PREGAME: It will be Nate Robertson and Fausto Carmona today as the Tigers try to extend their lead to 5 games. The Twins have an off day so there is no need to scoreboard watch.

Carmona has been inconsistent to say the least this season. He got so bad he was bumped al the way down to A ball. Still, he has held the Tigers to 2 runs in each of his 2 starts against them. Carmona has some extreme platoon splits (970 OPS for lefties, 615 OPS for righties) so I’d guess Leyland will tilt the lineup accordingly.

Robertson gets a second turn after pitching well for 4 innings against the Rays. Robertson providing competent innings this month could be a huge boost to the rotation.

As an aside, the Tigers have never been 11 games over .500 this season…

Cleveland vs. Detroit – September 3, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: At the last minute I decided to head down for this game, even though it was a day game after a night game, and I’m glad I did. A sweep and a 7 of their last 10 is a nice way to head out on the road.

Robertson looks like a new man, or at least like the guy that wore number 29 in 2006. He spun 6 shut out innings today with 4 K’s and he only needed 80 pitches to do it. Whether or not it lasts remains to be seen, but in his 2 starts he’s given the team a lift and with Washburn missing a start because of his knee, and Rick Porcello’s mounting workload, an extra arm could become very valuable this last month of the season.

Zach Miner also was a big part of today’s win, going the last 2.1 innings and only allowing a walk and a hit by pitch. Ni-Miner was the poor man’s Seay-Lyon today. Ni struggled to put away hitters after getting 2 strikes on them, but Miner held firm until the offense could get that extra run.

And the offense needed the extra time. They only mustered 5 hits all afternoon, but one was a homer, and one was a triple with 2 men on. The last one was a leadoff double leading to the walk-off sacrifice fly (the 3rd sac fly for the team in the last 2 days).

• Adam Everett with 3 walks today. That’s the kind of thing that would make me nuts if the Tigers had been the ones issuing them, but kudos to Everett for getting on base 3 times.
• Aubrey Huff hit his first ball deep to right-center, but that was the extent of the carry-over from his big night on Tuesday.
• Ryan Raburn had an up and down game, or more specifically a down game that ended up. He fanned with a runner on 3rd and one out in the 7th. And he made a diving attempt that resulted in a double instead of a single when he couldn’t come up with the ball in 8th. But he scored the winning run after leading off the 10th with a double and putting the whole inning in motion.

PREGAME: Remember Aaron Laffey? The Tigers roughed him up pretty good early in the year.  Well, Laffey has been pitching much better as of late, to the tune of a 2.47 ERA in his last 7 starts (and that includes getting pounded for 7 runs in 4 innings in one of those starts). The strange thing is though, is beyond allowing only 5 homers in 90 innings, his other peripherals aren’t that great.

Rick Porcello takes the mound for the Tigers. He hasn’t shown any ill effects from the increased workload so far this season. He shut down the Indians for 8 innings his last time out, and would love to have the same kind of success this time around.

As an aside, I’ll be at the game tonight and enjoying some beers at The Park Bar prior to the game so feel free to stop by.

Now, your “the chalk in the left hand batters box shall remain unblemished” lineup:

1. Raburn, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Ordonez, RF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Thames, DH
6. Inge, 3B
7. Ramirez, LF
8. Laird, C
9. Everett, SS

Cleveland vs. Detroit – September 2, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: A couple of 4-2 finals both worked out in the Tigers favor today, and that makes it a good day. Joe Nathan had been flirting with disaster his last few outings and this time disaster got him. As for the Tigers own business, they were shall we say opportunistic?

The Tigers didn’t really kill the ball, and they hit into 3 double plays (Gerald Laird would have had 3 on his own had Ramirez not been running his 3rd time up). But they key was they put the ball in play with regularity and the Indians were kind enough to kick the ball and throw it all over the place. Laffey was charged with 2 earned runs, and I think that’s probably twice as many as he should have been charged with. But, to the Tigers credit they did push runs across when given the chance with sacrifice flies from Ramirez and Cabrera.

And the offense didn’t need much tonight because Porcello was on top of his game. He was a ground ball machine once again and his pitch count had him in position to pitch a complete game (80 pitches through 7+). Part of me wanted to see it, the sensible part of me was happy to see some pitches conserved for perhaps later in the season. The pen did the job again and Fernando Rodney didn’t even make me nervous.

• Very slick grab by Porcello on one of the few hard hit balls against him
• I was a little sad to see only 25k at the park tonight. It was a gorgeous night and not all schools are back in session yet, and the Tigers are about to head out on a road trip. Would have loved to see the place fuller.
• The Tigers were 2 for 3 in sac fly situations, and the third time Everett ripped a line drive to third (surprisingly Peralta caught it)
• Cabrera went 1 for 1 in 4 plate appearances today
• Wilkin Ramirez looked good all around tonight and he added a walk to the sacrifice fly
• The Tigers had lost 11 straight times when they were 9 games over .500 prior to today’s game.

PREGAME: And away we go. It’s September. This is like real-pennant-chase-scoreboard-watching-finger-nail-chewing-why-won’t-the-Twins-lose time. The Tigers shook off their August doldrums and posted their first winning August since 2000. Can they craft a formidable September and hold off the Twins?

Tonight the Tigers send out Edwin Jackson. When Jackson last faced the Indians he threw eleventy (a word whose etymology is tied to the developing counting of skills of preschool aged children and is invoked when the child runs out of fingers or simply can’t comprehend a number larger than the last one uttered in the sequence) million (added for emphasis by me) pitches in 4 innings. The Tigers will face new guy Carlos Carrasco.

The Tigers don’t fare well when they don’t have a scouting report on a pitcher so this could be frustrating. Carrasco was a part of the Cliff Lee deal and a prominent enough prospect to warrant a wikipedia page where I learned that he appeared in the Future’s Game 3 years in a row. Carrasco posts some very impressive minor league numbers and rates as a top prospect. Your “Aubrey Huff not so much with the protection for Cabrera” lineup, also known as your Viva Venezuela lineup:

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Guillen, LF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Ordonez, RF
6. Huff, DH
7. Inge, 3B
8. Laird, C
9. Everett, SS

POSTGAME: The Tigers took care of business and really thumped a rookie starter and made his debut entirely unpleasant for said starter rather than the fans. Nice. Even the outs were crushed. Polanco smoked a ball into a double play. Granderson was out (I think he got the foot in) on a triple attempt. Everett lined out sharply. It was a hitting clinic.

And let’s talk about Aubrey Huff. Also known as the much-maligned Aubrey Huff. I don’t know if he is back, as declared by Rod Allen, but he was certainly productive today with a single, a double, and 2 walks. Hopefully it is the start of something, but regardless he was a big part of today’s win.

Also a big part of today’s win was the bullpen. Zach Miner allowed a lead off homer, but then retired the next 3. Then Bobby Seay got the next 4. Then Brandon Lyon got the next 2. Then Rodney got 3 of 4 allowing only an infield single (that should have been an out Mr. Everett).

Not a big part of the win was Edwin Jackson. He was definitely “owed” in a sense for the squanderings early in the season. But aside from the 6 K’s in 5 innings, he wasn’t that good. He got hit pretty hard. He’d fall behind after getting ahead, and he need 90 pitches to get through 5 innings. Not great but good enough tonight.

PREGAME: James Shields and Jarrod Washburn on wrap-around day.

Tampa Bay vs. Detroit – August 31, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: This was a slightly different script than many Tigers losses. They got some offense this time, especially from Carlos Guillen who had 4 hits including 2 homers. It was the complete lack of pitching that cost them this time. Unfortunately it was another bad outing for Washburn who aside from the Royals start has found a way to struggle in every outing. He’ll usually find a way to record a bunch of outs in a row, but that is usually sandwiched in between homers.

This time Washburn pitched into some bad luck with 3 flukish doubles in the first inning. He made good pitches and didn’t have much to show for it. But that doesn’t excuse the walk or the homer that also took place that inning, or the runs in later innings either.

And Ryan Perry has looked dominant at times, and at other times like today he has looked anything but. The travails of rookie-dom.

PREGAME: Wrap-around series just mess with my baseball equilibrium. It’s a Sunday afternoon and instead of talking about a series win or a series loss or someway to punctuate the series, it is merely game 3 of 4.

But it is a Sunday afternoon, and the Tigers do have Justin Verlander on the hill. Hitters are OPSing .551 against Verlander during day games. Maybe the high heat is harder to center with sunshine, or may it is nothing.

Jeff Niemann, taken exactly 2 picks after Justin Verlander in the 2004 draft. The rookie has done a good job keeping the ball in the park with only 14 homers allowed in 139 innings. There is no platoon advantage with Niemann with hitters from both sides of the plate OPSing 721 against him in virtually the same number of PAs.

Random Factoid: Niemann has only allowed 2 extra base hits when the hitters has put the first pitch in play against him. Bad boding for the Tigers.

Your lefties in the outfield lineup:

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Guillen, LF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Huff, DH
6. Inge, 3B
7. Thomas, RF
8. Laird, C
9. Santiago, SS

Tampa Bay vs. Detroit – August 30, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: It’s been 8 hours since the game ended, and I still can’t believe that Polanco’s ball made it over the wall. I was at the game Saturday and I was shocked that with 2 lefties on the mound, and with a very brisk wind blowing out that we didn’t see a wind blown homer that day. I don’t know what the conditions were like today, but regardless, where the Tigers were 2 feet short on Saturday, they had those 2 feet today. Those 2 feet were enough to maintain their 5 game lead on the Twins.

Justin Verlander wasn’t especially sharp in the early going. He wasn’t pitching bad, but he was unable to efficiently put away the Rays and it looked like getting through 6 would be stretching it. Jim Leyland let him go 8 as the Rays were kind enough to make some quick outs in the late going.

The offense was mostly stymied, except for Clete Thomas who had 3 hits. Unlike the game against Price, the Tigers hit a number of balls well, but they routinely went right at Brent Zobrist and they had little to show for it.

But they got enough.

Oh, and Fernando Rodney was good. Again.

PREGAME: Nate Robertson makes his return to the starting rotation, and it’s really hard to know what to expect. Do you draw on his 3-4 years as a slightly below average pitcher who will give you 6 innings, or do you draw in his last 2 years which have been ripe with injuries and ineffectiveness? He battled a hip problem which he never mentioned last year, and this year he had stuff in his elbow. His most recent history, be it at the AAA level is a rehab start where he fanned 9 in 6.2 innings on only 68 pitches.

He’ll go up against David Price. Price has nice strike out numbers (74 in 85 innings) but he has been vulnerable to the walk with 41 issued this year. He also has given up 13 long balls, but none in his last 3 starts.

This is a Fox “National” game meaning many of you get blacked out, but not as many as usual. Beyond Michigan and Florida it looks like Boston, Dallas, Minnesota, and the Dakotas will get this 4 pm tile.

Tampa Bay vs. Detroit – August 29, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I’ve been a big believer in the theory that the Tigers pitching has improved this year because of the efforts to improve the defense. However, if someone had only watched the last 2 games I’d have a hard time convincing them. In Friday night’s game the defense had 3 misplays. In today’s game the defense had 4 misplays. That the pitching has held the Rays to 5 total runs is pretty remarkable.

Adam Everett was charged with 2 errors, but it looked like one should have gone to Polanco. Gerald Laird had a passed ball leading to a run. Miguel Cabrera battled the wind (which was screaming) and lost on a foul pop-up.

Robertson pitched well. He was limited to 4 innings because a) he had only thrown a max of 68 pitches in his rehab assignment b)the max came in his start Tuesday meaning he was following up on his longest outing on 3 days rest c) his innings kept getting extended and he should have made it through another inning.

• The offense did remarkably little. Only 2 of their hits even left the infield.
• I didn’t mind the Laird bunt, Longoria was playing way back. Bunting is part of Laird’s game. It was a good gamble.
• I actually would have liked to have seen Granderson try to bunt because Pena was playing him well behind the base and he might have had himself a hit and if he didn’t it should have scored a run – it didn’t even need to be a suicide squeeze.
• Granderson ended up fanning on the only real threat. But he made a bid at redemption in the 8th that was about 3 feet short of being a game tying homer.
• Ordonez had 2 hits and drove in the only run.
• The 8th inning was a nice little rally and the team made it interesting. The 9th inning was a buzz kill.
• Zach Miner did very well in relief of Robertson and he ate up 3 innings.
• I would love for the Tigers to display scoring decisions on the scoreboard. They never indicated wild pitch or passed ball on Laird. They never indicated if the 9th inning play was E4 or E6. There was no indication of what runs were earned.

PREGAME: The Tigers welcome in an AL East opponent in late August in a game with playoff implications for both teams, and it’s a very wet Friday night and the Tigers send out there prize prospect and first round pick. Reminds me of a similar game from 2007. This though instead of Andrew Miller it is Rick Porcello, and instead of the Yankees it is the Twins. And I’m not at this game and I doubt it ends at 3:30am.

Porcello kinda got clobbered by the A’s of all teams. Prior to that he had been pretty good shutting down Seattle, Baltimore, and the Indians and taking down Kevin Youkilis.

Garza has quality starts in 4 of his last 6 outings and he’s pretty good. Granderson and Polanco are a combined 1 for 22 with 1 walk off of Garza, so table setting may proove to be an issue.

The lineup:

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Ordonez, RF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Huff, DH
6. Guillen, LF
7. Inge, 3B
8. Laird, C
9. Everett, SS

Tampa Bay vs. Detroit – August 28, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: For those that don’t frequent the comments, Coleman has dubbed the guys at the bottom of the order the BOOBs (bottom of the order boys). The BOOBs were big tonight. Inge got things going with a homer, and Gerald Laird and Adam Everett had back to back doubles to drive in runs in the big 4th inning. In the end the BOOBs drove in 5 of the 6 runs and had 5 of the 8 hits.

Rick Porcello was wonderful and had to pitch around some poor defense. He had 2 men on in the first without a ball reaching the infield dirt, but back to back K’s ended the threat. In the end he had 5 k’s and allowed just 4 hits. He also topped 100 pitches for the first time this season.

The bullpen was on their way to a perfect showing until a pinch hit Gabe Kapler homer with 2 outs in the 9th made things a little more interesting, but Fernando Rodney finished things off with a strike out (after the requisite walk).

• Aubrey Huff started a rally instead of ending one when he drew the walk in the 4th inning. He also nearly hit his first homer as a Tiger but it hooked foul.
• Granderson had 2 hits and built on a road trip that saw him have success. Grandy hasn’t been able to get hot for more than 3-4 games at a time this year and hopefully he can really heat up heading into September.