After squandering a 4-0 lead with a poor pitching performance by Verlander and Zumaya, the Tigers look to get back to their winning ways. The Twins fell back to .500 today with a loss to the Cardinals, and gives us the opportunity to go 5 games up on the Twins, again. We are going to send Alfredo Figaro out for his second career MLB start. When we last saw the 24 year old rookie, he went 5 strong innings and only allowed 2 ER with 7 K's.
The Astro's are sending out Felipe Paulino who is fresh off a stint on the DL. He is 1-4 on the year and has a 6.18 ERA. His best pitch is his slider, which has been his only plus pitch according to fangraphs.com. He throws his fastball about 60% of the time, his slider 30% of the time, and uses a changeup about 8% per outing. He does have some good velocity, as well. His fastball averages 95.2 MPH, and his slider comes in at 85.6 MPH. Miguel Cabrera is far and away our best fastball and slider hitter so he will be one to watch tonight, as he always should be. Paulino also struggles mightily against LH batters. He has allowed an OPS of 1.040 against lefties, so Granderson, Santiago and Kelly/Anderson should see playing time tonight against him. This isn't to say that this should be an easy game for us. Paulino has an unusually high BABIP of .372 and an FIP of 4.82, so his numbers suggest that his inflated ERA is a bit of bad luck. Still, he has not been a good pitcher this year and is coming off the DL. This is a good game to get Figaro on the mound and see if we can sneak another win out with our 5th starter on the mound.
Let's Liveblog it. Shall we...
7:10 pm- Paulino definitely has a live arm. He's hitting upper 90's on the gun. If he keeps his control, he could be tough.
7:13 pm-Bourn leads off with a bunt against Figaro. Kid has some wheels.
7:15 pm- Figaro has thrown over to 1st twice now. Like I said, Bourn's got wheels. Keep him at first.
7:16 pm- Or not. Figaro k's Keppinger, but Bourn steals the base. His 25th of the year. Just have to tip your hat to that. Although, Laird did drop the ball, he probably takes that base anyway.
7:17 pm- Figaro hits Tejada? Maybe on the shirt. 0-2 count at the time, too. Not good. Lee is up now.
7:19 pm- Laird shaken up on the play. Looks like the wind was knocked out of him.
7:20 pm- Laird is now out of the game. Dusty Ryan coming in to take over. Raburn becomes the emergency catcher. Impemba is speculating it is a back issue.
7:22 pm- Lee with a shot to left, and Bourn scores easily. 1-0 Astros.
7:23 pm- Rod Allen falls into the trap of assuming that a high batting average tells us a lot about a team's lineup. The Astros are 14th in the NL in runs scored.
7:25 pm- According to Rod and Mario, Paulino is a modern medical miracle and has no body fat
7:26 pm- This inning has gone on for over 13 minutes. That is never a good sign.
7:26 pm- Figaro k's Berkman. 2nd K of the game.
7:29 pm- Pence flies out to end the 1st inning. Figaro throws 24 pitches. 18 for strikes. 1-0 Astros.
7:30 pm- Thames grounds out. He continues his poor hitting stretch. Ideally, he is not an everyday play. Of course, we are not in an ideal situation.
7:31 pm- Kelly struck out. Paulino is cruising.
7:32 pm- Laird with lower back problems. He won't play tomorrow.
7:33 pm- Inge gets caught swinging at a ball out of the zone. Paulino is cruising. He's got a great arm as a I mentioned in the pregame post, and his slider is a plus pitch. Our first 6 batters didn't read the scouting report.
7:35 pm- Matsui gets a "hear it is, hit it" pitch, and he does. Single to RF.
7:36 pm- Quintero flied out to Kelly. 3rd ball hit his way tonight.
7:38 pm- Worst case scenario. Paulino is trying to bunt and concede the out. And, Figaro throws a wild pitch up in the zone that gets passed Ryan. Matsui to second.
7:40 pm- Figaro gets his 3rd strikeout of the game. Bourn up next.
7:41 pm- Borun singles home Matsui, and then gets caught in the longest rundown in the history of the game before getting tagged out on what was probably a pure guess by the ump. 2-0 Astros at the end of the 2nd. 37 pitches. 26 strikes. Not bad, but he cannot allow a run an inning.
7:45 pm- Ryan k's. Paulino is absolutely cruising. Santiago is a good matchup for us, though.
7:47 pm- Let the record show, I called this one. Santiago with the HR. Like I mentioned in the pregame, Paulino struggles against lefties and Santiago is a good fastball hitter.
7:48 pm- Figaro is a terrible batter. K's.
7:51 pm- Grandy looks bad tonight. Too long of a swing from what I can see. 2-1 in the middle of the 3rd.
7:52 pm- A walk for Keppinger. A single by Tejada.
7:54 pm- Figaro is overmatched against real good big league hitters. Tejada, Lee, Berkman. Fielder and Braun in his last outing.
7:57 pm- Kelly makes a play in RF that Maggs would not. Sorry, I had to do say it.
7:58 pm- As I just mentioned, Figaro is overmatched against good big league hitters. Berkman crushes one to center and brings two runs home.
7:58 pm- Figaro is not the answer, and he's not ready. Hurts to say it. Every team we play is going to have at least 2 good big league hitters. Right now, he's not ready for this level.
8:00 pm- Pence rips one, and Berkman scores. This will be his last start for us. French will get the call next week.
8:03 pm- Matsui homers and should end Figaro's night. Why is no one up in the bullpen? Figaro doesn't have it.
8:04 pm- Games like these are why Verlander cannot continue to have nights like last night. A third of his starts, he has not brought his A game. We needed him last night so we could still have a shot at winning the series with Jackson going tomorrow. Verlander needs to take that next step as a pitcher. Ok, tangent done. Inning done. 7-1 end of 3.
8:10 pm- Cabrera and Thames each get hits. Berkman robs Kelly. 2 outs.
8:11 pm- Rod Allen just used the word "owie."
8:12 pm- We are continuing to swing at his slider. Sit on the fastball. Awful, awful at bat by Inge. Words cannot describe how bad that at bat was.
8:15 pm- Figaro should be out of the game, but Leyland sends him back in. gets a fly out to center.
8:16 pm- Figaro continues to show why he should not be in the game, as he walks Keppinger and the meat of the order is coming up. Oh joy.
8:19 pm- I give the kid credit. He got out of the inning with no further damage. Kelly made another nice play in RF.
8:21 pm- This game is still not over. Sit on the fastball. Pinch hit for Figaro in this inning and we can put a dent into this lead.
8:23 pm- Ryan hits a bullet at Matsui, but he makes a nice play and throws him out at 1st base.
8:25 pm- Great pitch by Paulino ends up with Santiago looking. 8 K's.
8:25 pm- So no, on the whole idea to pinch hit for Figaro. He bats and the inning ends a second later with Paulino's 9th K. Leyland has thrown the white flag.
8:28 pm- Baseball is such a funny game. We had won 7 in a row and were riding high. A poor performance by our star pitcher and reliever combined with a AA starting pitcher, and suddenly we are staring a sweep in the face tomorrow. We need Jackson to shut them down tomorrow. That is a pitching matchup that favors us and we need to take advantage of that.
8:31 pm- Point #2 why baseball is a funny game. Figaro is completely overmatched out there, and yet he sent Tejada, Lee, Berkman and Pence down in order with little trouble.
8:34 pm- Figaro gets through 5 innings having thrown 92 pitches and 58 strikes. Not too bad. Of course, the 7 ER is bad.
8:36 pm- Really poor performance by our hitters tonight. We are swinging at way too many breaking balls and are not working the count. Grandy continues the poor hitting display with a weak fly ball. So does Polanco.
8:39 pm- Paulino gets Cabrera to ground out and this is getting depressing.
8:40 pm- You know its a blowout when they have to show the cotton candy to keep us entertained.
8:42 pm- Quintero singles. Figaro is basically just being sacrificed out there. Send Nate and Dolsi in to finish the game and get our bullpen completely rested up.
8:45 pm- 1st and 3rd one out. Leyland comes out to talk to Figaro. Not taking him out. Leyland completely threw in the white flag tonight and you have to do that sometimes over the course of a 162 game season.
8:49 pm- Tejada just misses a home run and the inning ends mercifully with the Astros up 8-1.
8:59 pm- Tigers do nothing again in the top of the 7th inning. Dolsi brought in to face Lee, Berkman and Pence. This is probably not going to go well.
9:02 pm- Lee and Berkman get hits but Pence grounds into a double play. I'm still not impressed with Dolsi.
9:04 pm- Dolsi gets out of the inning with a pop out. Heading into the 8th down 8-1. This blows.
9:09 pm- Astros go to the bullpen and it doesn't matter. 1-2-3 inning. One more inning until this game finally ends. And, its actually been a quick game.
As this game finally ends, here are some post game thoughts before the game even ends:
-Like I mentioned above, Figaro is not ready for this yet. I can't imagine they are going to trot him out there again next Friday. The interesting thing is, with the off day coming on Thursday, we could just skip his start and go right to Jackson on that Friday against the Twins. They did this earlier in the year with Zach Miner, and they basically went two weeks or so without a #5 starter. It is a thought that will at least enter their minds, especially because it will be Minnesota in that Friday game. If they do go with the #5 starter, I have a feeling it will be Luke French.
-Sometimes the other team is just better. That was certainly the case tonight. Last night, we gave the game away. Tonight, their hitting and pitching were outstanding and there really was not much we could do. Santiago at least prevented the shutout.
-Dolsi should have built up some confidence with last night's game and tonight's. Could he have turned the corner? Way too early to tell, and I'm going to guess the answer is no. When Perry gets right, they will prefer him over Dolsi. I'm not sure what lefty will replace Robertson in the bullpen when he is finally cut. I think French will eventually be placed in the rotation, so that leaves Ni or Rapada or a trade acquisition to replace Robertson.
-I'm still not sure if Thames is the answer at DH. Ideally, he would not be. I want Guillen back to see if he can take that spot and provide more consistent and better at bats. We also somehow need to acquire another outfielder. So, I have 3 huge concerns right now:
1. We do not have a good corner outfielder
2. We need to cut Robertson to see if Ni or Rapada can handle that role to evaluate it before the trade deadline.
3. We have no #5 starter. Its time for French to get his shot at it.
Realistically, I definitely see us acquiring another bat before the deadline. We may not do anything else, but another outfielder will be acquired. That would solve one of my concerns. It is time to see if our boys from Toledo can fill concerns #2 and #3. I am also slightly concerned about Thames at DH, and Ryan Perry/ Zumaya. But, those concerns can be alleviated pretty quickly with strong performances in the coming weeks.
-Jackson pitches for us tomorrow against Ortiz. We need 7 to 8 innings of shutdown stuff from Jackson. Can he provide it? I can't wait to find out.
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