PREGAME: It will be an interesting game tonight as the Detroit travels to the home of former Cleveland Indians. The Tribe sent away Ryan Garko, Cliff Lee, and Victor Martinez this week. And they brought back Fausto Carmona.

Carmona has been garbage for most of the year, simply awful. So bad he got sent to A ball and he has since worked his way back to the bigs after posting some impressive numbers. He faced the Tigers once, and he wasn’t that good with 6 walks, but only 2 runs scored in 6.2 innings.

Edwin Jackson and the search for run support will be on the mound for Detroit. Jackson has faced Cleveland twice this year and has allowed 1 run in 14 innings with 11 strike outs.

Tonight’s lefty heavy lineup is:

1. Granderson
2. Polanco
3. Guillen
4. Cabrera
5. Thomas
6. Thames
7. Inge
8. Laird
9. Santiago

Detroit vs. Cleveland – July 31, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: When the Tigers were being swept by the Yankees, they were at least ultra-competitive games that saw the series come down to a 9-5 score. The Tigers have been outscored 12-5 so far in this Rangers series. I think I preferred the ultra-competitive heart wrenching games than the games without heart.

The Tigers will try to muster some offense against Scott Feldman who sports a 3.59 ERA. Feldman’s peripherals are unimpressive. His walk rate is a touch under 3 per 9, but he only fans a batter every other inning. But he has managed to go at least 6 innings in 14 of his last 15 starts.

Justin Verlander takes the hill for Detroit. Verlander is coming off a huge 127 pitch dominant performance against the White Sox. The Tigers look to him once again to pick up a much needed win.

Detroit vs. Texas – July 29, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Can you believe the Tigers stranded 13 runners tonight?! It’s not nearly as problematic when you plate 13 as well. The Tigers haven’t had a lot of laughers in the last couple months, and the team needed some smiles after looking dead the night before. Early runs, a big cushion, and Verlander pitching nasty meant the drama was pretty limited in this one.

• The Tigers were quite patient early on and made Feldman work, which worked to their advantage. They left the bases loaded in the first, but Feldman threw 38 pitches. Unlike other games though where they’ll let a starter off the hook, they came back in subsequent innings and plated runs.
• Grandy had homers in his first 2 at-bats.
• Cabrera had 4 hits and his 2 outs came on great playes from Byrd and Vizquel. He also got hits with guys on base. With it being a blow out they weren’t really “clutch” but hopefully it relaxes him.
• Ordonez still found himself in a double play situation. This time he roped a liner at the pitcher who caught Guillen off second base.
• Verlander matched a career high with 13 strike outs. He got in a jam in the 5th inning and what ensued wasn’t really the art of pitching. Fifteen of the last sixteen pitches the threw that inning were fastballs.
• Texas pitchers threw 195 pitches
• Jim Leyland had a wonderful opportunity to give Verlander a light outing and Inge a full day off. He did neither bringing Verlander out for the 7th inning despite a 9 run lead, a rested bullpen, and an off day tomorrow. Inge also came in as a defensive replacement. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

PREGAME: There’s a late change in this one as the swine flu ridden Vincente Padilla won’t make his scheduled start. In his place will be Doug Mathis. This will be Mathis’ second start of the season and 12th appearance. In his only other start he allowed 4 earned runs on 7 hits, 3 walks, and no strike outs in 5 innings. Those were the only 4 earned runs he’s allowed this season.

Luke French gets the nod for the Tigers. Presumably he’s not being afflicted by anything other than a lack of run support. Here’s hoping that condition clears up tonight.

The lineup is:

1. Granderson
2. Polanco
3. Thomas
4. Cabrera
5. Guillen
6. Ordonez
7. Inge
8. Santiago
9. Ryan

Detroit vs. Texas – July 28, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: So which team has had flu running through their clubhouse because the Tigers sure did look sick tonight. This may have been their worst effort of the season. There have been tougher losses, but few that have left such an awful taste and have been so dismal. Let’s look at the lowlights:

• Ramon Santiago boots a ball on the first pitch that French threw
• Magglio Ordonez catches a ball flat footed and Ian Kinsler tags up and goes to second…on a fly ball to right field
• French picks off a runner and Cabrera throws the ball away
• Everett makes a nice play in the hole but one hops the throw and Cabrera can’t pick it
• On a Kinsler triple Granderson makes an inaccurate throw creating a long route for Polanco’s relay

Throw in the fact that Luke French got pounded, and the offense mustered one lousy single after the 4th inning and it is a recipe for disaster. Do you realize that none of the top 3 hitters in the lineup reached base tonight? Cabrera had 2 weak singles and a bad defensive game, but you can’t blame him for not driving any runners in.

If there was any good news it was that Santiago and Ryan got key hits early on. And Everett made 2 nice plays defensively. Otherwise this was just miserable, and you could see Leyland seething.

PREGAME: Oh boy, the Tigers are on the road again. That hasn’t exactly been their forte this summer. It should be hot and steamy at the Ballpark in Arlington (I always liked this place for the shout-out to Tiger Stadium with the upper level in right field).

This is the 3rd time this season the Tigers have gone up against a Rangers team that was hot. This time the Rangers have won 7 of 8 including a sweep of the Red Sox. In addition to playing well they are hot in the sense of febrile as H1N1 is traversing the clubhouse.

Former Ranger Armando Galarraga gets the nod for the Tigers. Galarraga was a hard luck victim of no offensive support and a Bobby Seay-allowed homer in his last start.

Tommy Hunter goes for the Rangers. He’s been solid in his last 4 starts not allowing more than 2 runs in any of them.

I don’t know if this has more to do with Ordonez or Raburn, but Maggs is starting against the right hander tonight.

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

Detroit vs. Texas – July 27, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Well, at least the Tigers scored 2 runs instead of 1 and once again it could have been more. Granderson led off the game with a homer, and the Tigers didn’t score again until the 8th inning. Sigh.

The biggest wasted chance came when the team had runners on 2nd and 3rd and only 1 out. A walk to Polanco loaded the bases but Clete Thomas hit a dribbler back to the mound (his second of the game) and nobody scored. Miguel Cabrera had a 3-0 count but ended up in a full count and he swung and missed at a pitch around the letters.

• Galarraga was mostly good, except for the 6th inning when he got rattled and balls got peppered around the park. The slider was encouraging again. I’d count this as a positive outing.
• Curtis Granderson got charged an error when he threw a ball that nearly hit second base that neither Polanco or Everett picked up which then trickled away from everyone allowing a run to score. I’m not sure why Galarraga wasn’t behind the plate backing up for a throw home.
• Ordonez turned on another fastball and ripped it for a double. It’s been a decent little stretch for the struggling Ordonez.
• Ryan Perry had a couple balls hit hard. His first struggles since his recall.
• Tim McClleland not making many friends tonight. I can’t remember so many disputed called strike 3’s in a game. The strike zone was small early in the game, but got pretty wide at the end.

PREGAME: Can the Tigers pick up another win against the White Sox? To do so they’ll have to get past Gavin Floyd who has kind of owned the Tigers since even before he was good.

Floyd has fanned 14 and walked just 2 in his last 2 starts. However he has allowed 5 of his 12 homers in those last 2 starts as well.

But things aren’t that easy for the White Sox either who will have to deal with Edwin Jackson. Jackson has been walking too many lately but has still pitched into the 7th inning in his last 5 starts.

This is a Fox game of of the week. Chris Rose and Mark Grace are your announcers, and unfortunately if you’re not in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, or Indianapolis you’ll be watching this one through the magic of MLB Gameday.

Chi White Sox vs. Detroit – July 25, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Yay. Baseball is fun again. The Tigers have found some clutch mojo and the timing couldn’t be more clutch. This team was a disaster 48 hours ago and now they have a 3 game lead in the division. I love baseball.

Edwin Jackson’s control wasn’t as sharp as it was early in the season, but once again you look and he’s gotten the team into the 7th inning stretch and has only allowed 3 runs. Yay.

The offense never really figured out Gavin Floyd, but they took advantage of Paul Konerko error and did that whole “score the runner from 3rd with less than 2 out thing.” Miguel Cabrera got a hit with a runner in scoring position. Yay.

And when the Tigers needed some late inning runs, they got bloopers and worked counts and scratched out a run in the 9th off of Jenks and one more in the 10th, and you can put it on the board.

• The number 3 hitter sacrifice bunting in the 1st inning is, well, unconventional. But it worked.
• I can’t figure out why the Tigers weren’t more aggressive on the bases today. Granderson and Thomas both found themselves on 1st base but weren’t green lighted and both ended up the front end of double plays. AJ Pierzynski is throwing out nobody. Run wild on him. Raburn got caught stealing, but that’s only because he slid off the base.
• Carlos Guillen seems pretty comfortable. The winning hit wasn’t crushed by any means, but he hung in there with 2 strikes and got his second hit of the day.
• What do you think of the decision to not bunt Guillen in the 10th. I really wanted to see what Guillen would do in that situation, but I have to say I would have bunted to get the winning run to 3rd. It worked out, but that took some stones from Leyland because if that grounder turns into a double play ball he’d never hear the end of it.
• Fernando Rodney, 11 pitches and 3 outs. That’s 2 very clean outings in a row. Knock on proverbial wood.
• Ryan Perry looked very much in control and turned in 2 clean innings.

PREGAME: Wouldn’t a doubleheader sweep make for a nice mood lifter heading into the weekend? Tonight’s game will be Eddie Bonine against Bartolo Colon.

Bonine had kind of a rough streak when he was with the team earlier in the year when he allowed homers in 3 straight appearances out of the bullpen. For Toledo he’s only fanning 4.3 per 9 innings, but he’s only walked 11 in 69 innings.

Colon is making his first start since June 7th.  Since then he disappeared for a little while, literally.

Chi White Sox vs. Detroit – July 24, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Wow, who knew doubleheaders could be so fun? Everything was awful yesterday, but the Tigers have bought themselves at least 2 more days in first place by taking the first 2 games of the series.

• How about Eddie Bonine? A quality start from the 6th starter is nothing to complain about. He did allow 2 homers, but he fanned 5 in 6 innings and really limited the damage.
• Bonine works VERY SLOW when he gets someone on base. Unfortunately he had someone on base every inning.
• Both centerfielders started off the game with nice catches. Granderson tracked down a Podsednik drive but he was one upped when DeWayne Wise made a spectacular catch on a Granderson drive. Watching Wise and the ball, I thought there was absolutely no way he gets close, let alone makes the play. Simply incredible.
• Carlos Guillen looks to be ready. He looks comfortable at the plate, and drove the ball well in both games. He also worked the count and saw quite a few pitches. Maybe he really can be the lefty bat.
• Magglio Ordonez turning on a fastball and pulling it down the line for a double set up the go ahead walk. Ordonez is taking to the platoon (thought tonight was against a righty).
• The White Sox put on a full shift against Marcus Thames. I’ve never seen one that extreme for a right handed batter, and Thames beat it by singling right where Alexei Ramirez should have been playing.
• Fernando Rodney and Brandon Lyon were both awesome. Let’s not forget night’s like tonight when we complain about the bullpen. Seay was shaky but man did he bounce back.
• Some interesting managerial moves from Leyland tonight. Everything worked in retrospect, but I thought taking Thames out after the 6th inning and the game tied was premature. Of course when the White Sox had a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs, it could have been a big move if there would have been a flyball to left. Also, it meant that the Tigers would effectively have 2 lefties back to back making things easier for Guillen.
• That part proved to be true as Guillen turned to the lefty with the bases loaded. Here I was surprised to see Raburn pinch hitting for Guillen rather than pinch running for Ordonez (as he could then be a defensive replacement the next inning). I understand the platoon situation, but I wanted to see Guillen up. Raburn battled, but ultimately fanned.
• And that brings us to Clete, who had a heck of an at-bat (and a swing that looked pretty long early in the count) culminating in a take-the-lead walk.
• Disappointed in the crowd tonight. Some big moments in the top of the 7th and bottom of the 8th, and they were dead. Too quiet. I don’t know if people were too nervouse to cheer or what, but they didn’t seem as “into the game” as I would have expected.

PREGAME: It was about a month ago I downplayed the significance of a series in the Metrodome. I’m not going to downplay this one. A sweep by the White Sox would be pretty devastating. So let’s not get swept okay?

Justin Verlander is going for the Tigers which is usually a good thing. But the Tigers starter hasn’t been a factor lately, except in the sense that the performances get wasted.

Lately it has come down to a lack of offense, and today that offense gets a boost, but will it be enough to knock down Jose Contreras? Contreras has been up and down of late. One of the ups was an 8 inning 1 hitter against the Tigers. In his last 7 starts Contreras has a 2.62 ERA with 39 K’s and only 10 walks in 48 innings with only 4 homers allowed.

Your new Guillen-ized lineup:

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

Chi White Sox vs. Detroit – July 24, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: This definitely qualifies as a big win. If the Tigers lose this afternoon they are relying on Eddie Bonine to try and muster a win. And it’s not that he isn’t capable, it’s that you’re putting a whole bunch on him and the rest of the series. Ideally the Tigers win the nightcap, but now the don’t have to.

And what makes it even bigger is that Justin Verlander went the distance, preserving the entire bullpen. Verlander was awesome. He battled control a little bit early on and his pitch count was in precarious shape after 4 innings when he was sitting at 73 pitches. But the White Sox got swing happy and started lofting lazy fly balls early in the count allowing Verlander to throw the final 5 innings on just 54 pitches. The last fastball coming on pitch 125 was clocked at 99.9mph.

The offense? Well they didn’t really kill the ball, and they struck out too much, but they scored. The hits were bloops and tweeners and things that fell just out of reach, but they fell. It’s like a week’s worth of cheap hits all fell in a span of 9 innings, but they fell. The Tigers were aggressive on the bases and kept putting themselves in scoring position which helped to pull the defense out of position and open up spots. Everybody take a breath and get ready for the night game.

PREGAME: Jarrod Washburn and Lucas French hook up in a soggy get-away-day game.

Seattle vs. Detroit – July 23, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Yeah. I’m at a loss.

PREGAME: As much as I’d love to talk about the Tigers carrying over their offense from last night, that probably isn’t a realistic expectation. Felix Hernandez has been absolutely sick.

The last time Hernandez didn’t last through at least 7 innings was May 30th, when he went 6.2. He’s fanning a batter an inning and almost 4 batters for every guy he walks. Opponents have only taken him deep 8 times all season. RISP opportunities are going to be hard to come by, so the Tigers need to be efficient when they have an opportunity.

Armando Galarraga makes his first post All Star break start. There were a couple somewhat promising starts for Galarraga leading to some hope he had turned things around. But he was hammered for 9 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings by the Indians in his last start.

Your Brandon Inge-less lineup:

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

The decision to bat Thomas clean-up is a little strange, but I’m guessing the thinking is the lefty may provide a little more protection than Thames for Cabrera. The stranger move is batting Anderson anywhere higher than 8th. And did Dusty Ryan evaporate?

Seattle vs. Detroit – July 22, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: The Tigers waste another masterful pitching performance and drop a 2-1 game for the 3rd time in 4 games. This time Galarraga allowed 1 freakin groundball single through 7+ innings, and still can’t get a win.

Bobby Seay threw a meatball to Russel Branyan who punished it. Seay had 22 straight appearances without a run allowed, and has given up homers in each of the last 2 games. But you can’t blame it all on Seay.

Josh Anderson has become Neifi Perez. I want to make it clear that I’m not hating on Josh Anderson here and blaming him for the Tigers offensive woes. When I call him Neifi it’s because he’s a player of limited ability that is being vastly misused by Leyland. Anderson is what he is and expecting more isn’t fair of him. Expecting the manager to realize that he is an inferior hitter who has no place in a starting lineup is another matter.

Anderson should not have been batting 6th. He came up in 2 RBI situations and ended the inning. This should not have come as a surprise. He should not have had a bat in his hands in the 9th inning. Horrible. If Anderson is a late inning defensive replacement or a pinch runner I have no problem with him being on the roster. But if you give Leyland a limited NL player, he’ll find a way to play him way too much. Leyland has done a good job in total this season, but his continued use of Anderson is baffling.

• Miguel Cabrera needs to start getting some of those hits with runners on base. Pat Caputo posted some startlingly abysmal stats about Cabrera and his tendendcy to not drive in runs. It bit them again tonight.
• The Tigers were very aggressive tonight. Of the first 50 pitches they saw, they swung at 30 of them and only took 4 called strikes.
• Galarraga was tiring. His command and delivery wasn’t as good as it was earlier in the game. That and there was some kind of forcefield around the plate when Ryan Langerhans and Jack Hannahan were up. It was very nice to see Galarraga’s slider being a swing and miss pitch again.
• Curtis Granderson has singled the other way 3 times in the last 2 games. Hopefully him using the whole field will get his batting average and extra base hits back up and this is the start of something positive.

PREGAME: The Tigers welcome the Seattle Mariners into town. The Mariners, like the Tigers are 6 games above .500 and rely heavily on their defense and pitching to overcome anemic offenses.

The Tigers will send out Rick Porcello for the first time since Michael Jackson died. Will he be rusty? Will he have extra giddy-up? Will he hold down the Mariners the way he did when he faced them on the left coast?

The Mariners send out Garrett Olson. Olson has a tendency to give up the long ball with 12 homers allowed in just 59 innings this year. He has a 4.53 ERA and strike out and walk rates that are unremarkable. The Tigers faced him twice last year and plated 5 runs in each game. So things should look good for an offense that is struggling, but I’m far from confident.

Tonight’s hopefully first place maintaining ineup:

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

Seattle vs. Detroit – July 21, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: The Tigers got themselves some offense. When the first 5 batters score, things should be a laugher. But the Mariners kept coming back as they launched 4 homers and this game was way more stressful than it should have been.

Rick Porcello looked to have a ton of movement on his breaking balls. That was the good. The bad was that there were too many balls being put in the air. Porcello is normally an extreme ground ball pitcher, but 5 of the 11 outs in the field were in the air. And then there were the balls that flew out of the park.

But the offense, the offense, oh the offense. Magglio Ordonez seems to be taking to this platoonery as he cracked a grand slam picking up that long awaited “hit with RISP.” And the fact that were RISP was also refreshing. Placido Polanco and Miguel Cabrera later went deep making it an Arby’s night.

The pen wasn’t bad. Fu-Te Ni and Bobby Seay both gave up homers, but both had been  pitching well of late so I can’t hate on either of them. Brandon Lyon did his 2 out job, and Fernando Rodney made things interesting, but didn’t pitch badly. The 1-2 plunking of Branyan was clearly a mistake, but he was ahead of the count the whole inning, he didn’t nibble, and he followed the HBP with a couple grounders, a K, and a routine flyball.

PREGAME: I hate going into a game in sweep avoidance mode. It is so demoralizing. And the Tigers are facing Joba Chamberlain, who despite being overhyped due to his Yankee-ness, still shut down the Tigers earlier this year.

Chamberlain has been getting hit hard lately and didn’t make it out of the 6th inning in any of his last 3 starts. But the Tigers haven’t been hitting hard much lately so something’s gotta give.

Edwin Jackson, well rested after his 4 pitch inning during the All Star Break, is riding a streak of 5 straight quality starts. He’ll be looking to not throw a gagillion (sabermetric term) pitches to Robinson Cano who single handedly knocked Jackson out an inning before that fateful 10 run 7th inning disaster.

 Detroit vs. NY Yankees – July 19, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: The Tigers haven’t had so much fun playing the AL East this year. A split of a 4 game set with the Orioles has been the highlight. And they’ve only taken 1 of 4 against the Yankees. The one they did take though was started by Justin Verlander and C.C. Sabathia. Verlander shut down the Yankees at the end of April as he outdueled Sabathia (4 runs in 8 inning complete game). 

Sabathia’s strikeout numbers are down this year and are a rather pedestrian 6.7 per 9 innings. But he has a 1.153 WHIP because he isn’t walking many or allowing many hits either.

Detroit vs. NY Yankees – July 18, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday