No Fireworks From Tigers Bats, Twins 2 Games Back
July 6th, 2009 | by jelletlambie |The Minnesota Twins took two out of three from the Tigers this weekend, climbing above the Chicago White Sox to regain second place, two games behind the Tigers.
After a thrilling, sweet 16th inning victory Friday night in the series opener the Tigers offense returned to its’ lowly form, posting five total runs in two losses to drop the series. The Tigers once again squandered a solid Edwin Jackson outing on Independence Day. Jackson went 6.1 innings, allowing six hits and four walks while striking out nine. The score was 3-2 when Bobby Seay came on to relieve him, but Justin Morneau burned the tired Seay for an RBI single to erase the Tigers deficit. While Jackson did set a season high with those nine whiffs he labored, throwing 122 pitches in the process. It was the second highest pitch count of the year for Edwin, behind the 132 pitch effort against the Rangers back on My 21st.
Francisco Liriano beat the Tigers for the second time this season, racking up eight strikeouts against only two walks and five hits in the process. Half of his four victories this year have been courtesy of the Tigers. His 5.49 ERA and 1.48 WHIP suggest he was more hittable than he’s been lately. Liriano has now won five of his last six starts dating back to June 5th.
Magglio Ordonez accounted for all three Detroit runs with his fourth home run of the season in the 7th inning, which temporarily gave the Tigers the lead. The center field blast brought his RBI total to 28 for the campaign.
Rick Porcello coughed up Sunday’s contest, thanks in large part to Adam Everett and his three run error in the fourth inning. The Tigers trailed 3-0 at that point and failed to even scuff up Twins starter Nick Blackburn until Brandon Inge hit his 19th home run in the ninth inning. Of course when the cleanup hitter is Don Kelly, what would you expect? Blackburn ran his record to 7-4 and evened his mark against the Tigers this year with the complete game win, His ERA on the season now stands at 2.94.
Offense, oh Offense – where have you gone oh Offense?
The Tigers scrapped and fought for 11 runs in Friday nights dramatic extended play victory (which never should have went to extras to begin with), but managed only five runs on 12 hits the remainder of the series. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – this offense needs help if this team intends to contend.
It is now 36 times in 81 games that this team has scored three runs or fewer in a game. Their record in those contests is 9-27.
With five very winnable games remaining (the Tigers will catch Zach Greinke) before the break I suspect it’s final audition time for a few Tigers that stand to be released via the trade market if things don’t improve significantly, and quickly.
Have a question or a comment? Leave your thoughts below or drop me a line at jelletlambie@gmail.com
Tags: Bobby Seay, Brandon Inge, Detroit Tigers, Edwin Jackson, Francisco Liriano, Magglio Ordonez, Nick Blackburn, Rick Porcello, Tigers offense
By Coleman on Jul 8, 2009
“It is now 36 times in 81 games that this team has scored three runs or fewer in a game. Their record in those contests is 9-27.”
As dire as this sounds–and they are now 9-28–this is actually a plus.
The Tigers right now are best in their division in games where they score 3 or fewer, and even though they are on the high end in number of 3 or fewer games, because of their higher win % they have lost fewer of these games than anyone in the central.
Games scoring 3 or fewer runs:
DET 9-28 .243
KCR 9-33 .214
MIN 7-29 .194
CHW 4-29 .121
CLE 2-30 .063
My sympathies to Indian fans…
By jelletlambie on Jul 8, 2009
I don’t know if I’d call it a plus, but it is good to know the Tigers winning % is at least higher than their division rivals in such contests. It’s a testament to the quality of the front end of their rotation that they even have 9 wins in these types of games.
Thanks for the read and for the stats!