Chart courtesy of Fangraphs (Explanation)
Earned His Tiger Stripes: Ordonez 2-3, 2 RBI, 2 BB, .125 WPA
Earned a Lecture from Leyland: Casey 0-4, 1 K, -.052 WPA
A Few Random Things:
- Chad Durbin has won in three of his last four appearances. He allowed the Twins to get some guys on-base early on, but benefited greatly from a couple timely double plays. After that he kept them relatively quiet, scattering seven hits and giving up two earned runs. As long as he keeps winning, I'm happy, especially after I nearly wrote him off after his first two shaky starts.
- The Tigers like to score early and often. For the third straight contest this team has scored at least one run in the first inning -- the inning in which the most damage has been done this season by this offense.
Here's a few of the Tigers' more productive innings this season:
Inning Runs
1 33
2 23
3 24
5 24
- Aquilino Lopez picked up his first save in a Tigers' uniform today, and his first since the 2003 season. He had 14 for the Toronto Blue Jays that season.
- Maggs owns Sidney Ponson. He came in at 14-30 on his career against Ponson (.467) and went 2-2 off of the Twins' pitcher in today's game, raising his average to .500 in 32 ABs.
- Craig Monroe hit his 97th career homer today in the fifth inning, a two run shot -- the longball was his fifth of the season. He became the fifth Tiger hitter with at least five homers so far on the season.
Up Next: Tomorrow night vs. Twins, 8:05 pm