Detroit Tigers Notes And Quotes 6-16-11
--LF Brennan Boesch got Detroit started with a towering home run into Comerica Park's right field upper deck near the foul pole. He also drove in a run in the fourth with a groundout to second. Boesch continues to look at more pitches and work himself into favorable hitting counts.
--RHP Brad Penny struggled every inning of what turned out to be his shortest start of the season, 3 1/3 innings. Cleveland collected eight hits off Penny, as it appeared the Indians wanted to attack him early in the count. Two double plays kept the Indians scoreless until they broke through for four runs in the fourth, with four singles plus a walk and a sacrifice doing the bulk of the damage. "His command wasn't good," manager Jim Leyland said. "He couldn't get ahead to get to his other stuff. He just wasn't throwing the ball where he was trying to throw it."
--C Alex Avila reached base all four times he went to the plate, on two singles and two walks. Yet manager Jim Leyland has a decision to make about how he will use Avila on Thursday. "I've got a tough call, catch him or DH him?" Leyland said. "I'll sleep on it." Leyland is aware he probably won't be able to have both Avila and DH/C Victor Martinez in the lineup at the same time for most of Detroit's six-game trip to Colorado and Los Angeles to play the Dodgers.
--LHP Charlie Furbush gave up his first run at Comerica Park and in what became his first loss. Furbush relieved RHP Brad Penny with one out and runners on first and third in the fourth inning. He allowed a sacrifice fly that gave Cleveland a 4-3 lead. The Tigers bounced back to tie it but Furbush gave up a one-out single and two-out RBI double in the fifth, and the Indians got an add-on run in the seventh. His fastball and slurve were erratic.
--2B Ramon Santiago started in place of 2B Ryan Raburn, apparently in an effort to get more left-handed hitters in the lineup against RHP Fausto Carmona of Cleveland. Santiago had a single in four at-bats. He gives Detroit a better defensive option than Raburn, but can't match the power.
--DH Victor Martinez hit two doubles to left field, the first setting up a two-run single by C Alex Avila in a three-run first inning. Martinez was batting left-handed and the fact that he lined both hits to left is evidence of his willingness to go with the pitch, part of the reason he's a career .300 hitter. Martinez might catch Thursday afternoon if manager Jim Leyland decides to have his No. 1 catcher, Alex Avila, be the designated hitter.
--RF Magglio Ordonez is taking much better swings than before he was disabled with right ankle weakness, he just doesn't have much to show for it. "I thought he swung the bat pretty well," manager Jim Leyland said. Ordonez singled sharply to left in the third and hit a rocket that was caught at third in the fifth. He is 1-for-5 since coming off the disabled list.
--LHP Brad Thomas threw a scoreless inning Tuesday in his first rehab appearance for Class AAA Toledo. Thomas has been out since May 11 due to a sore left elbow.
BY THE NUMBERS
66 -- Consecutive games from the start of the season in which Detroit had one or more extra base hits, a streak that ended Tuesday when all the Tigers could muster against Cleveland were 11 singles.
QUOTE TO NOTE
"I've not felt bad at all this week. But it's hard to tell if you're tired when you're just resting." -- 3B Brandn Inge, after returning to the Tigers to start working out after missing more than a week of action on the disabled list due to mononucleosis.
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