Tigers Split vs Cardinals: Flaherty Career Outing

Speaker 10s - 27.72s

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Well, if you're looking for consistency across these two games, you're certainly not going to find it here. The Tigers split with the Cardinals and play two of the most polar opposite games you will see. Let's talk about it all today on Locked on Tigers.

Speaker 233.64s - 46.2s

You are Locked on Tigers, your daily Detroit Tigers podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network ORG, your team every day. What is up, everybody?

Speaker 146.44s - 1262.72s

Welcome back to another edition of Lockdown Tigers ORG. I'm, of course, your host, Scott Bentley PERSON. Today is Wednesday, May 1st, 2024. Thank you so much for making Lockdown Tigers ORG. Your first listen every single day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast, including YouTube.Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix ORG. The easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports, go to priespix.com ORG slash lockdown MLB and use code, all lowercase, locked on MLB for a first deposit match up to $100. The Detroit Tigers split a double header with the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday afternoon. That means April baseball is officially behind us.We'll talk about that a little bit more at the end of the show. The Tigers lose 1 to 2 in game 1 and then win 11 to 6. In game 2, they will end April with a 17 and 13 record. As I said in the cold open there, two games, two very different stories. There was no consistency from game one to game two. The Tigers, I think their style of play this year has been pretty consistent.I think it's rather frustrating. And we've obviously talked a lot about the struggles offensively and obviously the fantastic pitching and a lot of these close, low scoring games. That's what game one was. And then game two, the floodgates opened up and the Tigers ORG had their highestscoring offensive game of the entire season. So it's days like this where, and the Tigers had their highest scoring offensive game of the entire season. So it's days like this where, you know, if I did a show after game one, I would have been like, oh, like tearing the offensive part. And then I still am a little bit. That's really not going anywhere. Actually, now that I think about it.But and then after game two, I've been like, oh, well, you know, just kidding. Like, it's difficult, right? And that's what makes doubleheaders just so unbelievably weird. So let's talk about, I don't know what to start with with, you know, what went right and what went wrong. Usually we do what went right first when we win. I don't know really what to start with when we split in the same day. So we're just going to start with what went right for no reason at all. Jack Flaherty PERSON, absolutely.Maybe him, Riley Green, or Winsale Perez are, you know, the three stars of Tuesday's games. Jack Flaherty goes six and two thirds, two hits and no earn runs, one walk, and a career high, 14 strikeouts. 14. He struck out the first, I believe, seven batters of the ball game. This was the definition of a revenge game.And it was absolutely electric. It was so fun to watch him on the mound. Just his presence, as the kids say, his aura was felt on the mound. This was one of the more dominant starts I've seen from a tiger's pitcher, I mean, legitimately over the last seven or eight years. And that's not being overly dramatic.That is true. He was absolutely disgusting. And it was wasted, but we'll get to that later. 24 whiffs in six and two thirds innings is remarkable. A called strikes plus whiffs percentage of 46%. That means almost half of the pitches he threw the entire outing,were either called strikes or swinging missed strikes. That is remarkable. His stuff was unreal. And like that is above anything else, right? Like his fastball, the first six innings was, well, the first, yeah, until the seventh inning, was not only averaging 95 and topping out at dang near 98, but he was also dotting it, right?Fantastic command those first three or four innings with his fastball. The slider was really, really sharp in this one to righties. I thought it was over effective. And the unsung hero of this outing, right? Everyone's going to focus on the fastball, obviously, because there's such a direct correlation with Flaherty PERSON and his successtied to his fastball. But his curveball was legitimately like almost unhittable in this outing. This is one of the most effective and just fantastic curveballs. You will see, like genuinely. That's how, that was remarkable how good his knuckle curve, I believe, is what it's classified as, was in this outing.It was a strike more times than it wasn't throughout the course of the six and two-thirds innings. And yeah, like I said, the Tigers thanked him with his, you know, performance of a lifetime, one of the best starts of his literally entire career by giving him next to no runs of run support. Very, very frustrating. Like I said, we will have plenty of complaints about that later on in the show.But we're talking about what went right here to start off. So Jack Flaherty PERSON, obviously, an absolutely fantastic outing. Sequencing, like I said, command, everything about it. Absolutely beautiful. Riley Green PERSON, another player that certainly is on this side of things. A home run in game one, three for five with another home run in game two, the only run scored in game one.That average that started off the season low and everybody was kind of complaining and not, I shouldn't say everybody. There was a portion of the fan base that was kind of complaining about like, oh, like he's hitting homers and walking, but his batting average is too high. It's now up over 250, which is, again, it's very high if you just look at the last couple of weeks. And his OPS on the season is now 9-12. He's walking a lot.He's hitting the ball really hard. He's putting the ball in play often. He's absolutely incredible. He is on fire right now. And this is what we saw in May of last season before his injury as well. So knock on wood, that doesn't happen again,but just absolutely fantastic start to the season here from Riley Green PERSON. He hit a pretty good day defensively as well in game one playing left field and had a nice diving catch out there too. So yeah, he has been phenomenal. Wenzel Perez PERSON. My goodness, how about the kid three for four with two home runs,including a home run from each side of the plate, Bally on the broadcast, so that that was the first time that had happened for a tiger since 2018, Victor Martinez PERSON.Really fun stuff. He's now hitting over 300, OPS over 1,000, obviously really small sample size and whatnot, blah, blah, blah. Who cares?He has been unbelievable. And it's, you cannot in any universe justify sending him down. If Geo O'Shella PERSON comes back anytime even remotely soon, we'll talk about that a little bit at the end of the show.You cannot possibly justify sending him down. Again, like if Urshella doesn't come back for two more weeks for some reason and he goes O for his next 20, then like, sure. But like, if it's any time soon, you can't do it. He has, his approach is so, it's so good. And, you know, he's not going to hit 300 M and OPS over 1,000.He's not going to be an MVP. But like, he, he, it's aggressive but intelligent, right? His approach, his decision making on what to swing at, I think is beautiful. He isn't swinging and missing very much, not a very high whiff rate. He isn't afraid to attack pitches that are in the strike zone and over the heart of the plate, which is something we, you know, complain about with a lot of other hitters on this team. He's not chasing very often.He just looks more than anything, right? And, you know, X's and O's all out the window, right? He just looks comfortable, right? He just looks, you know, shoulders relaxed. Like, he just looks super comfortable and confident in his abilities in the batter's box. And if he can just be a guy that puts the ball in play and takes advantage of mistake pitches, I mean, hack.That's, again, that's more than, you know, a third some days half of this lineup can say. So I think you have to keep plugging them in there. And there's a reason he's been batting third. Like, it's remarkable. It's quickly becoming one of the coolest stories not only on the Detroit Tigers ORG, but I think, you know, if he keeps this up, it's going to be one of the cooler stories in baseball here pretty soon on a national stage.So good for him. Two thumbs up. Just absolutely fantastic stuff from Winsale Perez PERSON. And hopefully he can keep it going because this offense is going to continue to need all the help that it can get. Got a few more players and things to talk about here on the side of things that went right. Then we'll talk about things that went wrong.We will do all of that right after this. I'm going to talk to you all today about our friends over at DoorDash ORG. Look, moms are a gift. So give her the best Mother's Day gift possible and get gifts as thoughtful as she is with DoorDash ORG. Select from hundreds of expertly crafted bouquets to the best of technology and self-care essentials and so much more. 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Appreciate you all for tuning in as always, making us your first listen every day.Shout out to the everydayers that do tune in. Every day, we will be back tomorrow. Recapping, hopefully, what is a series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals ORG. Also, be sure to check out Locked On Sports today for free. YouTube, you can subscribe to the 24-7 streaming channel or check it out in the Amazon Fire PRODUCT TV channels app.Talking about things that went right in this ball game, I just got to give a shout out. Like, Andy Abagnas PERSON just rules, you know, but you want to just talk about a baseball guy, right? Kind of an old school saying there, but like he is just, he, dude just loves ball, right? Like, that's just my kind of guy, man, like two for five,great defensive play out there. First game back, doing all this, like, just puts the bat on the ball and makes stuff happen, right? His numbers are never going to be all-star caliber, you know, elite stuff against lefties. It kindof is. But, you know, like truly, obviously he's never going to be like a high-end, high-end player. But he just, he wreaks havoc. He's prepared. He loves ball and he just makes stuff happen out on the field. He's a dog, absolute dog.I love Andy Abagnas PERSON. The offense as a whole in game two, they jumped all over Stephen Mats, which is good because they didn't jump all over, Kyle Gibson PERSON. But, you know, they also really attacked the bullpen in game two, which I think is important. Because after losing game one and with the finale, obviously being a day game on Wednesday, you need to drain that bullpen as much as you possibly can.So good to see the offense wake up. Sadly couldn't have, you know, given some of those runs in game one, but we'll talk about that in a second. I also want to give a shot to Alex Lang PERSON. I know he had a walk in this one, but I actually think he looks pretty solid yet again. I think that this is now, we're going on like two and a half, three weeks of Alex Lang being really solid. I've been pretty impressed with what I've seen out of him.His season ERA is like sub one. He's been remarkable. Okay, let's talk about what went wrong, put on our negativity at here, unfortunately. But this, let's just call it what it is, man, like the entire offense in game one. Everybody. Everybody can get it.I don't care. Kyle Gibson went seven innings, nine strikeouts of one run ball in the year 2024. That is absolutely inexcusable, preposterous, and ridiculous. And until the seventh inning, he was cruising too. Like he, you know, you finally toward the end, made him work a little bit, made him sweat, rose that pitch count.But the first six innings, I was like, this guy's going to go eight. Like he was averaging like 10 pitches an inning for the first five innings or something ridiculous. Just completely inexcusable, Ofer PERSON with runners in scoring position, plenty of runners left on base, but not as much as you'd think, because we also just couldn't get on base against 2024 Kyle Gibson PERSON. And then we can go down the line here.Let's do it. Like Kerry Carpenter really as a whole today, obviously only had the pinch hitting opportunity in game two struggling. And he's been struggling for a little bit now. And I haven't really brought it up because it's been a kind of a small sample size. And I'm not trying to kick one of the only hitters that's been kind of producing so far early in the season while he's been down. But this is now a few games in a row dating back to last week where he's kind ofbeen struggling. And really, he's just expanding the zone a ton. Like, just watch his at-bats. And that's not to say that he's not working counts, but he just, he hasn't, he's allergic to like drawing a walk, it feels like, right? Like he'll get, he'll gotten in several over the last four or five games, full countsthat just have ended in strikeouts. He just expands the zone a lot. I think he wants to crush everything, which is great, I guess. I want you to crush everything too. And when he's hot or when there's a mistake pitch, he does more times than not, right? Which, again, is good.That's more than a lot of hitters on this team can say, right? Which is, again, I think important to bring up. But he needs to be much more selective and maybe even change his approach and what he's looking for in the batters box a little bit just because he has clearly been found out and people are realizing, you know, if you get him in a high leverage count, he's swinging no matter where the ball is.And that is going to be a downfall here if you can't attack early. So, yeah, I think that maybe some adjustments need to be made there. He didn't do very well. Torkelson PERSON, nope, we can move on. No, we don't even really have to talk about it. He didn't look, I don't think, any different.He had the RBI on the ground out. Good job. You know, it's, again, some clutch hitting. That's, I guess, welcome. But at the end of the day, I don't think he looked any different. He was still late on fastballs, et cetera.I don't even really have too much else to say. Colt Keith hit a rocket in game one. Still went 0 for 4, though. And the other three at bats weren't, you know, really injecting me with a lot of optimism. It's just, again, it's just weird because then they followed it up with the highest scoring offensive performance of the season because, of course, right?Because of course, that's not only is that just like baseball, that just feels like that's kind of on par for the Tigers ORG. So weird to talk about. I was unbelievably frustrated. I was hot, man. I was really, really hot after game one.And seeing them at least split, not only split, but put up a lot of runs in game two, kind of eased that a little bit. That doesn't take away from the fact that you had a golden opportunity to take two and a double header, which is very difficult, which is another reason why this isn't like the end of the world for me, especially if you go and you win today as you're listening to this. You win on Wednesday, then it's really not. But when it's all said and done at the end of the day,I think pretty objectively, you left a win on the table. And that is always frustrating. And when it's because of a, and we'll talk about the bullpen management and, you know, Shelby Miller and AJ Hinch PERSON and all that, we'll talk plenty about that. Okay. That is absolutely a part of this. But to me, this is much more an offense problem that it is, why couldn't our bullpen only,why did our pitching give up two runs over nine innings? So significantly more an offense problem. And again, they followed up by putting up 11. So I guess what's the point? But, okay, the point is they've been struggling on offense all year.And this game, game two is the outlier, not game one. That's the problem, right? If it was, if it was reversed and it was, oh, well, they, you know, they scored one run, well, they've been scoring a lot all year. And look, in game two, they scored a lot. Then we'd all be kind of at ease.But no, game two is the outlier that they haven't been scoring a lot all year. And, yeah, we've had a lot of these conversations about the offense over the last week. We got to get to a break. We will continue this conversation. Got a few more things talk about than everybody's favorite segment, stuff. And then we'll send you on with your Wednesday for listening to this before the ball game in the, what is that, one o'clock start time.So we will do all of that right after this. 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All right, everybody, welcome back here. Third and final segment of Locked on Tigers. Appreciate you all for tuning in as always. So that's pretty much all I have to say about the offense. Still very frustrating. We talked about the approach a lot yesterday, right?On yesterday's show, we kind of talked about the team approach that I think is clearly not working and why it's kind of been frustrating. And if you're thinking like, oh, he's not talking about so-and-so in game one, they struggled, he's letting them off the hook. They can get it too. I'm not kidding.Everybody that took the plate, Riley had the Homer WORK_OF_ART. That was great. O for three with two strikeouts and his other three at bats. Like, I don't care. Every single person that was a part of the offense, they all held hands, closed their eyes,and hummed a song together, and went down together. It was horrible, okay? Everybody. Awful. Let's talk about the managerial decision at the end of the game. Look, I think I didn't like it. And that's, as I always say with managerial decisions, it is very easy for me to say that in hindsight, knowing it didn't work from my couch after the game ends, right? I want to make that abundantly clear.So hindsight included in the moment, that was a little bit of a head scratcher to me. His reasoning after the game was preserving the arm of Jason Foley PERSON, obviously not having him go multiple, more than one inning in this ball game. And I understand that in April you don't want to blow a pitcher's arm out. I totally understand that.Obviously, no one wants that. But you were already using him. You have an off day on Thursday. And if you have an opportunity to win a ball game in a double header, you take it and run. You cannot lose two. And it's very, very hard to win two.I think you, and it was game one, right? That was the first game. I think you have to take it game one, right? That was the first game. I think you have to take it. And look like you can give them Wednesday off, right? And I know that maybe, you know, we're going to be to one run game now on Wednesday because all of our games are one run games it feels like.But I'm okay with that tradeoff. I'm okay with, look, the win is in front of us. It's right here. It's staring us in the eyes. If we play our cards right, we can get it. We'm okay with, look, the win is in front of us. It's right here. It's staring us in the eyes. If we play our cards right, we can get it. We'll deal with the next two games later. Who knows, you might even score 11. Like, I just, I feel like in the moment, you have to, you have to go fully there. And I understand like the righty lefty, the cardinalshave a lot of lefties at the top of their lineup. And that's why he was at the bottom of the lineup. Also you really needed a ground ball, which you got from Foley PERSON. Like I understand all of that. I understand why they brought him out.I just, you're already using him anyway. Right. So like you're, you want to preserve his arm, but not like,I don't know. I, I really, really, that was something I really disagreed with. And again, hindsight, et cetera, et cetera. But I, I didn't agree with that at the time. And Shelby Miller PERSON was not good either, right? This wasn't just a managerial decision. If Shelby Miller executes pitches, then we're 2 and 0. But his command was absolutely brutal. It felt like half of his pitches were legitimately over the heart of the plate. Even a few of the early swings and misses that he got in the outing on his fastball werelike middle, middle fastballs that you know he didn't want there and were, you know, should have been crushed. He did not look sharp, to be honest, like whatsoever. I did not think this was a very good outing at all. Legitimately, it felt like every other pitch was over the heart of the plate. Not a good day at the office for him.Also not a good day at the office for Tyler Holton PERSON, who not only gave up like the home run and just gave up only one run to his name, but obviously some of those were to Matt Manning PERSON. That was a home run off a lefty, which he has never done. And the lefty he gave up a home run to has never hit a home run off a lefty. Those stats were via Cody Stavenhagen PERSON of the athletic, by the way. 5-4 ERA now on the season.You know, we talked in the off-season about regression just because there was no possible way. Tyler Houghton PERSON was going to repeat the season he had last year that was next to impossible because he was just that good. But this is beyond worse than just like regression to the mean, quote, unquote. He's really struggled and it'sreally important for him to bounce back because this bullpen is completely different when you have multiple lefties that you're not afraid to throw out their late in games versus just Andrew Chafin PERSON being the only lefty you're comfortable throwing out in high leverage um because like obviously Joey Wentz PERSON is not that. So it's very important for that ship to get righted as well. I think is that it on this ball game or on things that went wrong, at least?I think it pretty much is. Let's talk stuff. Alex Fido PERSON, multi-inning outing. I think that, you know, it gave up the run. Wasn't the cleanest thing ever. But I thought that that was worth noting. And I think that that's going to be his role at his best. His slider worked really well.Got a couple of really big strikeouts. Wanted to give him some credit. Matt Manning PERSON, four in two thirds, four earn runs, two walks, seven strikeouts. Yeah. Like this is this is why, right? Like it's just Matt Manning PERSON is so odd and frustrating in a million different adjectives. Like obviously the Tyler Houghton PERSON home run accounted for some of those runs, but he was not efficient at all. Like he had like 90 pitches and it wasn't even through five innings.I did think the sweeper was really good in this one. I thought it was commanded pretty well. I got good in this one. I thought it was commanded pretty well. I got some swings and misses. I thought it was pretty solid. But I'm so confused. And that's just like pretty constant when I think of Matt Manning PERSON as a pitcher. But like, why we're like we were throwing this splitter change up thing so much in the spring. And I haven't seen him pitch in Toledo GPE yet.But every time he's come up, he has not thrown that pitch at all. He threw like one of them or two of them today. Like I'm just, I'm so confused on why we worked so hard on developing this third pitch and then we're just not using it. Maybe it's not game ready. Maybe he's not confident in it.I'm sure that's probably it. But, you know, that's, I don't know. I need to watch a Toledo GPE start. Maybe he's throwing it a ton down there. I got to ask the Tigers Minor League report guys, I guess. And really, the biggest thing was that his fastball command was all over the place.His fastball in general was completely inconsistent, as we are accustomed to when talking about Matt Manning PERSON starts to be completely honest. Yeah, so that really nothing terribly new there. 17 and 13 at the end of April, you have a chance to win this series tomorrow as well, the 18 and 13 with four straight series wins if you pull out the win on Wednesday. Gio Werschela PERSON, it sounds like we'll travel with the team. Evan Petzold said of the free on this road trip that the Tigers are about to go on this weekend in New Yorkand then Cleveland in a back-to-back series this weekend through next week. So hopefully he returns at some point in the next six games. You have an off day on Thursday as well. The finale is Kentimaida versus Miles Michaelis PERSON. Two guys that are pushing a six ERA. It's the series finale.Kentom Ida PERSON looked really good as last outing. It's also officially not April. Woohoo, right? Good stuff. That means that hopefully if Kenta Maeda PERSON stays on track for what he's done in his career, we're going to start looking pretty solid now.So that's good. Day game, like I said, 110 start. Go win a series. This was an unbelievably frustrating day of baseball, to be honest. Like I said, I'm honestly, I'm kind of glad I wasn't on air right after game one because I was, I was hot, man.I was fuming. That was an, I don't know if inexcusable is too dramatic, but that was a just embarrassing and truly pathetic loss. And one that I think is next to inexcusable, given how good and fantastic the pitching was and the pitcher you were going up against, et cetera, et cetera. I'm not trying to talk in circles here.So I'm glad. But at the end of the day, we went into Wednesday going, I went into Wednesday, I should say, I don't want to speak for all of you, fine people. I went into Wednesday saying, I hope they split and give themselves a chance to win the series on Wednesday. And ultimately, that's what they did. So hopefully we can get another good outing from Kenta Maeda. Yeah. And the Tigers are 17 and 13 at the end of April.First time they've been over 500 at the end of April in eight years. Just need some of these bats to get going. Just need some of these bats to get going. You got a pitcher with a 6ERA almost on the mound today. All right? Let's take advantage.Thanks for making Lockdown Tigers, your first listen. Every single day, shot to the everydayers that do tune in. Every day we will be back tomorrow. Recapping the series finale against the Cardinals ORG. Then off day on Thursday, we'll do some, you know, more like April recap. Then looking ahead, honestly, we need to look ahead and talk about May as well.So we'll do that on Thursday a little bit too. All right. Cool. I'll talk to you then. Peace and love. Going to Therapy's ORG dope.I'll catch you all then, baby. Go Tigers ORG. I, I, Hey, Prime members.You can listen to this locked on podcast ad free on Amazon Music ORG.

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