Tigers 6
Angels 2

Recap:

• Armando Galarraga made the organization’s plan to keep him in the rotation look good tonight after stumbling in his first start after the information came out.
• He could have had the Tigers’ first complete-game since Justin Verlander’s shutout no-hitter last June, but nothing comes easy for the Tigers. (edit: Don’t blog after 1 a.m., kids!)
• He breezed into the ninth inning with the shutout before allowing a walk and giving up a home run to Maicer Izturis, who is listed at 5-8, 170 pounds, which means he’s probably 5-6, 150 or something.
• But a win’s a win, right?
• The other highlight, Marcus Thames hit two home runs. Both two-run home runs.
• Curtis Granderson, Placido Polanco, Thames and Magglio Ordonez — AKA, the first fou batters — each had four hits.
• The Tigers are no longer in a last-place tie with the Kansas City Royals.

Analysis:

• Awesome job by Galarraga. Too bad the CGSO fell through, but nice of Leyland to give him the shot, and smart of him to warm up Todd Jones in the bullpen just in case.
• I think the Tigers’ decision to play Marcus Thames more often in left field will pay off. He’s no super man. He’s going to make outs, despite the stellar reputation he receives as a backup. But I think we can all agree: nothing else has worked and we like Marcus Thames.
• Too bad the Tigers have Thursday off. I have high hopes for the Seattle series myself, but what are we going to watch tomorrow with none of Detroit’s teams playing?

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Angels 3
Tigers 2

Recap:

• Jeremy Bonderman allowed two runs while pitching into the eighth. Both runs came in because Francisco Cruceta couldn’t get the third out.
• He struck out the first batter, than allowed a single and two walks and tossed a wild pitch.
• Bonderman’s night ended at 83 pitches.
• Aqulino Lopez had two outs in the ninth before waling the next two batters and allowing the walkoff single.
• The Tigers led 2-0 from the second inning until the eighth after a two-run homer by Miguel Cabrera that drove in Magglio Ordonez.
• Ervin Santana did pitch well for the Angels.

Analysis:

• Story of the season. Tigers could have won yesterday. Could have won today. Didn’t even split. Just went 0-2.
• Credit Santana a bit, sure, he is a great pitcher.
• But this is not like it’s a pitcher shutting down a hot offense. The Tigers offense can be inept against good pitchers and bad pitchers alike.
• I know people are going to disagree with me, but I don’t think pulling Bonderman was necessarily a bad thing. The Angels were starting to get to him and he was going to face the lineup a fourth time through. I know you want to let him finish it, but it wasn’t an awful decision to find a reliever.
• However, Cruceta really hasn’t proven to me any reason he should be pitching in the eighth inning. Which brings up the question, “Well, who should be pitching in the eighth inning?” And that’s the problem Leyland faces. None of the guys in the bullpen are guys I trust in a close and late game.
• So who do you play? The starting pitcher who had a good game, or the relief pitcher who is either going to be good or suck? I’d say either way, Leyland’s decision could have bit him in the butt and backseat drivers would have something to complain about. So I’m not backseat driving this one.
• This team is a disaster.

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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.

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Game 24:
Angels 4
Tigers 3

Game 25
Tigers 6
Angels 4

• The Tigers’ starting pitchers are continuing to settle in. Other than Kenny Rogers. On Friday, Nate Robertson just had the one bad inning, giving up all four runs during it. On Saturday, Armondo Galarraga took a no-hitter into the sixth inning.
• He gave up two three runs — one earned though the other two were on his own throwing error.
• The difference between the two games was timely hitting. Friday, Detroit had multiple chances to tie the game or go-ahead in the late innings and could not do it.
• Saturday, with maybe a little help from the Angels’ defense, the Tigers were able to punch in the go-ahead and insurance runs late in the game. Curtis Granderson broke the 3-3 tie Saturday after tripling and getting some help from a Gary Sheffield bouncer. Maggio Ordonez doubled and Jacque Jones drove the sixth run with a sac.
• As for the bullpen, it tossed five innings so far this series and allowed seven hits. No runs scored in two innings Friday. Saturday, Aquilino Lopez let in one of Galarraga’s runs, and Denny Bautista gave up one of his own.

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Angels 13, Tigers 4

While the Tigers are losing horribly — so much so I don’t think anyone will want to read a recap any more than I’d want to write it — I’ll just do an update about all the other events of the weekend for my weekday readers.

Granderson hits 17

Not content to let his home runs surpass his triples, Curtis Granderson knocked a 17th three-bagger. He’s on pace for an AL record-setting 27.

Kenny Rogers to the DL; Tata up

Rogers went on the 15-day disabled list with pain in his elbow. (Danny Knobler) Lest you wonder if Jordan Tata is being “showcased” for a deal, Knobler reported the move to the DL came too late to pull Virgil Vasquez from his scheduled start Sunday. So Tata filled the need.

Lee at Tiger Tales suspects Rogers will be back again this year, but does not expect any real contribution from him.

Matt at Take 75 North has a report on Jordan Tata.

Monroe benched?

Craig Monroe started on the bench, as Jim Leyland picked Ryan Raburn to get the start. Reading Leyland’s quotes about his decision, I wonder if this is more permanent.

“I’m trying to win a ballgame,” Leyland said, “and tonight, I think that’s the lineup that gives us the best chance.”

“You keep waiting, but you can’t wait forever,” said Leyland.

I like Raburn. I like this defense. So far, I like his bat. I’ve said it before, start him as many games as possible. Right now, he gives the team a better chance to win than anyone else (read: Monroe) in the outfield.

Fernando Rodney pitches well

Leyland had said earlier that Fernando Rodney must pitch good two showings in a row in Toledo before he could think about coming back to Detroit. I kind of wondered if he meant in back-to-back days, as Rodney will undoubtedly need to do that. But then he didn’t get the chance Saturday, due to a complete game by the Toledo starter. Friday and Sunday, he seemed to put up decent performances. (Eric has more at D-Town). Jason Beck says Rodney is scheduled to pitch again Tuesday.

Andrew Miller tired?

Miller’s velocity was down Saturday. This fact was not lost on Leyland. Nor as it lost on Ian at Bless You Boys, who was all over the story.

Leyland told reporters:

“I was disappointed in Miller’s velocity. It wasn’t good. He pitched pretty well, but for the most part he didn’t throw the ball — just OK. We couldn’t figure it out.

“Maybe he was gun shy about turning it loose because he was wild in Chicago. I’ll find out. When you throw the ball 95-96 miles an hour, you have to throw it 95-96 more than once or twice a game.

Miller says it’s nothing.

Ian wrote:

Miller’s stamina has been a concern throughout the season, as he logs more innings and pitches more frequently than he ever has before. Maybe the Tigers can skip his turn in the rotation occasionally, as they did with Justin Verlander last season, but they’re in a position now where keeping him in the rotation isn’t just a luxury, but a necessity.

Professor Farnsworth?

(Hat tip Cut-off Man) The Tigers continue to scout Kyle Farnsworth of the Yankees. They may be the front runner to take the struggling late-relief artist off New York’s hands for little more than paying his salary.

Farnsworth, who has a 4.57 earned run average, may not be around much longer. The nonwaiver trading deadline is 4 p.m. Tuesday, and the Detroit Tigers have had a scout following the Yankees in two of their last three series.

A quick review of pitching

Injured: Kenny Rogers

Not on the DL, but who knows: Andrew Miller, Nate Robertson

Not on the DL but having a bad day or two: Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman

Not very good: Much of the bullpen

A quick review of your blogger

I know that all teams go through slumps. I told myself I wouldn’t worry. But after the past three series and given the injury problems and the way the pitching staff has been throwing lately, I am at least moving in the direction of the panic button. I think this is a real crisis, not a made-up one.

About that game?

But maybe you want to know something about the game. Jeremy Bonderman got toasted for a career high in runs. And Jason Beck did some interesting research about just how bad a series this was for Tigers pitchers.

Myself, I kicked a stool in my backyard in the first inning and stopped listening.

I’ve learned: If you can’t say anything nice … let Ian say it in pictures.

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Angels 11, Tigers 6

The Tigers put the first five batters on base to lead 2-0 without an out. Craig Monroe blasted a rocket to center field. Jered Weaver probably started to wonder if he’d make it out of the first inning alive. And it happened.

Gary Matthews Jr. lept above the fence to snag the ball away for the third out. And that, apparently, made all the difference.

I guess Nate Robertson had a thing or two to do with it, because the Angels put eight batters on base with only a sacrifice bunter failing to reach their first time through the lineup. And Robertson’s 6-0 2-0 lead because a 6-2 game. The Angels cruised from there, though the Tigers chipped back to within two.

But after the starter killed the Tigers chances to win, the bullpen put the nail in the coffin. This time it was Chad Durbin who gave up a big three run inning.

The lone highlights were a Curtis Granderson solo homer — his home run count finally caught up to his triple count, 16 — and steal. And Placido Polanco doubled and homered while going 5-for-5.

Gary Sheffield was back, but went 0-for-4 with a walk.

Box

Bunt Singles:

• Jose Capellan returned from a trip to Toledo in which he didn’t pitch, because Zach Miner went on the bereavement list with a family emergency.

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Angels 6, Tigers 3

If it hadn’t been for a ninth-inning rally, the score wouldn’t have been this close. But if it hadn’t have been for some amazing defense, maybe the score wouldn’t even have been in that order. So I guess 6-3 sounds fine enough.

Basically, two things were going on. The first, Mike Maroth pretty much gave the Angels every opportunity to win. Basically, like I predicted earlier today. On the other hand, the Angels defense gave starter John Lackey every opportunity to win, too. Because the Tigers could hit the ball, it just happened that one of two things occurred: they hit it hard at someone, or a Los Angeles defender happened to find his way to the ball in a hurry to make the play. These forces conspired to keep the Tigers pretty much out of the game all day, even while getting Lackey’s pitch count up. Heck, he only lasted five innings, but the Angels bullpen pitched well enough — and all that other stuff — to keep the win.

Jose Mesa and Jason Grilli pitched scoreless mopup innings after Maroth went six innings. It’s nice to see the better half of the bullpen was saved for a game the Tigers actually had a chance to win.

Box

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Game 20: Tigers at Angels, 3:30 p.m.
TV: FSN
Pitchers: Jeremy Bonderman (0-0, 2.25) vs. Kelvim Escobar (1-1, 3.18)

Pregame thoughts — Bonderman is still looking for his first win of the season in his fifth start. Very efficiently he has improved his ERA every outing this year and has just three walks and a WHIP of .86. After the schedulers sent Detroit to the West Coast for a 36 hour jaunt, Jim Leyland and the Tigers would like nothing more than to exact a little revenge for it with a two-game sweep of the Angels.

Escobar is coming off a disabled list stint with a sore pitching shoulder. Magglio Ordonez (.824 OPS) and Curtis Granderson (1.000, 8 at-bats) have hit Escobar fine. Pudge, Craig Monroe and Brandon Inge struggled against him. Only Marcus Thames has homered off him.

Bonderman has just owned Vlad Guerrero (.229 OPS) so far. Only Gary Matthews Jr. (1.250, 8 at-bats) has had any success at all against Bonderman, actually. The rest of the likely starters have OPS under .520.

Postgame thoughts (Tigers lose, 9-8, 10 innings) — Sometimes you steal a game. Sometimes you have a game stolen. And today, coming back from a seven-run deficit, taking the lead, and still losing? I have no idea what you call that.

I’m going to macro “10 innings” into my keys. I’m sick of extra innings games. I hardly saw any of this one. Got to a TV with one out and nobody on in the ninth. Saw Vlad at bat. Knew no good could come of that. Sure enough… Jones blew the save when he helped Vladdy get around the bases and score, then proceeded to pick up a loss in the 10th inning.

Now Jim Leyland surely must remember never to use Jones for more than one inning, so I guess he wanted to keep his bullpen rested for the White Sox series with Chad Durbin pitching. Notable were the two perfect innings Fernando Rodney threw with three strikeouts.

Also notable are the bats are on fire. The Tigers surpassed the 100 run mark, still third in the American League. Magglio Ordonez went 3-for-3 with a ninth inning two-run home run of Francisco Rodriguez that nearly gave Detroit the victory after it fell behind 7-0. Curtis Granderson also homered again. In all, the Tigers had 11 hits and six walks. I really hope that means the offensive funk is officially over. Fans of other teams would probably read that and go “100+ runs and you call that a funk?” So I’m pretty optimistic about the coming months.

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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.

BOX

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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Well. I’m running out of things to say really because every game is the same. Detroit gives up 2 runs to the LA Angels. It scores 1. Oh, and the Angels made three errors, too. Another game in the loss column.

Friday, the Tigers allow no runs and win.

Saturday, the Tigers allow two runs in nine innings and lose.

Sunday, the Tigers allow two runs in nine innings and lose.

3 quality starts, 9 runs allowed this weekend, and two tough luck losses to show for it.

If you want to criticize anything today, I really doubted Monroe was going to score from second, and Sean Casey is a good enough batter to trust with bases loaded.

It’s probably time — most people would say “about a month ago — to let Marcus Thames play every night. Obviously it’s not working when he’s on the bench, and Dmitri Young isn’t really doing anything to deserve to play that much.

It’s getting more frustrating by the day to piss away these pitching performances.

But maybe there’s a bright point? As I said at the end of July, the period between playing the Twins early in August and playing the Angels early in September would be key. If Detroit came out of the stretch with a lead in the division, they’d probably win. Well, tonight they lead by 4.5 games. They’ve whiffed their way through a month of really good baseball teams but only lost 3 games in 34 days.

How do I feel at this point? Rather put off. A bit negative. Disgusted really. Tired of writing the same thing every night. But the Tigers positioned themselves fine for the final stretch. They should be fine. But my confience level on that statement has really took a hit in the past month.

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