Battle of the two rookie pitchers with funny names and Darvish outduels Smiley. The Tiger rookie pitcher let this one get away wiith the throwing error and then allowed four runs that allowed the Rangers to go ahead 5-3. He and Avila also teamed up with what would be the eventual winning run a pass ball, where Avila could not locate it and the runner from third walked in. The Tiger batters struck out 12 times (10 to Darvish). Fielder knocked in 4 of the Tigers 5 runs and Cabrera went 0-3. As soon as they get close to ..500, they lose another to drop back a couple of games. Once they get over the hump I think can get their run going, but it's been a struggle this past week. They still have a chance to win this series tomorrow.
Weekend summary for the Tiger fans out there. Tigers go down to Tampa and take three out of four games. Pitching was great as they held the Rays to 2 runs in two of the wins and 3 runs in the other victory. The only game they loss is the game where they gave up fours and the losing pitcher was the all-star and MVP % CYA winner .....Justin Verlander pitches. Tigers are one game under .500 and play the next seven game vs the two teams trailing them in the division, the Twins and Royals. Winning both series guarantees them a chance to be over .500 at the All-Star break and hopefully sets up a positive momentum for the rest of the season.
A chance to get even tonight evaporates as the Tigers had plenty of times with the at least two men on base to score multiple runs, but the batters behind Cabrera and Fielder could not come thru.... specifically Raburn and Boesh who struck out twice to end an inning with two men on. Young did come through once but also popped out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third.... Fister who struck out the side in the first inning gave up four in the fourth and could not get anyone out until the Twins had pushed three runs in. Had same issue in the fifth before JL yanked him...
Not too frustrated yet. Latest on VMart: Sounds encouraging. He just needs to rehab for a while. It looks like if we are on the road to a WS, he will be able to join the team. More realistically, we will probably have him back at full strength next season.
Right now they need the 5-7 batters to be consistent...Young, Peralta, Avila and Boesch...if two of them can come back from the break with consistency, the Tigers can overcome the occasional pitching breakdowns and win all series going forward. If Vmart can be that DH or even designated PH in mid September and post season that will be a plus.
Dre, you never mentioned Raburn and Santiago! Vmart may be back in mid-Sept. but I'm not sure if his bat will be back that soon. We really need to replace Boesch (maybe Dirks will be ready - but will he pick up his hitting where he left off?). Young and Peralta are both weak defensively and inconsistent offensively. Castellanos MIGHT be a wild card in LF, but we have many holes to fill!! And who knows how long the Berry-rocket will last.
Raburn and Santiago are filler guys in the 8-9 positions. Occasionally Santiago gets that needed hit, but Raburn has fallen way off and I was surprised they even brought him back up from the minors. As long as Young, Peralta and Boesh keep swinging at the first pitch, grounding into DP's or striking out...the opposing team will continue to intentionally walk Fielder when there are two outs and take their chances on the 5-7 guys. Like Bill said, Dumbrowski, may need to add a bat and possibly another arm to the lineup if the race for the division is tight by the end of July.
I've seen some suggesting Carlos Quentin. Why did the White Sox dump him? I don't know! I think it was because he was an inconsistent power hitter and weak defender. Sound familiar? (i.e. Delmon Young). How about Josh Willingham who we are seeing with the Twins? There are very few second basemen available. Detroit has some good SS and 2B prospects but they are at Class A. Who knows how they will develop. No team is perfect. (except the Yankees), and their pitching is always suspect.
Duane Below getting the 3rd start of his career tonight in place of the injured Scherzer. DB's ERA is 2.70 on the season (compared to Verlander's 2.69). He's off to an OK start, so it should be interesting to see how deep in the game he can make it.
Verlander stops the bleeding with a 4 hit, one run complete game. Fielder knocked in 2 runs, Miggy came through with 2 dingers to knock in the other three runs. Otherwise it was the usual grounding into DP by the Tigers to end any scoring threats and keep the Twins in it. Tigers need to win the remaining games on this home stand to go into the All-stat break over .500...good luck...
Tigers salvage a 2-2 series split with the Twins coming back to win with 5 runs in the bottom the 8th inning with a massive one out 3 run homer by Fielder. The key players all got hits here with AJax leading off the 8th with a triple, Berry walking, Miggy knocking in AJ on with a RBI single that tied the game, and the Fielder game winning 3 run homer and then a solo shot by DYoung that bounced back, but was still ruled a homer. Rick Porcello gave up 12 hits in the first four innings, but the Tigers kept the close by throwing out three runners at the plate and getting out of jams. The relief work was outstanding today striking out 10 Twins after Porcello failed to strike out anyone. Darin Downs looked especially good out there as the first reliever out there. At 41-42, it would be nice for the Tigers to sweep the three game series with the Royals and end the break on a positive note above .500., but I am sure they would be happy with 43-43 based on the issues they have had this season.
I'm fairly amazed that in hindsight, the Granderson trade looks like a clear win for the Tigers. Grandy is now 31 and has been more than replaced by our 25 year old Austin Jackson. We got: Austin Jackson (3rd in AL BA, 1st in defensive WAR!, biggest all star snub in baseball. He has the 4th best range and hasn't made an error this season). Max Scherzer (34 W's in 2.5 seasons with us/ 372 strike outs to 158 walks!) Phil Coke (207 IP so far) Dan Schlereth (74 IP)
Agree TaS That injury that sidelined Jackson for what 10 games hurt him on one hand with nationwide voters, but it actually told the real Tiger fans that he was the missing glue that kept this team from falling to far off the pace. I am thinking if he had not missed those games, they would have least been 3-4 games over .500 instead of a game under.
Woo hoo! Back to .500 at last. Big hit for AJax and an actual contribution from DYoung. Solid outing from Smyly and 4 relievers combine for 4 shutout innings. Valverde may have settled down.
Back to .500....time for the new season...lets sweep these Royals get this winning thing going... Smyly struck out 10 Royals
Jackson is 3rd in the AL in batting average, a hair behind Konerko, and a little more behind Trout. It would be cool if he ended up winning the batting title without playing in the all-star game. Carney Lansford and Bill Mueller did it I believe.
