Nick Castellanos

Blue Jays 6 Tigers 5

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Another series loss.

Don’t let the five runs fool you. Three of the five runs were unearned and they didn’t score after the fourth inning. That’s 14 innings without scoring a run. The Tigers get credit for taking advantage of mistakes but they eventually returned the favor in spades.

Besides Joba Chamberlain, who is turning out to be the guy the Yankees let go, the bullpen was good today. Even Phil Coke pitched adequately, he was hurt by bone head fielding plays from Kinsler and Castellanos.

There is no other way to say this, the Tigers are horrible. Their lead over the Royals is down to 1/2 a game and they are headed for a catastrophic implosion. The offense is almost as bad as the bullpen. The fielding is borderline terrible and the manager sits their like an idiot and does nothing to shake things up.

On another note, did anybody see the Joe Nathan interview after the game yesterday? When is he going to take responsibility for pitching like shit? He’s blown six saves and has a 5.23 ERA. If I’m not mistaken, both his ERA and blown saves are the worst in MLB.

Also, Max Scherzer was covering BA’s ass. You could tell he was lying when he said he had nothing left.

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

Tigers 5 Blue Jays 4

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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

Tigers 5 Indians 1

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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

Verlander, Tigers Get Smoked in Windy City

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Make it three losses in a row.  The Tigers went down to the Whites Sox last night 8-2.

JV was horrible.  I listened to the game on my iPad.  All I kept  hearing about was even though his line didn’t look good, JV had good “stuff”.  Guess what.  They can take all that good “stuff”, roll it into a huge ball, and shove it up their arse.  I don’t care what kind of “stuff” anybody has.  Baseball teams need pitchers that can get people out.  Right now, few on the Tigers pitching staff can do that effectively and their record shows it.

How’s that Doug Fister trade look now?  Lombardozzi, isn’t even on the team.  Robbie Ray is in the minors and didn’t look great when he up in the show.  And Ian Krol hasn’t exactly been lights out.  I know his ERA looks good but he comes into games where he is supposed to strand runners.  Guess how many he stranded yesterday? ZERO!  He couldn’t get  Brandon “I Money” Inge out  and he’s retired.

I know.  I know.  The Tigers needed another left hander out of the bullpen.  But the caveat to that is that they needed a left hander that can get people out.  If all they need is a left hander then sign me up.  I can come in, throw left handed, and not get anybody out too.  And I’ll do it for the league minimum or less.

By the way, Fister is 5-1 with a 2.68 ERA for the Nationals this year.

The only bright spot from yesterday is Nick Castellanos, whose glove I’ve criticized plenty, flashed some leather last night and seemed like he saved the game in the fifth inning.  Unfortunately, the White Sox came to bat in the sixth.

Basically, the Tigers suck and I’m losing hope that they are going to turn it around.

 

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

Tigers 6 Red Sox 2

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The Tigers looked like the team we saw a few weeks ago.  They got good starting pitching from Drew Smyly, good work out of the bullpen, and the offense scored six runs.

It is only one game so I’m not getting too excited but it was a nice game to watch after what we’ve seen in the previous 20 games.

The Good:

  • Drew Smyly gave the Tigers a quality start pitching six innings giving up only one earned run.
  • Kinlser, Hunter, and Victor went deep.
  • Krol, Joba, and Nathan pitched three scoreless innings in relief.
  • Nick Castellanos had three hits.

The Bad:

  • The defense is still scaring me. Romine had a throwing error leading to an unearned run.
  • It doesn’t look like Torii Hunter is taking good routes on balls hit to right field.
  • Castellanos wasn’t charged with an error but he could have.  He missed a shot that looked like he should have had.

The Ugly:

  • For once, in a long time, nothing really ugly tonight.

Let’s see if they can follow this win up tomorrow.

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

 

 

Blue Jays 5 Tigers 3

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This one may surprise you but I’m not putting this one on Joe Nathan.  I’m not a big fan of his and he did pitch himself into a jam in the 9th but he also pitched well enough to get out of it.  This one belongs to Andrew Romine.

What in the sam hell was he doing on the ground ball Bautista hit?  Can someone please explain why he stutter stepped?  Who did he think was supposed to field the ball.

Tigers fans we have a problem.  The left side of the infield is horrible.  Romine and Castellanos besides not fielding aren’t doing anything at the plate either.

I guess the good news is that Anibal Sanchez has established himself as the ace of this staff.  Over this abominable two week stretch, I think the Tigers have gotten four quality starts.  Three of them are from Sanchez who was absolutely smokin balls!  He shut out the Jays for seven innings?  With the way they’ve been hitting?  He looks like JV did during his Cy Young year.

Joba was good again tonight, but besides him, is there anyone the Tigers can count on out of the pen?

This thing is a mess!

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

 

Mariners 4 Tigers 0

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I wonder if Max is reconsidering the contract offer the Tigers made him?

This game was disgusting.  Max failed to put in a quality start.  He gave up four earned runs and was out pitched by newcomer Roenis Elias.

On that note, Elias made the Tigers offense look like a carnival of assess.  In nine innings, the Tigers could manage only three hits.

The Blue Jays are coming to town today and the way things are going, if the offense doesn’t out hit them, the Tigers are in a lot of trouble.

Basically, the pitching is making me sick.

FYI: Castellanos was charged with an error in this game.

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

Mariners 3 Tigers 2

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So, I’m not feeling well and as a result I fell asleep after the second inning.

Despite only pitching 4 innings Smyly’s line doesn’t look too bad.  That being said, Drew ran into some bad luck in the second.  The Mariners were able to score on a ball Castellanos should have gotten to, a wounded quail and a swinging bunt.

I’m really having my doubts about Castellanos.  His hitting is OK but his fielding is horrible.

Let’s see if Max can deliverer a winning west coast trip.

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

Tigers earn split with A’s 5-4

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Despite Joe Nathan’s best effort to blow his third save in the last 10 games, the Tigers found a way to squeak out a 5-4 victory and split the four game series with the A’s.

What makes this win more impressive is that they Freeway Ricky Porcello failed to provide a quality start despite winning his eighth game of the season.  Ricky’s performance was maddening. He pitched in and out of trouble all day long and gave up seven free passes, six walks and one HBP.  What was even more exasperating than the free passes was giving up a two run homer to Nick Punto. NICK PUNTO!?

The last two times through the rotation, Tigers starters, with the exception of Sanchez, have blown.  They better right the ship soon because like Peter Gammons says, “if you can’t pitch, you can’t win.”

With the exception of Joe Nathan, the bullpen was adequate.  However, the Amazing Al walked two in his inning of work.

That brings me to Nathan.  He has three blown saves and has a 5.23 ERA.  I hope Brad Ausmus has a plan B for the closer role.  Additionally, after his post game comments yesterday, I’m beginning to question his character.  I’ll be the first to admit that Castellanos is not good at third but he didn’t give up the home run to Donaldson.  So man up, JACKASS, and accept the fact that you’ve blown this year.  Instead of blaming the rookie start earning your money suck-hole.

On the flip side of the coin, this Tigers team has shown a type of resiliency that I haven’t seen for a long time.  They play for nine innings and on most nights, I get the feeling that they expect to win.  I guess time will tell.

 

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

Disaster

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In tennis, when you break the other player’s serve, winning the very next game when you are serving is called consolidating the break.

Tonight was a game the Tigers needed to consolidate the break in their awful run of games during the last 10 days.  They pulled out a gutsy win yesterday but needed today’s game to get them on track.

They got an absolutely lights-out, ball smokin, performance from Anibal Sanchez.  He allowed only three hits in eight and a third innings but couldn’t get any help from his friends.

Joe Nathan blew his fourth save of the season surrendering a three run homer to Josh Donaldson in the bottom of the ninth.

Despite only scoring one run, I had a good feeling about this game, even after Sanchez gave up a one out double to Coco Crisp which brought in Nathan.

But the optimism quickly turned to despair.  The first batter Nathan faced was John Jaso who hit a line drive that went off of Nick Castellanos’s glove into left field.  I have no idea how Jaso was given a hit.  This was an E5 all day long.  If your third basemen can’t make that play, you aren’t going to win.

Here’s some food for thought:

  • Perhaps substituting DK for Castellanos late in close games would be a good idea.
  • The left side of the Tigers infield is a problem.
  • The Tigers still need a closer.

Another deep deep breath.

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