Bottom of the 6th

Cleveland 0 Tigers 3

Bauer pitching well enough to win.

Batters not hitting well enough to win.

Top of the 7th....leadoff man brantley gets on 1st....steals 2nd on the first pitch.

Santana walked

Chiz singled loading the bases for Swisher

Swisher singles scoring Brantley and Santana.

Pitching change...bye bye Sanchez, hello Krol.

Francona puts Rayburn in to hit for Murphy....AND IT WORKS!!

Rayburn singles, scoring Chiz.....tie game no outs

Albequrque comes in to pitch to Gomes....strike out.

Dickerson....Strike out

Kipnis HOMERS!!!!!!!!!! on a 1-2 pitch....I seriously thought he was gonna strike out

6-3.....

CABRERRA HOMERS!!! First Pitch

7-3.....Ablequreque was one strike away from getting out of the inning and saving the day ends up giving up 4 runs.

Hardy in to pitch.

Brantley singles.

Santana...pops up to end the inning.

Biggest inning of the year. Previous was a 6 run 9th in Toronto.

And here comes Atchison...

Walks the first guy....not a good start.

Looooong fly to center, brantley pulls it in....one out.

Base hit up the middle, runners on 1st and 2nd.

DOUBLE PLAY!!!

Chiz walks to start the 8th.

Swisher hits into a double play.

Raburn doubles.

Gomes walks.

Aviles pinch hits for Dickerson.......1st pitch taps to first to end the inning.

That 7 run inning was insane!

2 homers for Kipnis, let's hope that finally busts him out of his totally mediocre season. Nice to see Swisher actually hit too!

On the other hand, Brantley is absolutely incredible!!

And Bauer, another solid outing. He is really maturing, steadily becoming a reliable guy with upside still to come.

Bauer is future top of rotation stud. He's still 23. Slightly below average fro AA.

we are supposed to win the opener with Kluber -- our Ace or co-Ace - against a kid making his major league debut.
Scoreless after 2. Tribe has one hit, by Brantley natch, and VerHagen has registered 4 strikeouts against the Tribe. But we know that we strike late for our wins.

The story on VerHagen:

Triple-A Toledo hurler Drew VerHagen will get the assignment for the first game of Saturday's doubleheader against Cleveland at Comerica Park.

The team confirmed the decision Thursday. The Tigers can use MLB's 26th-player rule for doubleheaders -- a rule former manager Jim Leyland helped get enacted a few years ago -- to call up VerHagen without having to send anyone down, though they'll still have to add him to the 40-man roster.

It'll be the Major League debut for VerHagen, a 23-year-old right-hander who found the fast track up the organizational ladder last year after the Tigers selected the former Vanderbilt standout in the fourth round of the 2012 Draft. He entered the year ranked 12th on MLB.com's list of Top 20 Tigers prospects.

Tom Reisenweber, who covers the Double-A Erie SeaWolves for the Erie Times-News, first reported Wednesday that VerHagen was getting called up VerHagen, has pitched fairly well in the Mud Hens rotation for the past month, allowing nine earned runs over 33 1/3 innings in his last five starts. He owns a 6-7 record and 3.67 ERA on the season, allowing 117 hits over 110 1/3 innings with 25 walks and 63 strikeouts. He's more of a ground-ball pitcher thanks to a sinking fastball.

From a matchup standpoint, the Indians field a predominantly left-handed lineup that hits 15 points higher off righties with a 70-point difference in OPS. However, the Tigers have shown the last couple years that they want their pitching callups to be based on who's pitching best, not simply seniority or matchups. As Leyland often emphasized, it's a reward, not a given.

They've made him throw 45 pitches his first time through the lineup. Either wearing him down and/or getting to the Kitties' woeful bullpen early are both good strategies for later in the game success.

We must be underestimating the Tigers' catcher. Holiday threw out Brantley in the first (first time he's been caught after 11 steals) and got Murphy in the 3rd. Keeps the LOB total low.

Comparing the lineups OPS for batting order 19

Cleveland on the left- Detroit on the right

1. 701 vs 683. Kipnis wins.
2. 708 vs 796 Kinsler wins.
3. 918 vs 901 Brantley tops Cabrera!!
4. 737 vs 987 Victor in a walk
5. 906 vs 1018 The other Martinez
6. 640 vs 703 Castellano over Swisher
7. 701 vs 775 kid SS Suarez tops Gomes
8. 669 vs 642 Murphy wins a match of low seeds
9. 538 vs 772 2 season ago with the Raburn was even worse, at a remarkable 480, last year 900. Erratic defined. Rajai Davis winner of this matchup.

Striking a little earlier than usual today.

Swisher doubled to score Chiz

Gomes singled getting Swish to third

Murphy singles to score Swish

Rayburn hit into a double play.

We got hosed. 2nd baseman was nowhere near the base when he caught the ball.

Gomes on 3rd for kipnis. Line drive to center

3_0 for Cleveland

civ ollilavad wrote:We must be underestimating the Tigers' catcher. Holiday threw out Brantley in the first (first time he's been caught after 11 steals) and got Murphy in the 3rd. Keeps the LOB total low.

Chiz just got caught stealing too. That's 3. Definetly underestimating him.

On a side note Kluber just got his 10th strikeout.....and with a popout retired 10 in a row.

On to the 9th

4-1

Gomes gets a leadoff double.....goes to 3rd on a passed ball.

Murphy singles him home 5-1

Raburn pops out.

Kipnis up...passed ball sends Murphy to 2nd.....strikes out.


Asdruble bangs one up the middle, Murphy scores, asdruble to second on the throw home.

6-1

Brantley strikes out.

Kluber in to finish it.

Cabrerra doubles.

V-Mart grounds out...Cabrerra to 3rd.

J-Mart with a sharp grounder to 1st...Santana makes a great stop tags the bag but can't get home in time.

6-2 with 2 outs.

Castellanos doubles.......Kluber getting the hook. Damn.