Archive for the '2006 American League Division Series (ALDS)' Category

God help us.  And true to form, he struck out in his first at bat.

Tigers and A’s are tied 1-1.

Alright, three division series are in the books, and so far, I’m three for three as far as picking the correct team but none of my picks outside of the Tigers were really that out of line.  Here are a few things I’ve been thinking about the past couple of days.

First, one final thing on the Tigers/Yankees.  This was a really good Yankee team and the Tigers just rolled right through them.  Had it not been for a rough outing by Nate Robertson, it could have been over earlier.  And if you take away that three run shot by Johnny Damon in game two (the only three Yankees runs), you would have a scoreless streak 24 innings over three games.  Still, I’m really surprised how easily the Tigers appeared to take care of a very formbidable Yankee team.

While I enjoyed the celebration after the game, people (including the team) have to keep in mind that this is just the first chapter.  It always bothers me for some reason when a team has a premature celebration, almost like they’re happy just to be there.  Had the Yankees won this series, would they be celebrating the series win?  I’m thinking not.  Then again, I didn’t see how this was handled in the other series that have wrapped so maybe it’s more common then I thought.  Yes, I know it’s the Tigers first playoff series win since 1984, but they still face an uphill climb to win what really matters.

The Mets and the A’s finished both of their series up pretty handily.  The first two games at the Metrodome were pretty close but once it got out to Oakland, the A’s rolled right through them in the clincher.  The Mets held off a comeback in game one but then handled the Dodgers pretty easily in the final two games.  If the Cards don’t win tonight, they’re in trouble because they have their best chance of winning with Carpenter on the mound and at home.

It looks like it’ll be Barry Zito against Nate Roberston is game one.  I would have liked to see Leyland push Robertson back to game three with Justin Verlander and Kenny Rogers throwing the first two in Oakland.  Kenny Rogers is 23-4 with a 3.39 and a 1.36 WHIP in 294 1/3 innings at the Oakland Colliseum.  If he starts in game two, he’d get potentially two starts in Oakland if the series went to six games.

The Tigers have only faced four different American League teams in the playoffs.  Since the inception of a playoff system, the Tigers have only made it in four seasons.  They’ve beaten the Royals (1984) and Yankees (2006) and lost to the Athletics (1972) and Twins (1987).  That best of five series against the A’s was a good one.  You had a shutout on each side and the Tigers came back from a 2-0 deficit to tie it at two games a piece.  Game five was a 2-1 pitchers dual in which that year’s Cy Young winner, Vida Blue, came into the game to throw four innings of shutout ball to close out the game in relief of Blue Moon Odom.  This season was kind of the last hurrah of the 1968 team, as guys like Mickey Lolich, Al Kaline, Norm Cash and Bill Freehan were finishing out their careers.

All of the ALCS games played during the week are at 8 pm, so I’ll get to watch all of the games.  This is a good thing.

RIP Buck O’Neil.  He was definitley one of the ambassadors of the Negro Leagues.

The Tigers are heading to Oakland.  After blowing out the Yankees to lock up their first post season series victory since they won the 1984 World Series, the Tigers now go up against the Oakland A’s in the ALCS.

Once again, I did a write up for this over at the Hardball Times and it should be up tomorrow morning.

This will be nice.  I’ll get to go to bed at a decent time tomorrow night.  And I’ll have a preview up probably Monday night to lead into the next Tigers series.

Alright, this was definitely a nice win.  I wrote it up over at the Hardball Times and it should show up there by tomorrow morning so check it out.   I took a lot of heat for predicting the Tigers to win this series and while I know it’s far from over, a shot at the A’s seems more realistic then it did after that game one loss.

The game’s at 4:30 tomorrow.  Bonderman vs. Jaret Wright.  I like our chances in this one.

This was probably the most important Tiger game in over twenty years and I missed it because I had to be at work.  Oh well, I’d rather they win without me watching then the alternative.

I really thought that when Curtis Granderson was stranded at third in the seventh, it would come back to haunt us.  Both he and Marcus Thames had really good games and they led the way on offense.

Wow, that was great relief pitching.  I’m sure everyone got nervous when Hidecki Matsui singled off of Todd Jones in the ninth but between Jones, Jamie Walker and Joel Zumaya, we got about as good of reliefing pitching at you can ask.  Justin Verlander wasn’t chopped liver either.  He did get into some jams and he did give up the three run shot to Johnny Damon, but he held up, gave the Tigers five plus solid innings and didn’t lose it for us.

Tomorrow will have an ailing Randy Johnson going up against Kenny Rogers.  Big, big swing game.  It’s an 8 pm start so I’ll get to watch this one.

The Tigers/Yankees game was rained out and while it was nice to get some sleep, I wasn’t happy when I noticed today’s game is at 1 pm.  Unfortunately I’ll be stuck at work with only Yahoo updates to keep me informed as to what’s happening.

Sometime later this morning I’m going to get my 100,000 visitor to Tigerblog.  I know sitemeter isn’t entirely accurate and there have been times where the tracker has been down, but this is all I really have to go by.  I also know while this isn’t a huge deal in the grand scheme of things (100,000 is a good week for the Hardball TImes), it’s pretty cool to me.  I appreciate everyone who stops by.

The Tigers got doubled up last night and it wasn’t pretty.  The Yankees did most of their damage in a five run third inning that made it 5-0 and while the Tigers made it close at one point (5-3), they never fully recovered.

I’m not sure what Leyland was trying to do in the second inning when he tried a hit and run with Ordonez on second and Guillen on first with nobody out.  Yeah, Pudge is a .300 hitter but when neither team has scored, you’d think Leyland would play the percentages and try for an early lead by standing pat.  Instead, Ordonez gets gunned down at third and the Tigers get nothing out of the inning.  Placido Polanco’s double play in the third also cost them a potential run.  Now I’m not saying the Tigers win if they convert in either or both of those innings, but things might have played out differently had the Tigers taken an early lead.

Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu chewed us up.  Abreu drove in four runs and Jeter had five hits and he scored three times.  If those two guys are clicking in the two and three spot in the lineup, this is going to be a very tough team to beat.  Then again, we all knew that anyway.

Game two is tonight and it’ll be Justin Verlander going up against Mike Mussina.  This is pretty much a must win game tonight so hopefully the Tigers can get the job done.

I’ll be watching the game while doing a few things tonight so I’ll be popping in on The Score Boards game thread now and then and commenting on what’s going on.  Stop by and say hello.

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