Game Report - July 1, 2007 - Tigers 1. Twins 0
Steve Bielawski
This was a classic pitchers' duel. Both Jeremy Bonderman and Scott Baker
pitched eight innings of excellent baseball. But for one pitch, Scott Baker
might have had eight innings of scoreless baseball, as did Mr. Bonderman.
Actually, Mr. Baker had three narrow escapes earlier in the game. Carlos
Guillen led off the fourth inning with a triple; a fly ball would have
brought him home, and even a grounder to the middle of the infield would do
the trick, as the Twins were playing for the out at first, not for the out
at the plate. But Placido Polanco struck out (on five pitches, none of
which he took for a ball) and Sean Casey fouled out. Magglio Ordonez got
the ground ball, but that was the third out of the inning, so the run didn't
count. In the sixth inning, Marcus Thames hit a fly ball that almost went
out by the foul pole in left. It stayed just fair, but also stayed just shy
of the fence. Then, in the seventh inning, Placido Polanco was safe when
shortstop Jason Bartlett couldn't handle his grounder, and Magglio Ordonez
singled up the middle. That gave the Tigers two on with only one out. But,
Carlos Guillen grounded into a double play, and that ended the inning.
The only run of the game came with two outs in the eighth, when Marcus
Thames homered to left-centre.
The Twins had a couple of sort-of threats early, but they weren't that good.
They got a pair of singles in the second, but the second single came with
two outs. They got two infield singles and a walk in the third, but a
double play meant that they never had more than two runners on at any point.
They got a two-out double in the sixth, and that was the third and final
time in the game when they got a runner as far as second. The Twins never
had a runner on third in this game.
Todd Jones pitched the ninth, and he had one of his best outings ever. All
three batted balls stayed within the infield.
The Indians won, 3-2, to finish their sweep of the Devil Rays. They lead
the Tigers by 1 1/2 games; the Tigers lead the Twins by five games. The
White Sox are eleven games behind the Tigers, and the Royals are fourteen
games behind Detroit.
> DETROIT AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG
> C. Granderson, cf 3 0 1 0 3 0 0 .289 .343 .563
Tripled to right to lead off the fourth, but he did not score.
> P. Polanco, 2b 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 .330 .378 .421
Was safe on an error by shortstop Jason Bartlett in the seventh.
In the KIITI club.
> S. Casey, 1b 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 .296 .363 .388
In the KIITI club.
> M. Ordonez, rf 3 0 1 0 1 0 0 .369 .444 .617
Singled up the middle in the seventh.
> C. Guillen, ss 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 .320 .389 .560
Walked in the fifth.
Grounded into a double play in the seventh.
In the KIITI club.
> I. Rodriguez, c 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .280 .293 .444
nothing but a long fly out.
> C. Monroe, lf 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .223 .270 .395
Grounded into a double play in the fifth.
> M. Thames, dh 3 1 1 1 4 0 0 .235 .279 .487
Homered to left-centre in the eighth.
> B. Inge, 3b 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 .252 .349 .438
nothing.
> TOTALS 26 1 3 1 8 1 3
Plenty of nothing,
but one swing of the bat was all it took to win this game.
> 3B: C Granderson (15, S Baker)
> HR: M Thames (8, 8th inning off S Baker 0 on, 2 Out)
The first one was wasted, but the second was impossible to waste.
> Team LOB: 2
The Tigers didn't have that many baserunners in this game,
and two double plays reduced the LOB total further.
> DP: 1 (C Guillen-P Polanco-S Casey).
> MINNESOTA AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG
> L. Castillo, 2b 4 0 1 0 1 0 1 .300 .347 .333
> J. Bartlett, ss 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 .258 .341 .326
Collared.
But he looked good on _The West Wing_.
> J. Mauer, c 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 .298 .390 .457
> M. Cuddyer, rf 4 0 1 0 1 0 1 .287 .372 .453
> J. Morneau, 1b 4 0 1 0 2 0 1 .279 .353 .548
> T. Hunter, cf 4 0 1 0 1 0 0 .302 .344 .550
> J. Kubel, lf 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 .243 .294 .385
Contained ;-)
> J. Tyner, dh 3 0 1 0 1 0 1 .286 .333 .338
> N. Punto, 3b 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .207 .307 .266
Three Twins were aboard the 0-fer Express.
None of those three had good season stats.
> TOTALS 32 0 6 0 7 1 7
That zero in the runs column is the important thing.
> 2B: J Morneau (14, J Bonderman)
> Team LOB: 6
> E: J Bartlett (14, ground ball)
> DP: 2 (J Bartlett-L Castillo-J Morneau,
> J Bartlett-J Morneau).
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Minnesota (42-38, 20-18 away) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 6 1
> Detroit (47-33, 20-18 home) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 X - 1 3 0
> -------------------------------------------------------------
More zeroes than a Bill Gates paycheque.
And the one is in the good column.
> DETROIT IP H R ER BB K HR BFP Pit B-S ERA OpBA
> J. Bonderman (W 9-1) 8 6 0 0 1 7 0 30 110 40-70 3.58 .247
Excellent. Nice to see him get a lot of strikes.
Half of those hits were infield singles, so he wasn't hit hard.
And he didn't allow any runs--that's critical.
> T. Jones (Save 20) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 7 2-5 5.85 .288
Perfect. He even defended his position.
Maybe the liner at Mr. Polanco was lucky,
but he was going so well that he'd have gotten the save.
> Batters faced: J Bonderman 30; T Jones 3
> Ground Balls-Fly Balls: J Bonderman 11-6; T Jones 2-1
Nice use of the ground by Mr. Bonderman.
> Game Scores: J Bonderman 76
> MINNESOTA IP H R ER BB K HR BFP Pit B-S ERA OpBA
> S. Baker (L 2-3) 8 3 1 1 1 3 1 27 79 22-57 4.98 .273
His Aunt Anita was impressed.
> Batters faced: S Baker 27
> Ground Balls-Fly Balls: S Baker 11-10
> Game Scores: S Baker 74
Almost as good as Mr. Bonderman, even by this quite-imperfect stat.
> Game Information
> Stadium: Comerica Park, Detroit, MI
> Attendance: 41,078 (100% full)
Another excellent crowd.
> Game Time: 2:07
A short one. I like that.
> Weather: 70 degrees, clear
> Wind: 11 mph
This game report is brought to you by Canada.
Come for the beer, stay for--a couple of weeks.
Happy Canada Day, everyone!
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DETROIT (AP) - Jeremy Bonderman beat Scott Baker in an old-fashioned
pitchers' duel, and Marcus Thames homered with two outs in the eighth inning
to send the Detroit Tigers to a 1-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins on
Sunday night.
Bonderman (9-1) allowed six hits in eight innings, striking out seven and
walking one.
Baker (2-3) nearly matched him, giving up three hits and throwing only 79
pitches for his first complete game in 33 major league starts. The
right-hander walked one and struck out three.
Thames was the Tigers' designated hitter while Gary Sheffield served the
final game of a two-game suspension for an altercation with plate umpire
Greg Gibson on May 31 at Cleveland. In the eighth, Thames lined the first
pitch he saw from Baker over the left-field fence to help Detroit avert a
three-game sweep.
Todd Jones pitched a perfect ninth for his 20th save in 24 attempts.
Bonderman and Jones combined to retire the final 10 Minnesota batters in a
game that lasted 2 hours, 7 minutes.
Bonderman is among five AL players on the Internet ballot for the final
roster spot on the All-Star team. He could become the sixth Tigers player on
the squad. Catcher Ivan Rodriguez , second baseman Placido Polanco and right
fielder Magglio Ordonez were elected to start, while shortstop Carlos
Guillen and pitcher Justin Verlander also made the team.
Detroit's Jim Leyland will manage the AL squad.
Twins ace Johan Santana , center fielder Torii Hunter and first baseman
Justin Morneau were also picked. Relief pitcher Pat Neshek joined Bonderman
on the Internet ballot.
Curtis Granderson 's leadoff triple in the fourth and Magglio Ordonez 's
one-out single in the seventh were the only hits Baker allowed before
Thames' homer. Granderson was stranded when Baker retired the next three
batters. Ordonez was erased on Carlos Guillen 's double-play grounder.
Both teams threatened in the early innings, but were thwarted.
Singles by Hunter and Jason Tyner gave Minnesota runners at first and second
with two outs in the second, but Bonderman got Nick Punto to ground out.
Baker retired his first nine batters before Granderson hit his major
league-leading 15th triple to right-center. But Polanco struck out swinging,
Sean Casey fouled out to third and Ordonez grounded to second.
Granderson robbed Michael Cuddyer of an extra-base hit in the sixth with a
diving catch in deep right-center. Morneau followed with a double over
Granderson's head in center, but Hunter ended the inning by grounding out.
The Tigers had runners on first and second with one out in the seventh after
Polanco reached on an error and Ordonez singled. But Guillen bounced into a
double play, ending the threat.
Notes: Detroit 3B Brandon Inge returned after missing two games with back
spasms. ...
Morneau was back at 1B for Minnesota. He had served as the DH for three
games after returning from a bruised right lung.
Steve Bielawski
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve Bielawski"
> <stevebi...@sbcglobal.net>
> To: "Tigers List" <tig...@lists.ibl.org>
> Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2007 11:26 PM
> Subject: Game Report - July 1, 2007 - Tigers 1.
> Twins 0
>
>
> >> Detroit Tigers 1, Minnesota Twins 0 - final
>
> > earlier in the game. Carlos Guillen led off the
> > fourth inning with a triple
>
> Does this mean that Granderson is back to 14
> triples? :-)
No, it means that I should save my money and not
bother to see _Ratatouille_, since I can't tell one CG
character from another.