How Was The Game? (April 13, 2013)
Closer than it needed to be.
Tigers 7, A’s 3
Needing a boost after a tough 12 inning loss on Friday, the Tigers called on Justin Verlander. Verlander was only able toss six innings thanks to a long, laborious 4th, but he was effective, allowing just 1 run and striking out 6. The offense carried the day thanks in part to homeruns from Hunter, Fielder, and Peralta. The bullpen struggled again with Alburquerque, Coke, and Benoit piecing together the final nine outs while allowing two runs. For a game in which the Tigers offense put up 7 runs and sent Verlander to the hill, this one felt too close in the late innings. The Tigers’ relievers need to get a handle on their command in a hurry or we’re going to have some high antacid bills coming this summer. It certainly didn’t help that Dotel, Downs, and Smyly were unavailable due to workload concerns with the lefties and an elbow issue with Dotel, but you need to be able to trust your bullpen to hold a six run lead. With today’s win the Tigers improve to 6-5 and send Anibal Sanchez to the hill against Jarrod Parker tomorrow looking for a third straight series win.
The Moment: Torii Hunter launches a long 2-out homerun in the 3rd inning.
How Was The Game? (April 12, 2013)
Exhausting.
A’s 4, Tigers 3 (12 innings)
As the Tigers opened their first big road trip, they sent Max Scherzer to the hill to face the A’s and he gave them a typical Max Scherzer start. He didn’t have great command and his mechanics looked screwy, but he fanned 11 batters in 6 innings and only allowed 2 runs. The Tigers got their early offense from a 3-run Prince Fielder bomb and the A’s managed to tie it up by manufacturing a run in the 7th. We got bonus baseball as no one could score before the end of 9 and then Josh Donaldson delivered for the A’s with a walk off homerun in the 12th against Brayan Villarreal. You generally can’t get too upset about things like these, except for the fact that Leyland went to Villarreal before Benoit because he was saving Benoit for a save that would never come. You have to use your best relievers in games like these or it will cost you and it did tonight. After ten games, the Tigers stand at 5-5 and send Justin Verlander to the hill to face off against Brett Anderson at 4pm tomorrow.
The Moment: Josh Donaldson hooks an opposite field homerun to end the game in the 12th.
How Was The Game? (April 11, 2013)
Freezing cold and raining, but a nice easy win.
Tigers 11, Blue Jays 1
The Tigers jumped out to an early lead and chased Josh Johnson during a 5 run 2nd inning and added 4 more in the 5th to put this one out of reach easily. Despite the nasty weather, Doug Fister had no trouble silencing the Jays’ bats, twirling 8 innings of 1 run baseball enroute to his second win of the season. Only Dirks failed to register a hit among the Tigers starters and he did his part with a nice assist from the outfield in the 3rd inning. The bats punished the Jays and Fister cruised on the way to a series win and a 4-2 homestand today, leaving the Tigers 5-4 as they hop on a plane and head west for nine games in Oakland, Seattle, and Los Angeles. We’ll be staying up late tomorrow night to watch Max Scherzer go toe to toe with Bartolo Colon from O.co Coliseum.
Also of note, if you’re just dying for stats, is that after 9 games, the Tigers have 6 everyday players with OBPs north of .370. That bodes well.
The Moment: Miguel Cabrera triples to deep RCF in the 2nd inning
How Was The Game? (April 10, 2013)
It got away from us.
Blue Jays 8, Tigers 6
The day began with a two hour and twenty-nine minute rain delay and ended with a whimper in the face of a home plate umpire who wanted to go home. The Tigers jumped ahead with a run in the first and second innings and a strong opening from Rick Porcello and entered the fifth inning up 2-0. Porcello gave up a run in the top half and the offense broke out in the bottom half as the Tigers chased Buehrle and worked some walks to take a 6-1 lead. But it unraveled quickly as the Porcello allowed a couple quick baserunners in the 6th and was promptly pulled by Leyland for Downs who let Porcello’s baserunners come around. It would be no better in the 7th as Villarreal walked three batters without recording and out and yielded to Dotel who allowed all of them to score. The comic relief came in the 8th inning as Octavio Dotel took a comebacker directly between his legs, resulting in a short delay while his teammates laughed at him.
The Tigers bats weren’t as ferocious today as they were yesterday, but still managed to put up 6 runs against a solid Jays team. Porcello pitched well for most of the game even if the line doesn’t show it because he got yanked in the midst of a rough inning. The bullpen was the trouble today at Comerica Park, but we were treated to a Prince Fielder infield single. Regardless, the Tigers will send Doug Fister to the mound tomorrow against Josh Johnson with a shot to take the series.
The Moment: Octavio Dotel takes a groundball in a personal area in the 8th.
How Was The Game? (April 9, 2013)
A nice clear win.
Tigers 7, Blue Jays 3
The Tigers extra base power was on display at Comerica Park today as Miguel Cabrera and Alex Avila hit homeruns while Fielder, Hunter, and Tuiasosopo each added doubles. Cabrera also chipped in with 4 hits in order to outdo Torii Hunter who added 3 on way to his 2,000th career knock. Anibal Sanchez did his part with 7IP featuring 8K, 1BB, and 2ER. It was, all in all, a well played game by the Tigers as they moved to 4-3 on the season while knocking off the buzzworthy, but struggling Jays. Yet, none of this was the story from Tuesday’s game. Thanks to a cut on Victor Martinez’s finger, Don Kelly ended up playing LF. This would prove to be a sage choice by Jim Leyland as JP Arencibia hit a long fly ball to left field that had homerun distance in the 2nd inning. Unfortunately for Mr. Arecibia, Don Kelly takes no prisoners.
Here, for you viewing pleasure, is Don Kelly taking a homerun away from Arencibia. It shall also double as today’s The Moment. Man, Don Kelly is just awesome.
Good luck trying to drop one in on the Tigers when this is their worst outfielder.
How Was The Game? (April 7, 2013)
Pretty quiet at the dish.
Yankees 7, Tigers 0
On this Verlander Sunday, the Tigers looked poised to sweep the Yankees, but came up short. Verlander looked a bit off his game giving up 3 runs in the 2nd but settled in and shut down the Yankees offense for the remainder of his 7 1/3 innings and had a much better day than his College of Aces compatriots Dickey, Price, Hamles, and Strasburg. Coke came on in relief in the 8th and surrendered two runs of his own and Dotel did the same in the 9th, but the story of the day was CC Sabathia quieting the Tigers’ bats. Sabathia looked good today after a less than stellar season debut against the Red Sox on Monday and kept the Tigers off the board for 7 innings. The Yankees bullpen did the rest despite decent scoring chances for the Tigers in the 8th against Robertson and in the 9th against Rivera. Matt Tuiasosopo made his first start as a Tiger and went 2-3 with a walk to endear himself to the faithful, but the Tigers were unable to capitalize on any of their chances. After taking 2 of 3 from the Yankees the Tigers head into the second week of the season 3-3 with Anibal Sanchez looking to handle the Blue Jays on Tuesday in Detroit. The Jays will send Brandon Morrow, Mark Buehrle, and Josh Johnson to the hill in the three game series.
The Moment: Brayan Pena got his first hit as a Tiger. It was an infield single.
How Was The Game? (April 6, 2013)
Strange, but fun.
Tigers 8, Yankees 4
On this day, Max Scherzer was Max Scherzer. He struck out many Yankees, but allowed some hard contact, including a Vernon Wells homerun. Additionally, there was very little offense at times and explosions of offense at others. The Tigers put up a big number in the bottom of the 5th. The Yankees answered in the top of the 6th. The Tigers came back with more in the bottom half of that inning. Every Tiger but Santiago had a hit and many had multi-hit games. Jackson and Hunter continued their torrid starts and Cabrera’s 4 hit day launched him near the top of the team’s leaderboards. Scherzer wasn’t at his best, but the bullpen held it together and the bats carried him. One of the strange moments, other than Vernon Wells homering, was a call that came in the top of the 6th. The bases were loaded with no outs. A line drive was hit to Prince Fielder who caught it and stepped on first for the double play. Except the first base umpire, who was standing not six feet from the base, called the runner safe at first despite being a solid foot away from the base when Fielder stepped upon it. Luckily, the homeplate umpire overruled him, but it was peculiar in the sense that it was such a clear call I could see he kicked it from my kitchen. I didn’t just react as a fan who wanted the call to go our way. In real time, from far away from my television, I saw certain evidence the runner was out. You don’t get to see that too often.
Also of note today was the Alex Avila played the entire game waiting to hear if his wife was going into labor. Seems like a pretty stressful day. New English D is excited to welcome this player to be named later to the Tigers family. Speaking of the Tigers family, we’d also like to plug this fantastic feature from ESPN on Max Scherzer and his brother, Alex, who took his own life last year after a battle with depression. It’s a touching story not just because of our affinity for Max, but also for his brother who suffered from mental illness.
The Tigers climbed to 3-2 on the season and look for the sweep tomorrow behind Justin Verlander at 1pm on Kids’ Opening Day.
The Moment: Prince Fielder turns an unassisted double play in the top of the 6th, despite the best efforts of umpire Brian O’Nora.
How Was The Game? (April 5, 2013)
A sight for sore eyes.
Tigers 8, Yankees 3
The Tigers unveiled the the 2012 AL Pennant before the game and they played like a team looking for another one this afternoon. Doug Fister wasn’t at his best, but he held the Yankees to 3 runs in 5 innings which would be good enough. It was good enough because Prince Fielder smashed a 3 run bomb in the bottom of the 5th to put the Tigers back on top 6-3. He and Avila would add solo shots later in the game as well. But the story of the day was Drew Smyly. Smyly came on in relief the 6th inning and told everyone in the bullpen to pack up their gear. The Tigers erstwhile starter cruised through the Yankees and retired all 12 in order to end the game. As always, it was a party at Comerica Park on Opening Day as they packed more than 45,000 fans into the park. Those fans were treated to a fun one that ended with the Tigers evening their record to 2-2 on the season.
They’ll be back at it tomorrow at 4pm with Max Scherzer toeing the rubber. If you recall, New English D has their eye on the Silver Hammer early this year because we want to see if he can repeat his delivery and take the leap into the College of Aces. Baseball returned to the Motor City today. All is right with the world.
The Moment: Prince Fielder hits a 3-run HR in the bottom of the 5th to put the Tigers ahead for good.
How Was The Game? (April 4, 2013)
Kind of a meltdown.
Twins 8, Tigers 2
At different points this afternoon, different storylines sought to grab the headline. When the game began, I was expecting to write about how well Rick Porcello performed with his new curveball (5.2IP, 3ER, 2BB, 2K), but that faded quickly as the innings wore on. Porcello threw some encouraging curveballs and went deeper into the game than Verlander or Sanchez had, but was relatively average and gave up a couple of gopherballs to Willingham and Plouffe. The Tigers finally looked poised to breakout after the first two men reached in the 7th inning, but a strikeout by Hunter, a walk to Cabrera, a strikeout by Fielder, and a popout by Martinez dashed those hopes. Dirks led off the following inning with a four pitch walk, but was stranded by Peralta and Avila. The wheels came off in the Twins 5 run 8th and the Tigers went quietly in the 9th.
It wasn’t a great showing by the team, particularly the offense. Porcello pitched well enough to beat the Twins and the offense came up short in numerous situations that could have changed the dynamics heading into the disastrous bottom of the 8th. Entering the 9th inning on Wednesday, the Tigers were three outs away from taking the series and setting up a sweep, but over the next ten innings of baseball they let that slip away and will leave the Twin Cities with a 1-2 record on the young season. Certainly the Tigers’ bats will wake up as the season hurtles forward, but you never like to lose 2 out of 3 to an inferior team, even if it was on the road and in the cold.
The Tigers will send Doug Fister to the hill tomorrow against Ivan Nova and the Yankees for the home opener at Comerica Park. If you’re heading downtown tomorrow, enjoy it for me. It will be the first Opening Day since I moved to North Carolina and the idea of not being there is a touch depressing.
Let this be your reminder that it’s a long season and anything can happen on any given day. The Tigers will be fine and now isn’t even close to the time for panicking. Unless you read the news about Valverde. In which case, you might be feeling some tightness in your chest. That’s normal and to be expected. Try to breath.
The Moment: Fielder K’s down by one with the bases loaded and one out in the 7th
How Was The Game? (April 3, 2013)
It turned into a sneaky pitcher’s duel, but slipped away at the end.
Twins 3, Tigers 2
You wouldn’t have expected it in the early goings, but this one actually turned into a low scoring affair. Sanchez had trouble with his control early, but both he and Kevin Correia had good movement on their pitches and kept both teams off the basepaths for the most part. Sanchez, like Verlander on Monday, went only 5 innings but didn’t allow any runs. Leyland mixed and matched out of the pen again for 12 outs, ultimately calling on Phil Coke to finish the game. Unfortunately, things didn’t go well. Coke came on with a man on first and allowed a single to right center and then a walk off double to left center. The double should have been caught but Dirks and Jackson both expected the other to make the play. It would have been a game-tying sac fly anyway, but the winning run wouldn’t have scored. The strikezone was pretty generous all day, but that didn’t bother Austin Jackson who worked a 10 pitch, 2-out walk in the 3rd inning to set up the Tigers first run of the game. This game didn’t feature great pitching, but it featured effective pitching in front of one of the smallest crowds ever at Target Field and provided us with the first Phil Coke Finger Point of the new year. Rick Porcello will take the hill tomorrow at 1pm and will try to win the series before saddling up and heading to Detroit for the home opener Friday.
The Moment: Jackson works a 10-pitch walk with 2-outs in the 3rd.
New English D 