torii hunter

Tigers 6 Royals 3

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On a cold autumn night in Detroit the Tigers got Just enough.  They got just enough starting pitching.  Just enough offense.  Just enough relief pitching.

JV turned in a typical 2013 JV outing.  He went 6 and 2/3.  He allowed 9 hits, 3 earned runs and struck out 7 while throwing 111 pitches.

The inning that bothered me was the top of the 6th.  After the Tigers scored 3 runs to extend the lead to 6-1 in the bottom of the 5th, JV gave two back in the top half of the 6th.  I know it was a 5 run lead but the old JV made a habit of putting up zeroes after his team got him some runs.  That being said, It was a quality start and the Tigers will take it.

After continuing to make Bruce Chen look like Cliff Lee for 3 more innings, the Tigers finally got 2 in the 4th and 3 in the 5th to take a 6-1 lead.  Torii Hunter and Prince fielder each drove in 3 runs and provided the bulk of the Tigers offensive output tonight.  Prince increased his RBI total to 102.

Jose Veras is scaring me.  He pitched 1/3 of an inning.  Walked 1 and hit another batter.  Veras threw 11 total pitches and only 3 of them were strikes.  The Tigers can’t have guys coming out of the bullpen that can’t find the strike zone.  He’s officially on the list.

Billy Butler continues to own JV with 2 more hits against him tonight.  Verlander has to find a way to get him out or just start walking him.  This is getting ridiculous now.

Fister and Santana face off tomorrow.  Let’s hope the Tigers don’t continue the trend of winning the first game of a three game set then dropping the final two.

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

White Sox 5 Tigers 1

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This game started out bad and kept getting worse.

For the second time this season Miguel Cabrera got thrown out of a game during an at bat.  In the first inning, home plate umpire, Brian Gorman, ruled that Cabrera swung at a pitch that ultimately hit him.  Cabrera asked for the appeal to first but Gorman refused.  Replay showed that Cabrera probably didn’t go around.  However, Miggy needs to keep his F***ING mouth shut.  There is nothing he can say that is going to change the call so shut up and finish the at bat.

Miggy does not get star treatment.  I don’t remember seeing a game where I thought he got a borderline call because of his past accomplishments.  I can’t say for sure why but maybe shutting his trap would help.  Instead he gets kicked out of the game in the first inning and the Tigers have Ramon Santiago batting third for the rest of the game against arguably, the best pitcher in the American League, Chris Sale.

Speaking of pitching, Max Scherzer has had a great year.  He may even win the Cy Young award but he is not a staff ace.  A staff ace can be counted on to stop the bleeding.  They prevent long losing streaks and they pick the team up when they are slumping.  The Tigers are slumping and this is the second time in a month that the Tigers needed Max to be a stopper and twice he has come up with horrible performances.

The Tigers don’t have an ace.  They have a good staff but with Verlander not pitching well they don’t have a stopper.  Right now if you asked me who I would want to pitch a one game playoff, I wouldn’t have an answer.

Nice offense.  The vaunted Tiger offense put up one run today.  That makes six runs scored in the last three games.  The part that is so frustrating is that it never looks like the Tigers offense makes adjustments during a game.  As has often been discussed here, opposing teams seem to have better at bats against Tigers pitching in the 4th and 5th innings, or the second time through the order.  Most of the time this year, the Tigers’ staff has been able to readjust, but the Tigers offense never seems to try anything different.  They go up there time after time with the same approach and just hope that it works.  That’s one of the reasons their offense is so streaky.

I’m sure this isn’t the case but the only person on the team with any spark, that looks like they give shit, is Jose Iglesias.  You don’t want a team to be too uptight but this team looks too loose.  On that note, I’m not sure about anyone else, but I’ve have had just about enough of Torii Hunter’s clowning antics in right field.  I like when players have fun but this is your profession, act like a professional.

It is looking more and more like wheels on this bandwagon are falling off.  The Tigers lead has been cut to 4.5 games courtesy of the Indians victory over the Royals.

Does anybody want to change their vote in yesterday’s poll?

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

Tigers Dust Indians 10-5

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The Tigers starting pitching today was better than it has been all week.  Anibal Sanchez lasted 6 and 2/3 surrendering only 3 runs.

Omar Infante had a day, he hit two homers and drove in 5 runs.  He hit a three run shot in the second and a two run shot in the 6th.

The impressive inning for Sanchez was the fifth.  With the Tigers up 4-1, the Indians put runners at the corners with nobody out.  Sanchez was able to get Lonnie Chisenhall to pop out.  He struck out Ian Gomes, gave up an RBI single to Michael Bourne, then struck Nick Swisher out to end the inning.  Sanchez was able to avoid a big inning and keep the Tigers in the lead surrendering only 1 run.

I wasn’t at the game, so I couldn’t see, but was Dirks or Hunter hustling to backup Ajax when he ran into the wall and hurt himself in the top of the 8th?  It looked like it took Dirks a long time to get the ball.

It was also in was nice to see the Tigers come back and put runs on the board in the bottom of the 8th after the Indians cut the Tigers lead to 6-5.

Lead by Austin Jackson’s 2 run triple, the Tigers put up four more runs in the bottom of the 8th to extend the lead to 10-5.

Iggy continues to impress, this time with his offense.  In the bottom of the 8th after Jacskon’s two run triple, Jim Leyland put the squeeze play on with Iggy at the plate.  The first pitch Iggy saw was a fast ball over his head but he found a way to get the bunt down allowing Jackson to score on the play.

Also, kind of under the radar, Brayan Pena has had a really nice season at the plate.  He was 2-4 tonight and his hitting .313 on the season.  This is huge considering the Tigers have gotten relatively little in the way of offense from the often injured Alex Avila.

Jose Veras didn’t look good.  He gave up three hits, two earned runs, and several hard hit balls in his one inning of work.

Verlander gets the call tomorrow as the Tigers go for the sweep.  I don’t know what to expect but I’ll hope for the best.  I’ll take 7 innings with 3 earned runs or less.

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

Shawn Windsor: Walk-off was a blast, but Tigers’ deficiencies remain | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

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Check out this article from Shawn Windsor at the Freep dot com.  Hat Tip to regular Flashin Leather reader and all around good guy, Nebraskaknows for pointing this article out.

Shawn Windsor: Walk-off was a blast, but Tigers’ deficiencies remain | Detroit Free Press | freep.com.

The story states that JV told Torii he was going to hit a home run and ends with this:

For nearly four games, the A’s outmaneuvered the Tigers, making them appear one-dimensional and archaic. Then the ex-Cy Young winner got in Hunter’s ear and inspired him to be a hero.

Now the question is: Can Hunter can return the favor?

My answer is no.  The only one that can return JV to his previous form is Emily Yuen.  He needs to beg, borrow, and steal, to get her back.  He hasn’t been the same since he went “Hollywood” and left his long time girlfriend.  My question is, can he get her back?  Only Emily can answer that.

Also, I don’t think enough was made about Luke Putkonen’s performance yesterday.  If you just look at the box score his line seems innocuous.  But viewed through the prism of what has been happening, Putkonen’s effort is huge.  Luke did what staff Aces do, stop the bleeding.

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

BIG WIN!

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The Tigers’ 7-6 victory this afternoon at Comerica Park is one of the biggest wins of the season.  The Tigers, are struggling, especially, their starting pitching, but found a way to avoid a 4 game sweep at the hands of the Oakland Athletics.

It wasn’t the way I hoped the Tigers would win, by Max Scherzer clearly establishing himself as the ace of the Tigers staff, but a win is a win.  We’ll take it.

For the 4th consecutive day a Tigers starter has failed to last more than five innings.  Today, Max lasted 5 innings, allowed 8 hits, 6 runs, 5 earned, walked 1 and struck out 5.   Fortunately, the bullpen and offense bailed him out.

Luke Putkonen was really outstanding today.  He relived Scherzer in the 6th and stopped the bleeding.  He pitched two innings gave up two hits, and struck out four.  Putkonen’s solid outing couldn’t have come at better time.

Veras and Benoit each pitched a scoreless inning as well.

The Tigers’ offense scratched out 4 runs, with two out, in the bottom of the 9th off of A’s reliever Grant Balfour. The big hit was Torii Hunter’s two run, center field, blast to walk the game off.

The Tribe come to Detroit for a big three game series.  The Tigers are 6 games up with Cleveland facing the Braves in about 30 minutes.  Let’s hope Ricky doesn’t continue this four game, starting pitching funk.  The Tigers could use a long start out of him tomorrow.

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

A’s 8 Tigers 6

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The bottom line is that the Tigers didn’t pitch well enough to win tonight.  Anibal Sanchez and the bull pen had a rough outing.

That being said, the Tigers had plenty of chances to even the score or take the lead.  They left the bases loaded in both the seventh and eight innings.

As the Tigers head down the stretch, Prince Fielder needs to start coming through or Cabrera will never get a chance to hit in crucial situations.  In the 7th inning, with two out, the A’s walked Miggy to load the bases preferring to pitch to Prince.  Fielder flew out deep to center field to end the inning.

Early in the season, Prince seemed to respond when a team walked Miggy to pitch to him, but he hasn’t lately.

On yesterday’s post, in the comments section, Sark asked, “Could you imagine this team with a good JV?”  I’d like to add to that, how good would the Tigers be if both JV and Fielder were performing?

I’m getting afraid that the team is counting too much on Miggy to get it done every night.  He just can’t come through in every situation, in every game.  That’s why it was so nice see Dirksy get the big hit in yesterday’s game.

Perhaps it’s time to move Fielder down to the 5 spot and Victor up to clean up?

The loss tonight makes the Tigers 1-3 in their last 4 home games.

Besides Fielder not coming through, it was disappointing to see the pitching give the lead back up twice, immediately after the Tigers came back to tie it.  But, really, we can’t complain too much about the pitching.

Torii Hunter left the bases loaded in the 8th when he struck out on 3 pitches.  Not the at bat the Tigers were looking for in that situation.

Coco Crisp was flashin leather tonight.  He robbed Tui of an extra base hit, thwarting a rally in the 8th, after Victor lead off with a solo homer.

Verlander is on the mound tomorrow and I’m not sure what to expect.  Just when I think he’s regaining his form, he goes out and takes a dump.

The Tigers need at least a split of this 4 game series with the A’s.

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

Tigers Win, Scherzer 19-1

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Despite only scoring 3 runs on 15 hits the Tigers managed to beat Matt Harvey and the Mets 3-0.

Max Scherzer was cruising along and looked like he would go deep in the game but two at bats in the bottom of the 5th significantly shortened Max’s start.  Juan Lagares led off the inning and worked Max for a walk on 12 pitches.  John Buck followed and made Scherzer throw him 8 pitches before flying out to right field.  Max needed 35 pitches to get out of the 5th but kept the Mets off the board.

Scherzer’s final line was 6 innings, 3 hits, 11 strikeouts and 4 walks.  The 4 walks are a season high for Scherzer.  Max is only the third player in MLB history to start a season 19-1.  The last to do it was Roger Clemens in 1986.  Before Clemens, Rube Marquard, went 19-1 in 1912 for the New York Giants.

This game should have been a blow out but the Tigers lack of speed, coupled with their lack of extra base power today, kept the Mets in the game.  In the seventh, the Tigers looked like they would open the flood gates but failed to score on 4 consecutive singles. With one out, Infante and Cabrera singled, bringing Fielder up with runners on first and second.  Fielder delivered a single to left and Tom Brookens sent Infante home.  This was one of the worst sends by a third base coach I’ve ever seen.  Infante was out by 45 feet.  Tui then followed with another single to load the bases.  Torii Hunter, who didn’t start the game, came in to pinch hit for Andy Dirks, who was 3-3, and grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning and keep the score at 2-0.

The Tigers scored 2 runs off of Matt Harvey on 13 hits.  The 13 hits allowed are a career high for him.

The Tigers go for the sweep tomorrow with Rick Procello on the mound facing Dillon Gee.

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

A SQUARED MONEY!

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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

Tigers Complete Perfect Homestand, Sweep White Sox 3-2.

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Behind 7 and 2/3 strong innings from Rick Porcello, the Tigers beat the White Sox 3-2, swept the series and finished the current home-stand 8-0.  And, they needed the win, as the Indians keep rolling.

Ricky allowed only one run, a home run to Adam Dunn, on 8 hits.  He struck out 4 and walked 1 while throwing 93 pitches.

The Tigers were leading 2-1 going into the top of the 9th.  Smyly came on to relieve Porcello with 2 out in the eighth and struck Adam Dunn out to end the inning.  In what can only be called an interesting move, Jim Leyland sent Smyly out for the 9th.  The first batter he faced in the 9th was right handed, power hitter, Paul Konerko.  Konerko hit Smyly’s second pitch, a 91 mph hour fast ball into the seats to tie the game.

The Tigers were unable to score in the bottom of the 9th so on they played into extra innings.

In the bottom of the 12th inning Miggy came in to pinch hit for Ramon Santiago and lead off with a single. Tui pinch-ran for Miggy and Jackson sacrificed Tui over to second with one out.  Torii Hunter stepped to the plate and delivered a single which scored Tui, ended the game, and gave the Tigers a perfect home-stand.

What was interesting about Leyland’s decision to leave Smyly in for the 9th, is that I thought this was the situation the Tigers got Veras for.  Benoit was unavailable today, so I wrongly assumed that Veras would be used to close the game.  Instead he left Smyly in to face the right handed hitting Konerko?  To make things more confusing, Veras was immediately brought in to replace Smyly and retired the next three White Sox in order.  I guess my question is, why not bring Veras in to start the 9th especially with a righty leading off?

Anyway, Veras pitched scoreless 9th and 10th innings and Bruce Rondon was money as he pitched the 11th and 12th allowing only 1 hit, striking out 3 and the big number, he walked 0, and got the win.

Two things really impressed me.  The first was Miggy’s ability to step to the plate after not playing for almost 5 games and deliver a lead-off single.  The second, was Bruce Rondon’s pitching.  For a guy who had problems finding the strike zone, he had nice command today.

A big series with the Indians starts tomorrow.  Perhaps the Tigers can break their will with a series win?  We’ll see.

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

Pitching, Defense, and Solo Homers…

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not quite the formula advocated by the late Earl Weaver, but it is a formula that powered the Tigers to their 7th straight win, and Max Scherzer to his 16th win of the season.

Scherzer improved his record to 16-1 tonight as he blanked the White Sox 3-0 at Comerica Park.  Scherzer pitched 7 and 2/3 scoreless innings, limiting the Sox to 3 hits.  He struck out 6 and walked 3 on 107 pitches.

Jose Veras got the last out in the 8th and Joaquin Benoit recorded his 12th save by pitching a scoreless 9th

The offense was supplied by solo home runs from Torii Hunter, Jose Iglesias, and Jhonny Peralta.

Iglesias played third again tonight for the ailing Miguel Cabrera and looked excellent.  His fielding looks like it comes naturally and his hitting, to this point, is better than advertised.  We still need Miggy back, although the Tigers are 7-1 without him in the lineup.  The rumor is that he won’t play tomorrow either but will suit up for the Indians series.

Despite the torrid pace the Tigers are on, 7 in a row and 10 out of the last 11, they can’t distance the Indians.  The Indians won again tonight and remain only 3 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central.  And, don’t look now but the Royals are only 7.5 back.

On a different note, today was Mexican heritage tonight at Comerica Park.  Before the game, the Tigers honored former pitcher, Juan Berenguer.  Much like retiring Willie Horton’s number to be politically correct, it seems like the Tigers were in dire need of a Mexican player to honor, and they must have pulled Berenguer’s name out of a hat, or more precisely, a BIG hat.  This whole ceremony was asinine.  Berenguer pitched parts of 4 seasons for the Tigers, hardly a track record that would warrant a ceremony.  In any case that’s my take on it.

The Tigers go for the sweep and a perfect home stand tomorrow afternoon with Ricky on the hill.

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