Cleveland 5, Tigers 3

Kind of shocking that the final score was a difference of two runs. Equally shocking that Mike Maroth pitched eight innings. Why so? Because it took him more than 30 pitches to get through the first inning, and Detroit trailed 4-0 by the time I switched over for the start of the Pistons game. So, at least the Tigers made a game out of it. Unfortunately, most of the time they did so, I was watching the ‘Stones. But it is playoff basketball, that’s a higher priority when one dispenses viewing hours, even if one is a Tigers blogger.

But there’s a few things the box score points out. The first is what a gamer Maroth is. He probably knew after giving up that home run to Casey Blake Ryan Garko in the first his day was toast. But he also knew the Tigers desperately need to rest their bullpen. Somehow, he reached deep and went eight innings. That sounds like the comment an announcer would make and stat heads would laugh at. But sometimes, you have to tip your cap to cliches.

The batters put a good inning together to cut the deficit to 4-3 in the third. That much I can see. But I also see 17 LOB aggregate, or nine actual men left on. That’s pretty bad. The Indians? Well they left 3.

Annoying as it may be to admit, this weekend, Cleveland was the better team in all three games, deserved to win all three and won all three. Give them their props. As for the season, I think the makeup of the teams is pretty similar and I’ll take my chances in the long run. Both the White Sox and Twins won series in Detroit before the Tigers returned the favor in their stadiums.

Indians 6, Tigers 3

Since you saw the game, heard it or read about it, I’ll start with this somewhat related story.

Eric Karros didn’t sign my baseball card. This was back in the early ’90s, when kids sent baseball cards out to players via their home stadium, included a letter and self-addressed-stamped-envelope, all that jazz. I got a bunch back from Tigers and from most other players, but not Karros. I don’t remember why I chose him. I’ve never really sought autographs for the sake of autographs. I don’t really understand why people get so excited over them. But back then, I was a kid and I wanted Karros’ autograph and came up empty. That’s all I remember about him.

Anyway, I was thinking how Kenny Albert and Karros made a decent team and were doing a fine job, and then I started actually paying attention. I still liked Albert, but Karros kept coming up with Joe Morgan-esque cliches. Apparently, his gut instinct means a lot more than what actually seems to be occurring on the field or in the stats. That, and because he played with Joe Borowski and Borowski has a big heart, he is an awesome closer. By the end of the game, I was disgusted. That and I had to switch to the radio to learn why Placido Polanco left the game.

Which leads me to actual recap and/or analysis. The analysis: I had a bad feeling because Justin Verlander was throwing too many pitches and walking too many. It shouldn’t be required of him to go 7 or 8 innings every start, but with the bullpen like it is, well, that’s just how it is. Verlander wasn’t going to last long enough to win. So Verlander wasn’t great, but he left with a tie game and was on tap for the win after Detroit scored a run. I knew there was no shot that win was going to come; that bullpen isn’t good enough to hold onto a one run game. Maybe they’d still win, but not without first blowing the lead. In this case, the bullpen just blew. Again.

Well, there’s a reason for that. One, it’s not very good. Two, more injuries. Fernando Rodney went on the DL with tendinitis. And then Jason Grilli was rewarded for his poor play (3 runs, 0 outs) by getting line drived on his knee. He left walking — fortunately — but I do think he needs to go on the DL even if he’s only going to miss a few days. That leg is going to be pretty darn stiff and the pen can’t afford to be shorthanded. Unrelated to the mound but Polanco left with a sore oblique, which means who knows what, but probably nothing good. He’s listed as day-to-day but that injury just has a way of lingering.

Well, the Indians are a good example of the 2006 Tigers. Good starters, good offense and even if they trail late, they’re going to make a comeback. So I wasn’t shocked by the results. At least it’s May.

Observation from Bilfer I wanted to mention:

Not sure what the official scorer was thinking on the Omar Infante error/triple. Yes the ball was hit a long ways, but Infante got back in time and the ball hit him in the glove. That catch has to be made, and no way do you score that a hit when it was the first of the game.

I cringe when Granderson needs a day off — or that lefty vs. lefty platoon comes up — precisely because I don’t trust Infante out there. I was shocked it was scored as a triple.

Cleveland 7, Detroit 4

The headlines will tell you Cleveland powered past the Tigers on the basis of three home runs off Nate Robertson. Can’t really disagree with those, can we? He didn’t, telling reporters during his postgame interview he couldn’t keep the ball down. But it wasn’t that power that was the difference maker.

It was Jason Michaels stealing Craig Monroe’s home run shot in the second inning. When the ball left the bat, it looked like Monroe gave the Tigers a three-run shot and 4-2 lead. But somewhere along its steep projectory, the ball lost momentum. It went from a sure shot into the stands to a ball just hoping to land in the left field bullpen. But it never made it that far. Michael’s reached above the yellow home run line and snagged the ball. Threat stemmed. Two innings later, an Indians homer made the score 4-1 in their favor instead.

The Tigers chipped away to make it a 5-4 Cleveland lead, but when Tim Byrdak got into trouble in the ninth and gave up a pair of runs, the deficit was too much for the bottom of the Tigers order to overcome. There would be no ninth-inning dramatics.

Carlos Guillen and Pudge Rodriguez had three hits apiece, but it’s the top of the order that drives the Tigers runs, and Curtis Granderson, Polly Polanco, Gary Sheffield and Maglio Ordonez came up with just two hits among them. The Tigers took no walks.

1 game down, 17 to go in the series, and the Indians lead the A.L. Central by 1/2 game.

Box

The Battle for the Central begins in earnest tonight when the Indians travel to Detroit for a 3-game series. Two of the three games are on national television. And by national television, I mean Fox pretends to put the game on national TV 3:55 p.m. Saturday while featuring something else entirely. Meanwhile, ESPN shows the game at 8 p.m. Sunday while both major television audiences watch the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

But, of course, that is part of the fun. The Tigers play the Indians seven times in the next 10 days, split up only by a series in Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, the Pistons travel to Cleveland and hope to finish the series in four games. Our friends at Detroit Bad Boys and Need 4 Sheed get the trash talk started. Natalie at N4S posts:

Funny, Cleveland fans are brutal, they talk shit even when their team is down. I am surprised there hasn’t been some kind of incident considering the Cleveland fans I have seen this series.

LeBron was not fouled, by the way. But while that series pauses, the top two teams in the AL Central — in the standings and likely all season long — play to see who passes the Memorial Day pole in first place.

Nate Robertson pitches tonight against Paul Byrd, but the real pitching showdown is Saturday when Justin Verlander meets C.C. Sabathia. Sunday, Mike Maroth faces young star Francisco Carmona. The way I see it, the Tigers have the pitching edge the first two days. Maroth just seems to step up his play whenever I doubt him. So maybe that’s all three. In any case, all three games look good on paper.

Detroit, Cleveland, let’s see that rivalry flourish.

Bunt Singles:

• Lee outlines the history between the Tigers and Indians.
• Baseball Prospectus (sub req) featured the game as a weekend highlight.
• Michigan Sports Report looks like a nice new place to find your Detroit sports news. My favorite feature? Articles you read are crossed out automatically.
• Ian at BYB has his “blogging with the enemy” questions answered about the Indians.
• Jason Beck says Fernando Rodney is still out.

Tigers 8, Angels 7

Jose Mesa is awful. No way around it. He’s awful more often than he’s acceptable. He’s not going to turn it around. He shouldn’t have been signed in the first place.

Okay. Got that off my chest. You probably had the same reaction. On to the baseball.

Magglio Ordonez remains hot, driving two balls out of contention to help the Tigers overcome a hot Angels team. For his part, Chad Durbin pitched a nice game that is not at all reflected in the score. Jason Grilli actually put together a second decent game in two days, too. Gotta compliment him when he does well. I’d certainly prefer all the relievers do well than need to find replacements for them.

Anyway, the batters were amazing. Four two-out RBIs, two by Granderson and two by Polanco gave Durbin a cushion after two innings. Three solo shots made the game closer, but it was still 7-3 when Joe Table messed things up by stinking and Jim Leyland let him. Fortunately, Granderson answered big again with a solo home run in the 8th that stood up as the game-winning run.

The funny moment came with two-outs in the ninth. Following a double play, an idiot of a spectator ran onto the field. Probably wanting some pitching tips from Jones or something. He gave a word or two back and the kid ran off, chased by a fat security guard. Then he must have been caught, because the crowd starts singing “na-na-na-na, hey, hey, goodbye.” The whole thing was just funny.

Anyway, beating the AL West leading team was nice. The Indians were busy losing to the AL Central basement. So by the time I hit “publish” the Tigers may be in first place.

Update: Yup. 

The last time Cleveland and Detroit tussled, the Indians were swept. This time it was the Tigers who went to the third game before avoiding the sweep. And boy did they avoid it! A home run by Curtis Granderson to lead off the game and a near home run by Craig Monroe (it went foul) the next at-bat set the tale of the day. Carlos Guillen, Marcus Thames and Pudge Rodriguez homered later, and the Tigers won, 7-1. Don’t overlook The Professor. Kenny Rogers allowed just one run — it came in the first inning — over seven innings of work. The bullpen did the rest.

The big thing for the Tigers was hitting the longball again. For much of the season, Detroit was a home run team. That’s fine. It was mostly reliable. But when the long ball went away, the small ball was just plain ugly. We can play small ball at times, but this team just isn’t set up to do it inning after inning. So we must hit the home run. This is the first multiple-homer game in 10 days, I believe ESPN reported. You’d like the team to have more variation, but this late in the season, the Tigers aren’t going to change their stripes. It they can’t keep hitting the long ball, they’ll struggle.
And Detroit earned victory 82. While we can easily overlook this, we shouldn’t. For most fans, 82 wins for this season was the goal. “I don’t care, I just want to see 82″ was the basic refrain for fans of a team that hadn’t finished over .500 since 1993. Along the way, the goal changed when we realized we could probably win 90, then 100, and were flirting with 105 being reasonable. Suddenly 82 would have been a failure of a season. That’s fine. I won’t disagree. But do yourself a favor and savor that 82nd win.

Well, no real spin to put on that one. Detroit looked like they’d bat the tar out of Cleveland’s poor rookie pitcher, Jeremy Sowers, in the second inning. And then the Tigers got one more hit for one more baserunner after they scored their second run of the night. Not a Tiger reached base after Omar Infante with two outs in the fourth inning. Scoring averted. Indians win. 4-2.

While it’s not his fault in any inning other than the second, Neifi Perez made himself the target of Tigers fans ire with a double play to end the second inning and any scoring threat. 19 outs after him were made by somebody else. Two more were his own. But if you’re the worrying type, Tigers are 3-7 without “Polly.”

Jeremy Bonderman had his patented “one bad inning” and paid for it. He gave up three runs in the third to give Cleveland the 4-2 lead. Then both teams pitched fine.

Jim Leyland thought the team looked tired against Chicago. They haven’t had a day off since August 6. They get one Monday. It sounds like it’s terribly needed. Chicago lost but now the Twins and White Sox are bunched at 5 and 5 1-2 games behind. Tigers really need to get two wins in Cleveland. These losses are piling up and the opportunities to get to October without stress are escaping.

Following the game, Detroit manager Jim Leyland told his players they’d better fix things quickly.

His message? “If we want to play in October, we’ve all got to step it up,” he said. (AP article)

Stepping into the rotation spot normally home to Justin Verlander, Wil Ledezma did his best impersonation of the rookie phenom. Falling an out short of a quality start, Ledezma pitched a great 5 2-3 innings of shutout baseball, got some great help from Jason Grilli, and came away with a 1-0 victory. For his part, Grilli had to be helped by Jamie Walker when the bases were loaded with one out an inning later, but the lefty came through fabulously. Fernando Rodney and Todd Jones threw an inning apiece to preserve the ‘W.’

Both teams smacked the baseball pretty hard at times, but Comerica Park refused to give up the long ball. Quite a few strong hits fell dead on the warning track. Cleveland actually had eight hits but couldn’t come up with the run. Detroit manufactured its lone run when Brandon Inge took third base on a ground ball to third, then scored when ‘Clutch’ Craig Monroe singled. Craig really needs a nickname. I know there’s a search out there for a good one, not just the C-Mo or Craiggers or ‘Clutch.’

Coupled with the White Sox’ loss, the Tigers now have a 9-game lead in the Central Division.

Just a quick note here since I missed most of the game. But another day, another hero, huh? If it’s not Craig Monroe hitting a clutch home run, it’s Pudge Rodriguez. Pudgey’s ended the game at 4-3, Detroit’s only lead of the night. If it’s not Marcus Thames helping break up a double play to keep the inning alive, it’s Brandon Inge. It’s a great situation to have, not needing to hope your lineup gets around to those one or two players who are routinely the hero. And props to Marcus Thames for his 10 pitch at-bat in the eighth inning. He may not have brought home a run, but he worked the pitcher well.

It looked like another of those days for Kenny Rogers. Three runs in the first inning? Youch. But maybe he figured out what was wrong. He allowed three runs and three hits in the first inning, but finished the seventh inning having allowed just three bases runners on one hit for the rest of the day. Cleveland did not pick up a hit off either Rogers or Joel Zumaya after the third inning.

The win gave Detroit its 11th win in 14 tries against Cleveland this year.

Detroit sported Cleveland a 5-0 lead after the top of the sixth inning. Cleveland sported Detroit a 7-1 lead the rest of the way. The Tigers beat the Indians, 7-6, after “Clutch” Craig Monroe hit an eighth-inning 2-run home run on a 2-out, 3-2 2-2 pitch just moments after narrowly missing a home run left of the left field foul pole.

I didn’t get to see much of this game. A glance here or there, so there’s not much I can say. Newcomer Sean Casey had a nice two-run hit in the eighth. It was good to see him do that after popping out for the final out last night. But I can say this: Monroe keeps providing memory after memory this year with his clutch hitting. A Tiger since 2002, it’s really a nice story for him to be an important part of the turnaround this year. I think that just really takes a good story and makes it a great one. Obviously Jeremy Bonderman, tonight’s starting pitcher, and Brandon Inge, who I just saw named as the No. 1 web gem on Baseball Tonight, are a part of it, too.

Oh, and Monroe actually has a historical trend of improving after the All-Star break, so hopefully we just see this continue.

Tom Gage wrote the Tigers finished the first third of the season and the second third of the season with perfect symmetry: 36-18 and 36-18. This trend would put the Tigers season record at 108-54, a number most people find unlikey. Then again, most of us found 72-36 unlikely, so I really don’t know what to expect. They are exactly on pace for the 102 wins I counted out, taking an extra game in Minnesota before giving an extra game to Tampa. That record would be pretty nice.

Win 73 sure was nice, too, though, wasn’t it?