Rangers Open ALCS With 3-2 Win Over Tigers

As the Rangers and TIgers battled in an elimination game, Baseball Nation live-blogged. Below are a few of the highlights.

Of all people to score off of, the Rangers did it off Verlander. By the end of the second inning, Verlander had thrown a whopping 49 pitches. Not all of that was because Verlander was pitching poorly however, as Rob Neyer points out, he was getting squeezed by the umpires.

Game 1 of the American League Championship Series didn’t seem to have a shape until almost exactly the middle of the game; to be precise, when there were two outs in the top of the fifth inning. At that point, there was simply no telling that the Rangers could beat the Tigers, 3-2.

This is probably the right spot to mention that Verlander seemed to be getting squeezed by the plate umpire Tim Welke ... but that C.J. Wilson was getting squeezed, too. And Wilson, for a while at least, didn’t seem to let it bother him.

With Tim McCarver out because of a medical procedure that’s scary enough to prevent me making fun of him for the next five minutes, the FOX suits went with former Red Sox manager Terry Francona as the person who sits along side Joe Buck and a) makes insightful comments, and b) pokes Buck with a stick to wake him up between pitches. So how is Francona doing?

Sounds good. Is there a second opinion?

Who?

No, I know who those guys are. I’m just a little surprised that we might see them in the middle of a one-run game in October, because neither of them pitched particularly well during the regular season.

And with that, folks, the top of the fifth inning was finally over.

And it took just one pitch, as Mike Gonzalez took over for C.J. Wilson and immediately retired Alex Avila on a grounder to second baseman Ian Kinsler. Oh, and the bases were loaded.

Rick Porcello is in to face the Rangers for the bottom of the fifth. After two lengthy rain delays, Jim Leyland was understandably wary about sending Justin Verlander out to finish his outing. It’s not like Verlander was especially sharp before the rain delay, so if Leyland’s decision wasn’t easy before, it sure as heck was after the second rain delay.

But if Porcello comes in, who picks up Game 4? Verlander? Leyland has adamantly refused to start his ace on short rest, and his restraint is admirable. But Verlander did only throw four innings, albeit with 82 pitches

Why, that’s mere minutes away! It feels like it’s been the top of the fifth inning forever, because it has been the top of the fifth inning forever, but one figures we’ll reach a conclusion pretty shortly after play resumes. Which it will, in mere minutes.

The forecast is supposedly good now, and they don’t expect there to be any more rain, so we can all cross our fingers. The rain that they did get didn’t show up on the radar though until shortly before it arrived, though, so, yeah.

Odd. This hasn’t come up before tonight. Also odd: Alex Avila is better than Magglio Ordonez. Maybe not last year or the decade before, but he’s better now. He’s better against lefties, and he’s better against right-handers. He’s better against starters, and he’s better against relievers. He’s better against goats, he’s better on boats. He’s better in the rain, he’s better on a train.

And he’s sure as hell better when hitting with the bases loaded than Magglio is with runners on second and third.

Fortunately, Inge’s kids are young enough that they didn’t really understand he’d been demoted; they just figured that he’d been traded to just another baseball team, the Toledo Mud Hens.

And of course, there was a happy ending. Inge crushed the ball in 29 games with Toledo, and while he saw just limited duties after returning to the Tigers in August, he did post a nifty .278/.355/.444 line in 64 plate appearances. And of course now he’s playing in the American League Championship Series.

And then...uh...

And then it started to rain again. Really bad.

They’re telling us that baseball will happen again tonight, perhaps as soon as 9:20 Central.

My back-of-the-imaginary-envelope calculations suggest that it’s a wash, and the impact of the rain delay is essentially equal ... which is a really bad thing for the Tigers, since they’re down 3-0 in the fifth inning.

The rain delay was on, and that’s when FOX’s weather guy told us it could last a few hours. Here’s one image:

As ominous as that looks, though, the weather is traveling in a northward direction, not an eastward direction. So the ballpark’s right on the edge. If that were traveling eastward, oh man, oh man, nope. No more baseball.

And that happened:

Cruz hit the third pitch of the inning over the left-field fence for a solo home run, and the Rangers now have a 3-0 lead. Couple of notes:

See for yourself:

Tim Welke’s just having a really awful night, missing far too many strikes in that lower-right corner, for both pitchers.

Does Verlander have a case? Here’s the strike zone for his pitches, via BrooksBaseball.net:

You see what I see? If you believe PITCHf/x -- and from what I’ve noticed, whatever tool FOX is using -- Verlander’s lost six strikes that were inside the strike zone, while gaining none that were outside the zone. When you think about the fine line between success and failure for a pitcher in the major leagues, you might guess how damaging that could be, having a six-strike deficit in just three innings.

One of the great things about live-blogging these games is that we’ve got a whole team, which leaves me time to noodle on about whatever happens to tickle my interest bone.

For example, the commercial they’re running tonight for the new Adam Sandler movie reminds me of Funny People ... but not in a good way. Instead if made me think of this:

Verlander didn’t care. Verlander struck out Beltre on a curveball that bounced off the ground -- the ground -- and the Rangers have blown one of the few good opportunities they’re likely to get tonight.

After one inning it’s still scoreless.

Wait, let me start over.

In the bottom of the first, Verlander allowed three runners -- two on walks, and one on a Jackson error -- but struck out Beltre to end the inning. Verlander threw 25 pitches in the first inning; Wilson threw 20.

The Tigers were counting on all of those things not to happen. Instead, they all happened, yet Detroit was clearly one of the strongest teams in the league. The Rangers entered the season with similar question marks. They had:

Offense

The above list of bullet points mentions declines for several Tigers players, but they were all made up for, and how, by increased production from their catcher and shortstop.

Absolutely no surprises here, as Washington’s greatest flexibility comes in left field and first base, and he’s installed left-handed hitters in both slots. This righty-heavy lineup does look vulnerable to the right-handed Verlander, but on the other hand a) every lineup looks vulnerable against Verlander, and b) this is how the Rangers have been it all season, and so far it’s worked out pretty well for them.

It’s worth noting that Raburn’s numbers this season, thought unimpressive, were essentially the same as Young’s; granted, Young did significantly better after joining the Tigers in August.

Regardless, Leyland has obviously stacked his lineup with right-handed and switch-hitters, hoping to counter Wilson. Alex Avila is the only lefty in the lineup, and he’s going to catch every game this month unless he’s hurt because the Tigers’ only real backup catcher is Omir Santos.