No Run Support will be leaving Aerys Sports soon – I just haven’t had the time to keep the site updated properly. Erin at Tigers Amateur Analysis will be taking my place. Please check out her new site; it looks great! Don’t worry though, I’m not going away.

If you’ve been following this site via RSS using the Aerys Sports URL (http://aeryssports.com/no-run-support/), please update that to simply http://norunsupport.com; once I get my domain redirected, I’ll be continuing to post on my own again whenever I have time.

Thanks to those who have kept up with my moves so far this season. My “real” job unexpectedly got busier than ever this year, but I’ll still be writing when I can. As always, you can find me in the BYB game threads and on twitter, making snide comments and generally nerding out.

(mlb.tv screen shot from last year)

Brandon Inge walks it off for the Tigers today. Second walkoff win in a row. First win streak of the year. First series win of the year. Milestones!

For the most part, I don’t really want to. You don’t really want to. But we should.

The home opener, happily, turned out well. After a few innings the sun came out and the beyond sellout crowd was rewarded with a nice day and a nice win.

Then yesterday, a loss. The Tigers made Bruce Chen look like a Cy Young winner. Miguel Cabrera had been hitting over .600 off him with three home runs, but he struck out twice. Austin Jackson struck out 20 times (okay, 13 so far this year and twice in that particular game but it feels like a lot more than that). Casper Wells finally started a game and had one of the game’s five hits. Weirdly, the only Royals pitcher to give up a run was feared closer Joakim Soria.

Today. I would like you to take a look at today’s fielding line from the box score.

FIELDING
E: Porcello (1, pickoff), Raburn (2, throw), Inge (2, throw), Schlereth (1, pickoff).

As my friend Cath said near the end of the game, this was a loss that you’re okay with. Sort of. She said, “You screw up that badly and that often, you don’t deserve to win.” I wholeheartedly agree, though I am concerned by the defense here. I mean, at some point I got up and did the dishes and started some laundry. I hate dishes and laundry, but at that moment, I preferred to do those things. It’s hard to have a ground ball pitcher like Porcello on the mound when the defense is just failing left and right. Speaking of ground balls, if you can ignore the five earned runs he gave up, Porcello had seven ground ball outs today (compared to the one in his last start) which is encouraging. I don’t know. I’m reaching. I don’t want to hate everything. At least there were three home runs (Peralta, Cabrera, and Avila).

So that’s all I’ve got right now. I’m actually a fan of Jim Leyland, and if the team keeps faltering like this he’s not going to be the skipper anymore.  Give Austin Jackson a day off so he stops pressing. For god’s sake, stop using Brad Thomas. Ever. In general, he needs to light a fire under everyone’s asses or this season is going to be really rough.

He’s looking up and he’s looking around, and wondering why everybody’s cheering. I’m like, ‘That ain’t for you, buddy.’

- Alex Avila, on Alcides Escobar’s reaction to the opening day crowd’s cheers for the sun when it came out from behind the clouds.

Last night’s 9-5 loss was a painful one – the bullpen can take most of the responsibility – but it feels like everything’s new again. Even though the weather in Detroit isn’t so great, hope is renewed because the boys are back home and they’ll be wearing their home whites.

Here’s hoping Max Scherzer will help get them to a win for the faithful downtown crowds. I know some friends that started hanging out at 8 o’clock this morning. Time to play ball at Comerica once again!

This was expected, though maybe not quite so soon, and not for this particular reason. Ryan Perry is on the DL with an eye infection, and Weinhardt is on his way to Baltimore today to replace him.

Is Mr. Verlander past his usual April disasters? Tonight’s start made me pretty hopeful. Aside from a homer and a couple other hits, he completely manhandled the Orioles lineup, striking out nine.

Alex Avila called and caught a nice game and also had a hell of a night at the plate – a double, a long, towering home run and five RBI. That should quiet all the haters for now. After just a few games many fans seemed unsure he should even be starting. But hey, not everyone comes storming out of the gate to start the season. Having Gerald Laird as the starting catcher the last few years, I’d be happy if he hit .250. Miguel Cabrera, awesome as usual, had an infield single and a homer. Victor Martinez also hit a home run and scored two runs.

Austin Jackson went 0-5, something that shouldn’t be typical for him. At least only one strikeout was involved. Casper Wells, whom I was about to start another Freedom Campaign for (this time the goal was to be freedom from the major league bench), finally made a late inning appearance pinch running for Ordonez and staying in the game at RF for a bit.

This felt a lot more like what this team should be capable of. One more game in Baltimore tomorrow. According to my friend Kat, who attended tonight’s game, the Tigers fans appeared to outnumber the O’s fans and drowned out their “Tigers suck” chants. The entire crowd was just shy of 13,000.

So, Game 2. Does anybody really want to talk about that? A couple of errors, 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position. Brad Penny giving up eight runs in less than five innings. Bryan Villarreal was welcomed to the big leagues by an Alex Rodriguez home run. It wound up a loss, 10-6. But Brad Penny is not interested in your negativity. I can’t say I blame him; just pitch better, please.

Game 3: first win of the year. It felt like things just had to go better, finally getting to watch a game with Mario and Rod calling it (I missed most of the opening day game). The Tigers came out on top after a serious slugfest – seven home runs between the two teams, two of those belonging to Miguel Cabrera. Brennan Boesch with four hits and four RBI. A good way to make up for two losses.

The Tigers visit the Orioles today, with an off day tomorrow, then two more games Wednesday and Thursday before heading to Detroit for their home opener Friday.

Not exactly the way you want to start off the year, but they can’t all begin with a win.

Justin Verlander was inefficient but struck out eight and took a no decision.

Alex Avila… probably wishes he wasn’t in the lineup. Wild pitches, K’s – he had three of each.

Brandon Inge had a throwing error. At least he also had two hits.

There were some good things. Daniel Schlereth was the only pitcher to not give up any runs, Jhonny Peralta finally got himself an RBI (he had zero this spring), Ordonez threw out Swisher. Verlander looked like his dominant self, he just wasn’t consistent.

So there you have it. Awkwardly placed off day tomorrow, then Saturday’s game is on big Fox, meaning lots of people (probably including me) won’t get to watch it. I sound super cranky, but I’m not. I’m just glad real baseball is back, win or loss  or weirdness on Opening Day (as Albert Pujols grounds into his third double play of the day).

Hard to believe it, but Opening Day is tomorrow. Here’s the 25 man roster as it stands right now.

Pitchers

LHP Phil Coke

RHP Brad Penny

RHP Ryan Perry

RHP Rick Porcello

RHP Max Scherzer

RHP Justin Verlander

RHP Joaquin Benoit

LHP Daniel Schlereth

LHP Brad Thomas

RHP Jose Valverde

RHP Brayan Villarreal

RHP Joel Zumaya

Catchers

Alex Avila

Victor Martinez

IF’s

Miguel Cabrera

Carlos Guillen

Brandon Inge

Jhonny Peralta

Will Rhymes

Ramon Santiago

OF’s

Brennan Boesch

Austin Jackson

Don Kelly

Magglio Ordonez

Ryan Raburn

Casper Wells

It’s obvious that Guillen and Zumaya will be shifted to the DL before long, so there’ll be a couple more moves soon.

» Continue reading “Your 2011 Detroit Tigers”