Brewers 6, Tigers 5

Yeah, that college hockey reference comes from my disgust with the bullpen. I’m either mad at the awful show of pitching or I’m annoyed with the weather. Not quite sure.

It almost doesn’t seem fair to pin the loss on Chad Durbin, who was not particularly effective but did only give up two of the six runs. Then again, he didn’t even make five innings on the mound and left the bullpen to take care of the job, so this probably should be pinned on his shoulders.

The bullpen, well, I hate to blame the whole bullpen. Tim Byrdak, Todd Jones, Bobby Seay, they combined for a perfectly acceptable 2 1/3 innings. And I’m sure Jason Grilli didn’t totally suck. But Wil Ledezma, who you may remember me not trusting, dropped the ball.

Literally. Dropped the ball while on the rubber to walk in a run.

Yah. Nothing says major league pitcher like balking in a run by dropping the ball.

So yah. Pitching sinks Tigers. They almost never win a game when they score less than 6 runs unless Justin Verlander pitches a no hitter. So I’m not really banking on that to happen a bunch more times this year.

I’m going to quote Lynn Henning’s article.

Luggage and equipment were being loaded into a yellow Penske truck that sat outside the Tigers clubhouse Thursday afternoon, minutes after the Tigers had just lost a cruel 6-5 decision to the Brewers at Comerica Park. …

On their minds, perhaps, were questions fans are likewise entitled to ask ahead of a long and critical interleague road swing:

What will the Tigers do to calm down a bullpen that can no longer be trusted? What effect will starting pitchers who are close to returning to full health have on Detroit’s relievers?

I have one other question: How many of the guys who got on the airplane will arrive back in Detroit on it as members of the team? I have to think at least two or three guys won’t be coming back and possibly could be ending their Tigers career.

But maybe that’s wishful thinking. The bullpen still sucks.

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Side note:

This was the worst NBA Finals ever. I am ashamed to be an NBA fan.

I move: 1) ABC/ESPN never be allowed to Finals again because I don’t care about your Desperate Housewives star dating a Spur. 2) The East and West be combined into a 16-seed single conference because any of those West teams would have made a better opponent. 3) King James not be coronated any time soon.

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Brewers 3, Tigers 2

And here we thought Mike Maroth was going to be the problem. Besides giving up too many hits — a hallmark of Maroth — he wasn’t even close to being the problem. Wait, you know how this ends, don’t you? Just in case you’re tempted to skip to the end, allow me to spoil it: the bullpen blows it.

Specifically, Fernando Rodney.

So that’s a nice way to follow up a no-hitter.  Now we know why Justin Verlander pitched nine strong innings!

So anyway, after the Tigers took a 2-1 lead in the seventh, Rodney struggled in the 8th  and eventually gave up a two-run home run to, who else? Bill Hall. Fernando and Justin have something to talk about, at least.

Basically, the Tigers currently have no reliable setup man, but at least thanks to the no hitter,  they finally won a game in which they scored less than 6. So that’s a start, right?

Could be worse. At least Rodney didn’t push Maroth like what went on in Houston.

Well, obviously you want to win every game, but I couldn’t really find the energy to be too upset today. That no-hitter afterglow still.

Still, Tigers better give Chad Durbin some run support in the rubber match today.

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Please accept this stream-of-consciousness:

A thing of beauty: 000 000 000 0 0 0

That is what the Comerica Park scoreboard showed.

Justin Verlander, the catcher in front of him, and the seven behind him, allowed no runs, committed no errors, and you already know, allowed no hits.

I had to take awhile to breathe. To think. To remember. Not really to digest. How can you not digest what went on? Verlander stood on the mound and for 27 outs did not allow a hit. Not to gain perspective. It’s easy to put this one into perspective. Every Tigers fan knows who Jack Morris is. Every Tigers fan knows how long ago 1984 was. Every baseball fan knows how rare a no hitter is. And Verlander is 24, is in just his second year in the majors. No, I think the guy down the street who doesn’t watch baseball can put that into perspective just fine.

Let me tell you about my evening. It’s hot. It’s incredibly hot by Marquette standards. It’s nearly 90. It’s just… too hot. It’s steamy, muggy, still, awful heat. It’s no fun. It’s a bad day to be in a shirt and tie and to wear a collar that’s too tight for you. So I did what you would do in that situation: I went to the beach. We have a nice beach in Marquette. It’s long. It’s pretty soft. You can mold the sand into a nice pillow, listen to the rhythm of the waves, feel the cool breeze and listen to a baseball game.

I’ve got a Washington D.C. thriller, a real page turner, and I’m reading it and enjoying a summer paradise as Verlander starts to systematically beat the Brewers. He’s striking them out. They’re not getting out of the infield. Jeff Suppan, always a World Series champion Cardinal, is pitching almost as well for the Brewers. A fine pitching duel. It doesn’t take much effort to keep up with my book and the radio.

The first inning. The second inning. The Brandon Inge homer. The third inning. Suddenly, I’m starting to feel it. By the end of the second inning I thought, as I sometimes think “no hitter? hmm.” But I think my thoughts jinx things and push them away. By the end of the third, I was having problems pushing them out, but it was early. Then it’s the fourth. Then it’s the fifth. And I’m throwing more and more rocks into Lake Superior, so cold I don’t want to go past my ankles. I’m thinking I live in heaven. Baseball, the beach, sun, a breeze. Does it get any better?

Then it’s the sixth. “There’s still no hits?” I think, noticing the radio guys have stopped talking about anything but strikeouts. And I get in my car and I’m home in 3 minutes. Somehow, Verlander seems to slice through the Brewers in that short time period.

That’s six innings. That’s when the Associated Press starts to stir. They send out notifications across the wire: hey, editors. Wake up. No hitter in progress. The notification goes up on the box scores online. Six innings of no hit ball and it’s real.

The Tigers offense wasn’t going down fast enough. An insurance run or two is fine but Verlander was going to throw a no hitter. He didn’t need any more. I knew it. I just wanted them to set the bat down, grab the glove and let Justin get back to his thing. Then it’s 4-0. I’m getting nervous. 1-2-3. Oh crap. Now it’s really real. Now you’re commited. Now I’m commited. Now the announcers want to update fans what’s going on but they can’t. They show you how many strikeouts Verlander has. They tell you he’s having a good day. They are NOT jinxing this.

And the Tigers offense keeps scoring in the bottom of the seventh. STOP IT! STOP IT! SERIOUSLY! Get back in the field. And I can’t sit down.

And it’s the eighth and Bill Hall is a thorn in Verlander’s side. His pitch count is high. This isn’t going to come around every day. My God. Just swing! Oh crap! A line drive. NEIFI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111111 ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Something happens in the bottom of the eighth. To be honest, I don’t remember. I’m standing up. I’m sitting down. I’m up. I’m down. I’m up I’m down i’m up i’m down imupimdown I can’t take it oh my God I can’t take it.

The camera shows the RHE on the right side of the scoreboard at Comerica Park. 0 0 0. Strikeout. AH! Strikeout. AH! I’ve never experienced this in my life. I’ve rooted on a perfect game as ESPN showed it. I was thinking back, was it Maroth who took a perfect game into the 8th and still lost? I couldn’t remember. I was bouncing. I didn’t know where to put my hands, my feet, my rear end. It was overwhelming and there’s two strikes. And then the ball HITS the bat and I think “OH MY GOD NO” and Verlander jumps and Magglio stands there and I know.

No hitter. The Tigers. No hitter. I saw it. And I’m jumping up and down and the emotion is bursting out. It’s not tears, but it’s something. It’s an emotional release unlike any I’ve experienced in baseball. This was better than beating the Yankees in Game 2 of the ALDS. This was better than going to the World Series.

I was 4 when Jack Morris did it.

A no hitter.

WOW.

Add: 3-0 after six. 4-0 after 7. My error.

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With the end of the 3-game series in Milwaukee, one of the teams learned a thing or two about how far it still has to go.  The Brewers were that team, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist Michael Hunt wrote.

The Tigers aspire to be the most imitated model to emerge from Detroit since the ‘65 Mustang.

So the question for the Brewers following the brief interleague experience against an opponent of such distinction was whether they learned anything from the Tigers.

“It shows we can compete with them in two of three games,” said Brewers manager Ned Yost, “but we still have to do the little things. …

“They have solid defense, a strong pen and strong starting pitching. They are relentless on offense. I feel like we have a lot of those qualities, but we have a lot of areas to improve on.”

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I feel like I borrowed the Detroit Tigers Weblog’s fashion of pregame and postgame comments today!

POSTGAME:

And it’s 1, 2, 13 strikeouts you’re out at the old…ball…game. Detroit dropped a 4-3 decision that saw the Tigers head back to the dugout 13 times by way of K. Brandon Inge accounted for four of those all by himself. Chris Shelton added another with the bases loaded for him in the eighth inning. Joel Zumaya proved he is human, offering up a two-run home run to Rickie Weeks that turned out to be the deciding factor after Nate Robertson pitched seven innings. Despite the Tigers’ bats offering up eight strikeouts to Milwaukee starter Chris Capuano, Robertson nearly outdueled his counter part, allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits and struck out seven. The Tigers commited an uncharacteristic two errors in the contest.

PREGAME:

Curtis Granderson and Pudge both drew the off day against Milwaukee, so Brewers pitcher Chris Capuano will be facing Brandon Inge at the top of the lineup. I’m sure that .287 OBP is intimidating.

UPDATE: Actually it’s .333 on the road.

Capuano is a pretty good pitcher. The Brewers’ ace has nice NL numbers, edging out our own Nate Robertson today in most categories. This was the game I pegged for the Tigers to lose in the Milwaukeee series. Hopefully I’ll be wrong.
Check back after the game. Or you can watch on ESPN’s game tracker, as I’m forced to do for an inning or two before I go do something productive.

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The conundrum lately is a good one. Every day, the question seems to be, do I lead with the pitcher or the batters? If that’s the toughest question to answer on most nights, it’s going to be a great season indeed. Tonight, rookie Zach Miner has to be the story. He sent down 20 Brewers in a row — from the second till the ninth inning — as the Tigers batters pounded Milwaukee for a 10-1 victory. Magglio Ordonez took Milwaukee pitcher Rick Helling deep for two home runs in two innings to help with the rout.

Only a handful of pitches were struck sharply in that prolonged stretch of dominance that ended when Corey Koskie doubled to right with one down in the ninth. (Journal Sentinel story)

Koskie went on to score with two outs, taking away Miner’s complete game-shutout bid. This Kyle Farnsworth deal, which brought Miner to the Tigers orgainzation last year, looks better and better each game Miner pitches. Amazingly, rather than a dropoff when Mike Maroth was injured, Miner has give Detroit an even better rotation than before. Can he continue? Certainly looks like it, given the way he seems to go on prolonged spells of shutting down opposing offenses. Boston, Toronto, Milwaukee, he’s seen some good teams in his four MLB starts. He struck out five and allowed five hits to the Brewers. Each game since his debut, his batting average against is impressive. .182 to Toronto, .097 to Tampa. Today, it was .167. His ERA is down to 2.08, though that’s going to go back up. He still doesn’t seem to throw enough strikes and takes too many pitches, but it hasn’t bit him in the butt yet and he hasn’t walked more than two a game. There’s better numbers to look at, but none I have in front of me tonight. I’ll try to give him a closer look with some different statistics this week, because he’s certainly intriguing right now.

Some interesting stats I discovered when I was browsing the JS (and I’m sure this feature is available elsewhere but I hadn’t stumbled into it). The Tigers have now won 15 series this season, lost six and tied two. That’s a great way to go far during a season. They’re on a 6-game winning streak and have taken 12 of 13. The Detroit relievers have a 3.74 ERA, while the starters are a beautiful 3.43. And contrary to popular belief about Comerica Park being a pitchers’ park, the Tigers have thrown better away from CoPa. (To be fair, those numbers are probably influened by the yankees and indians both pounding the Tigers a couple of times in Detroit.)

There were an annoying (and sometimes bad) two weeks to start June and already, the Tigers are trying to match their 15-of-16 streak from May again.

The Final Out: The All-Star Game still decides home park advantage for the World Series. Given the Tigers have the best road record (28-10) in baseball — even better than their record at home — maybe we should root for the NL this year… just in case!

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You know that feeling you had? The one in the eighth inning when Brandon Inge scored on a bunt after reaching on a bunt? The feeling that the Tigers were absolutely, positively going to beat the Milwaukee Brewers at that point, because that’s what they do? Yeah, I had it, too. So did they. Magglio Ordonez cleaned off the basis to complete the 3-run inning and Detroit backed Jeremy Bonderman for a 3-1 victory.

But while the bats stole the show in Chicago, Jeremy Bonderman stole it today. He struck out 12 and allowed four hits. In fact, six of those strikeouts were consecutive. One pitch that missed its spot on an 0-2 count to Prince Fielder separated Bonderman a shutout. Pudge Rodriguez described Bonderman as unhittable in a Booth Newspapers story by Danny Knobler.

“Unhittable,” was how Pudge Rodriguez described Bonderman, who allowed four hits in seven innings and struck out 12 for the second consecutive start. “His slider was unhittable.”

“Absolutely filthy,” said Brandon Inge. “Sliders, fastballs, changeups. They weren’t hitting any of it.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was impressed, it’s safe to say.

For six innings, Bonderman was the Da Vinci Code, Rubik’s Cube and the New York Times crossword puzzle, all rolled into one. Not only couldn’t the Brewers solve him, they could barely touch him.

Beginning with a strikeout of Weeks for the second out of the third inning, Bonderman struck out eight of nine hitters, including the final six in a row. The only hitter to make contact over that stretch, Carlos Lee, fouled out to the catcher.

The line that Milwaukee starter Dale Davis put up didn’t look too pretty if you were a Tiger, though. Three hits. One walk. Nine strikeouts. No runs. He added a fourth quality start this month. Leyland’s managing — forcing the Brewers to decide between batting their pitcher with two men on base and two outs, or pulling him in a stellar game — was a good one. I’m sure a lot of Tigers fans called that exact move, bu it’s fun to watch the man at work.

Oh, and Todd Jones worked a 1-2-3 inning again. Has he worked through his problems? Let’s hope so.

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Everyone knows Upper Peninsula loyalties are split. “Half of them are Packers fans, half of them are Lions fans.” More like 75% are Packers fans, but you get the point. What you never hear is that U.P. loyalties are really split when it comes to baseball. Cubs fans are everywhere. For awhile, I would have no trouble finding a Cubs T-shirt but found absolutely no Tigers stuff. Since 2004, the Tigers seem to have taken the lead. Olde English D caps are appearing on heads everywhere.

And then there’s the Milwaukee Brewers. That’s a strange one. For awhile, Bob Eucker broadcasts covered much of the peninsula. They don’t now, which any baseball fan would agree is disappointing. They were always a pleasure to listen to. You can pick up your local newspaper and read about the Brew Crew. Last night, the main U.P. television station led its baseball highlights with Milwaukee. And yet, I haven’t actually met a Brewers fan, nor have I seen a jersey, nor have I seen a hat. There must be Brewers fans somewhere. But it’s possible they’re a dying breed up here.

But on to the home-run hitting Wallbangers, or, at least, as close as Milwaukee has come to them in some years. The Brewers come into the series with 95 home runs, good for second in the National League. As we’ve seen lately, they seem to really enjoy the longball in the ninth inning. The Milwaukeee Journal Sentinel reports the Brewers have 20 come-from-behind victories in 24 games  wins at Miller Park. Not sure how many are in the ninth, but it seems like quite a few. Given Todd Jones recent struggles, that leaves me a bit nervous if El Caballo Carlos Lee brings his 23 HRs and 58 RBIs to the plate. Protecting him is Cecil’s boy, Prince Fielder, who brings 13 homers and an OPS of .889 into the series. And protecting him is Bill Hall, who brings 13 HRs and an OPS of .918. So the meat of that lineup is nothing to overlook.

Milwaukee’s woes come mostly from its lack of pitching and defense. It gave up the most runs in the league without a designated hitter, so that’s probably not a good thing. Tigers batters are going to have to jump all over their pitching just in case a pitcher has an off day. I do not want to see a close game in the ninth inning, as I’ve mentioned. But give Milwaukee some credit, it held the slumping Indians to nine runs in three days and, thanks to that, are one of the four NL teams with a winning record in interleague play. And Detroit faces Milwaukee ace Chris Capuano on Wednesday.

A few interesting things I picked up in the Journal Sentinel. (I may actually buy a copy of it this week. Yes, it’s available right next to the Detroit newspapers). Michael Hunt writes:

Not since their 5-0 start have the Brewers put together a sustained run of success. There was the four-game winning streak in mid-May and various flashes of promise here and there, but nothing to equal the near bottoming out that occurred during eight consecutive days of gloom and despair against Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington. The Brewers’ vulnerability was on full display then, with the problems at the bottom of the rotation and with the gloves threatening to undermine all the promise they brought into 2006.

But now the Brewers are winning again because they can catch the ball.

It has the potential to be an interesting series. Like Detroit, there’s a lot to be excited about in Milwaukee right now. If they had pitching to go with their batting, they’d be a scary team, indeed.

Trade Rumors starting

First on Sunday Night Basebal on ESPN, there’s talk about John Smoltz to the Tigers, and even Smoltz mentioned something about it. I don’t buy that it would happen, but it was interesting to hear. Now the Detroit News reports Aubrey Huff being traded to the Tigers would surprise no one — or almost no one.

The Devil Rays will be happy to trade Huff and the remainder of his 2006 contract ($6.75 million) for, well, for what will you give them?

Although by no means ideal, Huff makes sense for Detroit. He is a left-handed hitter with power. He can play first, third or even the outfield (albeit, not very well). He ranks, in that sense, as a Dmitri Young -type player without the career average.

…Huff, 29, is having a lousy season (.200, three home runs, 14 RBI), but he hit 120 homers through his first six big-league seasons and could find life with a possible playoff contender to be just the Vitamin B shot a career Devil Ray needs.

I don’t like that one either unless he came cheap. Carl Crawford, maybe I’d accept that. But Huff better come for some low ceiling prospects Detorit isn’t excited over, because I am not convinced he could catch on, nor that there’s really a position to put him at. Given his career numbers, I’m sure he’s primed for a rebound of some sort. So, maybe I’m one of the three or four who’d be surprised because I don’t think it makes enough sense from Detroit’s side of things.

Tigers remain 3 in SI power rankings

No changes worth noting really. White Sox and Mets are Nos. 1 and 2. Tigers are 3.

Spam Filter

My apologies to anyone who has posted a comment and not had it appear. As far as I can tell that’s only happened to one person, and twice. The spam filter flags things and is pretty accurate but sometimes flags non-spam, as Bilfer mentioned at DTW today. I thought I’d best check mine and low-and-behold, nonspam snuck in. If your comment doesn’t immediately appear, e-mail me at mensching-at-gmail.com. Thanks!

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Since last Saturday, the Tigers haven’t looked like the Tigers we all know and love. Well, I take that back a bit. They have at times resembled the Tigers. They’ve fought and fought every game, though opponents’ pitching held them to a few shutouts and low scoring games. Coming back against the Yankees, and coming within 1 out of defeating the Red Sox Friday still didn’t really feel quite like the Tigers, though it was getting close. Saturday’s 6-2 victory in front of a sell-out crowd was just what the doctor ordered.

Actually, I feel like the Tigers proved they can “play with the Red Sox.” I scare-quotes that because I don’t really think it had to be proved. If not for a blown save, the series would be 2-0 Tigers right now. But it’s 1-1, and Detroit has played soundly against another quality team. So I am not in the least concerned.

I am not as sure if the Tigers proved much against the Yankees. Not that it matters too much in the long term, but it would have been nice to at least tie that series, though the Yankees seemed to out play Detroit in the innings I saw. That and the Tigers most decidedly did not look like themselves, making mistakes left and right we havent’ seen all season.
But back to the present. Jeremy Bonderman set down 13 in a row, showing he can still be the pitcher he’s projected to be. He gave up three hits. Jason Beck points out Bonderman has been a real thorn in the side of the Boston Red Sox as of late.

He has won his last three meetings with Boston …, all of them at Comerica Park.

More later, I’m sure.

Some Housecleaning

Roman Colon is a bullpen guy, according to Jim Leyland. Leyland wasn’t going bench him after one start, he seems to want guys not to feel their job is on the line with every pitch, but he saw all he needed to, I guess. I’m not really going to dispute his opinion.

Maroth will be out 2 to 3 months, the Tigers say. We hope the best for him, not because his statistics have looked nice, but because over the years in the Olde English D, he’s always been a good guy, and you always want the good guys to find success.

The Daily Fungo Podcast gave me a couple nice compliments. Go check out the podcast if you haven’t already. And no, I was not eaten by mosquitos. But I do have a few black fly bites from my last time fishing.

Danny Knobler wonders why people aren’t showing up, even though they do for the Lions, Red Wings and Pistons. If I had to speculate, I would say filling a 40,000+ seat stadium on a nightly basis is more difficult than a 22,000-seat arena two times a week or so, or a football stadium once a week for 10 weeks over the course of 5 months. I could be wrong. I really don’t know. But I have a good feeling winning like they have, the Tigers will continue to see a mostly-full park.

At Fox Sports, the Inside Pitch thinks Jim Leyland will ignore calls to replace Jones.

But the fact is that while Jones is now 0-3, Friday night’s 2-1 lead was only the second he has blown through the early days of the third month of the season. That’s pretty good for a closer.

And Jones’ history shows he’s much more effective finishing games than he is setting them up, which is what he’d be doing if Leyland replaced him as closer.

It could be worse… Derrick Turnbow blew three saves in the last four games of action for Milwaukee.

The Yankees beat the Tigers 3 of 4 times. Fox Sports Dayn Perry rewarded them with the No. 1 power ranking. After two weeks of leading, Detroit is No. 2.

Detroit is No. 5 in the ESPN power ranking. Their top-choice, the St. Louis Cardinals, have had some injury problems, including the loss of Albert Pujols. Maybe we don’t want to be No. 1…

A few days old, CBS Sportsline has Detroit No.2 behind the White Sox. After this week I don’t know if either team will hang on to that area.

Nearly a week old, Sports Illustrated ranked Detroit No. 1 before the Yanks series.

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