PREGAME:Another two game series with the Royals is about to come to a close – weather permitting. Based on the map, I’m not holding my breath.

If they do play, it will be a matchup of soft tossing lefties. Mike Maroth is set to take on Mark Redman. Redman, as you may remember, was a Tiger for a short spell. He was acquired in exchange for Todd Jones who is a Tiger once again. And then the Tigers traded Redman for 3 pitchers, one of which is Nate Robertson who is in the rotation. This all would have been more interesting if Redman were facing Robertson tonight.

Maroth will try to keep the hitters off balance, as Bonderman did last night. Bonderman did such a good job that the Royals got themselves a new hitting coach.

Game time is 7:05 – theoretically.

POSTGAME: Another strong pitching performance, a couple homers – including one from Craig Insurance Runs Monroe, and the Tigers have their 3rd 5 game win streak of the season. Only 22,000 fans for the series, which is somewhat understandable given the context (Royals, rain, playoff games). Here’s hoping tomorrow night tops that mark.

PREGAME: The Kansas City Royals come to town for a short two game series. Jeremy Bonderman will try to keep the string of strong outings alive for the Tigers. Bonderman, whose 5.04 ERA probably isn’t indicative of how well he’s pitched, has only really struggled against Matt Stairs (5 for 11, 2 homers).

The Tigers will face Runyelvs Hernandez. He of course started the brawl by beaning Carlos Guillen last year. He was also put on the disabled list for being out of shape.

In meaningless split info, the Tigers will be trying for their first Monday win since they beat these same Royals on Opening Day.

POSTGAME: Another masterful pitching performance for a Tiger starter was the story in the Tigers 3-2 win. Jeremy Bonderman picked up another 9 strikeouts to move him to third place in the AL.

As for whether or not he should have pitched the 9th, a case could definitely be made. Everything was working for him, and he was at 94 pitches. What was interesting to me isn’t that Bonderman didn’t pitch the 9th, it’s that Todd Jones did. Jones got an inning of work on Sunday, so it wasn’t about keeping him fresh. If it was about keeping the bullpen sharp, wouldn’t Joel Zumaya who hasn’t pitched since April 25th, been a better option? Was Jim Leyland managing to the save statistic? And if so, what makes the save more significant than the complete game shut out for his starter?

And once again, Craig Monroe provided insurance runs that became quite important late in the game via a home run.

PREGAME: After outscoring the Twins 27-1 in the first two games of the series, the Tigers look to complete the sweep. Kenny Rogers will face Kyle Lohse in the final game of the series.

Loshe, like the other Twins starters, has struggled in the early going. Because the Twins bullpen has thrown 249 pitches over the last two games, Lohse will probably be expected to carry the load, regardless of how he pitches.

Some interesting splits on Lohse so far this year:

1. He’s allowing a .429 OBP to hitters who lead off an inning.
2. He’s been brutal in the first inning (small sample issues abound). He’s allowing a .500/.545/.667 line in the first inning. Get him early.
3. Unlike Radke and Silva, he hasn’t been undone by the long ball. He’s only allowed 2 homers in 85 plate appearances.

POSTGAME Can it really get any better than this? A 6-0 shutout finished up the sweep of the Twins. I was at the game with my kids, so many of you probably had a better view than I did, even if you were listening on the radio. While the top of the order struggled, the bottom 3 of Craig Monroe, Marcus Thames, and Vance Wilson combined for 7 of the team’s 9 hits and 5 of the 6 RBI.

My favorite moment of the game was probably Wilson’s bases loaded double. The fact that it came right after Marcus Thames was plunked definitely gave it that “revenge” feel.

I’ll have the series wrap tomorrow.

PREGAME: The Tigers go for two in a row against the Minnesota Twins at 1:05pm. Justin Verlander will try for his first Comerica Park win. He faced the Twins last year and lost at home, and of course was beat around by the White Sox earlier this year. He’ll be opposed by groundball pitcher Carlos Silva. Silva made his mark last year by getting through innings very efficiently. However he posts and 8.33 ERA coming into today.

Craig Monroe went 2 for 5 yesterday, but that’s nothing new against the Twins. Monroe sports a .360 average against the Twins which is tops among active players.

Historically against Silva, Carlos Guillen has hit .450 in 20 at-bats. Brandon Inge and Monroe are also .300+ hitters against Silva. Ivan Rodriguez has only managed a .174 average in 23 at-bats, but I’d expect Vance Wilson to get the start anyways. EDIT: it looks like Pudge afterall…

POSTGAME: Ummm, not a lot I can say about an 18-1 thrashing. Everything worked for the Tigers, nothing worked for the Twins. The box score looks pretty ridiculous for the Tig’s, and Verlander did his job.

One thing I will point out is that Minnesota pitchers have 362 pitches in the first two games of this series. Of those, only 113 have come from starters. The Twins bullpen has been battered as much as the starters have, and is largely unavailable tomorrow.

Also, the Tigers drew 24,000+ today despite the Red Wings and Pistons in the playoffs as well as the NFL draft. This team is forcing people to pay attention.

PREGAME: The Twins come to town and have been struggling. Nate Robertson will be taking on Brad Radke. Radke is sporting an uncharacteristic 7.50 ERA. As has been the case several times this year, I hope that a struggling pitcher doesn’t find his groove against the Tigers (see Paul Byrd).

Carlos Guillen, Pudge Rodriguez, Magglio Ordonez, and Craig Monroe have all had success in the past against Radke. Going the other way, Twins hitters haven’t had a lot of experience against Robertson. Lew Ford has 7 hits in 21 at-bats and Torii Hunter is hitting .222 against Nate. Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer are still looking for their first hits.

In any case, the Tigers and Twins will be seeing a lot of each other. Nine of Detroit’s next 19 games are agaisnt the Twins.

POSTGAME: The Tigers blank the Twins 9-0 behind Nate Robertson.

There are two things I’d like to point out:
1. While it hasn’t happened on this site, either from me or in the comments, Robertson has received a good deal of grief. There have been calls for him to head to the bullpen to make room for Jordan Tata/Jason Grilli/Joel Zumaya/etc. Robertson has had one bad outing this year, and two spectacular ones. Now he won’t continue to be as dominant as he was the last two outings, but I’d hope he has at least earned the benefit of the doubt.

2. I guess I needn’t have worried about Brad Radke correcting himself. It just seems that too many times in the last several/dozen years we’ve seen struggling pitcher against struggling offense, and which ever role the Tigers are assuming, their counterpart seems to self-correct. I have to say it was nice to be on the good side.

A. Well I guess I had a third thing, but it really wasn’t that important. With Pudge catching the whole game, it appears that Vance Wilson will once again be catching Justin Verlander. I know last year it was by design. This year I don’t know if it has been a concious effort to have Wilson catching Verlander, or if it’s just working out that way.

PREGAME: The Tigers finish up their 9 game western swing with a matinee in Anaheim. By all accounts it has been a successful roadtrip with the team sitting at 6-2. Mike Maroth will be on the mound for Detroit and John Lackey will be pitching for the Angels.

POSTGAME: So Detroit is coming home 6-3 from the road trip. Without looking it up, it is the most successful west coast trip in recent memory for this team. It also brings their record against the AL West to 9-4.

The game was pretty sloppy for the Tigers, with all of the runs coming after a couple errors. It also featured 8 Tiger strikeouts, which is becoming problematic. However, I don’t think it was a give-a-way on get-a-way day type situation this time. Without seeing the game, it sounded like the Tigers were taking decent approaches at the plate drawing 5 walks. To me it seems like a team that is probably a little worn out on the last day of a long road trip.

I’ll have the series wrap tomorrow.