Baseball By Paul

John Lackey allowed five walks against the Tigers on Wednesday afternoon. That was the only significant damage inflicted upon the Angels starter in his eight innings of one-hit work. Scot Shields only allowed one hit in a scoreless as the Tigers were dumped 4-0 in the final game of a nine-game, three city, road trip.

The Tigers went 6-3, but ended on a sour note being shutout twice in three games against Los Angeles. On Monday night, Ervin Santana struck out 10 batters in six innings and his bullpen tallied four more strikeouts in three shutout innings to give the Angels the 3-0 win. After that game, manager Jim Leyland expressed his concern with the team’s two-strike approach:

“The greatest hitter of all-time, Ted Williams, said that when the pitcher gets you 1-2 or 0-2, you’re on the defensive,” Leyland said. “You can’t be as offensive. You have to make an adjustment. And we’re not making adjustments.”

The team followed up with games of six and eight strikeouts.

“I’m not trying to change anybody’s swing,” Leyland said. “But we swing and miss too much. You’ve got to put some balls in play in big situations… Leyland continued, “You don’t want to take away your aggressiveness, but you definitely have to tone it down in certain situations.”

In 64 at-bats with an 0-2 count, the Tigers have registered 27 strikeouts. Down 1-2, 45 of 100 at-bats have resulted in a strikeout. On a 2-2 count, the team is batting an absymal .209 with 43 strikeouts in 110 at-bats, including 13 K’s from Chris Shelton in 24 at-bats. They are dead even at 25 with walks and strikeouts in 67 full counts, but hitting just .179. All told, the team strikes out 41% of the time they are in a two-strike count (140-for-341).

The level of patience displayed against Lackey with the five walks is encouraging, but likely more attributed to Lackey’s wildness than the team’s sharpened eye. Lackey has walked four or more (topping out at eight) in four of his five starts. Without a more patient approach at the plate, the Tigers will be susceptible to big strikeout nights all season.

The team has an off day tomorrow before hosting the struggling Minnesota Twins for three and then two-game stints against Kansas City and Los Angeles to round out a seven game homestand. At 13-9, the team is a game and a half behind the Chicago White Sox. A change fortunes at home might allow the Tigers to leapfrog the White Sox in the coming week. They are 11-4 on the road, but just 2-5 at home.

Dan Johnson Watch
Oakland A’s first baseman Dan Johnson broke out with a big game on Wednesday going 2-for-4 with a game-tying home run in the top of the ninth. The home run was his first of the season and the two hits rocketed his average up to .145. Way to go, Dan!!!

On Monday, I’ll report about the Symposium I attended yesterday, which was fantastic. For now, my thoughts on today’s series winner against the A’s.

Despite working with a lead before tossing a single pitch, Jeremy Bonderman promptly put he and the Detroit Tigers up against it. After a Magglio Ordonez RBI-double, Bonderman gave the Oakland A’s three runs of their own on four hits. The game would stay 3-1 for the next seven innings until the A’s were forced to call on star middle reliever Justin Duchscherer due to the unavailability of closer Huston Street. Duchscherer hadn’t allowed a run in his first eight innings of the season; he wouldn’t make it through his ninth. The Tigers got four hits and two walks, including the go-ahead walk by Curtis Granderson with the bases loaded to take, and hold, the lead.

Fernando Rodney, in his second inning of work, held the A’s for the 4-3 victory. Speaking of Rodney, the Tigers activated Todd Jones, an off-season acquisition overpaid to become to the Tigers’ closer. I don’t think there will be a controversy until Jones messes up. So basically until he pitches. Believe me, I want him to succeed after that contract (2 years, $11 mil.), but I don’t feel his excellent 2005 numbers are sustainable, especially at 37 (turns 38 next week).

As I watched the replay of the game, thanks to MLB.tv, I was immediately worried by Bonderman’s weak first inning. All I could think was, here we go again. Bonderman always seems to struggle out of the gate before finding a groove in the middle innings. This could be why he has piled up 47 against 32 losses in his short career. Prior to this season, he simply didn’t have an offense capable of climbing out of the holes he left for them. That said, let’s hope he doesn’t have to rely on the offense to continually bail him out going forward. Teams that don’t get to Bonderman in the first three innings are going to find it increasingly tough to get to him at all:

His first three innings are brutal by comparison as he continually sticks himself in a hole. If he alleviates the early inning problems, the middle and later innings should also improve because he won’t be pressing to make up for the early mistakes. Bonderman is still in need of some polish to become a consistent, quality starter.

And he has got to work on his prepartion for the start of games if he ever expects to become the top-flight starter his talent suggests he can become. Thankfully, he was bailed out on Thursday afternoon and the Tigers head up the coast to start a set with Seattle with a series win, 2-1, and a record a game above .500 at 9-7.

About a week and a half ago, I said that Chris Shelton and Dan Johnson would end with similar numbers come October. I will stand by it and take the fire that is sure to beset the inbox, because at this point, Johnson would have to make a helluva comeback from a .029 batting average and .170 OPS to catch up to Shelton. Hell, he needs a comeback of epic proportions to catch Rondell White at this point. In fact, Johnson is likely headed for a demotion as his struggles simply don’t seem to be improving.

After an Easter hiccup with the WordPress servers, we're back in business. Thankfully, Chris Shelton didn't experience a similar hiccup as his league-best eighth home run was the difference in a 1-0 pitcher's duel between Cliff Lee and Mike Maroth. Some notes from the Game 12 win that puts Detroit into a three-way tie with Cleveland and Chicago:

• Maroth pitched one of the finest games of his career, as evidenced by the three hits allowed in seven innings of work. His pitch placement was the key to five strikeouts as well as two huge double-play balls and he knew better than to let Travis Hafner, who has been uncharacteristically torching lefties of late, beat him.

• Ivan Rodriguez is back. He very likely won't contend for his third MVP award, but his eye is exponentially sharper and his bat is noticeably quicker through the zone than a year ago. He already has three walks this season in 10 games played after 11 in 129 games a season ago.

• Joel Zumaya is something else. He was in a sticky situation from the outset of the eighth inning after giving up a single to Aaron Boone, who was then placed in scoring position by a Casey Blake sac bunt. From there he walked pinch-hitter Victor Martinez, tightening the clamps on himself, before striking out Grady Sizemore and Jason Michaels with a killer mix of 95+ MPH heat and a knee-buckling hook.

• Fernando Rodney should not lose the closer's job when Todd Jones comes back just out of principle. I understand they paid Jones (way too much) to come back to Detroit, but Rodney and Zumaya are becoming an electric combination that could shorten games to seven innings for the Tigers.

The Tigers finish off the four-game set with the Tribe on Monday afternoon as the struggling Paul Byrd (1-1, 10.24 ERA) faces Nate Robertson (1-1, 4.38 ERA). Byrd has fared well against the Tigers for his career (2.91 ERA in 52.67 innings of work), but has just one start against the team since 2003 that came last year with the Los Angeles Angels.

And take your two doubles and your home-run stealing catch. You're bothering me.