Tuesday, August 18, 2009

New Line-up Comes Back to Top Mariners

The Aubrey Huff era began tonight with probably the Tigers best line-up of the season in terms of both talent and structure. The addition of Carlos Guillen, Alex Avila and Aubrey Huff the last few weeks makes the line-up look a lot better. Guillen was moved into the third spot which makes a lot more sense than Clete Thomas, Donald Kelly and other names that have appeared there this year. Huff batted third and the rest of the line-up is shown below:

Granderson CF
Polanco 2B
Guillen LF
Cabrera 1B
Huff DH
Thomas CF
Inge 3B
Avila C
Everett SS

The new order scored four runs in the bottom of the 8th to overcome a 3-1 deficit as the Tigers beat the Mariners 5-3. The big blows were a leadoff homer to left by Avila and a two run single by Miguel Cabrera. They were also helped by a Jose Lopez error and an improbable double steal of second and home by Cabrera and Ryan Raburn.

Young Rick Porcello was matched up against King Felix Hernandez and the rookie looked as strong as he has looked all year for 5 1/3 innings. He struckout 8 and allowed just one hit before allowing a homer to shortstop Josh Wilson on a 0-2 count. He left with the bases loaded and two outs. Ryan Perry was also strong getting the final out of the 6th and striking out the side in the seventh.

The ninth was a bit scary with Fernando Rodney putting runners at second and third with one out. He finally got out of it striking out Russell Branyan and Jose Lopez to end the game. The final out was an excruciating 12 pitch at bat with Ken Giffey on deck and fans chanting: "Rodney ! Rodney!" in the background. It was a very entertaining game.

4 comments:

  1. I don't get to watch the games, but it seems like Rodney is pitching well. Like the pitch that Ichiro hit was a good pitch that Suzuki just put a bat on

    then to K to hitters with runners on second and third was big.

    hopefully Huff will come through, but tonight he had five LOB

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  3. A great comeback win--showing late innings heart that the Tigs have had all year. Am I wrong, though, that there's been a rash of striking out looking the past couple weeks? So frustrating! Seems like every time we have man on 3rd with 1 or less outs we strikeout. Just a little complaint, though, as I'm loving the 3 game lead in mid-August combined with a stellar pitching rotation and bullpen. I know I'd hate being on the other side facing a start from Verlander, Jackson, Washburn, or Porcello. And then have to deal with Seay, Lyon, Rodney. Love it.

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  4. Hi Lee:

    And hi to Steve also - this is Darin's brother! Glad to see you still follow the Tigers.

    Just for fun I did some checking at fangraphs and the Tigers K% for the season is 20.5% which is tied for fourth worst in the AL.

    For past 30 days K% is 21.3 also 4th in AL.

    For past 14 days K% is 21.2 which 6th worst in AL.

    For past 7 days K% is 23.9% which is 4th worth in AL.

    So yes Steve they're striking out a bit more than average - though maybe what you're reacting to is more stranded runners than Ks.

    Anyway Lee's site is great for stats and sabr stuff - you should definitely put his bookmark or rss feed on heavy rotation is you aren't a regular already.

    Go Tigers!
    --Kevin

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