VS.
It's a doubleheader Saturday, two games for the price of...well, two. I miss the days of the true twin-bill, especially the now extinct twi-night doubleheader. Instead, MLB gives us the money grubbing 1:05 and 7:05 day-night doubleheader.
//channels Abraham Simpson//
It reminds me the time I took the bus to Tiger Stadium to see a twi-night doubleheader, which is what "twilight-night" doubleheaders were called back in my day. I needed a ticket, so I decided to go to Navin Field, which is what they called Tiger Stadium in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now to take the bus cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them. Give me five bees for a quarter you’d say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.
Now you kids get off my lawn, I'm trying to watch Matlock!
Brandon Inge is closing in on Pinky Higgins for fourth place in franchise history for most games played at 3rd base. Inge currently stands at 839. Pinky played 842 games at 3rd for the Tigers between 1939 and 1946, and was their primary 3rd sacker from '39-'44. In other news, nicknames were sooo much better during the previous century. Does Inge even have a nickname? None comes immediately to mind, though "Pinky" Inge works for me.
Alex Avila has thrown out 40% of baserunners attempting to steal. He leads the AL. Anyone else noticing Gerald Laird is resembling Wally Pipp more and more these days?
The offense coming from the bottom of the order has improved since the release of Adam Everett and Laird was all but demoted to backup catcher, but it's still a big concern.
The Tigers have the fewest RBIs from the Nos. 7-9 spots of any team in the league. According to the statistical service STATS, the Tigers have 74 RBIs from the Nos. 7-9 spots — 12 fewer than any other team.
Ugh. Just...ugh.
The Tigers will need to make a roster move after the first game of the doubleheader in order to make room for Rick Porcello, who takes the mound tonight. If I were to venture a guess as to who gets a ticket to Toledo, it'd be Daniel Schlereth and his 2.45 WHIP. Any other guesses?
It's going to be a long day of baseball, folks. Remember to pace yourselves...
Starting lineups:
Tigers:
A. Jackson cf
J. Damon dh
M. Ordonez rf
M. Cabrera 1b
B. Boesch lf
C. Guillen 2b
B. Inge 3b
A. Avila c
R. Santiago ss
J. Verlander p
Indians:
M. Brantley cf
J. Nix 2b
C. Santana c
T. Hafner dh
M. LaPorta 1b
S. Duncan rf
T. Crowe lf
A. Marte 3b
J. Donald ss
F. Carmona p