Walk-off hit-by-pitch caps bizarre loss for Tigers
by Kurt Mensching on Aug 10, 2011 2:16 AM EDT
in Detroit Tigers News
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PrintKEY STATS
12: Duane Below got 12 consecutive Indians out, three by strikeout, after entering the game following a nearly two-hour rain delay.
11: Tigers relievers combined for 11 scoreless innings from the third through the 13th innings. The bullpen has been an issue at times so that definitely deserves mention.
0-for-7: Tigers batters with runners in scoring position, resulting in 10 stranded.
KEY PLAY
David Pauley hit Kosuke Fukudome in the 14th inning after loading the bases with a walk, a hit that glanced off Carlos Guillen's glove, and an intentional walk. Game of inches.
KEY THOUGHTS
It's like that song in the 90s by OMC. How bizarre, how bizarre.
How else could this game end but with a walk-off hit-by-pitch almost seven hours after the first pitch? Both teams played ... hard? Well, they played. They didn't play pretty, that's for sure. A two-hour rain delay, a bunted popped up by Ramon Santiago resulting in a double play, a suicide-squeeze bunt by Rob Brantley that resulted in the runner being an easy out, this game had facepalm all over. If you went to bed early, you probably made the right decision. I mean, you know it's bad when the TIgers' two RBI are credited to Austin Jackson and Don Kelly.
In the end, it was one of those games where you're not sure what to think. The Tigers went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. The Indians were 1-for-4. The Tigers got a few chances to score after the rain delay, the Indians really didn't. Would you rather have chances and fail or just not have that many chances? Academic of course. You'd rather not have to think about the question at all.
But give some credit to the bullpens. Neither Cleveland's nor Detroit's bullpen allowed many scoring chances between the third and 13th innings. Good pitching coupled with rather placid hitting assured that. So we saw Below mow through 12 batters, Daniel Schlereth and Phil Coke eat two innings apiece without losing.
In the end, I was just glad it ended. Now I'm going to bed.
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Heh
you used the same picture I did at SB Nation Detroit. I was going for the “agony of defeat” look.
Back off man, I'm a scientist
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it was a horizontal
you know how valuable those are. I wanted the guillen but it didn’t fit
by Kurt Mensching on Aug 10, 2011 2:22 AM EDT up reply actions
Actually, it is different.
Cabrera has the same exact look though haha
Back off man, I'm a scientist
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Were the bullpens that good?
Or were the hitters that bad?
I’m not sure. The work by the Tiger bullpen was very encouraging tonight. I stand back and look at their stat lines, and they’re impressive!
4 scoreless perfect innings by Below, no hits and no BB’s, with 3 K’s
2 scoreless IP by Schlereth, one hit, one BB, 3 K’s
1.1 scoreless inning from Coke, one hit, no BBs, 2 K’s
1.2 scoreless IP from Al Al, no hits, 2 BB, 2 K’s
2 scoreless IP from Benoit, no hits, no BB, 2 K’s
The new guys- not so good. Fister in just 2 IP, gives up 4 hits and 2 runs, although balls were hit on the ground. Pauley, K’d the first guy, one hit past Carlos, one BB, one IBB, and the HBP. Not time to worry about these guys yet.
But the lineup? 10 hits but 2 runs. Tigers since the break are fifth in hits, OBP, and OPS, and sixth in SLG, but 10th in the league in runs. Stranding runners is never good.
Okay, let’s take 2 out of three and start by breaking the string on Wednesday.
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
Below
Made me forget Furbush real quick. Now if only we can get someone to help me forget Dave Pauley.
I'm beginning to worry about our infield D
There seems to be a developing pattern of teams “getting lucky” on ground balls. It cost Porcello in his last start. Our offense improves with Betemit at 3rd and Guillen at second, but we may be having a minor setback when it comes to fielding. It’s probably still a net plus playing both of them.
by TheCrestedHelm on Aug 10, 2011 10:23 AM EDT reply actions
Of course I didn't check the box score before I posted
So I learned my lesson – always check the box score for a game you haven’t watched before posting something stupid.
by TheCrestedHelm on Aug 10, 2011 10:26 AM EDT up reply actions
it's ok, the infield isn't that good either way
it’s definitely the team’s weak point. If Guillen doesn’t start hitting they may as well start playing Danny Worth, at least he has one skill.
by Kurt Mensching on Aug 10, 2011 10:58 AM EDT up reply actions
Betemit
must be in the doghouse if we’re talking about Danny Worth over him. I mean, we had Santiago at 3b last night!
"You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it was the other way around..." Jim Bouton
by JimWalewander on Aug 10, 2011 11:29 AM EDT up reply actions
I was talking Danny Worth over Guillen
assuming Inge earns back a good chunk of playing time when he’s back on sept 1
by Kurt Mensching on Aug 10, 2011 11:38 AM EDT up reply actions
Hearing a lot of Inge chatter
I just find it bizarre that you’d trade for Betemit, play him so sparingly, and then bring back the guy he displaced when rosters expand. It’s Aubrey Huff all over again. The cost of doing this in personnel and dollars isn’t huge, but it just seems like a lot of wasted effort.
The MLive poster in me feels like the organization owes him a little more Betemit before we mothball him.
"You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it was the other way around..." Jim Bouton
by JimWalewander on Aug 10, 2011 11:52 AM EDT up reply actions
You think maybe somebody's not singing from the same book?
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
I Agree
at least give him a fair shake if you bothered to trade for the guy. Maybe he’s below average in the field but he should be an upgrade over Inge behind the plate (at least this year’s Inge). I agree on Guillen – he’s got to start hitting or we have to start playing someone who can field.
by TheCrestedHelm on Aug 10, 2011 2:45 PM EDT up reply actions
JL does look at numbers
He’s not a sabr guy by a long shot, but he certainly looks at LH vs. RH and past performance numbers. Let’s face it…there’s not a huge difference between Kelly and Betemit in terms of offensive production (but there is between Betemit and Inge).
My guess is that Leyland uses whatever matchup numbers he picks and plays the better choice.
I don’t think Inge will take much of Betemit’s playing time in September (if the division race is on.)
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981
If Betemit hits when he gets to play, he'll be starting
this month, and into September. But his defense is very poor, so they’ll use Inge as a defensive replacement getting the occasional start. Interesting decision to be made if/ when a playoff roster has to be chosen. I don’t think JL can leave Inge off.
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
Guillen will hold his job longer than another 2B would
For the same reason Magglio keeps batting third. Doesn’t help the team win, unfortunately.
Boesch has been in a bad slump as well. .213 over the past 30 days.
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
According to the box score
it was Don Kelly at 3rd. Not sure what that means re: Betemit in Doghouse.
by TheCrestedHelm on Aug 10, 2011 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions
First Kelly
Then Santiago….I got that. Just no sign of Betemit in a 14 inning game! Or much at all lately.
"You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it was the other way around..." Jim Bouton
by JimWalewander on Aug 10, 2011 3:24 PM EDT up reply actions
I'm gonna only stress the positives
What I like about Fister is he pitches fast, and he appears to be one of the best fielding pitchers around….certainly on this team. That stretch he made covering first on the DP was great.
Schlerath looked the best i’ve seen him. The curve ball was biting and his command was excellent, even after he got squeezed a couple times.
Below was awesome. Just great.
Let’s win this tonight, and then JV can ice the series.
"i think it will be mostly feast the rest of the year,"
Well, throwing strikes is nice
Maybe our organization is beginning to get sick of guys that walk too many. Fister and Below both add some guys that are willing to throw strikes without premium stuff and risk getting hit.
It would be nice to get some defense as well, but I don’t think it’s realistic for a couple of years.
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981
Our bullpen (especially middle relief) is our weakest link
The Tribe’s bullpen is one of their strongest assets this year. The two dueling to a functional tie makes me optimistic for the rest of the season, regardless of the outcome of the game.
I agree - BP performance last night was nice.
Unfortunately, I’m terribly disappointed to not score a run in 12 damn innings against any bullpen.
I’m not buying Schlereth yet. I’m not buying Pauley either. He’s never been much good until this year. I do think that Below can be valuable in the ’pen, but it looks like JL will just reserve him for long relief and not use him in a 6th or 7th inning of real consequence.
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981
Was at the game.
The only major gripe I have is that they stopped serving drinks after the rain delay. It was edge of the seat style stuff, because you just had to think “eventually someone will screw up and score… right?” I went with a group of 7 people, and by the 11th inning only 2 of us were left. The rest punked out and went to the hotel.
I hate Jonathon Ericsson.
warning alert!
I don’t but, what do you think about this question?…..seem like the tigers have one or two compontents @ their disposal….for ex; either the tigers are hitters and 10 runners left on base, or excellent pitching with no run support, collectively , the tigers need some ’’balance’’ in their line-up, way too many tigers go down no swinging at quality balls that should be hit,like a different ‘’MODE when one or two men on base suddenly they hit just saying….let me say, hand down the tigers should won yesterday nights game in regulation but of course, nothing new, I’m afraid another collaspe in the end.
Did you mean to post this in the Leyland caption thread?
You captured the incoherence of Leyland perfectly.
A positive or two
They wasted Masterson, we only wasted Fister. Their whole bullpen is probably fried, we still have Papa Grande and, wait for it, Brad Penny in reserve. We need a strong 7 from Kid Rick tonight and 9 from JV tomorrow, then some W’s in Baltimore. This last should not be impossible as Buck Showalter seems to be on the verge of a permanent meltdown. A few more bad calls against the O’s and he could have a stroke on the field. And, this series reminds me of the early 70’s when Billy Martin and Earl Weaver would square off in August with the division on the line for both. Mickey Lolich vs Jim Palmer, etc. etc.
I wonder if Leyland is giving any consideration to throwing Fister on Friday?
"i think it will be mostly feast the rest of the year,"
Not too much longer last night before Penny would have had to be called in to pitch
Although Pauley would probably gone at least three innings
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
That's why Leyland was saving Betemit
He was in line after Papa to throw.
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981
Valverde would be the last guy in
If they were going to lose the game, better to not use him
If they were gong to win the game, they’d need to first score, then they’d need him anyway. So he wasn’t going to pitch in a tie game on the road.
Cleveland, on the other hand, was not going to see a save situation. If they take the lead, game over, no save situation. So they used their closer.
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
Severe over-management in this game...both sides
All the damn small ball and run manufacturing efforts when there were guys on 1st…that’s why NOBODY scored a run for 12 innings. At some point, it started to feel like the run really needed to be pushed across, so both managers started pushing. Leyland was sacrificing and hit-and-running and everything-else-ing. We never gave ourselves a chance to just hit the freaking baseball.
#unintentional_rant
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981
Today's lineup is posted
Worst defensive infield in history.
Raburn- Peralta- Betemit
Good luck, Rick.
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
What's so bad about Peralta?
President of the "Start Ramon Santiago" Campaign
by okie for michigan on Aug 10, 2011 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions
Maggs and Boesch in the corners and AJ on the bench
Outfield ain’t so good either.
"i think it will be mostly feast the rest of the year,"
That must be why he didn't throw any grounders
Wanted to make his outfielders dive into gaps and jump fences.
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981
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