Inge benched, finally.


Zumaya ready for Indians; Inge benched for series opener
Raburn will play third to start series

August 20, 2007

NEW YORK -- When the first-place Indians arrive at Comerica Park on Tuesday night, Joel Zumaya will be on duty in the bullpen, but Brandon Inge won't be in the starting lineup.

Inge's hitting struggles have grown deep enough that manager Jim Leyland will give him Tuesday off and start Ryan Raburn at third base. Leyland didn't say how many games he would keep Raburn at third and Inge on the bench. Raburn has yet to play third in the majors.

Zumaya will be activated for Tuesday. He has missed 3 1/2 months because of a ruptured tendon in the middle finger on his pitching hand. Leyland said Zumaya could immediately resume his typical late-inning duty in close games.

"(Fernando) Rodney would pitch the eighth inning (on Tuesday)," Leyland said. "I'll break Zumaya in. But I'm not going to use him as a long man. Obviously he's coming back because he's ready to pitch, and if he's ready to pitch, I'm going to put him in there."

Zumaya hasn't pitched for the Tigers since May 1. He suffered the injury while warming up four days later, and he has been on the disabled list since.

Zumaya pitched his last scheduled rehab outing for Triple-A Toledo on Saturday.

Inge struck out in his first two at-bats Sunday with a total of three runners in scoring position. He leads the American League with 127 strikeouts.

"I can't explain it," said Inge, batting .242 with 12 home runs and 56 RBIs. "I'm getting pitched like I'm Babe Ruth. Everything is on the corner. I haven't seen a ball in the middle of the plate for a week."

In the past six games, Raburn is 8-for-23 (.348) playing second base in place of Placido Polanco. "When he's gotten mistakes, he's hit them," Leyland said.

Leyland hopes Polanco, who has missed those six games with the flu, will play Tuesday. If not, said Leyland, he might put Ramon Santiago at second because Raburn will be at third.

Schedule:

7:05 p.m. Tuesday (Jair Jurrjens vs. Fausto Carmona, FSN Detroit)
7:05 p.m. Wednesday (Justin Verlander vs. Paul Byrd, FSN Detroit)
1:05 p.m. Thursday (Nate Robertson vs. Jake Westbrook, FSN Detroit)

New York at Tigers (posted here for later reference)
7:05 p.m. Friday (Chad Durbin or Andrew Miller vs. Roger Clemens, FSN Detroit)
7:05 p.m. Saturday (Jeremy Bonderman vs. Chien-Ming Wang, Tiger TV Network)
1:05 p.m. Sunday (Jair Jurrjens vs. Phil Hughes, Tiger TV Network).

BTW, Rogers thinks he might be back for Sunday.

Looking at those pitching matchups, getting 2 out of three vs. the Tribe should be considered fantastic.

And would put us .5 game back too.

And would give us all some more false hope.

Bring us back from the dead, Zoom.

http://www.umpbump.com/press/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/zumaya.jpg


Just stay away from:
http://www.igniq.com/images/guitar_hero_141205.jpg

Cleveland (68-55) at Detroit (67-57)

By ANDY LEFKOWITZ, STATS Editor

In his last start, Fausto Carmona finally got some help at the plate and pushed the Cleveland Indians into a tie with the Detroit Tigers for the AL Central lead. On Tuesday, he'll try to increase the Indians' division edge.

Carmona makes his second straight start for the Indians (68-55) against rookie Jair Jurrjens and the Tigers (67-57) as they begin a three-game series at Comerica Park on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday in Cleveland, Carmona (14-7, 3.16 ERA) struck out a career-high 10 and allowed two runs and four hits over eight innings of a 5-2 win. The right-hander snapped a three-start losing streak, during which he had limited opponents to a .237 batting average but received just two runs of support.

"Whew, Carmona was something," said the Tigers' Brandon Inge. "First of all, he has an incredible sinker, but he's throwing a slider and changeup for strikes, too. All night, I saw one, maybe two pitches up in the zone. Everything else was on the black or at the knees - and with movement."

Carmona has won both of his career starts in Detroit, including on May 27 when he allowed three runs and nine hits through seven innings of a 5-3 triumph.

Jurrjens (0-1, 5.14), who will make his home debut, threw 104 pitches Wednesday over seven innings in his first major league start. He gave up four runs and five hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

"I was in a fantasy world," said Jurrjens, who was recalled from Double-A Erie before the game and became the first native of Curacao to pitch in the majors. "This was the first time my dad saw me pitch (as a professional). I recognized his whistle in the crowd. That was the best feeling ever.

"I thought I pitched OK, but that Carmona was incredible. He has the best two-seamer in the game."

After moving into a tie atop the Central, the Indians took two of three from lowly Tampa Bay. They failed to cap the sweep, though, falling 4-3 in 12 innings on Sunday.

Cleveland took a 3-2 lead in the 10th on Victor Martinez's sacrifice fly, but closer Joe Borowski blew the save in the bottom of the inning when he gave up Carl Crawford's RBI single. Rafael Perez later yielded the game-winning RBI single to Joel Guzman.

The Indians, though, maintained their 1 1/2-game division lead, as the Tigers fell 9-3 to the New York Yankees. Detroit was outscored 20-6 while dropping the final three games of a four-game set in the Bronx.

"I just think you go through hot and cold streaks during the course of the year," said Detroit's Gary Sheffield, who was hitless in three of the four games and booed loudly all weekend in his return to New York. "Unfortunately, we're going through a cold streak right now."

Tigers All-Star catcher Ivan Rodriguez was given Sunday off, and rookie Mike Rabelo had three hits and an RBI in his place. Rodriguez is 2-for-5 with a homer in his career against Carmona, while Rabelo is 3-for-6 with three strikeouts versus the Indians right-hander.

Magglio Ordonez, who leads the majors with a .351 batting average, is 7-for-21 in six home games versus the Indians this year. Ordonez leads Detroit with 22 homers and 110 RBIs in 2007.

I love how Jurrjens feels qualified to judge who has the best two seam fastball in the game after one start.

Exactly what I was thinking. How much ball do you get to watch when you're on a bus in AA?

-fXzSVyhEU0

"I can't explain it," said Inge, batting .242 with 12 home runs and 56 RBIs. "I'm getting pitched like I'm Babe Ruth. Everything is on the corner. I haven't seen a ball in the middle of the plate for a week."

Why the fuck would anyone throw him a pitch anywhere near the plate when he will chase soemthing even if its off the plate?

2 out of 3 would be sweet. get out of here with this false hope stuff. tigers are sitting pretty right now from where im standing. we're getting healthy and it looks like we have one foot out of the worst skid of the year. cleveland isnt exactly lighting the world on fire either, right now.this race should go down to the last week. i dont think it can be playoffs or bust yet for this team. i mean, there are 4 playoff spots and two of them almost certainly go to yankees and red sox. tigers getting one of the last 2 would just be the cherry on top of a great season, imo.

If they take 2/3 and at least split with the Yanks I'll get out of here with this false hope stuff. Until then I'm not going to make myself look like even more of a dumbass than I already am (trust me, I am a HUGE dumbass).

I'm going to attempt a reverse jinx here and say Jair Jurrjens will suck tonight.

http://www.zamperla.com/immaginiFoto/dettagli/Mini_Tea_Cup3_600.jpg

the reverse jinx worked. jurjenns was A+.

that guy is a keeper. a nice mid 90's fast ball, but he throws a ton of offspeed stuff. what i found telling was that this was his second streight start against the indians and they still didnt figure him out. i like him to stay up. he wouldnt be bad at the bottom of our rotation, if not this year than into the future maybe.

oh, by the way. the heavy set white dude who looks like he's been riding the tea cups alone for hours non stop in the middle of the day is me.

Finally, we beat Carmona.

A 1 hitter for a AA pitcher. Not too shabby.

Great game (and fast!)

Anybody else think that Zoom looked like he tacked on about 25 lbs?

And no, it's not just the goatee.

Cleveland (68-56) at Detroit (68-57)

By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN, STATS Editor

Still searching for more offense, the Detroit Tigers look to take over the AL Central lead from the Cleveland Indians when the clubs continue their three-game series at Comerica Park on Wednesday night.

Detroit (68-57) won for only the eighth time in 25 games with a 2-1 victory in the series opener Tuesday. The Tigers were held to three hits, but ended a three-game losing streak and pulled within one-half game of first-place Cleveland (68-56).

Two of the hits were back-to-back homers by Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen in the fifth inning, and rookie Jair Jurrjens helped make it stand up by allowing only one hit -- Jhonny Peralta's homer in the sixth.

Jurrjens pitched 6 2-3 innings, Joel Zumaya - activated off the disabled list earlier in the day - retired his only batter and Fernando Rodney and Todd Jones each worked an inning to preserve the win.

"That was a great baseball game," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "I guess it's easy for me to say that because we won."

The Tigers have scored a total of just 11 runs in their last four games. They batted .290 and scored 512 runs to lead the majors in both departments at the All-Star break, but over the last 25 games, they are hitting just .263 while averaging 4.2 runs.

Detroit is bidding to capture a home series for the first time since the All-Star break. The Tigers have lost nine of their last 15 games at Comerica Park, managing two runs or fewer seven times.

Cleveland lost for the sixth time in nine games and is also hoping to get untracked with its bats. The Indians have scored 27 runs in their last nine contests.

Detroit's Placido Polanco returned to the lineup and went 0-for-3 after missing six games due to a flu bug that had plagued the club.

The one hitter who hasn't slowed down much for either team is Ordonez, who has 41 of his 111 RBIs since the break. Ordonez, a leading candidate for AL MVP honors, is batting .388 (19-for-49) against Cleveland this year.

The Detroit cleanup hitter, however, is 6-for-34 (.176) in his career against Paul Byrd (11-5, 4.41 ERA), who will start Wednesday for Cleveland. Byrd is 7-2 with a 3.36 ERA in his career against the Tigers, including 1-0 with a 5.40 ERA in two outings this year.

Byrd is looking to win his fourth straight road start after allowing one run and eight hits over six innings on Friday in a 2-1 victory at Tampa Bay.

"Somebody asked me today if I was pitching well," Byrd said. "I didn't know what to tell them. I didn't know if I was pitching well because when they hit the ball hard it went right to somebody. Sometimes this game doesn't make a lot of sense and you have to give some credit to the guys behind you, and I feel like that's what happened tonight."

The veteran right-hander has a 1.31 ERA in his last three road starts. Byrd also has been able to shut down Tigers designated hitter Gary Sheffield, who is 4-for-25 (.160) against him.

Detroit starter Justin Verlander (13-4, 3.63) will face Cleveland for the fourth time this season. He's 1-1 with a 5.50 ERA in the first three outings, but is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in three career home starts against the Indians.

Verlander pitched well enough to win his second straight outing Thursday when he yielded three runs and seven hits over 5 1-3 innings in an 8-5 win over the New York Yankees. However, he lasted less than six innings for the third time in his last six starts.

Cleveland slugger Travis Hafner is 4-for-19 (.211) with one homer and seven strikeouts against Verlander.

Anybody know you can watch the complete game the next day on MLB.com? It appears you can watch the complete game of almost any game already played this year.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mediacenter/index.jsp#20070821

nice find. you can go back and watch the no hitter.

BTW, another note from that posting Glenn made is that we haven't won a home series since the break.

Oooh, the no hitter. That's a good idea.

http://www.zamperla.com/immaginiFoto/dettagli/Mini_Tea_Cup3_600.jpg

the reverse jinx worked. jurjenns was A+.

that guy is a keeper. a nice mid 90's fast ball, but he throws a ton of offspeed stuff. what i found telling was that this was his second streight start against the indians and they still didnt figure him out. i like him to stay up. he wouldnt be bad at the bottom of our rotation, if not this year than into the future maybe.


He did look good. I'm hoping he can keep this up.

A perspective.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7141958




Division Title or bust for Central teams


There's been one constant in the 2007 baseball season: insanely close, white-knuckled races for the eight playoff spots.

We're barreling toward September, and despite the late hour there's been precious little separation in any of these races. In fact, at this writing, the Mets and Red Sox share the largest leads of any teams in playoff position: five games. In other words, nothing's decided, and everything still hangs in the balance.
Of all these races, two of most compelling might be in the AL Central and in the NL Central. On the one hand, you've got what's arguably the toughest division in baseball, and on the other hand you've got what's inarguably the weakest division in baseball.

In the AL Central, the Indians lead the Tigers by a slim margin, and in the NL Central the Cubs are in a dead heat, with the Cardinals hanging around within spitting distance. The AL Central is a clash of titans of sorts, while its NL counterpart is more of a "does anyone really want to win this?" gathering of mediocrities.

Still, relative strengths notwithstanding, we learned last season that one need not dominate in the regular season to wind up winning the whole thing. And, of course, the last two World Series' have been all-Central affairs.

What's also interesting about these two divisions is that it's shaping up to be "winner take all" in both circuits. To demonstrate this point, let's turn to the postseason odds projections over at Baseball Prospectus.

While the Indians (62.0 percent), Tigers (35.1 percent), Cubs (48.1 percent) and Brewers ( 41.5 percent) all are given at least reasonable chances of winning their respective divisions, none is given better than a 4.2 percent shot at earning the wild card.

And that meager chance that any of these teams has of winning the wild card is what should jump out. In the AL, the Yankees or Mariners will likely win it, and over in the NL, the Padres, Braves and Phillies are the most serious contenders for the consolation prize. The upshot is that, in all likelihood, only the division champs will be advancing to the post-season. Obviously, that raises the stakes considerably.

So now let's dig in and figure out who's most likely to prevail in each race. We'll start with the AL ...

At present, the Tribe has a ½-game lead over Detroit, but they're about to enter a brutal stretch of schedule. Specifically, 16 of their 23 games come on the road, and they'll play all of those 23 games without benefit of an off day (a consequence of all those early-season rainouts). As well, Detroit down the stretch will play six more games at home than the Indians will. That's another edge for the Tigers.

On the injury front, the biggest news is that the Tigers finally have Joel Zumaya back in the fold. This season, he's missed almost 100 games with a finger injury, and the Detroit bullpen has suffered as a result (they rank 11th in the AL in relief ERA). Zumaya looked strong in two of three minor-league rehab outings, and the Tigers are certainly hoping he's the shutdown reliever of old.

Neither Cleveland nor Detroit has played particularly well of late, but the Tigers have been a bit worse (thanks mostly to their pitching; Cleveland, meanwhile, hasn't been able to hit this month). With that said, the differences in schedule and the return of Zumaya mean a division title for the Tigers is likely in the offing.

On the NL side of things, you've got three teams vying for the flag, with the Cardinals working from a distinct disadvantage. All three clubs will enjoy similarly easy schedules the rest of the way, but down the stretch the Cardinals will play more home games (23) than the Cubs and Brewers (16 apiece).

As for injuries, all three figure to get better. The Cardinals will get Mark Mulder, barring the unforeseen, back in early September (of course, there's no guarantee he'll be effective), Alfonso Soriano will return to Chicago around the same time, and Milwaukee ace Ben Sheets should rejoin the rotation next week (in time to face the Cubs in Wrigley). Considering how bad the Brewers' pitching has been lately (6.44 ERA for the month of August), getting Sheets back will be especially important for them.

Overall, it's probably going to come down to the Brewers and Cubs. A three-game deficit is sizable at this juncture, particularly for a flawed and inconsistent team like the Cardinals.

It's also hard to get away from the Cubs' strong run differential and the Brewers' weak one. If you look at runs scored and runs allowed, then the Cubs should have a record of 66-57, while the Brewers should have a record of 61-64. This is by no means a perfect evaluative method, but it does suggest that the Cubs have been the stronger team this season. There's still time for that to be borne out in the standings. So take the Cubs plus Soriano over the Brewers plus Sheets.

And that's how the hotly fought Centrals figure to play out in 2007.

If I wasn't disgusted enough by that game, once I saw the guy holding the ~ 6 mo. old baby girl that was rubbing her eyes in the 8th inning (after 10 pm) I had enough.

Nice parenting, asshole.

I did catch the 9th inning on the morning replay this am and was surprised that they had the tying run at the plate in the 9th.

Pudge whiffed.

Swung at ball four twice too. Good to see that hasn't changed.

Yeah, I like how Rod was saying Pudge should take a pitch and get Thames up there to try and win it. Then they mentioned how hard it is to walk Pudge. And of course he struck out.

I'm betting if that's Granderson, Rayburn, etc that Leyland tells him to take a pitch on 3-1 when the closer clearly didn't have great command so far. But because it was one of his vets, Leyland let him swing away. Stupid.

I can't believe we're sending out the C lineup in a huge game like this.

We need Sheff back bad and soon.

rally

rally

rally

Okay a couple of bones to pick about the lineup.

1. Maybin had two doubles last night and isn't playing today, his defense would be nice in LF over Thames, too.

2. Casey is DHing, why not DH Thames, put Maybin in LF and use Casey as a defensive replacement off the bench if need be?

Because Casey can infield fly with a guy on 3rd with less than 2 outs.

Brandon Inge is a knob.

I might even dislike him more than Jones.

Looks like quite a game.

Nate's only thrown 80 pitches through 8, will Leyland let him continue?

Wow, intentionally walking Maggs, putting two men on in a scoreless game, to get to Guillen.

I hope Carlos feels disrespected.

ZOOM in for Nate.

Best performance/outing by Nate, ever?

Didn't realize there was a day game. Thanx2doubleuteffers I've tuned in to see the 9th.

Rabelo is due up second in the ninth.

Would you guys PH for him (Pudge?) or let him hit?

I say they let him hit. :)

and he gets single and then let Pudge pinch run. Just a guess.

That's got to be a little bit of a hard pill to swallow for Pudge.

No, we don't want you to hit, but you can run once your backup gets on.

He didn't look happy...,maybe a lil message sent by JL bout last nights ab.

Maybin for Santiago?

edit: Nope. They'd have to move Guillen over to SS and Casey to first, and they'd lose the DH.

Or Rayburn could play 1B, I suppose. Moot point, I guess.

Would have been nice to have Infante there instead of Santiago.

Might need to watch the replay of this one tonight.

On to the 10th...

Damn, I knew Granderson would strike out. Nice surprise to see Inge walk there.

well, bases loaded with one out. Zoom needs a ground ball (not much of a ground ball pitcher of course). or two K's will suffice.

Zoom's velocity is down.

Topping out at 95, but lots of 92 & 93 too.

The radio guys are sounding very concerned.

Infield single? WTF?

Lofton pinch hit, shouldn't Leyland put in a lefty to get him?

Now it's 3-0

I give up on this team.

Bunch of choakers right now. How many RISP do they have to leave on in crucial moments? Then Leyland counts on Zoom to get a lefty out after pitching to 6 batters already (fresh off the DL). I don't get that at all.

Yea Rod mentioned that this is the first time Zoom has pitched sat and pitched...which I took as this could be a ??? inning by Zoom.

Now or never Marcus...

I hope this is not just a set up for bigger disappointment.

Maybin running for Marcus.

Here comes Pudge, just like last night.

Just need a clean single.

Gah, I was at this game. I was thinking the same thing you all were. When Lofton came in, Seay was ready in the bullpen, and I had no idea why they didn't put him in.

Here, Nate Robertson pitches what could easily be the best game of his career, he gets the ND, and Zumaya, fresh off the DL, gets the loss.

Granderson's deep fly ball was pretty close, Casey completely sucked after popping that one ball up, and Thames was less than 10 feet away from a walk-off. Not to mention, we got the tying the run in scoring position because of Lofton.

It was a good game I guess. But it's disappointing.

19 runners LOB for Detroit and we only score one f#$king run??????????????????

I know he didn't make the out, but that was one helluva attempt by Santiago on that hit up the middle and he almost flipped it while on his back for the out at second.

Man, this is remeniscent of the end of the year meltdown last year vs. the Royals. Everyone on this team is just so not clutch right now. I watched the entire game and the Tigs had RISP many many times and I just never felt like a big hit was coming......unfortunately I was right. They're too talented to keep doing this.