More Signs Of The Impending Apocalypse

(1): Jose Valverde getting the side out in order in the ninth. 

Those three outs were the 15th, 16th, and 17th, of the last 18, Red Sox hitters retired by Scherzer, Coke, Benoit, and the previously mentioned Papa Shut 'Em Down.

(2): Prince Fielder's triple. A blast to the triangle, 420 feet away, that kicked away from the outfielders. Fielder motored his way around the bases, plating Miguel Cabrera who had singled and stolen second. It pays to have speed in the 3-4 spots in the order.

Fielder's triple, and Delmon Young's single, produced two add-on runs in a place where very few runs have been added on lately: the ninth inning. They gave the Tigers a 7-3 margin of victory. 

(3): Little Tommy Brookens getting  kicked out, for the second time on this road trip. for saying who knows what to first base umperor Jeff Nelson.  

LTB wouldn't say bleep if he had a mouthful ("The Pennsylvania Poker," Ernie Harwell called him),  and so you really have to wonder what the umperor heard, or thought he heard.

On this Tiger trip, both base coaches, the hitting coach, and the manager, were tossed at least once.

Two nights ago, Laz Diaz, working the plate in a Yankees-Angels game,  refused to let Russell Martin throw the ball back to his pitcher, when a new one was put in play, "until he earned the privilege" (Martin being a former All-Star and Gold Glove winner). 

Pitchers have been tossed for pitching inside, not even hitting the batter. (One wonders what Don Drysdale would have to say if he was pitching in 2012.) 

Some spectacularly blown calls have been exposed on video for what they were. The umperors can't be, as one might think, working with credibility on their side.

So the baseball blogger really wonders what's going on inside their heads. 

If they really do wish that MLB.com would print in the warmups, along with the starting pitchers, the names of the umpiring crew assigned to that game, so the fans could decide which game to watch by who the umps are. Because, after all, it's the umpires people come out to see. Not the players.

Our Favorite Radio Commercials

TIM-BR Mart is a Canadian chain of big-box home improvement stores. There's one over in Sarnia. We've never been there, having a Lowe's and a Home Depot in Port Huron. Everything you want, we got it right here in the USA, and that's also the case for building materials.

They do have a nice commercial, that airs on Blue Jays games. It's a clinky little thing voiced by a waif-like young lady, a contemporary Suzanne Vega who sounds like she was discovered while busking in a Toronto Metro station, that reminds the baseball fan of water splashing in a mountain stream. "I can do en-ee-thing ... I can do enn-ee-thing today ..." she sings.

That's the sound the client wanted, and the agency delivered.  It's an improvement over the fake-hip, know-it-all Lowe's and Home Depot ads. In Canada, you can't buy beer in grocery stores (except in Quebec, vive les francais) and two chicks can get married, but they do have some pleasant, unpretentious commercials. 

Which is good. When baseball is listened to on the radio each day for six months,one bad commercial can spoil a whole season.

Evaluating the ads on a competing team's radio broadcasts is preferable to spending any significant amount of time on tonght's Tigers game. 

After seven unspectacular innings of baseball, Adrian Gonzalez doubled in Daniel Nava to give the Red Sox a 5-4 lead. Kevin Youkilis (a Jew) homered in the eighth to provide an insurance run.

With or without Rugburn, the results are the same. They play just well enough to lose.

The Light Bulb

There are days when you don't want to watch any baseball. Not even turn the game on for a few seconds to see who's winning. Like today, after a Saturday of shopping in 96 degree heat, and especially after last night's effort. 

But you gotta watch every game. You might miss something. 

What we missed tonight was Rick Porcello's second outstanding start in a row. Seven innings, no runs, four hits, no walks. The clicking on of Jim Price's proverbial light bulb? One of those new ones that costs three dollars but saves energy and lasts forever.

We also missed getting on tape, and replaying to prove to ourselves that it really happened, Purnal Boesch hitting a double in the eighth to start a three run rally.

The Impending Apocalypse

Those baseball fans among the doomsday theorists, readers of the Mayan calendar, for whom Planet X's approach foreshadows the end of the world as we know it, watch for two other indicators that tell them we'd better start digging in.

Justin Verlander will give up five runs in a game, and Ryan Raburn will be optioned to the minor leagues. 

Both happened tonight. (OMG, maybe the Mayans were right!)

In the fifth, Daniel Nava doubled in three off Verlander to give the Red Sox a 4-1 lead. 

After the game (Carmines 6, Tigers 3), Rugburn and his .146 batting average, and his gloves made from the finest tempered steel, were sent to Toledo.

Second base now belongs to Danny Worth (.182, who in the Reader Comments is now called "Worthless") and Ramon Santiago (.197).

Umperors 3, Tigers 0

They had Mike Aviles struck out.

Two out, Ryan Sweeney on second, game tied at one, Fister's pitch was in the dirt. Aviles swung and Gerald Laird caught the ball. Inning over, right?

The Red Sox appealed, Jeff Nelson pointed to Bill Welke at first, who said foul ball. Replays from two angles clearly showed Laird catching the third strike. But the ball wasn't taken out of play, as is the custom when it touches the ground.

The Tigers argued. Skipper Leyland, his catcher, and his coaches managed to not get tossed. Play continued, and Aviles singled in Sweeney. The Sox scored two more after three outs, and led 4-1.

Leyland and Lamont did get thrown out, which was the least they could have done. Lamont for "scolding" the umps, amd Leyland reportedly for imploring Danny Worth (.182 entering play) to get a hit leading off the next half inning. Welke, whose hearing must be way better that his eyesight, thumbed the skipper for something he thought he heard from the third base dugout.

Final: Red Sox 7, Tigers 4. If the third strike call is correct, they're tied after nine, and who knows what would have happened?

Leyland had his say, both on the field and after the game. Everyone in the game is accountable, he told the writers, and that includes the umps. "There should not have been a rally in that inning. Have the nerve to write what you saw and say it — because I'm not going to sit here and rip the umpires. Write it and say something once in a while. Have the nerve to say something."

See something, say something. Or, in this case, write something. Your Baseball Blogger's unofficial credo.

Welke, without actually admitting he missed the call, indicated it was wrong. "I have to make a determination in a split second if he (Laird) caught it clean, and it appeared he did not," said the ump. "But the replays showed he did."

Still I don't think there'll be apologies and hugs at home plate during tomorrow night's exchange of lineup cards.

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In an effort to kick-start him, The Resident Managerial Genius hit Rugburn second, and three time he stood there like the house by the side of the road and watched strike three go by.

So the short leash might finally become the long leash (Toledo) or off-the-leash (designated for assignment).

Sweeps / QB And The Prince

One swing, Miguel Cabrera's two-run homer in the ninth, saved the Tigers from yet another embarrassing 3-2 loss, this one to the American League's most helpless team.

The sweep at Minnesota, and the Indians' three weekend losses in Chicago, leaves the third place Tigers four in back of the Tribe. It also leaves the White Sox, who did the sweeping at US Cellular, in second place one-half game out. 

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The first baseman still known as Prince went 9 for 12 over the weekend, raising his average to .317 and silencing the toughest critics in town, the regulars in the game story Reader Comment sections of the News and Free Press. 


Quentin Berry isn't Austin Jackson, but has nonetheless been The Man since his call-up from Toledo to replace the disabled Tiger center fielder. He's hitting .381, 8 for 21, and made a nice running catch in today's eighth inning to keep the Tigers close. Discarded by four teams, he might stick when Jackson, eligible to come off the DL in five days, returns to the roster. If he does, someone (Rugburn, he of the .151 batting average?) has to go.

Oops, They Did It Again!

And most of the damage came off the old Tiger killer, Carl Pavano. 

Six consecutive hits in the fifth yielded four runs and sent Pavano to an early shower.Final: 6-3 Tigers.

Prince Fielder went 4 for 4 and moved his average above .300. The top of the order is getting it done:  Quentin Berry .294, Dirks .322, Cabrera .310, Fielder .311. In the five through nine places, however, the highest average is Boesch's .254.

Big Deal (Tigers 10 Twins 6)

They weren't going to finish the season 0 and 117, and any batting order with Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder hitting 3-4 would sooner or later post double figures in runs scored. 

The holes are still there. No second baseman, questionable bullpen, and leaky defense. 

Unpredictable middle reliever Brayan Villareal committed two throwing errors that led to two sixth inning unearned runs, narrowing the Tigers' lead to 7-5. (Did he think this was the 2006 World Series?)

Cabrera, Fielder, and Boesch, in the Tigers' seventh, prevented what could have been yet another embarrassing defeat by driving in one run each. 

Okay ... great. How wonderful that will look in the paper tomorrow morning. Now, let's see them do it again, only without the errors.

The Justinian Empire

The first Indians' hitter Justin Verlander faced, leadoff man Shin-Soo Choo, launched one into the second deck at Insurance Company Park.

Since Tiger starters have to pitch a no-hitter to have a shot at winning, JV was already in trouble. 

The Tigers scraped together a run in the third off Justin Masterson, on a Quentin Berry double and two groundouts. 

In the fourth, Michael Brantley singled, stole second, and scored on a Jose Lopez single. As quiet a run as ever was scored in the major leagues, but it would be all the Tribe needed to win.

JV showed 'em, though, in the eighth, down by the run that everyone in the ball park knew he wasn't going to get. He struck out the side on eleven pitches, all of them fastballs, some over 100 on the gun. No one touched the ball. Not even a loud foul. Here it is, he seemed to be saying; my teammates can't hit their way out of a wet paper bag and one run is all I'm going to get, but I'm the best bleeping pitcher in the major bleeping leagues and doan yew fergit it !!!

So that's that; we showed those Indians how the game of baseball is played, all right. Now it's off to the Twin Cities, where the Monsters of Minneapolis -- Trevor Plouffe, Darin Mastroianni, Brian Dozier, Drew Butera -- eagerly await the Tigers' arrival. Some of them, it's rumored, will be out at the airport to greet the Tigers when they arrive this evening, and load their bags onto the team bus.

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Tom Brookens, when he wore the Olde English "D,"  was my mom's favorite Tiger. "Little Tommy Brookens," she called him. 

LTB is now the Tigers' first base coach, and he and The Resident Managerial Genius were kicked out of this afternoon's game, between Indians ABs in the fifth inning, for arguing a balk that wasn't called, that may have turned the inning around.

TV replays indicated it should have been called. Lately, seemingly more often than ever, TV has exposed the umperors as guys who can't get it right. Missed ball and strike calls cost them last night's game, as well as hitting coach Lloyd McLendon for the night.

The calls that are arguably costing them games wouldn't be, however, if they could score more than three runs per game and let the pitchers do the rest.

Little Things Mean A Lot

And, when you're scoring two runs per game, they become absolutely vital.

With the score even at two and the bases loaded, Alex Avila was called out on strikes, on a borderline pitch to end the eighth inning.

Predictably, the Indians scored two in their eighth, and went on to win 4-2.

The Poetry Corner

JV, Max, Fister, and kin
Pitchers by now all tuned in
With the offense they got
And good it is not
They need a no-hitter to win!

(Final: Indians 5, Tigers 3.)

Striekouts To The Max

Max Scherzer may have forgotten that, these days, it takes a no-hitter to win. Even fifteen strikeouts in seven innings won't get it done.

He left this afternoon's game having whiffed fifteen Pirates, all on swinging third strikes, losing 2-1. 

In the bottom half of that frame, Delmon Young singled in Prince Fielder, and Alex Avila singled in Peralta and Young.

Dotel and Coke held the lead, but you can't have a Tiger ninth inning without something happening. The Pirates manufactured a run, and had the tying run, Nate McLouth, up. McLouth struck out, the seventeenth Buc to fan this afternoon, and a 4-3 win it was.

The Morning After / Back To Bis As Usual

Last night's Verlander game had a healing quality, not unlike the sun's rays, or a good, long, hot, soaking shower. 

It melted / washed away mental images of the shaky pitching (except for JV), leaky defense, lack of production from the five through nine spots in the batting order, and Rugburn who is in his own private category of dreadful.

It left the baseball fan feeling clean and refreshed, eager for the next game (what time are they playing, again?)

In that next game (this afternoon's), Andrew McCutchen hit two two-run homers, and they were all the Pirates needed to handle the again-helpless Tigers 4-3. 

Andrew McCutchen, yes ... he's the complete package. Hits for average, hits with power, blazing speed, Gold Glove defense. And he'll look great, after accumulating six years of major league service time, in Yankee pinstripes. 

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Over in Cleveland, where winning baseball (23-17) is played, Jeanmar Gomez pitched three-hit ball for seven innings as the Indians shut out Miami (or MIA, as they are abbreviated in the wrapups), 2-0. The win, tonight's White Sox win over the Cubs, and the Tiger loss drops the men from Motown into third place, one-half game behind the Pale Hose and four in back of the Tribe.

Verlander's Night

OMG ... not the Pirates. Another bunch of no-names of the kind that jumps up and kicks the Tigers' butts when they aren't looking. And it's inter-league weekend. But Verlander's pitching, and you never know ... against this crew, he might throw a no-hitter. 

And he almost did. 

Jacob Harrison got their first hit, a clean single, with one out in the ninth. On the way there, JV fanned twelve and walked two. The only hard-hit ball was Harrison's sixth inning  liner that Don Kelly, playing center for the injured Austin Jackson, chased down on the warning track. (Don Kelly, HE'S the man!) 

Tonight's effort represents the fourth time in two years that JV has taken a no-no into the eighth inning. He got one, and came close three times, which has to be some kind of record.

So close, but yet so far. (Maggie is the Frankie Valli fan in the room.) 

Verlander isn't content with being arguably the league's top pitcher. He has his sights on a bronze plaque in Cooperstown. And y'know what? He's going to make it.

Did We Miss Anything?

No, nothing much ...

Doug Fister didn't have it, but even Cy Young award winners have days on which they don't have it. Fister allowed the Twins four runs in six innings, a bad game for him but still a good enough effort to keep any team whose lineup includes Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, and Andy Dirks (.369) in the game.

And the hitters tried their mightiest, but three solo homers (Dirks and Fielder, and Brennan Boesch) by themselves aren't going to make it happen. When all your runs score on three solo homers, the rest of the batting order isn't contributing. 

Justin Morneau hit a two-run shot for the Twins, and a young man named Babe Plouffe, who entered last night's game hitting .125 and homered, homered today and leaves town with a .145 batting average. 

Fister leaves the ball park this afternoon with a 1.59 ERA and a record of  no wins and two losses. 

Meanwhile, across the lake in Cleveland where winning baseball is played, the Indians scored two in the 11th to defeat the Mariners 6-5. 

The Tribe is 22 and 16, and leads the American League Central Division by four games over the men from Motown who, by now per the script, were to be figuring out where to put all the visiting friends and family during World Series week. And the fan wonders, as he does every year around this time, if he wouldn't have been better off starting the season rooting for, and blogging about, the Indians.

 

A Fne Balance Has Been Achieved

Rugburn is producing as many runs as he's letting in with his glove.

He clanged a ground ball in tonight's second inning, with two out, extending the frame just enough for the next Twins' batter to hit a three run homer. 

But he walked leading off their second and, five singles and a sac fly later, the Tigers were back on top 6-5. 

The careless nature of tonight's game indicated that 6-5 wouldn't be the final score. 

It wasn't; the Twins pecked away like the Fighting Ferrets they once were, playing not at all like an 11-26 team, and ended up 11-7 winners. Their last run scoring on a homer by someone named Trevor Plouffe, who entered the game hitting .125, 1 for 8, only in 64 at bats over the whole season.

 

Eight Run Sixth

Defying the baseball godz, like we did Sunday and yesterday, is an activity fraught with risk. Once, even twice, and you might get away with it. Try it a third time, and the probability of missing something becomes even greater.

So we turned the Tiger game on. Peavy vs. Scherzer, should be a quickly played, neatly pitched contest whose critical moment, with their luck, will be a Ryan Raburn AB in the late innings.

They  were down 6-0 after five, to the league's ERA leader, and rolled an 8 in the sixth. Cabrera homered with Dirks on, and Rugburn (who must think it's August) and Austin Jackson each homered with two on. Put 'em on the board ... yeeeeees !!!

The Tigers added two vital add-on runs, and needed them. Valverde retired the first two in the ninth, but then: single, double, walk, double, 10-8 game. He came out, with a lower back strain, and Octavio Dotel got the elusive 27th out to preserve the win.

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We also sampled Twins-Indians, and heard Derek Lowe shut out the helpless Twinkies, who arrive at Comerica tomorrow. They're starting five guys with zero homers, and two with one homer each. Kubel and Cuddyer and POON-toe are gone, and Fighting Ferrets they aren't (10-24, worst record in baseball.)

The Rough Diamond Of Cuban Baseball

White Sox outfielder Dayan Viciedo, from Remidios, Villa Clara province, in a country where baseball games on the radio have no commercials, and there's no admission charge at the ball park. (Reasons for liking Castro that Ozzie missed.)

In two and a fraction seasons, starting play tonight, he has 9 homers and 24 RBI, and it seems like he's done it all against the Tigers.

Tonight, he homered and singled, and drove in four runs.(Final: Pale Hose 7, Tigers 5.)

Drew Smyly gave up four runs in five innings, and saw his ERA soar to 2.31.

The Rugburn-O-Meter: 2 for 5, average all the way up to .149.

Fete des Meres

With today being the actual Mother's Day, we were inclined to blow this game off as well. After the first three games in Oakland, a deadly fog of indifference hung over the second floor baseball bunker.

But Verlander was pitching and, when he does, good things always happen regardless of how poorly the rest of the team has been playing.

JV went into the seventh having allowed the Athletics two baserunners -- a walk and a Seth Smith homer -- and still was pitching for his life, since his mates had scored only two runs.

Out he came after the inning -- with a callus on his pitching hand, we later learned -- and in came Ben-Wah, with, per the script (OMG), Fernando Valverde to follow. 

Ben-Wah walked one and fanned two, and recorded his tenth hold. (Ten, really? It seems like that's the total of leads he's squandered.) A typical Tiger offensive burst -- a Boesch double and three walks -- produced a ninth inning run. Valverde did enter, and retired the side on eleven pitches for his seventh save.

THAT'S the way ya do it ... exactly like they drew it up in Lakeland. 

We Didn't Even Bother

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, but our celebration always starts the night before. 

We went to a nice place; the only restaurant in Port Huron with tablecloths and real silverware, that doesn't have TVs in every corner tuned to baseball games. Whatever happened out in Oakland, happened. We'll catch up later. 

And, once again, we missed nothing. 

Another show of Tiger offensive might (five hits), another starter with an undeserved L (Doug Fister, six innings, five hits, one run, eight strikeouts, ERA 0.59, record 0-1). 

The baseball machine that by now was supposed to be sweeping away all competitors is now under .500, at 16-17.

Rugburn

"Tigers Manager Jim Leyland Praises Ryan Raburn Daily," reads the headline of this morning's Detroit News Tiger "Notebook" article.

"He's someone I think is a good player, someone who doesn't know how good he is," said the skipper of the guy who, on May 12, isn't even hitting Maggie's weight (.128), but whose name regularly appears in the starting lineup. The Resident Managerial Genius goes on to add more reasons why he deserves a Bobblehead Night sometime this season, the sooner the better.

This I've learned from watching baseball for 50 years, and reading about it, especially over the last 20 or so seasons:

When a guy who's hitting, or pitching, well, who seems to be a good fit, is mysteriously traded, waived in mid-season,  or allowed to walk, there's usually an off-the-field, non-baseball reason why. The same is true for a non-productive player who sticks around, and around, defying conventional baseball logic and common sense.

Anyone who has 11 hits in 86 at-bats and is still playing must have some kind of behind-the scenes leverage that keeps him on the team.

Your BB Blogger Told You So

Posted here the day before opening day, re Brandon Inge, who didn't hit his weight in Florida, making the team as a reserve:

"But baseball melodrama has a way of handing the guy who doesn't belong a chance to be the hero, and our crystal ball foreshadows a night in June when the backup second baseman no one wanted (Hinge) snags a hot grounder with the bases loaded, and drives in the winning run. Like it's done on the Hallmark Channel." 

I got my wish again. Almost. Wrong month, and his bat helped the other team win.

He hit a three run homer off Rick Porcello tonight, turning a still-winnable 4-2 game into a 7-2 lost cause. They may as well have been down by twenty, the way they're not hitting. (Final: 11-4 A's.)

So Hinge, hitting .120 with one RBI when booed out of town, is now in the record books with Lou Gehrig, for being the first player since Lou in 1931 to drive in four or more runs four times in a span of five games.

Too bad he couldn't hit like this when he played for our team. But he was at a disadvantage. He couldn't bat against our pitchers.

We turned the game off, and put in a movie. Maggie's choice: "Sleepless In Seattle." (Hey, we were just there!) The film proved to be a wonderful cure for insomnia.  Neither one of us was awake at the end.

Something About Maggie

When the Tigers scored eight in tonight's third inning, Maggie and I were glad we'd chosen baseball over cinema. 

After Hinge hit a grand slam in the eighth off Colin Ballester, and after Ben-Wah gave up a double to Kila Ka'aihue and walked Anthony Recker, a nice snuggly romantic comedy didn't seem so bad after all. Maggie was, in fact, rooting through the tapes. 

"You know Valverde's pitching the ninth," she said. "I can't watch this anymore ... "

She sprang out of bed and raced downstairs, leaving me in the company of a small gathering of Athletics fans who stayed to the bitter end -- past one AM our time -- despite being down 10-2 after three.

Fernando did come in to pitch the ninth, and got them out one-two-three. If he keeps this up, he'll go back to being Jose. 

"They won, didn't they?" Maggie returned to the second floor baseball bunker holding two glasses. 

"How'd you know?"

"I was listening on the radio." She handed me one of the glasses. 

"What's this?" 

"Amaretto. Let's celebrate. The night Jose Valverde got his groove back." 

We clinked glasses. 

"You're not going to write that, are you? Abut getting his groove back?"

Can't say that I won't, my queen. What a perfect Hollywood ending. For that new snuggle movie. "Something About Maggie."

Movie Night

Let's grab a movie, said Maggie. She was eyeing the selections offered by our local Redbox. If we don't watch the Tigers, we won't miss anything . . .

I concurred. So, by a vote of 2-0 -- which sounds like the final score of a recent Tigers game, them losing -- baseball was replaced as the evening's entertainment by "The Iron Lady." The former prime minister of Great Britain, that is. I thought my Maggie was the real Iron Lady. 

We enjoyed the film, and going back in time to the 80s. And we didn't miss a thing on the baseball field. More good Tiger pitching wasted, another unacceptable offensive night. 

Drew Smyly allowed one run in six innings. His mates scored one run. As if to tell the pitchers: okay, there's your run, make it stand up.  

They didn't. Luke Putkonen gave up a double and a single in the seventh. Since Tiger hurlers now have to pitch no-hit ball to have a shot at winning, he ended up with the loss. 

The offense that was supposed to carry the Tigers to the big October dance, that instead has them at 15-15 and two games out in the AL Central, managed only four singles and a double off Mariners starter Jose Vargas.

Let's get something for tomorrow night, said the Iron Lady, burrowed under the blankets. Something with Julia Roberts in it? Or maybe a Nicholas Sparks book ... ?

I used my veto power to silence any further discussion of chick flicks. The Tigers are going to Oakland, and we get to see Hinge in Athletics green and gold.

Off Day

A New Way To Lose

Fernando Valverde, having worked his ninth inning magic in the last three games, had the night off.

Octavio Dotel assumed the closer's role, and came in to pitch the ninth with a 2-0 lead.

What followed was something not even Valverde has managed to pull off. 

Walk, walk (pitches not even close to the plate), wild pitch, passed ball. One run scores. Double by Jesus Montero. Tie game. Runner bunted to third, John Jaso's sac fly scores him. Game over; the way the 2003 Tigers (43-119) would lose them.

Of course, if the Tigers had scored more than two runs, Dotel's meltdown wouldn't have mattered, and Doug Fister's return would be the subject of this blog entry. Fister threw seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and zero walks. Another excellent outing by a Tiger starter wasted. 

Over the weekend, Hinge by himself drove in almost as many runs (four) as the Tigers scored (five).

Pointing More Fingers

It must be written, somewhere in the Official Playing Rules, that Jose Valverde, when he comes in to pitch the ninth, has to put the leadoff man on, and the leadoff man has to steal second.

Alex Rios did both this afternoon, with the White Sox down 3-1. The rules must also require him to walk someone (Koseki Fukudome).

Papa Shut 'Em Down then did just that, retiring AJ Pierzynski and Gordon Beckham to preserve the victory. 

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Whenever I type Gordon Beckham's name into a blog post, I have to remind myself that he's not the guy who married one of the Spice Girls.

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Someone beside me has no doubt noticed, by now, that the bumper music on Tigers' radio before Valverde's inning is always "Shake Your Moneymaker" by The Black Crowes, a 90s cover of the politically incorrect blues song written in 1961 by Elmore James (all blues songs by definition being politically incorrect). Maybe that's his problem. He needs a new song.

Pointing Fingers

Pointing them at the guy reponsible for this afternoon's disaster: Jose Rafael Valverde, born March 24, 1978 in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Closer for the Detroit Tigers. 

The ninth inning was classic Fernando. Leadoff single (Alex DeAza), stolen base, and a two-run homer by Adam Dunn that, when last seen, was being tracked by the NASA ground station in Guyamas, Mexico. A 2-1 lead became a 3-2 deficit, and that was the final score. 

I wish it was Fernando (Rodney, the Gas Man from 2009) pitching. He leads the American League with eight savers for the D-Rays.

Valverde has two wins and one loss (today's). Decisions for a closer represent leads squandered. Even if the closer wins, he's not doing his job.

If not for Fernando, we'd be pointing fingers at Max Scherzer and Joaquin Benoit, for positive reasons. They experienced the Toni Morrison Effect (got their grooves back). Scherzer went seven and allowed one run on four hits, whiffed nine, and issued zero walks. Benoit fanned two in his inning of work. Two excellent pitching efforts wasted. 

With three outs left, the Tigers didn't go quietly. With one out, Peralta walked. Dirks flied out, and Raburn doubled. Up came Austin Jackson (The Man!), and any medium-deep fly ball would tie the game. But there was no joy in Tigerville. Austin Jackson did strike out. (He's still The Man, though.) 

JHONNY PERALTA !!!

0-2 the count and Alex Avila on, score 4-3 Pale Hose, when Peralta hit a high fly into the stands! Dropped it just over the 365 sign in right, good enough to win the game it was, that brown eyed handsome man ...(Can you still say that? Is it now possible to insult people by speculating re their eye color? Maybe I'd better apologize right now, just in case ... )

Miguel Cabrera singled in Don Kelly in the eighth, closing the Tiger deficit to one, at 4-3, and setting up Peralta's walkoff shot. (HAHA WHITE SOX !!!)

Drew Smyly went six and remains beyond amazing (two runs, seven strikeouts). 

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Delmon Young, back on the roster, apologized to almost everyone concerned: Tigers fans, his bosses, and the Detroit Jewish community; specifically Rabbi Josh Bennett of Temple Israel in Bloomfield Hills, soon to become president of the Michigan Board of Rabbis. He left out New York City's Jewish panhandlers. 

"I'm looking forward to doing stuff with him in the near future, once we get back off the road trip," Young said. 

Your Baseball Blogger's first thought was that maybe they're going to sit down and watch "The Jazz Singer." Both the original starring Al Jolson (a Jew) and the remake starring Neil Diamond (a Jewish folk singer from New York City).

It's more likely, however, that DY will be working with kids in the Temple's Little League, on everything baseball except how to track and catch a fly ball.

Whatever Chris Wants ...

Chris Getz plated this afternoon's winning run with a ninth inning single to deep short, on pitch eight of the at bat.

He drove in Mike Moustakis, who had doubled off Fernando Ben-Wah.

The key AB of the inning was Brayan Pena's grounder to the right side, that moved Moustakis from second to third.

Another excellent outing for Justin Verlander -- eight innings, two runs, six hits, seven strikeouts -- and another no decision.

The Royals didn't play like a 7-16 team.They played like one ready for post-season. Jonathan Sanchez and four relievers kept the Tigers off the board, allowing only five hits. Of 138 pitches thrown by Royals' pitchers, the only bad one was thrown by Aaron Crow to Brennan Boesch in the seventh, who hit it for a two-run homer.

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There's a list for almost everything. The one I really want to see, the list of present and past gay major league baseball players, is one the List Generation has yet to compile.

Want to know how many current players are Jewish? You have several choices, with eight, eleven, or twelve names, depending on the source.

Your Baseball Blogger wonders: why all the lists, and why this one?

Lists of Jewish writers, artists, and musicians, to name three, serve a purpose by gathering in one place names of people who have helped define a culture and preserve its traditions.

Lists of Jewish baseball players, or players of any pro sport, might indirectly suggest to the reader that Jews are so incapable of achieving athletic excellence that, when they do, it's worth noting.

They also remind the reader that Jews are different from everyone else. Well, from a religious and cultural perspective they are, but Ernie Harwell wrote in his narrative "Baseball: A Game For All America" that the only race that matters in baseball is the race to the bag, and the only creed is the rule book. For this and lots of other obvious reasons, why should it matter who is or isn't Jewish?  I don't get it.

Temptation

After a while, you don't even want to turn the game on. Shaky back end of the bullpen, Scherzer's ERA, sputtering offense, Hinge, Delmon Young's misadventures ... why bother? Can't someone write something good about them on days when Justin Verlander doesn't pitch?

But then again ... you'd better. You never know what might happen. And, when it does, are YOU going to be the guy who has to tell his friends at th sports bar the next day "I missed it ... ?" (NO!)

First inning: single (Jackson), single (Boesch), double (Cabrera). Prince Fielder grounds one to first that Eric Hosmer throws past the catcher, allowing two runs to score. Four batters in, and it's 3-0. 

Three successive singles followed. Royals starter Luke Hochaver gave up five, but so many first and second pitches were whacked that he got through the inning with only 21 pitches. 

The Royals got three, but not after the Tigers tacked on three more. Final: 9-3 Our Team.

Doesn't that sound great? asked Jim Price after giving the score (eight to nothing).

Indeed it does.