The Tigers buzz in the media centers on Valverde.  John Lowe over at the Freep wonders if Vaverde is out of sync with irregular work and Jason Beck weighs in on his blog (thanks Vince in MN for posting this morning).  There are also trade rumors (more like wishful thinking) swirling around with at least a few Tiger mentions.  Please post something if it breaks, I’ll do the same.

This afternoon’s game is the Fox National game, which usually means that the people who really want to see it get blacked out, but best I can tell, it’s showing in Detroit and in Dallas.

Matsuzaka goes for the Red Sox.  He’s 7-3 on the season with a 4.09 ERA and a respectable 1.34 WHIP.  He’s been pretty good as of late with three straight quality starts, but the key is to get to him early.  He walks over 4.5 batters per 9 and gives up a lot of fly balls (31.3% GB rate), though his HR rate for the year is roughly half of his career rate.  That said, I’m not sure when was the last time that he faced Jhonny Peralta.

Scherzer has been tremendous as of late, with a 2.48 ERA for the month and better than a strikeout per inning.  Scherzer has a tendency to run up his pitch counts, though he has thrown into the 7th in 5 of his past 9 outings.  He might want to be careful v. Big Papi, who is 2-2 with 2 Peralta’s in his career versus Scherzer.

We’ll get the lineup posted as soon as it is avail.

(try to stay relaxed like Battlestar is here)

The boys of summer kick off a three game set at Fenway vs. Jon Lester and the Red Sox.

Jon Lester is good at pitching.  He had a perfect game blown up in the 6th inning during his last outing, where an error and HR ended up leading to 4 ER over 7.2 IPs.  Of his 20 starts this year, he’s allowed 1 run or less in 9 of them, and 10 of his last 12 starts have been of the quality variety.

Galarraga toes the slab for your Tigers.  His road efforts have not done much to compensate for the team’s road problems in general, as he is 1-2 with a  7.78 ERA away from Comerica.  On the bright side, Galarraga is good enough to throw a complete game, and he’s never faced the Red Sox.  We’ve seen him range from brilliant to average, but on a good night, we all know he can beat anyone.

There may be some fresh faces in the Tigers lineup tonight.  Jeff Frazier was called up from Triple-A.  He hasn’t had much mention around here, but he was leading the International League in doubles, total bases and XBH, and second in HRs.  I’m also expecting Peralta to be in the lineup today, batting 6th since that is where he batted in Cle, who was happy to see him go.  Actually, I’d love to see him 5th to give the pitchers a different look when they IBB Cabrera, but who knows with Ol’ Smokey.  I am anxious to see this lineup and will post it ASAP if someone doesn’t beat me to it.

A few questionable moves in the AL Central today, as Edwin Jackson was dealt to the White Sox today (I guess they still see his 2009 numbers, and not his 2010 5.16 NL ERA) and Minnesota added Matt Capps for Wilson Ramos.  From what little I saw of him, I’m happy to see Ramos dealt out of the division.  Unfortunately, the only rumor involving the Tigers concerns Mike Lowell. (Are the Yankees really gonna get Berkman?)

The guys at BP argue that CWS may be using Jackson as a piece for Adam Dunn, so stay tuned.  (Link – subscription required.)

(edit)

Lineup posted:

Jackson cf
Rhymes 2b
Damon lf
Cabrera 1B
Raburn rf
Peralta 3b
Frazier dh
Laird c
Worth ss

Less is more.

The Tigers attempt to go for their first win in my posting history.  A no hitter and a great game from the otherwise average James Shields are tough acts to surpass.  I’ve got a good feeling that it goes our way tonight.

Eddie Bonine takes on Jeff Niemann.  Bonine has been great out of the pen this year, posting a 4-0 record, 2.72 ERA and 1.26 whip, but his longest outing has been 4 innings.  He’s got plenty of starting experience (21 last year, 4 in the bigs and 17 with Toledo), so let’s hope he’s up to the task.

Niemann has been a stud for Tampa this year, posting an 8-3 record with a 2.95 ERA, 94 Ks in 128.1 IPs, and a 1.13 WHIP.

Cabrera has been a monster as of late, batting .421 with 10 RBIs in his last 10 games.  The rest of the team, not so good.

(edit, thanks to Mr. X)

Jackson has been HOT. He has 13 hits in the past 7 days. His only hitless game since the AS break was in that no hitter.

Damon has been hitting well also. .368 AVG, with a .455 OBP, in the past 7 days.

Well, the Tigers go for their first hit since I took over responsibility for the game threads.

Tonight’s contest features JV versus James Shields.  James Shields has not been good as of late.  In his last 10 starts he’s allowed at least 3 runs in every start, and has only reached the seventh three times with a cool 5.61 ERA and 1.52 WHIP.  Let’s hope that we earn a few more of the “Hs” from that equation.  The Rays game day notes mention that Shields’ 9 losses are T-5th in the AL, “two off the league lead.”  There’s some optimism for you.

On the other hand, a few of the Tigers hitters he’ll face are still figuring out how to get to the ballpark, so it should make for an interesting game.  It was all doom and gloom in Motown this morning, but what do you expect when you get no-no’d by Matt Garza.  JV is 7-1 in his last 9 starts.  Checking the opposing starters over the next five days (Niemann, Price, Lester, Matsuzaka, Buchholz), there is little margin for error in JVs performance tonight.

My sincerest thanks to billfer for entrusting me with the task of guarding the island.

Our Tigers take their 16-29 road record and one game win streak to the Trop.  Scherzer has been brilliant in July thus far posting a 3-1 record with a 2.00 ERA and 25 Ks in 27 IP.  Upon further inspection, did you know that Scherzer has 100 Ks in 105.2 IPs?

We all know that Valverde will be unavailable, so let’s get to Garza early and often.  Tigers have had some success against Tampa as of late, going 8-3 since September of ’08, and are 10-4 overall versus the East this year.