Tiger Geist

All headings this week will be based on songs from detroit bands (bonus points to whomever states the band from the last post).

Attending the game with Scotty, we were encouraged at Thames’ continued onslaught on the rest of the league with two monster shots.  The ninth provided more potential to get close… but no ah ah.

Overall, its a tough loss in a game I didn’t expect to win.  Verlander (again) pitched well enough for the victory.  However, I wonder if Leyland out-thought himself tonight.  He replaced Freddy Dolsi (any reason its not Fred Dolsi?  its always Freddy… no idea why that is…) with Fernando Rodney, who self destructed.  Most of his pitches were for strikes, which i guess is a good sign.  I don’t question replacing Dolsi, but I wonder why he replaced a right hander against a left hander with another right hander… Leyland seems to love matchups so much that I don’t know why Fossum or Seay weren’t warming up at the same time — Bowker is a rookie who has shown decent power so far this season.  It was a frustrating loss, but if the team is to win, Rodney needs to be solid, so to me its an acceptable loss.  Also, Giants fans are much easier going then Oakland fans, so Scotty & I could walk out of there without being threatened with our lives (see playoffs, 2006 for a reference).

Interesting subplot:  The first 6 or so players in detroit’s lineup seemed to make huge gestures to Bengie Molina; most likely in reference to his brother Yadier getting blown up last weekend.  The best part was the awkward hug that wasn’t to be between Polanco and Molina.  Either way, hopefully Yadier is doing alright.

Interesting subplot #2:  tomorrow my father visits Pacbell (or whatever the hell they call it these days) park for the first time.  I’ve been telling him that CoPa, while a fantastic stadium, doesn’t compare at all to pacbell for years… tomorrow and Wednesday he’ll be able to visit it first hand.

Interesting subplot #3:  Though i didn’t expect to win tonight’s game, we should have won.  I’m pissed.  Not happy at all.  Its hard to keep a straight head when you can take a train to and from the game (I live 3 miles from the stadium) and sneak a flask into the game… but still… this was a tough one.  The last inning was interesting at least, with SF’s closer (a capable Brian Wilson) throwing 30+ pitches to get out of a four run lead, escaping with a two run victory.  Kudos for Detroit not giving up.  Kudos for Sf’s fans not killing me — on the train home, they merely pointed out that pudge was probably out at home, with casual conversation about ernie harwell.  To be continued tomorrow.

Its an exciting feeling at the tigergeist household. Detroit makes its first trip to San Francisco… ever. (I think). Sure they visit Oakland every year.. but thats different. Oakland is way over there… across that bridge thingie. Sure the stadiums are only about..15 miles apart. But this morning has a different feel to it. The wife & I have been listening to a steady diet of White Stripes and the MC5 this morning; tomorrow we’ll pull out a little Iggy & the Stooges (Sorry Ted Nugent… you’re the motor city madman but a giant douche so you get no love). To top it off, my father is coming out to the city for work, and we’re sneaking him out to tuesday and wednesday’s game.

Its a good time for a road trip.. Detroit is hot and the NL West is not. However, they run into some stiff pitching competition… tonight is Tim Lincecum. He’s 9-1, strikes out a lot, has a funky delivery… and he’s the MAN around here. With SF’s weak team, they don’t advertise Giants games. They advertise TIM LINCECUM games. Check out craigslist in the bay area, and thats how all the tickets are listed. Its almost a Mark Fidrych, without the sesame street references. So if Justin Verlander wants to be an elite pitcher, tonight’s his night to outshine the NL’s best young pitcher.

For the series, I see a hard-fought, low scoring one. SF doesn’t score a lot of runs, but they have some excellent pitching, both starters and relievers***. I also LOVE national league games.. the strategy behind the double switches, run generators (bunts, hit and run, etc) makes the game more interesting. Something that helps detroit is they’ve started their winning streak by playing a lot of different players, so i imagine nearly the entire roster will get significant innings this week. Jeff Larish might see a start at first against a right hander even… the horror!!

For the team, its exciting to see how well they’re playing. Everyone seems to be making contributions — Thames apparently enjoys making me look bad and continues to crush the ball; Clevelen is hitting mediocre but making up for it with excellent defense; Guillen is settling in at third; Cabrera is settling in while in the batter’s box; Inge is settling in behind the plate; the pitchers are learning how to throw strikes again.

In the long run, a split of this road trip would keep them at 5 games under .500, and keep them in excellent position to get to .500 by the all star break. If that happens, it’ll be an exciting August.

*** Wednesday Detroit goes up against Barry Zito. They might score 15 runs against him.

Another note: I wasn’t going to tonight’s game at first, but I realized I couldn’t miss Verlander and Lincecum, both capable of tossing a no-no. Its almost the anniversary of Justin’s no-hitter game… a game where a little part of me dies inside every time I think about it. Read about it here.