OT season be damned - Tigers vs Royals (September 19th-21st)

Submitted by WMUgoblue on

Well here we are in a pennant race, tonight's game is the most important start of the year for Verlander, let's hope that the previous 4 months of mediocrity were all in preparation for the next month and a half.

Detroit

  • Justin Verlander:
  • 13-12, 190.2 IP and a ghastly 4.81 ERA
  • FIP: 3.89
  • K/9: 7.03 (lowest since his rookie season)
  • BB/9: 3.07

Kansas City

  • Jason Vargas:
  • 11-9, 179.2 IP and a career low 3.41 ERA
  • FIP: 3.74
  • K/9: 6.31
  • BB/9: 1.90 (also a career low)

     

What's funny about some of these numbers is that Verlander and Vargas both hold a WAR of 2.7 this season so technically it's an even pitching matchup tonight.

This may be early, but I won't be back near a computer until first pitch so I figured anyone who's paying attention to baseball this late in the year ( which you should) would enjoy having a place to talk. 

Now I know it's technically not OT season but sometimes these things are a bit too important to not discuss, plus there are more basbeball lovers than baseball haters here. 

That said, Go Get 'Em Tigers!

Rabbit21

September 19th, 2014 at 2:21 PM ^

This team is so bi-polar.  They're either the good Tigers or they're the evil Tigers, with no stops in between and no transitional periods either, it just goes from one to the other with no warning.  Hoping we get the good Tigers for the stretch run/playoffs.

LSAClassOf2000

September 19th, 2014 at 2:20 PM ^

This would fall under "allowable OT" because pennant races tend to be significant news and there is a large contingent of people on the blog who are also Tigers fans, myself among them. It's not really a "football / hoops" and then "everything else" sort of deal, it just means that more constraints are put on the notion of "allowed OT". No worries here. 

flashOverride

September 19th, 2014 at 2:44 PM ^

I'm more worried about the final series with Minnesota than I am about this. Imagine where the Tigers would be if they took better care of business against the mediocre or terrible teams in their division. They own KC, they're barely above .500 against the rest. 

mgob-rad

September 19th, 2014 at 2:52 PM ^

Here is to hoping the tigers take at least 2 out of 3. Probably have the greatest odds of losing tonight seeing that Justin has been too busy taking pictures lately rather than focusing on pitching.

jaked1247

September 19th, 2014 at 5:04 PM ^

WAR stands for Wins Above Replacement. Basically the WAR of an average MLB player is 0.0, top WAR in the MLB right now is Mike Trout with a 7.74, basically saying if you replaced him with an average CF, the Angels would have 7.74 less wins. 

maize-blue

September 19th, 2014 at 4:06 PM ^

Pretty much the whole season right here in these next three games. Just beat the Royals and don't fu$% around with the Wild Card crap.

ckersh74

September 19th, 2014 at 6:10 PM ^

If the Tigers take 2 of 3, and Cleveland finishes off KC in their suspended game that will resume Monday night (Cleveland leads 4-2 headed into the bottom of the 10th, as KC is the home team there), that would put the Tigers 2 ahead in the loss column with 6 to play. 

If KC takes 2 of 3, and they come back against the Tribe (plausible), the Tigers are in a world of shit, on the wrong side of the above scenario. 

Getting swept would be fatal for either team. Being on the winning end of the sweep would just about punch a ticket to the postseason. 

The Geek

September 19th, 2014 at 8:04 PM ^

Also, the Tigers a 1/2 game cushion... The Royals play 1/2 an inning (hopefully) on Monday against the Tribe, and are behind 4-2. 

It is a makeup of a previously suspended game in Kansas City. So the Royals take the plate in the bottom of the 10th in Cleveland. Hopefully that holds.

Rodriguesqe

September 19th, 2014 at 7:23 PM ^

biggest series in kc in.... 27 years? as pumped as tiger fans are, i can only imagine being a royal fan. this feels alot different than if it were chicago or minnesota. as awful as baseball was in detroit prior to 2006, kc has had it worse. kind of makes the idea of kc winning bearable. not that i'd be upset if the tigers swept.

also, its hardly do or die. the wild card wouldnt be the end of the world for this team, if thats how things work out.

urbanachiever

September 19th, 2014 at 7:30 PM ^

A couple of fantastic series this weekend in the two central divisions, with Milwaukee's season on the line in Pittsburgh. Late September / October baseball is so much fun when you're in a city that's involved with it

WMUgoblue

September 19th, 2014 at 7:48 PM ^

Tony Paul usually has fairly solid connections, and this is quite alarming to say the least.



 

The Geek

September 19th, 2014 at 8:08 PM ^

but I personally like him. He handles a great staff, and he does come through with some clutch home runs -- 

I hope he's Ok. Alex Avila has taken a beating over the last 2-3 years. Goes with the territory of catching for hard-throwing, attack the strike zone pitchers. I can't even guess how many times he's been drilled in the mask by a fouled-off fastball this year and last. 

Get well, Alex!

Go Tigers!

ckersh74

September 19th, 2014 at 9:22 PM ^

5-0 and Vargas is gone. 

On another note, who in MLB got the bright idea to assign Angel Hernandez as one of the umpires for this series? The odds of there being a shitshow sometime over the weekend just went up by about 50%