PREGAME: The Tigers hadn’t won a Friday night game this season until last night. They haven’t lost a Saturday or Sunday game this season. Hopefully that trend continues one this weekend.

Another trend is that the offense goes into hibernation when Edwin Jackson pitches. The Tigers have provided a whopping total of 8 runs of support to Jackson this season. Some early runs would be nice tonight.

The Tigers will go with a lefty heavy lineup against Fausto Carmona. Carmona has allowed 59 baserunners in 35 innings this season. This should spell runs but the Tigers have had struggles of their own offensively of late. Carmona has always allowed a plethora of baserunners, but with his sinker he also gets his share of GIDPs. The Tigers will try to mitigate that risk with a speedy lineup featuring Granderson/Anderson/Thomas.

Detroit vs. Cleveland – May 9, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Was anyone else nervous that Edwin Jackson was going to get screwed again? Here he is pitching another gem (and each one seems to be a little better) and his guys can’t get the bats going. Fortunately, the Tigers finally got to Carmona by staying patient.

Back to back walks, a nicely executed sac bunt by Brandon Inge, and a grounder by Gerald Laird scored Granderson for the go ahead run. The Tigers added on 3 more, but it turns out they only needed the one run as the Tigers tossed back to back shutouts for the first time since the summer of 2006.

• Fun fact of the night anyone? Detroit picked up their 16th win tonight. Last year they also got their 16th win on May 9th. The difference was they had 21 losses at the time.
• Granderson got on base 3 times tonight.
• Fernando Rodney seemed to struggle with his fastball command for the first time this year. He walked only his 2nd batter of the year, but went to other 3 ball counts.
• Jackson only has 11 walks in his 7 starts this year. A quick check of his 2008 game log in his “breakout” season and the best 7 start stretch I could find was 14 walks (June 21st to July 30th). And he didn’t have the 35 K’s to go along with it (he had 16 K’s over that stretch).

PREGAME: Did you know the Tigers are 0-3 in Friday night games this year? Hopefully that doesn’t have a bearing in tonight’s game. Regardless, it has to go better than last night’s game against Mark Buehrle doesn’t it? Then again the Indians are probably thinking the same thing after the Red Sox hung 12 on them – in the 6th inning – last night.

Tonight will be a re-match of the Justin Verlander and Cliff Lee game from last Sunday afternoon.

Detroit vs. Cleveland – May 8, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: This is one of those postgame’s I struggle to write. There are so many different ways to write the story with lots of irony and symmetry and in general awesomeness. Fortunately it is a happy story which makes it a little easier.

Justin Verlander was amazing again. He’s been money in his last 3 starts, and the one thing that may have been holding him back a little (and I mean a little) was efficiency. No problem with that tonight as he notched a complete game shutout. He fanned 11 Indians tonight, the second time he’s turned that trick in a week. And this is a team that had beat him like that annoying drum in the bleachers over Verlander’s career.

It was only a couple weeks ago that people were questioning who the ace of the Tigers staff was. There is no question in my mind as we sit here tonight. Verlander has actually been pitching good the whole year, save for that Toronto stuff. But he was being undone by ridiculously poor defense. Tonight, things evened out a little. Here’s where that irony comes in.

Polanco made a leaping grab of a liner, Raburn laid out for a ball and came up big, Everett started a nifty double play on a liner, and Curtis Granderson made a nice play in centerfield.

Yeah, that was kind of an understatement. Amazing, unbelievable, athletic, super hero-ish, game saving, those are probably more apt descriptions. And this is where some of that symmetry comes in. Grandy and Grady are two of the best centerfielders in baseball. And here was one robbing the other, not only of a home run, but a walk off home run. Granderson’s career signature play has probably been the time he robbed Wily Mo Pena in left-centerfield. Does this catch top that one?

As for the Tigers run, it scored with out a real hit. Heck, it scored without a ball leaving the infield. The run was the result of a walk, Curtis Granderson stealing 2nd on a hit-and-run where Placido Polanco whiffed (Polanco is 10th in baseball in contact %) and Grandy was dead at second except Kelly Shoppach threw the ball high. A bounce out advanced Curtis to third. And the run scored when a second baseman failed to throw a ball quickly enough on a routine grounder. And that was the difference.

Other stuff:

• Justin Verlander now has the Tigers last 3 complete game shutouts.
• Verlander has 56 strikeouts this season. Last year he got his 56th strike out on June 16th
• Brandon Inge has all of the Tigers webgems this season. I think, and I’m going out on a limb here, but Grandy’s catch might just sneak in there tonight.

The highlight reel is here. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of seeing that catch (please disregard the nicknaming of Curtis as “The Cougar”:

Toledo 1 Pawtucket 8
Jason Tyner, Danny Worth, and Dusty Ryan all had 2 hits. Chris Lambert was lit up for 7 runs on 9 hits in just 3 innings.

Erie 9 Harrisburg 6
Erie finally got to play a game this week. Ryan Strieby was 3 for 3 with a walk including 2 homers. Max Leon also had 3 hits while Scott Sizemore (homer/single)and Jeff Frazier (double/single) had 2 each. Alfredo Figaro returned to the mound and allowed 5 runs on 9 hits, no walks, and 4 K’s in 5.2 innings.

Erie 6 Harrisburg 7
Cale Iorg homered twice and boy did he need it. Scott Sizemore also homered and doubled. Ramon Garcia pitched 3 innings of 1 hit ball and Zach Simons added 2 of the same. Zach Simons allowed 5 runs, only 2 of which were earned and Cody Satterwhite allowed 2 runs as Erie surrendered 7 runs in the last 2 innings of the game.

Brevard County 1 Lakeland 2
Andy Dirks had 2 hits, so did Kyle Peter. Andrew Hess fanned 7 and walked 2 in 6 shut out innings. Scott Green struck out 3 and walked none, but he also allowed a run on 3 hits in 1.2 innings.

Beloit 0 West Michigan 2
Gustavo Nunez had a 3 for 3 night. Chao Ting Tang had 2 hits. Casey Crosby fanned 7 and walked 3 in 5 1 hit, shutout ininngs. Jared Gayhart pitched 1.1 scoreless innings and dropped his ERA to 1.53.

PREGAME: Let’s try this one again. Both teams pushed their pitchers back a day meaning Zach Miner gets skipped and Armando Galarraga gets the ball for Detroit. The Tigers will miss Jose Contreras and get Mark Buehrle. Everything I wrote yesterday still applies so just look there.

Detroit vs. Chi White Sox – May 7, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Mark Buehrle was really really good. The 6 perfect innings to start the game should have been a clue. But in most of these type games there is a great defensive play or an at ’em ball or two. Not so much in this one. Just a parade of weak ground outs only interrupted by the occaisonal pop-out. Working a 3 ball count or a 15 pitch inning were reasons to celebrate.

With that in mind, the fact that Armando Galarraga was the latest Tigers pitcher to experience a big inning became largely irrelevant. It started with a questionable 4 pitch walk and got worse from there. Galarraga got two outs but then walked Jim Thome after getting aheadd. Jermaine Dye ripped a single. Paul Konerko doubled on a nice pitch off the plate, and AJ killed a hanging slider and that was the ballgame.

PREGAME: From one 2 game series to another, the Tigers land in Chicago to take on the White Sox. The two teams played a rain-induced 2 game series already this season with each team winning a game in convincing fashion.

Armando Galarraga will be on the mound for Detroit. Galarraga has become very slider-happy and he hasn’t exactly been attacking the strike zone as of late. In his last 3 games he has walked 11 hitters while fanning 13. He has always featured a slider heavy repertoire, but this year he is throwing it 44% of the time, that’s more than he throws his fastball.

It will be Mark Buehrle for the Sox. Buehrle has a 4-0 record already. He’s been  consistent this year, going between 6 and 6.2 innings and allowing 1-3 runs in his last 4 starts.

Granderson returns to the leadoff spot, but Clete sticks at #3 in tonight’s lineup:

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

Game Time 8:11

Detroit vs. Chi White Sox – May 6, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

NOGAME: PPD. Same pitchers Thursday night meaning the Tigers miss Jose Contreras

These are the types of games that make me love baseball. It’s much easier to say this after a 9-0 win, but it’s not just the favorable result for the Tigers that I’m talking about*. It’s the disconnect between everything we know about baseball and what happens on a given night.

With a rich statistical history we are able to study the game in such detail. We know so much about how runs are scored and how they are prevented. We can talk about true talent level and the disadvantages of small ball and proper lineup construction. And I believe the majority of it to be true. With so many stats we can make some pretty good educated guesses about what will  happen. And on any given night we can be so wrong.

I was very critical of the lineup that Jim Leyland put together tonight, and I’m not even someone who puts a lot of stock in lineups. The newly recalled Clete Thomas has no business hitting third. I don’t mean to disparage Clete at all, but that is simply not the right spot for someone with his skillset. Even for someone who had 12 hits, 7 of which were for extra bases, and 6 walks in his last 10 games in the minors.

But there was Clete, batting in the spot typically reserved for the team’s best hitter, and it took him 2 at-bats to match Magglio Ordonez’s season total for extra base hits. There was Clete anchoring a lineup that has struggled to score runs of late, even against inferior and/or struggling pitchers, and the offense exploded for a much needed laugher.

Despite tonight’s results I’m still firm in my conviction that this probably isn’t a lineup that will stand up in the long haul. But tonight, it sure did work.

(I’m not moving to seperate posts pre and post game, I just thought this one warranted some more space. *Also as to that unpredictability, I can appreciate Jackson’s start against the Yankees for the utter absurdity of what took place. Still didn’t care for the result though)

• Rick Porcello kept the ball in the park and got him 78% of a shutout. He only allowed 4 hits and if he hadn’t walked a couple in the 7th, he probably would have been out for more as he only needed 87 pitches to record 21 outs. He was helped by the GIDP, but as a ground ball pitcher that’s what happens.
• The Twins fielding was uncharacteristically bad. Joe Crede bobbled a ball in the first in which Polanco should have been cut down at the plate. Delmon Young played a Josh Anderson blooper into a double. Michael Cuddyer got an assist on Clete’s triple. Crede botched another play. The Tigers offense had help for sure.
• Miguel Cabrera is hitting everything hard. His homer was absolutely crushed. Since the off day on Thursday there isn’t much that hasn’t been blistered off his bat.
• Curtis Granderson. Nine homers already. Who knew?
• Brandon Inge hasn’t reached base for 2 straight games and hasn’t looked good at the plate. Is this his first slump of the season?
• A 4-4 homestand isn’t bad, but it would have been nice to be on the winning side of the ledger.

PREGAME: Rick Porcello takes on Nick Blackburn tonight, but that news kind of takes a back seat to the Tigers roster moves and their new lineup.

The roster moves have been covered already, but the lineup? Here you go:

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

Aside from putting your best (not necessarily fastest) baserunner behind your slowest runner, you are also taking 70 plate appearances over the course of a full season away from Curtis Granderson*. I understand trying to protect Cabrera (and there is even doubt that protection is real) and put Granderson in a position to drive in more runs. BUT…You can protect Cabrera by having guys on in front of him as well. You pop Granderson in at 3rd and you get 35 of those PA’s back.

*I understand that the 70 PA thing may be inflated because we’re part way through the season and who knows how long this lineup sticks. But I do want to highlight the impact of sliding that far down the order.

I have more complaints about this lineup (especially with Porcello on the mound), but that’s enough for now.

Minnesota vs. Detroit – May 5, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: The Minnesota Twins make their first journey to Comerica Park as the Tigers complete the homestand with a 2 game series. The Twins have been outscored by 26 runs this year, but are only a game under .500.

The Twins are one of only 3 AL teams to be slugging below .400, but the return of Joe Mauer should help to boost that number. On the pitching side, the team ERA is an uncharacteristic 5.42, but their FIP ERA is only 4.67, a hair better than the Tigers 4.71. What is normal is that they are once again leading the league in walks allowed.

Tonight it will be Edwin Jackson taking on Francisco Liriano. Jackson pitched 6 shutout innings his last time out, and got a no decision on the night of the infamous 10 run 7th inning.

Liriano brings in a 6.04 ERA, but his peripherals are fairly average. Baseball Tonight took a look at Liriano and noticed he’s throwing fewer sliders, and when he does he gets fewer swings and misses since his surgery.

Batters are hitting .333 and slugging .524 against his fastball while swinging and missing less than 10 percent of the time. While they aren’t hitting the slider well this season, they aren’t swinging-and-missing as much as they did preinjury, when batters missed the pitch almost half the time. Liriano (0-4, 6.04 ERA) takes the mound Monday night against the Detroit Tigers, who swing and miss against sliders 32.9 percent of the time, slightly higher than the league average.

One other note, Matt Treanor was moved to the 60 day DL which frees up a spot on the 40 man roster.

Minnesota vs. Detroit – May 4, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Will someone please get Edwin Jackson some runs. In a near duplication of last Tuesday’s tilt against the Yankees, the Tigers went into the 7th tied in a pitchers duel. They came out of the 7th looking at a substantial deficit.

Jackson was good, probably better than his final line indicates. But  he did struggle in the 7th. After Justin Morneau hit a pretty good pitch for a two strike single, he lost Jason Kubel to a walk after getting ahead with 2 strikes. And it was all down hill from there. Curtis Granderson got a bad read on a shot to the base of the wall in center and the tie was broken.

Brandon Lyon plunked the first guy he faced. And then Miguel Cabrera converted a bunt into an out at the plate on a fine play. Clay Rapada made some good pitches but it restulted in a soft single off of Adam Everett’s glove and a bloop single to left.

Of course the Tigers offense was completely stymied. Miguel Cabrera was half the scoring, and the Tigers looked to be putting a mini-rally together late but it resulted in only one run.

And Carlos Guillen was brutal defensively. He is playing a ridiculously deep left field meaning runners can round third at will on ground balls, and the aforementioned blooper can happen. Yet he isn’t getting to the deep balls either. I don’t know how much has to do with his various ailments or inexperience compounded by a spring in which he spent too big a chunk as the Venezuelan DH. But it isn’t working.

PREGAME: As I start to write up today’s game thread, I realize the team has split the first 2 games of a series quite frequently. Basically every series since their first 2.

Today it will be Justin Verlander who is coming off his best start of the season. We’ll see if the stuff is there again, and it better be because the Indians can beat up Verlander pretty good. He has a 4-10 career mark against Cleveland and they’ve hit him at an 837 OPS clip.

The Indians send out their ace as well, lefty Cliff Lee. Clifton Phifer Lee was shelled in his first 2 starts, but has posted 3 quality starts since then allowing 3 runs in his last 20 innings.

One thing to watch today, Inge has hit Lee to the tune of 400/471/633 in 34 plate appearances. Inge is also riding that consecutive games on base streak. Things look favorable for him today in terms of match-up, but will these be one of those paradoxical baseball things where he gets stymied?

Inge might get an extra shot for his streak as he moves up one spot in the order with Gerald Laird getting the day off.

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

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

POSTGAME: Verlander’s fastball was the story of this game. He rode his high 90’s heater to 11 strikeouts, good enough to put him on top of the AL leaderboard. It was simply a matter of overpowering the Indians hitters. It wasn’t fancy, it was just raw heat. He’d mix in a curve or change early in the count, but more often than not it was the fastball that either had Cleveland frozen or waving at air. It was beautiful.

And when Verlander did get in trouble in the 7th inning, with the bases loaded and nobody out, it was more domination. His last 7 fastballs AVERAGED 99.25mph. As Rod Allen would say, that’s some serious cheese. He went to that cheese 79 times today, 55 for strikes and 11 of the swing-and-miss variety (plus 2 foul tips into the glove).

Bobby Seay was a little shaky for the second straight day, but Joel Zumaya came in and induced a bullet right at Adam Everett. Fernando Rodney finished things off with a 1-2-3 9th inning on 12 pitches.

As for the offense, it was Brandon Inge again going deep. Everybody had a hit except for Guillen and Raburn. Guillen hit the ball well in 3 of his at-bats, but right at the right fielder every time.

This one felt good, and in what was a very up and down week finishing the week 3-3 isn’t so bad.

PREGAME: It’s the Tigers first foray into “National TV” (by National I mean Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, the Dakotas, parts of West Virginia, Erie PA and Spokane) today with an afternoon tilt as game 3 of Fox’s MLB Saturday.

Zach Miner takes the hill for Detroit. This may not bode well because he posts an 857 OPS against at home (653 on the road) and a 799 OPS against in day games (738 after dark). Oh yeah, and the Indians have a 987 OPS against him. Then again Carl Pavano was supposed to be awful and he stymied the Tigers.

For the Indians it will be Aaron Laffey. The 24 year old lefty has a 2.41 ERA in 18.1 innings due in large part because he’s kept the ball in the park. He’s yet to allow a homer this year. He has walked 10 and only fanned 9.

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

Game Time 3:40

POSTGAME: Well a lot happened in that game. The Tigers got a big inning and an Adam Everett grand slam. The Indians got a Raburn induced big inning right after. And the the teams took turns picking on each other’s bullpens but the Tigers prevailed. That was your 4 sentence summation.

• Everett had a great at-bat (and not just the result) when he hit the grand slam. It was nice to see him rewarded. But I have to wonder how often a player hits a slam, and then is asked to sacrifice bunt, and then is pinch hit for? I’m not saying any of the decisions were wrong, but an interesting day for Everett
• Inge continues to pick it and get on base.
• A lot of people love small ball. When it works it can be fun. But thank goodness Leyland wasn’t having Granderson sacrifice in the 8th inning. I love it when we beat up on Betancourt.
• Miguel Cabrera is back to ripping the ball.
• Carlos Guillen has been a ground ball machine lately, but he kept the ball in the air today. He only had a sac fly to show for it, but is this the start of something?
• Miner didn’t deserve to be hung with 5 earned runs. Official score keeping is bizarre. It started in the Angels series, but the Comerica scorer has been awful this week as well.
• Bobby Seay gave up a run. First one this year. I can’t complain, especially since the boys still got a W.
• Joel Zumaya is making me smile
• Fernando Rodney has pitched 5 innings in save situations this year and has allowed 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out 5.

Toledo 5 Lehigh Valley 6
Dontrelle Willis walked 2 in the first, but finished after 5 IP, 7 hits, 2 BB’s, a HBP, and 4 K’s. Sixty of his 102 pitches went for strikes.Fu Te Ni allowed 2 runs on 4 hits while recording just 2 outs. Jeff Larish homered and drove in 2. Wilkin Ramirez singled and added his 7th stolen base of the season.

Erie 5 Bowie 2
Max Leon, Deik Scram, and Brennan Boesch each had 2 hits. Brooks Brown allowed 2 runs (his first this season) on 7 hits and 2 walks in 7 innings. Cody Satterwhite allowed 3 hits and fanned 3 in 2 innings.

Lakeland 0 Brevard County 2
There was really no offense to speak of. Lauren Gagnier fanned 5 and walked 2 while allowing 7 hits and 2 runs in 4.1 innings. Robbie Weinhardt struck out 3 and allowed 2 hits in 2 innings.

West Michigan 6 Cedar Rapids 5 (15 inn)
Joe Bowen went 3 for 7. Brandon Douglas, Bryan Pounds, and Jordan Lennerton each had 2 hits. Casey Crosby allowed 4 runs in 4 innings on 6 hits, 2 walks and 6 K’s. Matt Hoffman pitched 8 shutout innings in relief with 5 K’s, no walks and 4 hits.

PREGAME: It’s AL Central season for the Tigers. After playing only 5 intra-divisional games in the month of April, the next 13 are against divisional foes. First up are the Indians, who are for the time being Hafner-less.

Carl Pavano will make the start for the Tribe. Pavano has given up more than a run an inning this year, thanks in part to a 9 run 1 inning effort his first time out. Things have been a little better since then, but he still only has one quality start. One thing Pavano has done well is limit the free passes with only 5 walks in 18 innings.

Armando Galarraga gets the ball for Detroit with his 1.85 ERA. He’s done that by fanning a batter an inning and keeping the ball in the park with only one homer allowed on the season. He has been a little susceptible to the walk though with 8 issued over his last 2 games.

Your Guillen-returns-to-the-field starting lineup:

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

Cleveland vs. Detroit – May 1, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: The Tigers dropped their 3rd in a row. It’s the first time they’ve dropped more than back to back games this year and now find themselves back at .500.

Armando Galarraga wasn’t good and he followed a disturbing Tigers pattern of being undone by a big inning when 5 runs crossed in the 2nd.As such he was done after 5 leaving 4 innings for the bullpen. The pen, by comparison didn’t fare too poorly with Nate Robertson allowing a run in 3 innings and Ryan Perry pitching a scoreless 9th. It wasn’t a real clean performance with 6 baserunners allowed, but the damage was minimal.

Of course it also proved difference making with the team coming up one run short.

The most troublesome aspect of the game was the offense being 4 hit by Carl Pavano. Pavano just breezed through the Tigers lineup way too easily. I appreciate the fact that they rallied in the 8th inning, but they have to generate more offense consistently.

• Nice to see Miguel Cabrera ripping the ball again. He had a couple hard outs as well as the homer.
• Carlos Guillen is playing too deep in left field, especially with runners in scoring position
• Brandon Inge continued his streak of being on base every game. He also add a web gem-ish quality play on a foul ball