PREGAME Tonight the Tigers play their final West Coast night game – at least of the regular season. The also look to ensure a winning road trip by securing their 5th win of the 9 game swing.

Zach Miner looks to continue surprising everyone and win his 6th straight game. He’ll be opposed by Jarrod Washburn. The lefty is a flyball pitcher and the Tigers are a home run hitting team. Craig Monroe, Brandon Inge, and Marcus Thames all have a history of success against Washburn.

Game Time 10:05pm

UPDATE: Omar Infante is starting in centerfield and leading off.

POSTGAME: I confess, I went to bed early last night because I’m fighting a cold. I also confess that I woke up at 6:45 and couldn’t fall back asleep because I wanted to know who won. After watching the game through the magic of DVR, there’s a lot to comment on.

Miner was very good again, if not particularly efficient. He was lifted after 5 innings and 100 pitches. I love that the entire bullpen contributed, and as Anne pointed out a full inning of work for Jamie Walker. Fernando Rodney got back on track and Todd Jones got that coveted 1-2-3 inning albeit with more drama than one would hope for.

Chris Shelton appears to be back. I know I’ve thought it before, but he has sustained this over his last 8 games now.

I love Marcus Thames, but he really is better suited to DH as two balls got by him tonight.

As for the various arguments, the right calls were made. Tip to Ichiro – don’t swing at balls that bounce and then stare down the ump. While Raul Ibanez didn’t foul the ball, it was a swing nonetheless. I guess the M’s had an argument that the wrong call was made, but it resulted in the right outcome. And as for Ted Barrett, an umpire should never need to be seperated from an agrument by his crew chief. I hate when umpires carry on arguments.

I really like Yuniesky Betancourt as a player, but this clearly wasn’t his best effort. He botched the double play ball and then getting caught with premature celebration is embarassing to say the least.

PREGAME: Back in April the Tigers managed to come in and sweep the Mariners in 3 pitchers duels. Seattle’s offense was anemic at the time. However things have changed. While the offense still isn’t a juggernaut, Ichiro is doing that Ichiro thing again and Raul Ibanez and Kenji Johima are doing their part. The two highest paid M’s sluggers still are stuggling though. Richie Sexson has a sub 300 OBP and Adrian Beltre has a sub 400 slugging percentage.

Jerermy Bonderman will look to keep the M’s in check. He’s been awesome over his last half dozen starts, and he should be well rested. His last outing was cut short when he was pinch hit for after only 72 pitches, plus there was an off day since his last start.

He’ll be opposed by Joel Piniero. Piniero’s last start was only 2 2/3 innings. It was short enough to allow him to come in and record the last out in a relief appearance on Monday. He posts only a 46/35 K/BB mix in 98 innings.

POSTGAME: Bonderman was once again awesome. He didn’t have the gaudy strike out totals, but was in complete control the whole game. He was pitching ahead in the count and attacking the strike zone. Of his 110 pitches, 83 were for strikes. Most impressive was that he only went to a 3 ball count on 3 batters (twice on Yuniesky Betancourt). And in what was unusual for Bonderman, his offense gave him some runs to work with.

The Tiger bats comtinued to hit well getting men into scoring position with satisfying regularity. And once again, it was a total effort int that every body contributed with the bat. Even Curtis Granderson who was the only starter not to get a hit, walked had a HBP, hit a sacrifice fly, and stole a base.
Game Time 10:05pm

PREGAME: The Tigers look to avoid their first sweep since the opening homestand against the White Sox. It will be Kenny Rogers against Kirk Saarloos. Game time 3:05pm.

POSTGAME: That was an impressive win. The bats finally put everything together after struggling the last couple days. Everybody picked up a hit except Marcus Thames who reportedly hit the ball hard a few times.

Kenny Rogers was hit pretty hard for the 3rd consecutive start. The first one I attributed to a small strike zone against the Cardinals. The last two make me a little more concerned. Oakland is not hitting the ball well right now, and yet they were consistently hitting line drives against Rogers today.

The good news from the pitching department was 3 1/3 scoreless innings from Roman Colon. He retired 10 of the 12 batters he faced to pick up the save.

PREGAME One year ago today, a hot shot pitching prospect made his major league debut – and didn’t pitch well. Today, that same pitching prospect is a rookie of the year candidate and has a very real shot at making the All Star game. (speaking of which, what have you done to get Justin Verlander to the All Star game today?)

Justin Verlander will make his second start against the A’s this season. His first effort was solid, but resulted in a loss due to 2 Carlos Guillen errors and 2 Nick Swisher homers.

Verlander will be opposed by Dan Haren who the Tigers missed back in April.

Happy 4th of July to everyone, especially those men and women who work to protect our freedoms and independence.

Game Time 5:05pm

POSTGAME: To quote Jim Price, “Oh those base on balls.” They came back to haunt Fernando Rodney as arche-nemesis Jay Payton did in the Tigers again. To both Payton and Rodney’s credit, the hit that won it came on a pretty good pitch on the outer edge of the plate. The Tigers didn’t lose because of Rodney though. Okay, he helped, but the offense that could barely muster a scoring threat was as much to blame.

Of the Tigers 6 hits, 4 came from back-up players. The only starters to look comfortable at the plate were Carlos Guillen and Chris Shelton. Each gathered a hit, but also contributed in other at-bats as well. Carlos Guillen drew a walk, and Shelton hit a ball well enough to plate a run early in the game. The trouble was it was a one-hop smash right at Bobby Crosby.

The Tigers have another afternoon tilt tomorrow as they look to avoid the sweep.

PREGAME Interleague play is done. The DH is back, and no more pulling an effective pitcher after 5 innings for a pinch hitter. The Tigers return to Oakland for the second time this season. The first was pretty memorable in that it came on the heels of Jim Leyland ripping into his team after a lackluster effort against Cleveland. The series wrap-up also came was accomplished in dramatic come from behind fashion.

The middle game of that series featured an 11-4 drubbing. The starter in that game was Joe Blanton who the Tigers will face tonight. Placido Polanco went off for 4 hits and Carlos Guillen added 3.

The Tigers will send out Nate Robertson and his AL 5th best ERA.

POSTGAME: Not a bad effort, just a bad result. The Tigers got hits, but just not all strung together. Nate pitched okay, but for some reason couldn’t get the ball over to Jason Kendall. Also, he never got that strike on the inside corner to right handers that Joe Blanton struck Magglio Ordonez out on.

Two key situations where the Tigers failed came to mind. The first was in the first inning when with runners on 1st and 3rd, Ordonez hit a broken bat double play ball, thus circumventing a possible big inning. The second was one inning later, when with runners again at the corner, Brandon Inge swings at a 3-0 pitch and pops it up. I’m not opposed to swining 3-0, but make it count.

PREGAME: Ah, the rubber game. Zach Miner takes the hill for Detroit and he’ll be opposed by Ian Snell. Snell has struck out 7.15 batters per nine innings this year, but he’s only fanned 9 in his last 3 starts (16 2/3 innings).

And in the irony/coincidence department, Chris Shelton is of course facing the team that left him unprotected in the Rule 5 draft. The Pirates let him go because his defense wasn’t good enough for the NL. Shelton has made 3 of his 4 errors this season in the last 2 games. One can’t help but wonder if he’s pressing, or if it’s just one of those things.

Game Time 1:05pm.

PREGAME: The Tigers look to make it 8 in a row and they have a favorable pitching match-up. Jeremy Bonderman who loved June, will take on Tom Gorzelanny. There isn’t much to know about about Gorzelanny. He’s making only his 2nd start and 3rd appearance.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: That was a stinker. Lot’s of guys left on base, lot’s of opportunities with men in scoring position, 3 consecutive errors leading to a 7 run 7th inning…

If you’re looking for positives there were a couple. Jeremy Bonderman looked good again. Also, the bullpen came in and did their job. They kept inducing ground balls, they just weren’t being converted to outs. Also, while the team was awful with men in scoring position, I guess the good news is that they had at one point, 10 at-bats with RISP in the first 5 innings.

An ugly loss certainly isn’t a way to cap the end of the first half of the season. However, I think I’ll choose to focus on the 55-26 record instead.

PREGAME: If the Tigers win tonight, they will match the pace of the 1984 Tigers. It would also give them their first 20 win month since 1979. The matchup certainly looks favorable with Kenny Rogers taking of Kip Wells.

Wells is making just his 3rd start of the season after coming back from surgery to repair an artery in his shoulder. He was knocked around for 5 hits as he stuggled to find the plate (5 walks, no strikeouts) in his last outing which lasted only 3 1/3 innings.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME You know things are going well when your team wins, and you are ready to criticize them. The offense was active early, which was fortunate because Kenny Rogers was getting hit hard. The early 7-2 lead was chipped away throughout the game. Meanwhile, the Tigers offense went to sleep. They were swinging early and often in the later innings, and never really threatened after the 5th inning. And then there were a couple of errors by Shelton.

But there were also a lot of little things to like:

• Roman Colon was very good in relief. He faced 6 hitters, and allowed only a single while fanning 2
• I haven’t been a big fan of the Alexis Gomez-as-a-defensive-replacement-for-Thames strategy, but I’m pretty sure Thames wouldn’t have reached that ball in the 9th
• Curtis Granderson has been very clutch with the bat this season, tonight he was clutch with the glove.
• Todd Jones had another nice outing. It was more interesting than you’d hope for, but it wasn’t his doing. He should also receive credit for helping to induce that bunt pop-out.

PREGAME: Justin Verlander looks to keep things rolling. If I recall correctly this is Justin’s 3rd home start on get-away day. I remember the other 2 (one against the Angels and one against the White Sox) didn’t turn out so well.

The Tigers will be facing Andy Petitte and his 5.75 ERA. The Tigers will be sending out their regular starters, including a rare day-game-after-night-game start for Pudge Rodriguez. His lifetime 394/412/576 line against Pettite may have something to do with it. Also, the Tigers have an off day and then 3 against the Pirates so there may be a few more regulars resting this weekend.

Game Time 1:05.

POSTGAME: So was Justin Verlander tired of being overshadowed by Francisco Liriano? Verlander turned in his best performance in a month as he shut out the Stros for 8 innings.

Aside from Verlander, it seems like the Astros lost this game more than the Tigers winning it. With 3 runs being unearned, one walked in, and the last scoring on a wild pitch.

Things were a little scary when Magglio Ordonez left the game, but reports are that X-rays are negative and Maggs is day-to-day with a shin contusion.

A day off, and then on to Pittsburgh.

PREGAME: After beating up on Wandy Rodriguez last night, the Tigers will face a slightly more formidable challenge in Roger Clemens…I really don’t have much more to say. Roger Clemens is really good, and none of the current Tigers have had a great deal of success.

I’ve seen Clemens pitch in person one time. It was when he was with the Blue Jays and our seats were in the 2nd row by the visitor bullpen at Tiger Stadium. I don’t remember the game itself, but I distinctly remember being 15 feet away as Clemens was warming up. Very cool.

Big League Nate Robertson takes the ball for the Tigers. The Tigers are 2-2 in June when Robertson pitches, and he really pitched 4 winnable games. His bullpen let him down in 2 of his starts.

Game Time 7:05pm.

POSTGAME: I just got back from the game and it had exactly what I hoped for. The Tigers won. Roger Clemens was looking like a Hall of Famer. Nate Robertson battled and matched him.

Two of my favorite moments from this season came during the 7th inning of this game. In the top half of the inning, when Nate Robertson was in the midst of crawling out of a runner on 3rd no out jam, the crowd rose to its feet as Willy Taveras came to the plate. The park was electric as 40,000 willed Robertson to get that final out.

And then in the bottom half when Roger Clemens was taken out of the game, the Detroit faithful gave him a standing ovation out of respect for his effort that night, and for his complete resume. I’m tired of the Roger Clemens retirement/non-retirement saga every year, but I still fully recognize his stature in the history of the game.

I’ve been to sold out games at Comerica Park before, but they weren’t like this. Opening Day is a party, and the Yankees are the Yankees. Tonight was all about baseball. The fans were collectively engaged the whole game. The crowd sensed momentous turning points and rose in unison. This wasn’t a bunch of bandwagoners following a winner. These were baseball fans thrilled with finally having something to cheer about from the home team. This was a whole lot of fun.

PREGAME: The story of this game may turn out to be last night’s Houston/White Sox game, which Houston was kind enough to win a a very protracted fashion. With the game going 13 innings, the Astros bullpen is tired physically. With the team probably not getting to their hotel until 4am, chances are they are sleepy too.

Zach Miner continues his quest to become the best rookie in the Tigers rotation. He’ll be opposed by Wandy Rodriguez. I don’t know much about Rodriguez except his first name is Wandy and he weighs 160 pounds. He walks his share (4.26/9IP), and doesn’t strike out a ton (5.71 K/9IP). Oh yeah, and he’s left handed.

The game also marks the return of former Tigers Phil Garner, Brad Ausmus, and Eric Munson. I’d like to see Munson hit a meaningless home run in this series. I always liked Eric, and I thought he got a raw deal from the organization with the various position changes. Then Trammell really relegated him to the bench. Of course if he’d performed better, he might have met a better fate.
Continue reading Game 77: Astros at Tigers →

PREGAME: The Tigers look to finish off the sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon (1:05pm). The Cardinals have probably felt like they’ve seen enough of the AL Central after dropping 5 straight to the White Sox and Tigers.

Sidney Ponson will start in place of the recentl DL’d Mark Mulder. Ponson has been awful as of late with 19 runs allowed in 15 2/3 innings. Magglio Ordonez might normally get today off, but with 3 hits last night and a .464 lifetime average against Ponson, I’d guess he’s in the lineup.

Meanwhile Jeremy Bonderman has been scary-good with back to back 1 run, 12 K outings.

POSTGAME: One day Curtis Granderson will come up in the 8th or 9th or 10th inning and have a chance to change the game, and he’ll fail. It is hard to believe given his performance this year. It will feel strange and unpleasant, but it will inevitably happen. But until then (and really even after that) it is okay for men and women alike to declare their love for Curtis Granderson.

But the clutch-iest moment of the game probably came in the first inning when after a couple bad luck singles, the Cardinals had runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out and Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, and Jim Edmonds looming. Bonderman fanned Pujols and Rolen and enticed Edmonds to hit a fly ball. The game could have been blown open, and Bonderman slammed the door. After that he cruised to another 1 run, no run support outing.

And while it might be aggravating to see the White Sox match us win-for-win, isn’t it kind of fun and exciting at the same time. I know it’s only June and we haven’t even hit the halfway point, but so far this has been a very entertaining battle.