Cano is a lefty.
Romero may be a lefty, but he has always had a reverse platoon split. Righties have a career 661 OPS against him while lefties have a 822.
Pitch around A-rod, bring in the lefty to face Cano.
There was no lefty available. The reliever available was a righty. They should have just brought him into face Rodriguez.
Wakamatsu couldn’t figure anything out right. If he had two relievers I think he just would have bene confused.
Brett Lawrie. Oh my God. MAde a wonderful heads-up defensive play that probably saved the game, and then hit a ball about halfway to Japan to win the game.
Seriously, you have to see the kid play. He’s 21 and looks and acts like he’s been in the league ten years. He’s immensely strong, runs like the wind, has an arm like a rifle. In a month he has improved at third to an extent I cannot believe even when I see it; he’s gone from being about a C- defender to a B+, and he could be better still.
In 30 games since coming up; .318 with 7 doubles, 4 triples, and 8 homers.
And the Tigers complete the sweep of the ChiSox and Indians. They’re certainly looking like a playoff-ready team.
To paraphrase the late, great Chick Hearn, this division race is in the refrigerator! The door is closed, the lights are out, the butter’s gettin’ hard, and the jello’s jigglin’.
It has been a fun year to be a fan of the Tribe, though.
Well, the results of the weekend’s games were excellent for those who would like some semblance of a race for the wild cards in each league–Cardinals sweep the Braves, Rays sweep Boston.
Both St. Louis and Tampa are still a few games behind the Braves and Red Sox, respectively, with not much time to go, but you have to give them both credit for making it at least partly interesting.
I’ll be rooting for both of them. The Cardinals because they’re my team, the Rays because I always get a kick out of it when David can knock off Goliath, and Tampa Bay over Boston would be a lovely example of same. (Also, I get really tired of the Red Sox-Yankees hype. Maybe some year we’ll get neither of them in the playoffs. Not that I’m holding my breath or anything.)
Anyway, at least it’s…got the potential of becoming interesting. Hey, a man can dream.
This is getting fun. Yanks broke out of a collective slump vs a good pitcher and then King Felix. Tampa and the Angels have made the West & the WC a race in the AL.
The Tigers, as predicted, have the division sewn up now. Now it’s about getting home field advantage, and for how long. Amazing what a couple of weeks does. Three weeks ago, people wee wondering if they’d be one and done. Now, people are wondering how far they can go. If they continue playing like they are now, they can beat anyone.
Tigers are extra scary in the first due to Verlander but I don’t they’re as good in the longer series as the Yanks, a healthy Redsox or Phillies. But as just last year proved with the Gints, just need to get hot.
It’s difficult to imagine any pitcher could be as stupid as A.J. Burnett, but it’s hard not to notice the fact that Brandon Morrow looks exactly the same when he’s on the mound and gets exactly the same results.
He’s only 26, though, so I guess we might as well give him some more time.
Verlander, Fister, Scherzer is pretty formidable. The only team I fear is the Phillies.
Mo got his 600th save. With 15 games left, he needs two more to pass Trevor Hoffman. (In that time the Yankees have one game against Seattle, three against Toronto, one makeup game with Minnesota, seven against the Rays and three against Boston.) It looks like Burnett had one of his better outings tonight, but it was against Seattle, so it hardly even counts, but I look forward to the headlines asking if Burnett has recovered his stuff.
What worries me about the Tigers is that not one team in their final 32 games currently has a record over .500.
The last 13 games of the season (after todays remarkable win against the Sox) are against teams that have an average winning %age of .443-- four against Oakland, two against the Royals, four against the Orioles, and three against the Indians.
I fear this cream-puff schedule is going to kill us when we actually have to play a good team in the ALDS. Like standing in the on-deck circle with a wiffle bat and wondering why the wood feels so heavy once you get to the batters box.
Astros have now officially had the worst season in franchise history. On the other hand, they took a series from the Phillies.
Gotta be something wrong with Daniel Bard. Three straight outings he’s been pounded now, after being untouchable all year.
Huh.
The Blue Jays have two off days this week. How often do you see that in September?
But so fa, isn’t this exactly what good teams would do with this schedule? The Tigers, right now, are undefeated when leading after 7 innings. They’re 73-0.
Well of course, and it beats losing. But I also feel like they’re going to be finishing up the regular season with cream puffs, and that’s not going to hone their skills for the tougher competition of the post season.
Nothing we can do about that now. I mean, we can’t really fault them for playing the schedule they were given. In a short series, I think Detroit can go with anyone. In a long series, we’ll see how Scherzer goes. He’s pitched a LOT better recently, which is a good thing.