jung

Lester is way on thin ice....he could explode any inning now as he is playing right into the hands of these fat f***s....has just gotten away with it...sorta...so far.

As for Adrian...he probably has more of a chance of returning to form at least if you want to call the later part of last season "form". I would expect him to find his way back to a decent BA but not sure about OPS. However it is still frustrating to see him make piss poor plate appearances right in the middle of a slump and you would like to see smarter baseball from Adrian as opposed to pouty baseball from Adrian. If you watch the progression of his at bats throughout a game, he has played pouty baseball. As for Lester, what do you want call form....want to see him pitch like last year....that ain't much to wright home about. This whole thing about blowing up over ump calls is fairly new found for him at least as far as causing a complete meltdown goes. If he keeps that s*** up then no, I don't expect a return to I don't know what, 2010 form...what are we really talking about with Lester at this point? Why should we expect him to solve this riddle when he acknowledges the problem...claims he must do better and then one start later comes out and does exactly the same thing. Frankly I am beginning to lose hope in his regard.

Jesus Jon why not put it on a tee for the guy. Now if somebody goes yard I will really be pissed and this is the danger with these turkeys

If Lester can just have clean innings we should be able to figure this Smelly creep out.

Oh my God Adrian...can it get any worse!

Shows how bad things are. When the expectation is that Jon is going to give up the dinger with guys on base, he is not pitching very good. Would have hated to have seen what would have happened if the ump had made a questionable call with Prince coming to the plate.

Not bad....if that ground ball had been hit just a tiny bit harder, they would have had the DP and out of the inning. Lester did not leave anything in the middle of the plate with cats on base....sent them back to their litter box.

C'mon guys...Aviles HAS to make that play.

f*** me....how did that Tiger porker get down there fast enough.

Change up low in the zone right here Jon, K this guy

OK now don't let this guy go yard with three on

Those are actually the plays that are Mikes Achilles Heel, the ones you think a ML SS should just eat up. OK Jon do not let this guy go yard with two on

I had wondered where Jackson had gone. He leaves a big hole for the Tigers as they really have nobody with any foot speed that can also get on base.

I should have mentioned it but it goes without saying: If Lester lets this whole ump thing get to him again tonight, he is doomed from the start, just like he has been in other stints when he has done that. Either he lets it go or he may put his career at risk at this point.

Walks are definitely still a fly in Bard's ointment and when he loses the plate, he really does. But what I meant is that neither Doubrant or Bard made many mistakes up and in the middle of the plate to the Tigers. It appears to me that the biggest issue for the Tigers is that they are a version of Cecil's team, big, strong, slow guys. If you don't let them hit HR's there is not much they can do. I am not sure the Tiger's FO accurately understood the value that the quick feet they used to have brought to that offense. They used to have guys that could set the table in the years just before these guys. Now they are are so slow footed that there is a question about whether they can get to ground balls unless they are hit directly at them. At any rate, if you are going to give up a home run to them, give up 1 run shots. If you do that, they can hit three of those bombs and get no credit for total length. It is just 3 runs.

The Tigers have not been a run producing monster of late either. If Lester follows the path of the bottom of the rotation guys in the way they went after the Tigers in games 1 and 2, he should be able to shut the Tigers down. Question is, will Lester go after them and will he make his pitches.

True, Bard has not thrown the slider with enough consistency as yet. But truth be told if there was one place where Bard actually bested Verlander last night it was the consistency with which Bard was able to get RH hitters out with that slider. He actually had a more consistent Slider than Verlander had last night. While that was far from Verlander's best performance, Bard did not best him any other way last night but he did get the better of him with the slider.

No it wasn't. Verlander made what was for him tons of mistakes with the breaking ball hanging more of them right in the middle of the plate than I have ever seen from him. He hung more of them right in the middle of the plate in one night than I would have expected in a month of starts. He threw a few good ones but threw many more like the slider he threw to Youk in Youks second at bat. Verlander was also up in the zone with his FB much more than usual as well. Check Brooks. It is not hard to see. When Verlander is really on he can throw any one of his pitches at any time and even his mistake breaking balls are not left right in the middle of the plate or up in the zone.

While it is true that we have still scored runs regardless of all the injuries and while also true that our starting pitching and our pitching generally will have much more of an impact on success or failure, in Pedey we have the one injury that does effect the success of our pitching because he is the best defender we have. Agons is a great 1st baseman but I will trade great at 1st to get great at 2nd any day. Think of the number of plays Pedey has made this year that neither Punto nor Aviles will come close to making at 2nd. It might make sense to move Aviles over and bring Iggy up as Iggy might help our pitching staff with his defense. However regardless of whether or not we miss Pedey's offense he is finally the one player that will be difficult to give up defensively if he cannot play.

Boy I never thought I would see Nava and Yaz in the same sentence. I cannot help but think that what we are really seeing here is the difference between a guy that does supplement what he does not have physically with a truly cerebral approach and comparing that to the run of the mill pro baseball player that relies mainly on an abundance of physical ability all day long. I think we have grown so used to the latter that we find it hard to even recognize the former when we see it. If we want to use Nava's game winning hit against Verlander last night as the example, we have to start with the understanding that the Verlander we saw last night was about as vulnerable a Verlander as you are going to see. So you have to start with that. Nava went to the plate last night content in the knowledge that a walk scored a run and he allowed that understanding to drive his plate appearance. He took good hacks at pitches that he could handle and fouled off pitches he could not and most importantly worked the count to 3-1. At 3-1. he took a terrific hack and almost got Verlander there. Verlander was vulnerable last night for two reasons. First and foremost, he threw more absolutely horrible curve balls in one outing than I have ever seen him throw...not just bad but awful curve balls starting with the curve he threw Youk in Youk's first at bat. Second Verlander was a bit up in the zone with a number of his FB's last night even though he could summon velo when he wanted as is his MO. Both came back to haunt him against Nava. Verlander is the one pitcher in baseball that on a given night could have and might have thrown Nava a breaking ball for that last pitch in which case Nava would have been an out. He could not throw it with any confidence last night so that option was out. As it was he threw the FB to Nava who was rightfully sitting dead red. Not only did he throw the FB to Nava but he threw it right into Nava's wheelhouse, the one place where Nava could handle 99 heat even expecting it. Had he thrown it even an inch or two further down in the zone, Nava would likely have missed it or ground it someplace even though again Nava was expecting heat and sitting dead red. The key for Nava is that he went to the plate content with an RBI walk if that is what was offered to him and he allowed that to govern everything else he did. Most of our ding-a-lings would have never worked the count to 3-1 in the first place, having hacked at something long before then. You just about have to throw four in the first row to walk Agons these days and Aviles is pretty quick to swing as well. though both are injured now, Ross is a quick swinger and at least last year CC was pretty quick to swing as well. So I continue to think Nava puts himself in positions to succeed and then has enough faith in what he does to bring himself to a high degree of preparedness to succeed at that point. Verlander could have thrown that FB somewhere else or could have throw a different pitch. However Nava worked the count to a place where Verlander was forced to throw the FB and threw it right where Nava needed it to be.

As far as his toughness is concerned...Pedey has nothing to prove to me. I just wonder if he is not really going to be able to swing as effectively while still being stuck with the injury lingering on because he is playing with it. What bothers me about him playing with it is that he injured it weeks ago and then really hammered it during that play in the field. They are not going to be able to brace it while he is in the field. What a season! We thought all the injuries last year were extraordinary and look at where we are this year.

Hmmmm....interesting. I thought V was saying in the post game that there were no torn ligaments or tendons in there.

I don't know if Detroit will stay vulnerable like this all year but this is a good time to catch them. When JV gave up that first really bad breaking ball to Youk in his first at bat I thought "Oh well JV has had his one really really bad mistake pitch for the night". But he really made terrible breaking ball pitches tonight...some of the worst breaking balls I have ever seen him throw and all strung together on one night. But that was a great at bat by Nava cause he worked him to that pitch and then beat him. Granted it was up in the strike zone but Nava still handled it in a really big spot. Terrific win....Tigers should be good and depressed for tomorrow. The way these last series have been working out, the bottom of our rotation has pitched well early in series and have showed the other starters what they have to do to beat the team they are playing. But then the "supposed big guns" in our rotation have gone out there and often left the most ungodly turds out on the mound. Lester needs to come out and not stink the joint up right from jump street.

Unreal....got past JV and got a win.

For you none lip readers, Ace is using language that gets ya' tossed there.