gehringer_2

Riley's catch even huger with them having come back to win.

👍

That's the kind of AB I don't like to see from Torkelson. Takes a thigh high FB he could have ripped, takes a hanging breaking ball nearly middle middle that could have been pasted, then swings at a ball and gets himself out. Don't take strikes you can hit - you might not get another. You can say that out was about swinging out of the zone, I'd say it was as much about not swinging in the zone.

Of course, hits also distribute between 1 and 4 bases each, sadly not so much walks.

this is swirling toward trouble.

Average is OK. I don't think you want to have your offense be too dependent on the other side's pitchers missing because there will be a lot of days when they don't and you have to have ways to be in those games too.

you wouldn't know there have only been 8 hits total in this game.

Tork with his third walk (2nd that put him on base)

somebody must have the boat warmed up and the bait on board for Mulchinski after the game. He's clearly in a hurry to get outta Dodge.

I'd swear the ump gave Frazier two time-outs in that AB.

Grifol being stupid here.

well, that worked.

It's going to be medical malfeasance to leave Cease out there to throw many more in one inning.

yeah - that one was pretty terrible. That was one of those pitches Dickerson talks about as never having been a strike at any point in its flight.

Tigers work Cease for a couple dozen pitches in the 2nd and walk away empty. Sox drop Rodriguez's thrid pitch of the third into the seats. So much for the value of making pitchers work....

TTBDNS. Cease at 48 pitches after 2.

damn, I thought Baddoo was going to save that AB with a walk. He was doing a great job of not offering as Cease's pitches dove low, but Cease crossed him up going up and away on 3-2.

Eduardo starts out the game the hard way giving up a lead off double, and Haase takes a crack at letting the run in, but the Tigers escape without giving up the lead.

There will also be additional context, primarily does anyone else emerge as a strong enough IF candidate that you actually want him to take whatever ABs Schoop is still getting.

As well as not facing the Tampa pitching staff..... the other thing I was implying about Torkeson is that not every batter on a team should necessarily have the same approach. I want Torkelson to walk enough that pitchers know they can't get him out outside the strike zone, but I don't want him to be in the box thinking OBP is his primary calling card as a hitter either.

LOL - if having McCarthy's word on a deal actually means anything back in the Chamber. Boehner's didn't and things were less crazy then in the House than they are now.

I don't think they are as a general rule, but Tork is a special case of a guy who can hit the ball really hard with regularity, and IMO guys like that should never take a middle middle fastball no matter what the count because they are the guys that can put those pitches over the fence. Cabrera (when he was good) was the model. Miguel loved to jump a guy trying to throw strike one.

His improvement since last season is striking - the only thing I'm hoping for right now it that he gets a little more aggressive early in the count. I love that his walks rate is climbing but IMO he's reached the point were what he doesn't swing at is as much what he needs to improve on. By which I mean he's allowing too many pitchers to steal strike one with with a cookie FB. It's fine to make a pitcher work, but if a hittable pitch is going to be sitting there - getting on base and extending innings is just as stressful for a pitcher as taking a couple of additional pitches.

sorry - I was working on my car and recording the game. I beginning to entertain a slight hope Schoop could yet get on track. He did smoke a ball off a RHP pitcher today. A Schoop that could hit at 3rd would solidify the IF in a big way.

Do you suppose the Ukrainians figured out that the best thing not to do is what everyone ( including the Russian MoD) expected them to do -i.e just pick a spot and start rolling tanks into defensive lines? Maybe we are seeing the roll-out of the most unconventional counter-offensive they could dream up.