Tiger Geist

Kurt did an excellent breakdown of the stretch run that faces Detroit and Minnesota.  If Detroit can just beat up on inferior opponents (namely, Cleveland and KC), it will make their job a whole lot easier.  And that’s what Detroit did tonight, beat an inferior team.

Five errors.  FIVE by Cleveland… three by Jhonny Peralta alone.  Not a great night defensively; I kind of wish Detroit had broken it open.  I’m very interested to see how Jim Leyland plans on using the recent call-ups — does he use them to spell other players?  Does he start them?  Does he have a different bullpen strategy in closer games vs blow outs?  I want to get an idea, and so far its business as usual with Leyland’s defensive substitutions and late-inning bullpen work.

Interesting giving Ramirez the start in left, with Raburn (center) and Ordonez (right).  I imagine Rick Porcello (flat out fantastic) is the guy you play your weakest outfield against.  I totally agree that they need to sit Granderson against left handed starters — both for his numbers and for his ‘head’ — but I am concerned about Raburn in center.  Ramirez didn’t looked surprised by his callup — he plays like he knows what he wants.  Hopefully that carries over for him into next spring.

How much does Minnesota’s loss earlier in the day play into Jim Leyland’s bullpen strategy?  I’m not suggesting he roll Casey Fien out to the mound just because he’s available, but Cleveland is the third worst team in the AL.  Detroit’s trotted their Seay-Lyon-Rodney trio out for both games against the Indians.  I imagine the Twins’ loss had little to do with it, but he’ll need to be able to trust some other arms in September.

Hoping Detroit gets a nice lead tomorrow and finishes off the Indians.  Give the bullpen a rest and put more pressure on the Twins.