Always A Tiger
For full access to all our areas, please register (free), there are areas that do not show up until you register and log-in.
Always A Tiger
For full access to all our areas, please register (free), there are areas that do not show up until you register and log-in.
Always A Tiger
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

Always A Tiger

A place for Detroit Tiger Fans to learn and talk about their Favorite Baseball Team, as well as just enjoy one another's company.
 
HomePortalLatest imagesSearchRegisterLog in
Please log in and join in the fun of game day threads (GDT) and in overall Tigers chat.
CONGRATS TO CABRERA AND HUNTER on winning 2013 Silver Slugger Awards!
DETROIT TIGERS - 2011, 2012 & 2013 AL CENTRAL DIVISION CHAMPS!

 

 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS

Go down 
2 posters
Go to page : Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8  Next
AuthorMessage
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeFri Jul 20, 2012 11:12 pm

Verlander outduels Peavy in series opener
Ace cruises after giving up two runs in third, works eight innings

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 7/21/2012 12:09 AM ET

BOX>

DETROIT -- This is why the Tigers held back Justin Verlander a couple days out of the All-Star break, to beat the White Sox and Jake Peavy to open a crucial division clash.

The way he did it, outpitching Peavy in a 4-2 Tigers win over the White Sox before a sellout crowd of 44,572 at Comerica Park Friday night, was a reminder why it's so fun to watch him compete in a big game.

The look from Alex Avila and Gordon Beckham at the plate in the eighth inning might have summed it up nicely.

By now, Verlander's 100-mph fastballs with pitch counts higher than that have become commonplace, almost an expectation. The way his 115th pitch snapped Beckham's bat at the handle as he checked his swing was rare.

Both Verlander and Avila can remember that happening before. Avila tried to explain the physics of it, how the power on his pitch combined with the energy on Beckham's partial swing would set up something like that.

Still ...

"It was a check swing, so I was expecting to catch the ball," Avila said. "And all of a sudden, the ball hit the bat, and I didn't know where the bat was or the ball was.

"I think (Beckham) was as shocked as anybody. He kind of looked up and looked at his bat. I looked at him and I kind of smiled. He smiled back. It was like, 'Man, what just happened there?' I think everybody was just kind of shocked."

At that point, Verlander seemed in complete control on his way to retiring 16 of his final 18 batters after Alejandro De Aza's two-run homer in the third inning. Yet at that point, the White Sox still had the potential tying run on deck in De Aza, who had half of Chicago's four hits off Verlander as well as a walk.

"That was fun," Verlander said. "It really got me pumped up when the crowd got into it. After that, I really wanted to throw another fastball, but my judgment was a little obscured there and Alex called a curveball [on the next pitch]. So I was like, 'All right, that's probably right.'"

Even if the win hadn't brought the Tigers (50-44) to within half a game of the White Sox, giving them a chance to take over the division lead for the first time since May 1, it would've been special, two pitchers at the top of their games. The ramifications merely piled on.

"I love pitching in games like this," Peavy said. "I love pitching in big games. ... You make a pitch and it changes the whole night and you have a chance to win the game or it's tied."

Tigers manager Jim Leyland loves those games, too.

"I think you just enjoy the moment and accept it for what it is," he said.

With Chris Sale on the mound for the White Sox on Saturday, taking the division lead won't be easy, even if Rick Porcello can reprise the stingy pitching he has delivered against Chicago (50-43) this year. Add in Jacob Turner's matchup against Philip Humber on Sunday, and Friday's matchup was arguably a must-win if the Tigers wanted a chance to win this series.

Once again, Verlander was up to the task. Take away De Aza's two-run homer, and Verlander would have a shutout. Then again, take away the third inning, and Peavy would've been dueling him zero for zero.

The difference came down to the way Verlander settled down after De Aza sent his 95-mph fastball deep to right for a 2-0 White Sox lead, and the way the Tigers capitalized on a Peavy mistake.

"I love pitching in games like this. I wasn't quite good enough," Peavy continued. "I didn't make a pitch. The ball just didn't go our way. You know you have to be good. Verlander is just fun times, on the road."

A two-out fastball hit Quintin Berry and extended the third inning for the middle of the Tigers order, the same hitters Peavy sent down swinging on his way to five consecutive strikeouts to start the game.

They still had Jhonny Peralta on third base following his leadoff double, despite a double-play grounder Peavy had induced from Austin Jackson.

Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Delmon Young all followed with hits, with Young's double plating the go-ahead run.

Both Cabrera and Fielder worked Peavy to full counts before delivering singles -- Cabrera centering a nasty cutter and lining it through the middle, Fielder grounding a slider through the teeth of the infield shift.

Add in Jackson's seventh-inning single, and every Tigers run scored on a two-out hit. They entered the day batting a league-best .295 with runners in scoring position, but .236 with a runner on third and two outs.

Peavy threw 31 pitches in the third inning, 91 in his other six. He retired 11 straight Tigers after Young's double. The way Verlander delivered, it didn't matter.

"The only way you beat a guy like (Peavy) is to out-compete him," Leyland said. "You'd better compete. I'm talking about every at-bat, you've got to compete, because that one hit you get might be the one that makes the difference in a game. And that actually really kind of happened tonight. It was as advertised, both guys."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Last edited by RememberTheBird on Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:39 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeSat Jul 21, 2012 9:35 pm

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 7618695430_30c573e170_z

Stifling White Sox, Porcello lifts Tigers into first

By Anthony Odoardi / MLB.com | 7/21/2012 8:45 PM ET

BOX>

DETROIT -- A sellout crowd of 42,888 at Comerica Park rose to its feet as Rick Porcello ventured back to the mound for the ninth inning on Saturday. The 23-year-old right-hander was not only on the verge of giving the Tigers sole possession of first place in the American League Central, but also earning his first career complete game.

"That was the first time," said Porcello of the crowd's standing ovation for his walk to the mound. "I was pretty surprised by that, and it was awesome. It was a really good feeling. I got pretty excited when everyone was cheering."

Porcello didn't earn the complete game -- he allowed back-to-back singles and was hooked by manager Jim Leyland -- but his eight-plus innings of five-hit, one-run ball proved enough to give Detroit a 7-1 win over the White Sox and its first division lead since May 1.

Like any pitcher, Porcello of course wanted to finish what he started. He had thrown a manageable 88 pitches entering the final inning, but Leyland said that after watching Atlanta overcome a nine-run deficit against Washington on Friday, he wasn't taking chances with runners on first and second.

"I thought he deserved that opportunity, and he had some quick outs and pretty easy innings," Leyland said. "I was hoping he'd get the complete game, but you can't mess around in this league."

To the Detroit fans, it was slightly disappointing. To Porcello, a win is the most important thing, especially when it comes against a division rival.

"Personally, you want to go the distance; that's a big thing for a pitcher, and that's a hard thing to do," Porcello said. "To be able to throw a complete game would be nice, but we got the win and I'm pretty happy about that, too."

After what was viewed as a disappointing start to the season, the Tigers have rebounded to win 12 of their past 14 games. They are 7-2 since returning from the All-Star break and have won four straight.

The win marks the first time the Tigers have sat alone atop the AL Central since April 22. And they've gotten back to that spot with excellent pitching and clutch hitting.

Max Scherzer, Doug Fister and Justin Verlander combined to allow nine hits and three runs in 23 innings over the previous three games. And entering the contest, the offense had scored 28 of its 41 runs since the All-Star break with two outs.

Saturday was no different.

All of Detroit's runs in Friday's 4-2 series-opening win came with two outs, as did the club's seven runs on Saturday.

White Sox left-hander Chris Sale, who entered the game with an 11-2 record and leading the AL with a 2.11 ERA, had matched Porcello nearly pitch for pitch until the fifth inning. Back-to-back two-out singles resulted in a two-run double for Austin Jackson.

And a two-out, three-run home run in the sixth by Brennan Boesch gave Detroit a four-run lead.

"Those are backbreakers," Leyland said. "It looks like he might get out if it, takes a little sigh of relief, and bang -- somebody hits a double, somebody hits a two-out single. Those are golden."

Jackson added two more RBIs in the eighth, but on Saturday, a one-run lead would be all Porcello required. He had three tough acts to follow but matched his teammates and perhaps did one better, outdueling one of the AL's best pitchers in Sale.

Porcello was perfect through four innings, holding the White Sox without a baserunner before Paul Konerko singled in the fifth. The right-hander allowed the game's first run but retired nine of the next 10 White Sox hitters.

"Porcello was as good an anybody we've seen this year," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said.

The series concludes on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. ET, when the Tigers will look to extend their division lead while the White Sox hope to snap a four-game skid.

It was one year ago Saturday that the Tigers took the AL Central lead with a win over the Twins and never looked back, proceeding to win the division by 15 games. Neither the Tigers nor White Sox are expecting history to repeat itself.

"We've still got a lot of work to do," Porcello said. "This isn't over yet. It's just getting started."

Anthony Odoardi is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Last edited by RememberTheBird on Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeSun Jul 22, 2012 6:09 pm

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 7624774390_c9af9c7fee_z
Tigers' run continues with sweep of Sox
Cabrera becomes second Venezuelan to reach 300 career homers

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 7/22/2012 6:30 PM ET

BOX>

DETROIT -- The 90-degree temperature by the end of the Tigers' 6-4 win and series sweep over the White Sox on Sunday afternoon was probably enough of a sign that it's too early to call the American League Central in Detroit's favor.

Especially with a nine-game, nine-day road trip to Cleveland, Toronto and Boston coming up, a lead of a game and a half can vanish with one series hiccup. If this series -- really, this homestand -- ends up being the turning point for the Tigers, who have won five in a row and 13 of their last 15, it won't be for the standings.

It's the way the Tigers played that gives this series some weight behind it. They really had been playing better baseball since their road trip to Texas and Tampa Bay, but hadn't always had the results to show for it. This week they had the results, too.

"We knew we'd play good at some point," manager Jim Leyland said. "We're playing good right now, but we have to continue. I mean, it's only July 22. I just want to stay consistent. But even when times were bad early in the season, it was not because of lack of effort or not being ready to play. We just weren't playing very good."

The White Sox scored first in all three games, yet never led at the end of an inning over the entire series. All three times they scored, the Tigers answered back with more runs in the bottom half of the inning, then shut down the Sox in the following frame.

"And that's huge," Leyland said. "Say we hold them in the first and score in the bottom of the first, and then we go back out and give them two or three in the top of the second. It doesn't mean your day's over, but it kind of gets you down a little bit. You want to try to hold them and give yourself a chance to add on some runs, keep them down a little bit. It worked out good."

It happened again on Sunday with the pitcher the White Sox seemed to have the best chance to beat. When three straight two-out singles brought Adam Dunn home in the top of the first, Chicago seemingly had Jacob Turner poised for another rough outing. A 10-pitch walk to Austin Jackson against Phil Humber, then an opposite-field home run by Quintin Berry three pitches later, took the momentum back.

Miguel Cabrera's home run on the next pitch intensified that sense. The Tigers had a 3-1 lead by the time Humber had recorded an out, but Turner rolled off 11 straight outs by the time Tyler Flowers' one-out single gave Chicago its next baserunner in the fifth.

"I was pretty confident he was going to bounce back. He was a No. 1 pick for a reason," catcher Alex Avila said of Turner, who exited after a two-run homer by Alex Rios in the sixth. "He's got great stuff, really poised out there. Just did a good job today. Part of the biggest difference between last start and this start was being able to get his breaking balls over for a strike, being able to expand the zone after that -- and he had a real good fastball, too."

By then, Cabrera had homered again, the 300th of his career, followed by another home run from Brennan Boesch for a 6-1 lead. Turner (1-1) was on his way to his first Major League win in six tries, and the White Sox were looking for a bright side.

"The good news [for us is that] we have a few more games [left with these guys]," Dunn said. "You would rather have these little not-play-so-well [stretches] now than in late August and September. Hopefully, we'll get it out of our system, start playing good and get some momentum when it starts to matter."

By that point, too, Humber was gone, having yielded six runs on seven hits in just three innings. He induced only one ground ball out of the 16 Tigers at-bats, a troubling ratio even in spacious Comerica Park. Only one of the Tigers' runs came on a two-out hit, unlike the previous two games. But that's mainly because they weren't making many outs in the first place.

The White Sox bullpen put up five hitless innings from there, but they couldn't get to Detroit's bullpen -- whose effort was highlighted by Octavio Dotel's 1 2/3 perfect innings, with 18 out of 19 pitches for strikes. Add in Joaquin Benoit's perfect ninth inning for his second save with Jose Valverde unavailable, and the Tigers' bullpen retired Chicago's last eight hitters.

Cabrera became the second Venezuelan-born player to hit 300 career homers, joining the great Andres Galarraga. Yet after the game, Cabrera wasn't focusing on it.

"There's no time for that," he said. "It's time to focus on winning your division. Time to focus on doing your job. Continue to win and that's how it goes right now."

They hope it keeps going like that.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Last edited by RememberTheBird on Tue Jul 24, 2012 11:31 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeTue Jul 24, 2012 11:26 pm

Miggy's blast not enough for Tigers in loss
Fister's seven quality innings backed only by two-run home run

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 7/24/2012 9:54 PM ET

BOX>

CLEVELAND -- The Tigers' five-game winning streak is over, but it wasn't for lack of trying. If anything, they were trying to do too much, especially once Miguel Cabrera's heroics gave them another chance.

Minutes after Cabrera's two-run home run in the seventh inning turned an Indians shutout bid into a tie, Travis Hafner's unlikely triple set up pinch-hitter Aaron Cunningham's successful squeeze bunt. Pinch-runner Lou Marson dashed home with the Indians' go-ahead run in a 3-2 Tigers loss Tuesday night at Progressive Field.

It took a well-executed squeeze to cool off one of the hottest teams in baseball, and also bring third-place Cleveland within three games of first-place Detroit in the standings. Yet the Tigers had their opportunities to build a lead earlier.

Six of Detroit's nine hits were leadoff singles, including five of starter Ubaldo Jimenez's seven hits over six scoreless innings. Jimenez limited the Tigers to just two hits otherwise, both one-out singles, to deliver the zeros the Indians have needed out of him since trading for him last July.

Whether it's enough to keep the Tribe in this year's race remains to be seen, but it wasn't what the Tigers wanted to see Tuesday. At no point did they have a runner on third base with fewer than two outs, eliminating any chance of a sacrifice fly. Add to that an 0-for-9 performance with runners in scoring position, and they were struggling.

Jimenez outpitched Tigers counterpart Doug Fister in a duel of the two biggest pitchers traded at last July's deadline. However, a two-out walk to Quintin Berry extended the seventh inning for Cabrera, who made reliever Joe Smith pay for a 2-0 sinker that stayed up enough for Cabrera to drive it to straightaway center field.

Cabrera's 301st career homer gave the Tigers a new game. Two key plays in the bottom of the inning turned it back in Cleveland.

Hafner's one-out drive to left field was headed off the wall, but Berry and center fielder Austin Jackson -- both speedsters capable of hit-robbing catches -- both pursued it like they might have a play. Jackson pulled up at the last second to try to play the ball off the wall, but Berry continued into the wall, leaving nobody backing up Jackson when the ball bounced by him.

That bounce seemingly gave the slow-footed Hafner the room he needed to rumble into third base and set up Cunningham to do his work. His well-place bunt gave Marson enough time to dash home despite Fister's diving attempt at a shovel pass.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeThu Jul 26, 2012 12:11 am

Scherzer helps Tigers restore order in Cleveland
Club sits atop AL Central with White Sox after right-hander beats Indians

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 7/26/2012 12:27 AM ET

BOX>

CLEVELAND -- How Max Scherzer starts is usually about how he finishes. It's a philosophy about his outings. The way he's pitching, you can make a case his season is shaping out that way.

"I would say in the majority of your starts, the last 15 pitches you throw are the most important," Scherzer said after seven more strong innings and his fourth win in his last five starts, this one a 5-3 decision over the Indians Wednesday night at Progressive Field.

"You can usually hang your hat on how you execute in those situations. Tonight was one of those nights where the last 15 pitches I threw probably were some of my best."

When you look at his season, he has an argument. During his early-season struggles in which he threw 119 pitches without getting out of the fifth inning in Yankee Stadium in April, he threw those final 15 pitches in one inning, struggling to get a third out. When he was striking out 15 Pirates in May, he was using those pitches to get through the seventh in a pitching duel.

When Scherzer got to pitch No. 90 on Wednesday, he was rolling, having recovered from command problems and Casey Kotchman's two-run home run to retire 13 of the final 15 Indians he faced. But as he started the sixth inning, he was coming upon the middle of the Tribe's order for the third time, trying to protect a three-run lead.

His 91st pitch was a called third strike on Jason Kipnis to lead off the inning. Once Michael Brantley doubled with one out on his 92nd pitch and stole third base without a throw, he was trying to keep a minor run from becoming a major rally, trying to get through the sixth inning and avoid handing a situation to the middle of the bullpen.

It's the sixth inning that's the toughest to manage, Jim Leyland likes to say. For Scherzer, it's bigger than that. Whenever he has gotten through the sixth this season, he has finished with a quality start, without fail. Correspondingly, he's 9-2 when he gets that far.

"If we shut them down halfway decent, we're good enough to score enough to win," Leyland said.

With a three-run lead, Leyland played his infield back, conceding a run. Scherzer wasn't. With a mix of speeds, he kept Carlos Santana fouling off fastballs until he popped one straight up to third base on his 97th pitch.

Up came Travis Hafner, 6-for-13 off Scherzer going into the night but hitless on two strikeouts before that at-bat. After spotting two 97-mph fastballs for called strikes to put Hafner in a hole, Scherzer came up with maybe his best pitch of the night. He wasn't deceptive about it at all.

"I respect what he can do at the plate," Scherzer said. "In that situation, 0-2, I went with my best pitch and I reared back and threw as hard as I could."

He threw it at 99 mph, and spotted it on the outside corner for strike three as Hafner looked incredulously at home-plate umpire Brian Runge. It's the type of fastball command Scherzer didn't have earlier in the game.

"He threw more strikes later in the game and had better command," Indians manager Manny Acta said. "Overall, he had a pretty good fastball, as usual. We just couldn't do much with it."

It was the second straight start in which Scherzer stranded a runner on third with 99 on the corner, having done the same against the Angels last Thursday in Detroit. In that case, it was his final pitch of the night. On Wednesday, it was his 100th pitch, and Leyland was going to give him another inning with the bottom third of the order due up.

Five pitches later, Scherzer was back in the dugout. Johnny Damon struck out on three pitches. Casey Kotchman and Jack Hannahan flied out on first-pitch fastballs, the latter retired on a running catch by Quintin Berry.

If Shin-Soo Choo wasn't leading off the eighth, Leyland said, he might have given Scherzer another inning. As it was, he had done plenty.

"From a manager's perspective, this was a great game," Leyland said, "because Scherzer didn't really have to max out. This is a manager's dream."

Detroit's 14th win in 17 games kept it tied with the White Sox atop the American League Central, while bumping Cleveland back to 3 1/2 games down.

Scherzer is 3-0 during that aforementioned stretch. In his last five starts, he has allowed 10 runs on 24 hits over 32 innings with 35 strikeouts. In the process, he has filled out the front end of the Tigers' rotation, giving opposing hitters somebody else to worry about after Justin Verlander.

"He's got himself established enough and mature enough now to make some adjustments," Leyland said of his starter.

Detroit's offense should have given Scherzer a bigger lead with which to work, putting up three consecutive baserunners to lead off two different innings against Derek Lowe, but getting one run out of each of them. Still, their early runs put Detroit in command from the outset. Berry had three hits and two RBIs.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeThu Jul 26, 2012 11:46 pm


Verlander never finds groove in loss to Indians


By Zack Meisel / MLB.com | 7/27/2012 12:37 AM ET

BOX>

CLEVELAND -- From the second batter of the contest, Tigers ace Justin Verlander knew the Indians' game plan.

Frankly, he didn't care.

As long as he hits his spots, he said, the opposition's method of attack is essentially inconsequential. But on Thursday he wasn't hitting his spots when he needed to. And in a nightmarish seventh inning, everything unraveled.

Cleveland erased a two-run deficit with back-to-back home runs, then tacked on another pair of runs in the frame to top Detroit, 5-3, and take the rubber match of the series between the American League Central foes.

"It was a battle for me all night," said Verlander, who fell to 6-10 with a 5.83 ERA in 17 career outings at Progressive Field. "I didn't really feel great. I never really got in a groove and got comfortable out there, but I was able to battle and keep those guys off the board for the most part until that inning."

That inning is one Verlander hopes to forget. It didn't take long for the floodgates to open.

The Indians sat on first-pitch fastballs from the 29-year-old right-hander all night. Shin-Soo Choo greeted him with a double off the center-field wall on the first offering of the evening. In the seventh, catcher Carlos Santana and designated hitter Travis Hafner each smashed such pitches over the right-field fence. In two pitches, the Tigers' two-run lead vanished.

"They were horrible, horrible pitches," Verlander said. "If I execute my pitch there, I seriously doubt that they do anything with it."

Tribe third baseman Jose Lopez followed with a single, and he scored when Cleveland strung together three more singles with two outs.

By the time it was over, Verlander had surrendered five earned runs in a start for just the second time this season. In his previous three outings, he was 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA, having allowed just 11 hits in 25 innings.

"I'm extremely disappointed in myself in not being able to go out there with a two-run lead in the seventh and shut the door and give us our 'W,' he said. "I'm just more upset with myself than anything."

Verlander didn't mind Cleveland's aggressive approach. He identified it early, when all three batters in the first inning who saw a first-pitch strike put the ball into play.

"They had a good game plan and they stuck with it," manager Jim Leyland said. "You could see, obviously, what the game plan was in the first inning. They never wavered from it. They were still staying with that plan late, and it paid big dividends for them in the seventh."

Between the first and seventh frames, Verlander mowed through Cleveland's lineup, though he said he still didn't feel sharp. He entered the seventh staked to a two-run lead, having yielded just one run on three hits.

It appeared that redemption was at hand for the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner and Most Valuable Player, who took a tough-luck loss in Cleveland on May 24. On that day he limited the Indians to two runs in eight innings and wowed the crowd with 102-mph heaters in his final frame.

On Thursday, those in attendance at Progressive Field were once again awestruck at the late-inning developments. Only this time it was fueled by a surprising comeback, one Hafner said "seemed like it came out of nowhere."

"You've got to give it to the guys," Tribe skipper Manny Acta said. "Being able to come back against a guy like Verlander in the seventh inning was just tremendous."

Austin Jackson paced Detroit with three singles and a walk. He beat out a potential double play in the ninth inning to keep the Tigers alive, but Tribe closer Chris Perez struck out Quintin Berry with two on to erase the threat.

Verlander is a firm believer that he can dictate the outcome of a game if he has top-notch command. He said that a 26-minute rain delay at the start of the contest shortened his pregame bullpen session but had no effect on his performance. Neither did the Indians' blueprint, he added. It was all a matter of his inability to wield pinpoint control when it mattered most.

"Horrible execution of pitches. I didn't hit my spots at all," he said. "Obviously, [the team] was extremely aggressive to the fastball all night, but it doesn't really matter if I hit my spots. I just wasn't able to that last inning."

Zack Meisel is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @zackmeisel. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Last edited by RememberTheBird on Fri Jul 27, 2012 11:40 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeFri Jul 27, 2012 11:38 pm


Porcello laments one costly pitch in loss to Jays

Miggy, Prince go back-to-back early, but righty can't hold lead

By Chris Toman / MLB.com | 7/27/2012 11:42 PM ET

BOX>

TORONTO -- Both the Tigers and right-hander Rick Porcello entered Friday's series opener against the Blue Jays riding a wave of recent success.

Detroit had won 14 of its past 18 games, while Porcello hadn't lost in over a month and carried a 2.89 ERA over his last six starts into the outing. But Porcello and the Tigers were stopped in their tracks by a Blue Jays team trying to catch them in the American League Wild Card standings.

Porcello and the Tigers were unable to overcome a four-run fourth inning by Toronto, dropping the first of a three-game set, 8-3, in front of an energetic crowd of 33,962 at Rogers Centre.

"He threw the ball fine. He was one pitch away from getting out of that inning, and if he gets out of that inning, it could be a whole different story," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.

That one pitch that Leyland was referring to was a hanging slider that Porcello left up to Blue Jays catcher Jeff Mathis with the bases loaded in the fourth. Mathis responded by clearing the bases with a double down the left-field line to erase a 2-1 lead and put the Blue Jays ahead, 4-2.

"I got a right-handed hitter that I wanted up there and just didn't make a good pitch to him and got burned," said Porcello, who surrendered five runs on six hits, walked two and struck out one. "It was really just a matter of one pitch that ended up being the difference."

The 23-year-old was solid the rest of the game, retiring seven straight before the rocky frame, and seven of the last eight batters he faced after it, but Toronto needed just one inning to complete most of its damage.

Leyland was happy with how Porcello kept the ball down in the strike zone for much of the game, but said his "control left him a little that inning," as Porcello issued his only two walks in the fourth and half his hits on the night.

Porcello, who recorded 13 ground-ball outs, had trouble finding comfort in the things that did go well for him, beating himself up over the ball he threw to Mathis.

"I really don't care what happened the rest of the game -- that slider was a three-run pitch right there. That wasn't good," Porcello said.

He was also upset that the Tigers lost to a team they could be fighting for a playoff spot with in the Jays, who trail Detroit by just 2 1/2 games.

"We have to do a better job on shutting the door on some of these teams that we are more than capable of doing," Porcello said.

Before scuffling through the fourth, Porcello was handed an early lead in the first thanks to Detroit's powerful 3-4 tandem of Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder.

Cabrera hammered a 2-2 changeup from Toronto starter Carlos Villanueva over the fence in left, his 25th homer of the season, to put the Tigers on the board. After hitting 12 home runs his rookie year, Cabrera has 25-plus homers in nine consecutive seasons.

His partner in crime, Fielder, was not to be outdone, hitting an 0-1 slider to right-center field to put the Tigers ahead, 2-0. It was Fielder's 15th homer of the season, and first since the All-Star break.

The back-to-back homers marked the second time this season that Cabrera and Fielder have achieved the feat, and the first since Detroit's second game.

Detroit, however, couldn't get to Villanueva after that, as the righty settled down to improve to 6-0 after lasting five innings and allowing four hits, two walks while striking out three.

"I felt like a magician out there today -- pulling all the tricks out," Villanueva said. "I know some starts are going to be that way, probably more than I want to during the course of a season but it worked."

Outfielder Quintin Berry, who was one of three Tigers to collect a pair of hits, was impressed with Villanueva's performance.

"Everybody knows he has many pitches he can throw and he was throwing them all," said Berry, who went 2-for-4 to increase his average to .291. "We were doing a good job of trying to wait him out but he has good stuff."

Detroit tacked on one more in the eighth as Cabrera and Fielder hooked up again. Cabrera led off with an opposite-field double, then came around to score on an RBI single by Fielder off reliever Darren Oliver to make it a 6-3 game.

But that was as close as the Tigers could get, and they fell behind even further when reliever Duane Below surrendered a two-run homer to Travis Snider in the bottom half of the frame to make it an 8-3 ballgame.

"We just got to stay in there and stay focused, we got two day games coming up and hopefully we can go right back at them and keep fighting," Berry said. "Things like today are going to happen but as long as you come back the next day and start over, you will be all right."

Chris Toman is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Last edited by RememberTheBird on Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeSat Jul 28, 2012 5:48 pm

Tigers scuffle at the plate as Anibal drops debut

By Chris Toman / MLB.com | 7/28/2012 6:00 PM ET

BOX>

TORONTO -- Tigers manager Jim Leyland made it quite clear prior to the game that he was not pleased with the production he was getting from his offense.

Saturday's effort did nothing to change that. Detroit's offense was held in check for the second straight game, while Anibal Sanchez's Tigers debut didn't go according to script.

Sanchez was burned by three homers and backed by little support, as Detroit dropped its third consecutive game in a 5-1 loss to the Blue Jays in front of 41,832 at Rogers Centre on Saturday.

"I don't buy that, 'Poor me,' stuff. No excuses, we're not hitting," Leyland said. "We'll come back out of this again. But right now, you can't sugar coat it -- we aren't hitting, we aren't driving in runs."

Detroit, after averaging over five runs a game while winning eight of its first 10 games following the All-Star break, has lost four of its past five -- managing just 2.8 runs per contest over that stretch.

The only offense the Tigers could muster against Blue Jays starter Henderson Alvarez came in the fourth inning off the bat of Brennan Boesch. The right fielder drove in Delmon Young -- who hit a two-out single in the previous at-bat -- with a double to center to even the score at 1.

After that, the Tigers, who continue to trail the surging White Sox in the American League Central, were shut down by Alvarez.

"This game is tough sometimes, you just have to keep battling through," said Boesch, who had two of Detroit's five hits. "You would like to be more consistent and maybe make the tough stretches shorter, but we are a good team and will just continue to play hard every day and see what happens."

Alvarez lasted seven innings, allowing just one run on five hits to even his record at 7-7.

"I was really impressed with him -- he has a real live arm," Leyland said about Alvarez. "Looks like he might be a little erratic at times, but he has a good sinker, good velocity. He was impressive. I liked him a lot, he has good stuff."

Early on, it looked like the game had the makings of a pitchers' duel between the two natives of Venezuela.

Sanchez came out dealing, striking out the first two batters he faced and retiring six of seven through two scoreless innings to start the game.

He allowed a run in the third, before the parade of home runs began.

Sanchez served up a 1-1 fastball to Edwin Encarnacion, who smacked an opposite-field homer, his 28th of the season, to break the tie and put the Blue Jays ahead, 2-1.

The long ball would come back to bite Sanchez again in the sixth. The right-hander threw a 91-mph, first-pitch fastball to leadoff hitter Yunel Escobar, who responded by depositing it into the seats in left-center field for his seventh shot of the season.

"I missed [on] a couple [of pitches]. They swung a lot and were really aggressive on my first pitch," Sanchez said.

An inning after Escobar's solo shot, it was more of the same. After surrendering a leadoff double to Rajai Davis, Sanchez threw Colby Rasmus a 2-0 fastball that he hammered for a homer to right, which extended Toronto's lead to 5-1 and chased the righty from the game.

"It sure enough felt good, I know that," Rasmus said about his 18th homer of the season. "I think we just put some good at-bats [together] against him. He was throwing the ball well and he's a good pitcher, but we were able to just stay with our approach and what we were trying to do."

Leyland said it should have never gotten to that point, and was mad at himself for sending Sanchez out to work the seventh, feeling he should have pulled him after six, trailing, 3-1.

"I screwed it up, to be honest with you. I take full responsibility for that," Leyland said. "He has weapons and knows how to use them, can use any of them in any count. He has a good feel for pitching and doesn't panic. He will win games for the Tigers."

Sanchez lasted six-plus innings, allowing five runs on eight hits, while walking three and striking out three. The three homers he allowed matched a career high -- the last time it happened was at Coors Field last August as a member of the Marlins.

The three free passes were uncharacteristic for Sanchez, who entered the start having issued two or fewer in five consecutive starts.

He mixed in his full arsenal of pitches, breaking off a bunch of sliders early and got ahead in the counts often, throwing first-pitch strikes to 20 of the 29 batters he faced.

Sanchez, 28, lost to the Blue Jays for the second time this season. The first defeat came in Miami on June 22. Over two starts against Toronto in 2012, Sanchez is 0-2 with a 10.90 ERA.

The Tigers, losers of three straight for the first time since June 3-6, will turn to Doug Fister on Sunday looking to avoid a three-game sweep.

Chris Toman is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeSun Jul 29, 2012 6:46 pm

Fister, Peralta help Tigers halt skid in finale

By Chris Toman / MLB.com | 7/29/2012 6:00 PM ET

BOX>

TORONTO -- The Tigers entered Sunday's series finale mired in a three-game skid, looking to avoid dropping four straight for the first time since April.

Detroit turned to Doug Fister to help stop the bleeding and he delivered by continuing his string of recent dominance.

Fister threw eight innings of one-run ball, while Jhonny Peralta blasted a pair of homers, to help the Tigers avoid a sweep and defeat the Blue Jays, 4-1, in front of 35,975 at Rogers Centre.

"I thought he did a great job of keeping [the Blue Jays] off balance," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said about Fister. "When Doug is cutting the ball -- running it inside, cutting it away, mixing in his curveball and changeup -- he's pretty effective."

Fister had his full arsenal working for him and, besides a first-inning run he allowed, had little trouble putting away a potent Blue Jays lineup.

After the right-hander allowed a leadoff single to Rajai Davis -- who eventually scored Toronto's only run -- in the first, he went into cruise control, retiring eight straight -- four by way of strikeout -- before issuing back-to- back singles in the third. He got Brett Lawrie to ground out to end the mini-threat and escaped a pair of jams with two out and two on in the following innings.

"He made pitches when he had to. He doesn't panic and moves the ball around pretty good," Leyland said. "He's pretty good at staying calm when he gets in a tight situation, and I think that is a trait of a real good pitcher."

Fister finished the game by retiring 10 of the final 12 batters he faced before turning the ball over to closer Jose Valverde in the ninth, who pitched a clean frame to earn his 20th save of the season.

The win improved Fister's record to 5-7 and lowered his ERA under 4.00 -- to 3.77 -- for the first time in over a month. Fister, who turned in his fourth consecutive quality start, allowed seven hits, walked two and struck out nine.

Over the four quality starts, Fister is 3-1 with a 1.80 ERA, and has registered 31 strikeouts to just five walks.

"It's just a matter of making adjustments," Fister said about his recent run of success. "It's a step in the right direction of where we want to be right now."

Fister said the key has been his ability to execute his pitches and game plan better than he was earlier in the season. Leyland felt that Fister and backup catcher Gerald Laird, who got the start on Sunday, were on the same page and applauded Laird for his game-calling.

The 28-year-old Fister had everything working for him, but there was one pitch that stood out to Blue Jays manager John Farrell.

"Fister was outstanding today. Very good curveball -- both to righties and lefties," Farrell said. "Even though we were able to manufacture the run in the first inning, other than that, he made some key pitches."

Out of the nine strikeouts Fister recorded, six of them came on his curveball.

He was able to work with a lead for most of the day, thanks to Peralta, who had a big day at the plate and got things going for the Tigers offensively in the second inning.

Delmon Young led off the frame with a walk and Ryan Raburn followed by hitting a double to left to set the stage for Peralta.

Peralta and Blue Jays starter Brett Cecil engaged in a nine-pitch battle before the Tigers' shortstop drilled a 3-2 hanging curveball to left for his seventh homer of the season, giving Detroit a 3-1 lead.

"I hit it pretty good, I didn't know for sure it was gone," Peralta said. "It's tough, he's a pretty good pitcher. He has good stuff -- a good curveball, good cutter and changeup."

Peralta was at it again in the ninth, providing Detroit with some insurance by blasting his second homer of the day -- his first multihomer game of the season -- to account for the game's final score. The 30-year-old has hit three of his eight homers and driven in 10 of his 37 runs since the All-Star break.

Cecil pitched a strong game, but fell to 2-4 on the year. The lefty lasted 6 2/3 innings, surrendering three runs on four hits, while walking four and striking out seven. He threw his third consecutive quality start and is averaging a career-high 8.18 strikeouts per nine innings.

The Tigers scored just eight runs over the three-game set with the Blue Jays and won for the second time in their past six games. Detroit will head to Boston next to wrap up its three-city, nine-game road trip.

"It's never easy there, no matter what," Leyland said about Boston. "They have a really good team. They have been kind of ... Jekyll and Hyde so far. They had a lot of injuries early on and they got some guys back now, so that's never easy. You just got to go and play good baseball."

Chris Toman is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Last edited by RememberTheBird on Tue Jul 31, 2012 1:35 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeTue Jul 31, 2012 1:33 am


Missed third-inning opportunity haunts Tigers

Chance to break game open goes by the boards as Young hits into DP

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 7/30/2012 10:11 PM ET

BOX>

BOSTON -- As manager Jim Leyland made his way back into the dugout following the Tigers' final pitching change Monday night, the Fenway Park sound system blared the Beatles' hit "Can't Buy Me Love." It's not the tune this place is known for during the eighth inning, but it seemed subtly appropriate for the situation the club is in as Tuesday's non-waiver Trade Deadline approaches.

The Tigers have dropped four of five, including Monday's 7-3 loss to the Red Sox, with an offense that has been sporadic for the entire road trip, now spanning a week. And for most of the evening, Delmon Young's double play against Clay Buchholz with the bases loaded in the third inning loomed as the potential difference in the game.

"We had a chance right off the bat, and we loaded the bases later, and they got the double-play ball," Leyland said. "That's pretty much why they won the game and we lost the game. They got a big pitch, bases loaded, and got themselves out of a potential big inning."

By the time starter Max Scherzer was done with one out in the seventh, however, he had given up five runs for the first time since June 6, all but sealing his first loss since his June 23 outing in Pittsburgh. Scherzer (10-6) had gone 4-0 in his five starts since that performance, three of them outings of seven innings with two runs or less.

He gave up a pair of two-run rallies on two big hits -- Carl Crawford's RBI triple setting up two runs in the first, then Dustin Pedroia's go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth -- that left him with five runs on seven hits over 6 1/3 innings, despite his Major League-best eighth start with nine or more strikeouts this season.

"Anytime you're facing a good hitting team like this, you have to be on your 'A' game. You can't afford to make mistakes like that," said Scherzer, now 1-3 with a 9.21 ERA in six career starts against Boston. "There was just a handful, enough times when I missed my location, and they did a good job of making me pay for it."

In short, there were multiple reasons for this chapter in the Tigers' struggles, and enough reasons why one move can't completely fix it, or one player can be to blame. Whether help is coming or not before Tuesday's 4 p.m. ET Deadline for non-waiver trades, or even after, Leyland is looking squarely in his clubhouse as it is for the fate of their season as they sit 1 1/2 games behind the first-place White Sox, who lost to the Twins on Monday night.

"Reality's reality. You've got your guys out there," Leyland said. "They're the guys that are the same guys when you're doing good, so I'm not going to get down on guys when they're struggling a little bit. I've been the same all year. ...

"The one thing that people have to understand is when a team is not hitting, you have to remember: Those are your players. Those are the guys you've got."

Whether they add another bat or not -- and if they do that at this point, it appears more likely to be a role player than a regular -- the heart of the turnaround is going to have to come from the guys there. That almost surely includes Young, who has 13 July RBIs but stranded a runner on third base in each of his first two at-bats.

The first was a two out at-bat in the opening inning, as Buchholz recovered to retire the heart of the Tigers' lineup in order without another ball out of the infield after Austin Jackson's leadoff homer and Quintin Berry's ensuing double. Miguel Cabrera had a hard-hit comebacker, but Buchholz snared it to start an out.

"He made a heck of a play on it. I don't know how he made it," Leyland said. "I thought the ball was through the middle for sure, and the next thing I know, he was throwing it to first."

The third-inning opportunity was with one out after Buchholz walked Prince Fielder and loaded the bases. Buchholz fired back-to-back cutters, getting Young to swing and miss at the first before grounding the second one to shortstop to start an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. Young, a .286 batter with runners in scoring position this year, fell to 0-for-8 this year with the bases loaded and is 1-for-10 in those situations as a Tiger dating back to last year.

From there, Buchholz (9-3) rolled, retiring 10 in a row before an errant throw from Kelly Shoppach allowed Brennan Boesch to reach base in the seventh.

The only other hit Buchholz allowed was a two-strike pitch Alex Avila drilled to the fence in right-center field to send Boesch around to score.

"I think he has a good selection of pitches he uses at any time," Jackson said. "He's good at making you chase."

Scherzer did his best to keep pace, fanning six Red Sox batters in a 12-batter span from the fourth inning through the sixth. He nearly had two others that ended up being pitches he'd gladly trade. Crawford arguably impacted them both.

Crawford's first-inning triple came on a Scherzer fastball, and it might well have been on his mind when Crawford worked the count full in the sixth. Scherzer had retired Crawford in the third on a changeup, and he went back to it as his payoff pitch.

"I just didn't want to give in to the fastball," Scherzer said. "I know he's a great fastball hitter. I thought if I stayed offspeed and was able to execute in the zone, whether he swings and misses or rolls it over ... I felt confident in that pitch. I just missed it six inches outside."

With the speedy Crawford on base as a leadoff runner, Leyland wondered aloud if Scherzer might have been rushing on his pitches to Pedroia, including the 1-2 fastball he left up that Pedroia jumped for his ninth home run of the season.

"It was more of a bad pitch," Scherzer said. "I was comfortable being quick. It wasn't bothering me that he was on first."

The result bothered him, both the pitch and the game.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Last edited by RememberTheBird on Wed Aug 01, 2012 4:39 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeWed Aug 01, 2012 4:35 pm

Potential rally washed away in rain-shortened loss

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/1/2012 1:27 AM ET

BOX>

BOSTON -- When the Tigers look back on their struggles to drive in runs at times this season, they'll look at this one and have to shake their heads.

Officially, they left three men on base in the sixth inning, including the potential tying run, according to the box score of Tuesday's 4-1 loss. But Mother Nature stranded the bases loaded.

Once crew chief Jerry Layne made the call to stop the game at that point and call for the tarp as Omar Infante stepped to the plate as the potential go-ahead run, there was pretty much no chance to get it going again. It was a rainy affair pretty much from the outset, and a steady rain from the second or third inning on. It was raining heavier in the sixth inning than at any other point in the game. The radar looked terrible, and the rain wasn't expected to end until after 1 a.m. ET.

Whether it was the right call to stop it was certainly up for debate, and both manager Jim Leyland and losing pitcher Justin Verlander left that question open. But they didn't characterize it as an easy call to make either way, either.

"Certainly, to call the game at this point was the right call," Leyland said after their fifth loss in their last six games came in a rain-shortened affair. "Could we have maybe gotten through that inning? Who knows? That's a tough situation for an umpire, but I think they definitely made the right call, calling it now. So be it. We put ourselves in an unfortunate situation."

Verlander, whose streak of consecutive starts lasting six innings ended at 63, took the loss on his shoulders, saying he has work to do before his next outing next Monday against the Yankees.

Still, the righty admitted, he would've liked for the game to have gone one more batter, even though he understands why it didn't.

"I don't think they could've waited any longer," Verlander said. "It was getting pretty bad out there. Obviously I would've liked to seen them give it one more at-bat. Who knows what happens? Infante hits a grand slam and we'd be walking out of here winners right now. But you can't fault those guys. I think they waited as long as they possibly could."

The delay lasted one hour, 45 minutes, well longer than the usual wait time before calling a game according to Leyland.

Even before the rains washed out the rest of the evening, they wreaked havoc on the game. Josh Beckett retired the first eight Tigers he faced and then didn't get another out despite not allowing another ball put in play once Infante's infield single extended the third inning.

Austin Jackson worked a full count before Beckett's payoff pitch hit him, then Quintin Berry and Miguel Cabrera drew back-to-back five-pitch walks, driving in Infante. Beckett winced on ball four to Cabrera, bringing out the athletic training staff to see what happened.

After a lengthy talk, Beckett left with what the team called a back spasm. That brought in Clayton Mortensen, who was called up earlier in the day as a temporary fill-in until trade acquisition Craig Breslow arrives on Wednesday. Prince Fielder hit a hard line drive to center, but right at Jacoby Ellsbury.

It was the second consecutive night the Tigers left the bases loaded in the third inning. Still, it gave them a lead behind Verlander, who survived a 35-pitch opening inning to strand the bases loaded and keep the Red Sox scoreless as he tried to find his command.

With those rainy conditions, with a losing battle to keep the mound in good condition, he never found it.

"Verlander was totally out of sync," Leyland said. "I don't think I've seen him out of sync as much as he was tonight for a long, long time, for whatever reason. From the get-go, he was out of sync."

Once Verlander had to gear up his fastball to the upper 90s and lengthen out his stride, he said, he felt his footing slip on a couple pitches.

"Hey, it's the same for both sides," Verlander said. "Just wasn't able to make the adjustments as quickly as I would've liked. I've dealt with wet mounds. There was only a couple pitches there where I actually felt myself slip, but just knowing how things have worked in the past, if I can feel myself slip on the other pitches, I'm probably slipping enough to not allow myself to get on top of the baseball."

Once two singles and a walk loaded the bases again in the fourth inning, Boston's second bases-loaded opportunity was the one that turned the game around. Pedro Ciriaco's single tied it, and then Verlander (11-7) lost Jacoby Ellsbury to a walk that pushed across the go-ahead run.

The crushing shot wasn't much at all, a Carl Crawford chopper that bounced over Verlander before skirting past Infante at second for a costly error that allowed a fourth run.

"I don't think you're ever quite expecting that scenario, especially when it's soaking wet out there," Verlander said. "You don't expect a high chopper to bounce over your head when it's soaking wet outside. It was one of the few pitches that inning I actually executed. Got the result I wanted, I got a ground ball. Wrong guy, wrong spot."

Wrong night.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeThu Aug 02, 2012 12:40 am

Miggy, Prince go back-to-back to carry Tigers

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/2/2012 1:00 AM ET

BOX>

BOSTON -- The Tigers scored more than three runs just three times on this nine-game road trip that began in Cleveland and stopped over in Toronto. Those were the three games they won. Miguel Cabrera sent them home Wednesday night with a drive that nearly hit the Mass Pike.

"It was a tough trip," manager Jim Leyland said. "But we survived."

It wasn't a particularly easy getaway game they survived, either, no matter how effortless Cabrera's home run swing looked. Detroit scored five runs in the fifth inning with help from back-to-back homers from Cabrera and Prince Fielder on consecutive swings, and it needed all of that to hold on for a 7-5 win and avoid what would've been a crushing series sweep at Fenway Park.

The win finished the Tigers' trip at 3-6 and kept them 2 1/2 games behind the first-place White Sox in the American League Central. They head home for a seven-game homestand that begins against the same Indians club that took two out of three from them to begin the trip.

That series, and the seventh-inning rally the Indians got off Justin Verlander in last Thursday's finale, seemed to set the tone for the rest of the trek. By the end, they were no longer charging into command of the division, but trying to keep pace with the resurgent White Sox.

"We got another tough trip out of the way," Leyland said. "It's always good to go home, but at the same time, you've got to go home and play good. We were one win away from an OK trip."

The flip side, of course, was being one loss away from a disastrous trip. That was the urgency in the cool New England air Wednesday.

"You guys know where we're at, what we're looking for and what everybody expects for us," said reliever Octavio Dotel. "It was good to win today. Hopefully, we keep winning for the next two months coming up."

You had to wonder if the Tigers would do that Thursday once the Red Sox led off their half of the opening inning with a double off the first-base bag and quickly turned it into a 1-0 lead for Aaron Cook, who racked up seven ground-ball outs through the first three innings.

Fielder's double and Brennan Boesch's two-out single evened the score in the fourth, but Quintin Berry's close pickoff at first base on a 3-1 count to Cabrera and Jacoby Ellsbury's diving catch to rob Delmon Young to end the inning didn't allow much confidence that the Tigers had turned their momentum.

One hanging curveball and one swing from Cabrera -- after three singles and the go-ahead run had scored earlier in the fifth -- changed the tone. The sound of the announced sellout crowd of 37,213 noted it.

"That's what he does," Fielder said. "No surprise. He's been doing that since he was 20."

Cabrera rarely turns on pitches and sends them down the left-field line, but when he does, he tends to make them no-doubters. Wednesday fit that category, a soaring drive so far over the Green Monster that it apparently cleared Lansdowne Street, driving in Austin Jackson with his 26th home run of the year for a 5-1 lead.

"Like I always say, I don't go on vacations that far," Leyland said.

Said Cook: "The biggest problem was hanging a breaking ball to one of the best hitters in the game. He had the long at-bat. I tried to do something different, hung a curveball and that's what he's supposed to do with that type of pitch."

Yet on his first pitch to Fielder, with the crowd still murmuring, he did it again. Fielder sent that one to near-straightaway center field, barely clearing the wall for his 17th homer.

"I thought I hit it good, but I didn't know," Fielder said. "I thought it might have a chance to maybe hit the wall, but I wasn't sure if I had enough to get it out."

It marked the second time this trip Cabrera and Fielder homered back-to-back, and the second time this season they've done it against the Red Sox, the other coming in the season-opening series at Comerica Park. Compared with last Friday at Rogers Centre, however, Wednesday night was a show.

"When I'm making bad pitches to the best hitters in the game and just leaving them up, they did exactly what they were supposed to do with those pitches," Cook said.

That gave Tigers starter Rick Porcello (8-6) a well-deserved glut of run support after holding down Boston after that first-inning run. With a fastball consistently at 94-95 mph and two different breaking balls working, he fanned six of the first 15 batters he faced, one shy of his season high for a start, and escaped a fifth-inning threat with a double play from the speedy Carl Crawford.

Just as he seemed ready to cruise, three consecutive singles leading off the sixth inning immediately changed the tone of Porcello's start.

"He gave up the blooper to [Dustin] Pedroia," Leyland said, "but after that, they hit about three or four balls hard."

Three runs scored in the inning before Phil Coke struck out Ellsbury to strand the potential tying run on base. Crawford's leadoff homer off Coke in the seventh made it a one-run game, but Dotel retired the middle of the Red Sox's lineup in order to send the lead to Detroit's late-inning duo of Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde.

"He was an unsung hero again tonight," Leyland said of Dotel.

Cabrera, of course, was the celebrated one.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeSat Aug 04, 2012 2:12 am

Led by Prince, Tigers pile on for Anibal's win
Slugger's four RBIs plenty for right-hander in rout of visiting Indians

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/3/2012 11:47 PM ET

BOX>

DETROIT -- The fans stood up in waves for Anibal Sanchez, starting with the ones closest to the Tigers dugout and working their way out. By the time Sanchez had made his way into foul territory, much of the sellout crowd of 41,502 seemed to be on their feet.

Detroit's offense had done most of the heavy lifting in Friday's 10-2 rout of the Indians, highlighted by Prince Fielder's four-RBI night. But Sanchez's six-plus innings gave the Tribe no shot at a comeback. The applause seemed as much a welcome as it was recognition of a good effort.

It caught him off-guard. Whereas most Tigers starters do some sort of recognition to the crowd right before the dugout steps, Sanchez took his cap off and tipped it to the crowd soon after he crossed the third-base line.

"That was really amazing," Sanchez said. "I don't have any comparison. When I threw my [no-hitter] in 2006, it's not even like that. It's a lot of people. It's a lot of fans. The ovation, it's incredible. That's my first time. I feel like that's something really new for me."

To say he isn't used to crowds like that isn't completely accurate, not with the new ballpark in Miami these days. It's the reaction of the crowd, the passion of Tigers fans, that really caught him.

It caught him enough, he said, that he called his wife about it.

"It feels like home," Sanchez said. "I heard about it before. The players told me about the fans here. It was incredible. It was incredible the situation. I don't have the exact word to express it. But everything is amazing."

Manager Jim Leyland has tried to temper the expectations, cautioning that not every Trade Deadline deal works out like the Doug Fister trade did last year. But then, neither do they all flop, like the Jarrod Washburn addition of 2009. For most Tigers fans, somewhere in between would do just fine.

"I really like Sanchez a lot," Leyland said. "Watching his first start [last Saturday at Toronto], I left him in there an inning too long, which was my fault, but I like him. I think he'll be good for us."

Sanchez gave up three home runs over six-plus innings in his Tigers debut at Toronto. On Friday, he limited the Indians to one extra-base hit, a Jason Kipnis double in the fifth inning that he rendered meaningless by retiring Asdrubal Cabrera and Shin-Soo Choo.

Everything else was either a line drive or ground-ball single through the infield.

"He did a nice job. He changed speeds well," Indians manager Manny Acta said. "That's what he does all the time. I saw him in the National League and that's what he does. He's got a good changeup, slider, cutter. He throws everything at you and, when he needs to get up there in the low- to mid-90s, he does that, too, inside. He just kept us off-balance the whole night."

The only organized rally the Indians posted, with back-to-back singles from Kipnis and Cabrera to start the night, was erased on a double play when Cabrera was ruled to have run out of the basepath to avoid Omar Infante's tag.

"I think, as it turned out, we probably won that game in the first inning," Leyland said. "We caught a big break."

An Andy Dirks error put a leadoff runner into scoring position for Choo's two-out single in the third, and Ezequiel Carrera's single in the seventh put runners at the corner for another tally.

By that time, the Tigers had a safe lead and had knocked Justin Masterson out of the game. That was the difference. Sanchez had posted much the same outing against Cleveland while wearing a Miami uniform in June, but lost because the Marlins were shut out.

Detroit returned home looking to retake some momentum, and Leyland shook up the lineup to try to do it. He stacked up left-handed hitters to try to help protect Fielder in the batting order. The way Fielder was swinging, he fared fine on his own.

Considering the top three hitters of Austin Jackson, Quintin Berry and Miguel Cabrera reached base safely eight times in the first six innings, the Indians didn't have anywhere to put Fielder when he came up. Masterson got a double play from him to strand two runners in the opening inning, but couldn't get that same luck after that.

Fielder barely missed what would've been a three-run homer in the third inning, sending a line drive high off the wall in right-center field, above the out-of-town scoreboard, for a two-run double that put Detroit in front for good.

Fielder didn't miss an inning later, feasting on a hanging sinker from Masterson and sending it into the right-field seats. His 18th homer of the year was part of five consecutive two-out hits for the Tigers before Masterson ended the threat.

The Tigers had doled out their share of damage off Masterson since 2009, but seven earned runs was a high mark for them against the sidearming right-hander. Dirks, back after two months on the disabled list, added an RBI single in a three-run sixth off Jeremy Accardo to put Detroit into double digits.

"Sometimes, I feel like there is an over outside force trying to bring me down," Masterson said. "I just have to fight through that."

Sanchez had to feel the opposite. He might not feel the same way when he faces the Yankees opposite CC Sabathia next Wednesday, but this was a good way to start his Tiger tenure.

"It's always good to have a good first impression," Fielder said.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeSat Aug 04, 2012 11:52 pm

Fister throws first complete game as a Tiger

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/5/2012 1:14 AM ET

BOX>

DETROIT -- Doug Fister insists he wasn't aware he was perfect for most of Saturday night. Judging from his response when asked what was working for him, he wasn't convinced he was all that great.

"Defense," Fister said after his first complete game as a Tiger finished off a 6-1 win over the Indians. "From Austin [Jackson] in the outfield to ground balls in the infield, that's the name of the game, not to mention our offense came out smoking."

His teammates weren't quite buying that.

"You can't get better than the way he has pitched his last few outings," catcher Alex Avila said after Fister's four-hitter. "There's no, 'Well, he's getting better each start.' That's as good as it gets right there."

To Avila, Fister's pitching has been as good as it was when he came over from Seattle a year ago. He might not get the results he did last year, when he went 8-1 with a 1.79 ERA down the stretch and became the prize of the Trade Deadline deals. But he's giving Detroit a chance at wins.

Saturday's outing earned the Tigers their third straight victory, during which they've outscored opponents by a 23-8 margin. Their combined 16-3 pounding of the Indians the last two nights has become apt revenge for the series in Cleveland a week and a half ago, in which one big Indians inning off Justin Verlander in the finale turned the three-game set.

Add in a White Sox loss to the Angels Saturday night, and the Tigers made up a game in the standings, moving to within a game and a half of the AL Central lead.

For nearly six innings, Fister had Tigers fans thinking the still-controversial perfect game bid by Armando Galarraga against the Indians here two years ago might be avenged, too. Fister didn't get there, and he lost his shutout bid in the ninth, but the complete game was a consolation.

To Avila, it was also a reminder.

"A lot of people were wondering what was wrong with him. Well, he hadn't pitched," Avila continued. "You can't just go two months without pitching and then come back, not have any rehab starts and just think you're going to go eight innings. That's just not realistic. ...

"That's what I was telling people all the time, making sure that he knew that, which he does. He's a confident guy, knowing that he needed to pitch, gain his endurance a little bit so he can last those innings. Once he started going through the order the third and fourth time, he still had good stuff and he wasn't tiring out."

Avila felt Fister's pitches were actually better after Ezequiel Carrera's triple with two outs in the sixth broke up the perfect game. Given the swings Cleveland hitters were taking, he had a case.

Tribe hitters came out hacking at pitches, and they had their share of solid swings. However, they found Tigers defenders consistently, from two running catches by Jackson in deep right-center field to a tricky catch by Brennan Boesch in right.

Once Omar Infante made a slick grab of a tricky hop, Fister's bid was on, with Cleveland's first 17 batters retired in order. Fister was a strike away from closing out the sixth, with an 0-2 count.

He threw some nasty curveballs Saturday night, and pitching coach Jeff Jones noted the curve has been sharper Fister's last two starts. His 0-2 pitch to Carrera wasn't one of those.

"We wanted to get [it] in the dirt," Avila said, "and just left it up a little bit."

Carrera has yet to hit a home run in 70 Major League games, and just 11 of his previous 51 big league hits had gone for extra bases. However, he has some surprising power. Jackson got a late jump on it, but as deep the ball traveled, he didn't appear to have a chance to run it down regardless.

"Yeah, I couldn't judge how hard it was hit," Jackson said. "I tried to read the swing a little bit and it was obviously hit harder than I thought it was. ... I just froze for a split second and kind of cost it right there."

Carrera sped around with a triple, and the crowd of 42,744 stood up in applause of Fister's effort.

"That guys got a chance on everything," Fister said of Jackson. "That guy flies. He covered my tail a lot tonight. And my hat goes off to him. He put on a lot of miles tonight."

Michael Brantley's leadoff single in the eighth was the only other hit until Carrera tripled again leading off the ninth. Fister tried to keep him there with a leaping attempt on Jason Kipnis' ensuing bouncer, but it eluded his grasp for a run-scoring groundout.

Fister (6-7) held on for his fifth win in his last six starts. He has lasted at least seven innings in each of his last five starts, allowing just seven runs on 25 hits over 39 innings with five walks and 37 strikeouts.

His only loss in that stretch came in Cleveland on July 24, dropping a 3-2 duel opposite Ubaldo Jimenez.

Jimenez, in fact, came in with a 2-0 record and 1.93 ERA in three starts against the Tigers this year. Once Jhonny Peralta tripled in two runs in the bottom of the fourth and scored on an Infante single for a 5-0 lead, the Tigers had more than doubled their run total off Jimenez for the year.

Jimenez (8-11) gave up six runs on seven hits over 5 1/3 innings. Peralta and Infante drove in two runs each.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Last edited by RememberTheBird on Sun Aug 05, 2012 7:52 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeSun Aug 05, 2012 7:50 pm

SweepHot BatsSweep

Miggy's walk-off homer caps stunning rally

By Anthony Odoardi / MLB.com | 8/5/2012 8:00 PM ET

BOX>

DETROIT -- It's cliche to say baseball is a crazy game. But sometimes there's just no other way to describe it. Look no further than Sunday afternoon's series finale between the Tigers and Indians for an example.

The Tigers loaded the bases with none out in the bottom of the ninth inning in a tie game, yet they failed to plate a single run. Trailing by three runs in the bottom of the 10th, down to their final out, facing a closer who had allowed them one run in seven innings, the Tigers miraculously put together a five-run, come-from-behind rally for a 10-8 victory, capped off by Miguel Cabrera's walk-off home run.

"I don't know what [or] how you would explain what that is other than magic," catcher Alex Avila said.

It truly was a magical game that featured a little bit of everything, from ejections to career firsts to milestone home runs. It was fittingly ended by Cabrera, who lofted a high fly ball just over the fence in left-center and into the opposing bullpen.

"That's why Miggy's the best hitter in the game," said Sunday's starter Max Scherzer, who went five innings but was almost an afterthought with the way everything unfolded. "He was able to hit a homer in that situation to win us a big game, to get us a sweep, everything. It just means so much for him to be able to do that."

Cabrera's big hits are well documented. But it should also be well documented how selfless the seven-time All-Star is. Following his big hit, Cabrera had nothing but praise for his teammates for making the moment possible.

"[Austin] Jackson today, I think he was the key and the hero of the game," Cabrera said. "He kept us in the game offensively [and] gave us a chance to go out there and do our thing."

Jackson finished the day 4-for-6 with two triples and three runs scored. Facing Chris Perez in the 10th inning, it was Jackson's double that proved to be his biggest hit. Perez walked two batters to bring the Tigers' leadoff man to the plate, and Jackson hit one down the left-field line to plate a run and put runners in scoring position.

His hit set the stage for Omar Infante, the newly-acquired second baseman. It was Anibal Sanchez who got all the love from the Tigers' fans on Friday night. On Sunday, it was Infante's turn, as the crowd jumped to its feet when he tied the game at 8 with a two-run single.

For him, it made up for his one bad moment of the game in the bottom of the ninth inning.

With a chance to win the game, Jackson led off the ninth with a triple. Infante followed with a strikeout.

"I feel bad because ... (i) had the opportunity for a walk-off and I don't make contact in that situation. It didn't work out. But the team was never down all game [and] I had another situation."

Infante's play also got lots of love from Cabrera.

"Thank God we got him right now," Cabrera said.

Together, Jackson and Infante combined for eight hits, six runs scored, four RBIs, two doubles, two triples and a home run.

In the ninth, following Infante's strikeout, Cabrera and Prince Fielder were intentionally walked. Quintin Berry stepped up to face an Indians defense with five infielders. The result was a 3-6-3 double play. No runs. Still a tie game.

At that point, a good portion of the Comerica Park crowd of 38,007 had filed out. Another chunk of the remaining crowd left when Travis Hafner hit his 200th career home run in the top of the 10th off Joaquin Benoit. They continued to leave when Ezequiel Carrera followed with his first career shot.

The original crowd was down to about an eighth of what it was. Those fans didn't get to witness what Infante called "the best win he's ever seen," but they got some well-deserved sympathy from Avila.

"Today runs up there with some of the craziest [comebacks] that I've ever been a part of," Avila said. "That was a whole lot of fun. I feel bad for those fans that left early."

In many ways, it's hard to blame them. While the players are trained to never give in, the game certainly seemed to drag on for the fans. Scherzer struggled against a Cleveland lineup that seemed to foul every pitch off -- he needed 105 pitches to get through five innings.

Although entertaining, there was a long delay when catcher Gerald Laird and manager Jim Leyland were ejected from the game in the second inning for arguing a close play at first base.

The Tigers were playing catch-up the entire day, as Infante tied the game up on three separate occasions -- once in the fifth with his first home run since joining Detroit, once by scoring run in the eighth, and then in the 10th.

However, at least for one team the four hour and 10 minute game ended in triumph. Their opponents, now on a nine-game losing streak, were left crushed.

"That one really hurts," Indians manager Manny Acta said. "Not only because of the losing streak, but because of how much heart and determination these guys showed throughout the day."

On the other side, the Tigers were celebrating Darin Downs' first career victory and Cabrera's fifth career walk-off homer.

"This is one of the biggest wins of the year," Scherzer said. "For us to be able to come out and have a hard-fought game -- on both sides, throughout the whole game really it was back-and-forth, back-and-forth. For us to win it the way we did, it's just a [show of] character [for] our team."

Although not a single player would call it a "signature win," when you look back on the season it could certainly be remembered as one of them.

"[It's] something like that," Jackson said. "It's tough when you get down. You're not really hanging your head, but you're kind of like, 'Ah, well, if we can do something to get back in it, we will.' Nobody's heads were hanging when we got in the dugout. I think that's a good thing."

Not only a good thing, but as the St. Louis Cardinals proved last year in Game 6 of the World Series, it's a characteristic a championship team must have. Although Detroit certainly has a ways to go in other areas, their passion isn't one of them.

Anthony Odoardi is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeTue Aug 07, 2012 12:29 am

Vintage Verlander mystifies Yanks with 14 K's

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/7/2012 12:00 AM ET

BOX>

DETROIT -- Tigers manager Jim Leyland set the expectations before Justin Verlander had arrived at Comerica Park on Monday.

"Hopefully, this is one of those games where your ace is an ace," Leyland said beforehand, referring to his short bullpen.

Verlander was all of that in Monday's 7-2 win over the Yankees, in part because he had set the expectations himself five days earlier.

"The last couple of starts, I've just been a bit inconsistent," Verlander said after his second loss in as many starts, last Tuesday in Boston. "I've got to work to get it back. I have some work to do."

Verlander got it back, all right. As a result, the Tigers (59-50) moved nine games over .500 for the first time all season.

When Verlander reared back for a 100-mph fastball on his 130th pitch as Ichiro Suzuki stood in the batter's box, trying to avoid a third strikeout on the night, Verlander had it, and he put it where he wanted. Ichiro fouled it back, but it was a brief reprieve, because when Verlander wanted his curveball two pitches later, he had that, too.

"That last curveball that he threw him, I don't know too many guys that are hitting that," catcher Alex Avila said. "I had a hard time trying to catch it."

When Ichiro swung meekly and missed it, Verlander had his 14th strikeout of the night to tie his career high, set last June against Arizona. It came on his 132nd pitch of the night, also tying his career high. It also broke this season's American League high of 13, set by Verlander on April 16 in Kansas City.

No Tigers pitcher had struck out 14 Yankees in a game since Jim Bunning did it on June 20, 1958. The only other Detroit pitcher since 1918 to do it was another Hall of Famer, Hal Newhouser, on May 27, 1943.

Verlander did it against a Yankees team that ranked eighth in the AL in strikeouts entering the night. Unlike the other two, he did it with a designated hitter in the opposing lineup.

"I thought I had a decent amount," Verlander said, "but I didn't really know until the eighth inning. I kind of looked back and saw 11 or 12. I think after I struck out one guy, I saw 12 or something."

Verlander didn't know how many strikeouts he had, but he knew why he got as many as he had. The work he put in between starts got him there.

"Today felt night-and-day different from my last couple of starts," Verlander said. "Me and Jeff Jones, our pitching coach, looked at some video and changed some things, and thankfully I was able to make the adjustments quickly. I really felt much more in sync from the get-go today.

"Those adjustments are what allowed me to pitch the way I wanted to, whereas the last couple games, I kept falling behind guys and wasn't really hitting my spots."

Never mind that it's the two-thirds mark of the season and Verlander's innings are piling up. What makes him so dominant isn't just the physical endurance to throw so many pitches consistently and still be at his strongest near the end of a start, nor is it the perfectionist streak that allows him to work on his game tirelessly with precision. It's the ability to do both at the same time during stretches like this.

"To go from having a rough outing like he had in Boston to this doesn't surprise me at all," Avila said. "I don't think it should surprise anybody. He's just that kind of a competitor. He works that hard at what he does and strives to be as good as he can be. He can be like he was today every single time. Stuff like that doesn't surprise our team like that anymore."

It wasn't a mechanical overhaul, just fine-tuning a couple of things, Verlander said. It was also a more deliberate tempo from a pitcher who has hurried up too much with his delivery a few times this year. He wasn't happy with his fastball, first and foremost, coming out of his rain-shortened five-inning start at Boston and his runaway seventh inning five nights earlier in Cleveland. He took the loss in both.

"Two starts in a row, one inning hurt me, and I wasn't able to make my pitches I wanted," Verlander said. "I just felt like I was letting the team down and needed to pitch better. I think every start if I don't win, I'm a little bit upset with myself. But two in a row with big innings, teams stringing together hits, that's not like me. I knew there needed to be something changed."

Out of 132 pitches, Verlander threw 96 for strikes, the third-highest total for a Major League pitcher in the last 10 years. Brandon Morrow threw 97 out of 137 pitches for strikes in his 17-strikeout one-hitter against the Rays on Aug. 8, 2010. Randy Johnson threw 102 strikes out of 149 pitches on July 31, 2002. Neither had as good of a ball-strike ratio as Verlander, who was throwing strikes on 75 percent of his pitches at one point on Monday. He settled for 72.7 percent.

Verlander struck out Mark Teixeira looking at three straight curveballs after back-to-back RBI singles tied the game, the fifth inning having been extended by Verlander's errant drop at first base. He struck out the last three batters he faced after a leadoff walk in the eighth.

Verlander struck out so many batters that he overshadowed an estimated 454-foot drive by Miguel Cabrera into the center-field shrubs for the game's second run.

"A lot of times, great pitchers get a little nastier when they have guys on base," said Derek Jeter, one of just two Yankees Verlander didn't strike out. "They seem to bear down a little bit. He did that today. There's a reason why he's one of the best in the game."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeTue Aug 07, 2012 11:50 pm

Up to 95 RBIs, Miggy makes Yankees pay

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/8/2012 12:35 AM ET

BOX>

DETROIT -- When the Yankees come to town, count on two things: The crowds are big, and the at-bats are long.

They were right on both counts on Tuesday. This time, though, the long at-bats were coming from the Tigers.

To manager Jim Leyland, that made the difference in Detroit's sixth straight win, a 6-5 victory that turned on a seemingly interminable fourth inning and nearly fell apart in a ninth inning that didn't end as quickly as the Tigers had hoped.

To those who have been watching the Tigers all year, there has been a big difference between the sporadic offense that pitchers could put to bed earlier in the season and the formidable lineup that has churned out 37 runs over the course of this season-high-tying winning streak.

"We're a little different team at this point in the season than we were earlier in the season," catcher Alex Avila said, "and it's showing. We can kind of taste the end of the season right now and taste the playoffs. We want it."

It's getting closer. The latest chapter in the streak brought the Tigers to within a half-game of the American League Central-leading White Sox, who lost at home to the Royals on Tuesday night. It's the closest the Tigers have been to the division lead since the Indians rallied to beat Justin Verlander nearly two weeks ago.

If they continue to have at-bats like this, whether they get a slew of runs or not, the Tigers will have a chance to turn what seemed like a week-long test against the Yankees and Rangers into a rallying point.

"We're winning games; it's exactly where we want to be," Avila said. "I'd rather do it now than scoring all the runs earlier in the season and not doing it now."

When Phil Hughes tossed a complete-game four-hitter to outduel Verlander at Comerica Park on June 3, the Yankees right-hander threw a season-high 123 pitches, but he didn't throw 20 in any inning. His fourth inning that day was a nine-pitch, nine-strike blur in which he rebounded from Prince Fielder's leadoff homer to send down Delmon Young, Brennan Boesch and Jhonny Peralta in order. The Yankees put the game out of reach after that.

After three innings on Tuesday, Hughes was seemingly headed in the same direction, having retired nine of 11 batters around two ground-ball singles. He entered the fourth inning with just 43 pitches and a 2-0 lead on Eric Chavez's two-run homer.

The 42-pitch inning that followed nearly doubled Hughes' pitch count. Miguel Cabrera's 29th home run, a line drive barely over the left-field fence on a 2-0 fastball, was the quickest at-bat of the bunch.

"That's really what did him in, I thought," Leyland said of Hughes. "I thought we grinded the crap out of him."

Like in June, Hughes recovered to strike out the hitter immediately following his home run. This time, however, he needed seven pitches and a nasty curveball to fan Fielder.

Up came Boesch, who worked Hughes for nine pitches in the second inning before singling up the middle. This time, he fouled off eight Hughes pitches -- fastballs and curves -- before centering another single on the 12th pitch of his at-bat.

It was the 65th pitch of the night for Hughes, and the 21st of the game to Boesch.

"Just on his own, he ran Phil's pitch count way up," Yankees catcher Russell Martin said of Boesch. "Boesch is a good fastball hitter; the spot to punch him out is up. We were trying to elevate the fastball and swing and miss, but he kept fighting them off. Really good at-bats."

Said Boesch: "I can't speak for [Hughes], but I was kind of gassed afterward. It definitely was an at-bat you can build off."

Boesch was speaking for himself, but the rest of the lineup picked up his lead. Young saw six pitches before flying out for the second out of the inning. Peralta saw four curveballs in a row to fall into a 1-2 count but fouled off the fourth to stay alive.

Hughes' fifth pitch was a brushback fastball, but he missed the outside corner on his next breaking ball to run the count full. On his payoff pitch, Hughes went back to the curveball and left it up for Peralta to pull down the left-field line for a game-tying double.

Hughes finally ended the inning with an Avila groundout but used seven more pitches to do it, leaving him at 85 for the game.

"I complimented the guys," Leyland said. "I told them, 'Have one more inning like the last inning, and we can get him out.' It was a terrific inning. He was going good, too. But we got the pitch count up, and obviously he's had some arm issues in the past and they're smart. They weren't going to let him go too long."

Tigers starter Rick Porcello (9-6) retired the Yankees in order on nine pitches in the fifth, starting a roll of eight straight Yankees retired. Andy Dirks' leadoff single in the bottom half on a six-pitch at-bat started it all over again.

"They were just battling," Martin said. "He was making pitches. As a pitcher, there's not really much you can do. You just keep trying to make pitches, and they were fighting them off, taking good swings at tough pitches, getting his pitch count up.

"It's kind of like what we do to pitchers normally. It's like we got a taste of our own medicine today."

Hughes' final pitch was a 1-0 curveball that Cabrera lined off the left-field fence for a go-ahead two-run double. It gave him 95 RBIs in his 110th game of the year, the fastest pace of his career and the fastest pace for any Tigers player since Rocky Colavito in 1961.

Six of Hughes' final 10 batters churned out hits. Even the outs seemed to cost him.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Last edited by RememberTheBird on Thu Aug 09, 2012 12:51 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeThu Aug 09, 2012 12:49 am

Tigers rally ferociously, but can't contain Yanks
Club nearly erases 7-0 deficit after Anibal; Coke lets Bombers get away

By Anthony Odoardi / MLB.com | 8/9/2012 12:49 AM ET

BOX>

DETROIT -- If Tuesday night's 42-pitch fourth inning by New York's Phil Hughes was the key to the Tigers' victory over the Yankees, it was Wednesday night's 25-pitch eighth inning for Phil Coke that resulted in the Tigers' first loss at home since July 17.

Despite spotting the Yankees and CC Sabathia a seven-run lead, the Tigers staged a furious comeback and cut the deficit to one entering the top of the eighth inning. However, the Yankees stole back the momentum, responding with two runs in the eighth, and snapped the Tigers' 10-game home winning streak with a 12-8 win in front of another sellout crowd of 41,879 at Comerica Park.

"This game's simple. We didn't pitch," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We didn't start good, and we didn't finish good pitching tonight. That happens. We really got ourselves back in it. It's not very often you fight back from seven runs off CC and get that close, but we did. We just didn't pitch very well."

Trailing by five in the bottom of the seventh inning, Detroit rallied for four runs on five singles and an error against a combination of Sabathia and reliever David Robertson. The Tigers nearly batted through the order and tied the game before Ramon Santiago grounded out with runners on first and second.

"It's not the way you want to see it go, but we ended up getting the big out, the final out," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "And then tacking on some runs the next inning, that was big."

It had all the makings off another miraculous comeback. At least until the top half of the eighth.

Coke entered the game for the Tigers looking for a quick 1-2-3 inning so his offense could get back to work. He would have no such luck as the Yankees pegged him for two runs on three hits.

"Cokey had a rough inning," Leyland said. "If we could've held them to the one run, who knows, it's probably a different game."

The Yankees did to Coke what they do to mostly everyone: battle off pitch after pitch before finally getting a mistake and making the pitcher pay. Coke said he didn't make many mistakes, only one. But it resulted in a line-drive RBI single by Mark Teixeira.

"I located all but one pitch. The pitch to Teixeira was a changeup away, and it just didn't have any fade or anything like that on it," Coke said. "I got him to get the ball on the ground, but in that particular case I prefer him [to] swing and miss."

Coke only got two swings and misses in his 25 pitches. One of those came against Curtis Granderson to end the inning, and the other came against Eric Chavez in an 11-pitch at-bat, in which Chavez fouled off seven of the next eight pitches before knocking in another insurance run with a groundout to second base.

Coke has now allowed six runs on 10 hits and two walks in his last 3 2/3 innings. He said earlier in the week that he's been uncomfortable on the mound, but after the game he was more encouraged than anything.

"My last two outings were my concern, and I made the adjustments that I needed to make and threw the ball really well tonight," Coke said. "Results-wise I'm not necessarily upset, because I felt like I made all but one pitch tonight."

In the end, the seven-run hole just proved too much to climb out of. Five days after receiving a standing ovation from the home crowd, Anibal Sanchez departed without recording an out in the fourth inning.

The damage came mostly from Granderson. The Yankees center fielder entered the day 0-for-10 with five strikeouts in the series. He broke that slump with an RBI single in a two-run first inning.

Granderson then hit a three-run shot into the right-field tunnel in the third inning -- his 30th home run of the season. The Yankees started the fourth with a double and two straight singles before Sanchez was pulled having allowed seven runs.

"That's the day where everything doesn't work," Sanchez said. "Everything I threw was really off today. ... I need to keep working. I know what I can do. I just need to throw the ball, make some outs, get some quick innings."

Sanchez was the only one of the three new acquisitions to have a bad night. Jeff Baker made his Tigers debut after being traded from the Cubs and accounted for Detroit's first three runs -- doubling and scoring in the fourth inning and then plating two with a single off Sabathia in the sixth. He was previously 0-for-4 vs. the big lefty.

Omar Infante hit what would've been the game-tying home run in the bottom of the eighth had things turned out differently in the top of the inning.

"Well, we lost the game, so you don't find much silver lining, but I told the guys afterwards it was a nice little run and it was a great effort tonight," Leyland said. "And that's all you can ask for as a manager. I mean, we had them on their feet. But when you make mistakes against Yankees hitters, you're going to pay."

The Tigers remained a half-game back in the American League Central after the White Sox lost, 2-1, to Kansas City.

Anthony Odoardi is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Last edited by RememberTheBird on Thu Aug 09, 2012 8:10 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeThu Aug 09, 2012 7:41 pm

Missed chances haunt Tigers, who split with Yanks
Fister pitches into seventh, allowing two runs; Dirks doubles in run

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/9/2012 7:25 PM ET

BOX>

DETROIT -- The drop of Andy Dirks' blooper right on the left-field line was almost as sudden and startling as the fifth-inning rally that set it up to be the go-ahead double. The back-to-back Yankees home runs that took the lead back were even more abrupt.

Six batters in the fifth inning turned a shutdown performance from Hiroki Kuroda into a Tigers lead. Two pitches in the eighth turned it back. Yet even after Mark Teixiera's game-tying homer and Eric Chavez's go-ahead loft, the Tigers' threat to tie or win it seemed to take the longest of all.

It still didn't get them a run. And as the Tigers packed up for their upcoming trip to Texas, forced to settle for a four-game series split with New York after a 4-3 loss, they had a lot to think about.

It was an odd feeling for a 5-2 homestand that vaulted them back to the thick of the American League Central race. Even with Thursday's loss, they head to Texas a game back of the White Sox for the division lead. But it was an odd kind of game.

"We just didn't get it done," manager Jim Leyland said. "We had two shots. We had one to close it out and we could get it done. And then we had a chance to get back in it for sure and we couldn't get it done."

Leyland had to think about Joaquin Benoit, who had a case for All-Star consideration at midseason as one of the AL's best setup men. He has given up nine hits over 11 1/3 innings in 12 games since July 7, but seven of those hits have been homers. Four of those homers have come in his last two outings, five days apart.

"I haven't located my pitches," Benoit told a local radio reporter. "They're hitting the ball good and it's going out of the park."

That was pretty much his manager's assessment as well.

"It's a matter of getting the ball where you're trying to throw it," Leyland said. "He's usually got pinpoint control. He's really one of our best pitchers in knowing how to set hitters up and getting the ball where he wants to, but lately he hasn't gotten the ball there. He's left too many hittable pitches, obviously, and they haven't gone for [smaller] base hits unfortunately."

Benoit hadn't pitched since giving up back-to-back home runs Sunday against Cleveland, part of a back-and-forth game that ended with a Miguel Cabrera walk-off homer. Leyland rested him for a couple days, citing soreness in his throwing shoulder. However, Leyland and Benoit have both said he's healthy now, and the 96-mph radar reading Thursday seemed to reinforce it.

The 96-mph fastball, however, was the pitch that Teixeira lined down the right-field line and just over the fence for his 21st home run of the year. In that case, Benoit's downfall was more about the 2-0 count, having missed the outside corner on his previous two fastballs.

"I was trying to hit a home run there," Teixeira admitted. "I don't do it all the time, but I know against a guy like Benoit, he's not going to give up a lot of hits. So you just try to click him. You try to get a good pitch to hit and I got a 2-0 pitch to hit."

The buzz had barely quieted among the sellout crowd of 40,940 when Chavez jumped Benoit's first-pitch changeup, the pitch that usually gets Benoit swings and misses when he needs them. It was meant to be down and away, sticking with the game plan to deny Chavez a chance to pull the ball, but was just a little bit up.

"I was looking for a heater," Chavez said, "and I believe he left a changeup kind of up and away and I just saw it out of his hand."

Just like that, it was out, and the Tigers were down. Chavez's second home run of the series completed a 9-for-16, six-run, five-RBI set as he continues to fill in for injured Alex Rodriguez.

"To be honest, I was surprised Chavez' two home runs this series were opposite field. He's more of a pull guy," catcher Alex Avila said. "Give him credit for going that way. We went according to the game plan on how to get him out. We were able to get him out sometimes, but he was able to adjust on others."

What made this homestand so strong for the Tigers was their ability to answer rallies, usually in the same inning. Jhonny Peralta came within feet of doing that in the bottom of the eighth. As pinch-runner Gerald Laird stood on third base with nobody out in the ninth, they were 90 feet away with Ramon Santiago, Quintin Berry and Andy Dirks due up.

Manager Jim Leyland had called for a bunt, but not for a squeeze, after Santiago took a first-pitch strike. He wanted Santiago to bunt Omar Infante, the potential winning run at first base, over to second.

"We had a miscommunication with the signs, which was my fault," Leyland said.

Asked if he had considered a squeeze bunt, Leyland said they were trying to win, not tie.

"Our bullpen was short at that point," said Leyland, citing Darin Downs and Phil Coke as their only remaining relievers available.

Santiago, having not gotten the sign, was trying for a hit. The fact that he couldn't get it, lining out to second, lingered with him afterwards.

"There's no excuse," he said. "I've got to get it done."

Yankees closer Rafael Soriano made sure no one, getting a Berry popout and Dirks fly out to wrap up the save.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Last edited by RememberTheBird on Sat Aug 11, 2012 1:12 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeSat Aug 11, 2012 1:08 am

Tigers go inside and out to take care of Rangers
Prince belts go-ahead shot in sixth; Jackson races to inside-the-parker

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/11/2012 1:16 AM ET


BOX>


ARLINGTON -- This is what the Tigers had in mind when they signed Prince Fielder to hit behind Miguel Cabrera. It's not just about big home run totals. It's about big home runs.

"That's always a good sign to get them up there, particularly in a ballpark like this," manager Jim Leyland said after the Tigers' 6-2 win over the Rangers on Friday night at the Ballpark in Arlington.

It didn't feel like that kind of park for the first few innings, not the way Scott Feldman was pitching.

The Tigers sent the minimum nine hitters to the plate against the Rangers right-hander through his first three innings, and had just three hits off him as he pitched to Andy Dirks with two outs in the sixth. They had four hits, six baserunners and four runs by the time Texas got the third out.

The biggest of those hits, Fielder's 20th homer of the year, made it feel like a different game.

"The big guy turned on one and gave us what we needed," Leyland said.

It was his first home run all season that took the Tigers from trailing to leading, but the impact went beyond that. For one, Max Scherzer -- who was a few batters away from a third-inning exit earlier -- took the lead and ran with it. For another, Austin Jackson took a flare to right field and simply ran, recording his first Major League inside-the-park home run as Detroit's rejuvenated offense ran all over on the Texas bullpen.

With that, any aftereffects from the series split with the Yankees earlier in the week were flushed. Once the recently maligned bullpen held on with three scoreless innings, the Tigers kept pace with the White Sox, who beat Oakland in Chicago on a Jordan Danks walk-off homer to stay a game ahead in the American League Central.

"We just played good baseball," said Fielder, keeping the focus on what they're doing.

What he did, at least, played a huge part in that, changing the feel of a game that was a hit away from getting away from them in two of the first three innings while the Tigers tried to figure out Feldman.

Fielder's three-run homer was the midpoint of a string of five consecutive Tigers to reach base safely with two outs in the sixth after Feldman (6-7) looked like he had Detroit's hitters flummoxed. Even before Fielder pounced on a hanging changeup, the hits before him weren't particularly solid aside from Jackson's triple to set up Detroit's first run in the fourth inning,

Once Feldman rebounded from Jackson's triple by striking him out in the sixth, he was an out away from carrying his gem into the seventh with as few as 75 pitches. If he retires Dirks, Miguel Cabrera leads off the seventh inning in a less dangerous position.

Dirks hit a slow roller to second and outran any play Ian Kinsler might have had. Cabrera fell into an 0-2 hole, staying alive on one pitch on a foul tip as he lost the grip on his bat and watched it fly 10 rows up behind the Tigers dugout.

Cabrera eventually dropped a line drive in front of right fielder Nelson Cruz to bring up Fielder, who barely missed a first-pitch cutter Feldman left up in the zone. He did not miss he 2-1 off-speed pitch.

"He's a mistake hitter. He does damage with mistakes and that was a mistake," Feldman said. "It was a changeup that I was trying to throw down and away. I just left it in his wheelhouse there and he did some damage with it."

Fielder sent it 382 feet to right. It was just his sixth multi-run homer all season, but his third three-run shot in about six weeks. Neither of the other two, however, came with Detroit trailing, and they definitely didn't come with a pitcher commanding them like that.

"He was pitching well," Fielder said of Feldman. "He wasn't making mistakes. Sometimes that happens, but you just have to wait it out, and if he does make them, don't miss them."

Brennan Boesch's ensuing walk off Robbie Ross set up an insurance run on Delmon Young's double into the gap in right-center.

Ross ended it there, but Jackson capped the scoring an inning later with a one-out flare that bounced past Cruz's diving attempt and rolled toward the right-field corner. Jackson sped past Kinsler's high throw home with the Tigers' first inside-the-park home run since Curtis Granderson legged out one against the Yankees on Aug. 26, 2007.

Jackson's two hits made him the first Tigers player in 35 years with an inside-the-park homer and a triple in the same game. Steve Kemp did it on Sept. 4, 1977, against Oakland.

By contrast to Feldman, Scherzer (11-6) looked shaky through his first three innings, giving up a Josh Hamilton solo homer in the first before stranding five Rangers over the next two innings. He regrouped to retire seven of the final nine batters he faced, striking out four of his final five Rangers.

"After the third inning, I knew the pitch count was getting up there," Scherzer said. "I just wanted to go out there and keep the game there. I knew if I could keep the game there, we're going to give the team a chance to win."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeSun Aug 12, 2012 1:30 am

After Verlander duels, Tigers fall on walk-off hit

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/12/2012 1:50 AM ET

BOX>

ARLINGTON -- If a Justin Verlander start comes down to the Tigers' bullpen to win it, that's usually not a good sign, even when Detroit's relief corps is at full strength.

It's not a dig at the bullpen. It means there's either a pitching duel or a Verlander start gone horribly wrong. On Saturday, it was the pitching duel, and it came from Rangers left-hander Derek Holland.

If there was ever a safe assumption for a Tigers win in Texas, Saturday seemed to be it. Verlander did his part to set it up. Holland had other plans.

"I was able to make my pitches when I needed to and kept us in the ballgame," Verlander said after the Tigers' 2-1 loss. "It's tough that we didn't win this one, but we battled."

Few would've expected a pitching duel out of it, and fewer would've expected it to come down to dueling ninth-inning rallies against the bullpens. Once it did, though, the Rangers' relief advantage was seemingly coming together like it did so many times last October.

Their bullpen is arguably what won them last year's American League Championship Series over the Tigers. When Mike Adams stranded the bases loaded to get out of a one-out jam in the top of the ninth inning, you could kind of see it unfolding. Detroit's bullpen wasn't set up for a game like this in a Verlander start.

When Brayan Villarreal missed with his first eight pitches in the ninth, it was as clear as the sky on a hot, sunny Texas Saturday afternoon. They came within a Phil Coke strikeout pitch of getting out of it. Instead, they got a pinch-hit walk-off single from Mike Olt, fewer than two weeks into his big league career, to win it for the Rangers.

"When you walk the first two guys in [the ninth], you lose most likely. You can't do that," manager Jim Leyland said. "You just can't. You've got to make them earn it. We almost got out of it. Cokey did a terrific job, but you just can't do that."

Nor, Leyland said, can they miss on their own bases-loaded opportunity in the top of the inning.

Both rallies started with back-to-back walks in the middle of the order. The only difference was that the Tigers' rally came with one out, rather than leading off the inning, and they were well-worked at-bats by Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder.

For that matter, it was a good at-bat from Delmon Young, who fouled off an Adams curveball to stay alive on a 2-2 count before getting enough of a slider to send a ground ball through the right side.

Even with a speedier runner, it's hard to envision third-base coach Gene Lamont sending him on strong-armed right fielder Nelson Cruz. With Cabrera rounding third, the stop sign was guaranteed, leaving it up to pinch-hitter Brennan Boesch and Jhonny Peralta.

Boesch swung at the first pitch he saw from Adams and shattered his bat on a ground ball, hard enough for first baseman Mitch Moreland to fire home and force out Cabrera.

Once Josh Hamilton ran down Peralta's drive to left-center, the opportunity was gone.

"That's two games in three days where it has cost us, when we haven't got a run in from third," Leyland pointed out, referring to last Thursday's loss to the Yankees. "You can't do that. That's just the way it is.

"You're not mad about it. You're not upset at anybody. I'm just talking about, you can't do that if you want to win games. You can't do that. You've got to find a way to get them in."

Thursday's opportunity was a game-ender. The Tigers still had a tie game after missing Saturday's chance, but they had a short bullpen to try to do it.

Closer Jose Valverde and setup man Octavio Dotel weren't available, having pitched too much over the previous couple days. Valverde had pitched in a non-save situation Friday night. His absence left closing duties to Joaquin Benoit, who thus wouldn't have pitched unless there was a lead. Even then, Benoit's four home runs allowed over his last two outings left his ability to maintain a tie game in question.

Leyland normally prefers to pitch Villarreal for three outs in a game, rather than extend him. Between Saturday's situation and a nine-pitch eighth inning, Villarreal stayed in for the ninth. Eight balls later, he was out, his command struggles having resurfaced. Coke, who has had his own struggles of late, was in.

Coke pitched about as well as he has in a while, getting a Craig Gentry popout and striking out Geovany Soto. Coke dug Olt into a two-strike count, but the breaking ball that Eric Chavez fouled off so often Wednesday before his run-scoring groundout got the same treatment from Olt, who fouled off four pitches with two strikes.

"The report was he's a pretty good fastball hitter," catcher Gerald Laird said. "So we mixed in a few fastballs, but I'm not gonna get beat with it, especially in that spot when we've got [Ian] Kinsler coming up. So we got ahead and tried to get him to chase on something.

"He wasn't taking very good swings at the slider, so we kind of stayed with that. He caught one out in front and it found a hole. If that ball's hit over to Miggy, no one says nothing."

It was the situation they found themselves in. On a night when Verlander pitched seven innings of one-run ball and ex-Tiger Brandon Inge got the go-ahead hit for the A's in a White Sox loss, it was an opportunity lost to move into a virtual tie atop the AL Central.

"Anytime you get a win with Verlander on the mound, it's big," Adams said. "Very big."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Last edited by RememberTheBird on Sun Aug 12, 2012 8:57 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeSun Aug 12, 2012 8:55 pm


Shaky loss in Texas leaves Tigers feeling 'blah'


By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/12/2012 8:41 PM ET

BOX>

ARLINGTON -- It wasn't the heat that did in the Tigers in Texas on Sunday, even though the temperature got to 104. It was plenty else.

They went into the heat hoping that familiarity would yield fairer counts and smarter swings in their third meeting with Yu Darvish, and a chance to take a big road series against the American League West leaders. By the time the late innings came around, and temperatures reached their peak, it was hard not to think about getting out of town.

They came in from Sunday's 8-3 loss looking and sounding drained, mentally and physically. On the physical side, they have an elbow issue with reliever Brayan Villarreal that will be examined by a doctor in Minnesota. Potentially bigger is the issue with MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera, who fouled a pitch off the top of his left foot -- the same leg where lingering ankle soreness led manager Jim Leyland to put Cabrera at designated hitter twice over the past week.

"If the game had gotten far enough out of hand, I would've gotten both [Cabrera and Prince Fielder] out of there," Leyland said. "But when we make it 6-3, I can't get them out. Even 8-3, in this ballpark, is not very much. It's a lot, but yet it's not a lot in this park."

Earlier, it felt close. By the end, it felt like more. That was the mental toll from this one. Just like Saturday night, and their previous two losses at home to the Yankees, they had chances here that went squandered, a couple of them all too quickly.

Their innings behind Rick Porcello, by contrast, seemed all too slow. The damage from Rangers hitters to Porcello was just part of it.

Add it up, and Leyland could describe it succinctly.

"Ugly. Really ugly," he said.

He had a better word for it later: Blah.

"We just played a bad game, a blah, bad game," Leyland continued. "And that happens. You turn the page and go to Minnesota."

They headed north with their deficit in the AL Central now at two games behind the White Sox, who beat Oakland earlier in the day.

The Tigers had seen Darvish twice already this season, and though he racked up strikeouts, they inflicted their damage. The Rangers won both previous matchups thanks in no small part to run support.

By and large, the Tigers waited out Darvish in counts, forcing him to throw strikes to win. Still, their struggles in key situations -- the first inning being one, the fourth and fifth innings being others -- kept Darvish not only in the game, but with a quality outing. Both middle-inning scenarios fell apart on first-pitch outs.

Considering opponents entered the day batting .421 (24-for-57) with three homers off Darvish's first pitches, it wasn't altogether unfounded. The way he was struggling to find the strike zone early, though, it seemed ill-advised.

"He actually started to command his fastball a little better later in the game," Leyland said, "but early on it didn't look like he could command his fastball. That's the way I've seen him pretty much every time. He's got a good fastball, but against us he's been a breaking-ball pitcher."

Darvish might have set the tone for his outing in the opening inning, when he went from back-to-back 3-0 counts on Cabrera and Fielder to back-to-back strikeouts, getting both of them to chase pitches out of the strike zone to strand a runner on second.

Darvish got three first-pitch groundouts in as many at-bats against Brennan Boesch, whose first-pitch groundout in the ninth inning Saturday squandered a bases-loaded, one-out opportunity. On Sunday, he was jammed on first-pitch cutters in the fourth and fifth innings.

The first came after a walk to Fielder put two on with nobody out in the fourth inning. Once Darvish's next pitch got a ground-ball double play from Delmon Young, he was out of the inning. An inning later, with Cabrera on second after a two-run double, Darvish intentionally walked Fielder to bring up the potential tying run in Boesch, who grounded into an inning-ending fielder's choice.

Boesch went 0-for-7 in the series. He added a third-inning error when Josh Hamilton's ground-ball single skipped past him and kept rolling.

"He's struggling right now," Leyland said. "I don't know what to do with him, because he's fighting himself. He gets mad when we talk about relaxing, but he's just fighting himself."

Darvish (12-8) allowed three runs on six hits over 6 2/3 innings, walking five and striking out eight. He had given up 18 runs over as many innings on 23 hits in his previous three starts.

Porcello (9-7), who pitched six innings of one-run ball here at the end of June, gave up a two-run homer to Hamilton in Sunday's opening inning and never recovered. His throwing error trying to get an out at third base paired with Boesch's error to fuel a three-run third inning.

"That's a part of our game," Rangers manager Ron Washington said about taking advantage of mistakes. "When we're able to do it, we're going to do it. That's the way we play. And when you have the type of athletes I have, you have to let them go."

By the end, the biggest positive about Porcello's outing was that he pitched enough innings to avoid draining the bullpen, although Darin Downs warmed up several times over the course of the day before finally pitching the last 1 2/3 innings.

"It was definitely a grind for sure," Porcello said, "but results obviously weren't what we were looking for."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeTue Aug 14, 2012 7:46 pm

Bats unable to pick up Anibal in loss to Twins
Starter allows five runs in 5 1/3 innings, falls to 1-3 with Tigers

By Jordan Garretson / MLB.com | 8/14/2012 12:34 AM ET

BOX>

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Tigers began August with plenty of offense. Detroit tallied 63 runs in its first nine games this month and carried a .318 team batting average into Monday.

But more recently, the bats have gone cold.

It didn't get any better in Monday's series opener against the Twins. Detroit tallied just five hits against Minnesota starter Samuel Deduno on the way to a 9-3 defeat in front of 34,366. The Tigers' six hits also marked their lowest total in in 22 games at Target Field.

"We got our butts kicked today," catcher Alex Avila said. "That's the best way I can put it, I guess."

Detroit made Deduno look like anyone but a 29-year-old pitching in only his 13th career game. The right-hander was effectively wild -- striking out six and walking five -- while allowing three runs in seven-plus innings.

"He was tough to pick up today and just figure out basically," said Avila, who went 0-for-4. "Normally you're able to get something out of those walks and stuff like that. He just had some nasty stuff. He was kind of effectively wild. We just couldn't square him up."

Meanwhile, Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez struggled, allowing five runs on 12 hits and a walk. But he kept it close until the sixth, which Detroit entered trailing, 2-1. Minnesota plated three runs to take a 5-1 lead and prompt the end of Sanchez's night.

The 12 hits allowed were a season high for Sanchez and his most since April 10, 2011, when he gave up 13 against Houston. Sanchez is 1-3 with a 7.97 ERA in four outings with the Tigers.

"Sanchez got the ball up and got hit hard," manager Jim Leyland said. "He's done that quite a bit since he's been here. He's not keeping the ball down well enough and he paid the price for that."

Alexi Casilla tagged a one-out double off the right-field wall to score Ryan Doumit and advance Jamey Carroll to third. The hit was enough for Leyland to yank Sanchez, who needed 102 pitches to get through 5 1/3 innings.

Leyland next sent in Phil Coke, who couldn't completely stomp out Minnesota's rally. Ben Revere grounded out, but Darin Mastroianni lifted a single to center to drive in both runners. Prince Fielder cut off Austin Jackson's throw and was able to flip the ball to Jhonny Peralta in time to get Mastroianni at second for the third out.

The Twins further distanced themselves with a three-run homer from Doumit off Duane Below in the seventh. Joe Mauer led off with a single and Josh Willingham walked before scoring on Doumit's 14th home run.

Detroit finally managed to string together some offense in the eighth, but it was far too late to matter much. Jackson and Andy Dirks started it with a single and a double and Miguel Cabrera ripped a single through the middle to score Jackson and finally end Deduno's night.

Tyler Robertson replaced Deduno and was aided by a tremendous catch in right field from Mastroianni to rob Fielder of a hit. Avila struck out, but Delmon Young's single brought Dirks home.

Jeff Baker pinch-hit for Brennan Boesch but Minnesota's Jeff Gray induced a groundout from him to end the inning. Still, the two-run inning seemed like an outburst after Deduno baffled the Tigers for much of the night.

"He gets them chasing," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He was buckling some guys over on that side. Those guys, that's not the norm for the Detroit Tigers. They're a very good hitting baseball team. He was throwing some breaking balls, but they were swinging and the ball was disappearing. That just tells you a little bit about his stuff."

Mastroianni also crushed a Sanchez offering in the fifth with a solo home run to left field for a 2-1 lead.

The Tigers used a Peralta double in the fifth -- their first hit of the game -- to score Boesch and tie the game at 1. But Detroit missed out on a chance for a bigger inning after a bizarre play. Omar Infante followed Peralta's double with a single, putting runners on the corners. Jackson struck out swinging, then Dirks' liner deflected off of Deduno's glove and into Casilla's at second. Casilla easily doubled off Infante at first to end the inning.

The Twins tagged Sanchez for three consecutive singles in the third, resulting in a run as Justin Morneau drove in Mauer.

Sanchez suffered a scare earlier when he took Mauer's liner off his left leg in the first inning. Leyland and head athletic trainer Kevin Rand came on to check Sanchez, but he remained in the game after some deliberation. Sanchez iced his left calf following the game.

"It's sore right now," he said. "I will see how it is tomorrow."

Jordan Garretson is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeWed Aug 15, 2012 1:00 am

Dirks homers to make winner out of Tigers, Fister
Miggy drives in two runs to reach 101 RBIs on the season

By Jordan Garretson / MLB.com | 8/15/2012 12:32 AM ET

BOX>

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Tigers had little more to blame than their own gloves for the close game they found themselves in early on Tuesday. Detroit committed two errors in the third inning against the Twins, leading to all four of Minnesota's runs.

With those defensive lapses, Detroit blew a 4-0 lead.

Doug Fister could have easily unraveled from that point on. After starting off the game sharp, his defense rewarded him with costly errors.

Instead, Fister only pitched better from then on.

"He just didn't give in," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "He didn't get down. He came back and pitched really well."

Andy Dirks shrugged off his woes against lefties to bail the Tigers out with a go-ahead solo homer in the sixth. Miguel Cabrera drove in his 100th run of the season with a single in the seventh for insurance -- and added his 101st RBI in the ninth -- as Detroit evened its series with the Twins with an 8-4 victory in front of 37,544 at Target Field.

Detroit's poor defense nearly spoiled one of the best outings of the year from Fister, who allowed four unearned runs on five hits in eight innings.

The right-hander has gone eight or more innings in four of his last six starts, throwing a career-high 120 pitches in Tuesday's win. Fister has been particularly stellar over his last four starts, going 3-0 with a 1.16 ERA

"Tonight was a little bit of a struggle at times, but we ended up working together and pulling it out," Fister said. "That was the biggest thing."

The shaky leather reared itself immediately in the third inning, which the Tigers entered with a 4-0 lead. Omar Infante was unable to handle Jamey Carroll's grounder to second to lead off the frame. Alexi Casilla then grounded out and Ben Revere singled, putting runners on the corners.

Prince Fielder hadn't committed an error in 59 games, but after he couldn't handle Infante's throw on Darin Mastroianni's ground ball, Carroll scored Minnesota's first run. Fielder then tried to throw Revere out at second, but that throw sailed into the outfield for an error, allowing Revere to advance to third.

"Omar probably gave it to Prince a little late," Leyland said. "Probably could have given it to him a little quicker. But those things happen. When you win, you don't talk about those things. If you lose a game like that, you probably talk a little bit more about the defense. But that's part of the game."

Fister struck out Joe Mauer, but Josh Willingham made Detroit pay for its errors in the next at-bat, hitting a three-run homer to tie the game.

Regardless of the unfortunate third inning, Fister said he simply remained focused on what he needed to do.

"It doesn't change anything," he said. "It doesn't change the way I pitch. It doesn't change the way we hit or play defense. It's a matter of, hey, we still have how ever many outs to get -- we need to go get those."

Fister got plenty more outs and his offense later picked him up. Dirks entered the game hitting just .172 this season off of left-handed pitchers, with one home run in 29 at-bats. But he went 2-for-3 against Minnesota lefty Brian Duensing, including his sixth-inning blast to right field.

"Their lineup is pretty ridiculous," said Duensing, who gave up five runs on eight hits over six innings. "It's one of those things where you can't make a lot of mistakes, and unfortunately that happened tonight."

Infante led off the seventh with a triple before Cabrera's single brought him home. Cabrera became just the third player in Tigers history to notch 100 or more RBIs in five straight seasons. He joins Harry Heilmann, who accomplished the feat from 1923-29, and Charlie Gehringer, who did it from 1932-36. Cabrera added an RBI double in the ninth.

Jhonny Peralta came in 10-for-22 lifetime against Duensing and continued to punish him in the first inning. Peralta's single drove in Austin Jackson and Infante after they started the game with a walk and a single, respectively.

Peralta functioned as Detroit's fourth different No. 5 hitter in its last four games. Leyland said the search for a name to regularly pencil in there continues, as those four hitters combined to go 2-for-16.

"That is a work in progress," Leyland said. "I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow."

Jordan Garretson is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
RememberTheBird
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
Toledo Mud Hens (AAA)
RememberTheBird


Location : Too Far From Copa

2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitimeWed Aug 15, 2012 7:25 pm

Miggy's 30th homer backs Scherzer's gem

By Jordan Garretson / MLB.com | 8/15/2012 5:40 PM ET

BOX>

MINNEAPOLIS -- Jim Leyland continues to emphasize that starting pitching is the main ingredient in winning games. Detroit's performance this week in Minnesota certainly supported that belief.

Anibal Sanchez turned in a shaky performance on Monday, and the Tigers lost. Then Doug Fister's stellar outing on Tuesday led to Detroit evening the series.

On Wednesday, Max Scherzer polished the three-game set off with an even better showing, and yes, the Tigers captured a 5-1 win at Target Field to take the series from the Twins.

It was the Tigers' 25th win in their last 34 games against Minnesota, including 13 of 16 at Target Field.

Early on, Scherzer didn't appear to be in for a smooth day, though it ended with him yielding just four hits and two walks over seven shutout innings. He created his own trouble in the second by issuing leadoff walks to Justin Morneau and Ryan Doumit on only nine pitches.

Scherzer called that the game's turning point.

"I was extremely frustrated with myself," he said. "I hate walking guys. I just hate it. Especially when you give free passes. Especially when it's no one out. You just can't give hitters credit and be afraid of them. You have to be aggressive at them. It took two walks for me to get mad at myself so I would get back aggressive with them."

Did he ever.

Scherzer needed 27 pitches to get through the second inning, but he did so by striking out the next three batters he faced. He finished with 10 strikeouts, marking the 10th time this season he's fanned nine or more.

Scherzer's has now won 11 of his last 14 decisions going back to May 10.

"Once I fired myself up and put the adrenaline in and started letting the fastball eat, that's when I got back in the zone and was able to collect some big strikeouts in that situation," Scherzer said. "From then on, I was able to stay in the zone."

Miguel Cabrera backed the right-hander's effort with two RBIs, including a solo home run in the first inning for his 30th of the season. The opposite-field shot to the corner made him the first Tigers player to hit 30 or more homers in five consecutive seasons.

"I'm not surprised at anything he does," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "He's probably going to do that for quite a while yet, if he keeps his health. He's just a superstar. He's a terrific player."

Cabrera was a day removed from becoming the third Tiger to collect 100 or more RBIs in five straight years. But the 29-year-old wasn't quite ready to assess his accomplishments yet, saying he'd save those conversations for when his career is over.

"That's so great. But it's about winning," Cabrera said. "It's not about one person. I'm more excited because we won today."

Cabrera also tagged an RBI single in the fifth, finishing the series 6-for-14 with five runs driven in.

No opposing manager may be more aware of what Cabrera is capable of than the Twins' Ron Gardenhire. Cabrera has hit .411 at Target Field in the ballpark's short history, with five home runs. His 37 hits at Target Field are more than any other opposing player.

"He's just an animal," Gardenhire said. "I think he's the best hitter in our league as far as power, the whole package, driving in runs, a producer. I've said that for a few years. He's so dangerous. Just to watch him, he hit that [home run] ball like a left-hander hits it. The wind was blowing in from there. He's just so strong. He just seemed like he flicked it. He's a really good baseball player."

Delmon Young added a two-run homer against Minnesota starter Cole De Vries in the fourth. It was his fourth against his former team since being traded and exactly one year removed from the first. Omar Infante drove in another run in the eighth with a single after Jhonny Peralta started the inning with a ground-rule double.

Joe Mauer's single against Octavio Dotel in the eighth drove in Ben Revere for Minnesota's lone run. Revere had reached on a one-out triple.

Morneau led off the seventh with a double, but Scherzer retired the next three batters to stymie the other Minnesota threat.

Jordan Garretson is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Back to top Go down
https://alwaysatiger.forumotion.com
Sponsored content





2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Empty
PostSubject: Re: 2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS   2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS - Page 5 Icon_minitime

Back to top Go down
 
2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS
Back to top 
Page 5 of 8Go to page : Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8  Next
 Similar topics
-
» 2013 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS
» 2010 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS
» 2011 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS
» 2009 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS
» Detroit Red Wings Schedule/Results - 2009-10

Permissions in this forum:You cannot reply to topics in this forum
Always A Tiger :: Archives :: Game Day Threads :: 2012-
Jump to: