http://richkincaide.mlblogs.com/2011/06/09/seattle-mariners-at-detroit-tigers-thursday-june-9-2011/
Feel free to join us there. We will paste and copy the night's effort in this space at the conclusion of the game.
It's a beautiful night for baseball here, by the way.
BP: We're about an hour from first pitch and we are excited about getting to see (6-3) Justin Verlander, in the parlance of the game, toe the slab tonight. The Tigers, 7-3 losers last night in Texas, have nonetheless won 8 of their last 10 and have pulled to within a game and half of first-place Cleveland in the American League Central Division. The Indians are idle tonight. They open a series at Yankee Stadium tomorrow night.
Let's go back to when this current Detroit hot streak began. It was a week ago Sunday--May 29--and the Tigers were playing the back end of day/night twin bill against the Boston Red Sox here at Comerica Park. Boston had won the opener a few hours earlier when David Ortiz broke a 3-3 tie (the Tigers had rallied from 3-0 down to even the score) by going yard in the 9th off Jose Valverde. The Tigers were staring a four-game sweep by Boston right in the eye. Also, when they took the field that night against Boston, Detroit trailed the Indians by 6 and a half games. Verlander was the Tigers starter in that game against Boston, and he, simply put, turned in one of the most impressive pitching performances I have ever seen. He was dominant. He was in command. You could see it. Verlander threw a career-high 132 pitches and the Tigers beat the Red Sox 3-0. Since then, as we say, the Tigers have been on a nice little run. The win over the Red Sox was the first of what turned out to be a four-game Detroit win streak. After losing the first game of their just-completed road trip, the Tigers reeled off another four-game win streak before losing that game at Texas last night. The Tigers didn't arrive back in Detroit until 3:15. Seattle--which blew a lead in Chicago late before coming back to beat the White Sox in 10, 7-4. The Mariners had to wait out a storm sitting in their plane on the tarmac at the Chicago airport. They didn't arrive in Detroit until 3:45 this morning.
Here are tonight's Official Game Notes for you:
Detroit Tigers Game Information.
Seattle Mariners Game Information.
First pitch is set for 7:05 EDT. A moment of silence for the late Jim Northrup precedes the start of tonight's game here at Comerica Park. We will be here to keep you abreast of developments here all evening long.
7:23 We are into the second inning here. Verlander got them out on 18 pitches in the top of the first--10 of them to Brendan Ryan who did something I'm pretty sure I've never seen before. After beating out a grounder to shortstop Jhonny Peralta for an infield single, Ryan noticed that nobody was paying attention to him and he noticed that nobody was covering second so off he went and he made it without a throw. More than one of us in the press box looked up to see him standing at second and asked, "How'd he get there?" And, how exactly to you score that? The base has to be accounted for. What do you call it? An infield double? Official Scorer Chuck Klonk watched the replay and ruled it a single with the runner taking second on the throw. As we say, it was a very unusual play. And speaking of unusual, Miguel Cabrera came up with runners on first and second, meaning Seattle starter Diug Fister had to pitch to him, and, first ball hitting, Cabrera grounded into a 5, 5-3 double play as Luis Rodriguez fielded the hard grounder, stepped on third for a force out and fired across to complete the 7th double play Cabrera has grounded into this season--tops on the Tigers. Verlander walked Mike Carp with one out in the second and then promptly picked him off first which is a really good way to respond to a base on balls. b-3: Detroit 0, Seattle 0.
8:01 The Tigers just did something silly. Alex Avila led off the third with a triple--he gapped it to right-center for his second 3-bagger of the season and the 8th by the Tigers as a team--and Detroit let him die there as Ryan Raburn popped to first, Austin Jackson took a called third (I wasn't wild about the call, for the record) and Don Kelly hit a routine fly to right. Geez. b-4: Detroit 0, Seattle 0.
8:06 You know you've had a good trip when you go ox5 in the last game of it, and still wind up with a .444 average on 12x27. That's what Brennan Boesch did on the 6-game trip to Chicago and Texas, and he's 1x1 tonight with a lead-off single here in the 3rd. Cabreara bounced to the right side to move him to third with one out.
8:08 Victor Martinez's fly to center wasn't deep enough for Boesch to score, so, for the second inning in a row, the Tigers have a man at third with two out, and for the second straight inning the man at third is still there as the innings ends as Andy Dirks pops up to the catcher. t-5: Detroit 0, Seattle 0.
8:23 The other night I was explaining how you score it when the catcher fails to catch a third strike and the batter-runner reaches first. It's a strikeout and either a wild pitch or a passed ball. We just had one here, and it cost the Tigers a run. Greg Halman was on 3rd (he showed good hustle moving up from second on a 2nd-out fly ball to deep right) and he scored when Verlander threw a strike-three wild pitch to Jack Wilson, enabling Wilson to reach first safely as Halman raced home from third. But, in the bottom of the inning Peralta singled and Avila tripled him home. Don Kelly plated Avila with a two-out single to left to give the Tigers the lead, 2-1. Avila is the third Detroit catcher known to have hit 2 triples in the same game, joining Brad Ausmus (1999) and Lance Parrish (1980). And now, Boesch has homered to right. It's his 8th of the year and with a man aboard, it makes it a big inning, a four-run inning for the Tigers. b-5 Detroit 2, Seattle 1.
8:42 We are wondering up here in the PB how much long Verlander will go tonight. He is through 6. He has thrown 103 pitches. I think the number tonight is 115. Others think he will still be out there in the 8th. I'd love to get another inning out of him. I know the bullpen's been great lately, but I don't like turning a game over to the pen with 9 outs to get if you don't have to. We are in the bottom of the 6th. Verlander has 8 strikeouts tonight, and he just struck out the side in the top of the inning, with a single mixed in.
8:53 Perfect. Verlander gets the side out in order on 11 pitches in the 7th. At 114 pitches, his night is done. I'm almost sure of it. With the Tigers up by 3, I look for Joaquin Benoit in the 8th and El Papa Grande in the 9th. Verlander has fanned 9, matching his season high. And here's something you will only find here (and don't tell anybody until after the game because I'm going to use it when I talk to Jim Leyland in the post-game presser): If Verlander wins tonight, no pitcher Leyland has had in his 20-year managing career will have won more games for him than Verlander. Doug Drabek won 90 games for Leyland in Pittsburgh. A Verlander win tonight would be his 20th with Verlander as manager.
9:00 I am wrong. Verlander comes out to start the 8th inning for Detroit. t-8: Detroit 4, Seattle 1.
9:08 Perfect, again. Verlander needs only 11 pitches to retire the side in the 8th. He gives up his 5th hit--all singles--but he also racks up his 10th strikeout, a season high. b-8: Detroit 4, Seattle 1.
9:20 Jose Valverde on in 9th. Two out, none on...walk. We'll have to wait a moment. Who am I kidding? This is baseball. Sometimes you have to wait a long time for the 27th out. Sometimes it doesn't come in time. But not tonight. Valverde gets a bouncer to 3rd to end it. Off to the locker room. FINAL: Detroit 4, Seattle 1.
Let's go back to when this current Detroit hot streak began. It was a week ago Sunday--May 29--and the Tigers were playing the back end of day/night twin bill against the Boston Red Sox here at Comerica Park. Boston had won the opener a few hours earlier when David Ortiz broke a 3-3 tie (the Tigers had rallied from 3-0 down to even the score) by going yard in the 9th off Jose Valverde. The Tigers were staring a four-game sweep by Boston right in the eye. Also, when they took the field that night against Boston, Detroit trailed the Indians by 6 and a half games. Verlander was the Tigers starter in that game against Boston, and he, simply put, turned in one of the most impressive pitching performances I have ever seen. He was dominant. He was in command. You could see it. Verlander threw a career-high 132 pitches and the Tigers beat the Red Sox 3-0. Since then, as we say, the Tigers have been on a nice little run. The win over the Red Sox was the first of what turned out to be a four-game Detroit win streak. After losing the first game of their just-completed road trip, the Tigers reeled off another four-game win streak before losing that game at Texas last night. The Tigers didn't arrive back in Detroit until 3:15. Seattle--which blew a lead in Chicago late before coming back to beat the White Sox in 10, 7-4. The Mariners had to wait out a storm sitting in their plane on the tarmac at the Chicago airport. They didn't arrive in Detroit until 3:45 this morning.
Here are tonight's Official Game Notes for you:
Detroit Tigers Game Information.
Seattle Mariners Game Information.
First pitch is set for 7:05 EDT. A moment of silence for the late Jim Northrup precedes the start of tonight's game here at Comerica Park. We will be here to keep you abreast of developments here all evening long.
7:23 We are into the second inning here. Verlander got them out on 18 pitches in the top of the first--10 of them to Brendan Ryan who did something I'm pretty sure I've never seen before. After beating out a grounder to shortstop Jhonny Peralta for an infield single, Ryan noticed that nobody was paying attention to him and he noticed that nobody was covering second so off he went and he made it without a throw. More than one of us in the press box looked up to see him standing at second and asked, "How'd he get there?" And, how exactly to you score that? The base has to be accounted for. What do you call it? An infield double? Official Scorer Chuck Klonk watched the replay and ruled it a single with the runner taking second on the throw. As we say, it was a very unusual play. And speaking of unusual, Miguel Cabrera came up with runners on first and second, meaning Seattle starter Diug Fister had to pitch to him, and, first ball hitting, Cabrera grounded into a 5, 5-3 double play as Luis Rodriguez fielded the hard grounder, stepped on third for a force out and fired across to complete the 7th double play Cabrera has grounded into this season--tops on the Tigers. Verlander walked Mike Carp with one out in the second and then promptly picked him off first which is a really good way to respond to a base on balls. b-3: Detroit 0, Seattle 0.
8:01 The Tigers just did something silly. Alex Avila led off the third with a triple--he gapped it to right-center for his second 3-bagger of the season and the 8th by the Tigers as a team--and Detroit let him die there as Ryan Raburn popped to first, Austin Jackson took a called third (I wasn't wild about the call, for the record) and Don Kelly hit a routine fly to right. Geez. b-4: Detroit 0, Seattle 0.
8:06 You know you've had a good trip when you go ox5 in the last game of it, and still wind up with a .444 average on 12x27. That's what Brennan Boesch did on the 6-game trip to Chicago and Texas, and he's 1x1 tonight with a lead-off single here in the 3rd. Cabreara bounced to the right side to move him to third with one out.
8:08 Victor Martinez's fly to center wasn't deep enough for Boesch to score, so, for the second inning in a row, the Tigers have a man at third with two out, and for the second straight inning the man at third is still there as the innings ends as Andy Dirks pops up to the catcher. t-5: Detroit 0, Seattle 0.
8:23 The other night I was explaining how you score it when the catcher fails to catch a third strike and the batter-runner reaches first. It's a strikeout and either a wild pitch or a passed ball. We just had one here, and it cost the Tigers a run. Greg Halman was on 3rd (he showed good hustle moving up from second on a 2nd-out fly ball to deep right) and he scored when Verlander threw a strike-three wild pitch to Jack Wilson, enabling Wilson to reach first safely as Halman raced home from third. But, in the bottom of the inning Peralta singled and Avila tripled him home. Don Kelly plated Avila with a two-out single to left to give the Tigers the lead, 2-1. Avila is the third Detroit catcher known to have hit 2 triples in the same game, joining Brad Ausmus (1999) and Lance Parrish (1980). And now, Boesch has homered to right. It's his 8th of the year and with a man aboard, it makes it a big inning, a four-run inning for the Tigers. b-5 Detroit 2, Seattle 1.
8:42 We are wondering up here in the PB how much long Verlander will go tonight. He is through 6. He has thrown 103 pitches. I think the number tonight is 115. Others think he will still be out there in the 8th. I'd love to get another inning out of him. I know the bullpen's been great lately, but I don't like turning a game over to the pen with 9 outs to get if you don't have to. We are in the bottom of the 6th. Verlander has 8 strikeouts tonight, and he just struck out the side in the top of the inning, with a single mixed in.
8:53 Perfect. Verlander gets the side out in order on 11 pitches in the 7th. At 114 pitches, his night is done. I'm almost sure of it. With the Tigers up by 3, I look for Joaquin Benoit in the 8th and El Papa Grande in the 9th. Verlander has fanned 9, matching his season high. And here's something you will only find here (and don't tell anybody until after the game because I'm going to use it when I talk to Jim Leyland in the post-game presser): If Verlander wins tonight, no pitcher Leyland has had in his 20-year managing career will have won more games for him than Verlander. Doug Drabek won 90 games for Leyland in Pittsburgh. A Verlander win tonight would be his 20th with Verlander as manager.
9:00 I am wrong. Verlander comes out to start the 8th inning for Detroit. t-8: Detroit 4, Seattle 1.
9:08 Perfect, again. Verlander needs only 11 pitches to retire the side in the 8th. He gives up his 5th hit--all singles--but he also racks up his 10th strikeout, a season high. b-8: Detroit 4, Seattle 1.
9:20 Jose Valverde on in 9th. Two out, none on...walk. We'll have to wait a moment. Who am I kidding? This is baseball. Sometimes you have to wait a long time for the 27th out. Sometimes it doesn't come in time. But not tonight. Valverde gets a bouncer to 3rd to end it. Off to the locker room. FINAL: Detroit 4, Seattle 1.
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