PREGAME: The Tigers will try to salvage a split in their first post ASB series. They’ll face Jeff Weaver, who they lit up earlier in the year. Of course at the time Weaver was getting lit up by everyone. However in his last 4 starts he has a 0.98 ERA in 27 1/3 innings. He’s only allowed 1 homer in that time span and opponents are hitting just 208/266/287.

But the Tigers have a pretty good pitcher of their own taking the mound in Justin Verlander. Verlander has turned into a strikeout machine with 47 K’s in his last 41 innings pitched.

Game Time 4:05pm

POSTGAME:
That was an interesting game. You had the slugfest thing going on for the Tigers with 3 homers. But there was the small ball thing with 5 stolen bases. Justin Verlander struck out the side in the first inning, but only after 2 hits, a walk, and a wild pitch resulted in a run. It took Verlander 31 pitches to get through that first inning, but he only threw 77 over the next 6 innings.

Three runs scored on wild pitches in the game. Sean Casey stole a base, and without a bobble or bad throw or being on the backend of a double steal. Gary Sheffield even stole home.

In any case, a split is fine. Let’s take on the Twins.

• Curtis Granderson was 8 for 10 when not striking out in this series. But he did fan 6 times. Not that I’m complaining, what with all the lines drives and the triple and the homer and the stolen base and good base running.
• Sean Casey had hit 2 homers since Magglio’s last long ball.
• So is Casey going to finish the year with more homers or stolen bases? He doubled his numbers in each this series
• Thrilled to see Magglio Ordonez go deep, and his at bat the time before was an opposite warning track flyball. After really struggling the bulk of the series, it was nice to see the mini-outburst at the end. The guy is definitely allowed to go into a funk after being so good. I just want him to keep it going because he’s in the middle of a pretty special season. And a game or two without line drives becomes pretty obvious.
• Marcus Thames is certainly making it hard for Craig Monroe to get back in the lineup. Leyland made Monroe play himself out of the starting spot. Let’s hope he affords Marcus the same opportunity to man the position and doesn’t just hand it back to Monroe.
• The last inning was pretty ugly, but if it’s going to happen better in a blow out.

DET @ SEA, Sunday, July 15, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

PREGAME: The Tigers will try and shake off last night’s loss and rebound against Jarrod Washburn.

Washburn has been excellent in his last 3 starts going 22 innings and only allowing 3 runs. He walks about one batter every 3 innings, and only fans a batter every other inning. But he’s only allowed 7 homers in 106 1/3 innings this season. Against the Tigers it’s kind of a mixed bag. Gary Sheffield, Pudge Rodriguez and Craig Monroe have all had success while Magglio Ordonez, Brandon Inge, and Placido Polanco have struggled.

That’s not particularly good news for Ordonez who looked to really struggle last night with 3 K’s and 2 weak grounders. I went back and looked at a couple of his at-bats from the end of May, and compared them to his last few games. It appears that his stance is more closed now. At the end of may you couldn’t see his name/number on his back. Now you can. Plus it looks like he might be standing farther away from the plate – at least with his back foot. But I’m not a scout or a hitting instructor so I may be full of it as well.

The Tigers will send out Jeremy Bonderman who went 8 innings in each of his last 2 starts and allowed a combined 2 runs. In both of those efforts he was pitching without really any run support to speak of.

It’s an all right handed lineup tonight with Ryan Raburn leading off and playing centerfield. Polanco is still out so Thames will bat 2nd and Infante will play 2nd.

Game Time 10:05pm

DET @ SEA, Friday, July 13, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Sure it might not have looked good with Jarrod Washburn racking up 4 strike outs his first time through the order, but he also went to full counts on 5 of the first 10 he faced. But then the Tigers loaded the bases ahead of a Gary Sheffield grand slam. The sixth for the team, each by a different player. They were fortunate though that the Sheffield was still in the batters box to hit it though because he took a very good looking pitch with 2 strikes. But after Thursday night I’m not going to look a gift umpire in the mouth.

As for Bonderman, he was quite good again. He fanned 5 and walked none, but did allow 2 homers. It looked like he had set himself up with a shot at a complete game by inducing a lot of early contact. However in the 7th inning he started falling behind batters and there was some solid contact. So Leyland ended his night despite being at only 87 pitches.

The pen did their job with 2 scoreless innings though Todd Jones did put runners on 2nd and 3rd and ran the count full to Ben Broussard before getting him to chase a high fastball.

Ryan Raburn looked pretty good at the plate. He was willing to work the count and drew 2 walks. Sean Casey came in as a defensive replacement and homered, his 2nd of the year. He also made a real nice pick at first to make both ends of a slow roller to third look sweet. Interesting, though not surprising, that when Casey entered the game he took Thames spot leaving Monroe in left field. Monroe is still lost, and Thames continues to be locked in. Ordonez is also slumping and he hasn’t had a ball leave the infield in the first 2 games of the series.

Tigers 6 Mariners 3

PREGAME: Before the season started, this series looked like a nice one to ease into the second half. But the Mariners are the surprise team of the AL. They’ve won their last 3 and are 14-6 in their last 20.

It’s a great pitching match-up tonight with Andrew Miller taking on Felix Hernandez. Interesting story about the Mariners took place right before the break. The awesome blog USS Mariner wrote that King Felix was throwing too many fastball in the first inning. The post was handed to Hernandez by his pitching coach and mixed things up. The results were sparkling, 8 innings of 2 hit shut out ball.

Here I lamented Andrew Miller’s reliance on the fastball in the Atlanta start. He definitely mixed in more pitches against Boston. I’m still waiting for thanks from Chuck Hernandez (kidding of course).

Placido Polanco is sitting out tonight, and left fielder Marcus Thames will bat in the 2 hole with Omar Infante manning the pivot.

Game Time 10:05pm

DET @ SEA, Thursday, July 12, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Well, Miller pitched good. He mixed his pitches, and kept people off balance. He also induced more ground balls than in his other starts. He’s a ground ball pitcher, as indicated by his extreme differential in the minors, but that hasn’t shown up at the big league level prior to tonight. Of course 3 of those ground balls were mishandled (one by himself) and it probably cost him an inning of work due to the extra workload.

Normally that’s a concern, but the bullpen pitched 4 innings of no hit ball and only allowed a walk and a hit batsman. Macay McBride came in and struck out the side in his inning of work.

As for the offense, not a lot of extra base power, but they did continue to threaten. They just couldn’t push many men across. It happens. The only particularly frustrating spot was not scoring with runners at the corners and no one out.

As for the weirdness, there was plenty and Beltre was in the middle of it all. On a check swing that went past Pudge, Beltre asked for the appeal and had it granted, and ruled in his favor as a swing allowing him to get to first. I don’t recall seeing that before.

And then he stole second, prompting Pudge to get upset about Betancourt stepping in front of the plate and getting tossed. It was interference and it does get called on occasion (I think Pudge got that called against the Cardinals earlier this year). And Pudge did bump Winters, not aggressively mind you, but he did bump him so I won’t even dispute the ejection.

As for the other weirdness, with the Beltre single, and then going to second, and then sliding past second, and then running towards left field while Carlos Guillen repeatedly tagged him, only to have Guillen later drop the ball, and have Richie Sexson come in to score, and have Beltre ruled safe, and then Marcus Thames calling for the appeal that Beltre missed second, and then Beltre being ruled out, and then the run scoring.

I don’t know what to make of it except that Bruce Froemming must have left his heart and his judgement in San Francisco because Beltre did touch the base. Froemming even indicated he was safe during the play. And Guillen did tag Beltre. Eh, what are you going to do except maybe retire? I think Froemming managed to screw both teams on the same play.

With 5 Tigers in the game, as well as the coaching staff, I figured it deserved a game thread.

I don’t have a lot of hopes or wishes or expectations for this game. Mostly just that the AL wins, cuz, you know, just in case. Plus, no injuries for our Tigers (and that Polly doesn’t make his worse). And finally, that Carlos Guillen gets some significant PT after missing out in 2004.

You’ll probably have to wait a couple innings to see all the Tigers starters bat, because they occupy the 6-7-8 spots.

2007 All-Star Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

PREGAME: The Tigers are in position to sweep the Red Sox and head into the All Star Break on a real high note. Both teams will probably start some bench guys today with last night’s game lasting 13 innings. Plus, the temperature is supposed to push 100 with some humidty.

If you’re going to the game the Tigers do let you bring water into the game, so take advantage of that. Just make sure it is sealed when you go through the gates. Otherwise load up on Lemon Chills or take a break from the heat in the AC of the Beer Hall and watch an inning or two on TV.

The Tigers will have their work cut out for them with Daisuke Matsuzaka on the mound. He’s been freakishly good in his last 4 starts allowing just 2 runs in 29 innings while fanning 34 and walking 10. That’s good enough for a 0.62 ERA and opponents have a .425 OPS over that span. Plus it’s been over a month since the last homer he allowed (June 5th at Oakland).

Meanwhile, Nate Robertson will be looking for his first win since May 19th. Of course there was some DL time in there as well but it is a 5 game losing skid nonetheless. With the bullpen heavily used last night (lots of pitchers were used, but probably only Jones is unavailble) it would be nice if Nate could get through at least the 6th inning – something he hasn’t done since May 2nd. He is coming off an 8 K appearance though, and he has looked better in his last 2 starts since coming off the DL.

Game Time 1:05pm

BOS @ DET, Sunday, July 8, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Now that’s a way to head into the All Star Break. Yeah there were 5 errors and a baserunning mistake, and the Tigers nearly let a 4 run lead slip away, but it’s still a sweep. Plus it was with a lineup without 3 starters.

First the good stuff. The Tigers thumped Matsuzaka. Three homers off of a pitcher that hadn’t allowed one in a month was impressive, and Marcus Thames banging one off the camera well was jaw dropping to say the least. That’s twice on this 5 game winning streak that the Tigers have pounded a front line pitcher. It makes yesterday’s struggles against Kason Gabbard all the more baffling.

Curtis Granderson’s theft of a Willy Mo Pena homer will be seen countless times, and deservedly so. On Baseball Tonight they ran down the top 5 centerfield web gems from the first half and it was number one beating out Grady Sizemore’s catch on a Curtis Granderson blast.

• Craig Monroe gets a big double last night and adds two singles today. And yet still has a rough game. His bat has finally produced and now he picks up 2 errors and a baserunning mistake. The first error, a one hop throw right to the plate that Mike Rabelo couldn’t handle was certainly a tough error. The one in the 9th that allowed the tying run to move from 2nd to 3rd was inexcusable though.
• Last night when Mike Timlin came in I was sure the Tigers would hit a walk off homer off of him. Instead, they did nothing. And then today I thought they would pad their lead, and instead did nothing. Huh.
• Nate Robertson looked real good at times, and then real bad at times. Particularly frustrating was the inning with 4 walks and a HBP that resulted in 2 runs without the benefit of a hit. I’d guess that on the latter homers in the 7th, Nate was a little gassed. I don’t know that he has all his strength back, plus it was really freakin’ hot.
• The bullpen wasn’t quite as good today as last night, yet they seemed to still get the big outs when they needed them. Jose Capellan made his own mess with a walk and an error, but also got out of a 2 on, one out jam in the 7th. And then Zach Miner got a big K to end the 8th with the tying run on 2nd.
• And the closer Todd Jones closed again, the day game after a night game, a night game in which he pitched 2 innings. This one wasn’t quite as easy, but he still protected the one run lead.

Toledo 8 Louisville 7
Is Chris Shelton getting his power stroke back, or is it just a couple good games? He went yard again today and added a single. Brent Clevlen was a triple short of the cycle, and that homer was his first of the year. Ron Chiavaccie allowed 5 runs on 8 hits and 5 walks in 5 1/3 innings. Eulogio De La Cruz allowed 2 runs on 2 hits and 2 walks in 2/3 of an inning.

Erie 7 Akron 5 10 innings
Erick Almonte went 4 for 5. Matt Joyce was a triple short of the cycle. Roman Colon is apparently on work release and allowed 2 runs on 2 homers in 2 2/3 innings as the starter.

Lakeland 6 Sarasota 7 10 innings
Mike Hernandez homered twice to lead the way. Wil Rhymes had 2 hits and 2 walks. Danny Worth made his debut and went 1 for 4 with a walk. Lucas French allowed 3 runs on 5 hits in 5 innings. Kyle Sleeth allowed a run on no hits and 3 walks in 2 2/3 innings.

Great Lakes 5 West Michigan 1
Brennan Boesch and Santo De Leon each had 2 hits. Lauren Gagnier allowed 4 runs, only 2 earned, in 7 2/3 innings while fanning 7.

Oneonta 0 Hudson Valley 8
Kody Kaiser was 0 for 4 with 2 K’s. Weird. Cory Middleton had the only extra base hit. Sendy Vasquez wasn’t good with 5 hits and 6 walks in only 4 innings.

GCL Tigers 3 GCL Braves 11
Londell Taylor went 1 for 3 with a walk. It was his second hit of the season so that had to be a relief. Luis Arlet added 2 hits. Emmanuel Miguelez started and allowed 4 earned runs on 6 hits, no walks, and no K’s in 2 innings.

PREGAME: The Tigers look to extend their winning streak to 4 games tonight and they’ll send Jeremy Bonderman to the mound to do it.

Bonderman is coming off the stellar 8 inning shut out performance from Sunday night. He hasn’t faced Boston this year, but he did out duel Curt Schilling last year in Boston. It was a great win, but also the game that cost the Tigers Placido Polanco.

Kason Gabbard will be making his 3rd start of the season. He has struck out more than a batter an inning in that sting, but he has also walked 10 in his last 2 starts.

BOS @ DET, Saturday, July 7, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME Didn’t it have to be number 7 Pudge Rodriguez with the walk off double on 7/7/07? Just a tremendous game tonight, and unlike the extra innings Cleveland game the good guys won.

• It’s pretty remarkable that the Tigers held the Red Sox scoreless for 12 innings. Bonderman and the Tigers bullpen turned in an incredible effort. If it weren’t for that pesky first inning.
• Although it’s hard to comment too much on it because we didn’t see it. Instead we were held captive by Fox’s national coverage.
• I’m tickled for Craig Monroe. He picked up Marcus Thames and knocked in 2 runs. He also laid down a nice sacrifice bunt in the 10th inning. Sure he popped up in the 11th with the bases loaded, but he was hardly alone.
• I was really rooting for the Tigers to score the winner off of Okajima. The symmetry of the Tigers cashing in on the guy that kept Bondo out of the All Star game on a night when Bondo started would have been sweet. Oh well. I guess we’ll just have to settle for scoring off of Jonathan Papelbon instead.
• The Tigers were flirting with disaster walking Ortiz to get to Manny that many times, but it paid off.
• Big time props to the whole cast of characters in the pen. Todd Jones has been great on this homestand and even had success in the 2nd inning of work tonight.
• The only downside is that the Tigers will trot out the B lineup tomorrow. Pudge will certainly get the day off, and Placido Polanco is day to day with an oblique issue. At least they’ve already taken the series.

Tigers 3, Red Sox 2

PREGAME: Both the Tigers and Red Sox spent yesterday thumping their opponents. The Sox are coming off a sweep of the Devil Rays and carry a 4 game winning streak into tonight’s tilt.

The Tigers managed to take only 1 of the 4 games the two teams played in Boston, and will hope to head into the All Star Break by winning back to back series.

Tonight will feature Andrew Miller taking on Julian Tavarez. The Tigers were handled by Tavarez who had been struggling at the time when the two team met up in May. In his last 7 starts Tavarez has posted a 3.48 ERA with a decent walk rate but pedestrian K-rate. He hasn’t allowed a homer in his last 4 starts.

The Tigers will send out Andrew Miller. Miller was knocked around in his last start, but showed a little more than that. He mixed in more off speed pitches and induced some swings and misses. In the end though, 6 of the 8 baserunners he allowed crossed the plate.

The only lineup note I know at the moment is that Mike Rabelo will start in lieu of Pudge Rodriguez. Not sure who will be starting in left field tonight: it will be Marcus Thames. And as a final note, Vance Wilson was transferred to the 60 day DL to make room for Ryan Raburn.

BOS @ DET, Friday, July 6, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: I’ve been critical of the Tigers decision to keep Andrew Miller in the rotation because I’ve felt that he needed more time to develop his secondary pitches. I wanted him to explode on the scene like Justin Verlander did last year and be dominating. Tonight is a glimpse of what I was hoping for. This was by far his best start as he shut down an offense that is good even without Big Papi. He used his breaking pitches and change to fan Manny Ramirez a couple times which was probably the most impressive part.

If he can pitch that well, or even close to that well on a consistent basis I’ll be more than happy to be wrong.

The other big performer was Marcus Thames who hit 3 balls far enough to be homers, but only one of them was the right direction. Fortunately it was the one with the bases loaded as Thames was the 5th different Tiger to hit a slam this year.

• How about Placido Polanco running hard on a pop-up with 2 outs in the 8th inning of a 7 run game and legging out a double?
• The Tigers looked miserable the first time through the order with only one ball making it to the outfield. But the next couple times the Tigers were ripping the ball all over the park.
• Miller did get some help with a remarkable throw from Granderson and tag by Rabelo. He kept the throw low, but it never bounced and Rabelo was able to catch it clean.
• I don’t mind Gene Lamont sending Mike Rabelo on the play he was thrown out on. I think that Lamont has really been a little too conservative this year and in those 2 out situations I’m in the camp of making the other team make the play.

PREGAME: For the first time in 3 series the Tigers enter the last game of a set without the risk of being swept. It sure would be nice to pick up a win today, and a series win before Boston comes to town.

There is quite the pitching match-up this afternoon as 2 All Stars, C.C. Sabathia and Justin Verlander face off.

Game Time 1:05pm

CLE @ DET, Thursday, July 5, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: And what do you know, the Tigers have won 3 of their last 4. It’s amazing how 2 little wins can change the mood. Then again, 2 little losses to the Rangers pretty much wiped out all the good will of an 8-1 road trip.

The Tigers put a thumping on the Tribe and have now won 4 of the last 5 after dropping the first 5 to the Indians.

Sabathia clearly didn’t have it today. He was wild in the first inning and was leaving the ball up in the zone. Fortunately he never settled in, and the Tigers kept the pressure on until Sabathia had hurled 87 pitches in 4 innings.

Justin Verlander was mostly dominant, including a streak of 4 straight strike outs in the 4th and 5th innings. He also didn’t walk anyone, marking his first game with out a free pass since May 15th

• Magglio Ordonez had his first big game in awhile. His 3 hits pushed him back ahead of Ichiro for the batting title. His RBI was the first since June 22nd and the double was the first since June 19th.
• Bonus Maggs info: he’s one walk short of matching his total from last season.
• Placido Polanco was using a new bat today, and was good enough for 3 hits including a homer.
• Craig Monroe got a hit. It was a bloop hit, but there was considerable relief on his part – and a little bit of justice after he hit the ball very well his first time up. Of course Marcus Thames reached base twice and was subbed out for defensive purposes in the 5th inning. No word yet on if Thames or Monroe will start tomorrow.

Tigers 12, Indians 3

PREGAME: Happy 4th of July. The Tigers kick off the second half of the season tonight.

It’ll be Jake Westbrook and Kenny Rogers on the mound.

CLE @ DET, Tuesday, July 4, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05 pm

POSTGAME: Now that I’m back in town, I’ll comment on the last 2 games.

First of all the extra inning loss was a heart breaker, but I thought it was a fascinating game to watch. There was the Hafner/Pudge interference/not in the batters box debate which FSN captured brilliantly. There was the Betancourt issue and again FSN picking it up right away (were they tipped as well?). There was the back and forth of the game. There was a clinic in the advantages and disadvantages of playing no-doubles-depth. But in the end the Tigers lost a tough one so you look for someone to blame.

The bullpen is a typical culprit, but they collectively did pretty well save for 2 homers. Jose Capellan looked awesome for the first 5 batters he faced, and really if Carlos Guillen had come through in the 10th that 11th inning homer would have never happened.

So is it Guillen’s fault? He didn’t have the best at-bat but did deliver a bases loaded single earlier in the game so it’s hard to not call him clutch. With some other non-clutch performances by the rest of the offense maybe they aren’t in extra innings in the first place.

But even then, the Tigers hitters blasted some balls that just turned into outs. Magglio Ordonez had an awesome at-bat that ended in a deep drive to left center. Curtis Granderson hit a rocket to the wall to start the 10th. Pudge Rodriguez hit a deep drive that landed just foul. It’s not like they were flailing hopelessly.

In the end it was just a loss. Nobody was to blame. Of course it’s easier to say that 24 hours later after a win…

Of course tonight’s game was better – they won. The offense had 14 baserunners so that seemed to be back to normal. Kenny Rogers was good enough, and the bullpen was good enough as well.

As was the case with the bullpen, there was some good and bad. Jason Grilli comes into a pressure situation, gets out of the inning unscathed, and then walks the lead-off batter the next inning. Macay McBride then doesn’t do his job giving up an opposite field homer on a 2-2 count. Miner got in a little trouble, but didn’t really get hit hard, and ultimately didn’t allow a run thanks to a great play by Brandon Inge.

The best of the pen though was Todd Jones who recorded his 3rd straight 1-2-3 outing.

• How much fun is Comerica Park where you can get back to back triples? Love the triple.
• Carlos Guillen really brought the glove tonight making 2 great plays on the back hand. He routinely makes the tough plays but can’t make the routine ones. It makes me wonder if moving to first would really help him.
• Speaking of defense Marcus Thames made a very nice diving play. I guess Craig Monroe finally managed to play his way out of the lineup, at least in the short term.
• I had a real good feeling about this game early on when Travis Hafner wasn’t able to score on a ground rule double. Somehow the ball bounced over the highest fence. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a ball bounce over the fence in triplesville.

Tigers 6 Indians 4

PREGAME: The Tigers will see if their 1-0 Sunday night victory will spark something else for the homestand which has been lackluster to say the least. They’ll also try to even the score against the Indians who won the first 5 match-ups of the season before Detroit took the last 2 in Cleveland.

Tonight feature Paul Byrd. The last time the Tigers faced Byrd they knocked out 9 hits and 4 runs, but came up short.

The reason they came up short was because Nate Robertson gave up 5 runs on 3 homers. Nate will be starting again tonight for the Tigers. He is coming off a strong return from the DL in which he allowed 1 run on 4 hits in 5 1/3 innings. Fatigue was his biggest opponent his last time out, this time it will be Victor Martinez.

CLE @ DET, Tuesday, July 3, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05 pm

PREGAME: It’s pretty simple if the Tigers don’t want to get swept, they need to play better. They need to hit better, pitch better, and field better. Brandon Inge has missed 2 games at third and there have been two errors. Carlos Guillen is fumbling routine ground balls. Pitchers are walking batters and giving up homers. And hitters, well they haven’t been too bad, just not as hot as they were.

The pitching match-up is Scott Baker and Jeremy Bonderman – which would look to favor the Tigers – but I’m not taking anything for granted on this homestand.

Game Time 8:09pm

POSTGAME: I went to the game tonight, and it was just another example of how things have changed. Tonight was on field photo day. We went to this in 2002 and it was great. You get to go on the field before the game, and the players are in the outfield and you simply take pictures with them. You could go right up to Bobby Higginson and Matt Anderson and perhaps wait 3-4 minutes per player. Tonight was just a mass of humanity. The entire perimeter had to be 10 people deep. We showed up when the gates opened, and the lines at each gate stretched for blocks. There had to be at least 25,000 people at the stadium before 6:00pm, 2 hours before game time.

On to the game:

• Of course just a terrific outing by Jeremy Bonderman. Seven K’s, one walk, and 6 hits, 5 of which were singles.
• I think the key inning for Bondo was the 7th. He started the inning at 92 pitches (I believe, unofficial total from my scorecard) and I figured it would be his last. However, he retired the side on just 7 pitches (again unofficial) which allowed him to keep his pitch count in check for the 8th. If the Twins run it up to 105 or so in the 7th, they get to the pen an inning earlier.
• Of course the pen didn’t falter today. Todd Jones made it look easy. I know the easy innings from Jones seem rare, but he did have 26 outings last year where he picked up 3 outs on 3 batters (not all 1-2-3, some of those were baserunners getting on and then a double play).
• Scott Baker on the other side deserved better. I think he retired the first 7 hitters on 17 pitches. Even when guys would take the first pitch, it was usually for a strike. I only counted 5 really hard hit balls all night.
• As the game progressed, I was just hoping that Jeremy Bonderman could hold them down long enough, because the Tigers do have a number of guys who can get a quick run by knocking one out. Stringing hits together just wasn’t going to work today. Luckily Marcus Thames came through.
• I know Jim Leyland wants to keep trotting Craig Monroe out there hoping he’ll break out of his funk. But Monroe’s struggles and Thames homers make it hard to justify, at least for the time being.
• Placido Polanco striking out on a night when only 2 Tigers fanned, and with a runner on third? I still can’t believe that happened.
• I’ve now seen 3 Grandy triples in person this year. Sweet grab also on the Cuddyer play.
• And a final note, the National Anthem singer tonight was Amber Strand Grand (at least I think that was her name). She was really quite good, and really quite attractive. Has anybody noticed if she’s done other games? I’m thinking she should be the Tigers version of Karen Newman.