Tigers 8, Twins 7 May 31, 2011

We were live-blogging over at my mlblog website during the Tigers come-from-behind (twice) win over the Twins on Tuesday night.  Here's how that went:

7:09pm We are off to a good start here at Comerica.  Max Scherzer got the Twins 1-2-3 in the first on 11 pitches.  The temp has dipped below 90, our game time temperature at 7:05 was 89.  We are monitoring the Indians at Blue Jays game (just underway) as well as the White Sox at Red Sox.  We will check in on other games as needed. I keep hearing people say you can’t count the Twins out, but even if that remains a valid statement right now, I think we are fast approaching the time when it will not be.  Do you know what happens if the Twins go 64-46 (.582) the rest of the way?  They win 81 games, that’s what.  Now maybe .500 will be good enough to win this division, but I think it probably will not be.  For the Twins to win 90 this season, they will have to play at a .664 clip the rest of the way–that’s a 108-win pace when carried over the course of a full season.  90 wins is, in my view at least, a more realistic prediction of what it is going to take to win the AL Central.  But we shall see. Brian Duensing is the starter for the Twins tonight.  He’s 2-5.  He though, just like Scherzer, gets ‘em out in order in the first, fanning both Austin Jackson and Brennan Boesch.  So…on to the second here in Detroit.

7:21p: Scherzer getst the first two men in the second then gives up hits on consecutive pitches: a double by Danny Valencia and an RBI single by Delmon Young, and the Twins grab a 1-0 lead.  Austin Jackson sent a strong throw to the plate and there was a bit of a collision between Valencia and Detroit catcher Alex Avila who was unable to corral the throw and that was that.  The top of the second ends.  


MID-2ND: DETROIT 0, MINNESOTA 1. 7:29p  Just like the Twins, the Tigers first hit of the night is a 2-out second inning double.  Jhonny Peralta gets it, and that brings us to an interesting part of the Detroit lineup tonight.  Get a load of these numbers: The 7 hitter Brandon Inge is hitting .206.  He’s the best hitter of the bottom third of the order.  Ryan Rayburn, in the 8-hole, is hitting .196.  The #9 hitter, Danny Worth, has no batting average (.000). 


7:32p We’ve got the windows closed up here in the press box tonight with the scoreboard showing that temperature of 89 degrees.  That means no foul balls for me.  I had one glance off the window sill Sunday night in the back end of the day-night doubleheader and I’m not going to lie to you, I wanted no part of it.  I didn’t get a good read off the bat and I could see it was going to come close to hitting the ledge in front of me and who knows off what part of my face it might have caromed after that.  I caught one last year on the fly so I didn’t feel bad about bailing on this one.  If I think I can make a clean catch I’ll go for it.  The window sill in front of me–solid thick aluminum–is covered with dents from the foul balls that have come screaming up here in the past few years.  I wish Boston had played here in Detroit the way they are playing tonight at Fenway Park.  Chicago leads 4-0 in the second,  There was a big error at short and that Mexican pitcher who shut the Tigers down in that 14-1 game is getting knocked about.  Rayburn had a couple of line smashes towards left but he went foul and he would up popping weakly to first, stranding 2.  END OF 2: DETROIT, 0, MINNESOTA 1.

8:05p:  Sorry.  They turned on the ice cream machine so I was out of touch there for a few minutes.  The Twins scored a couple more while I was noshing.  Raburn took what we in the business call “a bad angle to the ball” on a liner off the bat of the Twins #9 hitter Matt Tolbert and by the time he squared up and got himself into the position to make the catch, he was four or five feet to short to make the play and the ball rolled to the wall in left for a double.  A wild pitch and a sac fly cost the Tigers the run.  Then Justin Morneau hit his 3rd homer of the year, to right.  I’d say it was a bomb, but any ball that gets out of this place is a bomb.  You can say what you want about Comerica Park (and I do) but there has never been a cheap home run hit in this place.  BOTTOM OF THE 5TH: DETROIT 0, MINNESOTA 3.

8:23p:  The news out of town is all bad.  Cleveland–trying to let Detroit back in the race (even if the Tigers don’t seem to want to take advantage) with losses in 5 of their last 6 and with a sub-.500 record in their last 23 (11-12)–are off to an early 3-0 lead in Toronto in the bottom of the 4th.  The White Sox are clubbing the Red Sox  6-1 in the 5th.  The Tigers–who just scored–began the night in second place in the AL Central, 5 games back of Cleveland, 3 and a half ahead of Chicago.  Here in the 5th, Austin Jackson singled in a run and Caspar Wells doubled in another.  Wells’ ball was of the ground-rule variety which cost Detroit a run as Jackson, who could have walked home from third, had to stay there as the ball one-hopped the wall. Now the Tigers get a huge break.  A routine grounder to short is thrown away by Tolbert who was trying to get the lead runner at third.  He lobbed it into the Detroit dugout to permit Wells to trot home.  Jackson scored on the original fielders choice so Detroit gets 2 on the play, and have four home in the inning.  Miguel Cabrera is walked on purpose so Detroit has runners on first and second with one out and Martinez up.  5TH INNING: DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 3.

8:38p: It’s tough to complain about Cabrera even when he makes a mistake,which he just did.  He ran through a stop sign and was out by 15 feet at home trying to score the second run on a Victor Martinez double.  Jhonny Peralta then doubled home Martinez and that is it for Duensing.  The Tigers have six in with a man on and two men out here in the 5th.  BOTTOM 5: DETROIT 6, MINNESOTA 3.

8:43p The Tigers settle for the 6-spot (might have been more if Cabrera hadn’t tried to score from first but, hey, at least he made an out enthusiastically) and lead this one 6-3 after 5, and they have gotten to the Twins bullpen.  No change out of town.  Cleveland and Chicago both have large mid-game leads.  TOP 6: DETROIT 6, MINNESOTA 3.

9:17p  What a turn of events.  The Twins got a run back in the 6th to make it a 6-4 game and have scored 3 here in the 7th to retake the lead 7-6.  One run scored on a Scherzer wild pitch, the other 2 on Morneau’s second homer of the night, a blast to right that looked pretty much identical to his first.  Scherzer hit the next batter, for payback, and now he’s gone.  Charlie Furbush is in.  This is his 3rd career appearance and he has yet to allow an earned run in 8.2 innings.  I blame myself for the sudden and sad turn of events.  It turns out that this would have been the Tigers biggest comeback of the year–they had not won a game this season in which they trailed by more than 2 runs and they had trailed in this one by 3 before rallying with that 6-run 5th.  Also, a win tonight would have set the Tigers up for a good homestand (a win tonight and a win in the finale tomorrow night would have given them a 6-3 record) and I was picturing myself asking the irascible Jim Leyland about that in the postgame scrum.  Oh, well.  The Tigers still have 9 offensive outs left, a third of a ballgame still to turn this around.  BOTTOM 7: DETROIT 6, MINNESOTA 7.

9:31p:  Everybody up here in the pressbox is second-guessing Leyland for leaving Scherzer in too long, long enough that is to allow the go-ahead homer to Morneau.  I will bet you $50 right now that not a one of them has the guts to ask him about it.  I don’t know if I will, because I don’t know that he did leave him in there too long.  I might want to know what his thinking was and I do think it a fair question, so perhaps I will take the hit.  We’ll see.  The Tigers have the corners filled with one down and they tie the score on a sac fly by Peralta.  Boesch comes in to score.  BOTTOM 7: DETROIT 7, MINNESOTA 7.

9:40  Score tied and the Twins change pitchers.  Mijares out, Dumatrait in.  Two on, two out.  Raburn up.  Boston trying to come back at Fenway but they will fall short.  They trail 10-5 in the top of the 9th.  Same story in Toronto where the Jays comeback will likely be too little too late too.  They trail the Indians 6-2 in the 8th.  Rayburn fouls to right and leaves the two men on.  Too bad.  A hit there would have raised his average over .200 as he was at .199 when he came to the plate.  Al Alburquerque coming on to start the 8th. TOP 8: DETROIT 7, MINNESOTA 7.

9:53p: Alburquerque is perfect.  1-2-3 with 2 punch-outs.  Furbush meanwhile, coming on to get the last out in the 7th, has now worked 9 innings in his ML career and has not allowed a run.  He has, in other words, begun his career with what amounts to a comlete-game shutout.  We are going to the bottom of the 8th and we are still all tied up.  BOTTOM 8: DETROIT 7, MMINNESOTA 7.

9:59p  The Tigers threaten in the bottom of the 8th.  A single, the pitcher tried and failed to get the lead runner on a sac bunt, and then a sac bunt that worked (nice job there by Wells–it was a perfect lay-down) and Detroit has ‘em at 2nd and 3rd with one out and the game tied.  It’s over in Boston.  The Red Sox threatened in the 9th but fell short 10-7 as the White Sox take the first 2 games of the series there. Boesch plates Worth–he’d started it all with that lead-off single–with a sac fly to right and Detroit leads 8-7.  They walk Miggy and the crowd roars in disapproval.  Don’t they know it just means they have to pitch to Martinez?  Meanwhile, who closes?  Valverde has been in 3 games in the last 2 days.  The inning ends on a fly out by Martinez and it looks like Joaquin Benoit is coming in to close it out.  I might’ve left Alburguerque in there…TOP 9: DETROIT 8, MINNESOTA 7.

10:13p: We may have to leave you to go to the locker room.  One on and one out here in the 9th after a flyout and a bloop single by Span.  Now Alexi Casilla walks so make it 2 on with 1 out.  We will, as they say in the business, keep it right here.  Oh, no.  It’s Morneau.  Left-handed hitter v right-handed pitcher and Justin’s hit two out tonight already.  Benoit gets ahead 0-2.  Got him!  He fouled a couple off before Benoit fooled him with a breaking ball.  Two on, two out.  One run game.  Michael Cuddyer is the hitter.  Nothing is easy.  Benoit goes 3-0 on Cuddyer.  Cuddyer bounces into a forceout at second.  Ballgame.  Off to the room….FINAL DETROIT 8, MINNESOTA 7.

Tigers 8, Twins 7 May 31, 2011

We were live-blogging over at my mlblog website during the Tigers come-from-behind (twice) win over the Twins on Tuesday night.  Here's how that went:

:09pm We are off to a good start here at Comerica.  Max Scherzer got the Twins 1-2-3 in the first on 11 pitches.  The temp has dipped below 90, our game time temperature at 7:05 was 89.  We are monitoring the Indians at Blue Jays game (just underway) as well as the White Sox at Red Sox.  We will check in on other games as needed. I keep hearing people say you can’t count the Twins out, but even if that remains a valid statement right now, I think we are fast approaching the time when it will not be.  Do you know what happens if the Twins go 64-46 (.582) the rest of the way?  They win 81 games, that’s what.  Now maybe .500 will be good enough to win this division, but I think it probably will not be.  For the Twins to win 90 this season, they will have to play at a .664 clip the rest of the way–that’s a 108-win pace when carried over the course of a full season.  90 wins is, in my view at least, a more realistic prediction of what it is going to take to win the AL Central.  But we shall see. Brian Duensing is the starter for the Twins tonight.  He’s 2-5.  He though, just like Scherzer, gets ‘em out in order in the first, fanning both Austin Jackson and Brennan Boesch.  So…on to the second here in Detroit.

7:21p: Scherzer getst the first two men in the second then gives up hits on consecutive pitches: a double by Danny Valencia and an RBI single by Delmon Young, and the Twins grab a 1-0 lead.  Austin Jackson sent a strong throw to the plate and there was a bit of a collision between Valencia and Detroit catcher Alex Avila who was unable to corral the throw and that was that.  The top of the second ends.  MID-2ND: DETROIT 0, MINNESOTA 1. 7:29p  Justd like the Twins, the Tigers first hit of the night is a 2-out second inning double.  Jhonny Peralta gets it, and that brings us to an interesting part of the Detroit lineup tonight.  Get a load of these numbers.  The 7 hitter Brandon Inge is hitting .206.  He’s the best hitter of the bottom third of the order.  Ryan Rayburn, in the 8-hole, is hitting .196.  The #9 hitter, Danny Worth, has no batting average (.000). 7:32p We’ve got the windows closed up here in the press box tonight with the scoreboard showing that temperature of 89 degrees.  That means no foul balls for me.  I had one glance off the window sill Sunday night in the back end of the day-night doubleheader and I’m not going to lie to you, I wanted no part of it.  I didn’t get a good read off the bat and I could see it was going to come close to hitting the ledge in front of me and who knows off what part of my face it might have caromed after that.  I caught one last year on the fly so I didn’t feel bad about bailing on this one.  If I think I can make a clean catch I’ll go for it.  The window sill in front of me–solid thick aluminum–is covered with dents from the foul balls that have come screaming up here in the past few years.  I wish Boston had played here in Detroit the way they are playing tonight at Fenway Park.  Chicago leads 4-0 in the second,  There was a big error at short and that Mexican pitcher who shut the Tigers down in that 14-1 game is getting knocked about.  Rayburn had a couple of line smashes towards left but he went foul and he would up popping weakly to first, stranding 2.  END OF 2: DETROIT, 0, MINNESOTA 1.

8:05p:  Sorry.  They turned on the ice cream machine so I was out of touch there for a few minutes.  The Twins scored a couple more while I was noshing.  Raburn took what we in the business call “a bad angle to the ball” on a liner off the bat of the Twins #9 hitter Matt Tolbert and by the time he squared up and got himself into the position to make the catch, he was four or five feet to short to make the play and the ball rolled to the wall in left for a double.  A wild pitch and a sac fly cost the Tigers the run.  Then Justin Morneau hit his 3rd homer of the year, to right.  I’d say it was a bomb, but any ball that gets out of this place is a bomb.  You can say what you want about Comerica Park (and I do) but there has never been a cheap home run hit in this place.  BOTTOM OF THE 5TH: DETROIT 0, MINNESOTA 3.

8:23p:  The news out of town is all bad.  Cleveland–trying to let Detroit back in the race even if the Tigers don’t seem to want to take advantage with losses in 5 of their last 6 and with a sub-.500 record in their last 23 (11-12)–are off to an early 3-0 lead in Toronto in the bottom of the 4th.  The White Sox are clubbing the Red Sox  6-1 in the 5th.  The Tigers–who just scored–began the night in second place in the AL Central, 5 games back of Cleveland, 3 and a half ahead of Chicago.  Here in the 5th, Austin Jackson singled in a run and Caspar Wells doubled in another.  Wells’ ball was of the ground-rule variety which cost Detroit a run as Jackson, who could have walked home from third, had to stay there as the ball one-hopped the wall. Now the Tigers get a huge break.  A routine grounder to short is thrown away by Tolbert who was trying to get the lead runner at third.  He lobbed it into the Detroit dugout to permit wells to trot home.  Jackson scored on the original fielders choice so Detroit gets 2 on the play, and have four home in the inning.  Miguel Cabrera is walked on purpose so Detroit has runners on first and second with one out and Martinez up.  5TH INNING: DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 3.

8:38p: It’s tough to complain about Cabrera even when he makes a mistake,which he just did.  He ran through a stop sign and was out by 15 feet at home trying to score the second run on a Victor Martinez double.  Jhonny Peralta then doubled home Martinez and that is it for Duensing.  The Tigers have six in with a man on and two men out here in the 5th.  BOTTOM 5: DETROIT 6, MINNESOTA 3.

8:43p The Tigers settle for the 6-spot (might have been more if Cabrera hadn’t tried to score from first but, hey, at least he made an out enthusiastically) and lead this one 6-3 after 5, and they have gotten to the Twins bullpen.  No change out of town.  Cleveland and Chicago both have large mid-game leads.  TOP 6: DETROIT 6, MINNESOTA 3.

9:17p  What a turn of events.  The Twins got a run back in the 6th to make it a 6-4 game and have scored 3 here in the 7th to retake the lead 7-6.  One run scored on a Scherzer wild pitch, the other 2 on Morneau’s second homer of the night, a blast to right that looked pretty much identical to his first.  Scherzer hit the next batter, for payback, and now he’s gone.  Charlie Furbush is in.  This is his 3rd career appearance and he has yet to allow an earned run in 8.2 innings.  I blame myself for the sudden and sad turn of events.  It turns out that this would have been the Tigers biggest comeback of the year–they had not won a game this season in which they trailed by more than 2 runs and they had trailed in this one by 3 before rallying with that 6-run 5th.  Also, a win tonight would have set the Tigers up for a good homestand (a win tonight and a win in the finale tomorrow night would have given them a 6-3 record) and I was picturing myself asking the irascible Jim Leyland about that in the postgame scrum.  Oh, well.  The Tigers still have 9 offensive outs left, a third of a ballgame still to turn this around.  BOTTOM 7: DETROIT 6, MINNESOTA 7.

9:31p:  Everybody up here in the pressbox is second-guessing Leyland for leaving Scherzer in too long, long enough that is to allow the go-ahead homer to Morneau.  I will bet you $50 right now that not a one of them has the guts to ask him about it.  I don’t know if I will, because I don’t know that he did leave him in there too long.  I might want to know what his thinking was and I do think it a fair question, so perhaps I will take the hit.  We’ll see.  The Tigers have the corners filled with one down and they tie the score on a sac fly by Peralta.  Boesch comes in to score.  BOTTOM 7: DETROIT 7, MINNESOTA 7.

9:40  Score tied and the Twins change pitchers.  Mijares out, Dumatrait in.  Two on, two out.  Raburn up.  Boston trying to come back at Fenway but they will fall short.  They trail 10-5 in the top of the 9th.  Same story in Toronto where the Jays comeback will likely be too little too late.  They trail the Indians 6-2 in the 8th.  Rayburn fouls to right and leaves the two men on.  Too bad.  A hit there would have raised his average over .200 as he was at .199 when he came to the plate.  Al Alburquerque coming on to start the 8th. TOP 8: DETROIT 7, MINNESOTA 7.

9:53p: Alburquerque is perfect.  1-2-3 with 2 punch-outs.  Furbush meanwhile, coming on to get the last out in the 7th, has now worked 9 innings in his ML career and has not allowed a run.  He has, in other words, begun his career with what amounts to a comlete-game shutout.  We are going to the bottom of the 8th and we are still all tied up.  BOTTOM 8: DETROIT 7, MMINNESOTA 7.

9:59p  The Tigers threaten in the bottom of the 8th.  A single, the pitcher tried and failed to get the lead runner on a sac bunt, and then a sac bunt that worked (nice job there by Wells–it was a perfect lay-down) and Detroit has ‘em at 2nd and 3rd with one out and the game tied.  It’s over in Boston.  The Red Sox threatened in the 9th but fell short 10-7 as the White Sox take the first 2 games of the series there. Boesch plates Worth–he’d started it all with that lead-off single–with a sac fly to right and Detroit leads 8-7.  They walk Miggy and the crowd roars in disapproval.  Don’t they know it just means they have to pitch to Martinez?  Meanwhile, who closes?  Valverde has been in 3 games in the last 2 days.  The inning ends on a fly out by Martinez and it looks like Joaquin Benoit is coming in to close it out.  I might’ve left Alburguerque in there…TOP 9: DETROIT 8, MINNESOTA 7.

10:13p: We may have to leave you to go to the locker room.  One on and one out here in the 9th after a flyout and a bloop single by Span.  Now Alexi Casilla walks so make it 2 on with 1 out.  We will, as they say in the business, keep it right here.  Oh, no.  It’s Morneau.  Left-handed hitter v right-handed pitcher and Justin’s hit two out tonight already.  Benoit gets ahead 0-2.  Got him!  He fouled a couple off before Benoit fooled him with a breaking ball.  Two on, two out.  One run game.  Michael Cuddyer is the hitter.  Nothing is easy.  Benoit goes 3-0 on Cuddyer.  Cuddyer bounces into a forceout at second.  Ballgame.  Off to the room….FINAL DETROIT 8, MINNESOTA 7.

Rain Delay Programming

Here's a little thing for a Monday even though it's Tuesday.  I was stuck at the ballpark Saturday night as we were in the midst of getting rained out (again) and with time to kill I found this radio show out of Philadelphia on the internet that I had first heard while chaperoning my daughter and a friend on a trip in New Jersey last summer.  It's the "Saturday Night Dance Party with Bob Pantano" and I'm a big fan.  He plays a lot of songs which I have either never heard before or which I have not heard for so long that I've forgotten I ever heard them in the first place.  So, while I was sitting there Saturday night, watching a tarp, I was listening to this...

Pretty nice, eh?  There's a lot going on in that song.  The artist is Robert John which, prior to the Google, I did not know.  And here's something else I did not know:  "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"? That's Robert John, too.  I know you've heard of that one.  Wee-mah-whac, ah-wee-mah-whack...


Anyway, thanks Philly station!  They had their own style of music in Philadelphia.  Perhaps you've heard of it.  TSOP.  The Sound of Philadelphia.  


We had our own style of music here in Detroit, too.  Perhaps you've heard of it.  Motown.  But I bet you've never heard of the Detroit Emeralds:

How can you not LOVE THAT?  He's not just gonna buy her the dress.  He's gonna buy her the ironing board so she can keep that new dress looking sharp.  What a guy, am I right?!


Anyway, that's how I kill time during rain delays.  I find old songs and then I listen to them and then I pass them along to you.


Well, no rain tonight, we hear.  The Tigers have the Twins in for game 2 of a 3-game.  Max Scherzer goes for Detroit.  He was, just a week ago Saturday night in Pittsburgh, looking to become the first Tigers starter to have a 7-0 record in the month of May since 1939.  In his first 9 starts of the season he was 6-0 and the Tigers were 7-2.  His ERA was 2.81 and opponents were hitting .257 off him.  But he got cuffed around a little bit that night in Pittsburgh and then got shelled by the Red Sox here last Thursday in a game Detroit lost 14-2. In his last two starts then, Scherzer is 0-2 and the Tigers are 0-2.  His ERA is 11.74 and opponents are hitting .400 off him.  


By the way, tonight's is game #54 for the Tigers in 2011.  We play 162 at this level, which means that after tonight, the season will be exactly one-third through.  If they Tigers win, they will hit the milestone a mere 2 games over the .500 mark.  If they lose, they will be right at .500 with a record of 27-27.  In either event, it is not good enough.


First pitch is 7:05 EDT and we will be there to blog it for you and to get all the postgame quotes and such.  Unless we have fallen victim to heat exhaustion, that is.  It's 90 right now, heading for a high of 93.  Should still be around the 90-degree mark at First Pitch.  We'll see.

Thoughts on the Red Sox v Tigers and My Role In All Of This

I know a lot of you are wondering what it is I am doing at Comerica Park for the Tigers games, etc. I am sending audio material to some stations in outstate Michigan that can't afford to staff the games themselves.  But, acting together...they can buy me off.  Sometimes I send them a sound snippet (called an "actuality") like this one in which Detroit manager Jim Leyland comments on Max Scherzer giving up 7 runs on 7 hits in 2 innings today by saying something I couldn't explain to you if I tried, so just listen to it, okay?

I also file a more in-depth game wrap-up, but the thing of it is, I'm quirky.  After Boston beat Detroit 14-1 Thursday, I sent this off for public consumption.  It contains my fun exchange with Boston manager Terry Francona.  I'm calling it, "What A Grinder!"

Oh, and Francona had this to say about his team scoring 14 runs in a game for the second day in a row.

So, there you have it. This is what I do...

Tigers Ripped Off in Beantown

I finally got around to watching the Tigers game.  You want to know what I think, right?  I think this:  The boys can say, "We wuz robbed," and the boys would be correct. 

With the bases loaded and two out in the 7th inning of a scoreless game tonight in Boston, Austin Jackson completed his ten-pitch at bat by checking his swing  for sure on a 3-2 Clay Buchholz heater which was high and out of the strike zone for sure, but on the appeal first base umpire Gary Cederstrom ruled a swing and a miss and rung him up and that was that.  The Tigers should have had a run in on a bases-loaded walk and a 1-0 lead with the bases still loaded.  Jim Leyland barked about it, but there was nothing he nor anyone could do, becuase this is how baseball works.  On balls and strikes (and everything else, mostly) once the umpire decrees, it doesn't matter if you've got Perry Mason defending you, you are out.  It doesn't help one get the call if one leads the American League in strikeouts as Jackson, now with 53, does.

Max Schlereth came on in relief of Ryan Perry with two out in the 8th inning of the 0-0 game after Perry had retired the only two hitters he faced in relief of Phil Coke.  Schlereth walked the first hitter he faced, Carl Crawford, on a 3-2 pitch before .212 hitter Jarrod (gee, I really thought it was "Gerald") Saltalamacchia banged a wall-ball high off the monster near where it meets the center-field wall and Crawford, running on contact with two out, scored the only run of the game standing up.

Victor Martinez led off the 9th with a two-strike double off Jonathan Papelbon and pinch-runner Andy Dirks made third with one out via a Jhonny Peralta groundout.  It would be the last ball the Tigers would put in play.  Alex Avila took the first pitch which was about as grooved as a Papelbon pitch gets before the Red Sox closer went up the ladder to get Avila to swing at two which were probably out of the strike zone.  Up came Ryan Rayburn, fourth in the AL when it comes to striking out, and he also gazed lovingly at a first pitch he could have driven to who knows where if only he'd swung.  He too would go down flailing, (strikeout number 48) and that was that.  A tough loss for the Tigers if ever there was one, in the rain, the mist and the fog in Boston with the game-tying run at third with less than two out in the 9th and Detroit unable to deliver the goods.

Nice outing by Phil Coke, so there is that, at least.  7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER.  And all for nothing.

Rich Kincaide Is Watching MLB.TV Again

I did tonight what I do most nights: I watch baseball on MLB.tv--where I have access to every game, except the game involving the team in my home market, Detroit.  I have a new blog on MLBLOGS.com and I thought I'd try it out.  Technical glitches aplenty, though, so I don't really know for sure whether these 3155 words written in real time between around 9pm (EDT) and 1:30am this morning actually made the net or not.  But I reproduce them for you now, at this time, in this place:
------------------- ------------------------------ ----------------------------

I'm going to watch the Tigers-Red Sox game tonight on the computer and since I live in the Detroit market, I will have to wait until 90 minutes after the game is over to see it.  So, no spoilers, okay?

UPDATE: OKAY, I SAW A TWEET AND I KNOW THE TIGERS LOST 1-0.  GEE, THEY HAD THE TYING RUN AT THIRD IN THE 9TH.


The reason I'm waiting is so that I can utilize the crowd noise overlay feature and watch the game not in silence as would be the case were I to simply mute the audio, but with that crowd noise in the background: the same way it would be were I covering the game in person like I do at Comerica Park.  I don't like having my opinions and judgements colored by what an announcer or a color guy might say.  You know?

And, truth be told, I am not a fan of the Tigers broadcasters.  There are a lot of crews I don't care for.  Rick Manning sounds like he's really sold on himself in Cleveland and I hate Ken Harrelson so much--(as a broadcaster because he's such a homer; I'm sure he's a fine person)--that I sometimes bring him up when the White Sox are getting hammered just to listen to him whine to name but two. 

But some I like.  Michael Kay on the YES Network is outstanding.  I enjoy listening to Dick Enberg in San Diego, he goes on and on, and, speaking of which, Vin Scully, maybe the best of all time, continues to turn in the best broadcast in The Show today out of Los Angeles.  Vin skips the odd road trip now, but when he's behind the mike, I'm watching the game on MLB.TV.  I love the guy.  I make sure I tune in (of course on computer that should read, "I navigate over") at broadcast time every night I can just to hear him open his broadcast with these simple words; "It's time for Dodger baseball!" 

One thing about Scully.  He works alone.  And, as I say, he's the best in the business.  You'd think somebody would pick up on this and gas their color guy with all of his inside baseball bullcrap and let a guy work alone but none has, so far.  I watch a lot of games, and I mean A LOT OF GAMES on MLB-TV.  Right now I have the Orioles-Yankees game on as well as the White Sox-Indians.  I have to watch the Indians because they lead the Tigers by 5 in the AL Central--besides, you have to watch the other teams in your division--and the game in Baltimore happens to be the most attractive of the other early games tonight.  Plus, it, unlike most of the other non-west coast games tonight, is competitive with the Yanks leading at Camden Yards 1-0 in the 9th. Their run was unearned.  The game in Chicago's good, too.  Jake Peavy is shutting out the Indians 1-0 in the bottom of the 6th.  We have a full slate of west coasters tonight (Sculley's going to be calling the LA-San Fransisco game from Dodger Stadium, for example), so I'll up late with you.

I see we have a rain delay in Boston, so who knows when we'll get to see that Tigers game tonight.  They kept us waiting for a full two hours last night before they called the game in Detroit.  I started telling whomever would listen after the delay and lasted for an hour that we wouldn't be playing last night but they didn't believe me.  I dunno.  I went, as I note at the top of this blog, to my first Tigers game in 1963.  That should buy me some cred in these matters, but no...

Meanwhile, it's raining in Baltimore and Mariano Rivera has blown the save.  Two singles and a sac fly by Vlad Guerrero plated the run that tied it at 1 and they are going to extras.  And Peavy has thrown only 65 pitches and has allowed only 2 hits as the Indians (try to) bat against him with a man down in the 7th.  Peavy could be as big as story as there is in the Bigs this year.

I watched Peavy make his debut in Los Angeles (okay, Anaheim) last week.  He was trailing when he left, but I the White Sox won in extras, the go-ahead run scoring when LA's Jepson threw a wild pitch while trying to issue an intentional walk.  You don't see that every night.  He sailed it 10 feet over his catchers head.  In Chicago, Lillibridge just made an amazing sliding catch on the warning track in center to get the first out of the 8th,  Peavy still in there.  But back to that game last week against the Angels.  It ended with what I think will go down as the best play in the majors this season.  Let's test my blogging skills and see if we can find the play and insert it for your enjoyment.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jspmlb

Well, there's the link to it, anyway. (Click it, it's worth it.)  WordPress wants $60 (ok, $59.97) for a feature which would allow me to embed the video, but I don't have that kind of cash and even if I did, I doubt I'd blow it on that.

I just heard Scully say, "It's time for Dodger baseball"; Peavy gets the game to the 9th allowing only 3 hits; the O's and Yankees have gone to the 11th; and the rain delay is over in Boston.  The night continues...
Peavy came out for the 9th, a bit of  surprise for a guy making his second start after surgery which could have, perhaps should have, finished him off for good, but instead he finishes the game and logs a 3-hit shutout with 8K and 0W.  Wow.  The O's have 'em loaded with  1 out in the 11th, oops, make it 2 out as Luke Scott fans when pretty much all he had to do was put a ball in play to beat the Yankees.  Weiters flies out and that, as Scully always says, is that.  On to the 12th in Baltimore as the Orioles let a great chance go by.

The Yanks let the O's off the hook in the 12th, returning the favor when Jeter hits a 40-foot  ground out to 3rd with two in scoring position and two out in the inning.

Trevor Plouffe, shortstop for the Twins, has just overthrown first base by about 15 feet to give the A's an extra out in the 2nd.  The Twins lead 1-0 in the second with two out and, thanks to the miscue, the A's have men on second and third in when they should be grabbing their mitts and heading out to play the field.  A Kevin Kouzmanoff single scores both runners and the Twins, 13.5 games out in the Central and the most disappointing team in baseball by far so far, trail in Oakland 2-1 when they should have been out of the inning ahead 1-0.

The Tigers lost.  I know this because, even with the scores blacked out, I see Boston did not have to bat in the bottom of the 9th at Fenway.  This is not a good sign as I doubt that the Bostons would have declined their At bats had they been, in fact, trailing.  Besides that, the Tigers haven't Tweeted much all night.  I don't know how it is for your team, but the Tigers only Tweet when something good happens and they have been largely silent on Twitter on this night. 

Baltimore has runners and 2nd and 3rd with two out in the 13th.  (See, there's a lot going on out there.)  Again the Orioles fail and the Yanks get their lead-off man on in the 13th.  NY loads 'em up and A-Rod takes a called third and bitches about it.  Accardo is the Baltimore pitcher and I don't know much about him.

Plouffe made up for the error that wound up costing the Twins  2 runs in the second by singling in 2 runs in the third and Minnesota leads again, 3-2.  Dickerson strikes out in Baltimore (this is the first I've heard of a Yankee named Dickerson) and the bases remain loaded for NY, now with 2 out in the 13th.  Gardner grounds out to first and for the umpteenth time, a team blows an extra-inning scoring chance in Baltimore tonight.  The bottom of the 13th is coming up.

At Dodger Stadium, Scully's not bumming even if the Giants lead 2-0 in the second and have the bases loaded with none out because Scully never bums.  You can't ever tell by listening to him if LA is up or down.  What a pro!  (But the Dodgers are in trouble tonight.)

We are "down" now to 7 in progress games around the Majors.  Should we just type on until the night is done?

We may have to write all night.  The Yankees, again bidding to win that game in Baltimore, have a man at second with nobody out in the 14th.  And the Dodgers go down 1-2-3 in LA where Matt Cain has retired 12 in a row.

Cain begins the 5th at Dodger Stadium and another Matt, LA's Kemp, ruins the perfect game and all the rest of it with a homer.  It's the first homer he's ever hit off Cain, says Scully.  The lead-off man does not reach in the bottom of the 14th in Baltimore which might be the first time in the extra innings that the lead-off man has been retired.  Felix Pie (they say P-ay, I say PIE) has his potential gamer caught on the track up against the wall by that guy Dickerson of NY.

Texas and KC are in extras, too.  That game is in the 11th and I haven't had time to click over and see what's up at The K tonight.  I should be able to log onto that Tigers game in about half an hour.  The O's are out in order in the 14th, so it's on to the 15th inning at Camden Yards!

For the fourth straight inning in extra innings, and for the tenth time in the game, New York gets the leadoff man on in the 15th.  The Dodgers, trailing 4-0 when the 5th began, follow the leadoff homer by Kemp by loading the bases with none out.  Two out now and the bases still loaded in Chavez Ravine.  The Orioles, with two on and none out, bring in the last relief pitcher they have left in the bullpen.  The Dodgers fail to get a run out of that bases-loaded none out situation.

After 13 singles and 15 innings, Robinson Cano gets the first extra base hit of the night for New York and it scores two.  Dickerson then takes a pitch to the head from Gonzalez, and he's down in a heap.  Gonzales is ejected and Dickerson staggers to his feet.  Guthrie, slated to start for Baltimore tomorrow, may have to come in to pitch now.

Guthrie is indeed in for the Orioles with the Yankees ahead 5-3 and none down in the 15th.  Texas scored two in the top of the 11th and KC is now batting in the bottom of the inning with one down and none on.  A sac fly in Baltimore is the first out of the inning for NY and ups their lead to 4-1.

Baltimore, down 3, gets the first two men on in the bottom of the 15th.

Game over in KC, 5-4 Texas in 11. The Royals had 1st and 3rd with 1 out in 10th, but Arthur Rhodes, featured this week in Sports Illustrated as a LOOG (Left Handed One Out Guy) induces an infield popup and gets out of the jam.  Six games still going.  We're going to Oakland next as the A's have tied the Twins 3-3, with that game now in the 8th.

Incredible in Balt.  An apparent single that would have loaded the bases for the Orioles with one out, hits baseruner Snyder instead and so it's two on and two out instead and the next batter makes an out and the game is over: Yankees 4, Orioles 1 (15).  Gary Thorne, tacitly noting that the game ended at 12:05am, says, "We'll see you tonight for game two of the series."

5 games still going on around the majors.  Still tied in Oakland, now top 9 with one out.  (Can you believe I pretty much do this every night?  I watch baseball.  It's what I do.)

I hate to say it, but Atlanta is tied 3-3 in Arizona.  More extras?  The A's and Twins are tied 3-3 in the 9th, also.  Joe Nathan is coming in for the Twins with one out and none on.  He's lost his closers job this year and there's a reason for that.,  We'll see if he can get the Twins to the 10th.

I don't know if he will.  Kurt Suzuki rips the fourth pitch Nathan throws and there's a man in scoring position for the A's with one out.

We've clicked over to Arizona where the Diamondbacks have the winning run at second with one down in the bottom of the 9th in a 3-3 game.

Justin Upton flies to the Warning Track.  5 more feet and it would have been a walk-off homer for the D-Backs.  Two out there.  Two out in Oakland, too.  Mark Ellis struck out and was struck by what he thought was the unfairness of the last two strikes, both called.  A strikeout ends the 9th in Arizona and that game is now in extra innings.  Nathan gets out of the jam as pinch-hitter Jackson (is that Conner?) grounds into a force and that game is now in extra innings.  Also.

It was Conner Jackson batting for Oakland in the 9th...and it wasn't.  He spells it "Coner", not Conner.  I did not know that.  Based on the length of the 15-inning game in Baltimore--about 5 hours--if any of these late games go 15, we will be watching baseball (it's what we do, you know) until 3 am.

J.J. Putz makes a bare-hand stab to get a putout in 'Zona while in Oak the Twins get a two-base sac bunt when, following a leadoff single, Daric Barton sails his throw of an Alexi Casilla bunt to second into centerfield and it's two in scoring position for Minnesota with none out.

Trevor Plouffe, whose throwing error gave Oakland two runs way back in the 2nd, gives the Twins the lead 4-3 with a sac fly. He's knocked in 3 tonight.  Just checked in at Seattle, perhaps the prettiest ballpark anywhere, and the Mariners lead the Angels 3-0 in the 8th.  Vargas went 7 innings and allowed 3 hits and no runs.  Jamey Wright came out to start the 8th for the M's and LA threatens with 2 on and 2 out.

Matt Capps in to close in Oakland.  He get's the first two hitters.  Wright's troubles continue in Seattle.  Bases loaded, 2 out, Hank Conger up for LA.  Still a 3-0 Seattle lead, but the tying runs are aboard. Conger gets frozen on a full-count curve which breaks over the plate for strike three to end the inning.  Sims, the Seattle play-by-play man, is amped and all impressed by this turn of events. Barton blasts a full-count Capps fastball to the track but it stays in the yard for the final out.  The fence says 367.  Barton hit it 365.  Twins 4, A's 3 (10).  Four games still going.

Atlanta has taken a 4-3 lead in the 11th in Arizona.  I do not know how, but I will try to find out.  Diory Hernandez (never heard of him) singled in the go-ahead run for the Braves.  Now in the bottom of the 11th at Chase Field.  That's where the D-Backs play, isn't it?  Chase Field?

Craig Kimbrel on to nail down the save for Atlanta.  We've checking in in Los Angeles for the first time in a long time right now as the Dodgers, down 5-2 to the Giants in the 8th now, have two on with two out.  That guy with the beard, Brian Wilson, is on to get a four-out save.  Juan Uribe greets him with a two-run double and now it's 5-4, SF.  Scully says this is the first time Wilson's been in a game in a week.  He's the third pitcher of the inning for SF as Cain took the game into the 8th.  Now Troy Loney hits a roller into right to score Uribe and tie the game, 5-5!  I'm more excited than Scully.  And the Diamondbacks have just won with two runs in the bottom of the 11th to offset the run the Braves got in the top of the inning.  I believe they got four singles to score two runs and win.  I went to Gameday and checked because I couldn't watch that game (I was listening) and the Dodgers comeback and write it all down at the same time and it turns out that former Brave Kelly Johnson tied it with a single and Justin Upton won it with another.  And, as another old announcer used to say, "How about that!?"  Seattle has completed their 3-0 win over LA.  Brandon League the save.  Just like that, we are down to 2 games going in the Majors and wouldn't you know, one of them--the game at Dodger Stadium--is all tied up.

Scully just reminded me of something we wrote about earlier.  Yes, the Dodgers scored 3 in the 8th to tie the game 5-5 and deny Cain (7.1 IP, 3 H) a decision, but remember the 5th when LA had the bases loaded with none out and failed to score.

Cody Ross has just hit a 3-run homer barely fair down the left field line with 2 out in the 9th and the Giants undue that 3-run LA comeback in the bottom of the 8th with 3 of their own in the top of the 9th.  They now lead 8-5.  What a ballgame.  Haven't most of them been great?  This is why we watch.  Scully: "[Lance] Cormier, stung to the heart on that one." It's over in SD where the Padres get the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the 9th but lose to Milwaukee, 5-2.  1 game still going in the Majors.  And, by the way, if Wilson can get the Dodgers out in the 9th, he will have a blown save and a win in the same game.  Pitchers call that "chiseling" a win.  But will he?  The Dodgers get a leadoff single in the 9th.

Wilson, after giving up that single,  is throwing warm-up pitches from the Dodger Stadium mound and I'm not sure why.  The trainer came out, but Wilson says he's okay and he'll continue.  Jamie Carroll bounced to the mound and Wilson gets the out but even that wasn't easy.  Wilson knocked it down and scrambled to pick up the ball and get the throw to first in time.

It's over in LA.  Ross's homer in the 9th wins it for SF 8-5.  Scully signs off with his usual, "Stay tuned for Dodgers live, coming up next.  Good night, everybody!"  That says it all, pretty much.  It is 1:30 in the morning.  There are no games still being played in the Majors.  And I still haven't watched that Tigers-Boston game.

May 16, 2011: Blue Jays (at) Tigers

It occurs to us that even though we've been at just about all the games, we have yet to live-blog a Tigers game so, what the heck, we're here....

Baseball is the only game we cover where it is expected that one will actually do work while the game is in progress.  One keeps score at the ballgame.  At all other games, one merely sits and watches and waits for statistics--halftime starts, first period summary, etc.--to be handed out.  I have no earthly idea why this is.  I've never, for example, seen a reporter take a scorecard down into the locker room in case he might need to refer to it to check on something which may or may not have happened, so I'm not sure why we keep score, but we do.  And while I was writing this, Juan Rivera of the Blue Jays made an out and I don't know how because I wasn't watching.  Used to be you'd have to ask and somebody else would have to look at their card and tell you.  Now, I can check on-line and nobody knows I wasn't paying attention.  We do live in the best of times.  We really do.  (Rivera was an f8 by the way, and by the way, if you hit the shift button after you hit the "f" when you are trying to type "8", it looks like you are writing a dirty word instead.  So, by way of a Pro Tip, don't do that.)

We are in the bottom of the 2nd inning here at Comerica Park and the main thing we can tell you is that it is cold.    44 degrees at game time.  In the middle of May?  The Tigers lead 1-0 and should lead by more.  They had the bases loaded with nobody out in the first with Miguel (.309, 7, 27) Cabrera up and wound up scoring only once off Kyle Drabek, the Toronto starter and the son of the former Cy Young Award winner.  Cabrera hit a sac fly and Victor Martinez, hitting .459 in May, grounded weakly up the middle and it was a 6, 6-3 DP.  (You may want to learn how to score a game yourself if you want to follow along.  What I just wrote is a double play in which the ball is fielded by the shortstop who steps on second base for the first out and throws to first base for the second.  It's easy when you know how.)  We'll check back in with you as events warrant.

Andy Dirks is making his Major League debut here tonight and a few moments ago he collected his first major league hit, singling to left.  The culmination of a life's dreams, wouldn't you say?  Two or three pitches later, he got picked off first.  It's hard to feel much worse than you feel when you get picked off, especially with people watching.  Which, incidentally is what we have here, sort of.  The crowd is small, probably as small an audience as we have seen this season.  We're in the fifth now and the Tigers continue to hang on to that 1-0 lead.  And I almost forgot: Max Scherzer is bidding to go to 7-0 this season.  The last Tigers pitcher to get off to such a good start was Jeremy Bonderman who went 8-0 to start the 2007 season.  BOTTOM OF THE 5TH: DETROIT 1, TORONTO 0.

The Tigers just got out of the biggest jam of the night, so far.  Corey Patterson and Juan Batista singled to open the 6th, but Scherzer escaped by getting Edwin Encarnacion to pop to the catcher, Aaron Hill to look at a called 3rd and Juan River to ground into a third-to-second force.  Nice work by Max.  Is it the key to the ballgame?  We'll know in a little while.  Cabrera has just walked with one down in the Detroit 6th--his 34th base on balls, second in the American League--and as such has no at bats tonight with a sac fly and two walks.  Victor Martinez, (did I mention he was hitting .459 in May heading into tonight's game?) bounced back the pitcher and Jhonny Peralta lined out to left and that, as Vin Scully would say, was that.  ON TO THE 7TH: DETROIT 1, TORONTO 0.


The Blue Jays have tied it up.  For the second inning in a row, the first two Jays singled but this time, a successful bunt and a sac fly produced a run for Toronto.  Cabrera was charged with an error for failing to catch a foul pop, rendering the run unearned.  Although it still counts as a run so, into the bottom of the 7th the teams have traded sacrifice flys in a 1-1 tie.  BOTTOM OF THE 7TH: DETROIT 1, TORONTO 1.


We are in the top of the 8th, Scherzer is out and Joaquin Benoit is in and for the third consecutive innings, the first two Blue Jays have singled.  So the Tigers are in a spot of trouble.  They are in a spot of trouble on offense, too.  The Tigers have 3 singles in this game.  Three.

Toronto makes them pay, again.  A double by Aaron Hill is the third straight hit allowed by Benoit and it scores a run and it means that when Benoit finally gets an out, it comes on a sacrifice fly and costs him and the Tigers another run.  And since Hill moved from second to third on that same fly ball, when J.P. Arencibia hits a fly to deep left, it's yet another sac fly and yet another run for the Blue Jays.  It's not like Toronto hasn't earned it, they've outhit the Tigers 12-3 in this one.  TWO OUTS, TOP OF THE EIGHTH: DETROIT 1, TORONTO 4.


That was quite an inning for Benoit and the Tigers.  Three runs--earned--on 4 hits in only 14 pitches as he ERA goes up to 7.98, which is a hair on the high side.  BOTTOM OF THE 8TH: DETROIT 1, TORONTO 4.

Game 6: Life on the Knife Edge

Pre-Game Skate:  Have you ever noticed that the only time the word "staved" ever get's used is when some team in some sports wins in a game which, had they lost, would have knocked them out of the race for a playoff spot or out of the playoffs themselves?  We gather tonight to see if the Detroit Red Wings can stave.  The Wings, down three games to none in this best-of-seven as of six days ago, now trail three games to two.

A few nights ago I discussed how much I dislike elimination games on account of nervousness.  This is that, 3x.  Tonight marks the third straight game in which Detroit has faced elimination.  The locals stayed alive in Game 4 here last Friday night on a goal by Darren Helm which broke a 3-3 tie with about a minute and half to go after San Jose had rallied from a 3-0 deficit to tie the game.  Sunday, in Game 5, the Wings were done.  Dead.  (How dead?  Think Robert De Niro in "Casino" talking about his wife's boyfriend.  That dead.)  The Wings were smoked like a trout.  They trailed, on the road, 3-1 in the third period.  Thanks for playing and here are some lovely parting gifts, right?  Then, the Red Wings found a way to score 3 goals on Antti Niemi on 6 final period shots and now trail this Western Conference semi-final three games to two.  Johan Franzen will not dress tonight.  He didn't play at all in the final 37 minutes Sunday.  His spot in the lineup will be taken by...we don't know yet, for certain.  It will be either Mike Modano or Jiri Hudler.  Both are taking warm up.  My guess: Modano.  I think if there's a loose puck near the Sharks net you'd rather it be on his stick than Hudler's, but it's not my call.  Ryan Clowe is injured or has the flu or something and is out of the San Jose lineup.  He's been good for the Sharks in this series.  I think that's all we have for you right now.  Boy, am I nervous.  Did I mention that?
8:00pm:  It's Modano.  He's not only dressed for tonight's game, he's starting on a line with Pavel Datsyuk (I still can't get over the play he made on the game-winner Sunday in San Jose) and Tomas Holmstrom.  Kris Draper's a healthy scratch--if the Wings lose his career will end like that, as a healthy scratch--which means Drew Miller gets to play tonight.
8:15pm:  We are underway.  One shot on goal in the first minute, a long one by Logan Couture and an easy save for Detroit's Jimmy Howard.  You like the first one to be an easy one.
8:18pm:  Danny Cleary just got run from behind as San Jose takes the body in a big way to start the game.  Incredibly, no call even though Cledary went head-first into the boards.  But moments later they Sharks Dan Boyle goes off for holding at 3:59.  Detroit is 4-18 (22.2%) on the power play in the series.
8:22pm:  The Wings are crashing the net and have outshot the Sharks 7-1 in the first 7 minutes but there is no score.  Detroit came oh-so-close on that power play when Cleary failed to tuck the rebound of a Modano blast from the line.  Yes, Modano is on the Detroit power play tonight.  13:01 left, 1ST PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 0.
8:30pm:  We are halfway through the first and the Wings have an 11-2 edge in shots on goal.  Still even on the big board, though.  9:49 left, 1st PERIOD, DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 0.
8:34pm:  Sharks power play at 14:19.  This their first of the night, they are 4-21 (19%) in the series.  Jimmy Howard just made a great save with his left skate on a drive from the line with about seven minutes left in the period.  Phil Myre, the former goalie for the Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers called it an old fashion kick save, the kind you don't see very often anymore.  "Kick save and a beauty," I said.  Old time hockey, eh?  Speaking of which, old-time hockey, that is, did I mention I saw Gordie Howe before the game tonight.  Because I did. Oh, and Devin Setoguchi just got called for hooking, negating the San Jose power play.  5:09 left, 1st PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 0.
8:49pm:  The period--dominated by Detroit as they outshot the San Jose 18-6, ends scoreless.  I'll tell you, if you play all night the way the Red Wings played in the first, you win.  Unless the Hockey Gods have it in for you, that is.  END OF THE FIRST PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 0.
9:06pm:  Second period underway.
9:10pm:  Drew Miller just missed the best scoring chance so far.  He had a rebound ten feet out in front with Niemi down and out and he slid it wide.  No second period shots for the Sharks yet: 21-6, Detroit at this point.  The Sharks are going on the power play as Datsyuk--a finalist for the Lady Bing which goes to "Most Gentlemanly Player" gets called for roughing.  Of all people.  Of all infractions.  15:50 left, 2nd PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 0.  
9:17pm:  I pride myself on not cheering in the pressbox but I just screamed, "Oh, oh, oh!" as Cleary who had been in the box serving the extra penalty given to Datsyuk in his exchange with Torrey Mitchell, took a pass, was in alone, pulled Niemi to create and open net and hit the post as dead-on as you can ever hit one.  You worry about the "not meant to be" factor at this point.  I mean, that was a certain goal for Cleary and he didn't score it... 11:35 left, 2nd PERIOD; DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 0.
9:25pm:  Detroit power play as Modano gets face-firsted into the boards in front of the Detroit bench by Patrick Marleau at 11:39. It's boarding for Marleau who is tonight the unwitting victim of controversy as being called "gutless" by Jeremy Roenick on the NHL Network.  And the Wings take a make-even call as Holmstrom is whistled for goalie interference at 11:32.  8:28 left, 2nd PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 0.
9:30pm:  Pavel Datsyuk just had a shot blocked.  Had it gotten through it would have been his first shot on goal in the game.  There is some suspicion that he's not shooting nor taking faceoffs because he's playing with a broken wrist.  That was the press room talk before the game at any rate.  6:27 left, 2nd PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 0.
9:38pm:  We've got just over a minute to go in the period and the Wings have held the Sharks to 7 shots in the period and 13 for the game.  And still, incredibly, the game remains scoreless.  1:15 left, 2nd PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 0.
9:40pm:  Todd Bertuzzi is tripped behind the Sharks net, fairly obvious call as the guy who did the tripping, San Jose's Douglas Murray, had his stick go flying high in the air on the play.  The call comes with only :20 left in the period.  But, the Wings will start the 3rd with a man advantage.  The Wings missed another golden one as Niemi robbed Holmstrom from the low rim of the left circle with a couple seconds left on the clock.  Detroit outshot the Sharks 14-7 in the period, have outshot them 32-13 in the game.  It's an amazing game.  Amazing that San Jose is still in this thing, I mean.  But, they are and I've seen that turn out to be not such a good thing.  SECOND INTERMISSION: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 0.  
9:59pm:  The 3rd period begins...
10:05pm:  The puck slides between Howards knee and barely, just barely, crosses the goal line before the Detroit netminder can cover.  It was a goal close enough to review.  The whole puck has to cross the whole line and this one did by about a 16th of an inch.  The goal comes on the Sharks 16th shot of the night (Detroit has 34), at 3:54 of the third period.  I think Logan Couture scored it.  He's the guy who scored that huge goal for San Jose in Game 3 here in Detroit last year when Detroit coughed up a 3-1 lead in the third period and with it, their chance to beat the Sharks in the series.  Assist to Dany Heatley.  15:57 left, 3rd PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 1.
10:10pm:  Still a lot of time left but I don't have a good feeling about this.  Maybe it's just the fan in me being pessimistic like a fan would be (you can supress being a fan but you can't eliminate it) but this one feels like it's    going to be the ultimate hard-luck loss.  13:53 left, 3rd PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 1.
10:16pm:  Niemi just made the save of the century.  He was down and out,4 reduced to making snow angels--helpless in a word--and he lifted his left leg straight up in the air to deny Henrik Zetterberg who looked to have the entire upper half of the net there for the taking from 15 feet away.  As good a save as I have ever seen.  Except Phil Myre says he didn't make it, that the shot went high.  And Phil Myre is usally right.  9:45 left, 3rd PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 1.
10:19pm:  And we are--just like that--tied.  Zetterberg tips a right-circle wrist shot fired by Kronwall and something FINALLY got by Niemi.  The goal at 10:38.  Filppula also assists.  The building is alive again.  The Red Wings are alive again.  9:12 left, 3rd PERIOD: DETROIT 1, SAN JOSE 1.
10:25pm:  THE RED WINGS LEAD.  DATSYUK (WHO ELSE?) MADE THE PLAY ACROSS TO FILPPULA AND HE BURIED IT INTO AN EMPTY NET.  SAN JOSE D-MAN JASON DEMERS TRIED TO BLOCK IT IN THE CREASE BUT HE HAD HIS BACK TURNED AND HAD NO CHANCE.  I DIDN'T GET THE TIME (12:32 AS IT TURNS OUT) BUT WE'VE GOT A LITTLE UNDER 7 TO GO NOW.  Penalty to Abdelkader at 13:14.  WHAT A GAME.  3RD PERIOD: DETROIT 2, SAN JOSE 1.
10:34pm:  We are standing on the bench again, in order to see.  The Wings killed the penalty.  They still lead by a goal.  This is one of the greatest games I have ever seen.  2:30 left, 3rd PERIOD: DETROIT 3, SAN JOSE 1.
10:33pm:  EMPTY NET GOAL! EMPTY GOAL BY HELM!  THE WINGS WILL WIN.  THEY LEAD 3-1 WITH 1:05 TO GO.  I HAVE TO TO THE DRESSING ROOM NOW.  BEEN GREAT SHARING THIS ONE WITH YOU.  :40 LEFT, 3RD PERIOD: DETROIT 3, SAN JOSE 1.