Chart courtesy of Fangraphs (Explanation)
Earned His Tiger Stripes: Grandy 2-4, HR (7), RBI (19), .133 WPA
Earned a Lecture from Leyland: Monroe 0-4, K - But don't forget Bobby Seay...
So after winning 11 of 12 games, the Tigers have now lost two in a row. And they didn't just lose these games; They got whooped.
Outscored 23-5. Outhit 37-14. Yikes.
I lost focus on this game about midway through, when I realized that the Red Sox were just, by far, the better team this evening. They were patient at the plate (Tigers' pitchers combined for 179 pitches), fouled off pitches when they needed to and got a few hits with RISP. While they did leave more men on base tonight, it's clear to see that they had more opportunities to do so -- they had more than a double of the hits the Tigers did.
The Tigers, meanwhile, hacked their way to six hits (nothing that counted outside of Grandy's homer) and allowed Dice-K to pitch a complete game gem. Excellent.
It's your classic Tigers' loss. Move along, nothing to see here.
Before I go...
- Tim Byrdak made his season debut this evening in what could be considered a crucial moment in the game. He came through with two innings, one strikeout and one walk. Not too bad of a start for the lefty -- we may need him to step up if our bullpen continues to leak like it has the last two ballgames.
- David Ortiz came in batting a miserable .071 against Nate. Tonight he busted out of that by going 2-3 with an RBI and a double. Big Papi definitely showed us why he's considered one of the most dangerous hitters in the game.
- The bottom three (Casey, Perez, Inge) went 0-9 in this one. That can't happen, especially considering the way Granderson is hitting the ball these days. We need some baserunners on there for him, and three spots producing nothing just creates an offensive black hole.