PREGAME: The last home game of the year. [blogger looks melancholy]

A couple years ago I started going to the last home game of the year and it’s kind of become a little tradition. Kind of like opening day only sadder. Still, it’s my own way of saying good bye to summer. It’s overcast and drizzly and it really does seem like the summer is over now.

In any case, it will be Johan Santana taking on Jair Jurrjens. Jurrjens was roughed up in his last start as he battled his command – the element that had made him so effective in his other starts. But in his last start against the Twins he took a no hitter into the sixth inning. I’m hoping for more of that.

And chances are he’ll need it because I don’t like the Tigers chances of tagging Santana for 4 runs again in the first inning like they did in his last start.

Game Time 7:05 pm
MIN @ DET, Wednesday, September 26, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: No, I didn’t stay through the rain delay this time. It was a slightly different circumstance, being with the kids on a school night and all. Still, we enjoyed our abbreviated night.

There was a nice on field ceremony to recognize Pudge’s 2000 games caught, Granderson’s quad-20, Polanco’s errorless streak, and Todd Jones 300th save. Meanwhile, their teammates were signing a ton of autographs and talking with the fans. An hour and a half before the game, Fernando Rodney was the only player from either team out on the field, and he was signing for whoever had something.

As for the game itself, Jurrjens couldn’t find the strike zone in the first inning, and it resulted in 4 runs. Fortunately Johan Santana couldn’t find the strike zone, and got no help from his defenders, and it resulted in 3 runs for the Tigers.

In this situation the rain delay favored the Tigers as both starting pitchers were knocked out, and as well as Jurrjens has done, he ain’t no Santana. And the Tigers jumped all over Blackburn, Santana’s replacement, as they batted around in the 4th. That proved to be the end of the scoring as the rains once again came.

So they shut the lights off at Comerica for the last time tonight, and the Yankees made it official by stomping the Devil Rays. Sigh.

PREGAME: Yorman Bazardo will make his second career start, and like his first it will come against the Twins. He wasn’t dominating by any means, but he held the Twins to 2 runs in 4 2/3 innings on 4 hits and 2 walks.

The Tigers will be up against Matt Garza. In his last start against Detroit the Tigers worked 4 walks and combined the free passes with 4 hits to plate 4 runs. Garza typically doesn’t make it out of the sixth inning before running his pitch count up into the 90’s.

Game Time 7:05 but there is a chance of thunderstorms.

MIN @ DET, Tuesday, September 25, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Very nice start tonight for Bazardo who kept the ball out of the outfield for the most part. He induced 14 ground outs, and the few times he got into trouble he was able to get strike outs with his change up. Most impressive was the back to back strike outs with 1 out and runners on 2nd and 3rd.

The Tigers bats came alive in the 6th after killing rallies with double plays in 3 straight innings. A 3 run inning turned a tight game into what would become a laugher. The biggest blast was a Magglio Ordonez moonshot that made it to the aisle way that bisects the pavillion in left field. It was his second hit of the night pushing his batting average to .359. Add in a Granderson triple and it was a pretty nice night for the Tigers.

PREGAME: It’s Nate Robertson taking on Carlos Silva tonight. Nate’s turned in consecutive 7 inning outings. He fanned 5 and walked 3 while allowing one homer in each. One game he allowed 6 hits, the other 5. So for a guy that has vacillated between crappy and good, a brief moment of solid consistency is refreshing. One other thing to note, Nate has thrown exactly 7 innings in his last 5 starts against the Twins.

On the other side it is Carlos Silva. The sinkerballer will give up hits, but he doesn’t walk anyone (only 36 in 188 innings this year) so the damage is usually minimized.

Game Time 7:05

MIN @ DET, Monday, September 24, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

PREGAME: It’ll be Justin Verlander and Jorge De La Rosa today as the Tigers try to secure a winning record at home against the Royals. Forgive the brevity today, still worn out from sports day yesterday.

Game Time 1:05

PREGAME: It’s that time of year when you look at a lot of the guys on the roster and you realize that you might be seeing their last home performances with the English ‘D’ on. Case in point is tonight’s starter Kenny Rogers who’s contract is up at the end of this season I really do think the Tigers will bring him back for a one year deal, because quite frankly they need the starting pitching depth. But you never know.

Another guy who is questionable to come back, Pudge Rodriguez, is in line to move into 3rd place on the all time games caught list as he tied Gary Carter with last night’s game.

Ono the other side, there is a Kansas City team that has assembled some young talent, and players that we’ll be seeing in Royal blue for awhile. One of those may be Kyle Davies, who the Royals acquired at the trade deadline for Octavio Dotel. Davies has struck out a batter an inning since coming to the Royals, but he also walks a batter every other inning and has allowed 8 homers in 41 Royal innings.

I’ll be there tonight, and I’ll probably be tired. It’s “sports day” for my 6 year old son and we’re doing both the Michigan-Penn State game and the Tigers game. We’ll miss part of at least one of the games, but I’m still looking forward to it.

Game Time 7:05

PREGAME: The Tigers kick off their last homestand of the season with a couple of rookies doing battle.

For the Royals it will be Billy Buckner making his 4th start. Buckner has as many walks has as many walks as strikeouts in games he’s started. But he also hasn’t been hit really hard in his last two.

Jair Jurrjens is coming off his best start, a 2 hitter with 6 K’s in 5 1/3 innings. Looking at his strikeout numbers overall, he’s been fairly lucky to have the results he’s had so far – that being only 13 hits allowed in 25 innings. But the results have been very impressive nonetheless.

Game Time 7:05
KCR @ DET, Friday, September 21, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: The 9 game win streak began tonight! Right! Maybe? Okay, probably not. But on a night when Sean Casey homers and gets an infield single, maybe there is some magic left in this season. Even Brandon Inge came up with the winning hit, going down and getting an 0-2 curve ball and hooking it through the hole on the left side.

Jair Jurrjens had his first rough outing, and didn’t last through the 3rd inning. Fortunately Tim Byrdak was exceptional in relief and went 4 innings allowing only a walk while fanning 5 and giving the Tigers a chance to claw back in. Fernando Rodney pitched through a runner on 3rd and 1 out situation after Marcus Thames lost a ball in the lights, and Jonesy had a fairly uneventful 9th for a routine save.

PREGAME: Nate Robertson and CC Sabathia today.

Game Time 12:05
DET @ CLE, Wednesday, September 19, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

PREGAME: The Tigers get back at if after last night’s tough loss. Fortunately, this team does seem to have a short memory for these types of things. Justin Verlander will do his best to give the team the same kind of chance that Kenny Rogers did last night. Verlander has been awesome his last 4 starts with 3 runs allowed in 28 2/3 innings and a 26:6 K/BB ratio. But in his last 5 starts against the Tribe dating back to last year they’ve hung at least 7 runs on him in 3 of those starts.

Jake Westbrook takes the ball for Cleveland tonight. In his last start against Detroit he allowed just 7 baserunners and no runs over 8 innings. It was one of the few starts where the Tigers couldn’t get to him.

Marcus Thames is in the lineup playing left field tonight while Timo is on the bench. Ramon Santiago starts again at shortstop with Carlos Guillen playing first.

Game Time 7:05
DET @ CLE, Tuesday, September 18, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Not much to figure out in this one. Tigers – lots of hits and all but one were singles. There were clutch hits, but with the singles they needed to string together a bunch. The Indians, a few hits and all homers 15 rows back. Justin Verlander was living at the belt all day, he simply couldn’t find the bottom of the zone and the balls got tatoo’d.

PREGAME: Here we are, the Cleveland series. The last 3 chances for the Tigers to exert their will on the teams they are chasing. I can’t remember being this nervous for a game, maybe game 2 of the ALDS, but even then I’m not sure. I guess I’m nervous because not so much of what a win would mean – that just keeps the window of hope alive – but what a loss would do to already slim playoff chances. There’s been lots of talk about “if the Yankees win X” or “if the Indians win Y” and none of it matters as much as “if the Tigers win tonight.”

As for the match-up it’s Kenny Rogers and Paul Byrd. The Tigers have scored some runs off of Byrd in 3 starts this year, but he’s still a good bet to get to the 7th inning while giving his team a chance to win. He won’t walk more than 1 or 2, so pitch count isn’t usually a concern.

Rogers is making just his second start against the Indians this year, so maybe a slight edge to the Tigers in the “lack of familiarity” department. Rogers should be stretched out after throwing 83 and 94 pitches in his last 2 starts, but it’s more a matter of how his elbow holds up.

One thing to watch is what happens if the Tigers have a slim lead late in the game. Todd Jones has thrown 3 days in a row, and of course yesterday was especially rocky. I’d be surprised if he was available. And Joel Zumaya has thrown the last 2 days, but he didn’t throw a lot of pitches in either outing so we might still see him.

Game Time 7:05
DET @ CLE, Monday, September 17, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Crushed. Me, the team, the season, the postseason hopes. Crushed.

PREGAME: The Tigers look for their first series sweep since…the last time the Tigers were in the Metrodome. It will be Jair Jurrjens taking on Scott Baker.

Baker has been a tough match-up for the Tigers this year throwing a complete game 1 run 3 hit effort and adding another quality start in his last outing.

The Tigers will send out Jair Jurrjens who has reclaimed a spot in the rotation coming off the DL. In one respect Jurrjens has been pitching lucky with only 7 strike outs in his 20 innings of work. At the same time opposing hitters haven’t been able to center the ball. And Jurrjens is still capable of inducing some swings and misses with his curve ball.

Game Time 2:10 p.m.

POSTGAME: Did anyone else have flashbacks to Oakland? A chance to gain ground on the Indians. A comfortable early lead for the Tigers. Five innings of no hit baseball from a Tiger starter. Fernando Rodney and Todd Jones melting down.

Fortunately the Tigers did enough to hang on this time, adding a couple runs late and Jones hanging on to the lead by his fingertips.

Overshadowed in the bullpen walk-a-thon and adventures in fielding was the fact that Jurrjens was awesome. Clearly it was his best start of the season as he finally started to add some strikeouts taking his season total from 7 to 13 today. Despite entering the 6th with a no hitter, he was never really a threat to pitch a complete game as his pitch count and previous injury just wouldn’t allow it.

Offensively it was a balanced attack with every starter picking up a hit except Pudge Rodriguez (playing the day game after a night game) and Pudge even contributed a key run with a sacrifice fly.

In the end though the Tigers have a 5 game win streak, their first streak that long since they won the last 5 going into the All Star Break. They also picked up a series sweep, their first since the last trip to the Metrodome. Yes the Twins are a dead team right now, watching Michael Cuddyer take pitch after pitch right down the middle was, well, pathetic. But the Tigers still took care of business and did what they had to to make the last 2 weeks of the season compelling.
DET @ MIN, Sunday, September 16, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com