Rockies 1, Tigers 7
Detroit continues to rack up wins at an impressive rate. It is almost too good to be true. They have won 15 of their last 19 games (.790 ball). They have won their last 5 series (with back to back sweeps!). Tonight they finally have more Runs Scored (382) than Runs Against (380). That's not a lot more, but it's better than have more Runs Against. As of the end of tonight's play they are 1 game below .500. That sounds much better than it is, but it still sounds sooo sweet after being 8 full games below .500 on June 1st.
There is no single standout on the team. Marcus Thames was hitting a home run every time he hit the ball for about 2 weeks, but now Granderson and Sheffield (returned from 2 weeks on the DL) are taking their turn. The "a walk's as good as a hit" line that my coach used to tell me ('cause he knew I couldn't hit) turned out to be true when Clete Thomas drew two (2!) bases loaded walks against the Cardinals to "drive" in the first and third (game winning) runs.
Nate Robertson pitched 6.1 innings and gave up 11 hits- but 0 earned runs. Jason Beck reports that no Tiger has done that since 1956. I don't know if that is great or terrible pitching, but add another W to the column.
So far this week Detroit is 4 and 1 with one more game this week. This is the last series against National League Teams and then it is back to AL play. All of the American League Teams play well against the NL, but Detroit is just crazy. This year they are 11 and 5 with 2 games to go. They beat the Cards and the Padres, two teams picked by many to contend for the playoffs this year. Tigers just love NL teams!
Today they attempt to hit the .500 mark for the first time since March 30th.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Week 12
This week saw most of a road trip to the west coast for Interleague Play against the San Fransisco Giants and the San Diego Padres (with the end of a homestand last Sunday against the LA Dodgers).
Results- 6 Wins against 2 Losses. Not too shabby at all. Let's break it down some more...
Starters- Robertson had the best outing on Sunday against the Dodgers (0 earned runs in 6 innings facing only 21 batters). Robertson also had the worst outing last night against the Padres with 5 earned runs in 6 innings with 26 batters faced). But, both ended up in W's for the Tigers! Galarraga continued to impress with 0 earned runs in 6 innings on Wednesday against the Giants. Verlander had a good outing on Monday with only 2 earned runs and 7 strikeouts over 6 innings, but the Tigers took the loss on one of 2 bullpen implosions this week (we'll get to that later). Rogers was dealing on Wednesday with 1 earned run in 7 innings and finally got a win for his efforts. Bonine (aka "the New Guy") pitched pretty well on Friday (2 earned runs in 7 innings) but Bull Pen Implosion #2 cost the Tigers a win. By my figures the Starters ERA was 2.37 for the week! (10 earned runs over 38 innings pitched). That will win a lot of ballgames!
Relivers- The Bull Pen saw the return of Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumuya this week, 2 of the best arms of the incredible 2006 season. Both had been on the DL all summer. Bautista and Lopez were sent to Toledo to make room for the dynamic duo with the Tigers. Lopez will be pitching longer to possibly prepare him for a starter role later on (if necessary). Well, the only 2 losses of the week were directly the result of the Bull Pen. Tuesday Justin Verlander pitched well and handed it over after 6 innings and a one run lead- Dolsi did well at first, but in the 8th he couldn't get an out. Well, we've got Rodney back don't we? Let's see what he can do... Bless You Boys has the best graphical representation of the results. Rodney faced 5 batters and allowed 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk. Before it is all over the score is 8 to 4. Detroit did score 2 in the 9th to make it an 8-6 final, but it wasn't pretty. You can pretty much repeat the story for Friday's game (except it was tied up at 2 instead of Detroit having a 1 run lead). Rodney gets the ball after a strong start by Bonine and .... Ian brings out his nuclear fire ball again (he will run out of images before long if this continues). Rodney did not record an out but gave up 2 runs on 2 hits, 2 walks and never got anyone out. His ERA at that point is 135. Fossum tried to put out the fire but couldn't. The tie game was now a 2-6 game with 3 outs left for the Tigers, sorry. The good news is that, aside from those two games, the bull pen did well giving up only 4 runs.
Batters- There are really only two words for the week: Marcus Thames! He hit a home run almost everytime he went to the plate this week. And they were key hits too, the kind that win the game. Overall there were 10 homeruns this week and they scored 5.3 runs per game! That will do it. SLG % was up to .473.
They committed 4 errors this past week.
So they won 4 and lost 2. Again the Starters gave strong performances and the Batters scored runs. This is a good combination. Detroit is now in 3rd place and 6 games behind the White Sox.
Results- 6 Wins against 2 Losses. Not too shabby at all. Let's break it down some more...
Starters- Robertson had the best outing on Sunday against the Dodgers (0 earned runs in 6 innings facing only 21 batters). Robertson also had the worst outing last night against the Padres with 5 earned runs in 6 innings with 26 batters faced). But, both ended up in W's for the Tigers! Galarraga continued to impress with 0 earned runs in 6 innings on Wednesday against the Giants. Verlander had a good outing on Monday with only 2 earned runs and 7 strikeouts over 6 innings, but the Tigers took the loss on one of 2 bullpen implosions this week (we'll get to that later). Rogers was dealing on Wednesday with 1 earned run in 7 innings and finally got a win for his efforts. Bonine (aka "the New Guy") pitched pretty well on Friday (2 earned runs in 7 innings) but Bull Pen Implosion #2 cost the Tigers a win. By my figures the Starters ERA was 2.37 for the week! (10 earned runs over 38 innings pitched). That will win a lot of ballgames!
Relivers- The Bull Pen saw the return of Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumuya this week, 2 of the best arms of the incredible 2006 season. Both had been on the DL all summer. Bautista and Lopez were sent to Toledo to make room for the dynamic duo with the Tigers. Lopez will be pitching longer to possibly prepare him for a starter role later on (if necessary). Well, the only 2 losses of the week were directly the result of the Bull Pen. Tuesday Justin Verlander pitched well and handed it over after 6 innings and a one run lead- Dolsi did well at first, but in the 8th he couldn't get an out. Well, we've got Rodney back don't we? Let's see what he can do... Bless You Boys has the best graphical representation of the results. Rodney faced 5 batters and allowed 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk. Before it is all over the score is 8 to 4. Detroit did score 2 in the 9th to make it an 8-6 final, but it wasn't pretty. You can pretty much repeat the story for Friday's game (except it was tied up at 2 instead of Detroit having a 1 run lead). Rodney gets the ball after a strong start by Bonine and .... Ian brings out his nuclear fire ball again (he will run out of images before long if this continues). Rodney did not record an out but gave up 2 runs on 2 hits, 2 walks and never got anyone out. His ERA at that point is 135. Fossum tried to put out the fire but couldn't. The tie game was now a 2-6 game with 3 outs left for the Tigers, sorry. The good news is that, aside from those two games, the bull pen did well giving up only 4 runs.
Batters- There are really only two words for the week: Marcus Thames! He hit a home run almost everytime he went to the plate this week. And they were key hits too, the kind that win the game. Overall there were 10 homeruns this week and they scored 5.3 runs per game! That will do it. SLG % was up to .473.
They committed 4 errors this past week.
So they won 4 and lost 2. Again the Starters gave strong performances and the Batters scored runs. This is a good combination. Detroit is now in 3rd place and 6 games behind the White Sox.
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