Heart of the Tigers' batting order disappears in the heart of Texas

hint: it was September.

I miss our regular season offense. I wish it would come back.

But Cabrera, Peralta, and to some extent Martinez are a problem.

We beat up on a weak AL Central for most of the season. Right now, we’re getting our flaws exposed by teams that had stiffer competition. We got by the Yankees with a little luck, and without that luck we’re now sitting 0-2.

Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer, I’m still pulling for this team and I sure as hell don’t want the season to end here and now, but perhaps our record isn’t really an indicator of how good we truly are. Perhaps we’re running into a team that’s simply that much better than us, and we’re not the favorites we thought we were.

Either way, tomorrow is another game and all you can do is try and win that one, not reflect on individual struggles and previous results. The only game that matters is the next one.

“#Tigers finished 1-13 with RISP….stranded 13 baserunners….now 3-32 with RISP in the last four games.”

“Another problem for Tigers…scoring vs. bullpens….have now scored just 3ER in 30IP against NY and Texas pens..”

But let’s cool it out. Uglyness on the game threads is a downer yo.

You guys shouldn’t be down on your team. The Tigers are in the ALCS for a reason, and I’m sure their hitting is going to show up at some time in this series. You guys have too good a team to keep playing like this. I look forward to the 3 in Detroit, and I’m hoping the series doesn’t go back to Texas ;)

Great game, and good luck guys.

and too angry to say or think anymore about this game right now.

Not a Lions fan.
Not a Red Wings fan.
Am a Piston fan, but doesn’t look like there’s going to be any NBA. And even if there was, Pistons are probably going to be the worst team in the league (or close to the bottom).

There’s a good chance I’m done with sports until April. So let’s extend this series and get back into it. Somehow.

Perry is not the greatest reliever, but I think he was the best available at the time. JL played it just about right today. The offense generated scoring opportunities, but they just didn’t cash in. Keep getting chances, and they’re bound to score runs. We’ve seen streaks like this at times during the summer.

Cabrera seems to be going up there hacking, like he did when he first came to Detroit. He’s never in a hitter’s count and always in a hole. He winds up chasing bad pitches. Victor and Miggy are doing nothing at the plate, and they have to wake up or it will be a short series.

I still think the Tigers should win any given game based on starting pitching match ups, and the back end of the pen matches up with anyone, if the starters can blow right past the soft under belly that is middle relief. They just need some run support and timely hitting.

It’s a night game?

Don Kelly for him in center for a night? Kelly seems very unfazed by the stage and I don’t think it would hurt to have a leadoff guy who’s not an automatic out.

Lucas M:

is it just me or has this happened every postseason game we’ve lost so far..we get guys on base first inning, don’t cash in, and at the end of the game we look back on that as our only chance

Tigers had as many hits as the Rangers did until Perry came in for the bottom of the 11th inning, and gave up four hits. Seven hits apiece through ten innings, plus they added six BB’s to the Rangers 3. There was enough offense there to win this game, but they didn’t get the key hits. With Miggy and V Mart not hitting at all, this series is totally winnable. Plus the early hits by the Rangers were a string of hard hit balls that found the gaps in the outfield, while the Tigers hit found the Rangers’ gloves. This thing could totally turn around.

Cabrera, V-Mart, Avila, Jackson et al have had about 10 plate appearances against the Rangers. They have had about 30 total this post-season. Do I have to explain the concept of small samples again?

So, should we count the Seven game series at all, since it’s a small sample size? Maybe we should just stop at the end of league play and call that a significant sample size and be done with it?

Tigers offense is awesome!

I’m happy now.

Just sayin…. (kickin rock)

I should probably clear up that I think we’re a pretty good team and what we accomplished this season is very, very real. I’m not going to take anything more away from that, and I’m just going to walk away saying “Go Tigers!” and “Screw the Rangers!”

If the ball just goes to the wall, Santiago scores. It kicked out even with Cruz and that is ballgame. Ugh.

So, Tigers in 6 games.

Avila had a couple of ABs that could’ve easily been XBHs, and the Rangers made plays. The Kelly 2B in the 9th where Santiago doesn’t get home. It was a tough call, you risk getting out #3 at the plate with the arms they have in that outfield, but Lamont trusted Miguel to get that run in. Theres no reason not too. Sure they’re having problems getting RISP home, but the Rangers didn’t do much better in this game. Yes they got the GW run(s) in the 11TH inning, but the Tigers pretty much matched them through the 1st 10. Scherzer coming out for the bottom of the 7th was a HUGE mistake, Leyland should’ve hit the bullpen, Yes the offense is still suspect leaving all of those runners on base, but Coaching decisions are to blame as well. I’m not saying grab your torches and pitchforks and run Jimmy out of town, but some of the things he’s done have been great and some are less than stellar. We escaped some MAJOR jams tonight and we had mistakes made (namely pitching to Nelson Cruz…). We go back home for the next 3 and have Fister Porcello and Verlander, I don’t see why they can’t at the least take 2 of the 3 at home and get back to Texas. It’s not like the Tigers got blown out in these first 2 games, and the Bullpen (aside from Perry tonight) has been good enough to keep up with Texas’ bullpen. Leyland HAS to do something regarding Austin Jackson. He’s basically been feast or famine this postseason. Cabrera, V-Mart, and Peralta, they need to get their bats going or as Kurt said, may as well go home now. I don’t blame Avila completely during this postseason, Leyland is partially to blame for not giving Avila some rest, and he’s had some bad breaks hitting. The BIGGEST problem atm for the Tigers is they’re not taking pitches, and just swinging away at the first pitch, which isn’t always the best way to do it. To be successful, you need to get ahead on the count and not give up at bats (bunting included). It’s still hard to believe our best Hitters this Postseason so far are Kelly, Young, INGE, and Santiago (Maggs too but he’s gone now ): ). Pitching hasn’t been the issue, you can’t fully blame Verlander for what happened in Game 1 (in both NY & Texas). The bullpen has stepped up as I said this series. But ultimately, the issue is the offense. You can’t win games when you are 3/23 with RISP. Plan and Simple. I can see why Fister struggled in Seattle. 3 Runs/Game is not going to beat a good team like Texas every day. Offense needs to step up bigtime or we’re all gonna be sad in a few days.

Sorry again for the super-long wall-o-text. I thought I’d just get let out

These guys aren’t Gods, they’re human. A few of the more ‘sage’ folks here spoke about how fantastic they felt, and what a great thing it was to beat the Yankees and end their season. Someone even said and I paraphrase here, " I can look back at my season now as being a success, cause we beat the Yankees". Sometimes the fatigue and stress of the accomplishment takes you out of your game mentally. Sometimes the injuries keeps possibilities more limited. I believe that the greatest teams somehow find a way to get past all that. I hope Detroit can find the way. The Red Sox in ’04 made the most incredible comback against the Yankees, yet they are a great team not because of what they did to NY but because they did not show any let down, they continued that peak until the championship was theirs.

V-Mart gets a hit scoring 1 or most likely, 2 – then Papa Grande comes in and gets the close. That’s been the story this year, and should have happened in this game.

Lose two essentially 1-run games ON THE ROAD and everyone is wailing and grinding their teeth. Texas has a great pen. Yes, game two was a great chance to steal the game we need to steal on the road, but it didn’t happen. We’re still right in this. Home for three and if we hold serve we put Texas on the ropes with a repeat matchup of Game 2, which I like against Holland (horrible ’stache, bro).

Sure, the offense needs to get going — but the start and stop of Game 1 didn’t help either team and last night…meh, we were cold. Happens. We’re still in it.

I know the point of these threads is to cheer when we win and moan when we lose, but even Kurt’s write-up is so negative you’d think his dog just died. We’re not dead and buried yet. Try to keep your heads, people.

That said - I have serious issue with the decision to pitch to Cruz in the 7th last night clinging to a one-run lead. Cruz + 8&9 are due up….don’t you nibble outside to Cruz and see if he wants to get aggressive and rollover on one? If he doesn’t, give him 1st base and go after Murphy & Moreland (with Coke to match-up) and put it on Ian Kinsler to deliver with two outs. I think at that point we were where we wanted to be and could have started matching up with the ’pen. Absolutely no reason to pitch to Cruz in that spot.

Other than that, our pitching has been great., I’m encouraged by it and hope it continues at home (fingers crossed that Porcello gives us 6 quality innings tomorrow).

We win w/Fister tonight, ‘steal’ one with Porcello tomorrow and JV being JV at home and we’re on the doorstep with Scherzer & Fister in Texas. Very doable.

Go Tigers!

What’s wrong with the fans right now? BYB is in a real dark place right now.

David everything you’re saying is true, but unfortunately this time of year emotion and panic seems to trump sound, rational reasoning.