Game 77: Tigers bite back and beat A's 5-3

As they say, a win is a win. But, this was the definition of an ugly win. Twice in the early going of the game with runners in scoring position, we got caught in a rundown and gave away an out (Marcus Thames did his best Josh Anderson impersonation on the one rundown between home and third base). Raburn dropped a routine fly ball in foul territory. We walked a total of 7 batters, and Rodney looked bad in the 9th. Again, though, it always feels nice to go to bed with a win on the road and that is what we got tonight.

Starting Pitching

-How about Galaragga tonight, huh? After I made a post about how he was actually a pretty typical #5 starter and I expressed confidence in him, he made me look good, right? I mean 6.1 IP with 1 ER is great. Right? Imo, no. On the surface, yes, he did his job by not allowing more than a run. But, do you remember some of those games where the Tigers are on base a lot against a pitcher without good stuff and we still could not score? Well, if I were an A's fan that is how I would feel about tonight's game. Galaragga walked 6 batters, and only threw strikes in 53 of his 97 pitches. He also only had one quick inning of 10 or less pitches. The two hits and 5 K's look nice but I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that the A's are a terrible offensive team. As I wrote in my preview post of this series, the A's are the worst offensive team in the AL. Sometimes pitchers win with smoke and mirrors and I think Galaragga did that tonight.

With that said, lets examine his start a little more. In the game preview today, I was calling for Galaragga to use his changeup more and his slider and fastball less. For one, his slider and fastball have been bad this year. And two, the A's have the worst changeup-hitting team in the league. So, what did he do tonight? Well, for the season, he only uses his changeup 8% of the time. According to Brooks Baseball, though, he threw his changeup 18 % of the time tonight. He threw his fastball and slider each at just slightly below 40% of the time tonight. So, it appears that Galaragga is being instructed to become more of a 3-pitch pitcher because this trend occurred in his last start, as well. His changeup is by no means a great pitch. I would consider it average at best. But, I do think incorporating that 3rd pitch into your pitching arsenal can be very beneficial. Against better hitting teams, we will be able to see if this trend of using his changeup more correlates to better success on the mound. If nothing else, it is something to keep an eye on.

Bullpen

-Seay was brought in to get one batter, the lefty Adam Kennedy, and he did his job. Kudos to Seay for once again being solid and dependable in the bullpen.
-Zumaya was great tonight. I was hard on him last game, but he was brilliant tonight. 18 strikes in 23 pitches with a fastball that averaged 100 MPH? Just sick. His duel with Matt Holliday was great to watch.
-Rodney was awful tonight. Let's call it like it is. He got behind on four of the five hitters he faced and he could not locate his changeup. He threw it 9 times and got it over the plate for a strike just 3 times. I can live with the home run by Ellis because that will happen every now and again. I'm not asking him to be Mariano Rivera. But, he has to throw strikes. All that said, he got the double play when we needed it. He entered the game with the lead and when he left we still had the lead. That is all that matters when you have the closer job. Instead of evaluating his performance I am probably just going to use that line, "he entered the game with the lead and when he left we still had the lead" when he gets the job done. Other than Inge and Jackson, he is the story of the Tigers.

Offense
-Gio Gonzalez is an extremely wild pitcher and we only got 2 BB so I would have liked us to work the count against him a little more and we left 8 men of base. But, I will take 5 runs and 12 hits especially with a couple guys in our lineup who are just not swinging the bat well (Ordonez and Thames come to mind). 3 stars offensively...

• Polanco- He got the game going with his 2 run home run and gave us 3 RBI on the night. He hits .380 against Oakland and he continues to crush their pitching staff. After going 6 straight games without a multi hit game, it was nice to see him put some good cuts on the ball.
• Raburn- Probably had a better all around offensive night than Polanco. 3 hits, and two long doubles that were clean, legit shots off the wall that sounded like they might have had a chance to leave the park at contact. With Braden pitching tomorrow and him just killing lefties this year, I have to think Raburn will get the start tomorrow.

• Cabrera-Ho hum. Another multi hit game with a double. This guy is good.

Defense

Two errors tonight. Everett failed to transfer the ball out of his glove properly on the one and Raburn dropped a routine fly ball in foul territory. Luckily, none of the errors came back to bite us. There also was an infield hit against us that caused some confusion between Cabrera and Zumaya. But, this is nitpicking. Raburn won't drop a routine fly ball again and shortstops field so many balls, they are bound to make an error here or there. And, we turned 2 huge double plays. One came in the 1st inning with the bases loaded and the last came in the 9th to end the game. Bottom line, we have 4 guys who should be in the running for a Gold Glove (Cabrera, Polanco, Inge and Granderson). Our defense, even with a 2 error performance, is one of the last things I worry about with this team.

Its a 3:35 start tomorrow as we look to take the series. Verlander is going to be on the mound and I have to imagine that he is licking at his chops at facing a bad offense like the one the A's throw out there. Should be a fun one.

-And, as always, Bill was kind enough to give us a minor league recap tonight. In short, 2B Scott Sizemore continues to rake the ball.