Lester Oliveros is 1-2 with a 4.37 ERA in 17 games with the Mud Hens

Late this afternoon, the reports started circulating among Venezuelan baseball writers that the Tigers plan to call up right-handed reliever Lester Oliveros from Toledo tomorrow. This started with a tweet from Oliveros’s brother, Rayner, congratulating him on the call-up. This tweet was picked up and passed along by a few Venezuelan writers on Twitter, and the news also reached John Wagner of the Toledo Blade. One of the writers who initially picked up this story was Alfredo Villasmil, who writes for the Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias. He later informed John Wagner and myself that he had spoken to Brayan Villarreal, who confirmed the call-up, although the Tigers have obviously not made anything official. John Wagner may be the next one with more information (as the Mud Hens game just ended and he’ll be reporting from the clubhouse soon, so keep refreshing his page). By the way, fun fact: The Spanish for “Mud Hen” is “Gallinazo.”

Oliveros has pitched to a 3-2 record with a 2.79 ERA between Erie and Toledo. He was really dominant in Erie. He has had some growing pains in Toledo (his ERA here is 4.37), but he’s still struck out 22 batters in just over 22 innings pitched. He’s a hard thrower with good stuff. As a random note, I briefly met him during spring training, and he has got to be one of the most muscular guys in the Tigers system.

Of course, if Oliveros is being called up, that begs the obvious question of who is being sent down. Now that Daniel Schlereth has been sent to Toledo, there’s really no obvious candidate. Ryan Perry hasn’t wowed the world since he’s come back, but he’s been okay. I guess they could send Brayan Villarreal back to Toledo (and I certainly wouldn’t protest), but then they wouldn’t have a long man (Oliveros has mostly been used recently in close games where the Mud Hens are trailing, but only for two innings at the most). Rick Porcello is the pitcher who has struggled the most, but there’s really no one to replace him in the rotation and there’s no off-day before the All-Star Break. It could be a position player, but I doubt it. There’s also the possibility of a DL stint or trade for someone, but there hasn’t been any indication that anyone’s injured (although Al Alburquerque was dealing with some elbow issues earlier in the month, and he did throw 47 pitches last night with a largely ineffective slider) and the trade rumors haven’t exactly been flying (although the Tigers tend to keep their cards close; no one sensed the David Purcey trade was coming). I suppose I should remind you that the Dodgers were scouting Ryan Perry with the Mud Hens a few weeks ago, although it’s unclear if they were looking at him for a possible trade or if they simply thought he might be called up before the Tigers’ series with the Dodgers. Ah well, I don’t have much of a problem parting with a mid-level prospect for the right acquisition, so long as it’s not Villarreal. I’d like him to stick around. Anyways, stay tuned for more news late tonight or tomorrow.

Justin Verlander is our superhero today

I’m still unhappy that I couldn’t get to this game, but at least I didn’t miss a no-hitter or anything like that. Actually, Justin Verlander had to work a little bit for his outs. I’m not sure if it’s because his stuff was off or because the Mets are just that hot (and had an annoyingly high number of two-strike fouls). It was probably a little of both. But when going seven innings and giving up one run is considered an “off” start, that’s impressive. He did exactly what needed to be done, and so did the back end of the bullpen (even though Joaquin Benoit gave up the home run to Carlos Beltran).

One thing that kind of got overlooked in this series because of the Mets’ absurd scoring was the fact that Andy Dirks homered in all three games, and this was the only game of the three that he started. I’d still rather have Magglio Ordoñez in there, but I’ll take production from anyone I can. And doesn’t it just figure that on the day after hitting two of the longest home runs ever, Miguel Cabrera would hit into two double plays and not really do all that much at the plate? But that’s okay, because I’m sure he’ll be right back to mashing the ball tomorrow, and guys like Ramon Santiago (who had been struggling recently) covered for him. Also, Alex Avila showed just about his entire all-around game with the exception of home runs. He got a hit, an RBI, he threw a runner out, and he had a nice block at the plate to cut down Lucas Duda on a throw from Brennan Boesch. There’s only about three hours left in the All-Star voting, so make sure you get those last minute votes in for Avila (and you can vote for Martinez, Cabrera, and Peralta while you’re at it).

And so we’re down to our final Interleague series, and it’s with the World Champion San Francisco Giants. They’re contending again, even though their offense has taken a huge blow, especially with the loss of Buster Posey (and if you follow me on Twitter, you know I’ve been lobbying for weeks for them to pick up Pudge, but with the Nationals suddenly a darkhorse for the Wild Card, that might not happen). They’re also without Freddy Sanchez and they just got Pablo Sandoval back off the DL not too long ago. However, their pitching remains excellent. Luckily, the Tigers will not have to face Tim Lincecum or Matt Cain, and Saturday is scheduled to be a bullpen day for them due to a doubleheader they had earlier in the week. Also, they played a 13-inning game today. First up is lefty Madison Bumgarner, and outside of a really bizarre start against the Twins in which he gave up 9 hits and eight runs while only recording one out (and that was a strikeout of the pitcher), he’s been extremely good this year. Plus, the Tigers have never seen him, if you wanted some added difficulty. Meanwhile, Brad Penny (who briefly played for the Giants in 2009) has been okay in his last couple starts. They haven’t been anything to write home about, but they haven’t been the blowups that Porcello and Coke have had, and with an offense as weak as the Giants, he’s got a good shot at having a decent start. By the way, I hope to have another post up in the next hour or so on some potential breaking news, so stay tuned.

I’ve only been a devoted everyday baseball follower for about four and half years, but in that span, I’ve experienced just about every down a team’s fan can have. I’ve endured the pain of just missing the playoffs, late-season letdowns, being no-hit, season-ending injuries, a couple of heartbreaking trades, blown umpire calls, and sentimental favorites falling from grace. One thing I’ve not had to experience is having one of my team’s position players pitch, until now (I’ve also never experienced a 100-loss season, or even a 90-loss season, and I hope I never do). The odd thing was that earlier in the evening, I made a joke about Don Kelly pitching, and it ended up actually happening. I think you have to approach that situation with a sense of humor because if you don’t laugh at it, you’ll drive yourself nuts. And, as per usual in these types of games, he ended up being the best pitcher of the night.

But how did we get there? Let’s rewind. It was much like the night before, actually. The Mets got a gazillion hits and scored two-out runs at an insanely unsustainable pace. And so you have it that Phil Coke becomes the first rotation casualty of the season (Remember back in the offseason, when we were practically giving pitchers away?). He’s back to the bullpen and Charlie Furbush will start for the Tigers on Monday night. It was something you could kind of sense coming because Leyland kept saying “we’re tossing ideas around” last night, although most Tigers writers expected Coke to get one more start. As for Coke in this game, well, as he was in the midst of giving up a bunch of hits, there was this look in his eye of complete helplessness. In that moment, he had no idea what to do. Apparently the other relievers who came into the game didn’t know what to do either. Actually, Ryan Perry wasn’t all that bad, but Al Alburquerque and David Purcey both struggled and both of them threw nearly fifty pitches each, which is what prompted Don Kelly’s one-third of an inning. It also prompted them to send Daniel Schlereth to Toledo and bring up Brayan Villarreal, which disappointed me because he’d become my main interest with the Mud Hens and I’d prefer to see him as a starter anyways.

Amazingly, the Tigers hit five home runs, the Mets didn’t hit any, and somehow the Mets still won. That can’t be something that happens very often. Just about everyone in the Tigers lineup had a good night except for Victor Martinez (who went 0-for-4 with a couple of strikeouts). I guess Miguel Cabrera was tired of hearing everyone buzz about how far Wily Mo Peña hit his home run the other night, because he proceeded to hit about 850 feet worth of home runs. Those two balls were absolutely crushed. Add on shots from Jhonny Peralta, Andy Dirks, and Ryan Raburn, and…well, that should be enough to win. Seriously.

And so it’s up to Justin Verlander to save this series and he’s just the man to do it, because he’s been outstanding recently. There’s been no one in baseball better in the past month. However, he faced the Mets last year and had one of his worst starts of 2010, going only two innings and giving up five runs (although he only went two innings because of a rain delay). He’ll be opposed by Mike Pelfrey, who started the season struggling but has since turned things around and has been pitching well recently, although he did pick up the loss in his last start in Texas. He’s never faced the Tigers before, and the only Tiger who has faced him is Miguel Cabrera (who is 2-for-6). I’d like to add that I won tickets to this game, but I had a mandatory lab today and so I gave the tickets to someone else, only to have my professor email the class last night saying that she was canceling lab. Life sucks sometimes.

When the team that leads the National League in walks comes out swinging aggressively and gets lots of hits and no walks, maybe it’s time to examine your game plan, because it sure looks as though teams have picked up on something in Rick Porcello’s pitching. I was reminded of that start that Madison Bumgardner made against the Twins, in which he only threw three pitches out of the strikezone but kept giving up hits. Porcello’s balls-strikes ratio wasn’t quite that sharp, but a lot of the hits he gave up were on the first or second pitch. And all but one of them came with two out. This sounds like a job for a PitchF/x analysis, and if I had the time to do it, I would, but this is not a good time. Once Porcello departed, Daniel Schlereth became the first pitcher to give up two grand slams in a game since Brandon Backe of the Astros in 2009, and Backe was a starting pitcher. Schlereth’s answer was that he’s been having trouble getting righties out recently.

And before you ask, I have no interest in Jose Reyes as either a trade deadline acquisition or a free agent pickup. He’d cost too much in terms of prospects to justify being a rental and he’d cost way too much money as a free agent, especially since the Tigers are already getting very good production at the shortstop position. It’s second base that needs the upgrade. Besides, with the recent struggles in the rotation outside of Justin Verlander, it might not be all bad to at least take a look at some starting pitching (but don’t expect any sympathy from me).

You can’t really analyze the offense a whole lot on a night like this. For one thing, a knuckleballer is kind of a different animal, and all you can do is hope that it doesn’t mess up guys’ swings for the rest of the week. For another thing, the fact that the game was blown open early may have changed pitching and/or hitting patterns. Still, props go to Austin Jackson and Andy Dirks for their home runs. Even Jim Leyland didn’t discuss the offense that much, other than to point out that the early double plays were a killer and then get into his particular BS about why he removes his regulars in blowout losses (something about bench players having more energy in a blowout game and therefore giving you a better chance of coming back or something; I’m not sure why managers feel like they have to say something other than what the truth is: They’re giving their regulars a rest and protecting them from being injured in an unwinnable game). I love how he added that he doesn’t like taking out his regulars in a blowout win because it scares him to do that. And yet he does it anyways (he didn’t say that last part, though).

The series continues tonight with two lefties dueling it out. Phil Coke was given a rare dose of run support in his last start and apparently didn’t know how to function with it, as he didn’t last long and gave up six runs to the Diamondbacks. Meanwhile, lefty Chris Capuano (who I keep getting mixed up with Carlos Villanueva, for some reason) has been pitching well in four out of five starts this month, coming off a shutout win against Oakland. He has not faced the Tigers since 2006, and that was only one game.

This game started an hour early so as not to conflict with the fireworks for the Detroit Freedom Fest (I am not from Detroit, so I know nothing about this festival), but I’d say the people at Comerica Park got the more entertaining show (and I love fireworks). First things first, though. Max Scherzer had himself a very nice outing indeed. He looked a lot better than he did against the Dodgers. He had both the fastball and the slider working, as evidenced by the nine strikeouts. It was a well-pitched game all-around, by both teams, actually.

The Tigers built an early lead on seven hits, the majority of which were bloops and seeing-eye singles. As a matter of fact, in one of the innings where they scored one run, I think Magglio Ordoñez’s line drive double play was hit harder than any of the actual hits. Magglio did get two singles later in the game, but it seems like his bad luck continues. At any rate, he did start the rally in the eighth inning with a single, then got pinch-ran for by Austin Jackson (which is the right move). Jhonny Peralta became the hero when he lifted a fly ball that Jose Bautista lost in the lights, dove for, didn’t get, and had roll past him to the wall for a triple.

But most people aren’t going to be talking about the pitching or Peralta’s heroics. They’re going to be talking about the bizarre umpire call on a bunt by Andy Dirks in which the first base umpire initially ruled that the throw had pulled Adam Lind off the bag and that Dirks was safe, then consulted with the home plate umpire and ruled him out. Now, the out call was the correct one, so they got that part right, but it looked like a simple enough call, and the fact that the home plate umpire was consulted made Leyland go ballistic. Something similar happened in a Nationalss-White Sox game last week, where the home plate umpire overruled a call by the first base umpire (although in that case, the call was not so clear-cut). Nationals manager John McLaren was ejected (along with Jerry Hairston, Jr) and all he did was the usual screaming and shouting. Leyland went above and beyond that. In a year where the Tigers’ slogan tends to be “Team Boring,” that was anything but.

After that brief respite, it’s time for Interleague play to start up again, and the next opponent is the New York Mets, complete with Jose Reyes but not David Wright (both of whom it seems all Tigers fans but me are drooling over). We’ll see if Rick Porcello can bounce back from being “nickled and dimed” against the Dodgers. The Mets counter with R.A. Dickey, and I said this with Tim Wakefield: You can’t tell with the knuckleballer. If it’s working, the Tigers won’t have much of a shot. If it isn’t, he’s going to get hit hard, although I think he throws his fastball a bit more often than Wakefield does.

You think maybe somewhere up there, dear ol’ Sparky Anderson called in a favor? After all, the Tigers couldn’t lose on the day they retired his number, now could they? Brad Penny wasn’t all that bad. He was actually pretty decent, although the swings were gradually starting to get better before the Diamondbacks finally made the adjustment in the seventh inning. But it is what it is, and he obviously battled to stay in there, and certainly deserves credit for that. Al Alburquerque did a nice job of holding the Diamondbacks to one run in a tight spot so that the Tigers had an easier time rallying.

And rally they did. I know Aaron Heilman did a pretty good job for the Diamondbacks last year. He was even their closer for a time. But he’s struggled this year, and even though he’s been better recently, asking him to protect a one-run lead kind of strikes me as being the equivalent of asking, say, Ryan Perry to protect a one-run lead in the eighth inning (at this point, at least). I don’t often question the manager’s decision (either ours or theirs), but I do wonder about this move. At any rate, it helped the Tigers. Actually, what really helped the Tigers were the two walks to Casper Wells and Magglio Ordoñez (the pinch-hit single by Don Kelly was nice, too), because that brought up Miguel Cabrera in a situation where the Diamondbacks couldn’t walk him. And Cabrera delivered. And then Victor Martinez delivered. And then Jhonny Peralta and Brennan Boesch and Brandon Inge. The floodgates opened. They haven’t put up a big inning like that against a bullpen in quite a while. It was nice to see.

Now it’s time to take a one-day break from Interleague play as the Toronto Blue Jays come in for a makeup game. The Blue Jays are coming off a sweep of the Cardinals (whose offense tanked after Albert Pujols went on the DL). They’ll start rookie Zach Stewart, who will be making his third start. He’s had one good start and one bad start to begin his career. Meanwhile, Max Scherzer is looking to find his way after another rocky outing, this one against the Dodgers. He had two starts against the Blue Jays earlier this year, with a win and a no-decision, one a decent start, one a really good start (oddly enough, the no-decision came in the game where he pitched better).

Will Rhymes had a home run and a single, but it was not enough to stop the Mud Hens' losing streak

It’s a shame I missed this game, and believe me when I say that I am running out of ways to describe just how awesome Justin Verlander is. There’s just so many ways he can win. This win was of the flashy variety with a career-high fourteen strikeouts. Runners at second and third with no outs in the 8th? No problem. Just strike out the side. The Diamondbacks had no chance. The Tigers also became the first team to actually get to Josh Collmenter a little bit, thanks to Alex Avila and his four RBIs. Unfortunately, Avila made the mistake of thinking he had hit another home run in the eighth inning and got thrown out at second, but what can you do?

Alas, while Justin Verlander was spinning his gem up in Detroit, the Mud Hens were not faring nearly as well, suffering a 9-2 loss. My baseball mentor (a former catcher) was with me for this game, and he was flabbergasted that Brayan Villarreal gave up as many runs as he did, noting that for the first four innings, the swings of the Louisville Bats were not very good, and he could count only one hard-hit ball. That changed in the fifth, when the Bats were able to lay off his slider and sit on the fastball and ended up hitting back-to-back home runs and chasing Villarreal. Hopefully he doesn’t get discouraged by that outing. The following inning, Jeremy Hermida decided to steal third with his team up 8-2 and he got drilled in his next at-bat. Coincidence? I think not. The Mud Hens got their only runs by way of two solo home runs. Will Rhymes hit a home run to lead off the bottom of the first, and Clete Thomas hit an absolute BOMB to deep right center in his first at-bat. This has to have been the longest home run I’ve ever seen at Fifth Third Field. This made it out of the ballpark and onto St. Clair street. Both of them also hit singles later, but obviously, that was not enough.

This rather awkward series with the Diamondbacks finishes today, thank goodness. After an amazing performance by Verlander, we’ll see if Brad Penny can be adequate (because you can’t really hope for anything resembling entertainment). He’ll be opposed by former Angel Joe Saunders, and since Saunders has mostly pitched in the American League, most of the Tigers have seen him before. They’re going to be retiring Sparky Anderson’s number before the game (That’s great, although I don’t remember Sparky Anderson at all), so that’ll be something to watch.

Remember when I discussed the “all things being equal” scenario yesterday? Last night represented probably what would have been the worst possible thing that could have happened in that scenario: Tigers beating up the starter and then losing anyways. But six runs should be enough to win, and if it isn’t, then you deserve to lose. Phil Coke has not gotten a lot of run support this season, and on the night where he finally got some, it was like he couldn’t deal with it. Jim Price hypothesized that the leadoff walk to Ryan Roberts and subsequent error by Ryan Raburn on a double play ball put doubt into his mind and he let those things get to him. Ryan Perry’s pitching looked pretty good but the one bad pitch he made caused the tying run to score. And likewise, it was bad timing for David Purcey to give up his first run as a Tiger. The only thing that did go the Tigers’ way was the botched squeeze attempt in the ninth inning that turned into a double play.

Given the fact that it was not the “all other things equal” scenario, I had no qualms about the Tigers scoring six runs off Zach Duke, just as I would have no qualms about the Tigers scoring six runs off just about 99.99% of pitchers in baseball. But again, and it’s odd to say this in a game where they scored six runs, things worked against the Tigers just a little bit. Jhonny Peralta hit a two-run double in the first inning, and that’s wonderful, but he was oh-so-close to it being his second grand slam in a week (It probably would have made it out in most ballparks). However, there were some other performances that were quite positive. Casper Wells homered for the second straight game, and Magglio Ordoñez had two hits and an RBI. Magglio looked like he felt good. He went first to third on a single, and then later he scored from second on a single that didn’t make it very far into the outfield.

If anyone can get this mysterious and uncharacteristic Interleague slide turned around, it’s Justin Verlander, who has now pitched two complete games in a row and done very well each time. He’s never faced the Diamondbacks as a team, but he has seen several of their hitters before. The Diamondbacks counter with Josh Collmenter, who replaced Barry Enright in the rotation and is a Michigan native (Seriously, the whole pointing out of Michigan natives has got to stop; I know I brought up the fact that Chad Billingsley is from Ohio, but that was only because I have personal ties to his hometown. I don’t see fit to mention every time there’s a player from Ohio). He’s pitched extremely well since he joined the rotation, and is figuring to be an early Rookie of the Year candidate (As a side note, I can’t imagine there are many starting pitchers in Reno with good ERAs. It seems like every game they play results in scores like 16-7, 9-8, or 15-12). Alas, I will not be around to see this spectacular pitching matchup, because I will be checking out the Mud Hens, but at least I will get to watch Brayan Villarreal start.

Don't mess with the family

How’s that for a rollercoaster end to the road trip? Rick Porcello wasn’t target practice like he was the last time he faced the Dodgers, but he couldn’t hold them back all the same. The Dodgers did hit some balls hard, but he also gave up a lot of those annoying bloop hits as well. At least he didn’t walk the pitcher this time. Jim Leyland and Victor Martinez sounded like they felt sorry for him (as a side note, I was amused by the rolls of toilet paper on the wall behind Leyland during the postgame; were they doing his interview in the bathroom?). Anyways, Al Alburquerque put out the fire nicely. I’m still skeptical of his long-term use, but every out that we can get from him is worthwhile. The save should actually go to Austin Jackson, who bailed out a rusty Jose Valverde by running down a ball headed into the gap that would’ve undoubtedly tied the game and maybe given the Dodgers the win (I’m not 100% sure on that, since James Loney was the runner at first and he doesn’t run well; He had been thrown out at the plate earlier in the game thanks to a great throw from Magglio Ordoñez and an equally good block from Martinez).

It was so nice to have the trio from Venezuela all contribute in a big way to this game (And it was nice to use that picture again. I could’ve used it while Maggs was on the DL, but it seemed weird having the healthy members outnumbered by injured guys, ghosts, and guys in the minor leagues). You had the aforementioned outfield assist, but they contributed a lot on offense, too. Magglio got the Venezuelan party started with a two-run bomb to left field, a welcome sight for sure (actually, he had hit two home runs on his rehab assignment, so he wasn’t actually in that bad of a power drought). Not to be outdone, Miguel Cabrera had an opposite-field two-run shot of his own (and I won’t complain about his thundercalves this time because it was a throwback game and you’re supposed to do that, but if he continues it, all bets are off; by the way, the constant parade of uneven pantlegs on the mound was driving me crazy). And Victor Martinez’s two hits and RBI should not be overlooked. The power display was rounded out by Casper Wells (who actually led off the game with a home run) and Don Kelly (his was of the pinch-hit variety). Actually, it was kind of a strange game. When the Tigers weren’t hitting the ball over the fence, they were striking out a lot. There were just WAY too many strikeouts in this series. Of course, no one offered up an explanation for all the strikeouts, so we’re left with merely the observation that there were too many of them.

After the game, they announced that they were optioning little-used Adam Wilk to Toledo and bringing back Ryan Perry. Perry has pitched quite well during his stint with the Mud Hens. I’ve seen him several times, both on TV and at games. He’s looked like he’s in control of both the fastball and the slider. Obviously, he could fall apart once again in the big leagues, but he’s done what he needed to do in Toledo. And as of the last time I saw him, it looked like he was letting his hair grow back. This morning, the Tigers optioned Danny Worth to Toledo in order to bring Brandon Inge off the DL. I know there’s been griping about this, but they’re not keeping him in the minor leagues forever. Besides, hopefully the confounding variable of mono is now out of the way so we can get a clearer picture of what he’s going to contribute for the rest of the season. Besides, enough people still like him enough that he’s now running fifth in the All-Star voting at third base (although he’s about a million votes behind Evan Longoria, so it’s not like he’s a threat to pull a Derek Jeter).

Today is an off-day that is probably much-needed despite the players’ assertions to the contrary, and tomorrow the Tigers begin a long, ten-game homestand against mostly National League teams plus one makeup game against the Blue Jays on Monday. But first things first, and that means dealing with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yeah, I know Kirk Gibson is the manager, Alan Trammel is the bench coach, and they’re retiring Sparky Anderson’s number on Sunday, but I’m still not really looking forward to this series (although I will admit that when the season started, I fully expected to be spending the weekend spazzing and bawling my eyes out; barring something bizarre, that won’t be happening. Most likely, I’ll just complain a lot). For one thing, they’re pretty hot and somehow they’re in first place in the NL West (though I’m not particularly happy with the timing of the beginning of their run). I kind of feel like they’re the Cleveland Indians of the National League in that I’m not quite sure how they’re playing so well, and that what they’re doing may be flukey (plus, they’re taking advantage of the injuries/financial struggles of the other teams in their division). The front of their rotation is legit, as are a couple of their hitters like Stephen Drew and Justin Upton, but I don’t understand how they’re getting what they’re getting out of most of the others. On a personal level…well, you know most of the story already. You can add the fact that for years I’ve found them kind of annoying because they rarely do what I want them to do, whether that’s win, lose, make roster moves, not make roster moves, whatever. Plus, I don’t have a lot of love for Miguel Montero and Melvin Mora because they have a tendency to talk to reporters about things their teammates do that they don’t like rather than talk to said teammates and settle their differences in private (Remember the big stink that Montero made about Jose Valverde last year?). Anyways, the first pitcher for them in this series is lefty Zach Duke, who spent the beginning of the season on the shelf with a broken hand. He’s been shaky in his last two starts against the Marlins and White Sox. He was a largely dependable pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates for many years, but he’s no Clayton Kershaw, so the Tigers certainly can beat him. And yes, he replaced Armando Galarraga in the Diamondbacks’ rotation. The thought of the “all other things equal” scenario fills me with dread (By the way, if you’re wondering about Galarraga, he is still in the minor leagues, but right now he’s on the DL with an elbow injury that I suspect he’s been hiding for the better part of the season. I saw his last minor league start on June 3rd and his slider looked wrong, plus he’s had several starts this year where he threw hardly any sliders, and that’s the pitch that puts the most pressure on your elbow. Why you would hide an injury to the point where you lose your job in the big leagues is beyond me. At any rate, all I know is that it’s an elbow injury. I have no idea as to the severity because it’s a lot harder to get information on minor league players than it is major league players, but I’m still keeping an eye out for updates). Phil Coke is coming off a loss to Colorado, and obviously he’s never made a start against the Diamondbacks.

Talk about a weird night for Max Scherzer. When the Dodgers hit the ball hard, they got hits, and when they hit it softly, they got hits. There was a fairly equal distribution of rocket shots and bloop hits, with a lot of those bloops coming in a maddening inning in with James Loney hit a bloop double, got erased on a fielder’s choice that brought Aaron Miles to second, another groundout, and a swinging bunt from Tony Gwynn. However, he did not do his homework on Andre Ethier. He gave up a two-run homer to him on a 3-0 pitch. Now, it’s a little difficult to tell with baseball-reference, so this might not be precise, but prior to last night, Ethier had found himself in a 3-0 count twenty times. Twelve of those plate appearances resulted in a walk. Of the remaining eight at-bats, three of those resulted in hits, and all those hits had come on the 3-0 pitch, which means he’s swung at the 3-0 pitch at least three of the eight times he’s been thrown a strike in that count. Translation: There was a reasonably good chance he would swing at the 3-0 pitch. Scherzer should have known this. I know walking him isn’t ideal, and things could totally blow up anyways, but Matt Kemp came into the game 0-for-13 against Scherzer. On the flipside, the bullpen walked too many guys, but they didn’t give up any runs.

I would need to consult Pitch f/x to be sure (and I don’t have time to do that right now), but it seems like the Tiger hitters have gotten a lot of sliders and curveballs on this road trip. And they’ve done a lot of swinging and missing at those sliders and curveballs. They’ve racked up a ridiculous amount of strikeouts on this road trip (even when you factor out the pitcher batting), and just about everyone is guilty. And last night, when they weren’t striking out, they were hitting into double plays. Jim Leyland picked the right opportunity to play his trump card in Miguel Cabrera, with the bases loaded and one out, but all Cabrera could do was hit a ground ball to shortstop. The part that bothered me was that he didn’t leave Cabrera in the game. It was 4-1 at the time and that spot in the lineup was guaranteed to come up again. You’d have to get a little creative, but it could’ve been done without losing Victor Martinez or Alex Avila.

We’ve only got one more game of not having the DH. We can do this (and before you ask, no, I don’t think National League rules have anything to do with the lack of wins on this road trip). Rick Porcello will try to bounce back from getting rocked in Colorado. He beat the Dodgers last year, although he had to strand quite a few runners to do so. Lefty Ted Lilly will start for the Dodgers, and he’s one of those “art of pitching” types, and given all the strikeouts the Tigers have been racking up on breaking pitches, I’d imagine a lot more sliders and curveballs are on tap. Or maybe that’s the trap they want the Tigers to fall into. At any rate, the Tigers last saw Ted Lilly with the Cubs in 2009, and they beat him then. And just to make things more interesting, it’s going to be a throwback uniform game from the forties. I do like an occasional throwback game (those teams that wear throwbacks every Friday or every day game at home are doing it wrong, though).