good enough. “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.” Luke 12:48(KJV)
This is the worst week of the summer. After the ASG, not baseball for two days.
“God I love baseball.” Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Impressive, is the best way to describe this win. Not only did Max break the string of crappy starts, the Tigers beat a pitcher that has dominated them, Zach Greinke.
In yesterday’s post, I asked for at least seven innings with no more that two runs allowed. Max did one better. He pitched seven completed and allowed only one run.
Another thing that makes this win impressive is that neither Miggy nor Victor were in the lineup. Victor still has an issue with his side and apparently, Miggy was just given a day off.
Nebraska told me that Brad Ausmus wanted to get DK in the lineup because he has hit Greinke well. Coming into the game DK was 3-8 against Greinke, hardly a large enough sample, but Donny went 2-3 with a big RBI.
What I’m happiest about today is the pitching. Max was great and Joba and Nathan were lights out. If Tigers starters can go seven innings a lot of the deficiencies can be covered up.
The Tigers go to Kansas City for weekend set-to with Royals. Depending on what team shows, the Tigers could have a nice lead going into the break.
“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Flashin' Leather 