Detroit 4, Twins 2

A few interesting points about a fine victory at the HHH Dome.

1. Pudge walked.
2. Pudge walked.
3. Pudge walked.

OK. He only walked once. But you can forgive me for mentioning it three times, because it’s not like a) it happens often, or b) you could have expected him to do it.

At work, I glanced at the TV, saw three yellow squares on the bases, and then saw Pudge. And worse, two outs. Well, one does not expect that to turn out well very often. So I went back to what I was doing and before you know it, Pudge is standing on first base. He didn’t get a hit. He took a walk. A WALK. PUDGE! He has, let me count, 1…2…3… … 9 walks this year. Didn’t even take me two hands. But this walk tied a (presumably) important game 2-2. Timo Perez added a pair more with a single, and suddenly it’s 4-2 Tigers. The bullpen held on.

Unfortunately for Detroit, the putrid Red Sox’ bullpen did not. Our choking friends from the east gave up six runs in the eighth and eventually the victory. So the Tigers — 8-2 in the last 10 games — did not gain a single game on the Yanks during that time period when the Red Sox blew a five-run lead.

Thanks, Boston. You’ll still make the playoffs as a wild card even if you choke. But everyone will remember the hack job you did as the Evil Empire ran up on you from what, 14-1/2 game back?  So, you’d better take the next two games from them and put them away, OK?  Glad we agree.

The Indians, too, came from behind to win.

Detroit clinched a .500 season.

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Detroit 16, Yankees 0

OK. That was a whoopin’. And that as the best evidence you can put forth that the Tigers are still a team to be reckoned with.

It’s hard to category what went right in this game because it’s hard to find anything that didn’t go right. I guess, you can criticize Brandon Inge for not earing enough lunch, causing both possible home-run blasts to bounce off the left field fence instead. And… well that’s about it. Pretty much everyone who picked up a Tigers bat had a good day. Sean Casey picked up his first triple(!!) since 2004. Inge had three doubles. Placido Polanco homered. Curtis Granderson added a 17th steal and 33rd double to his total, to go with 17 homers and 21 triples. It seems almost certain he’ll join the 4×20 club, as a full month remains of the season.

Justin Verlander stepped up and was just awesome. He went seven innings and threw fewer than 100 pitches. That saved the bullpen and showed that his previous game was just an off day. And you probably noticed, the Tigers got a rare shutout — quite a feat when you consider the Yankees offense is so good.

Yanks CF Melky Cabrera also made a heck of a catch in center field, robbing Carlos Guillen of two RBIs in the first inning on a running, running, running, running stab of a ball. You have to give him props for that.

So, the Tigers took 3 of 4 from the Yankees for this series and tied the Bombers 4-4 for the season series. Definitely, good signs. Although the Yanks have cooled some (and been cooled by Detroit), they came into the season series red hot and I don’t think many people gave the Tigers much chance at splitting.

If they don’t suffer a letdown in Kansas City, we could look back at the 3:30 a.m. walkoff victory as the start of something big. Let’s hope so.

Update 1: “It was the most one-sided road shutout loss in the Yankees’ history, topping a 15-0 defeat at the Chicago White Sox on July 15, 1907, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.”  (AP  gamer)

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Tigers 5, Yankees 4

With the starting pitcher hobbled in the second inning with an unknown shoulder injury, the Tigers bullpen stepped up to give Detroit a much-needed matinee victory over the Yanks.

You only have to look at the winning pitcher to see who made the big difference, as the scorekeeper awarded Bobby Seay the victory for two innings of action, rather than give it to Chad Durbin, who pitched the first three innings following Jair Jurrjens being hurt. It was Seay’s longest performane of the season. The lefty, going against a lefty-heavy Yankees lineup, managed to get out all six New Yorkers he faced, briding the gap from Durbin to the Tigers’ late-inning relief.

Joel Zumaya shut down New York for the next inning — including a strikeout of Alex Rodriguez — and went 1- 2/3, and Todd Jones closed it out with a nice play at first base himself to get an out.

The fog may be lifting on an ugly month-plus of baseball. Certainly, it’s not gone yet. But I like the bullpen is looking better in the past week or so. I like the defense being played, for the most part. I like Thames batting third, especially. And I like that the opponents get a bit easier after New York leaves town Monday.

It’s too early to say for sure what happens, and we should remember these Tigers have roller coastered our emotions a bit lately, but I think we’re seeing a few positive signs. Now, if starting pitching can just get more consistent, I’d be a lot happier.

Hopefully we hear Jurrjens coming out was just a precautionary move and it wasn’t anything major for the young starter. But I really have no clue. The rado guys said nothing looked wrong with his home-run allowing pitch, but it was a fastball in the upper-80s as opposed to the low-mid 90s that Jurrjens normally pitches around. Pudge Rodriguez waved out the trainers and pointed out that it was Jurrjens’ pitching shoulder, and the starter left the game. The only report so far is “shoulder soreness” which tells us little, but of course, they probably don’t know themselves yet.

If he can’t come back, I wouldn’t doubt we see Virgil Vasquez again. I’m not sure if Kenny Rogers is feeling up to starting yet. I highly doubt it.

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Update: Jurrjens to the DL. Doesn’t appear serious. Inflammation they’re calling it. Could be back after two weeks.

Update 2: I’ll be the first guest on WTKG’s Sports Extra, so it’s closer to 7:15 on GR’s 1320 AM.

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Yankees 7, Tigers 2

OK. So it’s not really Part 82. It just feels like it. Jeremy Bonderman hasn’t won since July 13. The Detroit Tigers haven’t won a series since July 19. Hmm.

As always, Bonderman gave up runs in the first inning. No surprise. But Bonderman gave up more runs in more innings. If you look at the box score, you’ll notice something even stranger. Bonderman’s strikeouts. 0. That’s no strikeouts in a game he started. Bonderman hasn’t done that since his rookie season. (This game, actually).  John Lowe’s article points out no batter even swung and missed a Bonderman pitch after the third pitch of the game. That is just like, incredible. Even Jason Grilli got a strikeout, but JB didn’t.

And as a side note, please, everyone who is tempted to seriously or jokingly suggest a reliever pitch in the first and Bonderman start in the second, just… don’t. That is not a solution. It isn’t the ‘1′ on the scoreboard that throws him off. It’s HIS first inning, not the first inning.

Well, almost regardless of what the Tigers did on offense, they weren’t going to win, when Bonderman gives up seven runs in less than six innings. But they didn’t do much on offense either. Brandon Inge did score after numerous lucky circumstances together put him both on base and then on third base and then across home plate on a wild pitch.

But otherwise, blah. That’s about it. Another blah game. It wasn’t televised in the U.P. and neither is Sunday’s. Let’s get a win anyway to assure at least a split, shall we?

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Detroit 9, NY 6

Somewhere between 3:30 a.m. and er, now, Carlos Guillen ended the game with a walkoff home run into the bullpen. This would be a late ending even if it were a west coast game ending at 12:30 a.m. local time. But to go to 3:30 after a 4 hour rain delay? And to have so many fans? Wow.

The interesting parts to me:

1. Curtis Granderson hit 2 triples for a total of 21.
2. The Tigers battled back. Not that they were trailing after going up 6-6. But they stopped the Yankees momentum and held them the rest of them game, from the fifth inning until the 11th.
3. So many fans stayed at the game through the rain delay, through regulation and into extra innings. I was shocked.
4. The Tigers had so many chances to end the game, and they could only fail so many times. But it would have been cool to see Cameron Maybin (2 steals today) get the walkoff, wouldn’t it?
5. The Tigers rewarded the fans! That’s the best part for the fans, who were chanting “Let’s go Tigers” more as the night got later, and “MVP” every Magglio Ordonez at bat. For the ones who stuck it out, you have a feeling they have a lifetime memory thanks to the win.
6. For the players, I can only hope this is the turning point.

I’m sure there’s more but I can’t believe I’m blogging at 3:50 a.m. now, i’m going to sleep! oh, and the Indians lost, like 5 hours ago? 6 now probably.

NEW:

Forgive me for forgetting to mention Placido Polanco’s streak of games without an error ended last night.

And check this out: Bilfer was there! until the end!

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Indians 3, Tigers 1 (10 inn)

There was some folks who bandied the thought about that it was all rosy when Joel Zumaya came back. Wakeup call answered. Zumaya helped Nate Robertson complete a scoreless nine inning game, but fell apart in the 10th with a hit, an intentional walk and a walk to load the bases. All three runs eventually scored. The Detroit offense barely mustered a whimper, but made it out of the game without being shut out.

I’ll let the lil guy, Mitch Albom, explain succinctly how this isn’t Zumaya’s fault.

Consider how the following innings ended if you were scoring at home:

The third: two men on, Ordonez grounds out.

Sixth: two men on, Thames grounds out.

Eighth: two men on, Guillen grounds out.

Ninth: two men on, Granderson strikes out.

The 10th: two men on — tying run at second — Rodriguez flies out.

Game over.

That’s pretty much it. Robertson deserved to get the win. For all the games he’s pitched poorly lately, he had a great game and nothing to show for it.

Jim Leyland made maybe a managerial decision or two I didn’t like. Mainly, it was leaving Curtis Granderson in to face a left hander given his struggling against left-handed pitching. Why not pinch hit Ryan Raburn? I wouldn’t have tossed Cameron Maybin into the position to fail either, so I’m fine with no going that direction.

Otherwise, this is just an example of the bats failing to get the job done, and the Tigers’ weakness while lacking Gary Sheffield as the third batter. OK, blame Leyland for this one. I don’t like Casey batting third. Leyland may not like to shake up the rest of his order, but he’s got to have just about anyone but Casey (or Inge, or Pudge, I guess) batting there. (Or Santiago). OK. This is making sense now. Anyway, no no no. But I do like Santiago playing SS and Guillen playing first. I just don’t like Sean Casey DHing when Maggs would probably be served well with a day off from the field.

Anyway, disappointing loss. Again. This just keeps making my point that I doubt it’s a playoff contender. The Yankees come to town now. It could be all but over by Sunday unless Detroit solves some problems quick.

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Yankees 9, Tigers 3

So we’re back to this again. After having won 3 out of 4, it’s back to the same storyline. Let me consult my template.

• Starting pitcher XXXX failed to earn a quality start
• Bullpen member XXXX couldn’t keep the game close.
• The Tigersfail to get timely hits.
• Final reliever XXXX threw gas on the fire.
• Tigers lose.

So OK. Jeff Jeremy Weaver Bonderman walked — 4 guys was it? It felt like more — in the first two innings. He only allowed one run. Par for the course, I guess. Bonderman pitches like crap to get in trouble, then pitches like Bonderman to get out of it. Somehow, that guy is both awful and truly excellent, and often in the same inning. Getting tired of waiting for him to make that leap forward. So anyway, he somehow pitched six innings and only gave up four runs. One was unearned when Brandon Inge was given an error for what the radio guys thought was a realllly bad hop. Seems like the Yanks got a lot of breaks this series. But that break would turn out not to matter either way.

With a 4-3 deficit and Zach Miner follows up his beautiful 4 strikeout performance of Thursday by giving up a pair of two-out runs to make it 6-3. Not unconquerable, but getting there with the Yanks bullpen.

The hitting got stifled, failed to get timely hits by anyone not named Magglio Ordonez pretty much. Oh, and Mike Rabelo, who had a three hit day. The backup catcher continually gives Tigers fans reason to be glad to see his name on the lineup card. Brandon Inge is apparently benched.  For now.  Normally to rest a day, I don’t think Leyland would really announce it like that, so who knows how long this is for. In any case, his defense might be missed a bit, as Ryan Raburn isn’t exactly my top choice for infielder.

And then Aquilino Lopez goes and does it. The only ways you can become Public Enemy #1 with Tigers fans is to a) be worse than Jason Grilli, or b) be so bad Grilli keeps his job when Joel Zumaya returns to the team Tuesday. So Lopez gave up three runs, pretty much taking care of both points A and B at once. So frustrating. Grilli will finish the year a Tiger. I just hope when the 40 man roster expands, the Tigers find a way to play him like, never.

So, I guess the details range a bit, but this storyline is pretty much the same.

Tigers lose.

Cleveland did too.

Blah.

Bunt Singles:

• Fire Joe Morgan snarled its teeth at a Jerry Green piece in the News. I didn’t read it initially, as is my norm with Green’s writing, but I did read it through FJM. Green wrote something about home runs not being for the team, or something. I’m not quite clear really what he was writing about, but I think he meant “clutch” home runs maybe.

• More analysis on all the Tigers awful situation to follow Monday evening.

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Yanks 5, Tigers 2

It’s not that I want to obsess over every first that Cameron Maybin has. That seems like the sort of thing you do when your team is out of it. And these Tigers are not out of it. It’s just that, well, he’s Cameron Maybin. Maybe he won’t become the superstar (or star) that everyone predicts. But looking at the TV at work as often as possible when he was at bat or on base, it’s almost impossible not to get so excited you enjoy the start of the career as much as you hope to enjoy the rest of it.

And frankly, Maybin was a big reason the Tigers were even winning. Not that he was the lone reason. But in the second inning, he had his first hit (on a hit and run) off Roger Clemens. On first and with a batter in a full count, Maybin kept tearing toward second base. His timing and his speed were pretty awe-worthy. He finally did steal second, but the scorekeeper credited it as uncontested when Clemens caught a hard toss and ran down Brandon Inge between second and third.

Later in a 1-1 game, Maybin had his first home run, a decent shot to center field. And later still, he got beaned. All by Clemens. So, the kid will have plenty of stories to tell about the start of his career! Just remind him to avoid going to center field at Comerica Park.

I’m afraid I didn’t see much of his defense, but reading comments and blogs, it sounds like his defense is not yet up to advertisement. I’m not worried. I’ve heard so much good, but maybe it’s just being in Yankee Stadium. In any case, today’s game isn’t televised, so I will have to wait another day to observe for myself.

The rest of the game went like this: Chad Durbin pitched valiently. He gave as good an effort as you could expect when he throws soft and the Yanks hit hard. Eventually, they got to him. He was followed up by Tim Byrdak, who didn’t seem to do much, and Jason Grilli, who I actually saw strike someone out with runners on base. And then Bobby Seay pitched in the eighth. Those names and that opponent would be all I needed to guess the result.

It’s frustrating because this felt like a game the Tigers could pull out. They kept getting runners on against Clemens. He gave up 10 hits! And they only scored two runs on those hits. And one of those was a homer. It was playing with fire to keep Durbin in the sixth inning, I thought. I don’t know if it was a managing snafu, per se, but the team and the manager didn’t take advantage of the situation presented, and the end result is an L and a 1.5 game deficit in the Central Division.

But I still have faith. Placido Polanco missed another game. (And like last year, I’m pretty sure the Tigers struggle without him) with illness, and that can’t go on forever. Joel Zumaya should be back soon and the Tigers send Jeremy Bonderman to the mound today. The Tigers can get this ship turned around.

Bunt Singles:

• Craig Monroe may not have been a favorite at The Mickey Tettleton Memorial Overpass, but Andrew is sad to see C-Mo go.
• Sam didn’t like Maybin getting hit by a pitch. I wasn’t particularly happy about it myself, because of the location, and wish for the same to happen to Clemens. But I’m a little suspicious that he would purposely try to hit Cam in the wrist.

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Yankees 6, Tigers 1

Due to the rain-delay and being at work, I happened to miss Cameron Maybin’s first at-bat. It sounds like it was pretty quick: a three-pitch strike out. But that’s fine, because none of his Tigers teammates did much against Andy Petite either. The Yankees cruised and evened the four-game series.

Maybin’s first game finished at an unceremonious 0-for-4. After striking out in his second at-bat, his third was cut short by an umpire’s blunder on what should have been a foul ball. (Sorry umping buddies, but you all aren’t perfect all the time!) And then he lined out in the fourth one. Facing Petite is a scosh or two step up from seeing Gary Knotts.

Unfortunately I didn’t see much of the game, but maybe that’s fortunate, as not much seemed to go on. But of the runs I did see, it appears the New Yorkers got a lot of good hops. Besides the bashing Jason Giambi (2 homers), New York seemed to dink and dunk a bunch of hits and got some lucky bounces. Maybin misplayed a ball or two as well.

Maybin should get a start on (sorta) national TV today, as the Tigers and Yanks square off on Fox. It sounds like the Tigers are going to keep starting him and give him time to adjust to playing in the majors, bu he will have to step up his play within a few games, as this is a pennant race, and Detroit is again out of the playoffs looking in.

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Tigers 8, Yankees 5

That’s a good start. Don’t get me wrong. I’m going to enjoy any victory over the Yankees where I don’t have to worry pretty much from the first inning until the last. That was nice to see. But I’d like to ensure a split as soon as possible, because, of course, these are the Yankees.

The game was a breeze from the start, when Mike Mussina had troubles with a tight strike zone and A-Rod had troubles with a ball hit right to him, but Carlos Guillen had no trouble at all in launching the ball into the right field porch for a grand slam. Pitching with flu-like symptoms still, Justin Verlander was maybe a bit more frustrating than you’d care for and still nearly earned the quality start. He just threw too many early pitches to go the full six innings, but he pitched into the sixth at least.

Some big bullpen help from the Tigers gave bursts of excitement. Zach Miner came up with a big strikeout in the sixth with runners on base. And then, get this, he struck out the side in the seventh. Like, walked a guy, then struck out three batters in a row. Fernando Rodney struck out three batters in the eighth punctuated by a couple guys getting on base. But Miner actually got three in a row out. With strikeouts. And they’re Yankees. I don’t get it myself, but you can’t argue with the results.

As I mentioned with Verlander, the Tigers still battle the sick bug. Placido Polanco missed another game with it. At least he’ll be well rested when he feels better. He had a few other bumps and bruises, so its’ definitely not the worst thing in the world. Plus we found out Ryan Raburn plays a tolerable second base. Yah, there was that thing in Cleveland where he totally blew a ball hit right to him. And he isn’t exactly my first choice as a defensive replacement there. But otherwise, he gives Detroit a chance to keep his bat in the order without totally messing with infield defense.

Speaking of which, Brandon Inge made a great, run-saving, catlike catch. Another day, another highlight reel defensive play from these Tigers. That’s what was missing for much of several months.

In all, the Tigers are starting to look like a team that will be in the playoff hunt after all. Whenever I start to write them off, they change their stripes and start playing like the team they should be. So I hope they keep these stripes on for oh, 10 more weeks. Of course they won’t. But hopefully they don’t misplace the coat for as long as they did this past month.

Detroit leads the AL Central by 1/2 game and is tied with the Yankees in the wild card standings. I guess some team from the northwest leads that still, to be fair.

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Bunt Singles:

• ESPN needs to add a correction to this article, but Jayson Stark introduced sports fans to the feats Curtis Granderson is chasing this season, so that’s always nice to see. The correction, by the way, is that George Brett only had 17 steals that season, so he’s not a 20-20-20-20 member.
• Gary Sheffield (pause for Bronx cheer) said something about Joe Torre or something. Honestly I’m sick of the New York media and this crappy soap opera, but I offer you the link anyway.
• Jair Jurrjens will start again, as I figured.
• Freep’s Jon Paul Morosi decided it’s good the Tigers didn’t trade Jurrjens for some shortstop in Pittsburgh after all. Uhm. Duh?
• Jason Grilli was brave enough to have an official myspace page this season. He pitches horrible. He’s a good guy, I’m sure, but fans are not appreciative of a pitcher throwing horribly nightly and let him know. And… he wants revenge? Deadspin has more.

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