Friday Fireworks? Not Exactly: Angels 2, Tigers 1

by Ian Casselberry on Jun 5, 2009 11:25 PM EDT in Detroit Tigers News

If you don't watch the Tigers on the regional FOX Sports Detroit telecast, you might not have seen the Meijer commercial with the little girl taste-testing spinach. (Here's a clip of it.) But if you have, you know how that girl feels about eating her vegetables. Tonight, I think she'd have had the same reaction to the Tigers' offense.

Uuuuch!

Detroit's lineup is strugg-a-ling, and they're just not that much fun to watch right now. And it was bad with Miguel Cabrera in the lineup. With him on the bench because of that hamstring he tweaked yesterday, the lineup card Jim Leyland filled out looked pretty ugly. (Lee detailed it nicely, over at Tiger Tales.) For the Tigers to have a chance to win tonight, Justin Verlander was going to have pitch a great game.

Roar:

The good news for the Tigers: Verlander did pitch well. Picking up right where he left off in May as AL Pitcher of the Month, he shut out the Angels for eight innings, giving up just four hits, with seven strikeouts and four walks. After three sub-par efforts from the starting rotation over the past three days, and the aforementioned less-than-stellar lineup, Verlander gave his team exactly what it needed. Any kind of offense - any kind at all - probably would've given him and the Tigers a win tonight. Unfortunately...

Whimper:

That lineup performed about as badly as expected. (Could it have actually been worse?) Six hits on the night. And two of those were in the ninth inning. (The Tigers have been good at creating ninth-inning rallies this week, but still need some work on finishing them.) Ervin Santana really wasn't pushed that hard. Going into the ninth, he'd thrown 90 pitches. ~~And until that inning, Detroit hadn't gotten a runner past second base~~. (EDIT: Jen from Old English D corrected me on this in the comments. The Tigers had runners on third in the fifth and sixth innings.)

Santana had more trouble with a nosebleed - one that required him to stick a cotton plug in his right nostril through the entire game - than he did with the Tigers' batting order.

Comment of the Night:

Is it bad that when I walk into the drug store on gamedays

The pharmacist says “The usual?” and hands me some valium and a 12 pack? I really oughta look into that.
by YakAttack

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Third Base

Magglio was on third in the 5th and Laird in the 6th—stranded—-argh!

http://old-english-d.blogspot.com

by VivaTigres on Jun 6, 2009 8:56 AM EDT reply actions

Yeah, about that whole small ball thing...

The Tigers were fairly effective at the whole “get him over” part. It’s the “get him in” that needs work.

http://tigersamateuranalysis.blogspot.com

by SabreRoseTiger on Jun 6, 2009 9:03 AM EDT up reply actions

Was he?

Oops. Thanks for correcting that, Jen.

Bless You Boys

by Ian Casselberry on Jun 6, 2009 9:17 AM EDT up reply actions

Is it just me

or does the “going on contact” plan fail about 80% of the time?

Cheer for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Jun 6, 2009 9:18 AM EDT up reply actions

not Really....

….Id say 50/50…..Inge scores on one the other day on a shot to short against Boston.

by BennieBladesFan on Jun 6, 2009 11:01 AM EDT up reply actions

I think we just remember the failures more vividly

and don’t notice when the run scores

Mack Avenue Tigers

by Kurt Mensching on Jun 6, 2009 11:27 AM EDT up reply actions

Only A Game and a half lead....

…..Over the Twins…..we need to take the next two going into chicago….i have faith….But the bats gota show up…..and they have to show up to stay!!!….We need to recall Thames today and send down Larish and put him at 1st…..we also need Guillen back big time…..But until that happens we need these guys to start hitting that are here

by BennieBladesFan on Jun 6, 2009 11:00 AM EDT reply actions

is it possible the subtitle of this blog is why the Tigers are still losing?

Mack Avenue Tigers

by Kurt Mensching on Jun 6, 2009 1:01 PM EDT reply actions

Long-time reader, first-time caller

So, living out in LA, I only get to see a couple of games televised a year (having to otherwise cobble together gameday, press reports and Sportscenter to watch the Tiges), and this one hurt.

While I generally like Leland, something that he does that is stupid, stupid, stupid again and again is to intentionally sacrifice outs in order to advance runners. If you look at the math, one base is never worth an out. It’s a moronic, archaic strategy, like valuing guys based on their RBIs, and it costs runs. (A little confusing, just because of how things are ordered, but if you compare expected runs with a man on third with n+1 outs versus a man on first and second with n outs, the difference is pretty stark.) Of course, to get closer to the decision, you should probably account for OBP, but still. It’s dumb.

by Joshsteich on Jun 6, 2009 1:50 PM EDT reply actions