After last night's eighteen hit whacking of the Rangers, twenty tonight. Two doubles and a single for Casper The Friendly Outfielder. Two singles for B-Bash. Three for five nights by V-Mart and Alex Avila (your all-star catcher; vote early and vote often).
Even Ryan Strikeout got in on the fun, with two singles and two ribbies. Ladies and gentlemen, the beat goes on.
Rick Porcello kept the Rangers out of the hit parade with another fine outing; six innings, six hits, one run.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Bash's Night, Furbush's Hold
6-3-5-5, reads the box score line that follows Brennan Boesch's name. Five hits, five RBIs, three runs.
Look below, in the extra base hits, and you'll find two homers; one with two on in the first, and a solo shot in the third. And a ribbie double in the sixth. His extra-base outburst powered the Tigers to an early 9-5 lead.
But the result may not have been W without Charlie Furbush's contribution.
When the Rangers looked like they wanted to get back in the game, he blanked them in the sixth and seventh. Nelson Cruz homered with one on in the eighth, but no damage was done and the Tigers prevailed 13-7.
Two runs in three innings drives the young southpaw's ERA all the way up to 1.84. Turned 25 on April 11, and haa added his name to the list -- with the Mets' Dillon Gee, the Braves' Craig Kimbrel, and the Royals' Aaron Crow -- of top rookie hurlers born in 1986.
-----------------------------------
Across the lake in Cleveland, the Indians may be hearing footprints.
They've dropped 10 of 13, including tonight's 6-4 loss to the Twins, who haven't lost since they left Detroit. And have been playing an uninspired brand of ball over that time. Their once fat lead is down to 2.5 games.
Look below, in the extra base hits, and you'll find two homers; one with two on in the first, and a solo shot in the third. And a ribbie double in the sixth. His extra-base outburst powered the Tigers to an early 9-5 lead.
But the result may not have been W without Charlie Furbush's contribution.
When the Rangers looked like they wanted to get back in the game, he blanked them in the sixth and seventh. Nelson Cruz homered with one on in the eighth, but no damage was done and the Tigers prevailed 13-7.
Two runs in three innings drives the young southpaw's ERA all the way up to 1.84. Turned 25 on April 11, and haa added his name to the list -- with the Mets' Dillon Gee, the Braves' Craig Kimbrel, and the Royals' Aaron Crow -- of top rookie hurlers born in 1986.
-----------------------------------
Across the lake in Cleveland, the Indians may be hearing footprints.
They've dropped 10 of 13, including tonight's 6-4 loss to the Twins, who haven't lost since they left Detroit. And have been playing an uninspired brand of ball over that time. Their once fat lead is down to 2.5 games.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Don't Let It Go To Your Head
Ryan Strikeout hit a grand slam in this afternoon's fourth inning.
This baseball miracle couldnt have happened without M-Cab's bases-loading 13 pitch walk earlier in the inning.
The effort seemed to drain the life from Jake Peavey's left arm. V-Mart's sac fly brought in Don Kelly. Andy Dirks doubled in B-Bash. Alex Avila walked, and -- mirable dictu -- RS delivered his sacks-clearing blow.
The four runs representing just the start on erasing the difference between the number he's produced and the number let in with his glove, and left on base while waving at strike three.
He's off the Interstate, but hitting a not-so-lusty .201, the season is only one-third over and, when Magglio Ordonez comes off the DL next week, someone has to go.
This baseball miracle couldnt have happened without M-Cab's bases-loading 13 pitch walk earlier in the inning.
The effort seemed to drain the life from Jake Peavey's left arm. V-Mart's sac fly brought in Don Kelly. Andy Dirks doubled in B-Bash. Alex Avila walked, and -- mirable dictu -- RS delivered his sacks-clearing blow.
The four runs representing just the start on erasing the difference between the number he's produced and the number let in with his glove, and left on base while waving at strike three.
He's off the Interstate, but hitting a not-so-lusty .201, the season is only one-third over and, when Magglio Ordonez comes off the DL next week, someone has to go.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Verlander Cy Young, Cabrera MVP
Every time one or both does something good, the drumbeat starts again, on the air and in the fan forums.
Like tonight at US Cellular, where JV allowed two runs in eight innings and fanned seven, and where M-Cab homered in the eightth with B-Bash on to provide the margin of victory in a 4-2 win.
It will be up to the voting members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America to decide whether either award shoukl go to someone on a fourth place team.
Like tonight at US Cellular, where JV allowed two runs in eight innings and fanned seven, and where M-Cab homered in the eightth with B-Bash on to provide the margin of victory in a 4-2 win.
It will be up to the voting members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America to decide whether either award shoukl go to someone on a fourth place team.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Back To Mono
Never mind another 6-4 loss, in which Andy Oliver pitched like the rookie he is, in which numerous scoring opportunities were squandered, each liner the found a White Sox glove being the proverbial inch from falling in.
Brandon Hinge has gone on the DL with mononucleosis. The kissing disease! Orally transmitted, highly contagious.
The starting lineup can bear the loss of a .211 hitter. Danny Worth gets to play.
The sensitive nature of a non-injury medical condition means no one can talk about it.
But the first thing I asked myself was: who's he been kissing?
It can't be Derek Jeter. They haven't played the Yankees in over a month.
Brandon Hinge has gone on the DL with mononucleosis. The kissing disease! Orally transmitted, highly contagious.
The starting lineup can bear the loss of a .211 hitter. Danny Worth gets to play.
The sensitive nature of a non-injury medical condition means no one can talk about it.
But the first thing I asked myself was: who's he been kissing?
It can't be Derek Jeter. They haven't played the Yankees in over a month.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Feelings, One Year Later
One year to the evening, that is, after Armando Galarraga's imperfect game.
The night when Armando retired the first 26 Indians in order, and then got Jason Donald to hit a grounder to Cabrera, who threw to the pitcher covering in plenty of time for the 27th out. First base umperor Jim Joyce called Donald safe.
After the game and into the next day, players, umps, Dave Dombrowski and Jim Leyland, and the media sob sisters, talked, and wrote, about their feelings, and cried and hugged so much that the whole scene reminded me of the Ricki Lake show.
Give me a break.
It was obvious to sixty-odd players and coaches, 17,000 fans at the game, and everyone watching on TV -- everyone, in fact, except they guy who was closest to the play -- that Donald was out.
The baseball fan wonders how certain pitchers, and manages, from the recent past would have reacted if the umps took a perfect game away from them. Don Drysdale, Billy Martin, where ARE you when we need you?
Everyone makes mistakes, Leyland admitted during the postgame cry. (Great. Go out to argue a play after that, and see how far you get.)
There were so many bad calls in Tiger games, that went against the Tigers, in just the rest of June that, finally, the skipper had to get himself run, if only to tell the world enough was enough (on the 29th, in Atlanta, arguing balls that Ray Charles would have ruled strikes).
Last weekend, the Twins lost a game when four umperors reversed a call, and backpedaled faster and better than Richard Nixon ever did. They couldn't throw Ron Gardenhire out fast enough. After the game, feelings weren't discussed, and no hugs were exchanged.
Baseball isn't a game played by two teams of nine young girls, officiated by four middle-aged women, whose objective is for one team, after nine innings, to accumulate more feelings than the other.
Not even in San Francisco, where manager Bruce Bochy and GM Brian Sabean need to be measured for evening gowns after whining about the loss of catcher Buster Posey for the season on a collision at the plate, in a play that everyone outside SF has called part of the game.
Top 12th, score tied, you have to score the run. Scott Cousins did. A young girl would have asked permission, let herself get tagged out rather than hurt the catcher, and after that complained that the game dragged on so long.
The night when Armando retired the first 26 Indians in order, and then got Jason Donald to hit a grounder to Cabrera, who threw to the pitcher covering in plenty of time for the 27th out. First base umperor Jim Joyce called Donald safe.
After the game and into the next day, players, umps, Dave Dombrowski and Jim Leyland, and the media sob sisters, talked, and wrote, about their feelings, and cried and hugged so much that the whole scene reminded me of the Ricki Lake show.
Give me a break.
It was obvious to sixty-odd players and coaches, 17,000 fans at the game, and everyone watching on TV -- everyone, in fact, except they guy who was closest to the play -- that Donald was out.
The baseball fan wonders how certain pitchers, and manages, from the recent past would have reacted if the umps took a perfect game away from them. Don Drysdale, Billy Martin, where ARE you when we need you?
Everyone makes mistakes, Leyland admitted during the postgame cry. (Great. Go out to argue a play after that, and see how far you get.)
There were so many bad calls in Tiger games, that went against the Tigers, in just the rest of June that, finally, the skipper had to get himself run, if only to tell the world enough was enough (on the 29th, in Atlanta, arguing balls that Ray Charles would have ruled strikes).
Last weekend, the Twins lost a game when four umperors reversed a call, and backpedaled faster and better than Richard Nixon ever did. They couldn't throw Ron Gardenhire out fast enough. After the game, feelings weren't discussed, and no hugs were exchanged.
Baseball isn't a game played by two teams of nine young girls, officiated by four middle-aged women, whose objective is for one team, after nine innings, to accumulate more feelings than the other.
Not even in San Francisco, where manager Bruce Bochy and GM Brian Sabean need to be measured for evening gowns after whining about the loss of catcher Buster Posey for the season on a collision at the plate, in a play that everyone outside SF has called part of the game.
Top 12th, score tied, you have to score the run. Scott Cousins did. A young girl would have asked permission, let herself get tagged out rather than hurt the catcher, and after that complained that the game dragged on so long.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Schadenfreude
Noun, loanword from German; pleasure derived from the misfortune of others.
Miss Fortune has been the Twins' companion all season.
In tonight's seventh inning, they did kick up their heels and looked like they'd become the old Fighting Ferrets, ready to piranha out a come from behind win.
Drew Butera, owner of a .133 batting average, hit a two-run homer off Rick Porcello. Then, a typical Ferret rally: bunt single, hit by pitch, walk. But Al the Amazing, issuer of the free pass, struck out Trevor Plouffe to end the inning and keep the score at 4-2 Tigers.
Plouffe went pooffe, and therein lies the Twins' woes: guys no one's ever heard of, a collection of relief pitchers assembled via the Patch And Pray method, on the spot with the game on the line. They're 12-9 when leading after seven, and 17-37 overall. Twenty games under .500, one-third through the season.
After years of wins accomplished ferret style, with bottle caps, leftover pieces of wire, and bits of twine -- all of them, it seems, against the Tigers -- including and especially game 163 of 2009, let us not feel sorry for the Minnesota Twins. Let us, in fact, celebrate every visit by Miss Fortune to the Twins' side of the box score.
Miss Fortune has been the Twins' companion all season.
In tonight's seventh inning, they did kick up their heels and looked like they'd become the old Fighting Ferrets, ready to piranha out a come from behind win.
Drew Butera, owner of a .133 batting average, hit a two-run homer off Rick Porcello. Then, a typical Ferret rally: bunt single, hit by pitch, walk. But Al the Amazing, issuer of the free pass, struck out Trevor Plouffe to end the inning and keep the score at 4-2 Tigers.
Plouffe went pooffe, and therein lies the Twins' woes: guys no one's ever heard of, a collection of relief pitchers assembled via the Patch And Pray method, on the spot with the game on the line. They're 12-9 when leading after seven, and 17-37 overall. Twenty games under .500, one-third through the season.
After years of wins accomplished ferret style, with bottle caps, leftover pieces of wire, and bits of twine -- all of them, it seems, against the Tigers -- including and especially game 163 of 2009, let us not feel sorry for the Minnesota Twins. Let us, in fact, celebrate every visit by Miss Fortune to the Twins' side of the box score.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)