Tigers drop 2007 home opener

(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Tigers’ probable lineup and preview:

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Sheffield, DH
4. Ordonez, RF
5. Guillen, SS
6. Rodriguez, C
7. Casey, 1B
8. Monroe, LF
9. Inge, 3B

Pitcher: Jeremy Bonderman

Blue Jays probable lineup and preview:

1. Reed Johnson, LF
2. Lyle Overbay, 1B
3. Vernon Wells, CF
4. Frank Thomas, DH
5. Troy Glaus, 3B
6. Alex Rios, RF
7. Gregg Zaun, C
8. Aaron Hill, 2B
9. Royce Clayton, SS

Pitcher: Roy Halladay

Pregame: Man, I’ve been waiting a long time for this! As have we all. It’s been several cold, snowy, gray months for most of us following the World Series loss, but we made it through. It’s time for baseball, and now it counts! I’ve got nervous anticipation already, and I can’t wait to pick up my copies of the News and Freep in the morning — or something resembling it — and glancing over the season previews while the pregame is on. Unlike my first Opening Day in Marquette, it may not even snow — that’s Tuesday, in case you wonder. In any case, it’s going to be nice in Detroit for those lucky enough to snag tickets.

The good and the bad of being a good club on opening day against a good club is Detroit will look at the mound only to see a Cy Young favorite looking back at them in Roy Halladay. Fortunately, Jeremy Bonderman is a Cy Young contender as well, so we could be looking at a classic pitcher’s duel. But who really knows. These things never work out as planned. Just ask St. Louis starter Chris Carpenter, who gave up five runs Sunday night shortly after celebrating the Cardinals’ 2006 World Series victory. In any case, it’s going to be a happy day seeing a 10th American League pennant raised.

And you know what? I think the Tigers will show off their run scoring ability, even against a star pitcher. Tigers, 5-2.

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Postgame: Jays, 5-3 (10 innings). The ceremony was great. Just gives you tingles to watch the pennant being shown and then raised. It was a great afternoon. The baseball was pretty good, too. Unfortunately, the Jays just got better pitching today. First, Bonderman had a rough outing in the first inning. He couldn’t find his location. The Jays added to it by hitting the basepaths for a pair of steals. Then after giving up two runs before recording an out, Bonderman suffered a bit of bad luck when a fly to the outfield hung too long in the wind, causing Craig Monroe and Carlos Guillen a bit of confusion. So that made it 3-0 after the first. Bonderman setttled in the rest of the game and, at one point, recorded 11 outs in a row.

But Joel Zumaya also struggled a bit, though he gave up no runs. Todd Jones, a strikeout  throwing machine, did as well. And Fernando Rodney could not record outs when he needed them, issuing a single, walk and then a hit batsman (Frank Thomas) on a 1-2 count to load the bases. He got two strikes on Troy Glaus, but couldn’t finish the deal, as Glaus singled in the game-winner. Alex Rios added an insurance run.

Total, the Tigers gave up six walks. Meanwhile, they did score three runs by grinding out some nice at-bats against Cy Young contender Roy Halladay. Casey Janssen did a great job coming on in relief of him. And BJ Ryan shut the door in the 10th. The Jays had eight strikeouts — half of them Monroe. Pudge (twice), Sheff and Granderson also K’d.

Defensive props to be given include Monroe, who grabbed a pair of long fly balls over the home run stripe at the wall; and Rodney, who deserves an ESPN web gem for his fielding of a grounder and throw to first, just to show that E1 thing is officially history. Offensive props go to Granderson, who had a double off Halladay and scored; Placido Polanco for a 3-for-5 game; and Gary Sheffield, who drove in a pair of runs with sac flies and really gave the Jays some scares with a pair of long, exciting strikes that fell foul.

You hate to lose the first one, but so be it. Half the teams lose on opening day, and most of them don’t have nearly as exciting a ceremony before the first pitch.

BOX

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It was messy. Two errors before one out was recorded. And that was from guys who’ll be starting in the playoffs! Kenny Rogers just struggled today and Detroit fell behind, 7-0, before falling, 8-7.

While something could be said of the lineup, it was not the problem. Detroit scored 6. It’s a day game after a night game. Magglio had a back spasm two days ago. Polanco was injured. Thames had a cold. Today’s win doesn’t matter nearly as much as a win Tuesday. So, pennant race or not, it simply wasn’t a must win game and Leyland didn’t treat it as one.

I think the Tigers take two from the Royals, the White Sox take one from the Twins, and Detroit wins the division. But it doesn’t matter other than the right to wave a flag and buy a T-shirt. As Drew Sharp pointed out, the team with the home field advantage wins 50% of the time. Not much advantage in that. Actually, as bad as Detroit seems to play in day games, maybe we can get some nighttime advantage out of having them as an opponent!

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The long ball ruled the day. Ten of the combined 11 runs in Detroit’s 7-4 defeat came on home runs. Both teams turned a couple timely double plays or the outcome might have been different. For the Tigers, Omar Infante pinch-hitting into a double play with runners on first and second and the team down by three was a key. Nate Robertson having a rare off day was another key. The bright spot was Placido Polanco hitting a homer after working the count. Man, again, it’s so nice to have him back.

The Twins lost, and remain one game (plus tiebreaker) behind the Tigers in the Central with four games left in the season. Detroit’s magic number is 3. In other important news, the Yankees won and will almost certainly clinch home field.

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While I will wait until the season is over to hand out my postseason hardware, let me give you a hint of who has to be leading the team MVP chase right about now. He had three hits Saturday. He had three RBIs against the Blue Jays Tuesday. The Tigers are under .500 with him out of the lineup. They’re awesome with him in it. You guessed it! Placido Polanco. Detroit won, 4-3, to lower its magic number to four.

Polanco drove in two runs with two outs. That’s what we were missing for quite a bit. This season, he’s been the most consistent batter with runners in scoring position and he hasn’t lost anything after the shoulder injury. What I especially liked was the double play to end the game. It was nice to see Polly range to his right and connect with Carlos Guillen. Man, it feels just like that Tigers did for most of the season. It’s fun to watch. You could tell today the team was feeling good.

Jeremy Bonderman didn’t have a terrific game. He never seems to. But he got another quality start. Oh, and he became the first Tigers pitcher since Jack Morris in… 1987… to have 200 strikeouts in a season. The rest of the pitching was fine. It allowed some runs, but nothing of concern. I’d really like to have seen Andrew Miller buckle down and find the strike zone better, but he failed to again. He’s being looked at for the playoff roster but isn’t really doing anything to earn it. Jim Leyland said in the postgame comments on FSN that he’ll get some more chances.

Magglio Ordonez left the game with back spasms. He’ll probably need some rest, but it’s not an injury to fear that much. Leyland didn’t seem concerned, not that he ever shows much of what he’s thinking. I don’t think we have to worry. Jason Beck agrees (and writes about why Marcus Thames wasn’t in the game — flu)
In all, just another fun win. I don’t take them for granted, I just enjoy every minute.

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It’s always easier to criticize. While that phrase is always bantered around — and mostly means it’s easier to criticize someone for doing something than to do it yourself — it seems pretty accurate. So when the Tigers pound on the Jays by scoring eight runs without a homer (two runs with one), and get reliable relief (for the most part), there isn’t a whole lot to say. Not that I’m complaining. Detroit beat Toronto, 10-5, and Joel Zumaya picked up his first career save not by coming out of the bullpen in the ninth, but by coming out of it in the seventh to clean up when Jason Grilli got into a little trouble.

The Tigers won their first series since taking two from Cleveland in May by outscoring a strong Toronto offense, 20-18. Eight of those Blue Jays runs came in one inning, make what you will of that information.

I’ve got a few things I’m going to look into tonight or tomorrow, as far as the 13 games against the four best records in the American League go. They went 5-8 dring that run with three blown saves. Off the top of my head, I think Detroit was in just about every game. I think they were either tied or they led nearly every game in the seventh inning or later. I still think this looks like a pretty good Tigers team if you take step back and look at the numbers and performances.

It gets easier from here. Maybe not tomorrow against Tampa’s Scott Kazmir. But after that. You’re hard pressed to find more than one or two challenging series in a row through the end of July.

So Detroit entered what everyone saw as a tough 16-game stretch at 33-14. The came out of it 40-23. They were in first place with the best record in baseball comeing into it. They are in first place with the best record when they came ouf of it. And they are the first team to hit 40 games — if that means anything. Hopefully it toughened them up for the long haul.

But I’ll look into all that soon.

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I didn’t see or hear this one. The Tigers won 5-3 but still had some drama, so it’s probably a good thing anyway. Just glancing at the box score tells us a few things. First, Zach Miner must have felt a lot more comfortable today than his previous start against the Red Sox. Two hits, two walks, two runs, six innings. That’s pretty good. The lineup in Toronto is more fierce, too.

The second is that trade of Jeff Farnsworth for Miner and Roman Colon may not have been all that bad an idea. Colon threw two innings today. So the other side of the Farnsworth trade accounted for eight innings. I really must credit Kyle J in the Detroit Tigers Weblog comments for noticing that fact first.

Todd Jones returned to his roller coaster ways. With a two run lead and two outs, he gave up a single and a walk — thus giving all Tigers fans a chance to say “Oh no, not this again!” — before getting the final out. Yeah, we could have done without that. But it looks like Leyland still has faith in Jones. I still don’t.

“I guess I’m a glutton for punishment,” Jones said (in Jason Beck’s game story). “It’s important that I show to my teammates that I’m not rattled, because we’re a better team if I’m in the mix and pitching and pitching well. It was good for me to get back out there for sure.”

And the third is Ted Lilly probably almost didn’t deserve to lose this game. 12 strikeouts. 3 hits allowed. And he loses 5-3? But that’s more of the Tigers doing and his own mistakes. A 3-run homer by Brandon Inge and a two-run shot by Marcus Thames — now his 12th! — accounted for the runs. The was one runner left on base. So Detroit made the best of its chances, and not only that, hit multiple-run homers. Both have been oddities as of late. Mario Impemba noticed Thames on his blog today.

So, a good win? A minor win? Hey, at least it’s a win. Congrats to Zach Miner for getting his first one and for the Tigers to responding after an awful showing Friday. One more to go against Toronto, and Nate Robertson’s on the mound. Maybe Detroit can finally take a series? I’m not holding my breath, but at least the chance is there.

Meanwhile, Jim Leyland likes losing. Or at least, he likes testing his players to see how they’ll respond, Jason Beck writes.

“It’s one of my favorite times because I know that that’s when you’re supposed to do your job,” Leyland continued. “Everybody’s on the bandwagon when things are going good. But the manager’s got to be there for when [it] hits the fan. The manager has to take responsibility. And I will take total responsibility for this team’s performance. I’m not going to be there like a bandwagon when things are going good, and all of a sudden jump ship on these guys when things happen. I’m the manager, and I’ll be there for them — win, lose or draw — as long as the effort’s there. And the effort’s there, and I have no complaints.”

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Wow.

Man.

And a few words I can’t publish on a family blog.

I’m going to make a template pretty soon here. “The Tigers outplayed (Opponent) for seven innings, only to blow the game in the late innings.” If it happens once or twice, okay, random things happen. If it happens a lot in 10 days, you just hope that’s a bad stretch, not a bad sign of things to come.

The Blue Jays have a dangerous offense. You don’t have to help them with walks. I just hope Zach Miner fell asleep in the clubhouse and missed this 10-5 loss. His first game up, he gets to see Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. His second game in the Majors, he runs into a team that had nine batters reach first base safely — in a row! — in the eighth inning. I don’t have to recap this one much. Jeremy Bonderman got himself in trouble. He survived barely. Joel Zumaya loaded the bases. He survived the seventh. Barely. Jamie Walker got the first out of the eighth inning, and Blammo! Fernando Rodney can’t find the plate after a Shea Hillenbrand pinch-hit home run. Whammo! Todd Jones can’t find the catcher’s mitt, and the outfielders can’t find the ball after it’s pasted yet again.

3 run lead? 5 run deficit.

5-2 victory? 10-5 loss.

That… well, fast isn’t the word. That inning took longer than a drive to the Upper Peninsula for someone in Metro Detroit.

“I’ve been through way worse than this. I don’t want to go down that road,” Jones said, adding he has to focus better on making better pitches.

“You have to tip your hat. They are a very good ballclub,” Detroit manager Jim Leyland said.

Yeah, we keep hearing that from Jones, and yet, he, the guy with the baseball in his hand, has done nothing to change things, has he? Give him the rope to hang himself with, I figured. Or else pitch through it. Well, the former seems a lot more likely than tha latter right about now. The Tigers came into the game with one of the top relief ERAs in baseball and a highly respected set of guys in the late innings. And yet they looked more like the Kansas City Royals. (Texas Rangers maybe?) They’re not that bad. Maybe they weren’t that good.

Jones must go. Have you seen a closer come into a ballgame with a 7.29 ERA? I haven’t. I sure don’t want to either. If the Tigers looked at an opposing reliever with those numbers, they’d be salivating.

I think Fernando Rodney pitched like he was lacking confidence, which was the knock against his closing. Jones stunk. He keeps stinking. Can left-handed specialist Walker be called on to pitch to more than one batter? He’s mostly impressed. But then again, Rodney has mostly impressed, too. Maybe Zumaya? Not a great day but at least he got out of it. He was my pick to close. He still is.

The Tigers are an enigma. A myriad myriads of possibilities… in any inning.

But I’m not mad. Repeatedly losing games in the late inning will do that to you. The first or second are shockers. After that? Not so much.

That’s how I feel tonight, anyway.

Saturday Morning

The sky isn’t falling — I wouldn’t go that far — but certainly what we’ve seen in the past 10 days isn’t a good thing and the more blown close games against good teams occur, the more you have a hard time calling one or two a fluke.

Jon Paul Morosi mostly featured Jones.

Todd Jones leaned forward, his eyes dissecting a computer screen in one corner of a quiet clubhouse. He saw good velocity, decent location, and a pitcher who “felt pretty good” on the mound Friday night.

And yet, all examination of the images before him yielded one simple, devastating conclusion: He watched a pitcher face four batters, without retiring any.

Jon Paul is still the best Tigers beat writer in my opinion. That’s just so much better than a regular game story.

Toronto Star:  Don’t worry Tigers fans, you’re not alone.  It didn’t really follow up the thought much.  But here’s another Leyland quote.

“It is a good bullpen,” Leyland reiterated. “There’s no question about that. There’s no concern. It didn’t work out. We got ourselves in a situation where we needed a ground ball. I thought Fernando’s control was a little sluggish so we went to (Jones) because we knew he was going to throw strikes. We just didn’t get a ball on the ground, that’s all. It’s part of the game.”

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I’m not gonna say the Tigers needed that 6-2 victory over the White Sox, the first game taken by Detroit over the South Siders this season. This is June. But, yeah, okay, this felt like a big one, liked a game the team had to take. It would not have been a disaster to leave Chicago without a victory, but it would have felt somewhat like one. Even a close game lost would have felt bad. And when the Tigers fell behind 2-0 in the first inning and appeared to be well on their way to being swept in the second, it didn’t really feel too good.

But the Detroiters fought back. And Kenny Rogers proved why he’s the ace, stepping up his game to a much-needed and completely unhittable level. After allowing picking up two hits before a second out was made in the second inning, no White Sox player again stood safely at first until a 1-out walk issued by Fernando Rodney to Scott Podsednik in the eighth inning. He made it as far as second base. And that was that. Four runs in the seventh, including some really smart baserunning — and some really good baserunning too, the brain was only part of the equation — and a two-run poke by Marcus Thames made this, if not a Tigers rout, then one that felt pretty close. While Chicago came from behind in the two previous games, Detroit made it clear who won Thursday.

Thames hit a 12th homer for the season and averages one per 11 plate appearances. And I’d be remiss not to mention the awesome catch by Curtis Granderson that saw him run into a center field wall.

Jim Leyland didn’t really care either way. So he says. What he says and what he feels, I have a feeling aren’t always connected.

“It’s not a big deal that we won, just like it would not have been a big deal if we lost,” Leyland said. “It was a good series in June.”

Reading the tea leaves

So what do we make of the series, going 1-2? I wouldn’t worry. I think fighting from behind on a getaway day was a good sign. The game was as good as lost by 20 minutes past 8, but not only was it not lost, it was a very sound victory. I think basically leading Chicago most of the series was a good thing. I wouldn’t go so far as to declare the Tigers as better team than the White Sox — it’s just one win and they have five of those things — but on the whole, the Tigers were quite competetive. They came out of Chicago with a 12-10 edge in runs scored. The Sox, and their fans, and hopefully the media, have to look at this series and say Detroit is at least near the level of Chicago, if not at, and that level is high enough that both teams are going to pick up a whole lot of wins this year.

My rule of thumb is simple. You want to take two games at home against other good teams. And you want to take one game on the road against them. And soundly whoop everyone else no matter whose field you play on. Detroit failed utterly against the Yankees. A blown save cost the Tigers from taking two from the Red Sox. And Detroit took one from the White Sox in Chicago but was in position to win all three.

On T.O. the Blue Jays

So yeah. I’m not going to say a negative word about their lineup in T.O. But their pitching isn’t exactly something to fear. They’re playing about how the Indians were expectd to play, overall. That’s how I’d put it, anyway. A nice record, a good lineup, some sluggers, a few great pitchers at the top. Not to be underestimated. But they’re not exactly the Yankees, Red Sox or White Sox either. So while this was the final leg of the tough 16-game stretch, I have to feel it’s a bit easier of a series than we’ve been seeing these past 10 days. I have a feeling Detroit can pick up wins in the first and third games and hope for the best in the second game.

Whew

So I’m going to enjoy that White Sox victory a bit. Not sure what it means in the long run. Not sure if it was a must-win game or if it just felt like it. But I know it felt good when that final out was caught.

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