Alert Jay! (OT post)
The cleveland Indians season was DOA upon landing down in Metro Airport. Now they are up 2-0 after 2 scorched balls off of Verlander.
Sowers (who is a joke) is (so far) shutting the Tigers down.
The Tigers need to win both of these games against the terrible Indians - they can make up some ground perhaps since the Twins are playing the Bo-Sox.
Losing these two games would be inexcusable.
Verlander has been dominant over his last 6 starts. I mean, last night he gave up that 2 run shot, but that was mostly a result of him making stupid pitch decisions. I mean, he gets Blake down 0-2 and then throws two straight fastballs high and away on purpose. Obviously, he's coming back with a changeup and Blake crushes the 2-2 pitch. Then, he throws one bad pitch to Peralta and it gets hammered. If he trusts his fastball in either situation [especially with how he had it going after the first inning last night], he probably buries both Blake and Peralta. JV is a stud. Even earlier in the year when he was giving up runs, he was dominant for stretches of the game. He just has a tendency to make a couple bad decisions and, usually, he pays for it.
And, Dex may be joking about 800 hr for Miggy but it's a somewhat realistic milestone. Did you see how smooth his HR swings were last night? You can't teach that. Even with him changing leagues, Miggy is now on pace to end up with similiar power numbers to last year. Yes, he does need to raise his average. And, he's getting a lot more familliar with AL pitching. It's a good thing he is a core component of this team moving forward. There was a good story about Curtis Granderson in the Freep today. We've gotta give props to this guy. He hit below the Mendoza line last year against lefties; he's currently at .311. To me, that's impressive and shows he's putting the work in to get better. Again, it's a great thing to CG is a "cornerstone" of this squad for years to come.
Marcus Thames continues to impress. I know the knock on him is strikeouts, but he's producing. I think, if given the continued chance to be a regular player, he'll continue to produce. He's just really, really, really strong. I don't think it would be a bad decision to lock him up for a couple more years and let him patrol left field. Watching him this year, his defense is certainly much improved.
The Tigers have the best winning % in the majors since June 2. I feel good about this team and where they're at. They may not make the playoffs but, for all the reasons to be unhappy with their performance, there are also a lot of reasons to feel good about them.