Seattle 2 3, Tigers 2

BWA: blogging well angry. Probably not a good idea. But anyone who watched live will understand perfectly.

What the heck was that? Seriously? What was that? Was that a game? Really?

The Tigers defense — infield — blew. The outfield defense was great. You guys are excused. The infield defense let down pitcher Andrew Miller awful. They should each take a piece of the L affixed next to his name. Miller didn’t lose that one. His shoddy defense lost that one. Three errors — Yes, three errors. And multiple “what the hell?” moments — really cost the young pitcher. He tired out in the fifth inning and gave up the game-tying hit after two walks, true. But thanks to mistakes by pretty much everyone but Sean Casey, and maybe him too!, Miller was on the mound for a solid five or six batters too many. Omar Infante blew a double play. Carlos Guillen made a mistake. Brandon Inge threw past first base and into the dugout. Pudge had a passed ball and a throw into center field on a steal (more later). The kid did outstanding with all that junk going on around him.

Oh, and then there’s the shoddy umpiring job. Look, anyone who reads this blog knows I never blame the umpires. I tend to find that a weak excuse. But my goodness, they were so glaringly stupid, I don’t know how the blind moron standing by second base was asked to work the All-Star game. Maybe he took too many foul balls off him or something.

First, Pudge got thrown out of the game for arguing interference — your call on that one — and the umpire getting in his face and bumped. What the hell did he expect to happen when he’s two inches from Pudge? Then the idiot ump had to smirk about it. You know he was proud of himself.

And Bruce Froemming? He’s just an idiot. The Mariners deserved to score the two runs they scored to tie the game. The third run? Replays showed Carlos Guillen tagged Adrian Beltre out. Three times. No third run scored. But Froemming didn’t see it. However, Froemming did see the runner missed second base — which, by the way, he didn’t. So, on the appear throw to second, Beltre was called out. And yet, the third run counted. Shoddy.

So, I come out of this split. 1) The Tigers played so bad, they didn’t deserve to win. 2) The Tigers didn’t deserve to lose.

Oh, before the baseball got stupid, it was a 2-0 Tigers lead. They played well against Felix Hernandez, and Hernandez proved why he can be so dominating. But that just isn’t the storyline today.

What a frustrating, stupid, stupid game.

So I’ll just re-read my final two paragraphs here.

Update: Even Seattle’s paper agrees: the third run came on a blown call. 

Detroit 7, Seattle 3

First off, I liked Jeff Weaver. I even admitted to that before the World Series. Then he won two World Series games against the Tigers. Now I still want Jeff Weaver not to stink so bad, but I enjoyed all six runs the Tigers scored on his watch. But this isn’t a post about schadenfreuding on Weaver.

No, this is a post about Mike Rabelo getting not just one hit, not just two hits, but three(!) hits including a triple. That’s the second game in three days a Tiger came off the bench and had a great showing. Omar Infante did it Tuesday. Well, and Marcus Thames came off the bench and scored a run, but Thames always seems to do something even if his average is walking the Mendonza line.

Gonna make this paragraph a hot key pretty soon: Placido Polanco had a three-hit day. Magglio Ordonez had a home run.

On the pitching side of things, Justin Verlander didn’t throw a real great game by his standards. He kept finding himself in trouble. But he kept finding ways out of the trouble until the sixth inning. Bobby Seay baled him out in that one and threw the seventh inning, getting his ERA down to 2.45. This man is fast becoming the most reliable in the bullpen. Oh, and Fernando Rodney blew threw the eighth in three batters and 12 pitches. Wil Ledezma had a not-so-good ninth.

Around the Central: 

The Tigers are now alone in first place, as the Indians got blown out by the Anaheim Angels, 8-0. The White Sox beat the Twins — who host Detroit Friday — 3-0.

Mariners 9, Tigers 2

Sometimes, you’re the bat. Sometimes, you’re the baseball. At least Seattle didn’t snap Detroit’s 8-game win streak cheaply. The Mariners hit seven extra-base hits — shelling starter Nate Robertson and reliever Jason Grilli equally hard — and led most of the game. Robertson was touched for six earned runs, while Grilli gave up three more and did Robertson no favors. Wil Ledezma and Jose Mesa (yes) pitched scoreless innings.

The highlight came early — a leadoff home run by Curtis Granderson. Sean Casey picked up a sacrifice RBI after Carlos Guillen led off the third with a triple. That was probably the last time Seattle pitcher Cha Seung Bak got into trouble. Coming into the game with a huge ERA, he pitched a complete game.

The game was delayed by rain.

The Tigers end a short 3-game homestand with a 1 p.m. game Thursday.

Tigers 9, Mariners 7

Omar Infante!

(AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

So if you saw Omar Infante starting in center field, you might have been like, “Well, that’s nice.” Turns it, it was. Infante had one of the better games in his major league career, falling a home run short of the cycle. He drove in a career-high four runs and went 3-for-3.

It turns out all four of those runs he drove in — he scored two more himself — were needed, as Jeremy Bonderman and Fernando Rodney could not contain the Mariners in a shootout. Bonderman gave up five runs — including a 3-run dinger in the first inning. Squeezed in the middle of those two rather mundane performances was a scoreless inning by Bobby Seay. (Bilfer has a note of interest on Seay).

In other news, Gary Sheffield hit his fifth home run after the slow start. I don’t think we have much to worry about with him any more. Magglio bounced back with a 2-for-4 performance.

If your team loses, I guess this is what you say about your opponents, at least at Lookout Landing, a Mariners blog.

Box

Around the Central

Oakland 6, Kansas City 1 — The A’s cruised. Nothing to see here.

Minnesota 7, White Sox 4 (10 innings) – The White Sox couldn’t hold on to a 4-0 lead and Justin Morneau made up for the loss of Joe Mauer with a pair of homers. It seems like the Twins play at home every series. They’ll be past 25% of their home games when Detroit comes to town Friday.

Cleveland 5, LA Angels 1 — Victor Martinez homered and Cliff Lee pitched a complete games for the Indians, who lead the Central by 1/2 game.

Game 31: Seattle (14-13) at Detroit (19-11), 7 p.m.
TV: FSN
Pitchers: Horacio Ramirez (2-1, 6.64) vs. Jeremy Bonderman (1-0, 3.69)

As Detroit looks to push its winning streak to eight, there’s good news-bad news in the opposing pitcher. The good news: he’s got a 6.64 ERA! The bad news? He has allowed just a run every other start, and that other start is today. Of course, I don’t really believe in any of that stuff, but it is kind of strange. Ramirez’ Mariners are coming off a split decision with the Yankees. Hardly any Tigers batters have history with him, but Sean Casey, Pudge and Placido Polanco all have an OPS of .944 or more.

An update, originally Felix Hernandez was pushed back to face the Tigers on Wednesday, but that, too, was pushed back. Cha Seung Baek will bring his 7.53 ERA to the mound instead, and a struggling Jeff Weaver will follow Thursday. Given that Seattle is set to face each of the Tigers top three pitchers in Bonderman, Nate Robertson and Justin Verlander in the series, it’s not impossible to think Detroit has a good chance to run the winning streak way past seven games. But baseball, being the strange sport that it is, anything is possible.

Seattle slugger Adrian Beltre is hitless against Bonderman in six at-bats. Ben Broussard sees Bonderman pretty well, so the Ms may wish to start him. Ichiro hits Bonderman well, too.

Tigers news:

• Gary Sheffield will start in right field tonight. (Detroit News)
• This is the flip-side of having two DH/RFs. Unless you’re Marcus Thames, but then you’re suddenly starting at first anyway. Sheff can play the field, and Maggs can flip-flop and get some rest as he will tonight.
• Speaking of Thames, how good did he look at first? Obviously I’m speaking relative. He’s not going to win a gold glove anytime soon. It’s debatable whether he would have scooped that throw from Pudge as Sean Casey did. But it’s mere months since he started learning the position and I thought he played it well enough last night that I feel comfortable when he starts there. Actually, if you want to get right down to it, if Thames can play the position, he’s the type of batter Detroit needs at the corner.
• After the rocky spring for Verlander, we were all a bit nervous. Not because of his innings pitched — that is a seasonlong reason to be nervous, you should probably continue — but fears of a slow start costing him. I don’t have a link, but Lynn Henning was so frightened he wondered about a trip to AAA to start the year. But 13 scoreless innings of five-hit ball later, Verlander is looking pretty good.
• Now if he could only keep his fast ball from getting high. Once he brings that down, he gets even better. And yet he’ll still give up a run.
• More on Craig Monroe: I’ll throw a damp towel. One wonders if his late-inning heroics would be so necessary if he had some early-inning heroics at the plate instead.
• But he is really becoming known for his clutch performances — whether or not you believe clutch exists — in the late innings and that’s always fun to watch.
• Mike Rabelo gets his first major league start tonight. I know Pudge had two days off already thanks to schedule and snow, but I’m surprised it took this long.
• Some stats:
• Thanks to the past two days in Baltimore, the Tigers moved up to fourth in the A.L. in ERA with 3.77. L.A (2.48), Oakland and Boston are ahead. Detroit starting pitches have a 3.28 ERA for third. Oakland leads with an amazing 1.98. The Tigers have had quality starts (3 runs, less than six innings) in five of eight games. (I recall a sixth game the starter came out one out short).
• Verlander (o.00) and Robertson (1.38) are in the top five in ERA in the A.L.
• Thanks to the past two days in Baltimore part 2: Detroit has a .308 OBP for 10th in the A.L. and is below league average in every category but triples.

Curtis Granderson news:

• This one gets its own special mention today.
• Granderson shared his thoughts on Jackie Robinson and his visit to the Negro League Museum in Kansas City.
• He also shared his thoughts on myriad topics on a video Yahoo! interview. He pointed out Kenny Rogers helped Tigers batters as much as pitchers.
• You always have to be impressed by Granderson as a person. A wise ballplayer thinks about life after sports. But Granderson, even with his business education, wants to get a masters degree in education and become a mentor. That’s what I really learned from that interview.
• He’s a guy who knows he can make a positive difference, and he’s going to. I am always impressed by him.
• Oh, and I think he’ll be doing Cold Pizza tomorrow. I heard his name but wasn’t paying close attention, never do, but always turn it on anyway.

Around the majors:

• Felix Hernandez outdueled Dice-K last night, taking a no-hitter into the eighth against a formidable Boston lineup. He crushed Oakland in his first start, 11Ks I think. The kid isn’t THAT good. But he is that good. When he’s not striking them out, he’s getting grounders at a rate of 87.5 percent. He’s turning into the pitcher he was hyped to be last season. (Seattle Times) (U.S.S. Mariner)
• The Yankees rotation had another setback when Mike Mussina hurt his hamstring. Doesn’t look like he’ll go on the DL but he’ll miss his next start. Much-hyped prospect Phillip Hughes may get a shot sooner than expected. (LoHud Yankees Blog)
• The World Series champs are cursed?! (Home Run Derby)
• No, it’s everyone. For us young people, I guess these two weeks are our dead-ball era. (Home Run Derby)

Top of the 10th: Well, Detroit hasn’t lost but if the Mariners don’t put up a crooked number in the 10th I’ll be amazed. So, I’m assuming the Tigers will lose 2 of 3 to Seattle and head to Minnesota for more.

Bottom of the 10th: The Tigers got out of a no-out, bases loaded situation by giving up just one run in the tenth. Sean Casey ground into a double play with runners on first and second in the bottom half of the inning for a 5-4 loss.

I’m  so sick of this team. I’m not even going to write anything else today.

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Omar Infante probably should have been starting in place of the injured Placido Polanco all along, we all argued. Infante made bloggers and forum posters proud with a 2-run double against the Mariners today, which lifted the Tigers to a 6-2 (much needed) victory.

I’m not going to speculate about the bats. They have shown the propensity to score before, only to take it back again. So, no excitement there. But another day has passed in September without our Central Division opponents catching up, so that’s a good day in my book. Nate Robertson pitched another gem. I should have a hotkey for that sentence, because he does it just about every outing. But for awhile it looked like he and the relief corps would have to hold the Mariners to one run to get the victory. Infante got the ball rolling, and Ramon Santiago and Curtis Granderson added RBI singles.

Among notable things, Magglio Ordonez homered, his third since the All-Star break. He’s been hitting the ball pretty well for about the past week. There’s hope he might be coming out of whatever funk he was in. Chris Shelton played in his first Tigers game since being demoted to Toledo. He went 0-for-2 with a walk and no strikeouts. My theory? Shelton and his Utahian boyishnes is a good luck charm. Finally, Detroit probably could have had a few more hits but Seattle snagged a couple balls that looked like they might drop in somewhere.

The magic number — and Cal Berkeley’s RIOT number — dropped again with the win. The magic number itself might appear on the Yahoo standings tonight with a White Sox loss in Boston. The Twins won, 2-1, in Tampa.

Let’s go Red Sox!

UPDATE: Carlos Pena hit a walkoff home run to give Boston the 10th inning victory. I always liked Carlos, so I’m glad he’s back in the MLB and beating Chicago.

I’d feared a loss today, due to this being the final game of a road trip that began in late June. You’re bound for some sort of dropoff after that long on the road. So a home run and a seeing-eye single sunk Detroit in a 3-2 game to close off the nine game trip with a 5-4 record. Add in that Marcus Thames drew the off day, along with Pudge Rodriguez — I’m not underplaying it, but Vance Wilson has hit so well that I don’t want to say that’s a big dropoff, either — and the bats just struggled all day. In fact, all four Tigers hits came in just one inning. Still, I dug the 1969 throwback uniforms with Seattle wearing the Pilots.

Nate Robertson pitched well, a complete game even, but he gave up a 2-run home run on one of his few bad pitches for the day. And in the seventh inning, the single, — and it was, though the TV announcers thought it should be ruled an error, but that play just isn’t automatic — quite possibly would have been fielded on any other day but today. Defense isn’t automatic.

“We just haven’t hit the ball the last couple of days,” manager Jim Leyland said [as quoted by Jason Beck]. “A lot of lazy fly balls, balls in the air. Usually when you’re a little tired, you hit some lazy fly balls like that. They’re ready for a well-deserved break.”

So Detroit closed out the first half of the baseball season with a loss, but a very respectable 59-29 record.

Magglio Ordonez, Pudge, and the likely American League starting pitcher, Kenny Rogers, head off to the All-Star game in Pittsburgh.

Oh, and lest I forget, Humberto Sanchez pitched well as a starter for the World team in the Futures Game. Two strikeouts in a very quick inning. Too quick for me, I totally missed it. They could have used him for more innings, however, as Cameron Maybin and the USA team won, 8-5. Maybin (or as Daily Fungo pointed out and I noticed, “Marbin”) had a pair of hits in three at bats.

I saw the headline “Liriano wins sixth straight” earlier today. Zach Miner was trying to keep up with him Saturday. He only threw five innings, but that’s all that was needed and the Tigers held on for a 2-1 victory. Miner picked up his sixth in a row, matching LA Angel Jered Weaver and Liriano for the longest winning streak by a rookie pitcher.

Todd Jones pitched a 1-2-3 inning. That last out was a bit scary, but well worth it for the look on Yuni Betancourt’s face when he thought he’d just tied up the gam with a 2-out homer and was doing the cocky, “Who’s your daddy?” skip, hop and jog while pointing at his dugout. GROAN. What was that? His head snapped back. The third out? Oh snap! And the Tigers were 31 games over .500.

With the White Sox loss earlier, the Tigers could lay claim to the best record at the All-Star break. Jim Leyland pointed out that doesn’t mean anything. And for his team, that’s a great perspective to have. But for long-suffering Tigers fans, it’s pretty nice, I must say.

To note, Danny Knobler doesn’t buy the Alfonso Soriano rumor/suggestion started by Ken Rosenthal. Nor do I. Not that Soriano isn’t a great batter. But I’m sure he’d rather return to the infield, and the Tigers are better served by finding a true outfielder. For what Soriano will likely cost, I’m sure they could find a better-suited player. If he were cheap, that would be entirely different.

As promised, here’s the Tigers column I wrote for today’s newspaper.