Archive for June, 2004

The Tigers tried to make a comeback yesterday against the Royals. They were down 9-2 when they scored 4 runs in the 7th inning. After that the Royals didn’t allow the Tigers to score any more runs and they picked up the 9-6 victory.

Jeremy Bonderman(4-5) had a rough outing giving up 7 runs in just 3+ innings of work. At one point he allowed 7 straight Royals to reach base. In his last 2 games his ERA has went from a season-low 4.66 to 6.31 now.

Monroe had another good game with 2 RBIs and 2 hits.

Carlos Guillen also added 2 RBIs. His batting average is now .316.

The Tigers are now 24-29 on the season.

The teams in the American League Central didn’t exactly set the world on fire in their first series of June. The mid-week matchups saw Cleveland and Minesota get thumped in their own parks, while Chicago suffered a two game sweep on the west coast and Kansas City fought Detroit to a stalemate in D-town.
In Cleveland, the Indians, who had previously won their last four, suffered a two game sweep at the hands of a pitching-deficient Rangers squad. In game one of the series Rod Barajas continued with his knack for the dramatic as he homered in the top of the 12th inning to give the Rangers the extra innings victory. The Indians roller coaster bullpen was the story of the brief series as in game two the bullpen that gave up three hits in 6 innings the night before saw Rafael Betancourt give up the two winning runs in the 9th inning. Cleveland now swings out West for a 4 game series with Anaheim.
Minnesota did not look like the team many picked to win the division as they dropped 3 of 4 to Tampa Bay at the Metrodome. Ultra-prospect Joe Mauer returned to the lineup Wednesday for Minnesota, but that did not help as they could only manage 4 runs in the final 18 innings as the Twins had no answers for Doug Waechter (the best pitcher that nobody knows) and Mark Hendrickson of the D Rays. The Twins get ready for a pivotal series with the Tigs, as fans in Detroit will get their first chance to see what all the Joe Mauer hype is about.
The White Sox suffered an odd two-game sweep in Oakland that saw both games end on walk-off home runs for the A’s. Bobby Kielty hit one Tuesday to end it, and Mark Kotsay ended it Wednesday with his first homer as an A. The White Sox got two pretty good starts from Mark Beuhrle and Esteban Loaiza but it wasn’t enough as yet another sub-par AL Central bullpen blew two games in a row.
The good news comes to the Royals and Tigers as their split series in Comerica Park actually gained them both ground in the division. Kansas City travels home to host a road-weary Red Sox team and the Tigs travel to Alan Trammell’s least-favorite park, the Metrodome. Detroit will send Mike Maroth, Gary Knotts and Nate Robertson to the mound against Kyle Lohse, Seth Greisinger and Carlos Silva.

June 4, 1984 Tigers 6, Blue Jays 3 (39-11)

A couple of big blasts by some unlikely players gave the Tigers round one of the season series with the Blue Jays. Starter Juan Berenguer pitched a decent but not great game, giving up three runs through 6 2/3. Willie Hernandez was the pitching star though. Even though he was brought in with a three run deficit, unheard of for a closer in this day, he got the Tigers out of a jam in the critical seventh inning. He ended up pitching three innings of shutout ball to help the Tigers earn the win.

The reason the seventh inning was critical was, in the bottom half, the Tigers came back. Third basemen Howard Johnson tied the game up with one swing of the bat by hitting a three run homer. The game would be tied at the end of nine, and in the bottom of the tenth, the Tigers struck again.

In Sparky Anderson’s book “Bless You Boys,” Sparky Anderson called it the greatest at bat in his life. Dave Bergman, the Tigers role player/backup firstbasemen came to bat with runners on first and second base and two outs. He worked to a full count against Roy Lee Howell, then according to Sparky, fouled off seven straight pitches. Then on the 13th pitch, Bergman hit what I remember as his most memorable homer of his career into the upper deck in right field.

Great relief pitching and timely hitting. The Tigers widened their lead to 5 1/2 games over the Jays, but they’d still have three more games left just in this series.

Hello to all you great Tiger fans. I will be writing for Brian most of the Tigers game reports from now on. I am excited about writing for this great Detroit Tigers site. If there is any time that you think my writing isn’t as good as you want it, just let me know and I will try to improve on what you said. To contact me just email me(Brian is going to set me up an email address for this site) or you can instant message me. My AIM name is nuthingbutnet04.

I also currently run the site Detroit Sports.

The Tigers picked up their third shutout of the season yesterday by beating the Royals 2-0.

Jason Johnson(4-6) threw a great game going 7 2/3 innings without giving up any runs. He also struckout 3 and walked none.

After Johnson went out the bullpen picked up where he left off. They didn’t give up any more runs to pick up the 2-0 victory.

Brandon Inge provided all the offense the Tigers needed when he hit a 2 run homer in the second inning. It was his 5th homer of the season.

Urbina threw a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his 7th save of the season.

The Tigers have now won 2/3 games.

June 3, 1984 Orioles 2, Tigers 1 (38-11)

Another pretty poor performance all the way around by the Tigers as Mike Flanagan pitched a seven hit complete game shutout. The only ding against him was a solo shot by Tom Brookens, his first homer of the season.

Milt Wilcox struggled, but still kept Detroit in the game. He walked six in 5 2/3 innings. Dave Rozema finished the game by pitching 3 1/3 innings of one hit ball.

Tomorrow, the Tigers had their first season series against the Blue Jays, who now sat 4 1/4 back of Detroit. The Tigers were mired in a slump that would have been considered impossible, as they lost six of nine after starting the season 35-5.

June 2, 1984 Orioles 5, Tigers 0 (38-10)

Jack Morris never quite got on track, as he gave up at least one run in the first three innings. Nobody scored after that, but it was enough for Storm Davis, who pitched a complete game, three hit shutout against the Detroit Tigers.

Toronto won their game, so they now sat only 4 1/2 games back, with their first series against Detroit only two days away.

June 1, 1984 Tigers 14, Orioles 2 (38-9)

At the beginning of June, the Tigers held a 5 1/2 game lead over second place Toronto, who were 32-15 (second best record in the majors) and 10 1/2 games ahead of Orioles, who sat at a respectable 28-21. Had Baltimore been in any other division, they would have sat in first place in AL West (by three game), and would have also been in first place in the NL West. They tapered off later in the year, but were in the midst of a five game winning streak as they went off to Detroit to face the Tigers.

In front of 47,252 fans, Dan Petry pitched six strong shutout innings, giving up only three hits. More importantly, he’d be handed a 13 run lead, as the Tigers scored more runs in a game in that 1984 season. They’d match the 14 runs later in the year, but would never surpass it.

Alan Trammell, Chet Lemon, and Lance Parrish all hit homers with at least one man on base. The Tigers had a six run lead after two, a nine run lead after three, and a twelve run lead after four.

Dan Petry improved to 8-2, and Doug Bair earned his third save of the season. The save was of the three garbage inning variety. No offense to Doug Bair though, who continued to give the Tiger’s quality innings when they needed them or not.

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