Lineup stays the same

Alphonso Marquez is a great home plate umpire and that is very good news for the Gambler.

Now lets do it boys. Lets knock Weaver all over the park.

Pudge needs to get a hit with men on. Bottom of 3d now and he has let too many RISP

We’re letting Weaver get away here. Very sloppy at-bats by Polanco (again! tranquillo chico, mas tranquillo) and Monroe, then Ordonez scapes out a hit and terrific patience by Guillen, then Rodriguez does nothing with a couple of hanging sliders. You called it Dan but the sixth spot has sure been in this series so far.
Vamos mis Tigres!

My entry about letting Weaver get away was written in the third inning, unfortunately 2 more awful at-bats by Monroe and Polanco. What is Monroe thinking about, he was so firied up and now he is so meek and scared. Yes they are pitching Polanco inside but these are not strikes, he needs to be more patient. Monroe more aggressive. Lets get Weaver now before the pen comes in

Pudge is hurting the team right now. If he can’t hit the ball then let Vance have a shot.
Casey did the job and it was a big run.

I am just disaapointed in JL notrealizing the obvious but being gloried in spit of it.
Casey should hav ebeen pinch hit for by Thames. Remember Thames –the power hitting RHB that you might need at some point?

Pudge is about as useless as teats on a bull right now. If it were the Mets I would forgive him his offensive tresspasses but with the Cards I would be inclined to actually give Wilson a shot.

Best thing about this inning is that maybe JL pulls his head out of his ars and realizes that Jones is NOT the savior that he dreams hes is.
Next time this **** happens you beter make Zumaya the guy–not Jones.

Yet another phenomenal performance by Rogers. Watching him, I’m reminded of two previous postseason pitching performances. One is Curt Schilling in 2001, because he brought the same kind of intensity into it, the way he ramped up his game. He talked about it afterwards, how he made a deliberate attempt to use all his emotions and everything else he had. The other is Orel Hershiser in 1988, simply because of the number of consecutive scoreless innings he threw, 21+, a number that Kenny surpassed tonight. We’re witnessing a historical and legendary performance, and it’s one of those times when you realize you’re witnessing it as it happens.

Some other observations:

Pudge is indeed in a deep hitting funk. I certainly don’t want to bench the guy, but it might not be a bad idea to drop him in the order until he starts picking it up. He’s coming up too often in important situations, and there’s no law that says he can’t be temporarily moved down to seventh or eighth.

This year I’ve seen more teams fail with a runner on third and none out than I’ve ever seen before, and I don’t just mean the Tigers. They all do it. Whatever happened to the sacrifice fly? More often than not, the first guy strikes out, the second guy pops one up, and the third guy hits the flyball too late. This looks to me like guys trying to hit a sac but have no clue as to how to go about it.

I’ll go you one further than just bad announcers. Fox’s entire presentation is pretty bad. Sure, the HD is nice and all the cameras, but they don’t use those cameras to any great advantage. How many times can you show fans watching a ballgame? How about some nice angle shots you don’t normally see on TV? They have microphones everywhere, in the bases, at homeplate, but they sound like…..you know. The sound of the bat hitting the ball is atrocious. Maybe they should turn those mics down because I think they’re too hot, and you’re getting overload.

Why does Jeanne Zelasko constantly interrupt Eric Byrnes? The kid is doing a pretty good job, let him go.

McCarver says idiotic things and Buck sounds like he’s on Prozac.

It’s unfortunate that Fox will be carrying the WS, for most of us, the rest of our lifetimes. I’ve watched a lot of baseball this year and nearly all of the local broadcasts are superior to when the Fox Big Boys come to town.

We AARP members have to get a special feeling watching Kenny Rogers.

Sulcan, I think that was a product know generically as “rat enip”, merely a soothing, sprayed on medication used to protect hot spots from flaring up into full blown blisters. It seemed to be affecting his throwing hand somewhat, and he was able to pitch much better once it was washed off.

The umpires said it was dirt on Rogers’ hand. It looked to me like betadine with dirt on it.

Whatever. Anything that will deflect the media away from their insanely premature crowning of the Tigers is all right with me. We’re not the team that showed up with a Cy Young winner and the best hitter in all of baseball, and a genius manager to boot.

Yeah Rich, it did look like betadine and dirt. Certainly not pine tar or some such foreign substance.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, welcome to Dirtgate.

Those ever so clever ESPN writers have combined “dirt” with “gate” as in “water” and come up with Dirtgate. How do they come to be so inventive? I bet none of us would have thought of that in a million years, am I correct?

Fox has proudly presented it’s evidence, that is, video from last night’s game along with video from a prior postseason game and both, yes BOTH, show the same damning evidence.

Now, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I submit to you, has anyone looked at any video prior to the postseason? Has Fox, in it’s infinite wisdom, looked back at any of it’s Tiger coverage from the season past? Oh I’m sorry, Fox, in it’s never ending campaign to shove the Yankees and Red Sox down our throats ad nauseum, has not TELEVISED the Tigers this season. Well, pity.

I submit that the defendant, Mr. Rogers, has had that smudge on his pitching hand this entire season! Can I prove that? No. Can anyone prove he didn’t? No. That, esteemd jurists, is what is known as reasonable doubt. With this in your minds, I’m sure you will return with a verdict of not guilty. I thank you for your patience throughout this trial.

I have a question and it might be a naive one, but I have to ask anyway. In the National League the pitchers have to hit. Are they not allowed to apply any gripping substance to their bats? What substances are allowed? Could not some of that wind up on their hands… Just incidentally, and then find its way out to the mound? How is this handled in the NL?

This whole series is completly biased towards the Cards, as far as the FOX broadcast goes. Having a guy who made the last out in the 68 series calling the game?? We should have a rule that at least one broadcaster be a broadcater for each team. That would be interesting, not to mention fair. This whole Rodgers thing was pushed by McCarver.

Hi Baseball Fans,

Pudge is definately in a hitting slump right now, but it would be a huge mistake to take him out in favor of Wilson. Pudge is number one, a catcher who has a great ability to call the game. So he is 0 for 20 right now. Sooner or later he will come through with guys on base. But right now, let’s keep him in there behind the plate where he belongs.

- Tim

Well Dan, I don’t think you can put Pudge in front of the pitcher because he’ll never get anything to hit, unless it’s two out and nobody on. In fact, I think JL is more likely to spot Casey third and Monroe seventh, thinking that will get Pudge some pitches. If he’s not hitting by game six, I’d put him in the eight hole. The thing is, of course, that he just needs to break out of this. We’re going to need everybody over the course of this series. JL, and Tram before him, gave Pudge ample off days and we may be seeing the reason why. Can’t do that now. I think he’ll get us a big one somewhere, though.

Marty, I don’t think any of us really knew the answer to your question, but I’d assume that yes, the NL pitchers use pine tar at bat, just as our guys will tonight. It would seem to me that pine tar is everywhere in a dugout. You sit on the bench, put your hands down at your sides and pick the stuff up.

Bottom line to that? It was no big deal until FOX came to town. They can’t survive without an A-Rod or an A.J. or some such “controversy.”

I still think it is a better idea to have you slow guy ahead of the pitcher. True if he is on the pitcher is likely to bunt. At least you get him to 2nd and he can score on a double or a two out single. And if you put a guy with speed batting 2nd then you can’t steal with him or hit and run or generally use his speed in an extra base situation because of the unliklihood of that haappening.
Anyway there is no way on this green earth that Leyland would bat Casey 9th in all honesty I wouldn’t either.

What does make me wonder though is all the tripe we hear about getting Monroe an extra AB by batting him 2nd seems disingenuous if JL drops him 4 or 5 spots in the order.

No it’s time to call a spade a spade. Monroe has 5 HRs in post season. He is hitting well. He IS a power hitter who should be batting only in 3 4 or 5 spots.

As far as Pudge not getting anything to hit in front of the pitcher—well maybe that’s good. Because right now they are throwing right over the can and he can’t do anything with it. Maybe they start pitching around him to get to the pitcher and he walks (I know that sounds like a condtradiction in terms for Pudge) or has to reach out for something away and hits something to right field like he should be doing.

I read something yesterday about Pudge comparing his lack of hitting to Polanco, as if somehow they should be regarded with equal weight. I actually found that a bit distasteful.

The comments about not taking him out of the lineup are probably correct. He is a key player behind that plate and has become a very good handler of pitchers. To put Wilson in would be novel but probably not productive anyway. I think Freehan got 1 hit in ’68. The team wond without his offensive contribution and I suppose this year’s squad could bridge that gap too. I think I personally am disapponted in Pudge because the kid in me wants to see the Hall Of Fame Veteran find the inner strength to perform at a “in his prime” level when the chips are down and his team needs him. I guess Pudge is no Kaline.

It looked to me like the cold weather was bothering Polanco more’n anyone else on the team. Maybe Pudge could use that excuse, except he hasn’t been hitting much all year, despite his average(played all year, hit .300, middle of the order, and less than 70 rbi’s? Astounding).

Taking him out of the line up would be beyond silly, however. His defense and arm alone are worth his spot in the order.

Polanco will come out of it, the one I am concerned about is Granderson. He is taking his hacks, hitting some balls hard………I hope he doesn’t lose his “approach”, and keeps swinging the way he did in games 1 & 2. They’ll find grass. If he gets anxious, we’ll see his strike outs raise again, and that would be bad.

All year, the Tigers have stepped up against the best pitchers in the league. Liriano, Santana, Clemens, Mussina, etc. It would figure, if history is our guide, that they would get shut down by a rookie in game one, and hit the N.L. Cy young winner hard in game 3.

I think they’ll drive Carpenter out of the game by the 5th inning, scoring at least 5 runs off of him.

As Ergie so succinctly pointed out, this was the best thing that could have happened to Fox, and ESPN. My take is that the lowered viewer ratings not only have to do with a lack of east coast teams, but a general backlash against the dull and idiotic announcing (that’s Buck then McCarver), combined with Fox’s general poor presentation of the game of baseball. Just because you’ve locked up the contract until the end of time is no excuse to present a poor product. Go back, guys, on MLB.com and watch the inning where Inge makes the bad throw. This is a highly pivotal point in this game but Buck just blandly says “and he throws it wild” like he’s talking about going to the bank to cash a check. How did this guy become so “esteemed?” I think…..wait for it….I think……HAWK HARRELSON could do a better job!

Here’s a favorite McCarverism of mine: it’s 2004, the Yanks trail the Sox by two starting the ninth, and the leadoff man walks. Here’s McCarver: “That’s the same thing as if he’d hit a homerun.” Uh, Timmy, ever heard of a doubleplay?

Dan, I’m considering hooking up my family room PC and trying to listen that way. About the delay, if you have any kind of Tivo or DVR, you can “pause live TV” and get it in sync. I may try that. There’s a lot of talk out there about similar fixes, and I sure wish Fox would realize that.

“Good evening, I’m Joe Dull and Tim Idiotic will be with us shortly, welcome to game three.”

And I agree with your assessment, 100%. I can see why he and Leyland are such good friends.