Wild west coast trip starts tonight
posted in 2007 season, LA Angels |Game 19: Tigers at L.A. Angels of Anaheim, 10 p.m.
TV: FSN
Pitchers: Mike Maroth (5.40, 2-0) vs. Jered Weaver (0-1, 4.50)
Pregame thoughts — It should be interesting to see how the Tigers deal with this quirk-of-scheduling that sends them from Detroit to Anaheim for two games in 36 hours before they get back on the airplane for a two-day trip to Chicago. Curtis Granderson, at least, will be dealing with it by watching Family Guy and Boondocks. So I can’t really disagree with those choices other than to ask him where the Futurama eps are.
Maroth has a 5.40 ERA and yet he’s 2-0. The Tigers offense steps up when it needs to. Vlad Guerrero in 14 at-bats and Gary Matthews Jr. in nine have a combined five homers off Maroth and a better than 1.500 OPS. So, watch out on those matchups. Actually, glancing at the batter vs. pitcher for tonight’s game does not give me a lot of confidence unless Maroth can reverse those trends for a night.
When Weaver takes the hill, every Tigers batter will be facing him for the first time. That’s strange. He’s pitched just once this season after feeling tightness in his biceps this spring.
Halos Heaven is generally entertaining when it comes to underestimating Angels opponents. 6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers Blog looks like a promising read as well. Surprisingly the Angels blogosphere doesn’t have many frequently updated blogs listed at StrikeTwo.
Granderson led off with a home run. (AP Photo/Mark Avery)
Postgame thoughts (Tigers win, 9-5) – The Tigers jumped all over Weaver for seven runs in the first two innings. They took a nice, slow approach at the plate, got his pitch count up and rapped out a bunch of hits. The best part? The Tigers scored all five runs in the second inning after the first two batters struck out. That’s just amazing.
Naturally, no early lead is entirely safe, and those who went to bed content with the knowledge the Tigers were going to win probably woke up this morning and thought “Well, good, they did win.” But they lost out on a lot of heart racing, “Please, don’t blow this lead” mutterings and possibly a few other mutterings. But this game was a lot closer than a 7-0 lead and 9-5 final score would indicate. Maroth was pitching from behind all night, putting runners on first with freebies and watching as his defense came close, but not close enough. In 4 2-3 innings, he threw 105 pitches: 54 for strikes, 51 for balls. The Angels got seven hits and five walks.
The three runs — two earned — were close though. For all the problems Maroth was in, he was close to getting out almost unscathed. A hit dropped into shallow center between Granderson, Guillen and Polanco, and later two Angels runs scored on two-out hits. Inge made a diving stop but threw the ball over Casey’s head to allow the second run into scoring position. In the next inning, Guillen nearly turned the double play but Robb Quinlan narrowly beat the throw and later scored after a wild pitch by Maroth.
In the fifth inning, Maroth loaded the bases with two outs and a 7-3 lead, but Jason Grilli bailed him out — and Inge helped with a leaping grab of a tough bounce. With Inge, you get what you get. Some errors resulting from his extra effort, some exceptional plays from it, too. He’s fun to watch.
Grilli struggled with his control in the sixth but then pitched fine and earned the victory the scorekeeper awarded. After that, it was mostly uneventful. I didn’t think Joel Zumaya should be called on in a five run game, but he did strike out Vlad Guerrero entertainingly.
Curtis Granderson fell a triple short of the cycle — and he also made two great throws from center field. One resulted in Vlad being caught at third base for an out. The other bounced off Pudge’s glove or chest protector and the run scored. Had he caught it, the runner was probably out. Oh, and Grady got a stolen base. He really seems to have put it all together in the outfield as well as at the plate. He’s all-around dangerous.
Sheffield (!!), Maggs, Guillen and Pudge all had multiple-hit games. Maybe this slump is nearing its end.
See 6-4-2 for a recap from an Angels blog.
Around the Central:
Man, what’s up with this schedule? The Tigers travel to the west coast for the two-game trip, the rest of the division plays itself?
White Sox 7, Royals 4 – The Sox rallied with four runs in the final two innings to pull out the victory. Gil Meche allowed three runs over seven innings for the Royals. Mark Buehrle had the same for the Sox in his first post no-hitter start.
Cleveland 7, Twins 3 (12 innings) – Jesse Crain allowed four runs after both starters — Jeremy Sowers for Cleveland, Carlos Silva for the Twins — gave up three runs.
Tigers and Twins are tied for first with 11-8 records.
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