Kenny Rogers ran into trouble in the 6th when he loaded the bases with nobody out. At that point, Joel Zumaya was brought into the game to face hot hitting Mark DeRosa. He proceeded to walk DeRosa forcing in a run. It looked like a potential disaster developing especially since Zumaya struggled a bit in his last appearance against the Red Sox. Zoom, however, found himself very quickly. He got Ian Kinsler on a weak pop to third. Then, he struck out Hank Blalock and Gerald Laird to end the inning. It was classic Zumaya drama and it was great to watch.
It was 4-2 after 6 and that would be the final score as the Tiger bullpen was brilliant tonight. Zumaya retired the side in 7th adding one more strikeout along the way. Fernando Rodney followed by setting down the Rangers in order in the 8th. Todd Jones did not get another 1-2-3 inning tonight but got a double play to end it. The Tiger victory kept them 6 1/2 games ahead of the White Sox who also won today and put them 8 1/2 up on the Twins who lost to the Indians.
Hot Tigers
Three Tigers who received criticism from a lot of people (including me) earlier in the year have been doing quite well in the second half:
- Todd Jones, who has saved 34 games in 37 opportunities on the season, has not blown a save or lost a game since June 14. During that period, he has pitched 22 2/3 innings over 23 games allowing just 4 runs on 14 hits with a 16/3 K/BB ratio.
- Craig Monroe is batting .354/.395/.619 in 38 games since July 1. For the season , he is batting .282/.319/.501. His .820 OPS is good for 3rd on the team behind Marcus Thames (.900) and Carlos Guillen (.893).
- Dmitri Young is batting .369/.391/.646 in 19 games since returning from the disabled list. His overall numbers (.274/.316/.444) are still not impressive but they are getting better.
Tigers are 9-10 since trading for Sean Casey.
ReplyDeleteI'm not as big of a Casey fan as some others but I don't think he's responsible for the 9-10 record. It's been a team effort. Their pitching and defense had been outstanding all year. Now that they have dropped off just a bit in those areas, their average offense is getting exposed.
ReplyDeleteI have a theory on Sean Casey - teams with him won't win. His personality (great outside of baseball - the kind of guy you want your daughter to marry) has a negative effect on the clubhouse. When a player isn't pulling his weight or makes a bonehead play, Casey will go out of his way to say "It's OK, don't worry about it". While positive re-enforcement is sometimes a good thing, Casey takes it to such an extreme that the players don't learn from their mistakes. It's no coincidence that the Reds are winning in their first year without Casey...
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