Yig Tibbikim

Anibal Sanchez showed the baseball world why the Tigers traded for him. Seven innings, seven hits one run, zero walks. Good enough to win on any other night. 

But they should have also traded for some strapping lad, preferably one who hits right-handed, who could supply a timely hit or three, and knock one into the fountains now and then. 

Bruch Chen blanked the Pretenderso n four hits over eight innings.Greg Holland permitted two hits, but no runs, in the ninth when a timely hit would have meant the difference between triumph and embarrassment. 

You've got to be kidding me. 

YGTBKM has become Price and Dickerson's favorite phrase to drop into the radio description of yet another play, or series of events, that costs the Pretenders a winnable game.. They used it a few times during yesterday's 9-8 disaster, and got it out again tonight.You could make a word out of it. Better, two words. Yig tibbikim.

The game's only run scored on a soft grounder by Eric Hosmer, soft s bread fresh from the oven. Yig tibbikim.

The Game That Got Away

What a night for Delmon Young! Two home runs, five RBIs including a two-run shot that gave the Tigers an 11-9 lead in the ninth.

But the final was 9-8 Royals, you say, having either watched the game or checked MLB for updates. 

That's because the umperors, after reviewing video, called the ball foul. Umperors 1, Pretenders 0. 

The phantom homer wouldn't have mattered, of course, had the P's been able to take care of business earlier.

Ten of the first sixteen Royals hit safely off Justin Verlander. The eight runs he allowed, in 5.2 innings, equal the most he's ever given up in one game.

But the P's peckitty-pecked their way back to an 8-8 tie.

In the eighth, Phil Coke, brought in to get a left-handed hitter (Mike Moustakis) out, gave up a double that put KC up by one. 

3.72 doesn't look bad, but 65 hits in 48 innings is not acceptable for a situational lefty. And 48 innings means he's had the opportunities.In the last twelve, he's given up at least one hit.

The White Sox? They lost, 6-0 in Baltimore. 

Come Sunday September 30, once the Orioles and Athletics have clinched the wild cards, and the Sox the Central, this one will be The Game That Got Away.

The Least Shall Be Most

Three days ago, ESPN's Jayson Stark named Delmon Young the American League's first half Least Valuable Player. 

He had as many double plays as homers (seven), two fewer homers than walks (nine), and had only 31 RBIs while hitting behind Fielder and Cabrera all season, and Jackson and Berry for most of it. And he did the unthinkable: called a Jew a Jew in New York City. 

Three days later, the AL LVP homered in his fourth straight game, helping the Tigers defeat the Royals 7-1 this afternoon at Comerica. 

Fielder and Peralta also homered -- Prince with two one -- and Max Strikeout whiffed seven in seven innings while allowing five hits, to collect the win. 

It was the Tigers' fifth straight win, and comes at a time when at last more pieces are falling into place, when they may wish the four day All-Star break didn't start tomorrow.

Papa Leadoff Walk

Only Jose Valverde could turn what should have been a sweet day into nail-biting drama.

Delmon Young, the league's first half LVP, homered in his third straight game. The Pretenders built up a nice 8-4 lead entering the ninth. Enter the closer; and, ooops, he did it again, walked the leadoff batter on four pitches.

A double and a five pitch walk followed. Billy Butler singled in two, and an 8-4 game became an 8-6 cliffhanger. In the pen, two pitchers began loosening. Closers for the closer. 

A Mike Moustakis sac fly plated the seventh Royals run. Pinch runner Jason Working Class (real last name Bourgeois) stole second. They tying run was in scoring position, with another Frenchman, Jeff Francoeur, up. 

Francoeur ended the game via un retrait au baton. Another trademarked Valverde-ism, making a mess of things and then striking out the last batter. Hugs and high fives were exchanged. One would think they'd just won the World Series instead of hanging on by their fingernails to a game in July.

Official Mediocrity

Official Mediocrity (OM) has at last been achieved. 

Drew Smyly struck out nine of the first twelve Royals hitters. Quentin Berry tripled in two, and Delmon Young -- voted the league's first half Least Valuable Player by ESPN's Jayson Stark -- homered with Prince Fielder on. 

The vocal quartet Three Holds and a Save -- Villareal, Coke, Benoit, and Valverde -- re-entered the spotlight, and protected the 4-2 lead.

The win evened the Tigers' 2012 record at 42 wins, 42 losses; and sent baseball fans throughout Michigan to their local lottery retailers to play 4242 in tonight's Daily Four game.

Now: can the Pretenders handle the pressure and enormous responsibility that goes with playing .500 ball? I mean ... to paraphrase Billy Loes,  if you start winning, pretty soon people expect you to keep winning. 

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.