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.

Running Out of Outs

Yet another short post, since the film shoot went over schedule and I ended up being there until almost 6:00 (It was a fun time, but even though I was wearing plenty of sunscreen, my skin got absolutely cooked; also, I have a big bruise on my leg from running into a chair). Alfredo Figaro did about as well as I expected him to, which isn’t really saying a lot. The fact that he went five innings was a pleasant surprise, but I can’t exactly call them five good innings. The offense could not do much against Brandon Morrow. They did stage an uprising against the Blue Jays’ bullpen but came up one run short. One thing that stands out was some bad bunting from Santiago and even worse baserunning from both Santiago and Will Rhymes.

The series concludes with Rick Porcello on the mound. He’s coming off a very good start against the Royals. He took the tough luck loss against the Blue Jays back in July when he was outpitched by a score of 3-2. He hasn’t pitched at Rogers Centre since he made his major league debut last April. The Tigers will face lefty Marc Rzepzcynski (and that’s the last time I will say his name in this post). The Tigers have never faced him before except in spring training. Johnny Damon is 1-for-3 while Jhonny Peralta is 0-for-1. That is the extent of their regular season experience against him.

Sweep Times Two

Photo: Getty Images

I couldn’t find a really funny picture for this one, so I’ll just give you the postgame high fives. Apparently Jeremy Bonderman’s day began with some really loud outs, although at the time I did not know this, since Gameday’s description of “Ryan Zimmerman flies out to center fielder Don Kelly” doesn’t tell you a whole lot beyond that. Luckily, class ended early and I was able to listen to or watch most of this game, and by then Bonderman had made an adjustment and settled in. Tigers pitching sure did rack up a lot of strikeouts in this series. And Valverde got a bit of a break, so I’m guessing he should be fresh and ready to go tonight if he’s needed.

It was a good day for just about everyone in the Tigers lineup. Every starter except Don Kelly got multiple hits. For the first time on the homestand, no one hit a home run, but they didn’t really need to. Two Tigers hit doubles right to the wall. One was Alex Avila who drove in two, and the other was Miguel Cabrera, who added to his league-leading RBI total with three on the day (which is good, because Vladimir Guerrero was starting to catch up again). And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Ramon Santiago, who had himself a 4-hit game.

And so this has been a very good homestand so far. Next up: The last-place Diamondbacks with a slew of former Tigers. This has the makings of one very awkward series, especially considering that tonight’s matchup essentially features the guy the Tigers cut loose against the man who replaced him. You didn’t think we’d see Dontrelle Willis again so soon, did you? Since departing for Arizona, he’s made two starts for them. In the first, he pitched quite well, throwing six shutout innings. In the second, he gave up two runs in four innings and walked six (also had two wild pitches and two balks). Do I even need to tell you what the game plan should be? A word of caution, though: Those of you who have watched all season know that Dontrelle has been quite good at getting himself out of trouble, usually in the form of a key double play. There’s no reason to think that won’t continue (It has to stop sometime because allowing that many baserunners will catch up to you eventually, but it hasn’t yet). And there actually are a few Tigers with history against him (Johnny Damon, Carlos Guillen, and Brandon Inge), but it’s been several years. Meanwhile, since replacing Willis in the rotation, Armando Galarraga has pitched three really good games, but has only come away with one win (no points for guessing which one that was). The Tigers have won all three of those games, but for the most part they have taken the lead very late in those games (This is a very plausible scenario for tonight because the Diamondbacks’ bullpen has been awful this year). He faced the D’Backs once before, back in 2008. He got the win and gave up only one hit, but he walked five in that game (That was a very strange game for all sorts of different reasons. That was the infamous sock rally game, Galarraga drew a walk when he was at the plate and actually scored the first run for the Tigers, Pudge made one of the most heads-up defensive plays I have ever seen late in the game, and the starting pitcher for Arizona that night was Max Scherzer). The only current Diamondback with a hit against him is Adam LaRoche, who is 2-2, but as I said, several of the others have at least one walk. One thing to watch for is that with the lefty starting for Arizona, Gerald Laird will likely be behind the plate tonight. He has only caught Galarraga once this year, and it was the one bad start against the Dodgers. Now, I’m a firm believer that both catchers should be able to catch all the pitchers, but Galarraga and Avila have had a nice rhythm going during these past three starts (and even last year, Avila seemed slightly better at keeping Armando focused and not overthinking). Still, I don’t mean that as a knock on Laird, and I would hope the two work just as well together. It’s just something to look out for. But you’ll have to do the looking out because I’ll be at work.

Viva Galarraga

Photo: Getty Images

Call it playing well at home, call it weekend mojo, but after a bad Friday night, that turned into a pretty good series. Armando Galarraga was quite good. He needs to throw more first-pitch strikes in future starts, but he only walked three (two in the first inning, and the other was the last hitter he faced). His pitches looked similar to how they did in spring training, at least to me. Fastball command was an issue at times, but he had the slider working real well. I have not seen that sidearm angle from him before, but it seems to be working for him, and he was throwing harder than I’d seen from him before (He got up to 94 at least once, and 93 a couple times). I wish he’d been able to get the last out of the sixth, and I know he wasn’t super thrilled with his outing, but I certainly approve of it.

Perhaps the offense didn’t hit John Lackey all that hard (though Lackey certainly found a lot of things to complain about), but they made him throw a lot of pitches and he walked quite a few. Granted, it looked as though he was dealing with a tight strike zone. Both pitchers were, but I think Lackey was victimized more by it than Galarraga. He walked Johnny Damon to start off the bottom of the first, but according to Gameday, at least three of the four balls were actually in the strike zone. Some of the pitches in the bases-loaded walk to Damon that came later were very close as well. Danny Worth made his major league debut and got the first hit out of the way quickly (thanks to Lackey not being able to step on the bag). Ramon Santiago had a good day with his first home run of the season (after I jokingly made the prediction last month that he’d be the first non-Venezuelan to homer for the Tigers).

Tonight begins a brief 2-game series with the White Sox (As a matter of fact, every team in baseball will spend the next four days all playing 2-game series). I’d be shocked if they got this game in (since it’s raining and the radar indicates that the patch of rain is large and not moving very fast), but if they do, Rick Porcello will take on Freddy Garcia. Porcello had his best start of the season last time against the Yankees. He only faced the White Sox once last year, and it didn’t go too well. It was on ESPN and he gave up five runs in five and third innings (victimized largely by Paul Konerko). And I don’t care how crappy the White Sox are playing right now, they find a way to pummel the Tigers’ pitching staff. A couple of their starters have had some issues, but the Tigers won’t see them. At any rate, Freddy Garcia won his last start, which was against the Twins. The last time the Tigers faced him, he shut them down, which may or may not have been aided by a hungover Miguel Cabrera. Fast forward to now, and Miggy is sober and happy and still sports a career .455 average against Garcia with two home runs (though he didn’t really produce much in the Boston series). Magglio has also hit him well (.304, and he’s had a LOT of at-bats against him). Brandon Inge hasn’t (.200 with sixteen strikeouts in 45 at-bats), but he does have two home runs off him. Here’s what I find kind of strange: Gerald Laird is only 1-for-11 off Garcia. There’s a day game tomorrow where the White Sox are starting a lefty. So given the low level of success plus the day game/lefty combo tomorrow, I was certain that Alex Avila would catch tonight. And yet, Laird’s in the lineup. Is this suggestive of a lack of confidence in the way Avila’s (not) swinging the bat? He did have one good 12-pitch at-bat yesterday that resulted in a walk, but oh well. I am hardly qualified to manage (and that’s not sarcasm; it’s true).

Walk of Irony

Photo: AP

It’s not often when I return home from work during the seventh inning and I get to watch almost an entire game’s worth of innings, but there you go. Then again, the walkathon sponsored by the Tigers’ pitching staff kinda made that possible. A lot of that was Dontrelle Willis, who was gone before I got home (though I did manage to sneak onto Yahoo Sports during the game, which doesn’t tell you anything beyond a bunch of numbers and some play-by-play).  I meant to make an assessment during the replay of the game on FSD, but I ended up only half-paying attention to it. I am told that the majority of his walks were on pitches that were definitely not strikes, but not absurdly wild. I did see some of the “knock the catcher over” variety, but that was in one at-bat to Scutaro (I think). However, I’m not sure if I’m supposed to take anything away from that start. There are too many confounding variables. He hadn’t pitched in 11 days, and if he had been as sick as they made it sound earlier in the week, well, that would’ve taken a lot out of him. He looked tired out there, that’s for sure. At any rate, he needs to be given another start in order to see if he can bounce back. As an aside, I noticed that he was wearing one of Miguel Cabrera’s Duquesne t-shirts under his jersey last night. The bullpen held down the fort for the most part, although they too walked an excessive amount of Red Sox hitters.

As I alluded to in the title, on a night where the Tigers walked twelve batters, they scored the winning run on a bases-loaded walk. Of course, Ramon Santiago almost forgot to take his base and the shot of Magglio jogging home while frantically pointing to first was hilarious. Maggs had sparked a big rally himself with a solo home run (He had three hits last night to go with three hits the night before; perhaps he’s starting to get into a groove again). Brennan Boesch? Just keep milking. Brandon Inge caught some flak for not delivering the winning run, but he had 2 RBIs, including a game-tying double, so I’m not gonna complain.

It’s time for the rubber game of this series, and it comes in the wake of a flurry of roster moves. Armando Galarraga is not just making a spot start, he’s joining the rotation for the time being. He’ll be taking the place of Max Scherzer, who was sent down to Toledo after the game last night. Scott Sizemore, who has been really struggling recently, was also sent down, and Carlos Guillen will be the starting second baseman once he comes off the DL. This is not too terribly surprising. I was not in agreement with those who wanted to move Guillen back to shortstop or third base. The Tigers already lead the league in errors, and with that in mind I did not want to sacrifice any more defense. Sizemore, on the other hand, has had issues defensively, so it’s unlikely that there will be that much of a downgrade. Besides, odds are Brennan Boesch will cool down at some point, and Guillen’s demonstrated a knack for hurting himself no matter what position he’s playing, so it’s not necessarily a permanent move. In the meantime, Danny Worth has been called up and will split the second base duties with Ramon Santiago and Don Kelly until Guillen is ready to come back. Back to Galarraga, though. The rotation has been shuffled somewhat, with Verlander going on Tuesday instead of Bonderman. Bonderman goes on Wednesday in Oakland, and Dontrelle Willis will take what would have been Scherzer’s turn in the rotation so that Galarraga can pitch on normal rest Friday at Dodger Stadium. But he’s gotta get through this start first. He began the season at Toledo pitching exceptionally well before getting lit up for seven runs in four or five innings against the Norfolk Tides. That was two starts ago. He pitched pretty well in his last start (7 IP, 3 ER), but he gave up a lot of baserunners in those seven innings. And I feel really bad for him. The Tigers want to take this series, but the bullpen’s going to be really short today (By my estimation, it would be limited to Ni, Coke, Valverde, and maybe Perry). Basically, Armando’s under an enormous amount of pressure right now. And the Red Sox are not a good matchup for him. He has not really pitched well against him in the past, and a lot of his success lies in getting hitters to swing at stuff outside the strike zone (that’s not a bad thing; lots of pitchers rely on that). The Red Sox generally don’t swing at stuff outside the strike zone. I wish he’d drawn an easier opponent for his first trip out. But this is a golden opportunity for Armando. He’s been given a second chance, so to speak, and I really, really want him to take advantage of it. Meanwhile, the Tigers will be up against the former Angel, John Lackey. He was the ace of the Angels’ staff, but probably is thought of as the #2 or #3 starter in Boston (although he is pitching better than Josh Beckett right now). The Tigers did beat him the last time they saw him, which was last August in Anaheim. Maggs, Cabrera, and Inge all have hit well against him. Laird has not (which is probably why he’s not in the lineup today; that and extra innings/day game after a four-and-a-half-hour night game). Austin Jackson gets the day off, but there are still four rookies in the lineup (Avila, Boesch, Kelly, and Worth).  Your Mood Music for today: I thought about going with a Dudley Do-Right cartoon in honor of John Lackey (Seriously, have you ever heard him talk?), but I finally decided that “Under Pressure” was more appropriate given what I’ve discussed in this post.

BOOM-de-yada

Photo: AP

Why am I using this photo? Because it’s the only one Yahoo had of this game and I’m too lazy to took elsewhere. I’d prefer to use one of Cabrera, but Bonderman didn’t do too bad himself. He had some first inning difficulties (something that characterized him in 2007), but settled down nicely after that. He had a jam of his own creation in the sixth, but this time he didn’t let it fluster him. A lot of people have said he paid better attention to the runners this time. I don’t know about that, since he did give up two stolen bases and the Angels didn’t have that many other opportunities (which makes it hard to tell). The game also featured some more good work from the bullpen.

After a couple of nights that had some bad breaks, the Tigers figured out a way to keep the Angels defenders from catching the ball: Hit it out or bloop it into the outfield (Considering all the lineouts they’ve had in this series). Miguel Cabrera came through in a big way to make a game on this road trip finally worth the sleep deprivation. That thing was a bomb. We also were treated to our first non-Venezuelan home run of the season, although I’m pretty sure most Tigers fans weren’t predicting Don Kelly to be the one to hit it (Kelly later fell victim to the lineout plague). Inge would have been the most logical choice, but I had actually picked Santiago, just to be weird. Ramon didn’t homer, but he did deliver the go-ahead run with a bloop single (after Guillen got picked off but stayed in a rundown long enough for Laird to get to second, and Laird’s a good baserunner, much moreso than most Tiger fans give him credit for). At any rate, it’s finally good to see the Tigers rewarded for good approaches, which they’ve had this entire series with the exception of Scott Kazmir.

So even though this series started badly, there’s still a chance they could end up with a split, which is pretty much what I wanted in the first place. Justin Verlander is still after his first win (which should be old hat by now, since this has happened the last three years). He was decent in Seattle, but he can be better, and he knows that. JV’s 1-2 against the Angels in his career. The MLB.com pitching matchup earlier stated that that’s his lowest win total against any AL team, but that’s inaccurate, as he’s yet to beat the Blue Jays. Still, the last time he pitched at Angel Stadium, it was one weird outing. It was the sixth inning, JV was cruising, and the Tigers had just scored a bunch of runs off Jered Weaver in the top half of the inning. All of a sudden, the Angels kept getting hit after hit, Verlander gave up four runs, got pulled from the game, and he and Laird got into a shouting match in the dugout. He got the win, but it was a wild finish, as the bullpen had its issues as well. Several Angels have hit him well. It would actually be more efficient to list those who haven’t: Mike Napoli (2-for-11, 1HR) and Juan Rivera (0-for-10 with a walk, but only one strikeout). The Angels counter with Joe Saunders, who was very good his last time out (seems like every Angels’ starting pitcher was good his last time out). His career ERA against the Tigers is over five, but they didn’t do much against him the last time they saw him (which was last August). Most of the Tigers have decent numbers against him with the exception of Inge and Raburn. Saunders has given up homers to Maggs, Laird, and Everett, and exactly one double to everyone except Inge and Guillen. But as I said, the Angels’ starting pitching has been on a roll. That might trump everything else.

You Can Almost Feel It

Photo: AP

This is gonna have to be a REALLY short post and I won’t be able to do it much justice, because I have to leave for school shortly and this is the only opportunity I’ll have to write it. I did not see a lot of this game. It was the seventh inning by the time I got home from work. From what I hear, Eddie Bonine had a VERY shaky first inning, but once he got a rocket of a double play ball off the bat of Jose Morales, he settled down and actually gave the Tigers five good innings. And the bullpen stood up in a big way. Miner, Lyon, Rodney were all stellar. Meanwhile, the Twins dipped into the Carl Pavano well one too many times. The Tigers FINALLY figured him out, thanks to some big hits from Brandon Inge, Ramon Santiago, and Maggs.

And now it all comes down to this. Win today, and the Central is ours. Can they do it? Nate Robertson is coming off a bad start against the White Sox in which none of his pitches were working, but he did throw five good innings against the Twins back at the Metrodome to salvage a win in that series. Meanwhile, the Twins send Scott Baker to the mound. I heard him described by someone as the “anti-Pavano,” in that he’s been good against the rest of the league, but the Tigers have scored quite a few runs off him this year. I hope that continues. And it goes without saying that I have never NOT wanted to go to lab so much in my entire life (And it’s wet lab, too, which means I’m not getting out before 4:00, if not later). Your Mood Music for today: It’s a bilingual one today (Hey, we have about an even mix of English and Spanish-speakers on this team). I’m dipping back into Broadway and choosing “This is the Moment.” The English version is from a recording of the original cast of Jekyll & Hyde and features Robert Cuccioli. The Spanish version is from what looks like a Spanish version of American Idol (Spanish Idol? I do know it is from Spain, not from Latin America). The singer’s name is Paco Arrojo, and he does one of the best renditions of this song, no matter which language. Interesting side note: How did they wind up with Hagrid from Harry Potter as a judge? By the way, I’d post a Chinese version of it if I could find one.

My Night at the Ballpark

Photos: ME!

Last night was a blast. When I went to my one game last year, the Tigers scored 10 runs and hit four homers. This year, the Tigers scored 10 runs and hit 4 homers. What a coincidence. However, I always seem to attend on a night where the starting pitcher has to battle. And I’ve yet to see a Tigers’ starting pitcher NOT give up a home run. Andrew Miller gave up a solo home run to Josh Fields and a grand slam to Juan Uribe. Justin Verlander gave up a two-run homer to BJ Upton. Armando Galarraga gave up a solo home run to Frank Thomas. Now, I have Edwin Jackson (who, if you will recall, I have seen in person before, albeit as a member of the Rays) giving up a two-run homer to Billy Butler and a solo shot to Brayan Peña. Suffice it to say, Jackson did not have the best command and he was hit pretty hard, but he made the pitch when he needed to. And now, our four home run hitters:

Never in my life did I think I would see Ramon Santiago hit a home run, although now that he has seven, you have to think about when you’re gonna stop saying that. For what it’s worth, I HAVE seen Sean Casey hit a home run before. By the way, this photo IS from the at-bat where he homered. Also, he’s got the best batting music of anyone in the lineup.

In the two games I went to in ’07, Guillen hit a triple in each one. I did not see him last year because that was around the time he developed back problems. This time, he homered. By the way, for someone who isn’t used to hitting left-handed against left-handed pitching, Guillen’s not been doing bad. This is NOT the at-bat in which he homered. He did get an RBI single in this at-bat, though.

I was a little bit surprised to see Alex Avila in the lineup, but considering that they made public that he was catching Edwin Jackson in side sessions, maybe I shouldn’t have been. Also, when did the pronunciation of his last name change? I noticed that when I watched part of the FSD replay after I got home last night. Also, the public address announcer at the ballpark says his name in a really annoying fashion (“Alex A-VEEEEEEEEEEE-la”). By the way, my Personal Baseball Guru is on my side when it comes to taking a wait-and-see approach with Avila. It’s too soon to know whether or not he is truly a “catcher” and not merely just a “hitter.” For what it’s worth, though, one of the things I was worried about was his ability to hit left-handed pitching. It’s a small sample size (and Ron Mahay doesn’t exactly shut down lefties), but so far, so good. Like Guillen, this is NOT the at-bat in which he homered.

For some reason, I ended up with more pictures of Cabrera than anyone else. I assure you, I did not plan that (Trust me, if Verlander had been pitching, I would’ve had, like, a hundred pictures of Justin). Miggy had himself quite a night, with four hits and three RBIs. This is probably the best photo I got of anyone all night (I’m not that great a sports photographer). It is of his first at-bat. I do have a picture of him right before he homered, but that shot came out kinda blurry (Ironically, right before he hit the home run, I was thinking to myself “If he homers here, I want to get a picture of him right before he does it”).

For more pictures, go to the album I set up on Flickr.

Today, the Tigers can go for the sweep. From what I hear, Armando Galarraga still isn’t back to full strength, but whatever illness he had seems to have passed, and he’s hoping for six good innings. He hasn’t done so well in August, but he’s put up two good starts against Kansas City this year. Still, given the fact that he was sick and didn’t eat for three days, I don’t think it would be fair to make any sort of conclusions should he stumble in this start. He’ll be opposed by Kyle Davies, whom the Tigers have scored lots of runs against this year. Leyland has loaded his lineup with righties, as Davies is actually more effective against lefties despite the fact that he’s a right-handed pitcher. Meanwhile, Galarraga’s not exactly going to have the best defensive alignment behind him. You’ve got Thames and Maggs in the outfield (not the best range for either of them), Raburn at third (Inge rests, although don’t be surprised if he makes an appearance should the Tigers have the lead late), and Guillen at first (with Cabrera DHing).

A Sweep is Twice the Fun

Photo: AP

Considering that a lot of us woke up yesterday with some degree of trepidation, we all went to bed a little bit happier. Eddie Bonine pitched about as well as you’d reasonably ask of him, mohawk and all (It seems that the Mud Hens are trying to employ the same rally tactic that the Tampa Bay Rays did last year; several of the Mud Hens are sporting them. In case you’re wondering, Jeff Larish is not one of them. Not yet, anyways). Considering that this is an offense that Tigers pitching routinely has problems with, three runs in six innings is not bad at all. And the bullpen did a tremendous job of ensuring that the score remained tied. Hell, even Rodney had a 1-2-3 inning (though, considering it was a one-run game, I’m surprised that Ozzie Guillen did not send in either A.J. Pierzynski or Carlos Quentin to pinch-hit). Meanwhile, it was not exactly an offensive barrage, but the boys managed to do just enough to pull away with a victory. Carlos Guillen homered. That’s great. Now can he keep it up? And there were a couple key hits from guys who’ve been taking a lot of flak recently. Dusty Ryan (who almost never plays at all, so he’s not able to get into any kind of rhythm, so you can’t really blame him for not hitting much) came up with a big RBI single (plus he threw out two runners). And while everyone online was making nasty, snarky comments about Magglio grounding into a double play in the eighth, he hit a double instead (turning on a 94-MPH fastball, I might add). That was huge, because it set up the intentional walk to Cabrera, which was eventually followed by the bases-loaded walk to Clete Thomas (Clete’s starting to specialize in that).

I wanted to add a couple of comments regarding some things in the game. First, one of the bullet points on the scouting report for Eddie Bonine was supposed to read “Peaking at the right time.” Instead, some intern can’t spell and it said “Peeking at the right time.” Also, did anyone else notice that there was a teacup in Ramon Santiago’s locker?

These last two victories are big because they ensure that the Tigers will come out of this weekend’s series no worse than tied for first place. But of course we want an even better outcome than that. Edwin Jackson is coming off a start in which he got outdueled by Joba Chamberlain. He typically does not get run support, and hopefully the five walks in his last start were just a fluke and he goes back to throwing strikes. He had a problem with that the only time he’s faced Chicago this year. He only gave up two runs, but he walked four and only lasted five innings. Meanwhile, Gavin Floyd never seems to give the Tigers much. They struggle to score runs against him in the best of times. And even on the rare occasion that they’ll get to him a little bit, our pitching absolutely implodes. I would have Mood Music for you, except I did NOT finish this post this morning and I subsequently ended up working an hour later than I was scheduled to, so I have no time to look for some.

Totally Different Issues This Time

It seems that whenever the Tigers lose a game in which they leave a lot of men on base, it almost inevitably gets followed by a game in which they get dominated and end up with very few guys to strand. If I were superstitious, I’d say it was karma biting them in the ass. All in all, it was a strange night for Alfredo Figaro, and an even worse night for the offense. Figaro had a disastrous third inning in which he gave up a bunch of hits and a bunch of runs (Rod Allen mentioned that all the hits came on offspeed pitches, so make of that what you will). The other five innings he was in there, well…he wasn’t great, but he was okay, I guess. Leyland said that Figaro got aggressive “only after the horse was out of the barn.” Freddy Dolsi finished things up and yes, I know he didn’t give up a run, but he still scares the hell out of me. Besides, between him and Figaro, it looked like the Tigers had a couple of 12-year-olds pitching for them. At any rate, the two of them combined to only give up three walks, which is certainly more acceptable than 7. In terms of the offense, I may as well not give them their own paragraph, because there’s not a lot to talk about. Santiago homered, and Cabrera and Thames each had a single. That was it. I listened to the radio post-game show and watched the post-game show on television as well (hey, I am nothing if not thorough). Jim Price seemed to think that the hitters helped out Paulino immensely, but Jim Leyland’s attitude would seem to suggest that he thought the Tigers were genuinely overmatched. I’m inclined to believe the manager over the radio color analyst, but I will say this: Brandon Inge was taking some really funky swings all night. He also scraped up his arm, likely on that Michael Bourn rundown that took way too long to complete (cue the Benny Hill music).

Well, at last we’ve come to the end of Interleague play, which this year was not as bountiful a harvest for the Tigers. That’s kind of disappointing to me, because I enjoy Interleague play and this year I can’t really use my #1 argument for it (although I could adapt it by saying that if the Tigers are gonna suck against the AL East, which they’ve done so far, .500 against the National League ain’t so bad in comparison). At any rate, Edwin Jackson will be charged with nipping this little mini-skid in the bud. The Cubs made him work to get his outs last time, but he navigated his way out of trouble with minimal damage and it was only Micah Hoffpauir’s home run off Zumaya which denied him the victory. He’ll be up against Russ Ortiz, who I guess is kind of a middle-of-the-road-type pitcher. His earned run average is pretty good, but he’s not overpowering. However, those “crafty” type pitchers have been known to give the Tigers fits in the past. I’ll be at work from 10 to 5, so it’s quite possible (in fact, likely) that I will miss the vast bulk of this game. Your Mood Music for today: I started this slideshow last year shortly after Pudge was traded to the Yankees, and I never finished it. Given that the Tigers were facing him once again, I decided to go ahead and complete it. I would much rather have made a music video than a slideshow, but the video capture software I have leaves the image really grainy (either that, or I have a crappy VCR hooked up to the computer), and I wouldn’t be able to share it for very long, because YouTube would have it taken down within an hour. At any rate, it is not my best work by any means (I am planning another, more complicated slideshow that I will hopefully have done in time for the Minnesota series, but if I don’t get it done, it’ll have to wait until the next time the Tigers go to Minneapolis), and it is perhaps a bit more emotionally charged than it would be if I had started it today instead of a year ago. No, I am not a teenage girl who has to make slideshows of all her favorite people. I’m a filmmaker at heart, so this is my way of creative expression. At any rate, YouTube kinda screwed up the video when it got uploaded, and the transitions are slower than they should be. By the way, I do NOT have a repository of Pudge Rodriguez photos. I have a massive repository of Tigers photos in general from 2007 and 2008 (and a tiny bit of 2006), of which I ended up using nearly every picture of Pudge that I had. I do have an addendum that I came up with while making this slideshow, but as this post is already too long, I’ll save it for the next blog. At any rate, if you’re not a fan of Pudge, you don’t have to watch it. The song is Ozzy Osbourne’s “See You on the Other Side.”

Homemade Perfection

Photo: AP

Man, I think the Tigers escaped every single one of these games on the homestand by the skin of their teeth (hell, that statement could even apply to the entire winning streak), but the important thing is that they were able to do just that. Armando Galarraga got off to a rough start, and as a result, eventually got saddled with four earned runs in six innings, but I was encouraged by his pitching after the first inning. In some respects, he looked better than he did in the three quality starts he put up during his winless stretch. He made some mistakes in the strikezone that got hit hard, but he also threw a lot of pitches that looked like they belonged in the arsenal of the Galarraga of old. I saw quite a few good sliders in there. Perhaps there are three things about his final line that are especially encouraging. First, he only gave up six hits, which is not excessive for the time he was in there by any means. Second, he only walked one batter. Third, he struck out five batters, which is the highest number he’s gotten since the last time he won. And though I’m not real big on sabremetrics, he DID get quite a few swings and misses. So all told, he’s not quite back to being El Prestidigitador, but I think this start was a step in the right direction.

Once the Cubs got the three-run homer in the first inning, I was concerned because Ted Lilly had been pitching extremely well and I wasn’t sure he’d give up more than three runs. As it turns out, the Tigers’ history of punishing lefties won out. Ramon Santiago got the Tigers on the board first with a two-run homer (He’s got five now this year; at what point does he cease to be a “surprising” source of power?). And then a day after breaking the heart of nearly every woman in Tigerdom, Magglio Ordoñez DID homer. I still stand by what I said previously, although I will add that the placebo effect is an amazing phenomenon. If you’re gonna be superstitious about it, you could just as easily argue that Maggs homered because I ate macaroni and cheese for lunch yesterday, or because one of the cats decided to climb up the window shade and broke the frame. That has a nice ring to it: “Every time a cat breaks a window shade frame, Magglio hits a home run.” Yes, I’m sure by now you’ve realized that while I can take major problems like bases-loaded walks in stride, I get mad at really stupid things that are largely inconsequential. By the way, Magglio is selling his hair on eBay. I know it’s for a good cause, but it’s still CREEPY. Anyways, back to the offense. Miguel Cabrera continued his hot streak (though he’s got a long way to go if he wants to catch Ichiro), as did Ryan Raburn. And thanks to all of them, here’s your broom:


Interleague play winds down this weekend as the Tigers head to Houston for one more taste of National League-style baseball. The Astros have been near the bottom of the NL Central for most of the season, which doesn’t make a lot of sense since they have okay pitching and with some of the hitters they have, you’d think their offense would be better. Still, remember what the Pirates did to us. At any rate, Justin Verlander takes the hill tonight. He bounced back marvelously from that bad start in St. Louis to beat the Milwaukee Brewers. He’s gonna have to give them some innings tonight, because I would think Bobby Seay, Brandon Lyon, and possibly Fernando Rodney are all unavailable tonight. Meanwhile, he’ll be up against Wandy Rodriguez, who has had a weird season, in that he started out pitching well enough to almost rival Zack Greinke, only to then go through a stretch where he got pounded every time out (which led to a mini-soap operaish controversy involving the catchers, the Astros’ GM, and whether or not he was tipping his pitches). Recently, he’s been either really bad or lights-out. Which brings me to the dilemma involving his batterymate. While I have become accustomed to not seeing him around Comerica Park anymore, I am still just as fond of Pudge as I was the day I picked him to be my favorite (and yes, I know he’s only batting around .250 this year, but he IS throwing runners out with a good amount of consistency). July 30th was the low point in the 2008 season for me, and truth be told, I’m not sure how I feel. It’s not that I can’t abide seeing him in another uniform (though seeing him wear a number other than 7 is exceptionally strange). It’s more that I don’t know how I would feel seeing him oppose the Tigers. I did not watch the one game last year where he came back to Comerica Park with the Yankees, marking the only occasion in the last three years that I have deliberately missed a game. It’s quite a conundrum. I don’t have very long to figure things out, though. Still, I’d like to think that Pudge has had a lasting impact on the Tigers that he was teammates with, and that that influence is part of the reason why the Tigers are playing well this season. That’s the beauty of catchers. Those intangibles. I’m not doing Mood Music tonight because I meant to use a slideshow that I myself started after Pudge was traded last year but did not finish. However, it’s still being uploaded to YouTube (literally), so it’ll have to wait until tomorrow or Sunday (unless it gets deleted for copyright issues before then). I would've used something from Michael Jackson, but I can't find one that's appropriate that allows embedding at this late notice. Yikes!

Weekend Mojo

Photo: AP

It’s nice to see that the Tigers apparently learned something from that horrid Metrodome series: Don’t just give up when you’re down by a bunch of runs early (cuz that certainly didn’t faze the Twins at all). I wish I had good things to discuss about Armando Galarraga, but unfortunately I don’t. This time, his teammates were able to pick him up and salvage his record, but sadly, the same can’t be said for his earned run average, which is now so unsightly I almost can’t bear to look at it. It’s at the point where you can no longer say it’s either mental OR mechanical, because while one was likely the initial cause, it’s now trickled over into the other. You can’t struggle for that long and not have that happen. On his Twitter page, Jason Beck described Armando’s removal in the first inning as “the culmination of Leyland’s frustrations,” which suggests to me that Leyland is still thinking this is more mental than mechanical, and possibly that his primary motivation in removing Galarraga that early in the came was to send him a message of some sort. Let’s hope that this was the bottoming out of the whole thing, cuz I like him a lot and it would suck for it to end this way. The Tigers’ bullpen did a pretty good job for the amount of innings they had to pitch. Zach Miner was the only one to give up runs, but pitching 4.1 innings pretty much amounted to a start for him, and while I felt like he was fighting his control the whole time, he was a lot better than he was in Minnesota. Luke French had a somewhat strange outing: He walked three, including the first two batters he faced, but didn’t give up any runs. And good outings from Perry and Rodney capped off the afternoon.

It looks as though the Tigers broke the Oakland pitching staff (they got pounded by the Rays last night as well). The A’s came in with the second-best ERA in the league, and the Tigers scored about a million runs against them over the weekend. Leyland sure did pick a good day to put Ramon Santiago in the lineup. And I don’t know if anyone else has pointed this out, but his last two home runs have been impressive just because of where they were hit. Usually, the few times he does homer, they’re shots that go right down the line. The one in Minnesota was to dead center field, and the one on Sunday was in the right-centerfield gap (or, as Rod Allen likes to call it, “big boy territory”). The other kinda weird thing about this game was that Magglio’s double accounted for the only hit from the 3-4-5 hitters. Miguel Cabrera’s 0-for-5 was especially strange to see. Let’s hope he goes on a tear this week, cuz I’m tired of seeing Victor Martinez lead the league in hitting. Anyways, the contributions from the bottom of the order secured the sweep, so here is another broom:

I hope ya’ll enjoyed the off-day, cuz we’re not gonna have another one for quite a while. The Texas Rangers are in town, and they are hot as can be right now. Not only is there offense on a roll (which it normally is anyways), but they’ve actually been getting some pretty decent pitching recently (kind of a scary thought), although their closer is currently on the DL. Tonight, Dontrelle Willis goes up against Brandon McCarthy. Dontrelle’s first outing of the year was eclipsed by events so strange it was like the Tigers were playing on the west coast. As a result, I didn’t even discuss his outing. He was not great, but okay, and probably could’ve gone the full five innings. However, last year, he was always okay in his first start back. It’s the second one where things would totally spin out of control. Still, he only walked two, which is a vast improvement over five. The Tigers will be without the services of Magglio Ordoñez for this series, as he has been placed on the bereavement list because his wife is having surgery. I certainly wish both of them the best and that everything turns out okay. To take his place on the roster, the Tigers have called up Wilkin Ramirez, their top outfield prospect. He’s been putting up some good numbers for Toledo, especially in the stolen base department. The thing I’ve heard about him is that he’s very talented but strikes out a lot. No Mood Music tonight, as I don’t have any real good ideas.

Safeco Field: Still Weird, But No More Hell

Photo: Otto Greule, Jr. (Getty Images)

Considering that getting swept in this series was a very real possibility, given how well Seattle had been playing, taking two of three is certainly something I’ll take without any complaint whatsoever. As far as Porcello’s outing, I sensed a little bit of teetering on the brink, but he never got there, so that’s the important part (I guess you could contrast that with Verlander, who didn’t have any teetering whatsoever and still lost). The bullpen had maybe a few too many baserunners and they did give up a run, but it didn’t really matter at that point (the run-scoring single was not hit very hard, and it had been set up by an infield single). I think Porcello got pulled at the right time, cuz the Mariners were starting to hit some loud outs in the seventh inning (nice play by Inge, after basically being out-highlight-reeled by Adrian Beltre all weekend). And given that I certainly know what happens to rookies after they get their first Major League win, I was waiting for the inevitable towel full of shaving cream in Rick Porcello’s face. And sure enough, during his postgame interview, I noticed Justin Verlander in the background, walking just a little too casually toward the camera. Apparently they also poured beer on Porcello in the clubhouse.

I guess kudos goes to the team for demonstrating that they can win a series without hitting a home run (By the way, has anyone else realized that only five guys on the team have homered this year?). Outside of a few doubles, they mostly got it done with singles, bunts, stolen bases, hit-and-run, and taking advantage of errors. Unlike a lot of TV broadcasters, I don’t find “small ball” to be that exciting, but it’s still important to be able to manufacture runs when you have to, and the boys demonstrated an ability to do just that (However, I strongly discourage anyone from trying to turn the Tigers into the Twins or the Angels). Miguel Cabrera made a bid for a home run that probably would’ve made it out in most parks, but apparently the ball just doesn’t carry in Seattle. Once again, with the exception of Matt Treanor, there was a lot of production out of the bottom of the order. As far as the middle of the order goes, Maggs has been hitting the ball a lot harder over the past couple days, plus he’s taken a lot of walks. Guillen, who’s been the one really struggling, has had some long at-bats over the past couple days, and he was rewarded with two hits yesterday (granted, they were both hit-and-run singles, but it’s a start).

Today is another off-day, but starting tomorrow night, the Tigers will be down the coast in Anaheim, and if you thought strange things happened at Safeco Field, that’s usually nothing compared to Angel Stadium. The Angels are kind of in a tailspin right now. They just got swept by the Twins, their top three starters are on the DL, another pitcher was tragically killed by a drunk driver, Vladimir Guerrero is on the DL, and their bullpen is having serious issues, especially with walks. If ever there was an opportunity, now would be the time. However, they are still a good team capable of stepping up at any time, and the Tigers have not played well in Anaheim over the past couple years. Plus, they are going to be facing the Angels’ two best (healthy) pitchers. First up is Armando Galarraga against Jered Weaver. Galarraga has made three starts against the Angels in his career, two good, one bad (that was the one start he made when he was still with Texas). Jered Weaver has had several good starts and one very bad start against the Tigers. So it’s more late-night action, only this time I won’t be staying around for the whole game. I love ‘em to death, but when you gotta get up at 6 AM the next day, it just ain’t gonna happen.

Prophecy? Or Not?

Upon further thought, the White Sox (who, by the way, DID finish their series against Minnesota with a couple of semi-blowout games, so their offense was working before coming to Detroit) should not be your first choice when trying to gauge how the Tigers will fare against the AL Central, because for some reason, they’re always a problem (even in 2006, the Tigers couldn’t solve them). I mentioned that it was windy here in Toledo, but apparently it was just plain cold in Detroit. And after starting out in climate-controlled Toronto and then having fairly mild weather over the weekend, apparently the cold had a detrimental effect on both pitching staffs (though, admittedly, I do not know the weather conditions that the White Sox have been playing in, even though MLB.tv seems to think I live somewhere between Chicago and Milwaukee, because I’ve been getting blacked out of live games for both the Cubs and the Brewers). And it affected the two pitching staffs differently. I think I remember last year someone explaining the difference between “control” and “command.” I may have this backwards (and if I do, please let me know), but I believe “control” is the ability to throw strikes, whereas “command” is the ability to throw the ball where you want to throw it. If that’s the case, then you could say that Gavin Floyd had control problems, whereas Zach Miner had command problems. He did walk a few, but his big problem was not being able to keep the White Sox in the ballpark. Eddie Bonine also gave up two runs, but Miner had essentially put the Tigers in too big of a hole so I suppose it doesn’t much matter in the long run (and to his credit, his only walk was of the intentional variety). Juan Rincon actually turned in three decent scoreless innings. He gave up a couple of hits, and for some reason he couldn’t throw a strike to Brian Anderson (literally; I believe both his walks were on four pitches each), nor could he keep Anderson on first base, but no runs crossed the plate. Which is good, because otherwise it could’ve ended up like the Yankees-Rays game last night, in which Chien-Ming Wang got bombed for the second straight game and the Yankees had Nick Swisher pitching the bottom of the eighth.

While the White Sox were getting lots of hits, the Tigers were getting…lots of walks. Tons of ‘em. How Gavin Floyd was even able to go five innings (giving up six earned runs and SEVEN walks in the process) I have no idea. It seemed like the Tigers were perpetually one big hit away from turning the game into a proper slugfest, but that one big hit never came. Instead, it got caught on a diving play by Dewayne Wise, who separated his shoulder in the process (and had he not hurt himself, Carlos Guillen probably would’ve gotten doubled off). Besides the aforementioned robbery, Ramon Santiago had a three-run homer and a bunt single, making for a somewhat interesting line (and you know things are getting weird when Ramon Santiago has one home run and Guillen and Maggs still don’t have any, though perhaps the weirdness is just getting itself warmed up for the west coast roadtrip). Meanwhile, is it just me, or does Curtis Granderson seem to be hitting a lot of ground balls to second base recently? I mean, I did that a lot back when I played softball (VERY limited sample, though), but Granderson’s a much better hitter and I swing from the other side of the plate, so I know it’s not the same thing. By the way, your dugout entertainment for the day came courtesy of Armando Galarraga, who had hand warmers tucked into his cap to cover his ears. There was also a shot of him and Edwin Jackson kind of playing with bats, which prompted Rod Allen to state, “Those two know nothing about what they’re holding right now.”

I guess yesterday was just a bad day for baseball in general. First, Philles broadcaster Harry Kalas died only a couple hours before their game started. Somewhat embarrassingly, I first knew him as the guy who did the voiceovers for the Animal Planet “Puppy Bowl” specials every year (which, if you’ve never seen it, gets broadcast on Super Bowl Sunday and basically features a three-hour block of puppies playing in a pen that’s made to look like a football field; it’s not really that interesting, and yet it seems to get turned on at some point every year at my house). Then I watched part of a Phillies game last year, and recognized his voice. I got a hunch that he was in the Hall of Fame, which turned out to be right, so my sympathies go out to Phillies fans, cuz I imagine it would be like us losing Ernie Harwell. Then the evening news brought word of the death of Mark Fidrych in an apparent accident. Obviously, when he won Rookie of the Year, I had not been born yet, so I don’t really have memories to share or anything. They aired a game of his on MLB Network a while back, and I have it on the DVR, but I’ve only watched about two innings or so. I guess this is telling, though: Even my mom found him entertaining, and she hates baseball. It’s a shame that injuries kinda took a toll on him after his rookie season, especially since stuff like that probably would not go undiagnosed for very long (at the time, they thought he had shoulder tendinitis, when in actuality it was a torn rotator cuff). Nowadays, if you’re a pitcher and you so much as feel a slight twinge, it seems like you’re immediately sent off to get an MRI. In all fairness, though, even with a diagnosis, rotator cuff surgery is not as much of a sure thing as, say, Tommy John surgery, so getting him back to form would not have been a guarantee. But God bless him, and this is a tragic loss for Tiger fans.

On the day when the Tigers will undoubtedly honor the memory of Mark Fidrych in some manner before the game, it seems somewhat fitting that they’re sending another young pitcher to the mound in the person of Rick Porcello. Jason Beck has pointed out the tendency of the White Sox to hammer Tigers’ rookie pitchers in recent years (Verlander’s struggles against them are well-documented, but they’ve also beat up on former Tigers Andrew Miller and Virgil Vasquez; I was actually at one of those Andrew Miller games, where Juan Uribe hit a grand slam off him), so history isn’t exactly on his side. But if he can limit the home runs, I think that’ll go a long way. John Danks starts for the White Sox, and he’s been a very good pitcher for them over the past year and a half or so. The Tigers had some early success in their first two games against him back in ’07, but they really haven’t been able to touch him since (and his spot in the rotation almost always seemed to come up whenever the White Sox played the Tigers last year). He also notched the only win for the White Sox in the ALDS last year against the Rays. And it’s probably not a good idea to have to rely on hoping he has the same kind of control problems Gavin Floyd had yesterday, cuz that probably won’t happen. The weather in Detroit is supposed to be a bit warmer than yesterday, but it’s also supposed to rain (and according to the radar, it is raining there right now). Here in Toledo, it was not as windy this morning, but it was rainy and kinda dreary (and there were a bunch of worms on my driveway, which was gross). Your Mood Music for today comes courtesy of the band Survivor: “Burning Heart.” Yes, it’s originally from a Rocky movie, but given how these two teams have played for the past four years, it’s kind of fitting.