How Was The Game? (April 6, 2014)
A crisp one with the wrong outcome.
Orioles 3, Tigers 1
Justin Verlander (2 GS, 14 IP, 2.57 ERA, 3.54 FIP, 0.4 fWAR) did his part across 8 innings, but after four straight victories the Tigers bats couldn’t offer enough support to complete the sweep of the Orioles. Hunter homered in the 4th to give the Tigers the lead, but the Orioles grabbed single runs in the 6th and 8th off Verlander to go up 2-1 and the bullpen didn’t do much to keep it close in the 9th as Alburquerque allowed an extra run to push the deficit to two. The heart of the order came around in the 9th, but they were unable to capture their third walk off win of the young season. After taking Monday off, the Tigers will take on the Dodgers Tuesday night behind Max Scherzer (1 GS, 8 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.81 FIP, 0.3 fWAR).
The Moment: Hunter hits his third homer in as many games.
One Quick Thing: Porcello Deploys The Slider
So for a long time, Rick Porcello’s biggest issue was that he couldn’t quite figure out his breaking ball. He was using a slider, but it wasn’t working for him at all and he famously shifted to a curveball in 2013 which worked really well. Porcello used it to improve his strikeout rate significantly and when paired with his solid changeup and dynamite sinker, he took the leap for which everyone had been waiting.
A funny thing happened on Saturday. Porcello pulled out the slider and it generated some swinging strikes.
If you’re not well-versed in the parlance of the game, pitchers who strike batters out are more likely to be successful, which seems obvious. But beyond that, pitchers who get batters to swing and miss are are more likely to get strikeouts. Apply the transitive property and you have Swings and Misses = Success. It’s obviously not perfect, but it’s a good sign. Porcello was already way better in 2013 without the slider (he threw one about 5-6% of the time). If this becomes something he can tap into on occasion (he threw 10 out of 93 today, including five swinging strikes), things could get very, very interesting for the 25 year old right hander.
How Was The Game? (April 5, 2014)
Everything for which one could hope, if you turned the game off after 8.
Tigers 7, Orioles 6
Rick Porcello (1 GS, 6 ⅔ IP, 1.35 ERA, 3.22 FIP, 0.1 fWAR) allowed a run in the 1st, but after allowing the first two runners to reach in the 2nd, he took over the game and made the Orioles wish they hadn’t gotten out of bed. He allowed a lone walk the rest of the way, finish with 6 ⅔ strong innings in his opening start of the year. He didn’t have to worry about run support in this one thanks in large part to Torii Hunter who cleared the bases with a double in the 3rd and launched a 2-run HR in the 5th to put it out of reach. Don Kelly tripled in a run in the 6th and scored on a sac fly and it would prove to be a massive one as the bullpen melted down in the 9th inning, allowing five runs in Valverdesque fashion. Justin Verlander (1 GS, 6 IP, 3.00 ERA, 4.05 FIP, 0.1 fWAR) will get the ball on Sunday looking for the sweep an a 5-0 homestand to start the year.
The Moment: Hunter clears the bases with a double to left in the 3rd.
One Quick Thing: Anibal’s Magic Pitch
Anibal Sanchez missed a little time this spring with a minor shoulder injury and had some bad fortune with respect to the weather over the last couple of weeks, which meant he had a short leash going into Friday’s start. He had some issues early, but settled in quite nicely during innings 2-4.
Last year, Sanchez had the highest swing and miss rate of his career, due in part to his ability to generate more whiffs with his changeup. On Friday, he threw a “changeup off his changeup” as Dan and Jim put it, taking some extra off the pitch to make Adam Jones look silly. You’ll notice that pitch way down there at about 75 mph.
This is a nice weapon. Not only does Sanchez throw a changeup around 83-84 mph to go with his 92-95 mph fastball, he occasionally breaks out a low to mid 70s version that works quite nicely. He averaged about one a start last year depending on how you divide up the velocity. They weren’t more effective than his normal changeup, but it’s a nice option to have in the ol’ arsenal. Plus, I mean, look at it.
How Was The Game? (April 4, 2014)
All backwards!
Tigers 10, Orioles 4
Things went well today for the Tigers, but things went a little bit strangely too. The game started a tad late due to some morning showers and Anibal Sanchez (1 GS, 4 IP, 4.50 ERA, 3.87 ERA, 0.1 fWA8) stumbled his way through a two run 1st inning. After that, he settled in, but would get chased by rain just an hour and a half later to continue his string of weather impacted starts. The bats woke up in the second inning as they cashed in three runs courtesy of a Jackson double, Avila walk, Castellanos double, Davis HBP, Kinsler single, and a wild pitch. When the rain arrived in the 4th, Castellanos and Romine were on base and Rajai Davis got the game under way after the delay with a three run bomb. Hunter followed two batters later to make it 7-2. Also included in this one were a Victor Martinez stolen base, a bad call at second base that Ausmus challenged, but somehow didn’t win, a heck of a throw by Andrew Romine, and then a Cabrera bomb that doubled as his 2,000th hit. All in all, it wasn’t a typical baseball game but the Tigers won it easily thanks to a tandem effort by Sanchez and Smyly and quality hitting. They won with power and made outs on the bases, so this is basically the exact opposite of the team they were supposed to be, but you tend not to complain about such things. They’ll try to grab their second series of the year Saturday afternoon behind the talented Rick Porcello (1st starter of 2014).
The Moment: Davis homers to put this one out of reach.
How Was The Game? (April 2, 2014)
More nice introductions.
Tigers 2, Royals 1 (10 innings)
Max Scherzer (1 GS, 8 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.95 FIP, 0.3 fWAR) looked a little uneasy in the first inning but settled in nicely, giving the Tigers 8 strong innings and a 1-0 lead heading into the 9th courtesy of Ian Kinsler, who got the Tigers on the board with a solo shot in the 4th. Ausmus also had a chance to issued his first challenge in the 6th on a Tyler Collins ground out and the called was overturned in the run up to the late inning theatrics. In his first save chance, Joe Nathan allowed a hit, two walks, and a sac fly to blow the lead and send the game into extras. In the bottom of the 10th, walks by Jackson and Avila set up an Ian Kinsler walk off single up the gap to give the Tigers their second win in as many games in their final at bat. The Tigers will give the ball to should-have-been-Cy-Young-winner Anibal Sanchez (1st start of 2014) on Thursday to try and lock down a sweep.
The Moment: Kinsler walks off in the 10th.
One Quick Thing: Nick’s Defense
If you visited New English D last year you know that we tend to do a lot of in depth analysis. I think that’s the strength of the site, but this year we’re introducing a new feature called One Quick Thing in which we analyze one small aspect of a player or game that doesn’t require 1,000 words and ten graphics. The idea is that these are small samples that may still be interesting. Today, we’ll start with a quick look at Nick Castellanos’ defense on Opening Day.
We have a decent sense that Nick can hit and he showed that on Opening Day with a pair of singles, but it’s unclear how he’ll be able to handle the hot corner. Not that he has a high bar to clear, but adding value anywhere you can is important. He had two chances on Opening Day.
The first was uneventful. A bit of weak ground ball that he had to come in on.
This wasn’t a terribly challenging play and with the runners on the move he could only go to first. Clean transfer and accurate throw. Didn’t trip over himself. Success!
So this one didn’t go as well. This is clearly a matter of Nick not knowing the dimensions of the park well enough, which makes sense given that he’s never played 3B there before Monday. He thought he had about three fewer feet than he did. On this play he needs to glance down for a second and find the wall. That should be a play he makes in the future.
It’s obviously too early to make any real judgments about his performance, but he executed one and botched another. Granted, Cabrera likely wouldn’t have gotten to the pop up, so it’s not as if it’s a net loss. When we have a few more chances to evaluate, we’ll dig in on his footwork to see how it looks after 18 months away from the position.
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