Baseball By Paul

It wasn’t easy, but the Tigers escape Pittsburgh with a series win after Sunday’s 9-8 win pushing their Interleague record to 15-3! Only Boston and Minnesota were better at 16-2 against the Senior Circuit. The Tigers face AL West division-leading Oakland for a three game series starting tonight. Oakland is coming off back-to-back series losses including a sweep against the Arizona Diamondbacks this past weekend. This is the team’s second visit to Oakland this year. In mid-April, they took two of three from the Athletics.

The Detroit Tigers also had two of their own named to this year’s Midsummer Classic. Ivan Rodriguez won the fan vote and will start at catcher for the American League, while Kenny Rogers was selected as a pitcher. It will be Rodriguez’s 13th trip to the festivities, while Rogers makes his 4th visit. Most notably snubbed from the team, in my estimation, was Magglio Ordonez, but it is tough to knock off reserve outfielders Jermaine Dye, Gary Matthews Jr., Alex Rios, Grady Sizemore or Vernon Wells.

Rumblings continue about the team’s search for a bat, specifically a left-handed bat. The team even contacted Larry Walker in hopes of luring him out of retirement, according to Lynn Henning in a Q&A:

Q . What other players fit the Tigers profile?

A . Just because it made perfect sense for both parties, a call was placed last week with Larry Walker, the ex-Cardinals, Rockies and Expos star who would be precisely what the Tigers need down the stretch. He, of course, retired after last season, but he is only 39 and various aches and pains that helped bring about his retirement have all but vanished.

The question was whether a left-handed hitter of his prowess, with the ability to play outfield, first base, etc., might be interested in joining his old manager, Leyland, for a half-season playoff run?

Walker appreciated the inquiry but said he was happy in West Palm Beach, Fla. He also said he was not interested in a Roger Clemens-like “un-retirement,” which is a response to be respected.

It’s a shame he’s not interested, because he has always been one of my favorite players.

No, the Tigers aren’t going to see too many All-Stars this weekend, but they are going to PNC park in Pittsburgh, where the Midsummer Classic will be held, for a three-game tilt against the Pirates. The pitching matchups breakdown as follows:

Friday Jun 30 — 6:05 pm Central — K.Rogers vs. K.Wells
Saturday Jul 1 — 6:05 pm Central — J. Bonderman vs. T. Gorzelanny
Sunday Jul 2 — 12:35 pm Central — Z. Miner vs. I. Snell

Gorzelanny is replacing the brutal Oliver Perez, who was finally removed from the rotation. The Tigers could feasibly put up their third straight sweep with these matchups this weekend. Gorzelanny could benefit from being so new, but he has the unfortunate luck of going against Bonderman. Tonight, Wells is making his third start of the season after two brutal ones leading to an 11.88 ERA and 2.52 WHIP.

Offensively, the Pirates have some pop including one of the league’s best outfielders in Jason Bay. Bay is hitting .285/.401/.549 and leading NL outfielders in the All-Star voting at last check. Some may believe he is leading just because the game is in his home park, but he definitely deserves it. Bay, Carlos Beltran, and Alfonso Soriano should be the National League’s starting outfield.

Bay’s cast contains some fine pieces Sean Casey, Jose Castillo & Freddy Sanchez. The Wilsons, Craig and Jack, are also capable hitters. After that, the Pirates don’t offer too much of a challenge from any other avenues. Their best pitcher is closer Mike Gonzalez, but he doesn’t get too many chances to close out a game. He puts on a few too many (1.55 WHIP), but he has yet to a blow save this season.

Wrapping up a shortened preview since I have to go to work, I predict a series win, but play it a little conservative by saying it’ll be 2-of-3 instead of the full blown sweep. St. Louis and Houston are both markedly better than Pittsburgh and both of them were swept, but I just think that 2-of-3 is more how this series is shaping up. I’d love to see the team sweep and prove me wrong, though! A win tonight would give the Tigers a 20-7 June record.

Pittsburgh Pirates
W: 27
L: 53
RS/G: 4.5
RA/G: 5.3
ERA: 4.90
WHIP: 1.58
K/9: 6.5
BB/9: 3.9
HR/9: 0.98
AVG: .262
OBP: .327
SLG: .419
SB: 28-for-39

Just chiming in before work… incredibly pleased with last night’s victory. I’ll write a more substantial post as well as a preview for the Pirates later. Let’s get the sweep this afternoon against the struggling Andy Pettitte!!!!

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As luck would have it, I didn’t get swamped by too much traffic and I have time to take a quick look at Detroit’s next opponent, the Houston Astros. One quick sidenote about my first day of work, there was a girl in my training class named Jamie Walker. I immediately thought of our lefty specialist out of the pen. I resisted the inclination to reference him right away, but after finding out she was a softball player, I mentioned it. I thought I’d look like a total goofball (nothing new), but the conversation went smoothly:

Ms. Walker – For five years my birth certificate had me listed as a male.
Me – There is a professional baseball player with your name.
Ms. Walker – I know, he plays for the Tigers, right?
Me – Yes.
Ms. Walker – They’re doing pretty well this year…
Me – :thinsktoself: Holy crap, that’s awesome!

Meanwhile, I probably mumbled something stupid like “Gee whiz, they sure are!”

On to the Astros, tonight they throw Wandy Rodriguez against Zach Miner. They are getting to Miner early as they are up 1-0 in the top of the 1st with the bases loaded. Update: Preston Wilson pulls a “himself” and gives Miner a GIDP to get out with just the one run.

Tuesday features the “Rocket” Roger Clemens, who wasn’t too bad in his first start last week. In the series finale, the Tigers face Andy Pettitte, who has been pretty awful all year long. The Tigers will be the favorite in at least two of three games, if not all three, and should deliver a sixth straight series win.

Astros at a glance:

I might drop back in after bowling league tonight.

Population: The St. Louis Cardinals.

I start my new job tomorrow, so I won’t have time to do the Houston preview before the conclusion of the first game, but I will still put it up tomorrow evening. The Tigers have done a fine job at beating the teams “they’re supposed to” and Houston is definitely one of those teams. As with Milwaukee and St. Louis, Houston will bring their best arm forward when Roger Clemens pitches on Tuesday night.

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The Cardinals and Tigers can commiserate this weekend. Both have been swept by the Chicago White Sox this season. St. Louis comes to Detroit fresh off of that sweep and outside of last night’s pitching battle, it wasn’t even close. Mark Mulder and Jason Marquis were absolutely obliterated, before Anthony Reyes figured the Sox out and held them to one hit, unfortunately it was a (who else?) Jim Thome home run that ended up being the difference in the 1-0 game. Mulder, who would’ve gone on Sunday against Detroit, finally hit the disabled list with a shoulder strain. As highlighted in the trade redux a few days ago, he simply hasn’t been anywhere near the pitcher he was in Oakland. At 42-29, the Cardinals hold the National League’s 2nd best record behind New York as well as a four game edge over Cincinnati in the Central division.

Rotation
As with Milwaukee, the Tigers will face the best that St. Louis has to offer. Chris Carpenter takes the hill tonight against Justin Verlander in a potential pitcher’s duel tonight. Verlander stood toe-to-toe with Johan Santana earlier in the season and he will have his work cut out for him again facing arguably the National League’s best pitcher. Carpenter, the reigning Cy Young winner, has picked up right where he left off in 2005. At just 6-3, Carpenter is one of those guys that shows you why you can’t look at record to determine a pitcher’s worth. In 84 innings, he has a 2.46 earned run average, 1.24 WHIP and 3.0 K:BB. He has experienced a career rebirth since joining St. Louis with a 3.00 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 3.9 K:BB in 507.7 innings. Carpenter offers a mid-nineties fastball, a curveball, a changeup and a cutter. After Carpenter, the Cardinals offer very little in their rotation. Mulder’s move to the disabled list will force them to spot-start Sidney Ponson on Sunday while Jeff Suppan will pitch the middle game of the series. The two have combined for 134.3 horrible innings with a 5.16 ERA and a 1.53 WHIP. On the road, they are even more susceptible to failure with a 7.73 ERA in 54.7 innings allowing 13 home runs and yielding 23 walks against just 29 strikeouts.

Bullpen
One silver lining to the abysmal rotation has been a the bullpen. In terms of earned run average, their bullpen rates 5th-best in the majors (3.67), two slots ahead of Detroit (3.76). Their .233 batting average allowed is best in the National League and second only to Detroit’s .221 in all of baseball. Jason Isringhausen is the closer, but it’s the lead up to him that has helped the Cards most. Adam Wainwright (2.34 ERA), Braden Looper (3.07) and Randy Flores (3.22) don’t allow free passes with just 21 walks in 86.3 innings. Izzy has 24 saves in 28 opportunities with a troubling 24 walks in 29.3 innings of work.

Lineup
The Cards lineup returned baseball’s best hitter last night when Albert Pujols came back from a strained oblique. Despite missing two weeks, he is still tied for the home run lead with Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard and sits just one RBI behind him. Being that he is fresh off of the disabled list, it will be interesting to see how much Leyland pitches to him this weekend. His supporting cast includes the 6th and 7th ranked batting average leaders in Scott Rolen (.335) and David Eckstein (.317). Rolen also ranks 8th in the National League with a .408 on-base percentage. Former Detroit Tigers outfielder, Juan Encarnacion, has been on fire in June with a .405/.429/.635 batting line including 11 extra-base hits and 15 runs batted in. Jim Edmonds has played just 57 of the 71 games, but remains a threat when in the lineup. Their role players bring some pretty good production to the table as well. The entire lineup ranks 6th in batting average, tied for 7th in on-base percentage (Texas) and 12th in slugging percentage.

Wrap-Up
This is another elite test for the Tigers, but they should be able to take a series win against these Cardinals at home. This lineup can and will take advantage of mistakes, but Carpenter is the only plus starter we’ll face this weekend. It would have been great if Pujols had come back for the Cleveland series, but his return doesn’t change my thoughts on whether or not we can take the series from these guys. In terms of the National League, they are probably the second best team, behind the Mets, but they are in the latter half of the top 10 in the entire league. I ranked them 8th in the Sportsblurb.com Power Poll on Wednesday. I will step out and predict a win versus Carpenter that will lead to a series victory.