Month: October 2011

There’s nothing to be said about this game that you haven’t already thought to yourself since Nelson Cruz‘s moonshot off Ryan Perry.

Here’s thing about the last couple of games (and a few in the ALDS): the Tigers’ abysmal hitting is turning what under normal circumstances would be solid, if not stellar, pitching performances by the starters.

Justin Verlander wasn’t anything close to brilliant in Game 1, but the man only yielded three runs. Same for Max Scherzer who was dominant in chunks of Game 2.

I want to be upbeat about the possibility of three straight home games and maybe by the morning I will be. It’s just that Doug Fister can deliver a superb outing in Game 3 and the Tigers could still lose, 2-1.

They need hits from more than Ramon Santiago and Don Kelly, and more than harmless flairs to the outfield by Victor Martinez, and more than just Delmon Young’s name in the lineup if they have any intention of making this a series.

But you already knew that.

Well that’s it, folks. After one loss in the American League Championship Series and a season-ending injury to Magglio Ordonez* it appears most observers (except Danny Knolber, bless him) are writing off the Tigers. So be it.

With Max Scherzer on the mound today and a more-than-capable lineup facing Derek Holland — a batting order that now, stunningly, includes Delmon Young — the Tigers can easily even this series heading home.

If you’re going to be at Comerica Park tomorrow for Game 3 you have this to look forward to: Joel Zumaya delivering the ball to mound and Darrell Evans throwing out the first pitch. Aretha Franklin will sing the national anthem.

The Rangers bullpen on Saturday night certainly lived up to its press clippings, but how about the job Ryan Perry did? If he can duplicate that effort in this series and pave the way for Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde, methinks the Tigers bullpen will get some notoriety — on the positive side of the ledger — before it’s all over.

How adept are baseball scribes at predicting postseason teams? Dreadful. A reader sent this item from The New York Times’ Bats blog:

An examination of the preseason predictions from 101 baseball writers at a dozen publications and sites — ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, Fox Sports, The Sporting News, The New York Times, Athlon, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, USA Today and MLB.com — reveals that no one predicted any of these teams to win the World Series this year.

Nice profile of Don Kelly today by Jerry Crasnick.

Back to Delmon for a moment. My initial reaction is that this is a miracle recovery and with each swing we all will be wincing along with Young. My hope is that he’s back for good and powers this offense ahead of Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez. My fear is that one check-swing and his season will be over.

In case you were wondering, Scherzer has started two games during his career at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. He’s 1-0 with a 6.00 ERA (12 IP/8 ER). This year he was 1-0, 4.76 ERA with 12 strikeouts in three starts. Lifetime, he’s 3-0 with a 3.41 ERA in six starts against the Rangers.

Happy 36th Birthday to someone who would look nice in the Tigers lineup this year, Placido Polanco.

More on Max: He’s allowed 2.6 walks per nine innings during the 2011 season, the lowest such ratio of his major league career.

On this date in Tigers postseason history:

• In 1945: The Tigers scored five runs in the first inning of Game 7 of the World Series, and routed the Cubs, 9-3, behind Hal Newhouser, who struck out 10 to win the World Series.
• In 1968: Mickey Lolich wins the World Series for the Tigers by defeating Bob Gibson and the Cardinals, 4-1 in Game 7. It’s Lolich’s third win and comes after the Tigers had lost three of the first four games.

How have the Tigers fared against the Rangers’ Holland? Wilson Betemit .167; Cabrera .000; Brandon Inge .000; Austin Jackson.000; Martinez .333; Peralta .000; Raburn .000; Santiago .000, Young .500 (It’s worth noting that most of these guys only faced him once or twice.)

Finally, Happy 57th Birthday to David Lee Roth.

*How unreal is it that he took batting practice and batted three times on Saturday with a broken ankle?

Another postseason series, another rainout and another quartet of games in as many days. Oh, and another right-handed slugger shelved – but this one for the season, and possibly for good.

On Saturday the Tigers took Delmon Young off the ALCS roster. Today, right around the time they postponed Game 2, the club announced that Magglio Ordonez had a broken ankle and is done for the year.

Now the Tigers have to play four games in a row – today’s game will be played on Monday in Arlington at 4:20 ET – and, in the meantime, try to find a hitter to replace Magglio on the roster.

Neither is a simple task.

On the bright side, Game 2 starter Max Scherzer gets an additional day of rest, as does a dinged and dented Alex Avila, an offensively befuddled Austin Jackson.

The prevailing wisdom is that the Tigers could withstand the (perhaps temporary) loss of Young. I suppose. But can they absorb the impact of today’s news on Magglio?

If Ryan Raburn can make the mental leap from role player to starting leftfielder in the league championship series, the Tigers might be okay. And if Avila, who had a few decent swings in Game 1, can emerge from his October snooze that would certainly help.

But back to Magglio. Who replaces him on the roster? From what I’ve read on Twitter from those in Arlington you can count out Brennan Boesch, Carlos Guillen (imagine him up there last night against Neftali Feliz) and Clete Thomas (!). Andy Dirks might get more playing time now, but not against the Rangers’ lefties.

Not a pretty picture. But it’s the picture we have to watch.

One thing’s for sure, the pressure on Tigers pitchers just soared. And, for that matter, it did soared for the hitters too.

The Tigers simply can’t deliver when given platinum opportunities to do so. Leaving the bases loaded in the first and fifth innings cost them Game 1 – a game in which they out hit the Rangers.

Other thoughts:

Justin Verlander certainly pitched well enough to win that game. Homeplate umpire Tim Welke had a wildly inconsistent strike zone in the early innings.

How about Ryan Perry? In what could’ve been a disastrous move, Perry was flawless in his inning and two-thirds.

I think we might have witnessed Wilson Betemit’s last at bat as a Tiger. If you’re going to make an out anyway, why not just bunt Ramon Santiago over?

Speaking of Santiago, what a sweet drag bunt to leadoff the ninth.

Is anyone else concerned about Miguel Cabrera’s .250 October batting average?

When Brennan Boesch was shelved for the year, the Tigers pounced on the opportunity to acquire Delmon Young.

Now that Young will miss the ALCS due to a strained oblique, the Tigers can’t go out and get a bat to replace him on the roster. Nor can they simply slide the eternally convalescing Carlos Guillen into the lineup.

They can – and did – move someone into Young’s spot and who better than Miguel Cabrera? Another option would’ve been Magglio Ordonez but he’s now in the five spot, behind newly placed cleanup man, Victor Martinez.

Not having Young in the starting nine stings, but given the way Magglio’s been hitting and the better-than-average chance Ryan Raburn will heat up in Texas, the Tigers should be in decent, not necessarily great, shape.

What do you think?

[callout title=Tigers vs. Rangers All Time]

2011 Record: 6-3

2011 at Home: 4-2

2011 at Texas: 2-1

All-Time Record: 344-288

All-Time at Home: 183-136

All-Time at Comerica Park: 34-23

All-Time at Texas: 161-152

Justin Verlander vs. Rangers:

In 2011: 0-1, 2.00 ERA, 1 GS, 1 CG, 9.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

Lifetime: 6-2, 2.31 ERA, 9 GS, 1 CG, 58.1 IP, 47 H, 18 R, 15 ER, 15 BB, 58 K
[/callout]

In other news …

• Fox is going to clutter their ALCS broadcasts with some new statistical bling:
  

  Want to know how the Rangers’ Josh Hamilton fares against a 95-mph-plus fastball? The swing-and-miss percentage of hitters against Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander with two strikes? The chances of the Rangers’ Ian Kinsler getting on base on an 2-1 count against Tigers righty Max Scherzer with the score tied in the sixth inning?

  FOX will be ready with graphics for all that and more.

  You’ve been warned.

• Let’s hope we never have to worry about Cabrera playing for the Yankees, but here’s what he told Buster Olney about what it might look like:
  

  The Tigers’ players loved hitting in Yankee Stadium, loved taking batting practice there because of the short porch in right field. For left-handed hitters, the nearby seats in right are an alluring target, and the right-handed hitters loved trying to flip the ball into the stands. In the midst of batting practice before Game 5, Miguel Cabrera — who has steadily hit 30-35 homers a year while playing his whole career in pitchers’ parks in Florida and Detroit — was asked how many home runs he would hit in Yankee Stadium if he were with the Yankees.

  “Thirty-five,” he said.

  The same number as usual? Why?

  Cabrera lifted his hand up to his chest. “They would pitch me in here,” he said. “They would pitch me totally different if I played here. Inside, all the time.”

  Some teammates totally disagreed with his assessment, saying that Cabrera would hit another 10-15 homers a year if he played for the Yankees, because his natural swing is to take the ball to right-center field and right field. But once Game 5 started, every Yankees pitcher working to Cabrera tried to throw fastballs inside to him, as he said.

• Happy 61st Birthday to Enos Cabell.
• On this date in Tigers Postseason History:
  • In 1940 with only one day off, Bobo Newsom came back for the Tigers and nearly had enough to win Game Seven of the World Series. The Reds Paul Derringer gave up seven hits in the first six innings but set the Tigers down in order in the final three for a 2-1 win, giving the Reds the Series.

  • And in 1945, Stan Hack’s double made a tricky bounce over left fielder Hank Greenberg’s
    shoulder with two outs in the 12th inning to score runner Bill Schuster and gave the Cubs an 8-7 win in Game Six to even the World Series with the Tigers.

Finally, Happy 68th Birthday to Chevy Chase.

ESPN highlights available here.

The Score: Tigers 3 – Yankees 2

The Gist: Jim Leyland’s bet on Don Kelly paid immediate dividends as Kelly gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead two batters into the game. Three batters in, Delmon Young gave Doug Fister a 2-0 cushion before he threw a pitch. Fister was terrific, as was Max Scherzer who gave the Tigers 1-1/3 innings of relief. Victor Martinez gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead when he drove in Austin Jackson in the sixth. Joaquin Benoit got five huge outs, walked in a run and withstood some head games played by Joe Girardi. Jose Valverde threw a Mariano Rivera-type ninth inning, setting down Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriquez in order for his 51st save of the year.

The Quote: “He’s the 25th guy on the team, I guess, but I wouldn’t rather have another 25th guy.” – Leyland on Kelly

The Stat: 3 – Delmon Young‘s home run total for the series, the most ever by a Tigers player in a single postseason series.

The Stat II: 13 – The number of strikeouts by Tigers hitters in Game 5

Up Next: American League Championship Series

Saturday: Tigers @ Rangers in Arlington | Start Time TBD | On the air: Fox/AM 1270 and 97.1 FM

Justin Verlander vs. C.J. Wilson

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