Results tagged ‘ Major League Baseball ’
San Francisco Giantts (at) Detroit Tigers: Sunday, July 3, 2011
Rick Porcello (6-6, 5.06) gives up a lead-off double at Aaron Rowand but strikes out Pablo Sandoval and get Aubry Huff to bounce to second and he’s out of trouble and out of the first in a dozen pitches. The Tigers need a solid outing by Porcello today. The 22-year-old has an ERA of 14.29 in his last three starts, having allowed 18 runs on 28 hits in his last 11.1 innings pitched. Ryan Vogelsong, named to the National League All-Star team about an hour ago, is the Giants starter. Vogelsong is 6-1, 2.09 this season.
It’s time for your Official Game Notes.
Detroit Tigers Game Information
San Francisco Giants Game Information
It is as perfect a day for baseball as you can have, partly cloudy at 79 at first pitch.
The Tigers go down 1-2-3 in their half of the first with two hitters striking out, and we are underway at Comerica Park.
1:29 Porcello is off to an excellent start. He gives up a single in the second but strikes out two more and did not allow the Giants to move the runner into scoring position. 13 pitches were all the pitches Porcello needed to get them out.
The All-Star lineups were announced prior to this afternoon’s game and Alex Avila, closing hard, passed New York’s Russell Martin and won the vote for starting American League catcher. Three other Tigers are on the AL All-Star team: Justin Verlander (duh), Miguel Cabrera (duh, again) and Jose Valverde. That’s not bad. Four Detroit Tigers on the All-Star team. It wasn’t that long ago that the Tigers would have one–and that only because of the rule that every team must have at least one representative on the team.
1:53 We are three innings in. San Francisco has a single and a double, the Tigers have a walk. And there is no score.
2:07 San Fran pushed across a run off Porcello in the 4th on a ground-out, but the Tigers got it right back. Brennan Boesch clanged a fly ball to right, right off the foul pole for his 12th homer of the year, and his second in as many games. In hockey when you clang it off the post it’s a bad thing. In baseball when you clang it off the post, er, pole, it’s a great thing. b-4: Detroit 1, SF 1.
2:33 Porcello is pitching much more effectively today than has been the case of late, but 3 hit batsmen and 3 wild pitches have cost him. That, and a muffed double-play grounder to shortstop Ramon Santiago which looked like an error to me but which was scored a single. Either way, had the Tigs turned two, they would have been out of the 5th trailing 2-1, but because they didn’t, Detroit has fallen behind 3-1. One of those wild pitches gave SF a 2-1 lead, and the man who scored, Emmanuel Burriss, reached when hit by a Porcello pitch. Pablo Sandoval, 4×13, .308 in this series with a homer and 3 RBI, doubled to put Burriss at third. Sandoval came in to score when Santiago and the Tigers failed to turn the DP. t-6:Detroit 1, SF 3.
2:46 Porcello still cruising along through six, but Vogelsong is shutting Detroit down, like, totally. Consider this: if that HR by Boesch that hit the foul pole had been six inches to the right, Vogelsong would have a no-hitter going here in the bottom of the 6th. Good news out of Cincinnati, at least. The Red are putting it to the Indians 7-2 in the 6th. If that score holds up, Detroit will be no worse than a game and a half out of first at the end of the day today.
3:00 The Tigers used a double by Boesch, a single by Cabrera and an error by Giants leftfielder Cody Ross to get to within a run, but their rally died with runners at the corners when All-Star Avila grounded into a force at second. Boesch went from second to third on the Cabrera hit and would have stopped there, but Ross bobbled it and Boesch lumbered home. t-7: Detroit 2, SF 3.
3:23 After six-and-two-thirds, Vogelsong is out and the Tigers, with two out, have loaded the bases off Jeremy Affeldt on two walks and an error. Santiago Casilla comes on to pitch to Magglio Ordonez. Could be your ballgame, right here. ORDONEZ SINGLES TO CENTER. INGE SCORES FROM FIRST. PERALTA (who pinch hit for Dirks and walked) SCORES FROM SECOND. B-7: DETROIT 3, SF 2.
3:28 Miguel Cabrera ropes a liner to center, but it is right at Aaron Rowand for the out that ends the inning. But the Tigers score two runs (both unearned) on just one hit. Joaquin Benoit comes on to start the 8th inning for Detroit. t-8: Detroit 3, SF 2.
3:42 Guess who saves the day? Ryan Raburn, that’s who. They aren’t booing him anymore after he makes a great–I mean a GREAT–diving catch in left to end the 8th with two Giants aboard. The chances that both of those SF runners would have scored had Raburn not made the catch was, oh, I don’t know, about 100%! I was watching through my binoculars and I had a really good view of it all and I didn’t think Raburn was going to get it. I thought he had no chance at all, in fact, but running hard to his left Raburn laid out and made the inning-ending catch after Benoit made things interesting, too interesting, by giving up singles to two of the first three men he faced. Benoit fanned pinch-hitter Pat Burrell before Raburn made his amazing catch of the liner off the bat of Aaron Rowand. So, the Tigers still lead, somehow.
3:54 Brandon Inge, talk about a guy who was due, drives a ball way over the head of SF centerfielder Rowand for a triple which scored two after Avila and Santiago had walked. So, talk about making them pay. Inge had been 3×29 (.103) during the homestand prior to hitting the big hit. Breathing room for the Tigers, now. b-8: Detroit 6, SF 3.
4:02 The bullpen door in the left field corner swings open and the crowd roars as All-Star Jose Valverde skips across the warning track and onto the field. El Papa Grande is 19/19 in Save Opportunities this season and, yes, what we have here is a Save Situation. If Valverde can close it out, the Tigers will have, for all the trouble (those three losses in which they gave up 14, 15 and 16 runs) come out of the homestand 5-5. And, they will be half a game out of first. Cincy beat Cleveland 7-5.
4:07 Valverde walks the leadoff man. He does that more than you would like to see, but we suspect it’s because he likes to live on the edge. He’s a closer, after all. It does set the crowd to murmuring, though. Sandoval hits a rocket, but right at Inge and it’s 5-3 and one out. (Burriss, the Giant who walked, had earlier taken second on a clear case of Defensive Indifference.) Huff bloops a single to left and the tying run, Ross, comes to the plate. He lines to right. One out to go…
Now it’s Nate Schierholtz who represents the tying run with two on and two out. Huff takes second, again on Defensive Indifference. Two quick strikes by Valverde and the Giants are down to their final strike. STRIKE THREE! GAME OVER! FINAL: DETROIT 6, SF 3. To the locker room!
Sit, Miggy, Sit. Detroit Tigers (at) Los Angeles Dodgers: Tuesday, June 21, 2011
We should have some kind of pool tonight to see who can come closest to predicting the inning of the Tigers-Dodgers game during which I fall asleep. I’m old, it’s late and I’m sitting in the glider rocker which we got to put our daughter to sleep when she was just a baby, but which never once helped her to do so, not once. Me? That’s another story. All I have to do is kick back in the thing and start counting down from 100. I won’t make 88.
With last night’s 4-0 loss, during which the Tigers were held to a season-low two hits, Detroit has now lost 7 of the last 13 overall and three of four so far on the road trip. They remain a game behind Cleveland as the Indians also lost last night, beaten at home by Colorado 8-7. Those same two teams are playing again tonight and are scoreless in the third.
Those Dodger Notes last night were as prescient as any I’ve ever seen, what with the prediction that Juan Uribe would homer in the series against Detroit–which he did, in the first innning during his first at bat–and the note about Clayton Kershaw being tied for the ML lead in hits. Kershaw’s 2-run single in the eighth gave him the outright lead in hits by pitchers this season (10).
Miguel Cabrera sits tonight. Jim Leyland says he needs a rest and tonight’s just the night to give it to him says the Skip as Cabrera is 0×12 lifetime against the LA starter. I’ve read some comments from angry Tigers fans wondering why Leyland doesn’t wait till he gets home to rest Cabrera as Detroit is de facto shorthanded already tonight with no DH and I think they make a pretty good point. I don’t agree with Leyland on this one. We note that Leyland has managed over 3,000 games in the majors compared to, well, none for me, so if I were you I would give that stat some weight.
Here are your notes. As always, we admonish you: READ THE NOTES.
Detroit Tigers Game Information.
Los Angeles Dodgers Game Notes.
10:10 first pitch and we will be back for that, unless, as I say, I fall asleep.
10:51 I didn’t fall asleep. I watched Cleveland closer Chris Perez give up his first homer of the season to Colorado’s Seth Smith leading off the ninth, and the Rockies won 4-3. The Indians got a two-out triple in the bottom of the ninth, but that tying run died at third. I’d like to point out that tonight’s LA starter Chad Billingsley is not Clayton Kershaw. In June, Billingsley has an ERA of 11.20. In three starts this month, he’s given up 30 hits in 13.2 IP. But tonight, the Tigers again can’t hit. Eight in a row have gone down now as the Detroit third ends. To the north in San Fransisco, Minnesota scored six runs before they made an out and they lead 8-0 with, as they say, the Giants coming to bat. Yowser. The Twins have won 14/16 and 7 in a row and unless they blow that lead, they will be only 6.5 games out of first. And I thought they were dead. For reals. But they aren’t. Max Scherzer worked out of trouble in the second and then had an easy 1-2-3 third. So, on to the fourth. t-4: Tigers 0, Dodgers 1.
11:26 Tony Gwynn gets a run-scoring, two-out infield single–it traveled all of 40 feet down the third base line–and the Dodgers regain the lead after the Tigs had tied it in the top of the inning. The question is this: Why pitch to the #8 hitter (Gwynn) with two out when you’ve got the LA pitcher standing there in the on-deck circle? I don’t know either. t-5: Tigers 1, Dodgers 2.
11:51 It just keeps getting worse, doesn’t it? Andre Ethier hits his 7th homer of the year with a man on in the fifth because they let him swing away on a 3-0 pitch and LA goes up by three on the 13th homer of the year allowed by Scherzer, the tenth he’s surrendered to a lefthanded hitter. Ethier hit it about 650 feet. The Tigers get runners at first and second with nobody on in the sixth, and Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, “Donny Baseball”, looks longingly towards his bullpen. But, Billingsley will stay in to face Andy Dirks. He fans Dirks but walks Victor Martinez and his night is over. Mike MacDougal is on in relief and looks who coming up. It’s Cabrera, (so much for his big night off) pinch-hitting with the bases loaded and only one out. And look what he does. He promptly bounces into a 6-4-3 double play and just like that the rally is over. The inning is over. And the Tigers are still down three. b-6: Tigers 1, Dodgers 4.
1:01 This is going to be another Detroit loss, they are down 6-1 now in the bottom of the eighth, and they’d better not look back because someone may be gaining on them. The Twins indeed did win in San Fran so they’ve gone 15-2 and have won eight in a row, and the White Sox beat the Cubs 3-2. The Tigers are about to be only a game out of first, yes, but only 3.5 games ahead of the White Sox and 5.5 ahead of the Twins. It’s a day game tomorrow in Los Angeles, first pitch at 3:10 Eastern and we will be back with you then. It is time to pull the chute on this one. b-8: Tigers 1, Dodgers 6.
Somebody’s Got To Go
Let us take a moment to reflect upon the moundsmanship (a word I seem to have made up, just now) Justin Verlander’s thrown in our direction of late. Here’s JV’s line–that’s what they call him, you know, JV–starting with his May 7 no-hitter in Toronto and running through his win over the Rockies yesterday:
| GS | W | L | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | BA |
| 9 | 7 | 0 | 72.2 | 39 | 14 | 14 | 9 | 59 | 5 | 1.73 | .157 |
Not bad, eh? The number I like best there is 59 strikeouts and 9 walks. Or, actually, maybe the number I like best is 7-0.
In hockey you often hear the phrase “men v. boys” to describe a mismatch and it so happens that that is the best way to describe Verlander’s pitching for the past month and a half. But no matter what you choose to call it, I can tell you that I cannot recall watching a Detroit pitcher since the Denny McClain of 1968 and 1969 or the Mark Fydrich of 1976 who overwhelmed the opponent the way Verlander has of late. I perk up every time his turn in the rotation comes around because I know I am going to see something memorable.
Here’s the funny thing. I don’t know if you remember this, I didn’t until I looked it up, but through May 2, Verlander was 2-3 and the Tigers were 2-5 in games he’d started. And on May 2, the Detroit Tigers were 8 games out of first place. Here’s another phrase you often hear in hockey which is applicable to the current discussion: ”You figure it out.”
All right, then. I’ve been thinking about what Jim Leyland was talking about late last week in a couple of those press gaggles he conducts in his office three and a half hours before game time. When he talks at these things, it’s sort of like trying to decipher what the head of the Federal Reserve really means when he speaks publicly. Leyland was saying things like, “I am not one of those managers who thinks that you automatically get your job back when you get back from being hurt.” And, “I’m not talking about [Brandon] Inge.” And, “You guys are going to have a field day pretty soon. We’ve got some tough decisions to make when Inge comes back. You guys will have plenty to write about.”
So, who’s gonna go to make room for Inge? Will it be Andy Dirks or Ryan Raburn or Danny Worth or Don Kelly or Casper Wells? Or will it be Inge himself? Or somebody else?
All of us in the press box love Dirks’ glove, and Leyland might too, but he’s not wild about his bat: (.263 BA/3HR/10RBI).
Nobody is wild about Raburn’s bat, .207/6/25, but Leyland stands up for him with comments like, “Look at what he was hitting in early June last year.” So I did look. Raburn was .188/1/13 at this time a year ago in about half the at bats he’s had this season. My thought is that when Leyland says to look at where Raburn was a year ago, what he’s really saying is to look at the fact that he hit .315 after the break last year with 13 HR and 46 RBI. I’m thinking Leyland’s thinking the same thing could happen this year, and if it does, it would do the Tigers no good if Raburn were doing it in Toledo.
Worth would seem to make sense. He’s only played 23 games. But he is hitting over .400. Kelly has played a lot of third since Inge has been out. He’s versatile. Wells is an extra outfielder, a guy you can bring in late to upgrade the defense when you’ve got the lead.
What about Inge himself? He’s hitting .211 with but a single homer and only 11 RBI, but he is far and away the best glove the Tigers have in the infield.
But, remember what Leyland said about now getting your job back just because you are back from an injury? He said he wasn’t talking about Inge. Besides, Leyland likes defense.
What about Magglio Ordonez? He was hitting .172 when he went on the DL. He’s hitting .215 since returning on 3×14–all singles. Leyland complained about how the Tigers blew the game Friday in part because they got only one run out of a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the first. Ordonez was up with everybody on and one out and he failed to hit it out of the infield. (And then some reporter asked Leyland after the game if he thought Ordonez was coming around because he got a couple of singles later in the game. I’ll bet you whatever you want to bet that Leyland didn’t give a hoot about those hits. He wanted a hit when a hit would have meant something. That’s why he brought up Detroit’s first-inning failure in the first place.) And you saw that pinch-hit at-bat Ordonez had Saturday night with the tying run on second in the sixth. It was sad. That’s the only way to describe it. I don’t think Mags came within a foot and a half of hitting the ball. Leyland was steaming, I’m sure of it. He didn’t play Ordonez yesterday. Now, Ordonez is back in the Detroit line-up tonight, but I’m pretty sure that he’d better start hitting and he’d better start hitting soon because I think he is running out of time. Inge is slated to re-join the Tigers when they come home from the road trip. That means Friday. That means somebody who is a Tiger today won’t be by weeks end. Somebody has to go. I think Leyland was trying to tell us something last week. I think he was trying to tell us that the somebody is going to be a big name guy. Somebody like Magglio Ordonez.
Tonight’s game notes:
Detroit Tigers Game Information.
10:10 (Eastern) for first pitch. We’ll be back with you then.
10:33 Well, Ordonez took a called third in the first, eh? Maybe it’s not his fault. Clayton Kershaw, easily LA’s best pitcher, has fanned four of the first six hitters he’s faced tonight, all of them Detroit Tigers. And I hope you read the LA Notes. They predicted the HR by Juan Uribe. They really did: TAMING THE TIGERS – According to the law of averages, Casey Blake and Juan Uribe, who have both spent significaant time plaaying in the AL Central, should go deep during he three-game series against Detroit…
The note points out that Uribe homers once every 17.80 at-bats against Detroit, 9th-highest of any active player. Blake, for the record, is 5th in the same category, homering every 14.83 ABs against the Tigers. Betcha the Dodgers PR Staff were high-fiving each other over that one. b-2: Detroit 0, Dodgers 1.
10:52 Raburn puts a new wrinkle on the never make the third out of an inning at third as he’s picked off third by LA catcher Dioner Navarro. Nice. He was the tying run, 90 feet from home plate and he gets picked off. This is not, if you happen to just be learning the game, good baseball. Oh, and for the record, it’s pronounced “Dee-owner”. I did not know that. I thought it was “de-oh-NEAR.” b-3: Detroit 0, Dodgers 1.
11:02 Brad Penny actually walks the opposing pitcher which is bad enough, but he’s also the lead-off man in the third. Kershaw gets to third but dies there which is really, really good news for Penny because walking the other pitcher is sort of like, oh, I don’t know, getting picked off third. I’m listening to the LA radio broadcast which is a simulcast featuring Vin Scully for the first three innings but he’s been replaced now by Charlie Steiner and Rick Monday. Too bad. Next to Ernie Harwell, Vin Scully is the best there ever was. I’m watching the Marlins-Angels game and they just showed new Florida manager Jack McKeon. Dude looks like he’s 80! Hanley Ramirez, the best player the Marlins have, is not playing tonight. He was late to a meeting and McKeon told him to “take a hike, son.” Ramirez is grabbing some bench tonight. t-4: Detroit 0, Dodgers 1.
11:11 The homer Miguel Cqabrera hit yesterday was his first in 13 games. Is that bad? I dunno. His batting average in those 13 games was .378. So, you tell me. The LA radio broadcast is cute. They advertise between innings for people to take a train from downtown LA when they go to Dodger Stadium. To beat the traffic. I wonder why we don’t do that here in Detroit. Oh, yeah. No train. b-4 Detroit 0, Dodgers 1.
11:18 I can’t get over the train thing. I’ve been to Dodger Stadium twenty or so times and it’s a b-word getting in and out of that place. The stadium is located in a place called Chavez Ravine and while I don’t know what a Chavez is, a ravine is a valley in between mountains and because of those mountains, there is only one road in and out of the place. The train must be somewhat new. It was not an option all those times I went to take in a Dodgers game and I’d always allot an hour or more to get there, and more than that to get home. If you ever go, don’t forget to get a Dodger Dog! Might be the best hot dog in Organized Ball. Clayton Kershaw’s up with the bases loaded and it could be trouble for Penny and the Tigers but it isn’t. Kershaw–according to the Dodgers Notes–is tied for the Major League lead among pitchers with 9 hits. Penny strikes him out to end the inning though, and the Dodgers leave three on base. t-5: Detroit 0, Dodgers 1.
11:32 Here’s the problem with baseball in a National League park, from the Tigers perspective. Worth just bounced into a Fielders Choice to end the fifth, which means that Brad Penny will lead off the sixth for Detroit. He’s pitched well tonight, but he will probably have to be pinch hit for in this situation. We shall see. It’s not like Leyland hasn’t been in this situation before. He’s in his twentieth season as a big league manager, all but the six he’s spent here in Detroit coming in the NL. b-5: Detroit 0, Dodgers 1.
11:43 I say Penny hits. He’s only thrown 82 pitches and the Tigers a only down a run. We’ll know in a moment. The Tigers ended the LA fifth with a nice 5-4-3 (Worth-to-Raburn-to-Cabrera) double play. Penny does hit. Hey, I could manage this club…t-6 Detroit 0, Dodgers 1.
11:46 Penny may have hurt himself taking a swing while he grounded out to second, breaking his bat in the process. The problem appears to be with Penney’s knee. He has gone straight to the clubhouse. t-6 Detroit 0, Dodgers 1.
11:49 Kershaw is thru six with seven K’s and only 2 hits allowed. Tampa has defeated Milwaukee 8-4 and now this is the only game going on in the majors. A few minutes ago, the Angels finished off a 2-1 win at Florida, so McKeon loses his debut. b-6 Detroit 0, Dodgers 1.
11:51 Well, Penny has come out to start the sixth. He must not have been badly hurt in his attempt to swing a baseball bat. b-6: Detroit 0, Dodgers 1.
12:30 The Dodgers got a couple of doubles for a run in the sixth and Kershaw has retired ten in a row and the Tigers are down to their last 3 outs. They’ve only gotten two hits tonight. Their season low, for the record, is four. Steiner, the LA radio guy, pronounces Daniel Schlereth differently than we do here back east. He calls him “schler-ETH.” I’ve always heard SCHLER-eth. It sounds better his way, but now I’m going to have to ask somebody. Probably Schlereth. He’d probably know best. The Tigers got caught defensively and wound up with nobody covering third after a pickoff attempt by Victor Martinez on a throw to second. Martinez gets a throwing error and the Dodgers get runners at second and third with nobody out. The Dodgers are 1×10 with RISP tonight and are hitting .114 with runners in scoring position on their current homestand, which goes a long way towards explaining why they are 1-5 during it. Jamie Carroll grounds into a force at home, so now the Dodgers are 1×11 with RISP. That’s now way to win a ballgame, but they do have the lead late. The Tigers were this close to getting out of it but, wouldn’t you know, Kershaw gets a grounder to go through the hole between first and second and just like that the Dodgers have twice as many runs as they did before the Dodgers pitcher came to the plate and Kershaw takes the MLB lead for hits by a pitcher this year with 10. Damn you, Dodgers Notes. That’s twice they’ve burned the Tigers tonight. b-8: Detroit 0, Dodgers 4.
1:48 Jeesh. I got wrapped up in preparing my material for the radio station I forgot to finish this. Kershaw finished off the Tigers by striking out the side in the ninth. So he struck out 11 and retired the last 13 Detroit hitters as the Tigers are shutout for only the third time this season.
We began the day writing about Justin Verlander. We end the night knowing how it feels to go up against a pitcher who is as hot as he is. Kershaw, 23, was dominant. Same two teams tomorrow at 10:10 Eastern, then a day game Wednesday to wrap up the road trip. The Tigers need to win them both to claim a .500 record on the trip. FINAL: Detroit 0, Dodgers 4.
Homestand Finale in Detroit
We are a little over an hour away from first pitch in the 9th and final game of this long Tigers’ homestand as the boys look to sweep the Twins and make it 4 wins in a row overall.
Detroit’s 8-7 win here last night may have been the most entertaining game we’ve seen this season. For one thing, it marked the first time all year the Tigers won a game in which they trailed at any point in the game by more than 2 runs. And the Tigers had to come from behind twice to win: after erasing a 0-3 deficit with a 6-run 5th, Detroit fell behind in the 7th 6-7 but scored the game tying run in the 7th on a sacrifice fly and the go-ahead run in the 8th, also via the sac fly.
Major credit to Jim Leyland in the all-important postgame interview. He’d left his starter, Max Scherzer, in to face Justin Morneau in the 7th and Morneau rocked his second homer of the game to put the Twins, briefly as it turned out, back on top. I wondered in this space whether any of us here on Press Row would have the courage to ask Leyland why he’d left Scherzer in. I thought I might, but it turned out to be a test I didn’t have to take. Leyland brought it up himself and took the heat, calling it a “dumb move on my part.” I respect that. How can you not? Would I have been brave enough to ask the manager the question? You can’t say we will never know because there is sure to be a “second-guess’ question looming in my future. This is baseball, after all.
It’s Rick Porcello for the Tigers and Scott Baker for the Twins. We have to remind ourselves from time to time that Porcello is still only 22 years old. He’s in his 3rd year in The Majors, but he’s still just a baby.
Tonight’s game means the difference between a 6-3 Tigers homestand or a 5-4 slate, which makes it a big deal. The Tigers remain second in the American League Central, 5 games back of Cleveland, 3 ahead of third-place Chicago. The White Sox were winners this afternoon in Boston, sweeping a 3-game series at Fenway park 7-4 in a game Boston led early 3-0, while the Indians are in Toronto again tonight. We will be keeping an eye on that one and, along with this one, will keep you posted. First pitch at 7:05 and we will see you then. It is a beautiful night for baseball in Motown–the best of the season so far, in fact.
7:12p: First pitch came at 7:16 and 15 pitches later, Porcello had ‘em out 1-2-3 with a K. Morneau popped weakly to left, a far cry from the way he blasted a couple out of here last night. BOTTOM 1ST: DETROIT COMING TO BAT, MINNESOTA 0.
7:18p: The Tigers go down 1-2-3 themselves in the face of the slants from Scott Baker. Over in Toronto meanwhile, the Indians have a run in and the bases loaded with one out in the top of the first. TOP 2ND: DETROIT 0, MINNESOTA 0.
7:25p: Porcello got ‘em 1-2-(w)-3 in the second. Still has the no-hitter going here, but the perfect game died on a two-out walk. Grady Sizemore has hit a bases-loaded, bases-clearing double in Toronto and the Indians are up 4-0 over the Jays and they are still batting in the top of the first. Kyle Drabek has been asked to leave and the game is delayed as Toronto plots strategy for bringing in a replacement, or “relief” pitcher. BOTTOM 2: DETROIT 0, MINNESOTA 0.
7:30p: Correction. Drabek may still be in there for the Blue Jays. The shot of him trudging off the field was apparently him making his way to the dugout after getting the final out of what had to have been an extraordinarily long first inning on the hill. Victor Martinez has just singled here to end the no-hit dream of Twins pitcher Baker. A great leaping catch by Jason Repko against the wall in right retires Andy Dirks. martinez may have been able to score all the way from first if Repko don’t make that catch. You’ll see it on Web Gems later tonight. B-2: DETROIT 0, MINNESOTA 0.
7:38 Alex Avila just waited real nice on a curve ball and took it to the opposite field–left–to score Martinez from second. Martinez had advanced on a Jhonny Peralta single. So, it’s a nice two-out hit for Avila and the Tigers take the lead and have a chance for more with Brandon Inge up. B-2: DETROIT 1, MINNESOTA 0.
7:49 Correction of the correction. That was Drabek leaving the game in Toronto in the first with two out. He got rocked and did not survive the inning. Cleveland is still up 4-0, now heading to the 3rd. Brennan (not Brendan, Brennan) Boesch just made a nice catch with his back to the infield to end the Minny 3rd. B-3: DETROIT 1, MINNESOTA 0.
7:56 Miguel Cabrera has just hit a 3-run homer and it got out in a hurry. a low line drive into the Detroit bullpen. The Tigers have now hit all of two 3-run homers this season, both during this homestand, both by Miggy. And talk about making them pay. The two hitters before Cabrera, Don Kelly and Boesch, each walked. So Baker had to pitch to the Detroit slugger and the Tiger slugger exacted the maximum penalty. B-3: DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 0.
8:07 The Tigers “settle” for four in the 3rd. Over in Toronto, the Indians have followed up their 4-run first with a 4-run third and are off to the races with an 8-0 lead. The Indians gave up 11 in the first game at Toronto Monday–their 5th loss in 6 games–but they are going to wind up winning that series. Porcello is looking good here and the game settles into a cruise control mode. T-4: DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 0.
8:26 I can’t believe it, but I forgot about that little hockey game tonight, Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, duh. I found it somewhere on the net so they are just underway in the first and the Canucks and Boston Bruins are scoreless in the first. We are going to the bottom of the 5th here, still 4-0 Detroit. B-5 DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 0.
8:44 Something interesting here a moment ago. The Twins had two on and Jim Thome due up and they pinch hit for him. Thome must be hurt. You’re down 4 and you really, really need a 3-run homer and the guy with the 591 career homers is pinch-hit for? Something’s up. Porcello and the Tigers got out of it unscathed, so the Tigers are 9 outs away from their 9th straight win over the Twins–something no Detroit team has done since 1949-50, when the Twins were the Washington Senators and Detroit beat them nine straight. B-6 DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 0.
9:14 The Tigers are now 6 outs from a win, but the lead has been cut in half on a Drew Butera homer in the 7th. He’s the Twins #9 hitter and deservedly so. His average was .124 when he went deep for his first homer of the year with a man aboard. Then things got interesting. With two out, Porcello dove and just missed catching a bunt in mid-air which instead went for an infield single. Daniel Schlereth relieved and had as short an outing as it is possible to have, hitting Morneau with his first pitch–a curveball that never curved–and he was promptly replaced by Al Alburquerque who walked the first man he faced. So the Twins, putting only one ball in play, and putting it in play by only 40 feet or so, had the bases loaded. But Alburquerque fanned Plouffe (the guy who replaced Thome, remember?) getting him on a called 3rd. Joaquin Benoit has come on to start the 8th for Detroit. T-8: DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 2.
9:33 No problems for Benoit and the Tigers are 3 outs away. We’ll see Jose Valverde in the 9th. He pitched in both ends of the doubleheader here Sunday, pitched on Monday, and is coming on for more tonight. B-8 DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 0.
9:38 Here he comes: El Papa Grande. Jose Valverde is the guy and he’s pretty much the Latin version of Al Hrabosky, a guy who has an act and a good one to put on every time he comes into a ballgame. And a guy who makes good on his act because if you don’t deliver the goods in this game, they don’t let you dance onto the field the way Valverde does every time he leaves the bullpen. Trouble tonight though, and sometimes you get that fromm Jose, too. He walks the first hitter he faces…
9:47 Valverde goes to a full count on the second hitter he faces–so close to walking the tying runs on base–before getting a groundout. A man on and a man out here in the 9th. Alexi Calilla is the hitter. He looks overmatched against Valverde who is, simplyh put, huge. He may have the broadest back I have ever seen on a human, but I can’t be sure. Smart play by Casilla. He tries a bunt but misses and it’s strike three and now it is man-on-man for sure as Morneau–their best hitter–steps in to face Valverde, Detroit’s best pitcher.
9:50 First base was oen so the Tigers walk Morneau and there goes that classic matchup. Of course, now Detroit has walked the tying run on. They will pitch to Michael Cuddyer.
9:52 One pitch, a grounder to Inge at third, ballgame. Goodnight, Mr. Cuddyer. Goodnight, all. Off to the dressing room for the react. FINAL DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 2.
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