Not a Good Night For Venezuelans

I know, I know. I’m too compassionate for my own good. Strangely enough, I’m not nearly as depressed as I was after Armando Galarraga’s last loss. Still, I said he needed it. He didn’t get it, and as maddening as his struggles can be to some people, I’m sure he feels a hundred times more frustrated about it. Part of the problem (I think) is that it hasn’t been the same problem each time. It’s more like he’s alternated problems in these last three starts. In Texas, his stuff wasn’t there. Against Kansas City, his stuff looked good but he lost his nerve and didn’t trust himself. Last night was more like how things went in Texas. I noticed early on that his pitches just didn’t seem to be moving right (or, to paraphrase Leyland, they weren’t moving much at all). The Indians were hitting a LOT of pop-ups for the first four innings, and I didn’t think he was going to go the whole game without giving up a hit/run, because he normally has a much more equal distribution of ground ball to fly ball outs (maybe a little skewed towards fly balls, but not dramatically so). Once Matt LaPorta broke the seal with a home run, Galarraga was unable to stop the bleeding, which is also unusual, because while he is prone to giving up home runs, he generally doesn’t give up three in one inning. An outing like that makes me suspect a little bit that he’s not being honest about the elbow again. But regardless of the reason, the fact remains that the fifth inning bit him again. At least this time he was willing to talk to the media about it. There wasn’t a lot to be happy about, but it was nice to see him interviewed again. I hadn’t seen one with him in almost three weeks (I hadn’t seen so much as a quote from him in three weeks and I was starting to get concerned; up until then, he’d almost always been willing to talk about his starts, good or bad). He basically rehashed the fifth inning and said he wasn’t sure what went wrong because things went downhill so quickly. He also said he had to figure it out because he’s got one more start to get things right. I just hope he can, and that it’s not too late for him.

Things weren’t any better on the other side of the ball for the Tigers. They stranded a lot of runners early and then didn’t mount a comeback against the Indians’ bullpen. There were a couple of untimely double plays as well as a botched hit and run. I’m not sure how much stock you put into the analysis of Rod Allen, but his assessment was that the Tigers had some nice, patient at-bats when the bases were empty, but once there were runners in scoring position, they swung at bad pitches. Of course, all that pales in comparison to the loss of Miguel Cabrera, who sprained his ankle while trying to make it back to first base on a pickoff attempt from Luke Carlin (between that and the home run he hit off Galarraga, I wasn’t feeling too friendly toward Carlin by the end of the evening). I am unsure of his status other than the fact that x-rays were negative and he is not in tonight’s lineup, but I’m guessing it depends on the severity of the sprain (As an aside, how is it that Progressive Field doesn’t have an x-ray machine? I thought all ballparks had them on-site). Again, my schooling fails me, because we aren’t really taught orthopedics in pharmacy school, but I know of instances where guys suffered high ankle sprains in spring training and then missed the whole season. I suppose this is why it’s taking me so long to write this post, because I’m waiting for further word on whether this is the case for Cabrera, but if he has to miss the remaining six games, that can’t bode well for his MVP chances (let alone my near-certainty that he’d make it to forty home runs), because the Tigers’ most compelling argument was that Cabrera has stayed healthy while Josh Hamilton has missed almost the entire month of September. I suppose, if anything, this’ll help Robinson Cano’s case (that and the fact that the Yankees and Rays have yet to sort out who gets the division and who gets the wild card).

The series continues tonight, Venezuelan-less. Max Scherzer is coming off a strong start against Kansas City, where he shut them out. He beat the Indians the last time he faced them (I was there). That was at Comerica Park. He has not pitched well at Progressive Field so far. Mitch Talbot, on the other hand, has pitched strongly against the Tigers in two of his three starts against them this year (and the one in which he was somewhat roughed up happened all the way back in April). Two starts ago, he left the game without retiring a batter after suffering an injury. In his last start, he gave up three runs in five innings to the Royals and took the loss.

So Long Until Next Year, You Beautiful Ballpark

Photo: AP

It’s kind of sad that there will be no more baseball at Comerica Park when there is still a week left in the season. Nevertheless, they went out in impressive fashion. Rick Porcello had a nice bounceback start after his uneven performance against Kansas City. The only damage was a solo shot by Delmon Young on a hanging slider, but other than that, Porcello was on his game. He was so fluid it was almost subliminal. Before I even knew it, he had gone eight strong innings. Then in the ninth, we had a Jose Valverde sighting for the first time in what seemed like forever. And he looked good with a 1-2-3 inning, even though he seemed a little slower and less boisterous than usual.

Brian Duensing continues to mystify me by not pitching all that badly, but he did hang around long enough to give up five runs, all on home runs. The Twins’ 1-0 lead was short-lived, because in the bottom half of the inning, Ramon Santiago (who has gotten very little playing time recently) belted a three-run shot that probably took Duensing completely by surprise. Miguel Cabrera’s line-drive home run should not have taken anyone by surprise. He has now established a career-high in home runs and has a real strong chance at getting to forty for the season (He’s two away, and Camden Yards in particular is very home-run friendly). I’m kind of wondering if Cabrera’s family was in town for that series. He homered in each game, and each time he did, he would point and wave at someone in the stands. He’s done that before, and each time, he has politely refused to say who it was (That’s okay, though; it’s his right). The “MVP” chants that rang out through the crowd were awesome. After all that Cabrera went through at the end of this season, it is refreshing to see that he’s seemingly overcome his demons and that the city has, in turn, embraced him once again.

The Tigers now finish the season on the road. First up is a stop in Cleveland for three games. If the Tigers win just one of the games in this series, they will have secured a winning record against every team in the Central except Minnesota (against whom they went 9-9, which is a big improvement over the last couple years). The first pitcher they’ll face is Carlos Carrasco, who was the big acquisition in the Cliff Lee deal. The Tigers faced him a couple times late last year and beat up on him each time, but by all accounts, he’s much better this year. He’s gone at least six innings in each of his starts, and he’s not given up more than three earned runs in any start. Meanwhile, do I even have to say that Armando Galarraga needs a good outing? For four innings, it looked like he was going to get one against the Royals, but then everything fell apart for him with two outs in the fifth. And it’s not like the Royals bombed the ball against him in that inning. He basically hurt himself with walks and his own throwing error. At this point, I don’t think there’s any way he can guarantee himself a spot in next year’s rotation, but he can certainly hurt his cause if he doesn’t pitch well. You know by now that I badly want him to be in next year’s rotation but that I don’t think he’ll be with the Tigers for much longer. Right now, having that outlook isn’t making it any easier on me. I have an ability to (subconsciously and uncontrollably) mentally prepare myself for the departure of a beloved player (or, on a different level, the death of a loved one). For instance, I am very fond of both Magglio Ordoñez and Brandon Inge (and remember, I like Maggs better than I like Galarraga). I really, really don’t want to see them go, but I am mentally prepared for the possibility that they might not be back. But this mental preparation doesn’t always take place (and I can’t make it kick in). It didn’t happen with Pudge (even though I sensed that trade coming well in advance), and it’s currently not happening with Galarraga (there are others that it’s not happening for right now either, but those guys are not in danger of departing any time soon). At this point, I would be devastated if he got traded, claimed, non-tendered (which I don’t think will happen, but evidently Lynn Henning has been hinting that it will), or otherwise discarded. All this could potentially be avoided if he could just come up with the courage to trust his stuff (and I guess that is also a reflection of myself, because I also routinely overthink, second-guess myself, and battle confidence issues, so I suppose in some way I’d like some reassurance that those demons can be overcome). His struggles last time out left me emotionally drained and it took Justin Verlander’s masterpiece three days later to bring me out of that funk. But more than just me, I want a strong finish from him for his sake. I like him as a person, and I know he’s disappointed with how things have gone since the perfect game. I realize life’s not fair, but I still hate seeing bad things happen to good people. Hopefully, facing the Indians will give him a confidence boost, because he’s been dominant against them this year. But he’s got to stop being his own worst enemy.

Night of Milestones

Photo: AP

Nothing like a wild win on a Saturday night. There seemed to have been a lot of sentimentality around Jeremy Bonderman because it might be his last home start as a Tiger, but to say he didn’t have it would be an understatement (Bonderman’s not my favorite, but I’m certainly willing to give him his props when he pitches well; I have no props to give him this time). I only missed part of the first inning, but by the time I got home, he had already given up five runs. He did settle down for three innings, but once the Tigers gave him the lead, he served up long home runs to Jason Kubel and Danny Valencia, ending his night. This probably isn’t the best time to say this, and I have no justification in saying this other than player preference, but if Jeremy Bonderman is in the Tigers’ starting rotation next year and Armando Galarraga is not, I am going to be pissed. Anyways, things changed after Bonderman’s exit, because the bullpen was terrific. Even Eddie Bonine pitched better than his line indicates (He gave up three runs, but in that sequence, not a single ball left the infield). Ryan Perry and Daniel Schlereth were perhaps the most impressive. Perry retired every batter he faced, and Schlereth worked around a single, error, two intentional walks and a double steal to strike out Kubel and Valencia with the bases loaded.

Meanwhile, the Tigers offense hit Carl Pavano like they’ve never hit him before. If they’d have done a little more of that last year, they would’ve won the division. Going into last night’s game, none of the Tigers had ever homered against Pavano. They hit three home runs against him in the fourth inning. Alex Avila led off the inning with a solo shot. Don Kelly later hit a two-run homer, and after a Johnny Damon single, Miguel Cabrera absolutely launched one over the bullpens in left. Once the Tigers came back later to tie up the game against John Rauch, there wasn’t a whole lot of scoring after that. There also weren’t a whole lot of chances until the bottom of the 13^th inning. After loading the bases with no out on two singles and an error, Brandon Inge came up the hero on a night where he became the Tigers’ franchise leader in strikeouts (which I don’t really care about as much as the haters do). He laced a single to right to score Cabrera and give the Tigers the win. Also of note is that Austin Jackson scored his 100^th run of the season, putting him in rare company for a rookie.

And now for some lighthearted fare. Yesterday morning, a friend of mine and I had a very entertaining discussion on Twitter about which Wizard of Oz characters the members of the Tigers’ starting rotation would be. This is what we came up with: Jeremy Bonderman would be the Scarecrow (for obvious reasons), Max Scherzer would be the Tinman (He seems to be the most emotionless on the mound), Armando Galarraga would be the Cowardly Lion (He needs the courage to trust his stuff), Justin Verlander would be Dorothy (He has twelve wins at home as opposed to six on the road, and his home ERA is over two full runs lower), and Rick Porcello would be Toto (mostly by process of elimination, but he is the youngest of the group). We also decided that the Chicago White Sox would be the flying monkeys, and so by extension, that means Ozzie Guillen would be the Wicked Witch of the West. I want to hear him say “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too,” just for kicks.

It is a sad day today, because it is the final home game of the season. Rick Porcello gets the ball today. He’s coming off a strange start against the Royals in which it looked like he was cruising and then ended up with five earned runs and a no-decision on his line. He hasn’t faced the Twins since early May, when he gave up five runs (three earned) in a Tigers loss. He’ll be up against Brian Duensing, who continues to pitch well and I don’t know why. He got a no-decision the last time he started against the Tigers in which he did not pitch badly (though he got outpitched by Armando Galarraga even though the Tigers bullpen gave it up later). He also made a relief appearance in an extra inning game in that series.

Justin Verlander Makes Everything Better

Photo: AP

Because I have to make this an abbreviated post (stupid work), there is no way I can do Justin Verlander’s performance justice. He was masterful, racking up eleven strikeouts and walking none. He said he didn’t have his changeup working, but with his fastball blazing and curveball dropping, he didn’t need it. I’ll fret about next year’s rotation later. For now, I’ll just enjoy Verlander.

Meanwhile, the Tigers’ offense took advantage of Liriano’s illness and a jetstream blowing out to left to hang some big-time runs on the board. Miguel Cabrera was the first to ride the jetstream with a two-run homer. After that, Liriano left with the flu or something (or he and Alexi Casilla had had some bad sushi). After that, the Tigers poured it on the Twins’ bullpen. Jhonny Peralta also rode the jetstream en route to a four-RBI night. Casper Wells didn’t need the jetstream. He hit a lined shot that would’ve gone out anyways.

Tonight continues the final home series. Jeremy Bonderman starts for the Tigers. The last time we saw him was the Joe Morgan changeup game in Chicago, where he dodged all sorts of baserunners but managed to go 5.2 innings. How he did that I’m not sure. Carl Pavano starts for the Twins, and he and his pornstache have been a pain. Between the two of them, it won’t exactly be an aesthetic pitching matchup.

Scherzer the Terminator

Photo: AP

First of all, I’d like to thank John Parent of Motor City Bengals for his supportive comments regarding my last post. He and I disagree as far as the issue of Armando Galarraga is concerned, but he is a really good blogger and if you’re not reading him, you should be. Last time I wrote about emotional attachments. While I have no particularly strong emotional attachment to Max Scherzer (who I still like, don’t get me wrong), I do enjoy it when he pitches well. And boy, did he pitch well last night. The Royals had put so many hits on the board in the first two games that they tied the Twins and Rangers for the league lead in team batting average. They are a bunch of singles hitters, but they showed in the first two games what they can do when they string a bunch of singles together. Scherzer overpowered them and nipped that in the bud. The only hitter to figure him out was Gregor Blanco, who got two hits off him while his teammates got none (Blanco later singled off Phil Coke and Billy Butler later homered). Now, Scherzer was not immune to the sudden rash of throwing errors that have plagued the Tiger pitchers recently, but he got himself out of it.

As good as Max Scherzer was, Kyle Davies was not bad himself. He was perfect until the fifth inning, when Miguel Cabrera laced a single to right field. That inning was really the only time Davies wobbled. He proceeded to give up a one-out single to Raburn and then a very nice-looking double to Brennan Boesch. He was later singled in by Brandon Inge. Davies then shut the Tigers down again until he gave up an RBI double to Johnny Damon in the eighth.

Sadly, the Tigers are now down to their final home series of the season and it’s against the Minnesota Twins. The Twins have already clinched the division (which is just as well, because I didn’t want any champagne parties in the Comerica Park visitor’s clubhouse). However, the Twins have a shot at the best record in the American League (which wasn’t “supposed” to happen) and so the Tigers still have the responsibility of preventing that. Francisco Liriano starts for the Twins. The Tigers have had a couple of games where they scored a bunch of runs against him, but the last time he saw him, he was typical Liriano against them (he did not win, but the Twins won in extras). Meanwhile, Justin Verlander is coming off a beautiful complete-game win against the White Sox in which he only had one wobbly inning. He was fantastic otherwise. I am really looking forward to his start (since there’s only two left, and this’ll be his last in those lovely home whites before next April).

Sometimes I Hate Blogging

There are times when I wish I didn’t care so much. Contrary to popular belief, I am generally not a very emotional person. Sure, I live and die with my team, but I’m usually able to stay level-headed and calmly assess what is going right or wrong. But perhaps because I’m not an emotional person, when I do emotionally invest in a player (as I do with about five guys currently on the team), it’s incredibly strong and I don’t know how to control it (What really scares me is that if I feel this strongly for guys I have never met, what are my actual personal relationships, platonic or otherwise, going to be like in the future?). As a reference point, the five guys I’m referring to are (in order of preference) Justin Verlander, Magglio Ordoñez, Armando Galarraga, Brandon Inge, and Miguel Cabrera. Emotionally investing in players like Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera comes with a reasonable amount of security because they’re both established as very good players, they’re locked up for the next several years, and the Tigers are not in danger of being in salary dump mode. If Justin Verlander has a bad start (and he does have those), I don’t have to worry about him losing a rotation spot because he’s the ace and everyone expects him to bounce back. If Miguel Cabrera goes into a slump, again, he’s not in danger of getting benched and he’ll get himself out of it. I don’t have to fret over those two. Armando Galarraga is an entirely different matter. He’s an underdog, and there are no guarantees as to his place on this team going forward. In all likelihood, I have set myself up to get hurt very deeply, probably sooner rather than later (Brandon Inge is also kind of an underdog, but his situation is different because there’s a great many Tigers fans who have the same sentiments toward him that I do, if not stronger; with Galarraga, I feel as if I am largely standing alone). I know all these things, but I can’t make myself not like somebody just because the end result is likely to be unpleasant.

However, there are two misconceptions that I have grown extremely tired of. First, I am sick of people thinking that because I am female, my fondness toward these players come in the form of crushes. I am NOT a teenage girl. The only one that I might have some crush feelings toward is Justin Verlander. The other four are more like how I would feel for a friend or a brother (though I’m an only child). The other thing I am sick of specifically relates to Galarraga. I am tired of not being taken seriously because I am the only blogger who seems to like him. I routinely give objective analyses of his pitching performances every time he starts. Last night, he was given a 3-0 and he let it get away. No excuse for that happening, and he’s well aware of that. The wheels came off with two outs in the fifth inning. Prior to that, he’d been pitching well. I’m not sure what triggered the meltdown (though his body language suggested he was agitated about something from the first batter of the night), but once Jarrod Dyson singled with two out, he lapsed into that bad tendency he has of overthinking things, and when he overthinks the situation, he has problems throwing strikes. Plus, he was timid with certain batters from the get-go, especially Kila Ka’aihue, who saw very few strikes from him (I know he’s got good plate discipline and he’s homered off him before, but beyond that I’m not sure why Galarraga seemed psyched out by him). I could be wrong about this, but I don’t remember him ever issuing a bases-loaded walk before last night. In addition to overthinking, he let his frustrations get to him, and that culminated in the awful throw he made on Yuniesky Betancourt’s swinging bunt (unbelievably, Alfredo Figaro made an even worse throw a few innings later). Plain and simple, he let the game get away from him, and he’s got no one to blame but himself. And again, he knows this. I don’t need to hear him say it to know that.

What was discouraging to me was that when asked about Galarraga’s season after the game, all Jim Leyland would say was “okay.” A remark like that doesn’t really speak well for Galarraga’s chances at a rotation spot next year, and though he’s currently on track to have two more starts this year, I’m not sure there’s much he could do to change Leyland’s assessment in the positive direction (though he certainly can hurt his chances even further if he doesn’t pitch well in those starts). I hope I’m just being paranoid, but I can’t help but feel that Galarraga’s tenure with the Tigers is quickly approaching its end. He’s arbitration-eligible for the first time, but I don’t think they would non-tender him, because he won’t be that expensive. However, there’s a real possibility that he could be traded in the offseason. If that doesn’t happen, he’ll go into spring training fighting desperately for a rotation spot. In his time with the Tigers, he has never pitched well in spring training, and as much as I like him, I won’t be able to give a reasonable argument in his favor if he doesn’t pitch well and someone else does. The complication with this is that he will be out of minor league options next year. Therefore, if he doesn’t make the rotation, the Tigers will be forced to designate him for assignment and take him off the 40-man roster, and I’m just about certain that he’d never make it through waivers without getting claimed by someone. I’m hoping none of these things happen. I badly want him to be in the Tigers’ rotation next year. He’s never going to be an ace, but he has the stuff to be a good middle-of-the-rotation guy. I’ve seen too many good things from him to believe anymore that he’s just a fluke. But he’s got to get his head straightened out, so to speak. Most of his struggles this year have been largely mental in nature. I could write about all the good he COULD do until my fingers hurt, but unless he can maintain his confidence, channel his frustration, and not overthink things (I can speak from experience that the last one is VERY hard to do), all it will ever be is potential and his incredible story will be another tragic ending. I’ve seen some columnists and bloggers asking if Galarraga can be counted on to help the Tigers in 2011. They can’t answer that question. I can’t answer it. His detractors and critics can’t answer it, either. The only one who can answer that question is Armando Galarraga himself.

There were other issues from the bullpen and some (but not many) offensive highlights to speak of (In particular, Miguel Cabrera hit a home run that was absolutely crushed and very enjoyable), but I’ve already taken up enough of your time and there’s still a game to be played tonight. Max Scherzer is coming off a great start against the White Sox in which he went eight innings and only allowed two solo home runs. He hasn’t pitched particularly well against the Royals this year, although a lot of that came early, before his trip to Toledo. He’ll be facing Kyle Davies, who on any given night seems to either completely shut down the Tigers or get completely lit up by them.

Dom Perignon and Circus Plays

Photo: AP

Again, this was kind of a strange game, but the Tigers pulled out a win in the end, which is the important part. Rick Porcello was on cruise control for the first four innings. It looked like he would have no trouble whatsoever. Then all of sudden, he gave up six straight hits to lead off the fifth inning. The first four were all hit very hard. The rest of the hits in the inning were bleeders and infield singles that happened to be bunched together. Jim Leyland said that Porcello was having trouble keeping his pitches down. I’ve heard that can happen with a sinkerballer on extra rest because he feels too strong (although the pitch that Yuniesky Betancourt hit out of the ballpark was a hanging slider). We’ll have to see what Porcello does in his next start (which won’t come on regular rest, either, but it’ll be closer than the long layoff he had this time). After some serious struggles in that last game in Chicago, the bullpen was much better this time. They got helped out by some good defense. Casper Wells made a terrific throw from the outfield to cut down Kila Ka’aihue trying to leg out a double, and Alex Avila made an even more entertaining play, falling into the Royals’ dugout to catch a popup (He nearly did it twice, and it was certainly nice of Ned Yost to catch him both times).

Scoring six runs off Zack Greinke is no easy feat (unless you’re the Minnesota Twins, in which case, it’s quite simple). I thought the four runs they got off him early would have to be enough, but they were able to fight back. In addition to his circus catch, Alex Avila had a terrific day at the plate. He had a two-run single early to pad the Tigers’ lead (a padding that they would end up needing). He also had two other hits, including a home run (opposite field shot into the bullpen that Phil Coke caught barehanded). Meanwhile, Will Rhymes became the first player in history to have his first major league home run called via instant replay. Congratulations to him. Not only that, it put the Tigers in the lead for good. And I don’t think Miguel Cabrera has broken out of his slump, but he did have an RBI single.

The series continues tonight, and the Tigers will be facing Bruce Chen yet again. It feels like they’ve faced him fifty times this season. Actually, it’s just three, and he has a win, a loss, and a no-decision. The no-decision came the last time he faced the Tigers, which was at Kaufmann Stadium. He went 4.2 innings, giving up four runs on six hits and three walks (the Tigers probably should have scored more against him). He is coming off a win against Oakland, however. And maybe he’s just the person to get Miguel Cabrera out of his slump, because Cabrera’s got some gaudy numbers against him (.583 with two home runs). Meanwhile, Armando Galarraga is coming off a very rough start against the Texas Rangers. I never did figure out what his problem was. I sense that he is very, very frustrated right now because things are not going the way he wants them to. And I’m not sure how many of you picked up on those shots of him in the dugout on Saturday, but I’m guessing he’s resorted to drastic superstitious measures to change his luck, because he’s shaved his head (or close to it) and it looks really bad. Galarraga’s looks were never one of his strong points, but still…yecchh. Now, normally that’d be more than enough to get me pissed off (and I would not want a superstition like that reinforced; I was about ready to strangle the mohawked bullpen earlier in the year), but for some reason I’m not this time. I guess I just feel so bad for how things have gone for him that I just really want him to pitch well and get a win regardless. It still looks terrible, though. Anyways, enough about personal grooming. The last time he faced Kansas City, he was battling elbow soreness and ended up walking five but only giving up one run in five innings, which he later attributed to pure luck. However, he’d strung together several good starts before his last disaster, so I’m really hoping he can get that confidence back, trust his stuff, and either channel or set aside that frustration (I’ve noticed that when he’s going good, I sense an air of calmness about him; he needs to find that). Your Mood Music for tonight: I was never able to find a decent copy of the song that I think best describes Galarraga’s feelings toward his situation, so I’ve got the next best thing, which is a song from my favorite band. It is quite fitting to the situation, as well.

Joe Morgan's Changeup Fantasy

Photo: AP

I did say that crazy things happen on ESPN, didn’t I? Having had to get up at 6 AM this morning, I didn’t appreciate the length of the game, but the Tigers did win. Jeremy Bonderman looked kind of the same way he did in Texas. He didn’t really have good stuff, leaving him to kind of gut his way through it, and as a result he allowed at least two baserunners in each inning and threw 121 pitches, a career high. And that was in 5.2 innings. After a cameo from Brad Thomas and two very good innings from Ryan Perry, the rest of the bullpen had a complete meltdown. Phil Coke was handed a comfortable four-run lead in the bottom of the ninth and proceeded to allow a whole lot of baserunners and only get one out. He was pulled in favor of Robbie Weinhardt, who looked good until he hit Alex Rios with an 0-2 pitch. He kind of fell apart after that and allowed the tying run to come in on a wild pitch. He did end up vulturing the win by throwing a scoreless bottom of the tenth. Eddie Bonine got one out in the bottom of the eleventh, but came within a heartbeat of giving up a walkoff three-run homer to Paul Konerko (the ball hooked foul by about five feet at the last second). Daniel Schlereth finally got the last two outs for the save but took it right to the edge before dropping a called third strike on Manny Ramirez with the bases loaded. I have no idea what the issue was with any of these pitchers because none of the quotes about them made it into the news stories (since the Tigers won), but when all was said and done, the White Sox left twenty-one men on base. And through each and every one of them, Joe Morgan rambled on and on about changeups, slowly draining his audience of the will to live.

This started out a typical John Danks outing against the Tigers, wherein they did not get many good swings off him at all. For five of his first six innings, he retired the Tigers in order. All of his baserunners came in the fourth inning, with a home run, a double, and a walk. Then all of a sudden, once he got Miguel Cabrera on a popup to lead off the seventh (Cabrera went 0-for-5 yet again, and finishes the season series against the White Sox having only hit .152 against them), he never recorded another out. After walking Jhonny Peralta, Casper Wells hit a two-run home run to tie the game. It was a steady stream of baserunners for the rest of the inning. Gerald Laird (who could have been pinch-hit for with the righty J.J. Putz on the mound) hit the go-ahead double and the Tigers added on from there. Then the offense went quiet again until there were two outs in the top of the eleventh. Fittingly, Brandon Inge reached on a strikeout-wild pitch and made it to third on AJ Pierzynski’s throwing error (It would have been even more fitting if he had struck out on a changeup, but according to Inge, it was a slider). An intentional walk to Boesch brought up Gerald Laird again. And Laird once again put the Tigers ahead, this time with an RBI single. Austin Jackson added an RBI double for insurance, but this time the lead held (barely).

After a nice end to the road trip by getting a rare sweep of the White Sox, the Tigers return to Comerica Park for their final homestand of the season (very sad). The Kansas City Royals come to town for one last go-around, and they tend to be a pain in the ass to the Tigers at season’s end (It’s happened for years). And they’ll be stuck facing Zack Greinke tonight. He’s coming off a win against the A’s in which he went seven innings and gave up three runs. The Tigers scored four runs against him last time they saw him (and it happened in an out-of-the-blue fashion similar to last night). I’d still say the odds of that happening again are slim. Rick Porcello gets his first start in almost two weeks. He had his start skipped because of an injury to the flexor tendon in his right index finger. From what I’ve heard, he’s good to go and his finger feels fine. He made two starts against the Royals in the past month. The start at Comerica Park was very good. The start at Kaufmann Stadium was not as good, but he got victimized by some bloops and bleeders. Hopefully he, like the other Tiger pitchers, can finish the season strong.

Getting Eliminated, But Looking Good Doing It

Photo: AP

With the Twins and Rays both winning yesterday, the Tigers’ playoff aspirations for this year are officially impossible, as they were mathematically eliminated from both the division race and the wild card. However, they still played a damn good game. Justin Verlander was tremendous (I watched the end of the game when I got home, and then I watched the archived game later). He has been doing some really sexy pitching recently. He ran into trouble in the fifth, against the bottom of the White Sox lineup, but proceeded to retire the final 13 batters he faced. It’s hard to believe he’s only on track to have two more starts, but at least I’ll be able to watch the next one.

It’s nice to see some of the rest of the Tigers picking up the slack while Miguel Cabrera seems to be trying to work his way through a slump (he went 0-for-5 yesterday after striking out four times on Friday). Ryan Raburn and Will Rhymes both knocked in runs early in the game, and Brandon Inge had two hits. The offense kind of quieted down after that until the top of the eighth inning in a tie game. Chris Sale has been devastatingly good in his other appearances against the Tigers this year. It’s been scary just how bad the Tigers’ swings have looked against him. However, he’d never pitched to Scott Sizemore before. Sizemore pinch-hit for Rhymes, found a pitch to his liking, and bombed a three-run homer way into the seats. With Carlos Guillen likely to miss the beginning of next season, I’d like for both Rhymes and Sizemore to finish up the season strong and get set for spring training.

The road trip and the season series wraps up tonight on ESPN (blech). Jeremy Bonderman is coming off a rather rough start in Texas (though he was victimized by errors). He had one of his best starts of the season the last time he faced the White Sox. They’ll be facing John Danks, who was defeated by Jeremy Bonderman, but he usually does not give the Tigers much. Plus, they’re on ESPN, and crazy stuff tends to happen then and the Tigers don’t play well.

Luck of the Irish

Photo: AP

This is going to be a REALLY short post because I have to be at work soon. Max Scherzer was very, very good last night. The only mistakes he made were the home runs to Manny Ramirez and Brent Morel. For the longest time, it looked as though not only would he be the tough-luck loser, but that the Tigers were going to get no-hit in the process. Once they finally got on the board in the hit column, though, the floodgates opened. They took advantage of Edwin Jackson’s leg cramps to ambush him and tag him for four runs and the loss. Alex Avila dealt the big blow with the tie-breaking double, which Austin Jackson followed up with a two-run homer. If there was anything bad about the offense last night, it was that Miguel Cabrera struck out four times, only the second time he’s done that in his entire career (the first being during his rookie season in 2003).

Today, the Tigers are on big Fox for the afternoon game. Justin Verlander is coming off a win against the Orioles, and he pitched well against the White Sox last time he saw them. Freddy Garcia was supposed to start for the White Sox, but he’s been bothered by back problems so Lucas Harrell will start instead. The Royals tagged him for six earned runs in a game the White Sox eventually won. The Tigers scored four unearned runs off him back at Comerica Park. I’ll be at work today, so I’ll probably miss the bulk of this game.

Another Speedy Victory

Photo: AP

The Tigers were very obliging in winning this game before I had to go to work. Rick Porcello was once again very good, making it two good starts in a row against a team that had previously beat him up. During the postgame interview, Leyland seemed to think that Porcello had lucked out a little, in that he left some balls up but for the most part the White Sox hitters swung through them or popped them up or whatever (I suppose that makes up for him getting blooped to death against Kansas City). The only damage to him came from an Alex Rios 2-run homer and a series of wild pitches or passed balls (not sure what the ruling was) that scored Paul Konerko. And apparently Jose Valverde was unavailable with elbow soreness (and I know Jason Beck has said that’s a recent thing, but I still wonder), so Ryan Perry got the save.

For the second game in a row, the Tigers managed to score a respectable number of runs without the help of Miguel Cabrera. The stars of the show were Johnny Damon, Will Rhymes, and Jhonny Peralta. Johnny Damon had four hits, Will Rhymes had three hits, and Jhonny Peralta had two RBIs. Peralta’s name has been popping up a lot in the discussion for next year recently. Most of the online Tiger fans (and I’m not talking about those morons on Facebook or MLive comment section) don’t seem to be all that enthusiastic about him. I’m actually not sure what I think of him. Once he moved back to shortstop, I was expecting a redux of Edgar Renteria, but it really hasn’t been like that. He doesn’t have the greatest range in the world, but he’s made nearly all the plays and Brandon Inge makes up for the range issue. Whether he’s the best man for the job next year probably depends on what shortstops are available in the offseason, although I have grown somewhat trade-weary. Therefore, at this point, I am undecided.

So as it turns out, the Tigers were a hanging slider away from sweeping this series, but taking three of the four is nothing to sneeze at. Now comes a three-game series with the Orioles, who have been playing a lot better now that Buck Showalter is their manager (they are seven games over .500 since he took over; I’m not sure if he has anything to do with it or not, though). They just took two of three from the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, not an easy thing to do. The Tigers swept them back in July, but it was a really hard-fought sweep. Tonight’s starter for the Orioles, Kevin Millwood, pitched in that series and only lasted an inning (that game turned into an absolute slugfest on a VERY hot day). He’s currently got a 3-15 record with an ERA over five. Now, I’d definitely say he’s overpaid and was a little overrated in years past, but he’s not THAT bad. I’ve seen him pitch some games against the Tigers where he’s totally shut them down. I’ve also seen games where he got lit up by the Tigers. There doesn’t seem to be any in-between. Armando Galarraga also pitched in that series. It was a fairly decent start, but he was pitching through traffic for his entire outing before finally yielding a two-run homer to Nick Markakis. Prior to that, he had not had good numbers against the Orioles. He is coming off a shaky start in which he walked five but gave up only one run to the Royals (and that was only because a ball in the outfield was misplayed), although after the game he said he got lucky. It’s a distinct possibility that the command problems were related to elbow soreness and stiffness he was experiencing. He says his elbow feels fine now, and I hope he’s being honest (after all, he hid an elbow injury for a significant portion of last season), because he’d pitched very well in the previous three starts and I want him to finish the season strong in order to have a fighting chance at being in next year’s rotation. He’s not going to get that many chances to prove himself, though. Leyland has already announced that because of the two off-days next week, Galarraga’s next start after this one will be skipped (although I have not seen the specific reasoning; it could be from injury concern or it could be the “skip the fifth starter if you can” mentality). Not surprisingly, I’m not happy about this, for two reasons. One, I like watching Galarraga pitch. Two, I have missed Verlander’s last two starts due to work. I will miss his start on Sunday due to work. And now, thanks to skipping Galarraga, work will cause me to miss the start after that one as well. That will make FOUR consecutive Verlander starts I won’t see. That’s a long time to be deprived of Justin Verlander. Don’t get me wrong, I like Porcello and Scherzer (Bonderman I root for because he’s a Tiger, but that’s about it), but it gets old seeing only them over and over at the expense of two pitchers that I like better. But I suppose that’s something to complain about later. And in case you wanted some more intrigue, well, Jim Joyce will be the home plate umpire tonight. The media has certainly taken this story and run away with it (I saw one Free Press headline that made it sound like Galarraga and Joyce were members of a band on a reunion tour). Jim Joyce has been quoted as saying he’s glad he’s scheduled to work home plate and not first base. Galarraga has said it’s no big deal. And yet tonight’s game has kind of spurred a retrospective of sorts. Hopefully this one has a positive outcome.

In Case You Forgot, Justin Verlander is Awesome

Photo: AP

I’m not going to be able to do this post justice because the game was in the bottom of the seventh by the time I got home and an early wakeup this morning meant that I did not have time to watch the archive. That means I missed Justin Verlander’s entire outing, but by the sounds of things, there was a lot to like about it. Verlander said he finally found his curveball for the first time all season (a bit surprising, considering that even though he hasn’t been quite as lights-out as he was last year, he’s still had a pretty good season). I’ve mentioned (not on here) that Verlander has kind of flown under the radar recently. Most of the media attention has been focused on the other four in the rotation (for various reasons), especially Scherzer and Porcello. If he pitches strong down the stretch, Verlander will become a main attraction again, as well he should be.

The offense, meanwhile, didn’t so much get to Freddy Garcia as they took advantage of some sort of injury. Johnny Damon hit a two-run homer off Garcia to give the Tigers an early lead, and then once Garcia was out, they feasted on some of the White Sox’s September call-ups (otherwise known as Charlotte Knights). I know Don Kelly is far from the ideal candidate to bat behind Miguel Cabrera, but he’s come through quite well so far. Granted, at this point they don’t have an “ideal candidate” (they don’t have Miguel Cabrera either right now, but I’ll talk about that later), so they might as well just stick the hottest hand behind him and see what happens. Jhonny Peralta had a big night, breaking the game open with a bases-clearing double. And Brandon Inge capped off the scoring with a long three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth.

Tonight marks game three in this series. Jeremy Bonderman started off very shaky in his last start, but then found a way to stay in for 7.1 innings, and actually left in a position to win before the bullpen gave up the tying run. He got lit up the last time he faced the White Sox, giving up two home runs and six runs overall. He’ll be opposed by John Danks, who is pitching on short rest and handcuffed the Red Sox in his last start. The Tigers will be without the services of Miguel Cabrera tonight and probably tomorrow. After that, it’s a crapshoot. The shoulder/biceps tendinitis is still bothering him. I wonder when they reach the point where they’ll do an MRI just for precautionary measures (after all, he is their highest-paid player). It drives me crazy when I can’t offer an informed opinion on health matters. Back when Cabrera had the kidney infection, I could tell you with about 95% certainty that he’d be on Cipro or Levaquin for two weeks. Unfortunately, they don’t teach a lot of orthopedics in pharmacy school, so I couldn’t even tell you if a cortisone shot would help (although a corticosteroid does help relieve inflammation, but I know there’s a whole bunch of MLB policies surrounding stuff like that). At this point, both Cabrera and Leyland seem more concerned with the shoulder impeding his ability to swing the bat the way he wants to than with the injury itself. I will tell you this, though: If he has to miss more than a couple games, you can kiss any remote chance of a miracle comeback goodbye. It goes without saying that Cabrera is the lifeblood of this offense (and that’s going to be true next year as well, no matter who they sign or trade for). Granted, he might not be missed that much tonight, as his career numbers against Danks are only so-so (.250 average). In fact, the only Tiger not on the DL who has good numbers against Danks is Gerald Laird (3-for-6 with a double). Unfortunately, it seems his back still is keeping him out, because Alex Avila is starting for the third straight day. I kind of wonder why Max St. Pierre isn’t getting the start against the lefty. As a matter of fact, there are four lefties in Leyland’s lineup tonight, some in place of available right-handed bats. However, a quick look at Danks’s splits may reveal why. Righties have only hit .206 against him, while lefties have hit .285 (now that I think about it, I seem to remember Danks featuring a really good changeup, which may explain the counterintuitive numbers).

To End Opposite of Where We Began?

Back in the early part of the season, the bullpen was the strength of the team while the rotation faltered. Now, those roles seem to have reversed. After the hype brought up about the Scherzer, Jackson pitching matchup, they pulled out just about even. Each one didn’t have their best stuff but managed to sidestep major trouble. Their lines were nearly identical. They gave up the same number of runs on the same number of hits. The only difference was that Scherzer walked one more batter. So it became a battle of the bullpens, and the Tigers’ ‘pen wasn’t able to hold onto the lead. I have no insight to give on Valverde, since it looked like the splitter had been working early in the inning and the hits he gave up were on fastballs. And so that leaves Ryan Perry and the hanging slider. I’m not an expert on mechanics, but Jim Leyland’s postgame comments suggested that the hanging slider was well within Perry’s control. He seemed to hearken back to that “lack of urgency” that he thinks Perry has. I’m not sure if that means Perry is too casual or what, but if he wants to remain the setup man, he can’t continue throwing hanging sliders, if indeed that is something he can control.

The offense didn’t fare all that badly against Edwin Jackson. I thought there’d be a bunch of complaints about Don Kelly batting right behind Miguel Cabrera, but I didn’t see any. Still, I’m sure there were some, but Kelly had quite a good day with three RBIs including a two-run homer. The problem for the Tigers was once they got into the White Sox bullpen, they didn’t do anything. Is it supposed to be that easy for a guy who was just drafted (It’s not just the Tigers, though; Chris Sale has been shutting down just about everyone since his call-up)?

The series continues tonight and the Tigers will be facing Freddy Garcia. His ERA at Comerica Park is barely over two and the Tigers usually have a tough time being patient against him. They did get to him for five runs the last time they saw him, but in their two previous meetings, he shut them down. Meanwhile, it’s September, and yet this will be the first time this season that Justin Verlander has faced the White Sox. He hasn’t faced them since game 162 last year. Historically, the White Sox have given him fits, but he handled them well last year. He even had two complete game wins against them. AJ Pierzynski (who is hot right now) has been a thorn in his side in the past, going 14-for-42 (.333) with three home runs and twelve RBIs. Carlos Quentin and Alex Rios also have good numbers against him.

Rookie Rally

Photo: AP

This is one of those games where I think Rick Porcello pitched better than his line would indicate. He gave up four runs, but a lot of those came on hits that were not hit hard. The Royals just somehow managed to get them in the right spot and string enough of them together to score runs. Even the home run from Kila Ka’aihue seemed to just be flicked down the line (I wish he wouldn’t feature so prominently in these games, mostly because typing his name is annoying).

However, the offense was once again up to the challenge. It was so nice to see Miguel Cabrera back in the lineup, and it looks as though the biceps tendinitis isn’t affecting his swing anymore because he laced a two-run double in his first at-bat that nearly cleared the wall. He also had a line drive single later in the game. The rookies really came through late. The heartwarming story of the night was Max St. Pierre, who not only got his first major league hit, he started the rally that ultimately got the Tigers the lead. Will Rhymes followed with a single, and Austin Jackson (who had a big night with three hits) knocked in the pinch-runner Boesch with the go-ahead run. Will Rhymes would later score on a passed ball. And props goes to the Royals fans who gave Max St. Pierre a standing ovation when he got that hit (I actually talked to the Baseball Guru last night and he thought it was a wonderful thing that the Tigers were doing for him). He looked totally in awe of the whole thing. And thumbs down to the AP for not getting a picture of him.

The series and the road trip concludes this afternoon. Armando Galarraga has been very good in his last three starts, which included his last start against the Twins, who are normally his own personal hell. One word of caution is that both Bonderman and Porcello didn’t pitch quite as well against the Royals as they had back at Comerica Park. Hopefully Galarraga does not suffer that same fate. I’m also noticing he runs into a wall a little bit once he gets to 85-90 pitches. Other than that, it’s the same pointers I always give when he starts. The Royals will start Kyle Davies, who has an ERA approaching six, but I’ve seen occasions before where he’s shut the Tigers down.

Sudden Comeback

Photo: AP

Over the past couple days, the Tigers have been doing something they were rather good at early in the season: late-inning dramatic comebacks. First, though, I must give a tip of the cap to Jeremy Bonderman, who started out the game looking like he wasn’t going to last very long. I’m not an expert in mechanics (and even when I do examine them, Bonderman has never been the subject of my study), but in the first few innings, his delivery looked different than normal. I can’t explain what was different about it (other than he nearly fell over on at least one pitch and he generally doesn’t do that), but obviously it wasn’t making him very effective. Then after about the third inning or so, he seemed to correct whatever the mechanical flaw was, because he was very good after that point. Daniel Schlereth was not so good, giving up a home run and a walk, but Robbie Weinhardt and Ryan Perry were both terrific.

For much of the beginning of this game it looked like the Tigers were in very real danger of being no-hit by Zack Greinke. He didn’t look super-dominant against them, but they weren’t getting good swings off him, either. Jhonny Peralta’s single in the fifth ended that threat, but there was still no indication that the offense would suddenly come alive in the seventh. Greinke went from throwing a shutout to giving up four earned runs in just about the blink of an eye. Just about everyone in the lineup contributed to the victory. Will Rhymes was the extra-inning hero with his two-run triple in the eleventh. And though I’d prefer seeing Miguel Cabrera at first base any day of the week, Don Kelly held his own with three hits and solid defense.

The series continues tonight with Rick Porcello taking the mound for the Tigers. He’s coming off a very good start against the Blue Jays last Sunday. He was also very good against the Royals last time he saw them (another game the Tigers won by a blowout). The Royals will start Bruce Chen, whom the Tigers beat in their last meeting, but he IS coming off a win against the Indians in which he went six innings and only gave up two runs. Miguel Cabrera is back in the lineup. Hopefully he isn’t pushing himself and he can swing the bat properly (and though it was only a game and a half, it felt like an eternity with him not in the lineup). And with Gerald Laird’s back still acting up, 30-year-old Max St. Pierre will make his big league debut tonight after 14 seasons in the minors. Good for him.

Good, Bad, AND Ugly

Photo: AP

Perhaps the fact that this was a night game (as I had discussed yesterday) made it destined to be strange. I have no idea what to make of Justin Verlander’s performance. For one thing, I only saw half his outing (it was the bottom of the fourth when I got home). For another thing, he didn’t really get any help from his friends. The defense on both teams was terrible, especially when it came to trying to turn double plays. Verlander got victimized by it and ended up surrendering three unearned runs. Jose Valverde later got hung with a blown save that really wasn’t his fault (he got really squeezed on the leadoff walk, and once he struck out Joe Mauer, he got two consecutive game-ending double play balls that weren’t turned). However, after that Valverde pitched really well without incident, although he probably won’t be available for the next couple days.

The Tigers offense likewise took advantage of some defensive miscues by the Twins. They had two RBI groundouts on what should have been double play balls. The second of the two came off the bat off Miguel Cabrera, who left the game shortly thereafter with biceps tendinitis. He doesn’t seem to think it’s serious, but it was adversely affecting his swing, and he is not in tonight’s lineup. The guy who replaced him in the lineup was Casper Wells, who did his best job impersonating Cabrera and picked a good time to hit his first big league home run. Just about everyone in the lineup contributed at some point, whether they started the game or came in later (and almost everyone was in the game at some point; Max St. Pierre was the lone Tiger remaining on the bench). The Tigers ended up hitting five home runs (in contrast, all the Twins’ hits were singles). Gerald Laird ended up being the final hero of the night by hitting the home run that put the Tigers in front for good. He now has more home runs at Target Field than Joe Mauer has. And they did a nice job screwing up the Twins’ pitching staff, because the Twins lost Scott Baker after two innings, so they burned their long man early, and they had two use two of their other starters in extras, including Nick Blackburn, who was supposed to start tonight. The Texas Rangers should be thanking them.

Tonight the road trip moves on to Kansas City and the Tigers can avoid Zack Greinke no longer. They haven’t seen him since Opening Day. He’s not had a particularly strong follow-up to his Cy Young year, but he’s pitched well in his last four starts and has gone eight innings in three of them. He may be finding his stride again, and without Cabrera in the lineup, it’s going to be even harder for the Tigers to get to him. The only two in the lineup with good numbers against him are Damon (7-for-20) and Laird (6-for-20). Jeremy Bonderman is pitching for the first time since the series with the Royals in Detroit. He suffered a ribcage injury and Alfredo Figaro took his spot for the last turn through the rotation. He won that start against the Royals rather easily, since the Tigers scored a bunch of runs for him.

The Drawback of Pitching Duels

It seems the Tigers have fallen into that same trap they were in about a month ago, where they would fight their hearts out but consistently came up just barely short. Max Scherzer was very impressive. For the most part, he mowed through a normally stressful lineup rather easily. Unfortunately, the one lapse he had ended up costing him. For a span of about five batters, the Twins hit absolute bullets. Scherzer escaped with minimal damage thanks to a terrific double play by Austin Jackson, but the one run he gave up proved to be too much. I still think that in this day and age, any starting pitcher who goes nine innings should get credit for a complete game, even if it goes into extras, but I digress. However, Ryan Perry failed to bounce back from his rough outing on Tuesday and ended up losing the game (though, to be fair, he did not get help from his friends; Cuddyer probably would have been out on the stolen base attempt if Alex Avila had made a good throw). Meanwhile, the offense ended up getting the Francisco Liriano that they saw in April, not the one from June/July. It’s hard to tell where Liriano’s effectiveness ended and the hitting ineffectiveness began. There were a couple baserunning mistakes that should not have happened, and potentially that cost them runs as well.

The series concludes tonight, and it’ll be up to Justin Verlander to get the win. Like Scherzer, he was very good in his start against the Blue Jays, giving up two solo home runs as his only damage. He’s had two decent starts against the Twins this year, although he actually pitched better in the game he lost than in the game he won, at least in terms of innings pitched and pitch count. And you can bet that unless Jim Thome’s back is still bothering him, he’ll be in there against Verlander. The Tigers will face Scott Baker, who is coming off a win against the Mariners. I’ve given this spiel before. Against the Tigers, he usually gives up somewhere between three and five runs. Usually. Occasionally he’ll only give up one run or give up a bunch of runs just to shake things up. This is already shaping up to be an odd sort of game. Usually in Minnesota they have a day game to end a series. This is a night game.

Que Lastima

Even I admitted that the odds weren’t good for Detroit in this game, and that’s how it turned out, but I don’t think any of us really labeled a bullpen meltdown as the most likely scenario. Both Phil Coke and Ryan Perry had command problems, and the result was a walk, two hit batters, and then another walk, this time with the bases loaded, before Delmon Young delivered the death blow single. Perry eventually recovered, but it was too late. And it’s really a damn shame, because Armando Galarraga deserved better. That was by far the best he has ever pitched against the Twins. I was really impressed. He looked to be just about in complete control for the first five innings. They did start to center his pitches in the sixth inning, and the wheels almost came off, but after a fortuitous bounce that created a ground rule double and cost the Twins a run, he got the last out and left with the lead intact (I wonder if that’s a fatigue factor, because the same thing happened to him in his last start, and to a lesser extent, the start before that; he’s been able to get out of it every time, though). One other important point is that he didn’t walk anybody, and that’s especially noteworthy because in the past he’s had a lot of trouble throwing strikes to Twins batters. I did read a quote from him where he said he was unhappy that he couldn’t go deeper into the game, but I hope he takes a lot of positive things from this outing and gets a big confidence boost from it.

And I still can’t figure out Brian Duensing. I mean, he could definitely be a solid lefty starter, but I can’t see anything that would support his dominant ERA. The funny thing is that his ERA actually went down after his outing last night because all the runs the Tigers scored were unearned. Still, Casper Wells has looked good over the past couple games. He had three hits last night. Jhonny Peralta also had three hits, which everyone seems to have forgotten about because he struck out to end the game. It was an unusually quiet night for Miguel Cabrera, who got pitched to in all his at-bats (even when there were runners in scoring position), and he only went 1-for-5 to show for it (and that one hit was a single with the bases empty).

Well, if the Tigers are still going to take the series, they have their two best candidates to make it happen. Tonight, it’s Max Scherzer. He was brilliant in his last start against the Blue Jays. He hasn’t faced the Twins since very early in the season, where they knocked him around real good. However, he’s a different pitcher now. Those numbers might mean nothing (or they could mean everything and the Twins are destined to be his kryptonite as well). Meanwhile, Francisco Liriano has been very good as well. He’s also coming off a win, this one against the Texas Rangers. He did give up five runs to the White Sox two starts ago, though. He’s had a strange season against the Tigers. Throughout his career, he has dominated Detroit. The Tigers have very rarely done anything against him. And yet they’re responsible for his worst two starts of the year in terms of giving up runs. They scored six runs off him in six innings at Target Field in late June (that was the game in which Joel Zumaya was injured, and remains their only win in the Twins’ new ballpark). Then at Comerica Park a couple weeks later, they scored seven runs off him in 1.2 innings. Something’s gotta give. Because it’s September, the rosters have expanded and the Tigers have called up Robbie Weinhardt and Max St. Pierre. For Max St. Pierre, this will mark the first time he’s been on a big league roster after fourteen years in the Tigers system. It’s been a long road for him, and that’s an understatement. He’s actually had a decent year between Erie and Toledo, especially when you consider the fact that just about none of the catchers in the Tigers’ farm system did anything offensively.  He hit .274 between the two teams, albeit in only 59 games (he suffered a broken hand that kept him out a while).  With the lefty on the mound, I’m not sure if he would get a start or if Gerald Laird (assuming his back is healthy) will get the call (Laird does not have good numbers against Liriano, for what it’s worth).

A Battle of Dueling Hunches

This is going to be a short post, because I did not see a lot of this game. Actually, I’m surprised I saw any of the game, but my viewing was limited to the bottom of the eleventh and the entire twelfth inning. Everything else I got from Gameday and a tiny bit of radio. From what I gather, Armando Galarraga came out of the gate with some command issues (and curiously, he threw quite a few changeups and not many sliders in the early going), but he righted the ship and did a good job. Hopefully these last two games of his will give him a confidence boost (If the pitching rotation isn’t shuffled, he’ll need it. His next slated opponent is the Twins). He hit the wall quickly in the seventh inning (echoing something that Jim Leyland said about him in 2008: When he hits the wall, it happens suddenly and it’s hard for him to recover). After a dramatic at-bat, he got Jai Miller to go down swinging with runners at first and second and no one out. Phil Coke did the rest. As for the four-out save mess, well, I get the feeling that Leyland just doesn’t trust Ryan Perry all that much. Now, that may be reasonable. It might not. I’m just bringing up a theory. I do know that I don’t like having Alfredo Figaro on the mound. Most of the time he is one big flirtation with disaster, and that is what happened. Meanwhile, I can’t give you any insight on the offense shutdown, because I didn’t see any of that. And as for the dueling hunches, Ned Yost’s paid off while Leyland’s did not. All the Tiger fans were making fun of the fact that Willie Bloomquist was batting third and now they kind of look dumb for that (then again, the Royals fans were probably complaining about it and they look dumb too). Leyland elected to have Laird hit in the bottom of the eleventh instead of pinch-hitting Alex Avila because his instincts told him that Laird would come through (also that righties were hitting about a hundred points higher against Humber, whose name sounds like a Winnie the Pooh character). Laird hit into a double play. And Miguel Cabrera was stranded in the on-deck circle the following inning.

After a mostly successful homestand, the Tigers now embark on a very long ten-day road trip. First up is a four-game series in Toronto. We’ve already heard about the Blue Jays: In any other division they’d be right in the thick of things, they absolutely bomb the ball, and their pitching staff’s not too shabby. Oh, and they play on artificial surface, so our guys are gonna be sore by the time this series is over. Tonight, Max Scherzer takes the hill for the Tigers. He was good against the Indians, which I got to see firsthand. He’s never faced the Blue Jays before, though he’s seen a few of their hitters (all guys who have come over from the National League). Yunel Escobar is 6-for-13 with three doubles. The other three (Fred Lewis, Edwin Encarnacion, and Jose Bautista) are all hitless against him. The Blue Jays will start lefty Ricky Romero. The Tigers beat him back in July (the last game before Maggs was injured). He’s 1-2 against Detroit but hasn’t pitched that badly against them (and overall, he hasn’t pitched that badly this year). He’s won the only start he made against them at Rogers Centre.

Can They Stop Walking Miguel Cabrera Already?

Photo: AP

This was a nice bounceback start for Jeremy Bonderman. Again (I felt like I’ve said this a lot recently), I don’t think he had his best stuff. He threw quite a few hanging sliders up there that fortunately the Royals didn’t do much with, but he managed to sidestep it (against a team with more power, he might not have been able to, and that’s something he should keep in mind with his next slated opponent, the Blue Jays). The Royals did pretty much what their scouting report said they did: Hit mostly singles, not walk much, and not score a lot of runs. The bullpen did a nice job, though Eddie Bonine got hit pretty hard but escaped with only giving up one run.

Another part of the Royals’ scouting report came true: problematic pitching. Bruce Chen was too tentative and fell behind a lot of hitters. The bulk of the damage came against Jesse Chavez. Just about everyone had a good day at the plate. Meanwhile, according to Dan Dickerson, the last four times Miguel Cabrera has been walked intentionally (including this game), the guys behind him have come through. Every starter got at least one hit except Casper Wells and Austin Jackson. Ryan Raburn, Jhonny Peralta, and Brandon Inge all had three RBIs apiece. Of course, the big story surrounding the game was Johnny Damon. As of this writing, he had not yet decided whether to accept a deal to Boston or not (by the sounds of things, he’s all that stands in the way; the Tigers will not pull him back on their own). Granted, I am working so slowly on this thing that it’s very likely a decision will be announced before I am finished. When Damon signed, I approved of it, but I only saw him as a one-year stopgap. He hasn’t performed spectacularly in the Tigers, but he’s been decent, and his on-base percentage of .360 is definitely sound for the role he was intended for (table-setter, #2 hitter). I can’t quite figure out where he would fit in the picture for next year, but if the Tigers wanted to bring him back, I wouldn’t mind. But as far as this year is concerned, well, I just don’t get excited at the notion of letting the kids play it out. Plus, Miguel Cabrera’s still got an outside shot at the Triple Crown, and losing Damon (small of a protection as he may be) would make it all the harder for him. My personal feeling is that he should accept the deal if, and only if, the Tigers can pry away some hotshot super-prospect away from the Red Sox. A player to be named later or a middle reliever isn’t going to help much in the long run, and with all the money coming off the books next year, I doubt $1.8 million is going to be a deal breaker on any hypothetical free agent signing. In that case, I would much prefer to see Damon play out the season in a Tigers uniform. For what it’s worth, he is in tonight’s lineup.

Tonight’s matchup features Rick Porcello, who looked very good for five innings at Yankee Stadium and then fell apart in the sixth. He’s had his issues with the Royals in the past (though a large part of that was Mark Teahen, and he’s not with them anymore). He’s only faced the Royals once this year and got a no-decision in which he went six innings and gave up three runs, but ten hits (the Tigers eventually lost the game 7-3). The Tigers will face Kyle Davies, who has beaten them a couple times this year. It seems like every time they faced him, he either gets lit up or twirls a gem. There are some Tigers with some real good numbers against him. Cabrera, Peralta, Damon, and Raburn all hit over .300 against him, and Gerald Laird is not too far behind at .294 (though he is not in tonight’s lineup).