Game 26- Twins at Tigers

This game was the wrap up of a quick, 2 game series, in Detroit against the Minnesota Twins.

Last night Detroit just could not get any offense going and lost 7-2. Jackson pitched well through the first 6 innings, as he did in his last start. However, in this game he came out to pitch the 7th and it didn't go well. He pitched to 4 batters and all four got on base and Cuddyer drove the first 3 home with a bases clearing triple. Jackson was charged with 5 earned runs in the 6+ innings he pitched.

His supporting offense was almost non-existent on Monday. The Tigers only managed 4 hits against Liriano, who looked much more like the guy who shuts teams down than the guy who had a 6+ ERA coming into this game. One of those hits was another Cabrera home run in the 6th, but there just wasn't enough there to overcome what the Twins put together.

Tuesday was an entirely different story.

Leyland really rearranged his line up for tonight's game. I don't know if he will stick with it, but it worked. Carlos Guillen, who had been fighting a sore achilles and apparently a sore shoulder, was put on the 15 day DL. Clete Thomas and Jeff Larish were brought in to replace him from Toledo. Clay Rapada was also sent to Toledo to make room.

The new line up looked like this:

1. Anderson lf (LH)
   
2. Polanco 2b (RH)
   
3. Thomas rf (LH)
4. Cabrera 1b (RH)
5. Granderson cf (LH)
6. Ordonez dh (RH)
7. Inge 3b (RH)
8. Laird c (RH)
9. Santiago ss (S)

People have asked, since spring training, when Granderson would move further down the line up. With the 8 homeruns he brought into tonight's game it made sense to see if he could bring some men home with him when he drove it out. Plus Josh Anderson is hitting .333 with an On Base % of .367 and 6 stolen bases in just 19 games, so putting him in the Lead Off slot seems like a safe bet.

Anderson had 2 hits, 1 run and 1 RBI tonight. In fact the top 5 of the order had 10 hits and 7 runs tonight.

The offense may have over shadowed the performance that Rick Porcello gave tonight, but that would be a shame. Porcello pitched 7 innings with 0 runs and only 4 hits. He had 3 Ks and 3BBs facing 25 batters. Robertson pitched a hitless, scoreless innings (although with 2 walks) and Rincon finished it off with 1 K and 1 hit.

As of right now (10:45pm) the White Sox are leading the Royals 7-6. If KC loses Detroit will be tied for 1st in the AL Central.

Go Tigers!!!!!!!!

Week 4 Wrap

The Tigers split 6 games this week against the Royals, Yankees and Indians.

The Good:

Verlander pitched 7 shut out innings against the Yankees 4/27 with 9 strikeouts.
Jackson followed the next day with 6 innings of shutout ball.
Brandon Inge continues to get on base. He has been on base in every game so far this year and finished the week with 7 home runs.

The Ugly:

The 7th inning of Jackson's game on the 28th. I was dozing off and every time I woke up the Yankees were still batting. Perry gave up 4 runs in 1/3 of that inning. Robertson also gave up 4 runs in 1/3 of an inning. Lyon comes in and gives up a grand slam before finally getting the final out. 14 batters scored 10 runs in that endless inning. Jackson's shut out became a blowout that the Yankees won 11 to 0. that is the first shutout against the Tigers so far this year.

The Bad:

Week 4 was the first week this year that the Tigers didn't score at least 5 runs per game (only 4.50 last week).
Also for the first time this last week the Bullpen was not very good (of course giving up 10 runs in one inning will certainly skew the results). They gave up 16 walks and only 11 stikeouts. They also gave up 4 home runs.

The end result wasn't all that horribly bad. They finished the week 1/2 game out of first tied for 2nd with the White Sox. They were 12 and 11 for the year.

The month of May has lots of AL Central play for Detroit. They continue to play the Indians and then the Twins for 2 and then the White Sox for 2 and then the Indians again to finish up the week.

Game 19: Yankees at Tigers

Yankees 2 Tigers 4

Okay, that was pretty sweet! Justin Verlander seemed to find his groove tonight. He had 9 strikeouts and 0 walks over 7 innings. He started to loose it in the 8th when he gave up 2 singles, but Bobby Seay came in from the Pen and shut them down! Nobody got past 2nd in that inning. Rodney made it waaay too interesting allowing 3 hits and 2 runs before getting Posada to ground into a double play and Pena to flyout to Raburn in Leftfield.

Cabrera drives in Polanco to score the first run for Detroit in the 1st. Polanco doubles in Granderson for the 2nd run. Maggs hit his second HR of the year with Polanco on for the final 2 runs. Polanco was 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored and 1 RBI. That makes him my player of the game on the offensive side.

On the defensive side it has to be Verlander for that amazing performance (with and honorable mention for Inge and his turning the 9th inning double play that saved Rodney's bacon). It was interesting to see Verlander leave the dugout as Rodney flirted with a melt down in the 9th. It would have been a shame to see Justin not get the win after that game.

So they are 11-8 and go into Tuesday in 1st place in the AL Central.

Go Tigers!!!!!!!!!

Game 18: Tigers at Royals

The Tigers wrap up their road trip with a win over the Royals! They won 5 and lost 4 winning the series in Seattle and Kansas City and losing the one in LA. They were not swept in any series. In the last week they averaged 6.33 runs per games. That is just a 1/3 of a run better than the 6 runs they gave up per game.

They gave up 10 runs in two separate games in LAA, but amazingly managed to win one of them.

Brandon Inge continues to hit very well. He has 7 homers after today and is batting .323. Cabrera is hitting .382 and Anderson is at .364. Granderson has worked his average up to .250 with a great series in LAA and he has 6 home runs.

So overall the Tigers finished the week above .500. They start their series against the Yankees in 1st place in the AL Central. The White Sox lost today so the Tigers have a 1 game lead in their division.

They are playing well. They are not playing great, but they are playing well. In the Central this may be enough.

Game 16 Tigers at Royals

Line ups:

Royals

Crisp, CF
DeJesus, LH
Teahen, 3B
Jacobs, DH
Butler, 1B
Callaspo, 2B
Aviles, SS
Olivio, C
Maier, CF

Greinke, P

Tigers

Granderson, CF
Polanco, 2B
Ordonez, RF
Cabrera, 1B
Guillen, DH
Laird, C
Inge, 3B
Anderson, LF
Santiago, SS

Porcello, P

Here's hoping that last night's ugly was left on the west coast and that Detroit plays better in the Midwest. All of those errors killed the Tigers last night.
*Teahen just hit one out with a man on. Royals up by two in the first :(

Wednesday's game was ugly too, but it was ugly in Detroit's favor. Thursday went against the Tigers.

Just as a reminder, last year the Royals swept the Tigers in their first series together. Here's hoping this year is different!

***Update***

The sadness continues. Royals 6 Tigers 1
Well, at least the Tiger sort of ended Greinke's scoreless streek. Laird manufactured a run out of nothing and kind of ended Greinke's scoreless streak, but the run was un-earned and didn't really end his streak. None-the-less the Tigers did score an unearned run against him. I guesss that is something.

Final score Tigers 1 Royals 6

Ughhh

Defense!

Bilfer posted a very interesting and encouraging analysis of the Tigers' defense so far this year. Enjoy.

Games 11 & 12: Detroit at Seattle

Game 11 Detroit 2- Seattle 0
Edwin Jackson pitched just over 7 innings and allowed only 2 runs on Saturday while pitching through the flu. Just an amazing performance all around by Jackson. Rodney finished it out for his 3rd save in 3 opportunities. (I must admit, I am becoming a believer in Rodney).

Brandon Inge continued hit greatly improved hitting with 2 more hits and another RBI. His single actually accounted for both runs when Ichiro threw high to home plate, allowing Laird and Cabrerra to score.

Game 12 Detroit 8- Seattle 2
Porcello also had a great day on Sunday as the Tigers took the series from the Mariners at Safeco Park. Porcello was not as dominating with K's as Jackson was on Saturday, but he went 7 innings and only allowed on solo home run to score. From what I saw it looked like mostly ground outs from him today.
He ended up getting a ton of run support from the 4,5,6 & 7 slots in the line up today. Inge had ANOTHER RBI for 11 on the year, almost one per game. The only Tiger to not get a hit was Trenor (the back up catcher).

I must admit, after only 12 games I am pretty excited about this team:
They have a winning record (7-5).
They just took 2 games at home from the team that was the best in the AL when the weekend started.
In the last 5 games the Bullpen has allowed only 3 runs over 12 1/3 innings with 11 appearances. That seems to be a pretty good streak so far.
Just like in 2006 the bottom half of the lineup is making significant contributions to the wins.
The only starting pitcher I see trouble with is Verlander (with his 7.88 ERA).
They are in 1st place (along with the White Sox and the Royals).