27th
May
2008
Game 51: RISPing the night away
posted in 2008 season, LA Angels |Angels 1
Tigers 0
Recap:
- The Tigers couldn’t score. They have now gone 19 innings in a row without scoring a run. This follows scoring 19 runs on Saturday.
- Kenny Rogers did great, going 7 innings without allowing a run.
- The bullpen did great, going 4 innings without allowing a run
- Five Tigers got hits.
- They got Curtis Granderson to third base in the eighth inning on a bunt-sac by Placido Polanco after Granderson doubled. He was stranded at third.
- Tigers reliever Freddy Dolsi had an interesting situation in the 10th inning (his first on the mound.) Torii Hunter singled to left, then smartly stole second when the Tigers were caught unawares. The Tigers were going to intentionally walk the next batter, but Dolsi threw the ball away. He got rattled and Edgar Renteria had to come to the mound to calm him down. He made it out of the inning.
- The game-winning run was scored after a pair of hits and an intentional walk by Dolsi in the 12th. Bobby Seay allowed the game-winning run with a four-pitch walk.
Analysis:
- There were a few moves I didn’t like this game. I didn’t like bunting in the eighth inning with Granderson on second. With his speed, I think he has a pretty good chance of scoring on a single. And Polanco is a guy who has a good chance of hitting. After the bunt, there was one out for
Ryan Raburn. And that resulted in two outs soon after. Maybe you bunt if there’s a better batter next, but in this case, you don’t bunt. (Statistically speaking, the expected runs fell from 1.16 runs to 0.99 with the move). - Second, I didn’t like Dolsi pitching in the 10th, but that worked out fine. But OK, I really didn’t like him pitching in the 12th still. Once through the Angels lineup, fine. A second time through? No thanks. He started the season in A-ball.
- I know Leyland likes to have a team where he can throw any player into any situation, but in this case, I just felt like Dolsi gave his two scoreless innings, it was time to move on.
- That was a great move by Hunter to take second. Real head’s up baseball. Just goes to show how far the Tigers have fallen to allow it to happen. Too bad no one on the home team thinks like Hunter.
- I really think this whole “Miguel Cabrera can’t field” meme has to go away.
- I’m sick of hearing how baseball is a humbling game. A team with this much offensive firepower should not be shut out an eighth time by Memorial Day. That puts them two shutouts worse than the worst in baseball (The Nationals and Royals, such great company!)
- I guess the reason for having baseball bloggers block is the fact this team is so dispiriting.
- I’d like to say I was disappointed in this game. But maybe you lose some disappointment when a loss like this comes as something you expect, not a surprise. Too bad. This Tigers team had such potential and now I expect it to lose any game it isn’t winning by the third inning.
- That’s the real disappointment.
If the Tigers were winning more games this would have been a great ballgame to watch. It still was for me, in a way. Carlos made two more stupid-ass errors (didn’t cost the team for once). I think Leyland should have pinch-hit for Rayburn with Thames.
All-in-all, the Tigers caught more breaks in this game than they have total all season long. And they still couldn’t win it. But, on the bright side, they did hold their own against the second best team in the American League.
Hey, at least the Pistons and Red Wings won.
I agree. You can usually tell by the 3rd or 4th inning if the Tigers are going to win a game or not. They seem unable to score runs after the 4th inning if they haven’t scored in the earlier innings. If they have zero after four they’ll finish with zero, no way around it.
What a shame.