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Tigers Blow Late Lead, End Up With Split With Devil Rays

August 3rd, 2006 | Brian

A pretty solid start by Nate Robertson went to waste tonight.Â He threw six shutout innings, then in the seventh, got into trouble.Â With one out and runners on first and second, he was pulled in favor of Joel Zumaya, who almost immediately gave up a single to B.J. Upton.Â Curtis Granderson came home, but the ball was cut off and they had Upton in a pickle.Â Right before they were about to tag Upton, someone (I can’t remember who ended the pickle) came home and the throw was wide.Â In the meantime, Upton got to second base.Â Fortunately, no further damage was done but we should have gotten at least one out on that at bat.

Just as costly was another botched hit and run attempt.Â Dan’s been bringing this up in the comments and once again he proves to be correct. Dmitri Young led off with a single in the seventh, but then he was caught stealing in a strike em out, throw em out double play when Craig Monroe couldn’t make contact on the hit and run.Â True to form, Sean Casey then singled, which would have given us a runner in scoring position with only one out.

Speaking of Young, he had another good game.Â Three for four, including a ninth inning double that gave the Tigers a chance in the ninth.Â

The Tigers come home for three games against the Indians.Â Tomorrow’s gave will have Jeremy Bonderman going up against Cliff Lee.Â Bonderman’s had a tough time in three of his last four starts, including the eight inning melt down game last weekend against the Twins.Â Hopefully he’ll be able to bounce back and get the Tigers back on track.

Permalink | Posted in 2006 Tigers

I’m not going to shut up about the hit-and-run play until everyone is convinced. I want the truth about this stupid, stupid play to spread throughout baseball fandom. Folks, the hit-and-run play is dumb. Do some research on this, look for objective analysis, and I am 100% certain you will see that the play is moronic about 99.5% of the time. It’s often called “being aggressive” or “making something happen”, but all it really aggressive makes happen is outs, and it kills big innings that we never knew we were having. I’m just so sick and tired of this dumb play. Please don’t get on here and tell me to “enjoy the ride” and “be happy that the Tigers are doing well” because I’ve heard that enough times. I am enjoying the ride, and both Dombrowski and Leyland have done some very nice things for the team, but this isn’t one of them. The Tigers are succeeding despite misguided crap like the hit-and-run, not because of it.

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Posted by Dan on August 4th, 2006 at 8:00 am

I agree with you Dan, most of the time it is a dumb call, however in certain cases I would be in favor of it. That being a high contact hitter at the plate and a fast baserunner on first. Looking at our team probably only Polanco qualifes with the batter criteria and as for the baserunning qualification probably only Granderson and Guillen.

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Posted by Ryan on August 4th, 2006 at 9:41 am

i think ur wrong (no offense). i think they’re biding their time; i think they were hurt by their earlier tour thru the east, and that’s what they’re looking at.
cheers
dan

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Posted by dan on August 4th, 2006 at 9:52 am

Huh?

(In reference to the third comment)

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Posted by Brian on August 4th, 2006 at 9:56 am

I think he means the Tigers are looking the upcoming trips to New York and Boston (the East), hoping to make up for when the East came to Detroit, so their minds aren’t on the upcoming series.

I think that’s what he meant! And I disagree. But really, I have no clue myself what he really meant.

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Posted by Kurt on August 4th, 2006 at 2:19 pm