About the fourth inning, that buzz started circulating through Comerica, and through the second floor aseball bunker. No hits for the Indians; Tribe batsmen helpless, doing as well as the guy trying to eat soup with a fork.
I rolled a tape, like I did in the fourth inning on May 7.
JV seemed to be getting stronger as the game progressed, as he did in that Jays no-hitter. Swingo-misso, poppit-uppo, a zero under H for the opposition on the screboard.
Orlando Cabrera singled with one out in the eighth, and that was that. Carlos Santana's ninth inning single was the only other Tribe hit. JV went the distance, striking out ten as the Tigers won 4-0 to move one game ahead of the scuffling Indians in the AL Central standings.
Verlander games have become events. As Denny McLain starts were in his 31 win season of 1968, the year we'd read in the paper that Bob Gibson was starting that night, and listen through fading and static to hear if he'd shut them out again.
You expect him to take a no-hitter late into the game. With a couple breaks and some admittedly out of this world magic, he'd have three this season. Tonight, the Jays game, and that start after that in which he pitched six hitless innings.
This game really whipped the llama's ass. So effectively that Ryan Strikeout striking out in the third with the bases loadad is barely worth mentioning,
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
RAMON SANTIAGO !!!
One out, bottom tenth, score tied at one, and he smacked one to deep right-center. Victor Martinez chugged all the way home. THAAAA Tigers ... WIN!
The virtual tie for first is thus maintained, with the makeup game win over T-Bay bookending the Indians' 1-0 win in New York.
Derek Jeter is six hits away from 3000, and fear #1 in NYC is that the magic moment will arrive after the current home stand ends, when the Yankees play the Cubs in Chicago this weekend.
If he's still short on Thursday, the series should be moved to Yankee Stadium. Derek Jeter is baseball, baseball is Derek Jeter, the Yankees are the only team that matters, and they didn't spend $2 billion on that stadium to have something like this happen on the road.
The virtual tie for first is thus maintained, with the makeup game win over T-Bay bookending the Indians' 1-0 win in New York.
Derek Jeter is six hits away from 3000, and fear #1 in NYC is that the magic moment will arrive after the current home stand ends, when the Yankees play the Cubs in Chicago this weekend.
If he's still short on Thursday, the series should be moved to Yankee Stadium. Derek Jeter is baseball, baseball is Derek Jeter, the Yankees are the only team that matters, and they didn't spend $2 billion on that stadium to have something like this happen on the road.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Miguel Olivo's Performance
Olivo's performance? What do you mean, what's my opinion of his performance? He beat us with two bleepin' home runs, that's what I think of his performance ... he's hit four bleepin' home runs off us this season. The Seattle bleepin' Mariners are next to last in the major leagues in hitting, they can't hit their bleepin' way out of a wet paper bag, and they beat us 7 to 3 thanks to his two bleepin' home runs ... what do I think of his performance? You asked me a question and I gave you an answer, but I didn't give you a good answer because I'm mad. How can you ask me a question like that ...? Bleep!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
The Virtually Tied For First Detroit Tigers
That they are, after tonight's 8-1 win at Comerica following the Indians' 4-0 loss this afternoon at Yankee Stadium. They're one percentage point out, 35-29 to the Tribe's 34-28.
This miracle has been achieved by the once-flawless Indians losing 13 of their last 17, and the Tigers playing winning, if not always spectacular, ball over that same time period.
Michael Pineda allowed six runs amd eight hits. Jhonny Peralta homered with V-Mart on. J-Per, nine homers, .312 average, steady in the field, your All-Star shortstop, vote early and often.
Max Scherzer got back on track after a few rough outings, holding the M's to one run and four hits over seven.
Ryan Strikeout has been benched, and Magglio comes back on Monday.
This miracle has been achieved by the once-flawless Indians losing 13 of their last 17, and the Tigers playing winning, if not always spectacular, ball over that same time period.
Michael Pineda allowed six runs amd eight hits. Jhonny Peralta homered with V-Mart on. J-Per, nine homers, .312 average, steady in the field, your All-Star shortstop, vote early and often.
Max Scherzer got back on track after a few rough outings, holding the M's to one run and four hits over seven.
Ryan Strikeout has been benched, and Magglio comes back on Monday.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Ryan Raburn Bobblehead Night
Three for three -- all strikeouts -- and Ramon Santiago hit for him in the ninth with the tying and winning runs on base.
He's pressing, says the skipper.
Well, yeah ... you can't play baseball in baggy pants!
He's pressing, says the skipper.
Well, yeah ... you can't play baseball in baggy pants!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The Good And Bad Of It
The way Justin Verlander was pitching, you have to wonder how the M's managed to score the one run they did.
It was the most manufactured of runs: single, steal of second, fly ball / move to third, strikeout / wild pitch.
JV's night: eight innings, five hits, the one run, ten whiffos.
Alex Avila tripled twice. Two other Tiger catchers have done that in a single game: Brad Ausmus in 1999, and Lance Parrish in 1980. Ausmus was fast and stole the occasional base, like Avila, your 2011 All-Star catcher (vote early and often). Parrish just hit the ball hard.
Brennan Bash hit his eighth homer, and third this week, with Don Kelly on base.
But let's examine the box score to see what Ryan Strikeout did.
Third inning, foul popup with Avila leadoff triple on base. Fifth: swinging strikeout with Avila on third after triple #2, none out. Seventh: grounded into double play. The boos grew lounder after each failed at bat.
The baseball fan isn't letting up until that #25 belongs to someone else. Like maybe when Magglio comes back next week?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
12:28 AM and the Yankees and Red Sox are only in the sixth inning, after a three hour rain delay.
Since it's a weeknight (school and work tomorrow) and so many fans came to the Stadium only to leave unrewarded, the Yankees are exchanging ticket stubs for future games as if tonight's now-official game had been rained out. They also let fans who left, and waited out the rain in their cars, to come back in. Customarily, that isn't allowed. No re-entry.
That's Yankee class. Don't expect the Dodgers to try something like that anytime soon.
But it still doesn't get them off the Carrie Jacobs-Bond must-lose list.
It was the most manufactured of runs: single, steal of second, fly ball / move to third, strikeout / wild pitch.
JV's night: eight innings, five hits, the one run, ten whiffos.
Alex Avila tripled twice. Two other Tiger catchers have done that in a single game: Brad Ausmus in 1999, and Lance Parrish in 1980. Ausmus was fast and stole the occasional base, like Avila, your 2011 All-Star catcher (vote early and often). Parrish just hit the ball hard.
Brennan Bash hit his eighth homer, and third this week, with Don Kelly on base.
But let's examine the box score to see what Ryan Strikeout did.
Third inning, foul popup with Avila leadoff triple on base. Fifth: swinging strikeout with Avila on third after triple #2, none out. Seventh: grounded into double play. The boos grew lounder after each failed at bat.
The baseball fan isn't letting up until that #25 belongs to someone else. Like maybe when Magglio comes back next week?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
12:28 AM and the Yankees and Red Sox are only in the sixth inning, after a three hour rain delay.
Since it's a weeknight (school and work tomorrow) and so many fans came to the Stadium only to leave unrewarded, the Yankees are exchanging ticket stubs for future games as if tonight's now-official game had been rained out. They also let fans who left, and waited out the rain in their cars, to come back in. Customarily, that isn't allowed. No re-entry.
That's Yankee class. Don't expect the Dodgers to try something like that anytime soon.
But it still doesn't get them off the Carrie Jacobs-Bond must-lose list.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Jim Northrup Has Died
In the fourth inning of tonight's game (they lost 7-3 in Arlington), Jim Price told the radio audience that former Tigers outfielder Jim Northrup had died earlier in the day, at age 71.
The '68 world champs were my Boys Of Summer. They had four starting outfielders. When the season began, Northrup shared center field with Mickey Stanley. The one who didn't start usually entered the game as a defensive replacement; Stanley for Northrup, and Jim for Willie Horton in left.
Al Kaline broke a finger in June, and Northrup became the regular right fielder.
Kaline was still out on June 24, when Northrup hit two grand slams in a 14-3 win over the Indians in Cleveland, before only 12,808 fans at cavernous Municipal Stadium.
The box score reveals much more to the knowing eye.
Jim Price started behind the plate, went 2 for 4, scored three runs, and homered. One can safely guess that it was his best game in the major leagues. Willie Smith started at first for the Indians, and pitched the last three innings. He broke in as a pitcher with the Tigers, and was the only Tribe hurler who didn't allow any runs.
In the Year of the Pitcher, five Tigers were hitting under .200. Northrup started the day at .225. "Northrup's Slump Over: Two Grand Slams Power 14-3 Win," read the headline over Doug Mintline's game story in the next day's Flint Journal.
Other names jump out of the box score agate: R&B singer Lee Maye. Duke Sims from the 1972 Tigers' division champs. "Ball Four" hero Tommy Harper. Ray Oyler and Wayne Comer, also inhabitants of Jim Bouton's diary, both gone to that big ball park in the sky.
I heard that game, on WJR, with Ernie and Ray Lane mikeside. Generations of fans raised on cable TV may find it hard to picture a time when teams didn't televise every game, when radio was the vital link to that six-month marathon that is a baseball season.
It's hard to imagine anyone who played that night being 71. I'll be 58 next week, and that's hard enough to deal with.
Flint Little League awards night that summer was at the long-gone IMA Auditorium. Trophies and patches were distributed, and three Tigers -- Northrup, Stanley, and Earl Wilson -- were there. When the festivities began, we didn't know we'd get to actually meet our heroes, shake their hands, and wish them luck over the rest of the season.
That was a kick, all right. Meet three guys whose diamond exploits we heard described on the radio every night? Cedar Point could wait.
To hear that one of the three, another of my Boys Of Summer, has passed, leaves a void that I knew would eventually come. That still doesn't diminish its effect.
The '68 world champs were my Boys Of Summer. They had four starting outfielders. When the season began, Northrup shared center field with Mickey Stanley. The one who didn't start usually entered the game as a defensive replacement; Stanley for Northrup, and Jim for Willie Horton in left.
Al Kaline broke a finger in June, and Northrup became the regular right fielder.
Kaline was still out on June 24, when Northrup hit two grand slams in a 14-3 win over the Indians in Cleveland, before only 12,808 fans at cavernous Municipal Stadium.
The box score reveals much more to the knowing eye.
Jim Price started behind the plate, went 2 for 4, scored three runs, and homered. One can safely guess that it was his best game in the major leagues. Willie Smith started at first for the Indians, and pitched the last three innings. He broke in as a pitcher with the Tigers, and was the only Tribe hurler who didn't allow any runs.
In the Year of the Pitcher, five Tigers were hitting under .200. Northrup started the day at .225. "Northrup's Slump Over: Two Grand Slams Power 14-3 Win," read the headline over Doug Mintline's game story in the next day's Flint Journal.
Other names jump out of the box score agate: R&B singer Lee Maye. Duke Sims from the 1972 Tigers' division champs. "Ball Four" hero Tommy Harper. Ray Oyler and Wayne Comer, also inhabitants of Jim Bouton's diary, both gone to that big ball park in the sky.
I heard that game, on WJR, with Ernie and Ray Lane mikeside. Generations of fans raised on cable TV may find it hard to picture a time when teams didn't televise every game, when radio was the vital link to that six-month marathon that is a baseball season.
It's hard to imagine anyone who played that night being 71. I'll be 58 next week, and that's hard enough to deal with.
Flint Little League awards night that summer was at the long-gone IMA Auditorium. Trophies and patches were distributed, and three Tigers -- Northrup, Stanley, and Earl Wilson -- were there. When the festivities began, we didn't know we'd get to actually meet our heroes, shake their hands, and wish them luck over the rest of the season.
That was a kick, all right. Meet three guys whose diamond exploits we heard described on the radio every night? Cedar Point could wait.
To hear that one of the three, another of my Boys Of Summer, has passed, leaves a void that I knew would eventually come. That still doesn't diminish its effect.
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