20th
May
2008
Game 45: Tigers’ offense, bullpen also go boom
posted in 2008 season, Seattle Mariners |Tigers 12
Mariners 8
Recap:
- Whether it was more related to the pregame rant by their manager or the Mariners’ pitchers, who is to say? The Tigers’ offense went off on the Mariners for 12 runs, many of them early.
- Edgar Renteria went 4-for-4, missing the cycle by a double.
- Maglio Ordonez, Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Guillen, hitting 4-5-6, had seven combined hits. Cabrera had three. He’s starting to hit.
- Most importantly, home runs were launched from all over the lineup.
- Ordonez, Renteria, Curtis Granderson and Guillen all launched homers. Guillen’s was a bomb to center field.
- The Tigers had 17 hits and a walk, but stranded just four runners on base
- On the pitching side, Justin Verander gave up a first inning hit, who got tagged out stealing second, and home run, but settled in nicely. His ball had plenty of movement and he struck out seven in six innings while walking just one. He was really on his game.
- No Tigers game would be compete without some downsides. Namely that an 11-1 game was a 12-8 final and the Mariners scored four runs in the ninth inning.
- Todd Jones got the save. Clay Rapada and Francisco Cruceta had the shame of being removed before they completed their ninth inning task of ending the game.
- And the outfielders had three errors. Matt Joyce and Curtis Granderson each had difficulty fielding rollers, and Ryan Raburn dropped a fly in foul territory.
Analysis:
- No, I really don’t have a clue if the Tigers would have done the same without Jim Leyland’s rant. But it didn’t hurt!
- Verlander, just watching his composure and stuff, looked like the pitcher we expected to see. He’s stringing some nice starts together. That’s a great sign.
- No qualms with Leyland pulling him. He pitched a great game and the team had a big lead.
- The offense actually hitting home runs was nice to see too. They should have been doing this the whole season of course. And the FSN Detroit guys had a great stat. Before Grandy’s two-run home, the Tigers had gone 23 straight solo home runs. That’s why they weren’t’ scoring more runs! So more homers when men are on base, please.
- The bullpen was a huge, huge disappointment. Of course outfielders who didn’t make errors would help. But still. It was a poor showing after the team started off so well.
- But I did like that Leyland didn’t allow his pitchers to stay in long in the ninth and his going to Todd Jones for the save was fine by me.
- Will they keep this up? Lord only knows. But for a night anyway, it was great to see
Yeah, I liked how Leyland yanked the relievers when it looked like they were struggling. I like the attitude of, “If you can’t get the job done we will find someone who can”. I think Leyland and Dombrowski should make sure the players understand that. If you can’t get the job done then you won’t play as much, simple as that.
BUGNUTS AND AWESOME
While the Tigers may be a very disappointing baseball team this year, they DO NOT DISAPPOINT when it comes to crazy drama. There’s nothing I don’t absolutely love about the Grilli comments and the grizzled bleeps in response.
Here’s the thing though. First, WDFN made some interesting points about “chemistry.” Much of the dissent about a lack of “chemistry” is coming from white players (Grilli and Inge lamenting the departure of Casey) Could this claim of chemistry be coming from disgruntled white players who now feel that the clubhouse is “too Latin?” I hope not, but that’s WDFN’s theory. It’s a very interesting take and I think it’s not without merit to consider that there may be a weird racial undercurrent to the clubhouse blues. Sad but perhaps true.
Second, for Leyand to dismiss all this as “not being the problem…it’s between the lines” is a bit naive. All workplaces have environments that change and alter productivity. If the players don’t get along, it matters. If there are crazy cliques, it matters. Though I am heartened by the fact that Leyland vows that “you wanna play (bleep)-in games? I’ll play games ever (bleep)-in games” I’m not saying that the players all have to do trust falls or drop peyote and wander the desert together (though that would be pretty cool to see), but look at the high socks issue. That was a brilliant (alright for baseball players) scheme to concoct team chemistry. And how long did it last? One game. Meh.
Third, Willis to the bullpen now? It’s all awesome and crazy. I only hope that one of the ballplayers is talking to an imaginary blond in a red dress (that’s for you Stacey).
How do you fix? Who cares sorta. This is going to be awesome. The Tigs are probably already out of the playoff hunt, but I’ll gladly trade that for a summer of tirades and clubhouse fights. Bring the chaos.
BUG. NUTS. It’s the word of the year. It hereby replaces the Pistons “That’s Bananas” of a few years back.
Correction: Rod and Mario, when they referred to the 23 straight solo homeruns, were talking about Curtis Granderson not the Tigers as a whole. They followed up that comment by saying that most of that had to do with him batting lead-off. Tiger’s have hit homeruns with guys on base this year. But, definitely not very many.
Anyway, it was great to see the Tiger’s hit again. Not so great to see them almost blow it. I would much rather see their ability to add on runs improve than just getting a bunch all at once. Give me a game of six one run innings over one five run inning any day. We can’t just get a big lead and then take it easy.