OT- Tigers vs Cards 6-21-12

Submitted by WMUgoblue on

Jacob Turner making his 2012 debut against the defending champs, and gets through a solid 1st inning striking out Beltran to end the frame. Avila making his return from the DL hopefully we get a solid game to propel us on a tough road trip.

Moleskyn

June 21st, 2012 at 1:31 PM ^

This would be a big all-around boost if Turner pitches well and we win our 4th straight series. C'mon big guy, you can do it!

Edit: By the way, this is mlb.tv's free game today.

Moleskyn

June 21st, 2012 at 2:01 PM ^

Turner looking pretty good through 4 innings. You'd like to see that pitch count a little lower, but I'm not going to complain for his first ML start of the year. Just keep it up through 6, man.

Moleskyn

June 21st, 2012 at 2:15 PM ^

Nice inning there for the Tigers. Even though they only got 1 run out of it, they drove up Lohse's pitch count and seemed to rattle him just a little bit. He was cruising before Prince's homer.

Moleskyn

June 21st, 2012 at 2:22 PM ^

Come on, kid. Get it together. Back-to-back walks to start the inning. Avila bailed him out with a perfect throw to catch the first guy stealing, though. Ground ball and we're out of it.

Blue boy johnson

June 21st, 2012 at 2:29 PM ^

Kelly just made a much tougher, more dangerous catch in Right field foul territory than the one Boesch didn't make last night. I guess this is why Leyland substitutes Kelly for Boesch late in games in Right.

WMUgoblue

June 21st, 2012 at 2:35 PM ^

Well a solid start for Turner, like to see him throw some more strikes but wouldn't we all. Need some offense here, and Loshe is getting the borderline calls that Turner wasn't.

Moleskyn

June 21st, 2012 at 2:41 PM ^

Phew, nice job getting out of that.

Assuming his day is done, he wasn't bad, but he wasn't great either. Final stat line: 5 IP, 4 hits, 1 run (earned), 5 walks (1 IBB), and 3 Ks, on 94 pitches. Against an offense like St. Louis's, I'll take it. It's a starting point. And I doubt Casey Crosby would have done as well if he had pitched.

A few observations on Turner:

  • He was mixing it up a lot. He threw a lot of first pitch breaking balls which, when done well, can help throw off hitters. It's also nice to see that he has the confidence to throw a breaking ball for the first pitch.
  • He was missing low a lot. That's not a bad place to miss, but he was throwing a lot in the dirt. If he can elevate those pitches just a little more, they'll seem more appealing to the batters, and he'll get more groundouts or swings and misses as a result.
  • He also seemed to miss off the plate with his fastball a lot. Mostly away from a left-handed hitter. That's got to be a release point issue, so hopefully he can get that squared away in his bullpen sessions this week.

Like I said, it's a starting point. It's looking like he'll have Texas in his next start, so he'll be going out of the frying pan and into the fryer, but you can't pick who you pitch against in the majors.

Moleskyn

June 21st, 2012 at 4:10 PM ^

Yeah baby! Great all-around team performance to win this. The bats were quiet, the pitchers (especially the 'pen) picked up the slack. Great job!