Tigers power past Indians in key series opener; Brandon Inge headed back to Detroit
by Kurt Mensching on Aug 19, 2011 10:33 PM EDT
in Detroit Tigers News
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KEY STAT
Max Scherzer -- 7 shutout 1-run innings. Needless to say, the Tigers need this Scherzer to show up more often than not for the rest of the season.
KEY PLAYS
Austin Jackson -- HR.
Alex Avila -- HR
Jhonny Peralta -- HR
You're thinking, Arby's.
For a team that had some power, then experienced a power outage, the Tigers seem to be recapturing a bit of that power in the past week.
KEY THOUGHTS
Sure, it was a big win. You have to be happy with Detroit getting the series started on the right foot. You can't sweep 'em if you don't win the first one, right? Not that I think Detroit is primed for the sweep or anything. But it was definitely a sigh of relief when the Tigers got the "W" tonight. Hey, a pennant race can be fun once in awhile!
The game was actually scoreless for the first 5 1/2 innings. It was some combination of a pitching duel -- Indians starter Josh Tomlin was dealing quite well -- and a sleeper before Jackson's sixth home run of the season landed in Cleveland's bullpen for the 2-0 lead.
Scherzer was pretty darn good. He allowed one run on five hits and a walk. He struck out six. Of course, if you watched the television broadcast you know all about that one-run. Scherzer should have had strike three and the third out of the seventh inning as the ball was just Lonnie Chisenhall's knees, easily across the plate, but home plate umpire Joe West saw it differently. But we can't spend too much time worrying about that. Scherzer did well.
The Tigers responded with back-to-back home runs in the bottom half of the inning from Alex Avila and Jhonny Peralta. That's what counts.
After setting the goal to mix his offspeed pitches in more, Scherzer used his changeup on 35 of 127 pitches, and his slider 16 times. The changeup got 7 whiffs (20% of swings), while the slider had 3 (18.75%). The fastball was pretty effective at getting misses as well, as batters swung and missed 10 times (13.16%). So that was definitely key.
Doug Fister will try to earn his second win in the Tigers uniform and bounce back from a bad start when he takes the mound Saturday night.
OTHER NEWS
As we mentioned earlier tonight, Brandon Inge will return to the Tigers for Saturday's game. Jim Leyland said he will start primarily against left-handers, and he'll be used as a late-innings replacement in other games. During his last 10 games in Toledo, he had a .265 average alongside a 359 OBP and a .559 SLG. He hit 7 home runs in 29 games. Andy Dirks was optioned to the Mud Hens to get regular at bats and will return on Sept. 1, Leyland said.
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Looks like AJax is heating up again
He’s has 8 hits in his last 25 AB’s. That’s a .320 AVG and .370 OBP. Hope he keeps it up.
there's a small sample size if I've ever seen one
but, guess it’s good to see some positive signs out of Ajax
No longer the Founder, President and CEO of the Ryan Raburn Fan Club
With a bigger sample
He won’t be heating up anymore. He’ll be scorching hot by then. :-)
Glad Inge is coming up
Was worried the angry fans could just be happy for a night. They wouldn’t know what to do with themselves.
Why would they bring Inge back now.
I only want to see him as a defensive repalcement and his defense hasn’t been that good this year.
That may be true.
But Betemit gives away outs at an alarming rate. Inge is still a better defensive option.
Theres no doubt that Brandon Inge is a terrible hitter.
but Betemit is a terrible hitter against Lefties. Now the splits say that Brandon is hitting .191 against lefties and Betemit is hitting .238. Both are terrible but I think the Tigers are hoping that Brandon has recaptured some of his old form while down in Toledo because for his career Brandon is the better hitter again lefties by about 30 points.
If Brandon can even come a bit closer to Betemit’s lefty hitting abilities this season while still being the better defensive option than yeah I don’t really mind this move at all.
Maybe not
you take 84 AB this year vs LHPs, yet his career and 3 year splits show little difference between Betemit vs LHP or RHP.
With Inge, we’re looking at a few weeks of success vs AAA competition vs years of futility. One thing, though, is that Inge is at least capable defensively. That makes him unique on the Tigers.
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
why would we take away AB's to look at this?
He’s actually faced more LHP this season than any other season and his number’s this season are right on par with his numbers for every other season except for 2 seasons where he managed to hit above .300 against LHP.
yay run on sentences.
by that figuring, Curtis Granderson still struggles with lefties
by Kurt Mensching on Aug 20, 2011 9:56 AM EDT up reply actions
Hence the "maybe"
just saying that Betemit does have a better recent history vs LHP’s than he has this season. We knew from his 08 season that Curtis was capable of hitting lefties, but he morphed into the worst hitter in the league vs LHP’s. Obviously, he sorted something out this season.
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
the hitting coach on the Yankees
Was scouting him before the playoffs so when he was traded to New York, he had some ideas to fix the holes he saw in his swing. He was very impressed at how hard Curtis worked during the offseason with him – clearly it is paying dividends. >:(
Random nonsense at @Baroque97
Honest, I'm completely harmless. I make up in ALL CAPS and creative threats what I lack in actual violence.
"It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time." --Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)
Play Betemit early and replace him with Kelly later in the game.
Inge can’t hit and hasn’t been fielding that great this year either.Give him a chance next year in spring training,but i’ve seen enough of Inge this year.
When they acquire one that is good enough to play there every day.
They don’t have one of those right now.
I’m not sure when Betemit morphed into Brooks Robinson. The guy wasn’t a full-time starter with the Royals.
The whole franchise history at 3B is unimpressive
George Kell has to be the best all time, and he was only a Tiger five years. The second best is probably Travis Fryman- good player but All Time at 3B on a franchise that’s been around since 1901?
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
But...but...Tom Brookens!
Some teams always seem to have issues at certain positions. For example, the Tigers have a history of having good to great catching, going back to Mickey Cochrane up to Alex Avila today. But when Aurelio Rodriguez is a top 5 franchise 3rd baseman….well, TD1’s point is made.
I'm owner/editor of The Wayne Fontes Experience a deputy editor at Bless You Boys, host the Bless You Boys Podcast and co-host The Knee Jerks podcast.
Aurelio Rodríguez
Beat out Brooks Robinson for the Gold Glove Award in 1975, the first to do that since 1959. He also lead the league in fielding % twice, 1976 & 1978. Not a great hitter though.
Still A Very Good Third Baseman.
by TigersFan1957 on Aug 21, 2011 5:37 PM EDT up reply actions
When does Nick Castellanos hit the bigs?
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981
No way to know that.
He’s still just a year removed from high school and is in low A ball. There is no telling how quickly a player develops, but they like all his tools and his skill set. Mid 2013 would be the earliest we’d see him in Detroit. If he really fast tracks it, he starts in Lakeland next year and gets a mid season promotion.
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
Right
I was just answering the question of “When do the Tigers stop filling 3B by committee.”
You’re probably right about his time frame. He’s hitting for average so far and has some double power. I’m hoping that the doubles power will turn into HR power as he fills out a bit. (I saw him play last week and he’s pretty tall and lean, but certainly not shaped like a MLB hitter yet). He’s still got to see pitching at Lakeland, Erie, and probably Toledo…like you said, he might be able to tackle two of these either next year or in 2013. He’s still got to fill out and it would be great for him to move some numbers from his K column to his BB column.
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981
$10 says JL has Inge in the #3 hole tomorrow.
"All aboard! There is plenty of room."
Brennan Boesch Bandwagon Conductor
Looks like the power outage is over.
And I really like it when the starter looks good. Captain Obvious out!
God ain't got no use for a 180 lb bag of sugar.
Most importantly, Max dominated
this season is all about Rick and Max. Those two start clicking, and the race is over. More to the point, we get to the playoffs, and even the hated Yankers don’t want any part of the Tigers in a five game series with Verlander pitching two games and Rick and/ or Max on their game.
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
I think that's the big one too
great to see Max do that last night. that’s the type of performance we all know he’s capable of, but sometimes that Max just doesn’t show up.
Yesterday I said we really needed Max and Fister to step it up in this series. Max did his part… now it’s Dougie’s turn.
No longer the Founder, President and CEO of the Ryan Raburn Fan Club
Max was pretty wild last night
Or, at least had a series of big misses that Avila had to scramble for. (Woohoo on the game being televised on MLB.)
Wait
So you are telling me that 60% of our starting pitching has to be good to get into the playoffs? Figuring a few random wins from the other 40% of our rotation, and a few random losses from the good part, and we are looking at like a .650 winning percentage!
I can’t believe that more people haven’t figured out that winning 65% of your games is a good recipe for success in this league!
Pretty much
Verlander is obviously a bona fide ACE.
Max and Rick have been below the standard for legit no. 2 and 3 starters on a contender’s rotation.
Fister, when you take him out of Seattle, is about a No. 4, but we’ll have to see how his numbers translate in a different environment.
Penny is a No. 5, struggles and all.
Rick and Max need to step it up. We’ve seen what both of them can do when they’re on their game. They just need to do that more consistently, like a No. 2 and 3 starters would do on another legit contender. They have not done that YTD, and that’s why the Tiger rotation ranks so low among other rotations around the league, and why Chicago’s rotation is deeper and better apart from JV.
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
Avila has been looking great
Catching 13 games in a row isn’t easy, but he’s got the hot bat to go along with it too!
"Goaltending is a normal job, sure. How would you like it in your job if every time you made a small mistake, a red light went on over your desk and 15,000 people stood up and yelled at you."
-Jacques Plante
Seriously though
I’m terrified that something will happen if he doesn’t get a rest eventually.
"Aside from the stuff I haven’t been diagnosed for yet, I don’t have a problem."- Phil Coke
Contributor, Bless You Boys
by David Tokarz on Aug 20, 2011 1:53 PM EDT up reply actions
He had Thursday off
and Santos should be up on 9/1. No more off days, 12 to go the rest of August. Hopefully, Victor can catch a few between now and the end of the month.
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
so no Dirks for the playoff roster?
that is…unfortunate. so we are comfortable with a playoff roster featuring the following players in the outfield:
jackson
ordonez
boesch
young
and raburn and kelly can play out there.
kinda scary IMO. one good defender, two adequate ones and the rest are awful.
He'll be called back soon on Sept. 1
Only about 12 days left…
"Goaltending is a normal job, sure. How would you like it in your job if every time you made a small mistake, a red light went on over your desk and 15,000 people stood up and yelled at you."
-Jacques Plante
by DetroitSports on Aug 20, 2011 5:03 PM EDT up reply actions
But maybe not in time to be on the playoff roster
My bet is that Inge and Magglio will be on the playoff roster, and Guillen also if he’s healthy.
I don't care what the Chinese say, 2011 is the Year of the Tiger!
Oops, my bad
"Goaltending is a normal job, sure. How would you like it in your job if every time you made a small mistake, a red light went on over your desk and 15,000 people stood up and yelled at you."
-Jacques Plante
by DetroitSports on Aug 20, 2011 5:49 PM EDT up reply actions
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