Rockies (16-24) Vs. Tigers (23-16)

[m23uza1hem36]

@ Comerica Park


Probable Pitchers:
Game 1: Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP (3-4, 4.30) Vs. Rick Porcello, RHP (4-3, 3.86)
Game 2: Jason Marquis, RHP (5-3, 4.75) Vs. Armando Galarraga, RHP (3-3, 5.62)
Game 3: Jason Hammel, RHP (0-3, 4.60) Vs. Dontrelle Willis, LHP (1-0, 3.27)

Tigers Lineup:
C. Granderson, CF
J. Anderson, LF
C. Thomas, RF
M. Cabrera, 1B
M. Ordonez, DH
J. Larish, 3B
G. Laird, C
R. Santiago, 2B
A. Everett, SS

Rockies Lineup:
D. Fowler, CF
T. Tulowitzki, SS
T. Helton, 1B
B. Hawpe, RF
C. Iannetta, C
R. Spilborghs, LF
G. Atkins, 3B
C. Barmes, 2B

This series will lay in the hands of Armando and Willis...

Sweep anyone? Our offense should score big time on this team...

[Snakebites]

ESPN got something right, to be sure.

LOL at this series even existing.

Hopefully Porcello can get us our 7th straight win, because Armando and Willis make me nervous.

[Liqourish]

Tigers normally go on runs against NL teams during interleague games. Probably because they always end up playing the Rockies, Diamondbacks and Astros.

Also, we are facing all RHPs which mean keeping Larish, Clete, Anderson and Santiago involved can not only further their development, but can help us rest guys like Polanco, Inge and maybe give Maggz a little more time away.

I'm interested in seeing Galarraga and Willis pitching again. Although I don't think them pitching well against a NL team will hold much weight, but it will be gone to see their mechanics and if they can throw strikes.

Robertson is back with the team and will be avilable in the bullpen. And word is Thames will be starting a rehab stint soon. Has anyone heard anything about Guillen? The more time he spends away, the more Clete Thomas and Josh Anderson prove their worth with the team.

[tmorgan]

I'm all for rewarding veteran minor leaguers with a "taste", but good God, Sardhina needs to go. Laird isn't lighting the world on fire either, so this team needs another competent catcher -- allowing more pinch hitting for Laird.

[Liqourish]

Laird is more than adequate. He's coming out of a slump he was going through but he's handled Verlander, Jackson and Porcello nicely behind the plate. he's also been able to calm down Rodney and Zumaya during rough patches late in games to get out of innings.

I'm not too fond of Sardinha at the plate, but he's good defensively as a catcher. A young catcher to groom would be nice though. Isn't Avila supposed to be good? We haven't heard much about him since being drafted besides who his father is.

Another Tiger win. 4-3 with Inge getting his 12th homerun of the season and Porcello giving up only 1 run in 6 IP. Ryan Perry got an extended stretch tonight in the 7th and 8th innings. He got a little wild at times, but pitched two solid innings without giving up a run.

With the Yankees losing tonight, Tigers are now the hottest team in baseball.

[RustInPeace]

Great win tonight. XD at all the Grilli heckling, that ****er deserves it

[Liqourish]

I was so glad he was welcomed back to Detroit in such a manner. What a douche. Good to know he still sucks.

[tmorgan]

Don't look now, but with the Royals hitting a rough patch and our streak, we now have a FOUR game lead, the second biggest in baseball behind the Dodgers.

Cleveland is in disarray, KC isn't all that great outside of Greinke, the White Sox have no starting pitching. It's us and the Twins this year, folks, and we're 5.5 up on them at the moment.

[Liqourish]

Agreed, we have a chance to really pull away. But the team needs to take it one game at a time and not get ahead of themselves. It makes me laugh to think of all the preseason hype when Cleveland was expected to win the division and the Tigers were being slammed for their poor team and poor pitching.

Galarraga pitches tonight. Let's see him have a good outing, allowing our offense to stay in it and I'll be happy.

[m23uza1hem36]

Well, look now, ESPN actually talked about how well we've been lately.

[tmorgan]

The offense is still struggling. Galarraga wasn't awful, but wasn't good enough.

Despite the injury to Bondo and the struggles of AG, the team ERA is still under 4, and we have absolutely nothing to complain about in that department -- Rodney has been good, Perry has found his control and picked it up, Zumaya's been good, and the top three starters have been awesome. Most of the rest of the staff has been at least OK, despite some unimpressive ERAs.

What's a lot scarier is scoring 218 runs in 41 games. Now, 5+ runs a game is nothing to sneeze at, but I worry about consistency. We scored 34 runs in a 3 game sweep of Oakland, but otherwise have just been getting enough to get by lately. How long will that last?

Inge has been stellar and Santiago has been on fire, things we can't be sure are going to continue. Of the usual sources, only Cabrera is playing well -- Grandy's not getting on base enough, Mags has sucked, Polly has sucked, Guillen sucked and then got hurt, and the catchers haven't hit. Heck, outside of Inge, Grandy, and Cabrera, the team has 15 homers in 41 games.

I hope DD is still exploring trade possibilities, because our bench could use some tweaking once we stop carrying a million pitchers at a time. This division is ours for the taking -- 90 wins should do it easily -- but we need to keep improving.

Crossing my fingers for Dontrelle or the offense (or both) to show up tomorrow.

[Liqourish]

I'm not worry about homers, you can score runs other ways. We have twelve guys that have scored over 10 runs this year. Sure, Inge, Grandy and Cabrera top that list since they have the most homeruns, but Magglio, Polanco and Laird aren't far off.

I don't get the Laird hate. He's batting .245 (Granderson is only batting .246; some of his hits that got out of the park which used to be doubles last year), has 11 RBIs (8th on the team), has scored 16 runs (6th on the team) 10 BBs and 6 EBH despite a small slump. And as a catcher, hes got a 100% fielding % with 218 putouts, 17 assists, 3 double plays and 0 errors. I don't know what more you expect out of him. Not ever catcher is Joe Mauer.

The Tigers are doing quite well right now playing great baseball. The pitching staff has kept them close in games and the offense has produced timely hits/runs to win games. Not to mention the defense has been spectacular. 2nd best defense in the AL in fact. ERA is the 3rd lowest in the AL.

As for runs scored, we're averaging over 5 runs a game. And it started before the recent homestand. All of the teams above us in runs scored, have played more games than us.

Tampa Bay 38 runs in 4 more games (9.5 runs/gm)
Toronto 21 runs in 5 more games (4.2 runs/gm)
Yankees 19 runs in 2 more games (9.5 runs/gm)
Minnesota 11 runs in 3 more games (3.7 runs/gm)
Cleveland 9 runs in 3 more games (3 runs/gm)
Boston 7 runs in 2 more games (3.5 runs/gm)
Texas 6 runs in 1 gm (6 runs/gm)

If you take into account the fact that the Tigers score an average on 5.4 runs per game, Detroit should surpass all but 3 of these teams when the games are evened out. Now, of course the Tigers could go on a slump or these teams could go off and we'd still finish behind... but I don't think these offensive numbers mean as much when you take into account the fact that the Tigers have played less games.

[tmorgan]

Don't know how you got back on a Laird rant from my last post. Grandy's not playing well, either, so that's not a good point of comparison.

-----

Here's the big problem -- we've severely "overscored" thus far. I want to (and do) believe some of that is superior managing and manufacturing runs, along with timely hitting, but even that can't completely account for our total runs scored.

Before today's offensive debacle:

221 runs in 41 games, or 5.39 runs a game. The only teams with a slightly better rate are, as you said, Tampa Bay, the Yankees, and Philly, plus the Dodgers and Rangers just barely. That's basically three teams just a little above us and a three-way tie for 4th in runs per game. That's a great result.

We're 13th in the majors in team OPS at .772, and only fairly close to three other teams. We're 14th in OBP, 9th in SLG, and 12th in batting average. We've been well-managed AND lucky so far, and if we don't start hitting better soon, it's going to hurt.