Bats Finally as Hot as the Weather

Photo: AP

Perhaps a short post, because I didn’t really see this game (okay, I watched the archived game later, but that doesn’t exactly have the same impact). Justin Verlander was perhaps not as dominating as you’d want him to be, but he did give seven innings. And he did make a nice adjustment that allowed him to go those extra two innings. Meanwhile, the offense (which did not include Verlander, and that means that the pitchers did absolutely nothing at the plate this year) pounded out 17 hits, 16 of which were singles. But there were a lot of hard-hit singles in there (as well as a few bloops and seeing-eyed singles). The only extra-base hit was Brennan Boesch’s two-run homer. I know this kid is going to slow down sometime (probably sooner rather than later), but as I’ve said before, might as well milk him for all he’s worth. And it’s nice to see Cabrera had a few multi-hit games on this road trip. His slumps may not usually last long, but they can be crippling for the rest of the team. And so the Tigers finish Interleague play this year with a 11-7 mark, which is one game better than they did last year.

And now the Tigers are once again a half-game behind Minnesota, and that’s where they are going next, so this could be a huge swing for one of these two teams (they’ll have to worry about the White Sox later). The good news is that the Tigers will miss Carl Pavano. The bad news is that they will still have to face Francisco Liriano. Liriano’s not been as lights-out as he was when the Tigers last saw him, but that hardly seems to matter, since he always looks dominant against Detroit. Magglio’s been bothered by the sore side, but he’s got some of the best numbers on the team against Liriano (.333 with 3 doubles, 2 home runs, and 8 RBIs). Cabrera’s done good work against him as well (.333 with 2 doubles and a home run). The rest of the Tigers have not fared as well against him. They’re all batting lower than .250 against him. Meanwhile, Jeremy Bonderman will get the start for the Tigers. He was decent against the Mets, but ultimately took the loss. The three Twins he needs to watch out for in particular: Michael Cuddyer (.310 with a double and three triples), Joe Mauer (.348 with two doubles and a home run), and Delmon Young (.444 with a double). Justin Morneau’s actually fared quite badly against Bonderman (only .185 with nine strikeouts, but he has homered off him). And I’m excited because I’m going to see nearly all the games this week.

Did Atlanta Move to the West Coast When I Wasn't Looking?

More on crappy strike calls in a moment, but first I gotta talk about the pitching (surprisingly, the game was still going on when I got home, but they were in the ninth inning). From what I hear, Max Scherzer did pretty well, although he had some issues with walks near the end of his outing. Walks victimized Joel Zumaya even more (and again, I point out that wildness has been a warning sign of injury in Zumaya’s past), but all I heard from Jim Price the last two days is that Chipper Jones has no batspeed. If that’s true, how was he able to catch up to 100 MPH and launch it? Talk about lack of offense all you want, but once the setup men come in and you have a one-run lead, they’ve gotta protect it, whether the score is 1-0, 3-2, 5-4, 9-8, or 16-15. There’s no such thing as run support for relievers. If you’re eighth inning guy needs a 3-run cushion to pitch effectively, then he shouldn’t be pitching the eighth inning (and I don’t mean that as a knock on Zumaya at all). The Braves somehow got an insurance run in the eighth, which turned out to be big. The offense finally started to rally in the ninth, starting with a long home run by Cabrera. Then the walkathon followed. Everyone keeps complaining that those were gifts and that the Tigers should’ve hit more, but at least give Brandon Inge some credit. That was an epic at-bat, one of the best I’ve ever seen from him. He earned that walk. The walks to Worth and Laird were probably gifts, but the called third strike to Johnny Damon was a gift from the umpire to the Braves. I know it’s probably because I’m a Tigers fan and I watch all their games, but it seems like the Tigers get victimized by blatantly bad calls more than any other team (and I’m not talking about borderline strike/ball calls or bang-bang plays where it could’ve gone either way, but the replay shows that the guy was technically out/safe, and no, the Jim Joyce call is NOT included in that category). They say it all evens out, but I’ve yet to see a blatantly bad call go in the Tigers’ favor. Maybe that Denard Span call, but as I said at the time, Span had his back turned to the umpire, so I’m not sure there was a good way to see that he had caught it.

And so it is time to turn to Justin Verlander to avoid the sweep. He didn’t have it in his last start against the Mets. He’s faced the Braves once before and beat them, with their only run coming on a Chipper Jones solo shot. The Braves will counter with hard-thrower Tommy Hanson, who was lit up even worse than Verlander in his last start, giving up nine earned runs in 3 and two-thirds innings. However, Hanson, like Verlander, is a much better pitcher than that. The only Tiger he’s faced before is Max Scherzer, which isn’t a big help. Maggs is supposed to get the day off today as well, so things get a little tougher for the offense. And I’ll be at work, with no chance of seeing any of this game. Boo again.

Overshadowed

Short post today (again). There are minor league experts out there who could probably tell you what Andy Oliver eats for breakfast any given morning. I’m not one of them, but I thought he did a decent job last night. He definitely could use a bit more polishing, and I didn’t “sense something” like I did with Jair Jurrjens and Armando Galarraga (and only those two), but he looked good. He’ll be in the rotation for at least one more start (that being against the Twins, which’ll be a real test for him), so we should get a good picture of him then. At least it’ll be nice to have a lefty in the rotation for a little while. Speaking of pitching, congratulations to former Tiger Edwin Jackson for throwing a no-hitter (and in the process throwing 149 pitches, walking eight, and ending his former teammate’s fifteen minutes of fame). Meanwhile, the Rays are regarded as one of the best (if not THE best) team in baseball, but now they’ve been no-hit three times in the past calendar year. How weird is that?

This series continues with Max Scherzer going for the Tigers. He was very good in his last start, even considering a rough beginning where he threw a lot of pitches and gave up a run. He did get rewarded for his efforts because the Tigers rallied late. He has faced the Braves before. Yunel Escobar is 5-11 with 3 doubles and Chipper Jones is 4-8 with a home run. Those look to be his two trouble spots. Meanwhile, the Tigers will get their first look at Kenshin Kawakami, who will probably lose his rotation spot once Jair Jurrjens comes back because he’s 0-9. Those guys always scare you a little, especially since Kawakami’s not THAT bad. Johnny Damon’s the only Tiger hitter who has seen him, and he is 0-1 (Max Scherzer is 0-2, but who cares?). And I’d like to complain that this should be a 7:00 game because I would be able to watch that, but instead it starts at 4:00, so I’ll miss it. Boo.