PREGAME: One NL series down, 2 to go. This time the Tigers head to Washington D.C. to take on the Nationals. The Nats are chuck full of former Tigers including Nook Logan, Dmitri Young (who is really doing well, sobriety – who knew?), and Robert Fick. Each made their mark on the Tigers in their own special way with Logan being the only member of the trio not to be a Tiger All Star representative.

The Tigers will send out Mike Maroth who may be auditioning for several teams tonight with Kenny Rogers definitely returning to the rotation on Friday. Maroth wiggled out of jams in his last start and handed a 1 run lead to Fernando Rodney and well, we know how that worked out.

The Tigers will take on Matt Chico. His peripherals are pretty unimpressive with him fanning only 5 per 9 and walking almost 4. But he’s been much better in his last 4 starts with a 2.74 ERA.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Well the bullpen looked good for awhile. Bobby Seay allowed a couple inherited runners to score, but also got a couple outs which were more important at the time. Jason Grilli went an 1 1/3 pretty easily. Eulogio De La Cruz looked very good in his debut, attacking the strike zone and showing a good fastball, a sharp curve and a change that subtracted 12mph. And then Jones happened.

It’s questionable whether Jones should be in the game, and in Leyland’s presser he says that 4 runs is a save situation for them this year. It’s hard to argue with that given the collective struggles and inconsistency this season. So Jones comes in and it’s basically batting practice. It took 5 hits before Leyland bothered to get anybody up in the bullpen, because you don’t want to mess with your closer’s confidence. Funny thing is, is that once Tim Byrdak started warming up, Todd Jones got the next 3 outs. Ugly.

• Maroth was cruising in this game. He’d even racked up 4 K’s in the first 5 innings. And then his defense collapsed behind him. He could have been out of that inning with nothing scoring. Instead after a single Gary Sheffield really misplayed a flyball into a double. Curtis Granderson threw a bullet to third, right on the bag in plenty of time but Brandon Inge misses the ball. Worst case is it should have been one out and none on and one run in. Next Carlos Guillen boots a ball, so instead of none on, 2 out another run scores and an a runner is on first. That’s what shortened Maroth’s outing.
• Curtis Granderson continues to hit the ball well, with a couple more hard hit balls off a lefty. He’s got to see more time in the lineup and less platooning.
• Carlos Guillen saw his batting average dip below .300. He’s now hit in 7 straight and has pushed his average to .317, and he’s crushing the ball.

PREGAME: So today will be Justin Verlander’s turn to flail hopelessly at the plate. Of course, no one really cares about Verlander’s lack of hits at the plate, but they do want to see how long he can keep this no hitter thing going on the mound.

The Tigers will hope for better success against Adam Eaton than they had with Jamie Moyer. Craig Monroe has yet to play in this series, so we’ll see if Leyland works him into the lineup today against the right hander.

Oh yeah, and I think Sean Casey homers today.

Game Time 1:05

POSTGAME: Happy Father’s Day by the way. I kind of forgot about that this morning. On to the game.

Great win for the Tigers. Solid starting pitching, timely late inning hitting, and a relatively stress free outing from the bullpen. But let’s focus on the 7th inning and Jim Leyland for a few minutes. This was the inning when all the managing took place, and it’s an example of why I have a hard time blaming managers for losses. I’ll walk you through my thoughts as the action transpired.

Brandon Inge doubles with one out and Jim Leyland pinch hits Carlos Guillen for Neifi Perez
Me: Finally this offense starts to resemble something. Let’s hope it’s not too late – but good move Jim.
Carlos Guillen singles to put runners on the corners and Gary Sheffield steps to the plate
Me: It’s all or nothing this inning, but of course Sheffield can stay in the game and go to left field. Monroe’s almost as bad today with 3 straight pop outs. I guess it depends on how deep this inning goes, but if Monroe makes the last out the pitcher can take his spot. And why didn’t Inge score on that play, Rings and EZ are going to come on here in the comments and bash him and I’ll another Inge war on my hands.
Sheffield hits a rocket to score Inge and put runners on first and second. Charlie Manuel brings in the lefty and Leyland pinch hits Infante for Granderson.
Me: Nice job Sheff, but what is Leyland doing? Granderson has been hitting rockets all series, off of both lefties and righties. This is exactly what Manuel wanted to happen and Leyland played right into it. Not to mention weakening the outfield defensively. This game is still in doubt either way, and why do you want Grandy out?
Omar taps the ball to the pitcher advancing the runners, Polanco gets intentionally walked to pitch to Monroe.
Me: Nice job with the lineup today Leyland. How many teams will give a free pass to the number 2 hitter to face the number 3 hitter? Then again how many teams have their out making-est regular hitting in front of their best run producer? So much for this rally. Oh man Craig, please do something. For everyone’s sake.
Craig singles in two, and Magglio knocks in two with a double before Casey ends the inning.
Me: Now what should Jim do? He could put the new pitcher in Casey’s spot since he made the last out, and bring in Thames. Trouble is he’s the last position player. Well, I guess he’ll just put Sheffield in left and the pitcher can take Craig’s spot in the lineup, it won’t come up for 7 more batters.
The new pitcher Bobby Seay takes Sheffield’s spot
Me: What the heck is going on? You burned through Sheff for one at-bat, and now the pitcher is scheduled to bat 4th in the next inning as well? Why do that? This better not come back to haunt us.

My point in this exercise is that there were a couple moves that I really questioned – starting with the lineup – and yet the Tigers won going away. Sometimes the decisions, even the ones that don’t make sense, work out. That doesn’t make them the right decisions, but they ended up with the Tigers picking up a W. I also wanted to show that I’ll even second guess decisions that pan out and I’m not just slamming things after the fact. Thanks for joining me in my head.

Other notes:

• Very nice outing today by Fernando Rodney. He came in a high pressure situation and got the strike out. He then followed it up with a strong 8th inning allowing only a double, and ground ball right through Carlos Guillen’s legs to score the run. Inexplicably that was ruled a hit and an earned run. Just as curious a scoring decision as Pudge’s double in game 1 that Rowand dropped.
• Rodney threw 39 pitches meaning that he probably won’t be available tomorrow at least, and possibly not until Wednesday.
• Todd Jones kept it simple allowing just a single. It’s almost like the bullpen of last year reappeared for an afternoon.
• A couple of awesome defensive plays in this one with Granderson showing his ups, and Casey showing his moxie. I can’t believe that Dobbs, the runner on 3rd didn’t score on the Casey play, but it was a nice job regardless.
• Granderson picked up his 8th steal and is closing in on a quadruple double – double digits in homers, triples, doubles, and steals. I just made that up, but considering he’s one homer and 2 steals away and it’s mid June, that seems impressive.
• The strike zones the last 2 games were ridiculous. Guillen got hosed on Saturday night, and then Bill Welke’s zone was all over the place today. And the Phillies were right to be pissed on that Marcus Thames pitch. Whether or not he swung (which he did) shouldn’t have mattered. That pitch was a strike regardless. And to not appeal is just foolish on the part of the home plate ump.

Tigers 7 Phillies 4

PREGAME: Andrew Miller is pitching for the Tigers so the opposing starter must be an ancient 40 year old – ah look, it’s Jamie Moyer. Okay, so it’s only the second time it happened (with Braden Looper being the other starter Miller has faced), but the only possible way to move up the old crafty left hander ladder from Tom Glavine is to go to Jamie Moyer right?

In any case, Miller has limited opponents to a .622 OPS in his 2 starts. A key may be taking care of the leadoff hitter who has reached base in 5 of the 12 innings Miller has started. Of course it hasn’t bothered Miller to pitch from the stretch because over 27 PA’s with men on, he’s held the opposition to a 130/231/261 line.

As for Moyer, he made his major league debut when Andrew Miller was 13 months old. Moyer has been pitching like a guy who is older than dirt over his last 6 starts with a 6.69 ERA and 55 baserunners allowed in 35 innings. Ivan Rodriguez is hitting 369/423/615 against Moyer in his career and that spans 65 at-bats.

Game Time 7:05 – This game is on FSN + so check here for the channel on your cable/satellite system

PREGAME: The Tigers make their first journey to a National League park this season. So here we are, real baseball. Pitchers hitting. Double switches. There’s nothing like seeing a sacrifice bunt with 1 out. Or the excitement of seeing a pitcher who’s having a great game lifted for a pinch hitter. Maybe it’s because I’m from an American League city, and I’m at an age where the DH has always existed, but I just don’t get the appeal of the NL. I’m pro DH all the way.

But on to tonight’s contest. The Phillies are currently residing in second place in the NL East. They lead the NL in scoring, walks, and on base percentage. They’re 2nd in slugging percentage and 3rd in home runs. So it’s probably a good thing that Bonderman-Miller-Verlander (aka The Future) are set to throw in this series.

Tonight it’s Jeremy Bonderman’s turn. In his last start, he seemed to pitch pretty well but his final line was an unimpressive 6 runs allowed in 6+ innings with 4 K’s.

The Tigers will be facing Jon Lieber. Lieber’s last start was a complete game 11 K shut out of the Kansas City Royals. He’s been much better on the road with a 651 OPS allowed on the road and 824 at home. Sean Casey is 17 for 38 lifetime off Lieber and Neifi Perez has 2 homers in 21 at-bats against him.

And as a final note, Jose Mesa made his first appearance for the Phillies and allowed 2 runs in 1 1/3 innings with 2 wild pitches.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME Ergh the bullpen. Again. Is there any other team that can really use every bit of an 8 run cushion like the Tigers?

• Bonderman had allowed 5 homers all season, and then 4 solo shots tonight. He wasn’t nearly as sharp as his last outing against the Mets, yet the result was the same.
• Great game once again by the offense, and everybody contributed in one way or another. Casey had 4 hits, but Pudge gets the nod for blowing the game apart with 5 two-out RBI.
• I really think Casey will get his first homer this series, and really thought he had it tonight.
• Brandon Inge drew 2 intentional walks. That was the good. After having a great couple of weeks, he went back to looking tentative with a couple half/check swing strikeouts.
• The one good thing about pitchers batting is watching all the other pitchers laugh at the sacrificial lamb from the dugout. And with Bondo going station to station tonight, there was quite a bit to take in.
• Technically, Fernando Rodney’s string of 5 straight appearances allowing a run was snapped. Yes he only recorded one out, and yes an inherited runner scored, but the streak is broken.

Detroit 12 Philadelphia 8

PREGAME: Afternoon tilt today. Ben Sheets against Chad Durbin.

Tigers are fielding the Sunday lineup with Mike Rabelo catching, Perez at shortstop, and Omar Infante playing 2nd.

Game Time 1:05

POSTGAME: I missed the bulk of this game, catching bits and pieces on the radio between meetings. I’ve since lived it through the comments here and the FSN Squeeze Play.

I don’t think there are words to overstate how bad Craig Monroe was. He whiffed in his final at-bat on Wednesday night, meaning that in 6 straight trips to the plate now he has failed to put in the ball in play. And the 3 AB’s prior were another K, a double play, and a single. From what I gather from the condensed game as well as last night’s performance, it doesn’t appear that he’s reverted to his old form of chasing a bunch of bad pitches. He’s just swinging right through belt high fastballs.

I can’t profess to be able to break down someone’s swing. But Rod Allen mentioned that he was working on the bat wiggle and taking the ball the other way last night. If that’s what is causing the problems, go back to swinging away because his timing is all mucked up.

As for pinch-hitting for him, of course it is the move that makes the most sense for all of us watching. Tactically in that game it would have been the right move. But right or wrong I think we all knew it wasn’t going to happen. Leyland is going to stick with his starters (the bigger debate is should he be a starter). There are probably issues about what it would do to his confidence to pinch hit for him, but at the same time what did 5 K’s do for his confidence either? I thought Leyland was crazy when he left Jones out there that night in Cleveland (he was) and questioned how he’d motivate a team who he let that happen to. Then they won 7 of the next 9. Clearly I have no ability to evaluate these “soft” issues.

I’m not saying it’s right, just that I didn’t expect anything else. And no amount of complaining is going to get Leyland to change his ways and the guy isn’t getting fired – nor should he. Jim Leyland brought winning baseball back to Detroit. Part of the deal is that we’re going to have to suffer through odd strategic decisions.

Maybe because I didn’t watch it unfold, I don’t view it as crushing. Disappointing to be sure, but not crushing. When you’re going up against the other team’s ace and your starter doesn’t make it through 4 things aren’t looking good anyways.

• The bullpen combined to throw 5 2/3 allowing only 3 runs, one out short of a kind of quality start. (ed: my bad, 4 runs in 5 1/3, nothing like a quality start) And yet it was largely unsatisfying. Probably because a run scored on a freak balk and another on a wild pitch.
• Curtis Granderson had his 13 game hitting streak snapped.
• Placido Polanco was ill which is why he didn’t pinch hit.
• Bill Hall. Shakes Head. Freakin Bill Hall.

PREGAME: I know I should probably write something about tonight’s match-up between Chris Capuano and Mike Maroth. Instead I’m still basking in the glow of yesterday’s events. The obsession has been fed by all the attention, both national and local. Claims that it was the greatest pitching performance many have ever seen kind of lends to the intrigue. Plus, unlike the Magglio Ordonez homer last year which was a specific moment that will never be forgotten, this was a novel. A page turner that you couldn’t put down for a little over 2 hours. You knew how you wanted it to end for the protagonist, and even if you were sure of the outcome, you wanted to see how the author brought the story to conclusion.

Plus this was our guy. This wasn’t watching the last 3 outs from some other pitcher on some other team when ESPN breaks into coverage. Sure you root for them because you want to see history. But this was our history, with our team.

Oh yeah, tonight’s game. Sorry, got carried away there. But one more thing…Craig Monroe didn’t field a single ball last night. Dude stood out there all night and he could have packed his glove full of stale bread to give the seagulls.

Mike Maroth’s biggest bugaboo this year has been the home run. He’s allowed 15 in 66 innings and only made 3 starts – including his last one – in which someone didn’t trot around the bases. Too complicate matters, the Brewers are one home run off the lead in the National League.

Neifi Perez starts at shortstop again, and he’s probably earned a little reprieve from being called Neifi $&#*@! Perez.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: Ugh. Rodney. The things is, this wasn’t bad Rodney tonight. Stick with me for a minute, while I’m still sick, I think I’m lucid enough for the moment. Bad Rodney is when he comes in and the count is already 2-0. Or when he gets ahead of a hitter, then throws 3 straight pitches no where near the strike zone. Rodney actually had control last night. Of his 21 pitches, 18 were strikes and all 3 balls went to Bill Hall who has implemented some kind of force field around the strike zone – just ask Justin Verlander. And even 2 of those balls to Hall were pretty good pitches, just off the plate on the outside. They were pitches that could have been tantalizing enough to Hall to swing at, or for the ump to call a strike. It didn’t happen though so with the payoff pitch he grooved a fastball down the middle and Hall grooved it over the bullpens.

Is this the pitching equivalent of a slump. That you struggle and struggle, and then when you finally do something pretty well, your rocket off the bat finds someone’s glove? I know many of you think that’s probably crazy and that Rodney just sucks and I don’t have the energy, confidence, or evidence to refute you given his recent performances.

• Mike Maroth allowed 13 runners in 7 innings, but only 1 scored. He was helped by some double plays and some bad baserunning. Yet he stuck around and ate up 7 innings. He also kept the ball in the park.
• The Tigers offense wasn’t that bad. They had 12 baserunners of their own. The trouble was they were spread out, and only 2 of the hits were for extra bases. So while there were baserunners, they weren’t blowing a ton of scoring opportunities.

I’m feeling a little better, so the minor league wraps should resume tonight.

PREGAME: Sixty-two down, one hundred to go. As quick as this season is zipping along, there is still a lot of baseball left to play. The last 100 starts with a home tilt against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers just never feel quite like an interleague game, probably due to all the times the Tigers played Cecil Cooper, Robin Yount, and Ben Oglivie in the 80’s.

But tonight the Tigers and Justin Verlander will take on Jeff Suppan.

Suppan has been pretty bad his last half dozen starts with a 5.59 ERA and he’s allowed 8 homers, 18 walks, and only 13 strikeouts.

Verlander is coming off of 7 innings of shut out ball in Texas. Prior to that was his shellacking against the Indians. So there isn’t really a trend here, but on the whole Verlander has a 3.12 ERA for the season so there’s been more good than bad.

In Baseball Prospectus today there was an article about wasted at-bats, or ABs by sub-replacement-level players. The Tigers have the smallest percentage of such at-bats on the season with only 4.2%. All those belong to Neifi Perez. I bring this up because he’s starting tonight for Carlos Guillen who is still hampered by his hamstring issue. Perez is 6 for 18 lifetime off of Suppan.

Game Time 7:05

PREGAME: The Tigers will try and take the series today on the strength of Andrew Miller’s left arm. Last year’s first round draft choice will be making his second Major League start. Since his debut he’s been working on incorporating a change-up into the mix. He had it in his arsenal against St. Louis, but only threw it one time.

The Tigers will be opposed by a guy with a little more experience in Tom Glavine. Glavine is the kind of guy that can give an aggressive team like the Tigers fits. He only strikes out 4.5 per 9 innings, but doesn’t walk many and induces lots of weak contact.

Game Time 1:05pm

POSTGAME: I was at a birthday party this afternoon, and just got done watching the game. Fifteen runs will cure a lot of ills, and for the second weekend in a row the Tigers closed out a series strong against a division leader.

• Andrew Miller was solid. Not spectacular, not dominating, but definitely solid. I didn’t chart every pitch, but I only noticed one change-up, and that was to Wright in the first inning. Still, with his slider and some command of the fastball it will take him a long ways. He also showed quite a bit when pitching with adversity, and didn’t seem to rattle. That’s what I found most encouraging.
• Tim McCllelland just called a pitch a strike. Seriously, why is he allowed to do this? Is it so he gets extra attention?
• I had serious short term concerns when today’s 4-5 punch in the order became Marcus Thames and Omar Infante. Not to take anything away from either player, but they pale in comparison to Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen. Turned out to be not so much of an issue.
• I still have longer term concerns with the health of those 2. Fortunately Maggs doesn’t sound too serious and was more precautionary. Guillen on the other hand? Hamstring spasm? I just don’t know. With the groin and now the hamstring these lingering type injuries are sure to take their toll.
• Even though Thames final line wasn’t impressive, anyone notice him drive that ball to right center? And against Texas he shot the hole between first and second. Thames is going the other way, which should only help him.
• Speaking of going the other way, Gary Sheffield made his first journey to Triplesville. He’s still swinging just as hard, but it seems much less pull intensive than earlier in the season. Just check out his 2 opposite field shots in Texas as further proof.
• And with Sheff on 3rd after the triple, Rod Allen finally got his wish with the squeeze. And Rod even called it to. I know Rod calling the squeeze isn’t rare, but I’m glad he got it right this time.
• And while it was an excellent bunt by Infante, how did he not get to 2nd? The Tigers have been racking up baserunning miscues at an alarming rate lately. Pudge didn’t know the number of outs and failed to score from second today. And in Texas there were a couple instances where guys didn’t score from 2nd on balls hit deep to right. I feel bad complaining about this offense, but I just want to see them get all the runs they deserve.
• Oh Jason Grilli. You had been looking so good. And then some hits, and then over throwing, and then the wildness, and then the grooving of pitches. Shake it off Jason.
• And Fernando. This is 4 straight appearances in which you’ve given up a run. Consistent yes. Good, no. Rodney is the key to the bullpen right now, and really until Joel Zumaya can come back. And a run a game isn’t going to cut it.
• And those birds, I don’t know. I heard some theory on the radio about moths recently hatching and the seagulls eating moths. I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve had a number of moths in my yard this weekend.

PREGAME: The Tigers look to rebound after an uncharacteristic offensive funk. In fact, it was their first shut out of the season.

They’ll have their work cut out for them as they take on Oliver Perez. The 25 year old left hander is striking out nearly a batter an inning, and only walking a third that many. Plus, he’s gone 7 or more innings in 5 straight starts. The Tigers have stacked the lineup with righties with the exception of Sean Casey who is 11 for 24 lifetime off of Perez. Surprisingly, right handed batters have a lower batting average and the same on base percentage as lefties against Perez. However, they slug for about 50 points more than the left handed counterparts.

Jeremy Bonderman has been pitching like a man on a mission since coming off the DL. He’s allowed only 3 earned runs over 21 innings spanning 3 starts. He’s also received a ton of run support, though he didn’t need it. In those 3 games the Tigers have plated 35 runs.

Game Time 3:55

POSTGAME: The bats came through for Jeremy Bonderman again, and he and the bullpen needed every last run. Regardless, it was nice to see the offense back again. It was a tiny strike zone, and the Tigers did a good job taking advantage of that working 5 walks off of Perez and one off of Guillermo Mota.

• One day after I mention that Carlos Guillen doesn’t look quite right, he responds with a 3 run first inning tater and a ground rule double.
• I don’t know if it was Perez’s control problems, Magglio Ordonez’s eye, or if the Mets noticed that Guillen had been struggling and were thus more tentative with Maggs. In any case he came up with 3 walks – and tacked on one more double.
• Jeremy Bonderman looked great for much of the game. The first inning run was a fluke, and he responded well. He was efficient and had the Mets off balance. That’s what made the 7th inning so surprising.
• The middle guys in the bullpen were good enough. That’s about all I’ll say. Wil Ledezma did get some big outs when he absolutely had to.
• Todd Jones was making his first save appearance since the debacle in Cleveland – and he looked terrific. He threw strikes, and even picked up 2 K’s. Jones actually induced 4 outs that inning.

This was a fun one, and even last night despite the results was a great game. It’s been a treat to watch these 2 teams these first 2 games.

Tigers 8 Mets 7

PREGAME: While not a big proponent of interleague, I’ll admit that I’m looking forward to this series. The New York Mets are a half game behind the San Diego Padres for the best record in the National League. This is one year after they ran away with the league crown before losing to the Cardinals in the NLCS. They’re also in a bit of a funk right now dropping 4 in a row.

The series will feature the top two triples machines in Jose Reyes and Curtis Granderson who have combined for 20 on the season.

The Tigers will face Jorge Sosa tonight who has been impressive in his first 6 starts. He’s picked up a quality start in 4 of his turns, and was one out shy in a 5th.

On the mound for the Tigers will be Chad Durbin. Durbin has been quite effective, and pitched well enough against Cleveland to pick up a win – with some offensive help. One recent trend I’d like to see reversed is that in each of his last 2 games he has walked 3 while only fanning 1.

On a related note, I did a couple interviews with Mets bloggers. One at MetsBlog.com and one at MetsToday.com.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: I was thinking about writing a post about how the Tigers have been playing a lot of really long games this year. How their own offense, and more walks and thus pitches by the staff have routinely had games running over 3 hours. And then tonight, I got the kids in bed at the regular time and it was the 7th inning stretch.

It doesn’t happen often, but the Tigers offense was completely stymied tonight. Jorge Sosa was excellent, and he had some nice leather behind him as well. Even nights when they don’t plate a lot of runs, the Tigers have still typically been getting a lot of baserunners, but that wasn’t the case tonight at all. There just wasn’t much going on. One guy who is really struggling is Carlos Guillen. I don’t know if it is the lingering effects of the groin injury or not, but he looks extremely uncomfortable at the plate and fanned 3 times tonight. His average is under .300, which is unfamiliar territory for Guillen.

Sadly the offensive struggles cost Chad Durbin a win on a night he certainly pitched well enough to deserve it. He attacked the strike zone, and only a couple balls were hit hard off of him. Unfortunately those couple both ended up in the rightfield grandstand. The guy pitched 8+ innings on only 84 pitches. No wonder the game flew by.

Mets 3 Tigers 0

PREGAME: Rubber match tonight. Mike Maroth takes on Kameron Loe. Loe has been pretty unimpressive with mediocre strike out and walk rates. He’s also not afraid to give up a homer with 8 allowed in 59 innings.

Game Time 8:35

In Game: In case you were wondering, Grandy’s 12 triples are the most by a Tiger in a season since Larry Herndon hit 13 in 1982.

PREGAME: The key for Detroit in tonight’s game falls on Justin Verlander’s shoulder. With a depleted bullpen, it would be nice for Justin to at least get through 6 innings, preferably with the lead. To do that he’ll need to be considerably more efficient than he was in his last start in Cleveland. He only walked 3 batters while fanning 6, but struggled with his control and pitched from behind in the count. And quite frankly, if Verlander doesn’t turn in 6 innings, it very well may prove to be the key to tomorrow night’s game as well.

On the other side Kevin Millwood takes the mound for the Rangers. In his first start off the disabled list he was touched for 10 hits, 9 of which were singles, in 5 innings of work.

Game Time 8:35