44-34, 1st place, 3.5 up on KC.

Tough series over the weekend. The Tigers led for what, 1 inning out of 27? The Astros are playing some good baseball these days. They are going to be fun to watch over the next few years. They really played well against the Tigers, excelling in all facets of the game. Altuve just tied a major league record with four consecutive games of multiple stolen bases, the last three against the noodle armed Avila/Holaday combo. Did we ever get Altuve out?

Despite all of that, the Tigers had plenty of opportunity to sweep the series. I’m not sure how to calculate BABIP over three games, but I am certain that we were way low from a balls in play stand-point. The Tigers were ripping the ball left and right.

So in comes the MLB best Oakland Athletics. There’s lots of talk about post-season history and a face-off of the AL’s best, but in all reality, this series isn’t that big. Sure, it could be seen as a measuring stick, but we live in the AL Central, and a ruler will suffice where most divisions need yardsticks.

Kazmir v. Sanchez today.

VMart scratched with “soreness.”

1. Davis, LF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez JD, DH
5. Hunter, RF
6. Castellanos, 3B
7. Avila, C
8. Suarez, SS
9. Jackson, CF

Last night: The Tigers haven’t roughed up too many starters this season. Add Joe Saunders to the short list, and he was spared from getting rocked completely only by his own lack of command and good positioning + Rougned Odor. Detroit jumped off to a “comfortable” lead very quickly. I can’t believe Miggy scored the 5th run on Hunter’s shallow single to LF. Neither can Dave Clark (who said STOP!) or Shin-Soo Choo. Choo must have come up looking at Clark rather than Cabrera – chalk up another “he wouldn’t dare” run for Miggy. (Big run, looking back. No 1-run lead jitters. Only 2- and 3-run lead jitters.) Sanchez was just dealing… until the middle of the second Leonys Martin PA (0-2 to BB). After that, he wasn’t the same. The 4th inning clown show featuring the defensive liability stylings of Holaday and Castellanos was no help. Fortunately, Martinez & Martinez struck right back again to pad the lead back to 7-3. Victor now has more HR than the Kansas City Royals, and J.D. now has more HR than… Cabrera over his last 41 games. It was kind of lousy of Victor to rob J.D. of an RBI, though. Then came the 5th and 6th. HBP, HR, HBP. Sanchez was adrift. Hardy to the rescue, but there were indications that the Tigers offense might be over. 7-4 is a nervous lead in Arlington. (As are 7-5, 8-5, and 8-6.) Hardy lost potential Golden Boy status in the 7th with a leadoff walk and a strikeout of Choo that wasn’t really. The lead shrunk in that too-eventful 7th, but again Detroit came back with a run of their own thanks to a clutch double from Suarez. Coulda been more, but things went wrong. I’m actually a bit more peeved with the 3rd out from Davis than I am with Holaday’s inexplicable try for home. Haven’t seen Joba in a while besides lineup card duty. Here he was in the 8th, and he got by on defense (Suarez, Davis in CF). The Tigers 9th, well, I’d say we expected more from the meaty part of the lineup, but I guess they were exhausted from earlier. In comes Nathan, and he both maintained his +6 ERA and got the save in one swell foop. All in all, the bullpen bent but did not break. Not a real good day for the pitchers. Chalk this one up to the bats. And speaking of defense, I’ve decided I’d like to see less of Holaday. It was really bad.

Tip of the cap: I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but Adrian Beltre is unstoppable. 2B Rougned Odor made the play that kept the Rangers in the game, and made an uncomfortable (for us) something out of nothing later (triple out of a strikeout, only in America). How many Tigers outs is C Robinson Chirinos responsible for now? He needs a day off.

For the sweep, for the season series, for the winning streak that can’t end just yet, we pin most of our hopes on Rick Porcello, who faces Nick Martinez in the finale. Going back to 2011, including a beauty last season, 3 of Porcello’s last 4 starts at Texas have been quite good indeed.

POSTGAME: Shin-Soo Choo battled the sun and lost. Rangers have communication difficulties in the OF. Hunter has depth perception difficulties in RF, and if you had been told that Porcello had thrown 20% of his total pitches in the 1st, would you have guessed the outcome? Hunter’s restraint in walking with the bases loaded deserves some recognition, even if an entirely different Nick Martinez was already pitching himself out of the game. The failure to really cash in on bases-loaded situations does not go unnoticed even when the team is on a roll. Jackson (2-run single) should swing at first pitches much more often. Blowout stifled courtesy of Elvis Andrus and the 3rd-inning-ending DP he starts on Hunter’s hard grounder. Sparkling 4-6-3 double play Tigers. It is good news if J.D. can keep hanging back on breaking balls and hitting them as deep as the sac fly that made it 5-0. Sparkling 4-6-3 double play Tigers. Carlos Pena thought that 3-6-1 DP on Victor was funnier than I did. Sparkling 4-6-3 double play Tigers. Is there an echo in here? Jackson forgets he plays CF for the Tigers and covers a mile to retire Beltre. The inscrutable Mr. Choo’s bad day continues as he gets a glove and no more on Cabrera’s home run disguised as a double, and Kinsler (isn’t it always Kinsler?) scores to make it 6-0. Golden Boy finishes 0 for 5 but doesn’t strike out. Hardy warms up a few times but doesn’t pitch. The only drama in the bottom 9th is the drama of your team running out the clock when the opponent has used up all their time outs.

Porcello turned in a gem, a keeper, best of the season by a Tiger. A COMPLETE GAME SHUTOUT featuring 13 groundball outs (not counting the 3 bonus ones on double plays) and 6 strikeouts. It wasn’t wasted; aside from one miscue, it was fully supported.

Tip of the cap: Scott Baker did a pretty decent job in the underappreciated role of “long (really long) man,” a.k.a. second-chance starter. SS Andrus made a snazzy play that made a difference, even in a losing cause.

43-32, 7 in a row, on to Houston.

Last night: You know it was a good game when there is something positive to say about every Tiger who played in it. But, after the great start with Kinsler’s solo shot (sly wave to Rangers dugout), it settled into the feeling of one of those should have won but didn’t games, where you start to take mental notes on all the little things that might have cost ‘em the game. An uncharacteristic bad send call by Dave Clark with VMart DOA; Smyly hurrying his throw on a sure DP and contributing to Suarez’s muff; SB attempts which were good ideas that didn’t work and were no less costly for being worth trying in a 1-1 game. The Tigers again were not solving Colby Lewis; it took Mr. Cabrera three tries, and then Daniel Robertson robbed him of his just reward (we see this from opposing CF’s quite regularly). Smyly frustrated me a bit, getting knocked off his game too easily early and requiring what seemed like an unusual amount of babysitting from Avila, and also making a couple bad plays that cost a DP each time (the aforementioned hurry and throw, odd failure to get over and find 1B bag later). Ultimately, Drew was quite good without being very efficient about it, until he retired 9 of his last 10. When the Tigers did start to get to Lewis, they kept it up against submariner Ben Rowen, who was throwing submarine BP. 11 Tigers came to the plate in the 7th, and it would take a long paragraph to go over everything that went so right. The catalyst, the game-winner, was presented right away by Martinez Bros., Inc.. When J.D. came to bat for the 2nd time in the inning, we all hungered for another grand slam and a blowout, but alas, Golden Boy would strike out his last two times up. The Tigers bullpen emerged unscathed through 3 but for a consolation run off Smith, who is having difficulties getting that 3rd out. 16-hit attack for Detroit despite an 0 for 9 from Miggy and Castellanos. Avila was stroking it, and implausibly, considering the first 2 PA, so was Davis. 3-RBI Kinsler got some instant karma with a bad strikeout and a rare error, but hey. They should have won and did. Convincingly.

Tip of the cap: Elvis Andrus is fun to watch even when he goofs. Good play by Smyly & Co. to pick him off, but the best part was Andrus lunging at Cabrera in the rundown in an attempt at drawing “interference.” Comical. Adrian Beltre is unstoppable. Colby Lewis has the Tigers’ number to some degree, I’d say.

Now it’s Anibal Sanchez, our true ace, against Joe Saunders. Torii is back, and with a vengeance, we hope.

Tonight’s Hint Taken Lineup:

CF Davis
2B Kinsler
3B Cabrera
DH V. Martinez
LF J.D. Martinez
RF Hunter
3B Castellanos
C Holaday
SS Suarez

P Sanchez

Coming off of a road sweep of a division rival (nice), a revenge sweep (nicer), and a weekend sweep followed by a day off (nicest of all) (sorry, that was only one sweep total, but check back in a week), Detroit (40-32, 1st Central, 2nd AL) is in Tejas for a three-game series with the Rangers (35-40, 4th West, 11th AL). All night games. There is a chance for some revenge here as well: Last time out against Texas, the Tigers should have been arrested for pitching while blind. What a demoralizing home series that was, surely one of the two lowest points of the season to date (lucky me, I drew both).

Here are your handy quick reference guides for the upcoming series:

Tigers on BBREF
Tigers on MLB
Rangers on BBREF
Rangers on MLB
The all-important RE24/WPA rundown
Fascinating team comparison
What have you done for me/them lately?

Detroit hasn’t won a season series with Texas since 2011. They later lost the series that mattered that postseason, and have gone 7-14 vs. the Rangers since. The Tigers are clearly the better team these days. So what’s it gonna be?

Fun fact: Since 2006, the Tigers have losing records against only 5 of 29 opponents.

Even as things were going downhill for the Tigers there for one tough month, I found it hard to jump on the pessimist bandwagon wholeheartedly. It’s not that I was going out of my way to look on the bright side, but only that I wasn’t seeing lack of effort, poor managing, the need for an overhaul, or the end of anyone’s careers. The only extraordinary thing about 9-20 was the number of pitching collapses (I count 11). 8 games where the starter put the team in a very deep hole! (Check my facts. I still find 8 hard to believe, but I’m tired of looking.) You might say that the team record was 9-12 without those 8 forfeits. Underachieving, yes. Catastrophe by W-L, certainly. Crisis of confidence? Only to a fan. Do you really want the team to dwell on the losses and hang their heads, be “ashamed”? Of course not. Brush it off, look ahead. They do it. We can do it, too.

Tough month in the rear view mirror, up ladders and down chutes, Detroit finds themselves exactly where they were about a year ago. 40-32, with a refreshingly different team overall. Smokey Jr.? Come on, people.

Now, even aside from the 4-game win streak, good news abounds. Evan Reed is DFA, and Ian Krol is resting his crappy pitching. Blaine Hardy’s left arm has started off on the right foot, and Phil Coke had an outing that didn’t need to be qualified in any way. We’re going to get looks at McCoy and Smith as we did with Knebel – interesting for a fan, no? (The next best thing to having a good bullpen is making an effort to get one together.) The hitting is starting to click on enough cylinders, I think.

The Avila Thing: Is the general feeling that Holaday could actually replace Avila as the starting catcher? I’m afraid the overall gain could be slighter than you think. More Holaday, sure, I’m down with that.

The Outfield Thing: Is J.D. MarTinez the latest incarnation of Marcus Thames and Matt Tuiasosopo?

No one’s replacing Torii Hunter in RF, but could more frequent rest be a perfect fit for a more flexible plan?

Aside from effort, there’s not a whole bunch of anything coming from Austin Jackson. Would they trade him? There are other options in CF.

Rajai Davis in CF more often? In the choice between a lineup featuring either Jackson-J.D., Jackson-Davis, or J.D.-Rajai, is it still mix and match or more one or the other? There seems to be a bit more to like in one of them, doesn’t there?

What’s on the Andy Dirks horizon, and might that not crowd things in a good way? Odd man out? Jackson. Kelly, Dirks himself?

Anyway… Drew Smyly vs. Colby Lewis in the first game. Smyly has been superb lately. Things are lookin’ good for a good ballgame. Lineups to follow… I think.

Tonight’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Lineup:

LF Rajai “Heartbreaker” Davis
2B Ian “Pan Am Highway Blues” Kinsler
1B Miguel “Ten Dollar Man” Cabrera
DH Victor “El Diablo” Martinez
RF J.D. “Enjoy And Get It On” Martinez
3B Nick “Avalon Hideway” Castellanos
CF Austin “Asleep In The Desert” Jackson
C Alex “It’s Only Glove” Avila
SS Eugenio “Snappy Kakkie” Suarez

P Drew “There Ain’t No Cause For Alarm” Smyly

The number that pleased me most from last night’s game is “1”.

Not because Nathan only gave up 1 run, though that may be cause to celebrate.

Not because in what is being regarded as Coke’s finest outing all season he only gave up 1 hit.

But the number I’m thinking of is 1 walk issued by Verlander. After talking about Verlander’s location issues in yesterday’s pregame, he was a sniper last night, walking only 1 against 8 Ks in 7 innings. I too was initially perplexed as to why he didn’t go 8, but I think that Ausmus was protecting Verlander a bit, which I don’t have a problem with. Highlights here.

Scherzer climbs the hill looking for the sweep this afternoon against righty Josh Tomlin.

A few notes:

– Ian Krol was sent to the DL last night with “shoulder inflammation” which is otherwise known as “crappy pitching.”

– Hunter is available to pinch hit today, and is expected to start on Tuesday.

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Jackson, CF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Martinez, RF
6. Castellanos, 3B
7. Avila, C
8. Romine, SS
9. Davis, LF

Justin Verlander’s name comes up again in the rotation, and this will be his 8th shot at getting back into form. In the last 8 Tiger starts, we have 6 QS, and 2 non QS – Verlander and Scherzer. Those guys are allowed to have off-games, but we pay them in part to prevent slides like this. Neither JV nor Scherzer is doing his job this year.

Matthew Leach of MLB.com posted a tremendous article about Verlander’s decline yesterday. Leach makes a compelling argument that Verlander’s location is really the problem; which makes me thing that this can be fixed. It’s an arm angle, or a landing spot, or something in the mechanics. The velocity is there, and I think the movement is there on the secondary pitches. But he has got to want to get better.

LHP Pat McCoy has been called up from Toledo, and he’s not on the 40 man. Move coming shortly.

7:15 PM start tonight against the kid Bauer. Bauer has been decent enough this year – 4.20 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP, and he held Detroit to 2 ER over 6 a month ago.

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Jackson, CF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Martinez, RF
6. Castellanos, 3B
7. Avila, C
8. Suarez, SS
9. Davis, LF