Sunday, June 18, 2006

Tigers Rout Cubs for Sweep

The wind was blowing out at Wrigley today and the Tigers took advantage of it in a big way. They tied a team record by smashing 8 round trippers as they blasted the Cubs 12-3 and completed a three game sweep of the weekend series. Oft injured Mark Prior made his first start of the season and was greeted rudely by the Tigers who scored six first inning runs on home runs by Curtis Granderson, Carlos Guillen and Chris Shelton. It turned out that all the runs in the game would be scored as a result of home runs. The complete Tiger home run parade is listed below:

Granderson (10)
Wilson (2)
Guillen (9)
Thames (14)
Shelton 2 (14)
Inge 2 (15)

Tiger starter Kenny Rogers dealt with the wind by keeping the ball on the ground. In 8 innings of work, he got 19 outs on ground balls including two double plays. He allowed just 2 runs (on solo home runs by Henry Blanco and Aramis Ramirez) on 4 hits, a walk and one hit batsman. It was his 200th career win and league leading 10th of the year. More importantly, he lowered his ERA to 3.17 and is now sixth in the league.

Analysis

There was a lot of grumbling by fans during the off-season about the acquisition of a 41 year old pitcher but Rogers has been a tremendous free agent addition to this point. Although, he has been a bit stronger than expected, this season is no fluke. In 14 out of 17 years, Rogers has had an ERA+ (ERA adjusted for league and park) better than league average. The only question with him is how long he can keep it up at his age. He sure isn't showing any signs of age yet this year.

Yesterday, I pointed out that Placido Polanco has been breaking out as of late. Another player who is showing signs of life is Chris Shelton. Shelton had really been slumping since his amazing start and he seemed to be getting worse and worse. He recently went through a 14 game stretch where reached base only 10 times and batted .137. After today's 3 hit 2 home run game, he has reached base 10 times in the last 4 games. Hopefully, this is a sign that he has figured something out and will start hitting more consistently.

5 comments:

  1. Just ran across your blog...

    I was thrilled by the Tigers sweep of the Cubs. I'm old enough to remember the 1968 season (12 yrs old) and certainly still have 1984 embedded in my brain, and I can't help but feel that 2006 has the same characteristics as those two seasons. Only time will tell, but at this point it just wouldn't surprise me if 2006 has the same majic of '68 and '84.

    An interesting side note to the 12-3 homer happy game was the Tigers team lead in the homerun race going on DURING the game. Going into the game the team lead for homers was a three-way tie between Thames, Ordonez and Inge at 13 and Shelton followed with 12.

    Shelton homered in the first inning making it a four-way tie at 13.

    In the fifth inning Thames homers for his 14th taking sole possession of the team lead, UNTIL two batters later, Inge homers for his 14th.

    Then in the eighth inning Shelton homers for number 14, making it a three-way tie for the team lead, UNTIL Inge immediately follows with his 15th.

    Poor Ordonez, he fell to 4th on the team from tied for first during this one game. And Inge? Apparently he just didn't want to be upstaged.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just ran across your blog...

    I was thrilled by the Tigers sweep of the Cubs. I'm old enough to remember the 1968 season (12 yrs old) and certainly still have 1984 embedded in my brain, and I can't help but feel that 2006 has the same characteristics as those two seasons. Only time will tell, but at this point it just wouldn't surprise me if 2006 has the same majic of '68 and '84.

    An interesting side note to the 12-3 homer happy game was the Tigers team lead in the homerun race going on DURING the game. Going into the game the team lead for homers was a three-way tie between Thames, Ordonez and Inge at 13 and Shelton followed with 12.

    Shelton homered in the first inning making it a four-way tie at 13.

    In the fifth inning Thames homers for his 14th taking sole possession of the team lead, UNTIL two batters later, Inge homers for his 14th.

    Then in the eighth inning Shelton homers for number 14, making it a three-way tie for the team lead, UNTIL Inge immediately follows with his 15th.

    Poor Ordonez, he fell to 4th on the team from tied for first during this one game. And Inge? Apparently he just didn't want to be upstaged.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just ran across your blog...

    I was thrilled by the Tigers sweep of the Cubs. I'm old enough to remember the 1968 season (12 yrs old) and certainly still have 1984 embedded in my brain, and I can't help but feel that 2006 has the same characteristics as those two seasons. Only time will tell, but at this point it just wouldn't surprise me if 2006 has the same majic of '68 and '84.

    An interesting side note to the 12-3 homer happy game was the Tigers team lead in the homerun race going on DURING the game. Going into the game the team lead for homers was a three-way tie between Thames, Ordonez and Inge at 13 and Shelton followed with 12.

    Shelton homered in the first inning making it a four-way tie at 13.

    In the fifth inning Thames homers for his 14th taking sole possession of the team lead, UNTIL two batters later, Inge homers for his 14th.

    Then in the eighth inning Shelton homers for number 14, making it a three-way tie for the team lead, UNTIL Inge immediately follows with his 15th.

    Poor Ordonez, he fell to 4th on the team from tied for first during this one game. And Inge? Apparently he just didn't want to be upstaged.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just ran across your blog...

    I was thrilled by the Tigers sweep of the Cubs. I'm old enough to remember the 1968 season (12 yrs old) and certainly still have 1984 embedded in my brain, and I can't help but feel that 2006 has the same characteristics as those two seasons. Only time will tell, but at this point it just wouldn't surprise me if 2006 has the same majic of '68 and '84.

    An interesting side note to the 12-3 homer happy game was the Tigers team lead in the homerun race going on DURING the game. Going into the game the team lead for homers was a three-way tie between Thames, Ordonez and Inge at 13 and Shelton followed with 12.

    Shelton homered in the first inning making it a four-way tie at 13.

    In the fifth inning Thames homers for his 14th taking sole possession of the team lead, UNTIL two batters later, Inge homers for his 14th.

    Then in the eighth inning Shelton homers for number 14, making it a three-way tie for the team lead, UNTIL Inge immediately follows with his 15th.

    Poor Ordonez, he fell to 4th on the team from tied for first during this one game. And Inge? Apparently he just didn't want to be upstaged.

    ReplyDelete
  5. sorry about the 4 posts, when posting I kept getting reset messages.

    ReplyDelete

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