Casey is starting, but at DH, and he won't bat third. Polanco is staying there. Here's the full lineup: 1. Granderson, CF 2. Monroe, LF 3. Polanco, 2B 4. Ordonez, RF 5. Guillen, 1B 6. Rodriguez, C 7. Casey, DH 8. Inge, 3B 9. Santiago, SS
Well guys and gals. We have to forget about Shelton. That whole mangaement of Chris was a disgrace but we simply can't let it interfere with the game to be played and our enjoyment of it.
At least Santiago is in ano not Perez
I'll never agree with Monroe batting 2nd and Polanco 3rd. Never.
Does Pujols hit 2nd for the Cards?
Let's go guys grab a Tiger beer and enjoy.
Cheers,
Dan
Justin foolishly delivers a chest-high fast ball to Pujols..................and then smiles.
Maybe it was a mistake, starting one who clearly doesn't understand what two runs means in a game like this.
Verlander could shut them out the rest of the way, strike every one of them out, and it wouldn't matter. He has failed.
He just doesn't seem to know it.
Verlander is clearly not ready for prime time.
A pick off into right field.
The kid should be starting the third game.
For once, Leyland is wrong.
I disagree. I thought Verlander pitched well the first four innings. I put this game completely on the shoulders of the lineup.
Either the Tigers can't hit tonight, or Anthony Reyes is the next Cy Young. And as my friend Petey put it tonight,"I'd say the former
because Cy Young, Anthony Reyes is not."
No.............if you groove Pujols over the middle, and then smile as it heads into the seats to put your team into a hole which they are not going to escape from, I would say you are not ready for prime time.
Verlander will win a lot of gmaes for the Tigers.........but his cocky attitude was the wrong thing for the team this evening.
He was outpitched by a guy who has won 5 games. He needs to remember that........but I doubt that he will.
That's why I had Verlander pitching 4th, not 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. Maybe it was a blessing. The Tigers could only muster 2 runs anyway. Might have wasted a good pitching performance.
Some games are just going to go this way. Quite a few warning track flies, bloopers that didn't find holes, and hard grounders that were right at someone. It was a good pitching performance by Reyes but not an overpowering one. Some rusty Tiger bats that hopefully come alive soon. But the pitching set the tone and that didn't bode well for our team tonight. The bullpen looked solid late. Fernando especially.
Just a sideline, that play where Inge got run into by Rolen rounding 3rd...to me Inge was out of the way(10 feet in foul territory). His back was away from the runner, who had full view of him. Why does he have to give up his position when he's not in the baseline? I doesn't make sense, even though I'm sure it's somewhere in THE BOOK.
Well, that was ugly. Or as my old high school friends used to say, that wasn't ugly, that was YUUUGLY!
Bob Seger didn't really sound all that great.
Making the Cardinal hitters chase high pitches didn't work. The only chase in that was Monroe and Ordonez to the wall.
Pujols up, firstbase open, you give the simplest sign in all of baseball. You hold up four fingers. That was ugly. Can't say as I'm surprised, though.
Pujols up, nobody on, nobody out. Pitch to him.
Trying to pick off Pujols. Ugly.
With all the talent in and around Motown, we trot out some American Idol runnerup to sing THAT song. Really really ugly. As she went up for the penultimate note, I actually pleaded aloud to not try to hit that last one. She went ahead, and it was....ugly.
Well, I hope these media experts will now come to their senses and stop all this talk of some Tiger steamroller. It was really ugly. Are you getting the sense that when I say "ugly" it sounds more like "dumb"?
I did like the commercial from Yahoo where the bully is going to do the wedgy on that kid, but the kid has removed his tighty whities in advance. "Butt toucher! Butt toucher!" Almost good enough for the SuperBowl.
With this u__y night out of the way, maybe we can settle into some real baseball the rest of the way. What people who haven't seen the Tigers don't realize is, you never know which team is going to show up on a given night. We've all seen games like this before, and we've all seen the Tigers rebound quickly and forcefully. I expect just that.
Marty, that was an interesting play. While it's true that Inge had to be somewhere, and ten feet outside the baseline seemed as good a place as any, I think he took another step or two to his right just as Rolen came up behind him and that caused the collision. I'm pretty sure that would be a judgment play, and was probably judged correctly. It looked ugly, didn't it? :-)
Hopefully they "Let the bad air out" tonight. That was as ugly as it could get.
Verlander showed promise but promising rookies should not be be pitching the opening game of the WS. Reyes may be a rookie but he was as lucky as lucky gets. I think virtually any MLB pitcher tonight might have had similar results against us. The bats were flat and it was clear after Pudges weak liner to end the 1st that they were going to have trouble putting anything together. I saw the smirk too after Pujols' HR. Wasn't impressed. That actually was less of a mistake than Rolens' HR which gave the Cards life. The biggest hit was after he struck out the toughest guy to K in thelineup, Esckstein, that double to Duncan was the game.
Leyland paid for his mistakes tonight. Verlander should not have pitched the game tonight and the worst thinkg about it is the cards will be salivating over facing him again in game 5. His off speed stuff looked good but he did not have the overpowering heat to offset it.
Casey looked bad. But then again nobody could hit the ball tonight other than C-Mo and Guillen.
Inge again had trouble with a kind of ball that forces you to think about what you are going to do with it as opposed to the ones you just snag and react to. When he learns to master this part of his game he will be among the best at the hot corner.
to sume up the ball game tonight in two words.
1) Ugly
2) Polite
BTW--I thought another really wasted move tonight was to not throw Miner. He has not thrown one pitch in the post season and this was the ideal time to give him some exposure. I guess Leyland is going to wait until the bases are full and there are none out to bring him in? I don't get it.
Tomorrow's game will go a long way in determining if this is going to be a long or short series. I guess Leyland figured he was going to lose 1 or 2 since he has Rogers slated for game 6!!!!
It's going to take some strong starting pitching to turn this around.
Thanks for the explanation Rich.
A lot of uuuugliness tonight. American Idol runner up?????
I could have sung better. No really. In fact a lot better. Bob Seger should have sung our National Anthem. What was up with that? I knew it was a bad omen when no one sang the National Anthem. Isn't that like, THE greatest tradition in baseball?
This was almost like '68. We got our butts handed to us. I still can't figure why we would start a rookie with the other arms in the lineup. We put Bob Seger in to take the place of Jose Feliciano, and the national anthem was NEVER even shown on Fox. Every foul ball was foul for us and a few inches fair for the Cards. A 'Nobody" made our hitters look like Toledo Creampuffs. Sure our starter struck out 8, but his most telling pitch was a bad pickoff move to first to keep a slow runner with a hamstring injury from stealing second, and our third baseman got run over after a throw to home that would have made a Little Leaguer snicker. Humiliating... at best. At least it is only one game. We just need to win 4 of the next 6. We could do it if we choose to play rather than read ridiculous press clippings. After all, the Cards played in the series three years ago while we lost 119 games. This team has never been able to play successfully as favorites, and THERE IS NO REASON TO THINK THAT WE SHOULD BE FAVORITES IN THIS SERIES. Hopefully, this is a HUGE wake-up call for these guys, and Leyland should not have to say a word.... but I hope he says a few to them.
Well guys and gals. We have to forget about Shelton. That whole mangaement of Chris was a disgrace but we simply can't let it interfere with the game to be played and our enjoyment of it.
At least Santiago is in ano not Perez
I'll never agree with Monroe batting 2nd and Polanco 3rd. Never.
Does Pujols hit 2nd for the Cards?
Let's go guys grab a Tiger beer and enjoy.
Cheers,
Dan
Report any abuse or spam
Justin foolishly delivers a chest-high fast ball to Pujols..................and then smiles.
Maybe it was a mistake, starting one who clearly doesn't understand what two runs means in a game like this.
Verlander could shut them out the rest of the way, strike every one of them out, and it wouldn't matter. He has failed.
He just doesn't seem to know it.
Report any abuse or spam
Verlander is clearly not ready for prime time.
A pick off into right field.
The kid should be starting the third game.
For once, Leyland is wrong.
Report any abuse or spam
I disagree. I thought Verlander pitched well the first four innings. I put this game completely on the shoulders of the lineup.
Either the Tigers can't hit tonight, or Anthony Reyes is the next Cy Young. And as my friend Petey put it tonight,"I'd say the former
because Cy Young, Anthony Reyes is not."
Report any abuse or spam
No.............if you groove Pujols over the middle, and then smile as it heads into the seats to put your team into a hole which they are not going to escape from, I would say you are not ready for prime time.
Verlander will win a lot of gmaes for the Tigers.........but his cocky attitude was the wrong thing for the team this evening.
He was outpitched by a guy who has won 5 games. He needs to remember that........but I doubt that he will.
Report any abuse or spam
That's why I had Verlander pitching 4th, not 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. Maybe it was a blessing. The Tigers could only muster 2 runs anyway. Might have wasted a good pitching performance.
Some games are just going to go this way. Quite a few warning track flies, bloopers that didn't find holes, and hard grounders that were right at someone. It was a good pitching performance by Reyes but not an overpowering one. Some rusty Tiger bats that hopefully come alive soon. But the pitching set the tone and that didn't bode well for our team tonight. The bullpen looked solid late. Fernando especially.
Just a sideline, that play where Inge got run into by Rolen rounding 3rd...to me Inge was out of the way(10 feet in foul territory). His back was away from the runner, who had full view of him. Why does he have to give up his position when he's not in the baseline? I doesn't make sense, even though I'm sure it's somewhere in THE BOOK.
Report any abuse or spam
Well, that was ugly. Or as my old high school friends used to say, that wasn't ugly, that was YUUUGLY!
Bob Seger didn't really sound all that great.
Making the Cardinal hitters chase high pitches didn't work. The only chase in that was Monroe and Ordonez to the wall.
Pujols up, firstbase open, you give the simplest sign in all of baseball. You hold up four fingers. That was ugly. Can't say as I'm surprised, though.
Pujols up, nobody on, nobody out. Pitch to him.
Trying to pick off Pujols. Ugly.
With all the talent in and around Motown, we trot out some American Idol runnerup to sing THAT song. Really really ugly. As she went up for the penultimate note, I actually pleaded aloud to not try to hit that last one. She went ahead, and it was....ugly.
Well, I hope these media experts will now come to their senses and stop all this talk of some Tiger steamroller. It was really ugly. Are you getting the sense that when I say "ugly" it sounds more like "dumb"?
I did like the commercial from Yahoo where the bully is going to do the wedgy on that kid, but the kid has removed his tighty whities in advance. "Butt toucher! Butt toucher!" Almost good enough for the SuperBowl.
With this u__y night out of the way, maybe we can settle into some real baseball the rest of the way. What people who haven't seen the Tigers don't realize is, you never know which team is going to show up on a given night. We've all seen games like this before, and we've all seen the Tigers rebound quickly and forcefully. I expect just that.
Report any abuse or spam
Marty, that was an interesting play. While it's true that Inge had to be somewhere, and ten feet outside the baseline seemed as good a place as any, I think he took another step or two to his right just as Rolen came up behind him and that caused the collision. I'm pretty sure that would be a judgment play, and was probably judged correctly. It looked ugly, didn't it? :-)
Report any abuse or spam
Hopefully they "Let the bad air out" tonight. That was as ugly as it could get.
Verlander showed promise but promising rookies should not be be pitching the opening game of the WS. Reyes may be a rookie but he was as lucky as lucky gets. I think virtually any MLB pitcher tonight might have had similar results against us. The bats were flat and it was clear after Pudges weak liner to end the 1st that they were going to have trouble putting anything together. I saw the smirk too after Pujols' HR. Wasn't impressed. That actually was less of a mistake than Rolens' HR which gave the Cards life. The biggest hit was after he struck out the toughest guy to K in thelineup, Esckstein, that double to Duncan was the game.
Leyland paid for his mistakes tonight. Verlander should not have pitched the game tonight and the worst thinkg about it is the cards will be salivating over facing him again in game 5. His off speed stuff looked good but he did not have the overpowering heat to offset it.
Casey looked bad. But then again nobody could hit the ball tonight other than C-Mo and Guillen.
Inge again had trouble with a kind of ball that forces you to think about what you are going to do with it as opposed to the ones you just snag and react to. When he learns to master this part of his game he will be among the best at the hot corner.
to sume up the ball game tonight in two words.
1) Ugly
2) Polite
BTW--I thought another really wasted move tonight was to not throw Miner. He has not thrown one pitch in the post season and this was the ideal time to give him some exposure. I guess Leyland is going to wait until the bases are full and there are none out to bring him in? I don't get it.
Tomorrow's game will go a long way in determining if this is going to be a long or short series. I guess Leyland figured he was going to lose 1 or 2 since he has Rogers slated for game 6!!!!
It's going to take some strong starting pitching to turn this around.
Report any abuse or spam
Thanks for the explanation Rich.
A lot of uuuugliness tonight. American Idol runner up?????
I could have sung better. No really. In fact a lot better. Bob Seger should have sung our National Anthem. What was up with that? I knew it was a bad omen when no one sang the National Anthem. Isn't that like, THE greatest tradition in baseball?
Report any abuse or spam
This was almost like '68. We got our butts handed to us. I still can't figure why we would start a rookie with the other arms in the lineup. We put Bob Seger in to take the place of Jose Feliciano, and the national anthem was NEVER even shown on Fox. Every foul ball was foul for us and a few inches fair for the Cards. A 'Nobody" made our hitters look like Toledo Creampuffs. Sure our starter struck out 8, but his most telling pitch was a bad pickoff move to first to keep a slow runner with a hamstring injury from stealing second, and our third baseman got run over after a throw to home that would have made a Little Leaguer snicker. Humiliating... at best. At least it is only one game. We just need to win 4 of the next 6. We could do it if we choose to play rather than read ridiculous press clippings. After all, the Cards played in the series three years ago while we lost 119 games. This team has never been able to play successfully as favorites, and THERE IS NO REASON TO THINK THAT WE SHOULD BE FAVORITES IN THIS SERIES. Hopefully, this is a HUGE wake-up call for these guys, and Leyland should not have to say a word.... but I hope he says a few to them.
Report any abuse or spam