Tigers 3, Orioles 2

Hey, I got break out the broom for the first time this season! Detroit took all three from Baltimore for four Ws in a row.

Detroit won in another one-run game. They’re all one-run games. Nate Robertson didn’t exactly throw a gem — one of the runs was walked in — but he dealt with his struggles well enough to pitch into the seventh inning while allowing just two runs. Jason Grilli cleaned up. Fernando Rodney wasn’t perfect in his outing, but he allowed just one baserunner. And Todd Jones struck out two for his 10th save.
I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking the bullpen is pulling out of that awful tailspin it was in in April.

Gary Sheffield continued to make the Orioles pay — Daniel Cabrera should have aimed that pitch better Monday — by hitting a solo homer and driving in the game-tying run. He went 4-for-4. Plus Sheff had his fifth steal of the season. I don’t think anyone expected Sheff to lead the Tigers in steals, but he certainly looks better than anyone else on the team at it.

Craig Monroe had the game-winning run with his second homer of the series.

Also, interestingly, nearly 30,000 fans came out for a Wednesday afternoon game in early May. That’s nice to see.

That completes the series with the O’s. Detroit took five of six. The Tigers have Thursday off.

Share/Email This

Tigers Win 5-4

AP Photo

Anytime Joel Zumaya is happy, I’m happy. Because if Joel Zumaya isn’t happy, there’s a pretty good chance the Tigers aren’t going to be either. Four strikeouts, two scoreless innings and his first win of the season, Joel Zumaya had a good reason to be happy Tuesday.

Chad Durbin? Maybe he’s not so happy. Six walks. Less than four complete innings pitched. He followed up his excellent outing against the White Sox with a sub-par showing against the Orioles. 46 strikes, 49 balls. Bright side, he did only give up two runs. But he couldn’t throw enough strikes.

As Freep writer John Lowe likes to point out in his blog how good the relief is between the starter and the finishers, I’ll hop that bandwagon and say Bobby Seay showed why the Tigers don’t miss Jamie Walker as much as everyone likes to pretend. Bridging Durbin-to-Zumaya after the starter came out early, Seay allowed just a hit and walk. Zumaya did let one of his baserunners get in, but no big deal. The Tigers needed Seay’s performance.

Despite a sub-par lineup to start the game, the Tigers got the job in crunch time when the true hitters came to the plate. It’s not really anything you can point at Leyland negatively for. Carlos Guillen felt sore and needed rest, so Neifi Perez started. Curtis Granderson just got a day off. (Guillen may not play until Friday). Both Guillen and Grandy (intentional) walked and scored in the eighth.

Who helped the most? Who do you think? Polly Polanco with a 4-for-5 day, two RBIs and a run. Craig Monroe also had a pretty long two-run homer to left field.

So, all in all, not bad. Tigers win with Durbin on the mound and Neifi in the lineup. Zumaya gets his mojo back.

In other news, this Golden State-Dallas game is great, hard to write with this on!

Around the Central

Cleveland and Minnesota both cruised to victories, Chicago lost.

Cleveland 12, Toronto 4 – Indians got a homer from Travis Haffner, three runs and two RBIs against the Jays. The Twins scored all day against the Tampa starter.

Minnesota 9, Tampa Bay 1 – Sidney Ponson picked up the while Joe Mauer had three hits.

Seattle 5, White Sox 2 – Javy Vasquez allowed four runs. The Chicago offense mustered four hits.

Share/Email This

Tigers win, 8-4

Well, that was interesting. Jeremy Bonderman finally got a win. Gary Sheffield finally got a home run at his new home. Oh, and the teams waltzed a bit in the rain.

To start, Bonderman got his win in a game he didn’t pitch all that great in. While it wasn’t televised up here, nine hits and a walk over five innings isn’t the typical outing we expect of Bondo. He did give up two runs in the first inning, which was a bit more of what he is wont to do. He gave up four runs and had four strikeouts.

Daniel Cabrera, on the other hand, just couldn’t find his control, period. He gave up six walks and threw 56 strikes-52 balls for 108 pitches over five innings.

The real interesting parts of the game came in spurts. Bonderman nearly hit Miguel Tejada, which spurred Cabrera to hit Sheffield, which caused Bonderman to throw at Tejada a second time. And then both dugouts emptied after Tejada pointed his bat at Bonderman and took a step toward the mound. Well, there was a lot of yelling, a lot of guys holding each other back, and not much of interest happened. So that sputtered out.

But Sheffield remembered what Cabrera did and hit a majestic home run to left field. For a few moments I thought it was going to go wham-o into the scoreboard, but it eventually lost momentum.

Detroit increased its walks total to 88, which should put them around the upper third of the American League, pending other games. That is a great change for the team. But I fear they’ll never pass any team in the A.L. East, because those get to see Cabrera a lot more.

Magglio Ordonez remained hot, going 2-for-2.

Box

Share/Email This

Game 24: Baltimore at Detroit, 7 p.m.
TV: FSN+
Pitchers: Daniel Cabrera (1-2, 4.09) vs. Jeremy Bonderman (0-0, 3.18)

That’s rather strange to see: 0-0 for an opening day starting pitcher nearly a month into the season. Bonderman has five starts and zero decisions. Mlive’s Danny Knobler did a little research and found this to be within one no-decision of tying the most starts to begin a year without a win or loss. The last time this occurred was 1998. On one hand, this is bad. Bonderman has pitched well enough to get some victories. On the other hand, when he’s stumbled, his team has picked him up so he hasn’t been tagged with a loss. In his last start, Bonderman got hit hard by the Angels, but he ended the start on a positive note by settling down after some early defensive miscues accounted for five runs.

Daniel Cabrera has one win. That came against Detroit early in the season in Baltimore. It wasn’t Cabrera’s best game of the year, from what I can tell. It looks like his first start, which he lost, he pitched a bit better. But in any case, he hasn’t pitched as well since. His last two starts have seen pitch counts go past 100 while pitching into the seventh inning, and he was a bit wild in Boston.

Oriole Magic looks at the upcoming series from the O’s view. I also recommend Oriole Post, which was kind enough to give me a picture to use when the Tigers were in Baltimore.

Side note: I penned this story about a half marathon in Afghanistan over the weekend. I don’t typically link to stuff I write, but it’s a nice story. 

Share/Email This

Game 8: Detroit at Baltimore, 7 p.m., FSN+
RHP Justin Verlander (0-0, 0.00) vs. LHP Adam Loewen (1-0, 3.60)

Craig Monroe is congratulated by teammates after hitting a grand slam against the Baltimore Orioles in the 12th inning Wednesday. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)

Pregame thoughts:

I hope I get the game. It says it’s on Ch. 99 in the Upper Peninsula. The 99 part makes me nervous. That’s pretty high up there and HBO fuzzily comes in there normally and not at all on my digital box.

As for the game, Verlander struggled to find the strike zone in his initial start but held the Royals to one run (not earned) with a 1.17 WHIP.

Loewen is a talented young pitcher for the O’s who is coming off a victory against a talented Yankees lineup. So he’s got to be feeling pretty good right now.

Marcus Thames will be getting a start at first base for the first time to counter the lefty pitcher. So — oh man — this could get interesting. I sure hope not.

UPDATE: Because the channel FSN gave wasn’t right for me, this may affect others, too. Here’s an updated list.

Midgame thoughts posted so I don’t lose them:

• This year, Verlander allowed just one run through 13 innings. This would normally net you at least one victory. But run support has been awful in his first two games. In the 15 innings a Tigers run would help earn him a victory — both starts were on the road — the Tigers scored just one run. Tonight, 11 Tigers were stranded during his time on the mound.
• Fernando Rodney rallied nicely after a failed double-play attempt by Inge left two runners on and one out. Rodney, a righty who is successful against-left handed hitters, faced two of them and got them both out painlessly — a popup and a strikeout.
• Loewen pitched great for the O’s. He threw pretty nasty. I lost count of how many check swings he forced. He had nice movement. Got into trouble after he hit Gary Sheffield (on purpose), gave up a single to Magglio and walked Carlos Guillen. But he got Monroe to strike out — a common theme tonight. The O’s bullpen chipped in four scoreless innings as well. John Parrish struck out all three he faced.
• Rodney pitched two scoreless innings and put the first week behind him.
• Inge improved his on base percentage and even picked up a first hit! He walked in his first at bat, singled to left in his second. But that’s where the happy story ends. In the 8th inning, the O’s put Sean Casey on base intentionally to pitch to Inge. He did nothing with it. In the 11th inning with a runner on third and one out, he looked lost as he struck out. His body language looked disgusted, as you’d expect, but rather defeated too I thought. Coupled with the error that fortunately cost nothing, this was an awful game for him.
• Solid relief pitching by both teams.
• Nice to hear “Let’s go Tigers.” Also was nice to hear “Let’s go Baltimore” and “Let’s go O’s” wedged in for a nice fan-chant duel. For a scoreless game in the 12th, in cold, wet weather, that’s pretty cool.
• CRAIGDIDITAGAIN! A grand slam to the deepest part of Camden Yards makes it 4-0.
• Did I mention Craig did it with two outs?
• If you go 11 innings and 2 outs before allowing a run (on a balk! yeesh) is it still a shutout? Officially, no. That’s too bad. They deserve credit.
• Bobby Seay couldn’t close the thing out. (Well, he probably could have, but Leyland didn’t take his changes). Todd Jones got a fifth save. 4-1 Tigers.

Postgame thoughts:

Well, I don’t really know what to add to the above. Forgive the messiness. It was quite a pitcher’s duel. It’s too bad someone had to lose, but it’s good the Tigers weren’t that someone. Uhm, you got me. I don’t know what else to say. Detroit went 2-1 in both of its first two road series, that’s always good. Oh, and the Tigers are in first place by a half game.

Oriole Magic did a post in the similar list format.

It inspired me to see just how good the Tigers pitchers were over the past few games. Before Seay balked in a run (would have scored anyway), the Tigers allowed no runs for 12 2/3 innings going back to Tuesday. With one run in each of the last two games, that’s two runs in the past 21 innings of baseball. Going back to Monday, it’s two runs over the past 24+ innings. Okay, that’s pretty dominant. The O’s did a great job, too, in this low-scoring series.

Around the Central:

L.A. Angels 4, Cleveland 1: Joe Saunders held the mighty Indians to one run, a Jhonny Peralta homer in the seventh.

Chicago 6, Oakland 3: Chicago scored five runs in the final two innings to get by the A’s. Jermaine Dye hit a two-run homer to tie it up in the eighth.

Minnesota 5, New York 1: Ramon Ortiz proved his doubters wrong, holding the Yanks to three hits over eight innings.

Toronto 7, Kansas City 4: Gustavo Chacin allowed five hits and three runs in five innings but picked up the win for the Jays. Jorge de la Rosa gave up five runs for the Royals, a much worse outing than his first one against Detroit.

Share/Email This

Game 7: Detroit at Baltimore, FSN, 7 p.m.
LHP Nate Robertson (1-0, 3.18) vs. RHP Jaret Wright (0-1, 15.43)

Tiger Curtis Granderson, right, is congratulated by teammate Neifi Perez after both scored in the sixth inning against the Orioles in a 3-1 victory. Granderson went 2-for-3 with two doubles and two runs. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)

Pregame thoughts: Short one today as I’m running late. Wright struggled in his first game this year, walking five Twins and not even making it out of the third inning. He may struggle again today, as Tigers batters have an .895 career OPS against him. So, something has to change tonight. Either the Tigers bats will get going… or he’s going to be happy. John Lowe reports there’s more to the Wright backstory in his (sorta) blog.

Oh, and Neifi is starting and hitting ninth for the Tigers. Defense aside, can’t do much worse at the plate from the nine-hole. He’s actually 4-for-8 off Wright.

Here’s Camden Chat for the O’s angle.

Postgame thoughts (Tigers, 3-1) – The Tigers fulfilled my request. This is exactly the kind of baseball game I like. I mean, I’d like it if the Tigers had scored two runs with an actual hit — not a blown double-play on a Magglio Ordonez grounder resulting in two runs scoring. But am I going to turn away two runs after the Tigers (4-3) so skillfully loaded the bases in the first place? Nuh uh.

On the mound, Robertson performed exactly as we’ve come to expect of him. Not real flashy. Nothing all that special. Just a few strikeouts here and there, some ground balls when the situation calls for them to get the double play, and a defense that played steady. Nothing special for Robertson maybe, but a great job nonetheless. I don’t recall any spectacular plays outside what we’re used to circa 2006. The highlight I bring to mind is Curtis Granderson tracking down a hit by Miguel Tejada and throwing him out at second in the seventh inning. Maybe Granderson tracking down a few long fly balls as well. Neifi Perez played well at third base. He wasn’t asked to make any fancy plays. He made one anyway — barehanding a light hop he had time to glove. Robertson finished with five strikeouts, a walk, four hits and no runs allowed in 7-1/3 innings. Joel Zumaya gave up a homer.

This is just what we expect of Tigers baseball. Not too fancy, just gets the job done well. It was nice to see it again.

The bats weren’t all that great, but they’re warming up. There were a few too many check-swing strikeouts. And had the bases been loaded with no outs and no runs scored, that would have been very disconcerting and not altogether unexpected.

Granderson went 2-for-3 with two doubles. He now has an extra-base hit in five of seven games and he has seven total. As he puts the pieces together in the beginning of his second full season, you can really see a star in the making. Polanco went 2-for-3. Carlos Guillen and Craig Monroe also doubled. So that’s four extra-base hits on eight hits total in the game. Sheff and Magglio are yet to heat up, but at least the nine-hole got a hit for the first time — that being Neifi.

In all, like I said, this is more what I like to see. With Minnesota losing, it could be as much as a four-way first-place tie at the end of the night My bad. Cleveland was only 1/2 game out, not 1.

Oriole Magic has more.

BOX

Around the Central:

• The Oakland A’s rallied from behind in the ninth inning on the West Coast to down the White Sox, 2-1. Todd Walker drove in the tying run off Bobby Jenks, then Mark Ellis knocked in the game winner off Scott Podsednik’s head as he leaped for the catch. That looked painful, actually. The Sox are 3-4. Athletics Nation credits Oakland’s rookie manager.
• In Milwaukee, the Indians held off the L.A. Angels, 7-6. This was not the amazing part. That 19,000 fans went to a game involving two teams from out-of-town, that was the amazing part. If I was in Milwaukee, I know I’d have gone. I’d have rooted against both teams, but I’d have gone! Casey Blake homered for the Indians and Andy Marte drove in three runs. Cleveland (3-1) leads the Central by 1/2 game. (Let’s Go Tribe recap)
• Alex Rodriguez had his sixth home run of the season — watch out, Arod, Shelton didn’t have a lot of luck after a start like that…hmm, probably not an issue — as the Yankees toppled the Twins, 10-1. Boof Bonser got shelled a day after Sidney Ponson did. The Twin (4-3) might wanna think of Matt Garza… (Nick and Nick’s Twins Blog recap)
• K.C. beat the Blue Jays, 6-3. After the Tigers were criticized a bit for not destroying the Royals, maybe everyone should step back and notice KC (3-5) is not the same losing team as it was last season. Much acclaimed Royals rookie third baseman Alex Gordon homered. Finally.

Share/Email This

Game 6: Detroit at Baltimore Orioles, 3 p.m., FSN Detroit
RHP Chad Durbin (-,-) vs. RHP Daniel Cabrera (0-1, 3.86)

Chad Durbin pitches in Baltimore. (Photo courtesy The Oriole Post. Thanks!)

Pregame thoughts: Looks like we have a 5 vs. 2 matchup today in the Baltimore home opener, thanks to Jim Leyland shuffling the Tigers rotation to keep Durbin from seeing the Royals twice in a week. Cabrera struck out nine in seven innings in his loss to the Twins. At least it appears to be above 40 degrees for a game.

We can’t learn everything from one start, but it should be really interesting to see what Dubin looks like today. I know I’m not the only Tigers fan who has no clue what to expect of him. He stunk in his first few seasons in the majors, then fell back to AAA. Detroit signed him to a minor league contract to pitch 2006 in Toledo, where found his pitching stroke. Last year, he led the Mudhens to an International League title with an 3.11 ERA, 149 strikeouts and 46 walks in 185 innings. So it looks like he found some control. The Tigers liked him enough to bring him up in September. This Spring, he pitched well enough to make the team out of camp ahead of several pitchers Tigers fans may have more confidence in. So management is sure it sees something.

We want to see the same thing in an MLB game. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Tigers saw something they like when scouting him, gave him some coaching and turned his career around. On the other hand, you can’t trust AAA and spring stats either. So, to say the least, today should be interesting.

Camden Chat has a preview from the O’s perspective.

Oriole Post is going to liveblog it.

Postgame thoughts: Early on, it was a pitcher’s duel. Cabrera kept up his end of the deal. Dubin did not. Detroit scored first, but the Orioles cruised to a 6-2 victory after a four-run third inning.

Kevin Millar started it off with a homer, Corey Patterson had a perfect bunt single and stole second, and then the runs started piling on. The O’s added two more in the fifth. Dubin’s day ended with six earned runs allowed, five strikeouts and one walk (on four balls, but unintentional) after 4-2/3 innings. In relief, Wil Ledezma allowed one of those runs in. I think Durbin had the game just speed up on him and got rattled a bit. Baltimore did drop some hits in that weren’t particularly hard, but they were very well located. We’ll have to see how he looks his next outing.

Detroit’s runs when Sean Casey doubled to drive in Magglio Ordonez in the second inning for two-out RBI. Curtis Granderson hit a triple off the wall off Cabrera for the other run.

Oh, and the unofficial Inge watch? He added two Ks so he’s 0-20 now with eight strikeouts.

Kind of a blech game.

Box

Around the Central: Cleveland’s misery continues: Today’s double header is postponed. The Tribe got snowed (colded?) out for a fourth straight day. They will now have to try to squeeze in two doubleheaders with the Mariners over the course of the season — or even after the season — if the games affect the Central or wildcard standings. That’s a nightmare.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports the Indians may be forced to travel to Anaheim to face the L.A. Angels rather than risk losing more games.

The teams are scheduled to begin a three-game series Tuesday at Jacobs Field, but Major League Baseball was considering switching it to Angels Stadium. Commissioner Bud Selig discussed the possibility Sunday with MLB chief operating officer Bob DuPuy and vice president of scheduling and club relations Katy Feeney.

”There’s been discussion but no decision,” DuPuy said. ”We’re monitoring the weather in Cleveland.”

Update: The series will be played in Milwaukee. (per Let’s Go Tribe).

The Twins picked up their second loss, getting beat 8-2 by the Yankees. Bobby Abreu was 3-for-4 with a homer and 4RBI off Twins pitcher Sidney Ponson. Ponson allowed all 8 runs. (Twinkie Town game post)
Chicago beat Oakland in the A’s home opener, 4-1, behind Jim Thome’s homer and 2 RBI. Jose Contreras allowed one run on four hits for the victory.

So, scoring at home, Detroit’s one game out of first despite looking like utter crap at the plate.

Share/Email This

Detroit opened its final 10 games of the season with a loss. Much can be said about the lineup, or lack thereof, but I wasn’t too upset. You can’t put the A team out every game, especially when it’s not really needed. With the hectic schedule — the team arrived at 2:30 a.m. reportedly for a 4 p.m. game — and with having started his best guys (minus Neifi) for the Sox series, Jim Leyland took a bit of a break. It nearly worked out. Unfortunately, Nate Robertson, who chose to travel with the team rather than ahead of them, and Fernando Rodney let in two runs too many and the good guys lost, 4-3.

You knew it was going to be trouble when the Orioles kept loading the bases. They’d have to be successful eventually. And let’s be fair, while Nate didn’t have the best of days, he certainly didn’t have the worst. Rodney is just sorta a wildcard when he comes in. He’s been good more times than not, but today, he just wasn’t. With the lineup and the slipup in pitching (and how many teams would like to allow 4 runs? that’s not a bad showing) Baltimore won on a day the Tigers would have had off if not for rain. So be it. Really, I am just not that offended. We want to win the division, and maybe a day off will help.

Minnesota and Chicago were both shut out, so Detroit didn’t lose its grip on first place for more than a few hours (by a few hundredths of a point) and Chicago only helped the clinch number get to the point we could see a playoff-clinching celebration in Kansas City this weekend.

The lineup? It wasn’t ideal. But I’m glad the team is at the point it doesn’t have to battle with its best nine players out there every…single… night. I’m sure Leyland would tell you he needed to reward some players for their hard work, or had to look at them before deciding on a 25-man roster for the first round, or just wanted to rest guys. Just remember, he didn’t do it because he’s an idiot. He had a reason for it, even if he doesn’t tell us what that reason is. He has been through all this a few times, once rather successfully.
Mostly we, as fans, have not. That’s not to say he’s infallible. He’d admit as such. But he doesn’t do these things just for giggles, either.

[An aside: Omar Infante did not need rest. Why wasn't he playing? I don't blame Neifi personally for any of this, and as Leyland says, there's not really any reason for fans to make him a lightning rod, but there's also no reason to play him.

Another aside: As mad as people get at Jim Leyland, if you read other blogs or forums, you'll find people hate every manager, title contender or cellar dwellars alike. I think it's just part of being a fan. So, continue.]

Share/Email This

You like to think if the Tigers somehow, improbably, scored eight runs, they’d win. Turns out, no. Baltimore took a 12-8 decision in 10 innings.

The four runs allowed in the 10th inning looks a bit bad, but it was mostly gambling on run prevention. Two intentional walks later scored, but the Orioles still had three hits in the 10th inning off Jason Grilli. The bigger problem came that starter Wil Ledezma allowed three home runs, while Fernando Rodney gave up the Tigers’ fourth for the day in the eighth inning.

The Tigers fought back from the 5-1 deficit left by Ledezma and Zach Miner to tie the game at 5-5, and in the eighth inning a 2-run homer by Sean Casey tied the game at 8-8. But they could score no more.

Minnesota beat Cleveland, so Detroit’s lead in the Central is down to 1 game. Chicago is playing in Oakland, I’ll update later tonight. Oakland won, 5-4. Detroit remains 5 games above Chicago with 13 games left in the season.
I’m not sure if I should be disheartened or not. I feel that way. On the other hand, 29 runs in three days shows maybe, just maybe, there’s some pop left in the bats to get us down the stretch.

Share/Email This

By “Tigers support Nate Robertson,” I mean, “Tigers score more than opponents for him” more than “Tigers give Robertson any real run support.” After getting no more than 1 run behind in four of the past five games, Robertson’s teammates doubled that to two. His solution? Pitch a shutout. Tigers win, 2-0.

Chicago lost to Oakland following a great A’s comeback. Minnesota beat Cleveland. The lead is still 2 games over second place, but increased to 5 games over Chicago for the playoffs.

To say the least, we really needed this win. It’s starting to seem like the funk is, if not over, then soon to be over. But maybe I’ve been saying that since July and should just shut up, hey?

The Tigers did manage to get seven hits for the day. That’s not a bad showing. Nate Robertson got one hit, apparently near his backside. Hopefully he’s fine. It sounds like he is.

The two victories over Baltimore marks the first series win for Detroit since taking two from Boston in early-mid August. The Tigers see Baltimore two more times this year, Sunday and again in Maryland following the upcoming Sox series.

Share/Email This