Clete Culties' prayers work: Tigers 9, Twins 0

by Kurt Mensching on May 5, 2009 10:02 PM EDT in News Comment 4 comments

Even Miguel Cabrera, left, wants to join the Cult of Clete.

The Cult of Clete can rejoice! Not only did the Tigers announce earlier today that outfielder Clete Thomas was called up from Triple-A Toledo -- having made his way back to the majors after Tommy John surgery -- but the Bless You Boys fan favorite batted third and very nearly hit for the cycle. The Tigers and Jim Leyland both shook things up. Detroit made a couple roster moves, calling up Thomas and infielder Jeff Larish from Toledo, while sending lefty reliever Clay Rapada back to Toledo and placing Carlos Guillen on the disabled list with a sore shoulder. Thomas was said to be surprised when he looked at the lineup card and saw his name next to the third slot, but Leyland said he was trying to mix things up a bit in an attempt to spark what has become a low-scoring team recently.

It obviously worked, not the least because of Thomas. In his first three at-bats, he hit a double, a triple and a single to set up the attempt at the cycle. He grounded out and walked in his final two at-bats of the game to fall short, but helped the Tigers jump out to a 6-0 lead after two innings and 9-0 lead after four.

Almost lost is the stellar showing by Tigers rookie Rick Porcello. He pitched what you expect to be a typical Porcello outing when he settles into his career. The sinkerballer forced 14 ground balls -- resulting in three double plays -- and struck out three for his first win in front of the Comerica Park fans. He bounced back beautifully from a pair of downright ugly games.He dropped his ERA to 4.71 from 6.23.

With the win, the Tigers avoided the two-game sweep, and leave for an eight-game road trip that begins in Chicago, then continues in Cleveland and Minnesota.

Roar

There are so many details in today's game, as you'd expect. Two more to note: Miguel Cabrera hit a 440-foot "moon shot" to left field for two runs. He came a triple away from the cycle. Unlike Thomas, he never came to bat in the eighth inning, because Leyland chose to pinch hit Larish. ... Curtis Granderson, debuting in the fifth batting slot, hit a home run as well, his ninth. Grandy is now tied for second in the AL in home runs, two behind former Tiger Carlos Pena with 11. ... This is the Tigers' third shutout of the season and second by a 9-0 score.

Whimper

I can't find any whimper for the Tigers, so I'll whimper for the Twins tonight. They played defense uncharacteristic of a team with such good fundamental. They were charged with three errors and made multiple miscues on balls that fell in for hits as well. It was refreshing to see a team do what the Tigers have typically done this year: looked ugly in the field and gave up the crooked inning to get knocked out of the game. Two errors in the second helped Detroit score five in the frame.

Turning point

Tigers catcher Gerald Laird walked with two outs in the second inning to start it all. The Tigers scored five runs. Ramon Santiago's double, Josh Anderson's single, Thomas' triple and Cabrera's single all knocked in runs.

Comment of the night

The culties were all happy with Clete's play today. wepri31 said it first:

The cult rejoices!

Ian will be back Wednesday! Now..

LET'S GO WINGS!

Kurt of Mack Avenue Tigers served as your guest blogger while Ian was in Seattle.

0 recs | Comment 4 comments | Share

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Aww. I was first but I accept that I actually had nothing to scream about aside from just seeing him in the dugout.

Twitter

by john.kmiecik on May 6, 2009 11:13 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

haha

but you failed to mention the cult!

Mack Avenue Tigers

by Kurt Mensching on May 6, 2009 12:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

More Clete and Larish, or more changes?

Will he stay in the lineup today? Overloading with lefties worked great yesterday but tonight we face the South Side’s most famous Southpaw, White Sox Ace Mark Buerhle.

http://www.bb-ref.com/play-index/shareit/q9XH

Buerhle isn’t a ton better against lefties than righties, although his K/BB ratio is significantly better when the man at the plate is on his paw-side.

Overnight, the Tigers went from a predominantly right-handed lineup to a very lefty one. Larish, Granderson, Anderson, Thomas, and Santiago (Switch, pref v. RHP) were enough to make quite a mess of the box on the 1st base side of the plate last night. I wonder, though, if the new-look lineup will last even 24 hours.

I imagine Everett (1/3 lifetime v. Buerhle), at least, will get the nod over Santiago (2/11) at the Six tonight. The outfielders, however, are a different story. Raburn has not hit lefties well in AAA or in the majors (.225/.292 lifetime in 185 appearances), and his bat has been cool, while Clete’s coming off the big night. Larish, on the other hand, is a different story. He’s historically been kept away from left-handed pitchers if at all possible. And Anderson’s numbers drop significantly v. left-handers as well.

But one of ’em has to play.

So were it up to me, I’d give Anderson, Santiago and Larish a night off go and with the following:

Brandon Inge, 3B
Placido Polanco, 2B
Curtis Granderson, CF
Miguel Cabrera, 1B
Magglio Ordonez, RF
Gerald Laird, C
Clete Thomas, LF
Ryan Raburn, DH
Adam Everett, SS

Curtis typically has big nights when he comes home to the Midway. If you’re a Clete cultist, though, you can stick him in the 3-spot again if you like and pop Grandy between Maggs and Laird.

by Misopogon on May 6, 2009 11:32 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs