The kids are alright.
Scott Sizemore, Austin Jackson and Brennan Boesch all brought their big boy shoes on Friday in helping Detroit score 10 runs off the Angels.
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Sizemore and Boesch both hit their first career home runs in the same inning. Boesch's was good for four runs (MLB.com highlight). The two became the first Tigers to hit their first MLB homers in same inning of game since Pop Dillon & Kid Elberfeld on 4/29/1901, Elias reports (via Official_Tigers on Twitter).
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Jackson went 5-for-5. His OBP went up nearly 30 points in one game. The last Tigers rookie to have five hits in a game? Curtis Granderson (via Dan Dickerson).
- The same inning as the other two, Gerald Laird had his first home run since July 3 (via Joe on my gmail chat).
- And I must mention: Johnny Damon fell a home run shy of the cycle while scoring his 1,500th run.
All I've got is "Wow." Apologies to the myriad Tigers who had multi-hit games that would normally be good enough to get a bullet-point but not when their teammates are doing such incredible stuff.
Detroit has taken 3 of 4 during this home stand. I like it.
Now that we got the fun stuff out of the way, how about a closer look at the real plot we've been following, Rick Porcello? He gave up five runs in 5 1/3 innings on eight hits and no walks. He struck out three. The results, obviously, haven't been real pretty for him and his batting average for balls in play has been way above the league average during his five starts. It was .423 entering the game. Some of that was because he was leaving the ball a bit too high in the strike zone, some was just bad luck.
Friday's Pitch F/X results from Brooks-Baseball.net:
And his vertical movement chart:
For some perspective, you can compare to his start against the Twins last October, which I think we can acknowledge was one of his better starts. Or you can compare them to his previous start this season.
Hastily thrown-together chart
| Start | fastball high | fastball average | average vertical break |
| Friday vs. Angels | 96.2 mph | 93.95 mph | 9.66 |
| Previous start vs. Rangers | 92.6 mph | 89.9 mph | 9.23 |
| Last October vs. Twins | 95.1 mph | 91.9 mph | 7.95 |
The big difference between the end of last year and so far this is that the Twins took a lot more swinging strikes than Porcello has gotten in recent games.
However, despite some results that were less-than-stellar today, I do think Porcello's moving in the right direction and it's only a matter of time before his results catch up. He just can't leave one hanging for Torii Hunter again like he did in the third inning; it landed 410 feet later.
Comment of the Night
I guess if you call a grand slam, you get the COTN. Touch em all, Chris DTX.