Detroit Tigers, 73-63, 2nd place, 1 back, WC 5th place.

Every game counts.

Don’t blame me for that, that’s the official Tigers.com slogan.  A lot of us were saying that back in May, but they didn’t seem to count as much back then, at least officially.

Anyway, let us not detract from the matter at hand, which is:  Battle of the MVPs! Tonight Miguel Cabrera and the Detroit Tigers take on Mike Trout and the LA Angels, with the AL MVP on the line!!

(I don’t know, works for ESPN, thought I’d give it a shot).

I don’t have a real plan for how the Tigers will take this series (no thanks to Kevin the Greek), but my gut tells me tonight might be a good time to take a game.  Here are the pitching match ups for the series:

• Scherzer (15-6, 3.93) vs Santana (8-11, 5.32)
• Verlander (13-7, 2.73) vs Wilson (11-9), 3.85)
• Sanchez (7-11, 4.08) vs Greinke (13-5, 3.72)

So on paper, this looks a bit like the rubber game of the series.

And let’s hope Kansas City continues to be a royal pain.

It looks like the Tigers may have gotten a bit of a break:  Jered Weaver is missing his scheduled turn in the rotation.  On the other hand, if recent history is a guide, the 5.00+ ERA Santana tonight will turn out to be the real challenge.

Strangely consistent Max Scherzer will try to strike out Too Many tonight (8+ strikeouts in last nine starts).  Max has an ERA of 1.03 over his last 5 starts, and is 2-0, 1.29 vs the Angels this season.

The late start tonight (10:05 EST) will test the endurance of the DTW posters; it will be interesting to see who sticks this one out; at least we have some West Coast followers. Tomorrow night should be better, with the special 9:05 start time, which seems to have nothing to do with anything.

Stat of the Day: Ramon Santiago in the 2nd half practically makes one long for Raburn. In addition to various clown episodes in the field, he is hitting .136, with a robust .376 OPS.  Although he is 1-for-3 lifetime against Santana, so there’s that.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Austin Jackson.  In Wednesday crucial game against Cleveland, Detroit was making Jimenez look all Cy-ish, and was about to become the first team Jimenez faced in 2012 to leave the field without a single walk. When Jackson finally broke the spell and worked him for a walk in the 8th, the floodgates opened.  I don’t think 2011 AJax would have pulled that off.

Todays ‘MonyBall Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Andy Dirks LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Brennan Boesch RF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Ramon Santiago 2B

Detroit Tigers, 72-63, 2nd place, 1 back, WC not gonna happen.

Well, that’s baseball.  And you’ve got to tip your hat to Cy Masterson. Etc. Etc.

See what happens when you don’t have a plan? Hopefully Kevin will use the day off tomorrow to devise something good. Or maybe we should all use the time to work on our lineup submissions.

For his part, Jim Leyland had an explanation for why he went with Don Kelly at 1B (batting 6th) yesterday: “He has not had a good year, obviously, this year, but that’s OK. I’m tickled for him. I’m glad for him.”  See, this lineup business is harder than you think.  Make sure you leave some tickle room when you fill out your cards folks.

Tonight the Tigers go for their 3rd straight series sweep, this one, like Kansas City, on the business end of the broom.

Doug Fister takes the mound for Detroit, but if this game goes according to trend it will matter more who shows up at the plate against Ubaldo Jimenez. So far this series Detroit has hit .177 against the worst starting pitching staff in the AL. Jimenez’ biggest problem is his control (he is 2nd in AL with 84 walks), which tends to be some sort of secret weapon against Tiger hitters.

Stat of the Day: We’ve said before that the Tigers just aren’t made to win a majority of close games.  Well how is this:  the Tigers are 2-8 in their last 10 1-run games, and their last 8 losses have been by a combined total of 9 runs.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Delmon Young. Will the day of rest cool him off?

Todays Delmony Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Andy Dirks LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Brennan Boesch RF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Omar Intante 2B

Detroit Tigers, 72-62, 2nd place, 1 back, 3 back for WC spot.

Apparently sweeping the White Sox is a momentum killer.  The last time the Tigers swept the White Sox they followed up by losing to Cleveland, who took 2-of-3 for the series.

Well, you know the old saying that momentum in baseball is the next day’s starting pitcher.  Except…Anibal Sanchez did well, and the Tigers were facing a pitcher with 0 major league wins. So much for that.

At any rate, Delmon did his part yesterday.  As frustrated as everyone had been with Delmon all season long (this writer included), Jim Leyland kept telling us he was going to get hot, and get hot he did. Over the past 7 days Young leads the team in OPS (1.383), has hit .429, and has 42% of the Tiger RBIs. And he has been consistent game after game, with a 9-game hitting streak, a 4-game RBI streak, and a 4-game extra base streak.  Smokey was right.

Now that Delmon has the D-train in gear, the next order of business is…to get Prince Fielder “off his feet.” Huh? Yes, Fielder will be DH-ing today, to get him off his feet (what about Cabrera’s feet?).  Maybe this is Fielder’s reward for making 2 impressive plays in the field yesterday.

This means Delmon has been bumped from DH, and gets the day off.  Leyland may have done what opposing pitchers could not do–find a way to cool off Delmon.

Not to worry though:  Don Kelly is there to pick up the slack. Batting 6th.

Alex Avila states the obvious, speaking of a guy who looks like he could use some time off.

Stat of the Day: Prince Fielder leads the league in both HBP (15) and IBB (17).

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Don Kelly.  The Donkey replaces the hot bat of Delmon Young in the lineup. Good luck with that. Maybe Kelly will surprise us all and this will be one of those Lucky Leyland moves.

Todays Who’s On First Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Andy Dirks LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder DH
5. Brennan Boesch RF
6. Don Kelly 1B
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Omar Intante 2B

Detroit Tigers, 72-61, 1st place (tie), 2 back for WC spot.

Well, here we go. It’s all even, the season starts today, and it’s only 28 games.

Unlike Kevin, I don’t have a plan for this thing, so I will go with his suggestion that Detroit win this afternoon.

It all went according to plan last night:  Verlander gave up a leadoff home run, which combined with his 8-run last outing made the White Sox (and a few Tiger fans) think “aha, he’s lost it.” The overconfident Chicagoans were helpless the rest of the night, until Valverde entered to provide fun and excitement for all.

Also according to plan Brennan Boesch finally baesched, to dead center, no less; Jhonny Peralta made perhaps the best tag on a stolen base attempt for the season; Avisail Garcia practiced his look-alike Cabrera opposite-field stroke, Don Kelly um…got in the game, and most of all Delmon Young kept the D-train rolling, when he golfed a pitch over the left-field fence for his somethingth home run of the week (depending on whether we are counting the “home runs” as well as the home runs).

There was a downside to the sweep:  watching Robin Ventura calmly take it all in. Would have been awfully entertaining to hear what Ozzie Guillen had to say afterward.

The Tigers face a Cleveland team that has lost 16 of their last 18, and a pitcher who has yet to win. In fact, they are looking like an alternate-ending version of Major League.  I’ll save the sympathy for later:  it’s a pennant race. Besides Cleveland still leads the season match-up, 7 games to 5.

With Garcia continuing to look promising, Dirks back, and Boesch showing glimmers of hope, the outfield suddenly seems a bit crowded, with Quintin Berry holding the short straw.  Nonetheless, Leyland found a way to get short-straw Berry in the lineup, as Jackson gets the day off.   Might have also been a good day to let Cabrera DH, but it looks like the Jackson/Berry plan took precedence (you don’t dare leave Delmon out right now). Meanwhile, look for Danny Worth to appear in a pinch-running role, now that he has proven his ability to elude goats.

Stat of the Day: Delmon Young has hit 15% of his 2012 RBI and 19% of his home runs in the last week.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Delmon Young.  I have a one-game plan for him to continue his hot streak.

Todays AJax on Holiday Lineup:

1. Quintin Berry CF
2. Andy Dirks LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Brennan Boesch RF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Omar Intante 2B

71-61, 2nd place, 1 game behind CWS, 2 games behind WC.

One game at a time.

Max Scherzer continued his August assault on the American League with a masterful 4 hit, 1 walk, 0 ER and 9 strikeout performance over the White Sox last night. Don’t look now, but Scherzer has an outside chance at 20 wins. The Tigers got timely hits from Cabrera and Garcia, and Delmon Young hit two HRs, though one only counted as a triple. (Are you guys with me here? That ball clearly hit the yellow. How could they miss that?) It was a complete team performance.

So that gets us to tonight. Regular season games don’t get any better. Division rival. Sunday night baseball on ESPN. Ace v. Young Phenom. Win and we’re tied for first. My plan is progressing as planned, and I fully expect JV to bring it tonight.

To give you an idea of just how good Justin Verlander is, even with the 8 ER aberration last time out, JVs August ERA is 3.53.Verlander shut down the White Sox in his only start against them this year back on July 20th,when he allowed 2 ER in 8 IPs.  Pierzynski has 3 career HRs off of Verlander in 71 ABs. JV has a 1.75 ERA and .92 WHIP at Comerica this year.

The Tigers have had Sale’s number this year, scoring 8 ER in 12 IPs covering two starts. Sale was roughed up last time out against Bal, but it’s nothing like what KC did to JV. Despite the Tigers’ successes against Sale, only Laird and Peralta have hit him well. Jackson, Cabrera and Fielder are a combined 3-26. I expect this to be a low scoring affair. Hopefully JV can keep his pitch count down.

A few notes:

– JV has allowed 10 unearned runs this year. Chris Sale has allowed 1.

– Before the single in the 9th off of Valverde, the White Sox were 0-17 in the series with RISP. It happens to everyone.

– Rangers rookie phenom and #1 overall prospect Jurickson Profar went yard in his first ML AB.

– DY is 12-27 over his last 7 games. His .740 season long OPS is only a shade off of his career .748 OPS. I hope he continues to mash this September and perhaps even into October, and I hope equally as much that DD doesn’t neglect his career body of work this off-season.

– Brandon Inge will undergo season ending shoulder surgery. Too bad he won’t be with Oakland for their stretch run.

– Al Al will be available tonight. Look for Smokey to use him in the most high leverage situation possible.

Tonight’s Series Sweeping Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Infante, 2B
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Young, LF
6. Peralta, SS
7. Garcia, RF
8. Boesch, DH
9. Laird, C

70-61, 2nd place, 2 games behind CWS, 2.5 games behind WC.

One game at a time.

Doug Fister was uncharacteristically wild last night, and as a result, the Tigers’ 4 early runs didn’t hold up into the 6th. The Tigers had no problem reaching base all night, but they were still waiting for the big hit…and then came the 7th. Delmon Young smacked a bases loaded double to left center in the bottom of the 7th, and Dotel, Benoit and Valverde shut down the Sox for a 7-4 win. Considering the how hard it seemed the Tigers had to work to score early, and how effortlessly the White Sox were able to come back,, this would have been a depressing loss. But thanks to DY and the 7-8-9 guys, we’re 1 game into my 4 game plan for usurping first place.

Next step, win game 2.

On paper, tonight’s game looks be be favorable. Mad Max toes the rubber as the Tigers most consistent starter over the past month. Max has won his past 4 starts in dominating fashion. In 27 innings, he’s allowed 4 runs, 21 hits, 8 walks and has struck out 35. Max can have an off start every now and again, but he’s been pretty consistent since May. Take away the first month of the season, and Max’s ERA is 3.45 and his WHIP is 1.22. That works for me as a #2. Pierzynski is 10-26 lifetime off of Max and Konerko is 7-24 with 2 HRs.

Opposing Mad Max tonight is displaced Twin Francisco Liriano. Liriano has been so-so for the Sox since the deadline deal, but he’s been better in Chi-town than in Minnesota. Yes, he’s posting a 5+ ERA, but that’s mostly because of an atrocious April. With Chicago he’s 2-0 with a 4.26 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP. He’s only pitched into the 7th once since the trade, so again, the Tigers should have their chances early. Cabrera (1.177 OPS) and Boesch (1.126 OPS) hammer Liriano….(and of course you can’t move Delmon Young from the 5 hole because he had a hit last night, so that means Boesch will bat…)

I know there are a lot of distractions tonight, namely about 20 miles to the West of me in Arlington. I’ll have two TVs going with the Longhorns (thank you UVerse for adding the Longhorn Network) and Michigan games, and then the Tigers game on my laptop.

Today’s Call-ups – Worth, Raburn, Kelly, Holaday, Marte. Al Al coming up tomorrow (he had to spend 10 days in the Minors).

Tonight’s Is It Really That Difficult to Work Garcia Into the Lineup? Lineup is:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Boesch, DH
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Young, LF
6. Peralta, SS
7. Avila, C
8. Garcia, RF
9. Infante, 2B