Oh, For the Lack of Run Support

Again we see the Tigers fall into the trap of close games where they come up empty. Armando Galarraga had problems commanding his fastball. I noticed he didn’t throw very many sliders (which had been a big pitch for Bonderman the night before), but he was quoted after the game as saying he didn’t feel like the slider was working. He also said he was tired of giving up home runs. I’m not sure what he’s going to do about that, because he’s always been prone to giving up home runs. The key for him is to limit the damage. He did give them some innings, though. Rod Allen was speculating that the ankle was still bothering him. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, and we’re not going to find out. Galarraga would never admit it, and Leyland won’t use it as an excuse.

The problem for the offense was the lack of extra-base power. They had ten hits, but they were all singles. And it’s not like the scoring opportunities came with a rookie or the bottom of the order at the plate. For the most part, they had the hitters they wanted up there. Out of the ten hits, the 4-5-6 hitters combined for just one of them, and that was a swinging bunt infield single. Miguel Cabrera came up with runners at first and second and less than two outs twice, and he didn’t do anything. I’ve mentioned a couple times that the Tigers cannot afford to lose Cabrera. A corollary to that is that they cannot afford to have Cabrera go into a slump. He’s got to bust out of it soon. As for the others, Peralta hit a couple balls hard, but right at people. One bright spot was that Brandon Inge had three hits and an RBI in his return (and his lone out chased Juan Pierre to the warning track).

The Tigers wrap up this series this afternoon, and the hole-digging has to stop soon. Max Scherzer was pretty good against the Red Sox, although the Tigers lost that game after a bullpen meltdown. However, one little oddity about Scherzer is that he has pitched really well outside the division, but has struggled in the Central (which is not what the Tigers were looking for when they got him). He faced the White Sox earlier this year and lost to John Danks. Omar Vizquel hit a home run off him. Meanwhile, the Tigers face Freddy Garcia, who they haven’t done much against this year, even though several of them have homered off him in their careers. Hopefully this will be the pitcher that gets Miguel Cabrera going again, though. He’s hitting .353 with three home runs off his fellow countryman. On the flipside, Brandon Inge only hits .216 with sixteen strikeouts against Garcia.

Birthday Split

Photo: AP

I had done some researching on Baseball-Reference, and I came up with a couple interesting tidbits: On my birthday, the Tigers were one game under .500 all-time, but they had never lost both games of a doubleheader (and they had played at least ten or twelve of them on August 3^rd). Neither of those fun facts changed after last night. I was at the movie theater watching Toy Story 3 while the day game was going on, and it was a very good movie (the 3-D was impressive, too). It was so good that I didn’t really think about the game. As a result, I had a nasty surprise waiting for me once I got my iPod back into the mall’s wifi range. It’s starting to appear that the White Sox are to Rick Porcello what the Twins are to Armando Galarraga. That is now four really bad starts that Porcello has made against the White Sox (unfortunately, he is on track to start in Chicago next Saturday). And when I saw in the box score that Juan Pierre had hit a home run, I immediately assumed that it was an inside-the-parker, because Pierre has absolutely no power. None. Zero. Zilch. Somehow, it turned out to be an actual into-the-seats type home run, although no one has provided any insight on how he was able to do that. I was able to listen to the last two innings on the radio. Jim Price was practically begging one of the Tiger pitchers to drill one of the White Sox.

Things went a whole lot better in the nightcap. Jeremy Bonderman was better than he’s been in a long time. He had the slider working really well, and for the most part he was able to get double plays when he needed them. Meanwhile, the offense was able to take advantage of some early wildness from the spot starter Carlos Torres, as well as some errors from the White Sox. Brennan Boesch finally made a team pay for walking Miguel Cabrera intentionally to get to him. Speaking of Cabrera, he went hitless in the doubleheader, continuing his lack of performance against the White Sox. He really, really needs to somehow figure out a way to raise that batting average against them. Although the Tigers didn’t do a lot against Torres in the middle innings, they were able to score a couple more runs late.

This series continues tonight, and the out-of-town fans can watch on ESPN (yuck). We’ll see a couple of former teammates square off against each other. Armando Galarraga had a decent start against the White Sox earlier this year, although he did not get the win. His last start was cut short by Kevin Youkilis hitting a line drive off his ankle, but all reports indicate that he’s feeling fine now. I’m trying to figure out how good or bad of a matchup this is for Galarraga. The White Sox hit a lot of home runs, and Galarraga is prone to giving up home runs, so that might be problematic, and they demonstrated against Rick Porcello that they can punish you if you miss with your location. On the other hand, they’re not a particularly patient team and they will chase good sliders, although they don’t strike out a lot. And I still don’t like having Bonderman and Galarraga next to each other in the rotation, because their stuff is similar and I feel it puts Galarraga at a disadvantage (or Bonderman, if he is the one doing the following). The Tigers, meanwhile, will face Edwin Jackson for the second time this year. The White Sox acquired him right before the trade deadline, and the rumor is that they got him because they thought they could flip him to the Nationals for Adam Dunn, but the Nationals backed out, so now they’re stuck with him. Still (and I said this back in June), Tigers fans know what Jackson is capable of, and that is better than a 5.16 ERA. He beat them back in June, the only National League pitcher to do so at Comerica Park. The Tigers got some good news today, because Brandon Inge is making his return to the lineup at least two weeks ahead of schedule and after only one rehab game. To make room for him on the roster, Danny Worth was placed on the DL with a bruised left heel. Inge’s return means that Jhonny Peralta moves over to shortstop. I imagine that’s going to be like having Edgar Renteria back at short, although Peralta will be helped out by the fact that he’ll have Inge next to him (given the fact that Inge has a lot more range than Cabrera or Guillen, which is what Renteria had to contend with). Also, one more thing to note is that apparently Jose Valverde was sick and therefore unavailable last night. There is no word yet on his status for tonight.

PFP, Boys, PFP

This is not going to be a very long post, because I didn’t see this game and therefore I have very little with which to analyze. I was able to listen to the bottom of the eighth and the top of the ninth on the radio during my lunch break. From what I hear, Justin Verlander struggled early and then was able to settle down and give the team seven decent innings. Brad Thomas had an effective eighth, and then ran into trouble in the ninth, unfortunately. Also unfortunate was Robbie Weinhardt succumbing to the dreaded pitcher errors that have plagued this team for years. It’s not the first time they’ve lost on a bunt that was thrown away. Zach Miner did that once a couple years ago. Meanwhile, the Tiger hitters couldn’t do anything against Clay Buchholz, or so I’ve heard. I can’t give you any insight into that because all I heard was the top of the ninth, and things sounded pretty good in that inning. And it all started with a little infield single. Once Raburn walked and Papelbon was brought in to face Cabrera, Dan Dickerson and Jim Price sounded as though they were shocked that the Red Sox elected to pitch to him instead of walking him intentionally. I didn’t really think they would walk him in that situation. First of all, it was a three-run game instead of a one-run game. Second, there was nobody out as opposed to two out. Third, Terry Francona is not as “unconventional” as Joe Maddon. Cabrera proceeded to do what he does best: Knock in runs. He very nearly tied the game himself from the sounds of things. But that honor went to Jhonny Peralta, who had quite a decent series in his first few games as a Tiger.

And so the Tigers finished a disappointing 1-6 on this road trip, but the frustrating part is that they rarely looked overmatched. They were constantly one pitch, one hit, or one play away from winning just about every single game on the trip. They are so agonizingly close, but the win-loss record doesn’t reflect that. But yet, here we are and it is now truly do-or-die time. There is still a chance to save this season. Because of some really wacky scheduling, the Tigers have fourteen games left against the White Sox, which means they still control their own destiny for now. But they have to start winning right now. Worst case scenario is that they’ll be eleven games back in the Central by Thursday evening, and I don’t think there’s enough season left to make up that big of a deficit (on the other hand, we DO know it’s possible to make up a seven game deficit with fewer games to play than what we have here). The Tigers haven’t seen the White Sox since mid-June, when Chicago was almost ten games out of first and just about left for dead. Something has happened since then, because they have surged and are winning at a ridiculous rate. However, I have been pouring over Baseball-Reference for the past hour, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out how they are doing it (and no, I don’t think it’s Ozzie Guillen). I know their pitching is good, and I expected it to be. But at the same time, the Mariners also have a good pitching staff (or at least they did before they traded Cliff Lee). Their offense is vastly improved over what it was in June, but they’re still middle-of-the-pack in most categories, much like the Tigers. They are fourth in the league in home runs, which may account for a lot of the wins. They’re also second in the league in stolen bases, but that’s a deceptive stat because there are only two guys on the team with double-digit steal totals (Pierre and Rios). One stat that doesn’t make sense is that their pitching staff has given up the fewest home runs in the American League, and the reason this doesn’t make sense is because their home ballpark is a bandbox (For what it’s worth, the Tigers have given up the second-fewest home runs, so good for them, I guess). Even if you delve into the more detailed offensive and pitching statistics, both the Tigers and the White Sox are right around league average in most categories. Defensively, the White Sox have made fewer errors (by a very large margin), but errors don’t always tell the whole story and I’m not savvy nor interested enough to investigate the more accurate stats. Stumped by stats or no, the Tigers and White Sox hook up for a four-game series that begins with a doubleheader tomorrow. This is not going to be easy for the Tigers to win, but they’re gonna have to find some way to rise above these unfortunate aleatoric circumstances that they’ve found themselves in for the past two weeks, because their backs are against the wall now. I am going to try to do a recap between games, but I can’t promise that, because tomorrow is my birthday and I’ll be out during the afternoon and I’m not sure when I’m coming home. I will warn you, though: The Tigers tend to lose on my birthday, although they did win last year, thanks to a walk-off home run by Clete Thomas. Just in case I don’t have time to post tomorrow, I will try to preview both games now. The day game will feature Rick Porcello against Mark Buehrle. Porcello had a really good start against the Rays, although it will not go in the books as a quality start because he gave up four runs. He got victimized by Carlos Peña, most of which were on plays off the glove of Cabrera, plays that Cabrera normally makes. He has not pitched well against the White Sox in the three career starts he has made against them. Not surprisingly, several of the Sox have good numbers against him. Carlos Quentin, Paul Konerko, Omar Vizquel, and Gordon Beckham all hit .429 or better against him. On the flipside, AJ Pierzynski is 0-for-6. Meanwhile, the Tiger hitters go from facing the Slowest Pitching Staff in the World (since Red Sox pitchers take forever between pitches) to facing Mark Buehrle, the guy who pitches like he’s double-parked outside the ballpark (I borrowed that line from someone else and I can’t remember who). Talk about having to make an adjustment. Buehrle began the year struggling but started pitching pretty well around the time the White Sox began making their run. He did falter in his last start, giving up five runs to the Mariners. He’s 14-8 lifetime against the Tigers with a 2.99 ERA, and they haven’t done much against him since 2007. Part of that might be because Miguel Cabrera is 0-for-12 in his career off Buehrle. Ouch. Of course, maybe that just means he’s due. He’s only struck out once against him, and the majority of outs he’s made were characterized as “weak groundouts,” but he was starting to get the ball up in the air against him when he faced him last June. Jhonny Peralta’s numbers against Buehrle aren’t bad (.288 with six doubles and two home runs), and neither are Johnny Damon’s (.283 with two doubles and a home run), although Damon might be headed to the DL if his back doesn’t improve quickly. Jeremy Bonderman will pitch the night game for the Tigers. He hasn’t been on the mound since last Sunday against the Blue Jays, but it’d be nice for him to join the parade of strong starting pitching that the Tigers have gotten recently. He has not faced the White Sox this year (and had a disastrous start against them last year). The guy he’s gotta watch out for is Paul Konerko, who has four home runs off him. Pierzynski, Ramirez, and Rios have also homered off him in the past, and all four have hit him well for average, too. The starter for the White Sox still hasn’t been posted on MLB.com. I saw the name Carlos Torres floating around, but I don’t want to go chasing down his numbers unless he’s actually pitching. Therefore, if I do a recap tomorrow after game 1, I’ll give you a more detailed preview then.

Oh, Snap

I hate recapping these types of games and I’m glad I don’t have to do it that often. It’s an understatement to say that the bullpen has had issues in this series (with the exception of Robbie Weinhardt). Max Scherzer was good, although he was dodging bullets all day before his pitch count got to him. Ryan Perry also dodged some bullets, but you can’t keep flirting with danger like that. And while I do question keeping Jose Valverde in for 60 pitches on Friday night, at the same time, in the grand scheme of a season, there are gonna be games in which your closer is unavailable. Either he’s thrown 60 pitches the night before, or he’s pitched three or four days in a row. And in those cases, someone else in the bullpen has got to be able to step up and get the save himself. Phil Coke didn’t do that. Everything hit off him was an absolute rocket shot. And that’s why I don’t really have a problem with intentionally walking Youkilis, because there’s no reason to believe he would not have hit the ball hard somewhere. Offensively, the Tigers actually got to Dice-K a little bit, moreso than they normally do. However, once the Boston bullpen came in, the offense kind of shut down.

The Tigers finish up this long and nasty road trip today, and they’re gonna need Justin Verlander to go very deep into this game because right now the bullpen is in shreds. Valverde’s still unavailable, Coke is unavailable, and Perry might be unavailable (I’m not sure about Weinhardt). Verlander did pitch a complete game in his last start, although it was a loss. He last faced the Red Sox last year, which was a 2-0 Tigers win (Verlander went eight innings in that game). Several of the Red Sox have hit home runs off him. Ortiz and Beltre have both hit one, Youkilis has hit two, and Victor Martinez (who has been on everything in this series) has hit four. The Red Sox counter with Clay Buchholz, who is currently second in the league in ERA. In that 2-0 win last year, Buchholz was the losing pitcher, but he beat the Tigers earlier this year. Johnny Damon probably will be out of the lineup again with the back problems, which is disappointing because I was curious as to what the reaction from the Fenway crowd will be.

By the Skin of their Teeth...

Photo: AP

Winning at Fenway never seems to be easy. Armando Galarraga got off to a bit of a shaky start, but looked pretty strong after the first inning. His pitches looked to have decent movement on them, although his command was a bit spotty (It did not help matters that the home plate umpire was not calling the low strike. He was consistent with not calling the low strike, but it was more to Galarraga’s disadvantage than Lester’s because Lester has better stuff). And then Kevin Youkilis hit a line drive off his ankle and for a few minutes it looked as though the Tigers would sustain yet another major injury. Fortunately, it turned out just to be a bad bruise and while he’s really sore, he should be able to make his next start (if he has one). Unfortunately, it meant that he had to leave the game one out shy of qualifying for the win. Following that was some solid work out of the bullpen until the ninth inning. I don’t know what happened with Valverde there. I’d like to think it was just a fluke because of what he showed during the first half. I did wonder again if there was some sort of injury. He said afterwards that he had trouble gripping the ball, similar to what happened in that outing against Texas. I’m pretty sure that the David Ortiz grand slam would not have been a home run in Comerica Park because the walls are lower at Fenway Park (not 100% sure, because that’s right around that area with the camera well, where the wall is a bit lower), but it still would have been big time trouble and it would have cleared the bases. One thing’s for sure: Valverde will not be making another appearance in this series.

It was really, really weird to see Jhonny Peralta in a Tigers uniform. I mean, I’ve seen the game long enough to have seen guys I’m familiar with from other teams come and play for the Tigers, but I think this is the first one from a division rival. The other guys I spoke of I saw maybe a couple times a year. I’ve seen a ton of Peralta and due to my dislike of the Indians, I generally rooted against him. All of a sudden I find myself rooting for him. However, Peralta knew exactly what to do to endear the skeptical fans: Hit two home runs in his Tigers debut. Aside from that, the whole “game of inches” thing really came into play, and every one of those plays turned out to be crucial. Will Rhymes’s RBI double just bounced off Mike Cameron’s glove. Gerald Laird laid down a bunt that Kevin Youkilis missed the tag on. Laird would later score in the inning.

Well, after that hair-raising adventure, it’s time for a big Fox game (and hopefully the win last night will tone down the no-hitter crap). Max Scherzer will take the ball for the first time since he almost no-hit the Rays before being outdone by Matt Joyce. He faced the Red Sox earlier this year and it was disastrous, leading to him getting sent down to Toledo. David Ortiz hit two home runs in that game. Meanwhile, the Tigers will face Daisuke Matsusaka. He’s the type that could throw a no-hitter or walk nine in a game, sometimes at the same time. He’s been good in his last couple starts, though, and against the Tigers, he generally gives up a lot of baserunners, but not a lot of runs. Nothing really stands out in terms of individual matchups. Miguel Cabrera is 2-for-6, and Gerald Laird is 2-for-5, but Jhonny Peralta is 0-for-11.

Another Close Game...

See what I mean about everything being just a tick off? You can’t really put the blame on Rick Porcello. He pitched quite well. He got victimized by some infield singles and a couple ground balls that Cabrera couldn’t quite come up with, but that’s just the way things are going right now. They just can’t get away with any mistakes whatsoever. On the offensive side of things, well, they weren’t going to get a whole lot off David Price. Most teams don’t. What I can’t figure out is the seventh inning that has replayed itself for three straight games. When it happened the first time, I wasn’t surprised that Joe Maddon issued the intentional walk because this is a guy who once issued an intentional walk with the bases loaded in a two run game. I’m also not surprised that Brennan Boesch didn’t come through (even if he weren’t slumping). What astounds me is that the situation was identical each time: Top of the seventh, runners at first and second with two outs in a one-run game and Cabrera at the plate. How does that exact same scenario happen in three straight games? The odds of that have to be incredibly ridiculous.

And so we find ourselves with a situation where the Tigers have lost all four games on this road trip so far, but they could just as easily have won all four. The pitching has been good for the past week or so. But now, they head to Boston, where it is very difficult to pitch. The Red Sox, like the Tigers, have been beset with injuries, although their guys are starting to get healthy and come back. And it’s still a formidable lineup. The first unlucky soul charged with the task of keeping them at bay is Armando Galarraga. It feels like an eternity since he’s been on the mound, mostly because I did not see his last start, which was a good one. However, that was against the aggressive, free-swinging Blue Jays. The Red Sox are much more patient and much more adept at fouling off tough pitches. He beat them earlier this year back in his season debut with the Tigers, but his other meetings with them have not gone so well. He has never pitched at Fenway Park, as far as I know (He was scheduled to last year, but he got sick and was scratched at the last minute). At the same time, he once again needs to turn in a good start. These Ted Lilly rumors haven’t died yet. Most of the Red Sox really haven’t hit him for average, except Kevin Youkilis, who has ridiculously good numbers against him (4-8 with two home runs). But they have found ways to score runs against him. Meanwhile, the Tigers will face Jon Lester, who is coming off two straight losses. The cheery online game preview noted that the last time he lost two in a row, he rattled off eleven straight wins. The Tigers have handled him the couple times they’ve seen him, but they’ve never had to face him before in the second half, when he’s generally tougher. Brennan Boesch, who had some good swings off him back in May, is not in the lineup. Two lefties are being thrown at him (Damon and Rhymes, who has hit impressively well so far). This game will also feature the Tigers debut of Jhonny Peralta and the major league debut of Jeff Frazier, who was called up this morning with Jeff Larish being designated for assignment. Frazier has been one of the hottest hitters for the Mud Hens (along with Rhymes) and he’s second in the International League in home runs, so it’s worth a shot, I suppose. Either way, if the Tigers win tonight, they’re gonna have to fight real hard for it.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Another close game, another loss. You could almost just take what I said yesterday and plug it in here, except the bullpen allowed the Rays to pull away in the eighth inning. Eddie Bonine pitched better than his line would indicate, I think. He had some bad luck in the fourth inning where he kept inducing weak ground balls, but they were almost too weak because the Rays kept beating them out for infield singles or the Tigers couldn’t turn the double play. I daresay Bonine pitched better than Brad Thomas, and Thomas didn’t give up any runs. The offense managed to score more runs against Niemann than most teams are able to. Meanwhile, Brennan Boesch seemingly has inherited Gerald Laird’s lineout curse, because for the second straight game he hit an absolute scorching line drive that was caught. He was also victimized by the Rays walking Miguel Cabrera again to get to him. He made contact this time, but it wasn’t enough.

The Tigers will try to get a win today behind Rick Porcello. He pitched decently last time (not as good as he was in Cleveland), but still took the loss. He’s faced the Rays once before, going 5.2 innings and only giving up one run. That was at Comerica Park. I’m not sure Tropicana Field will be as friendly. If he’s on, he’ll get lots of ground balls, and we all saw last night what happens to ground balls on that artificial surface. If he’s not on, the Rays will find other ways to score runs against him. David Price will start for the Rays, and he’s had a hell of a season. He started the All-Star Game, and his ERA is under three. He beat the Tigers last year the only time he faced them (I’m pretty sure I did not see that game; I do remember it being a big Fox game). There’s nothing that impressive in the individual matchups, either. They haven’t posted the lineup yet, but I’d be surprised to see Jhonny Peralta in there. Jason Beck mentioned on Twitter last night that his plane was supposed to land at the Tampa airport at 11 AM and this game starts at 12:10.