The Tigers mosey into Seattle tonight after letting a golden opportunity to take their second series go whizzing by their bats, mostly with runners on third and less than two outs.

The Tigers’ offense set a two-game mark for futility over the weekend, failing to capitalize even once in 5 R3L2O situations, and going 0-10 on Saturday with RISP, and 0-10 for Saturday/Sunday.  Yeah, that’s right, 0-10 on Saturday, and 0-0 on Sunday.  Other than the Wells HR, not a single runner reached second on Sunday.

Even with a paltry .240 team BA, the Tigers can scoff at 6 teams below them in the AL, including the Mariners who are hitting a top of the Tigers lineup friendly .214 as a team.

Jason Vargas has sandwiched 2 very good starts around a terrible one in which he gave up 7 earned in 3.1 innings against the Indians.  Remove that game and he’s given up 2 ER in 13.1 IPs with 13 Ks.  He held a capable Toronto lineup to 5 hits and 1 walk over 6 2/3 last time out against Toronto.  The Tigers can not take too much for granted, he did record 21 quality starts last season.

Scherzer’s 4.76 ERA still reflects his game 1 bashing (which he won), but has shrunk considerably over two quality starts.  Though he has allowed 7 hits in each of his last two outings, he’s managed to keep the runs down in those games (1, then 2), and has K’d 16 in 17 innings overall this season.

Fun stats of the day – Tigers pitchers have not allowed a home run in 10 games, most since StL pitchers went 11 games in 2009.  The Tigers’ record is 17 consecutive games back in 1947, aka Leyland’s rookie year.  Mariners lead the majors in bases loaded walks with 5.  That’s 1/2 as many hits as AJax has this year.

Your Magglio Ordonez outfield circus lineup is:

1. AJax – CF
2. Raburn – 2B
3. Ordonez – RF
4. Cabrera – 1B
5. Martinez –  DH
6. Boesch – LF
7. Peralta – SS
8. Avila – C
9. Inge – 3B

This afternoon is the asphalt game of the 4-game series as Brad “Bad” Penny takes on Trevor Cahill.  Then the Tigers skedaddle to Seattle.

Penny has a slight edge in the matchup, because Trevor Cahill is just not a very good baseball name.  More golf, really.  Watch for wild pitches; he has already had 3 this season, and at the Coliseum wild pitches have a lot of territory to roam.

Last night winning proved elusive (so no Charlie Sheen picture), and now we’re back to pursuing neither / nor.  Also, for once, my predictions fell flat, spectacularly. Although whether or not this is actually indicative of anything remains to be seen (see my publication:  “Incorrect predictions:  variance, or flat-out wrongness?”).

While we contemplate that question, let me say a word about the famous situation where you have the baserunning man on 3rd base and the number of outs is not 2, no, not at all.  The thing to do here is to hit the ball, somewhere, anywhere.  Because the aforementioned baserunning man will possibly score,  thus procuring your team a run.  By no means should you engage in swinging and whiffing–this is highly discouraged.

Last night Jhonny Peralta struck out in this very scenario, which was so rare and shocking that he could not resist doing the very same thing the next time he was at the plate.  Justin Verlander was so disturbed by this performance that he aimed a pickoff throw at the batter’s shoe (a normal baseball shoe;  the A’s left their clown shoes in the locker room last night).

This afternoon, Jim Leyland, known as the consummate player’s manager, will expertly avoid such embarrassment by devising a lineup which is extremely unlikely to produce a runner at 3rd with less than 2 out.

Player of the Pre-game: Austin Jackson

Brad Penny pitched well in his last start, but that was at 51 degrees.  With the warm afternoon Oakland weather, expect less break on the breaking balls, and a lot of long fly balls.  Whether AJax hauls them down or not will make the difference in the game. And let’s see how he responds to not being the leadoff batter.

Today’s xR3L2O lineup:

1. Will Rhymes 2B
2. Austin Jackson CF
3. Brennan Boesch DH
4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
5. Ryan Raburn LF
6. Don Kelly 3B
7. Johnny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Casper Wells RF

Jim Leyland has his 1,500th victory along with a bunch of cigars and some champagne (somehow the idea of Ol’ Smokey sipping from a flute of Dom just doesn’t resonate with me), and the Tigers have now climbed back up to the nor-winning-nor-losing mark (7- 7).  Next step: winning! (insert Charlie Sheen picture).

This is the plasticine game of the series, the Tigers having taken the first 2.  It is also the first game of the series which has the Tigers as the favorites, mostly because of the ace-ly presence of Justin Verlander on the mound.  Today also features an odd 6:00 pm PST start time, warm temperatures, and a stiff wind, so some non-Miggy balls may actually have a chance of clearing the park.  Not to fear though, since the warmer weather favors the pitcher with a fastball, and Justin sure has one (yes, I’m going to keep riding the weather horse until it bucks me).

One of the advantages of watching the Tigers in an opponent’s park (besides the fact that visitor-side tickets are easier to get) is the perspective you get from talking with / listening to the opposing team’s fans.  A’s fans were blasting Bob Geren last night:  the team is undisciplined, awful fundamentals (OK, is that really his fault?), bad bullpen management (they may have something there).

And the fans next to me all agreed:  the A’s could really go somewhere if only they had a manager like Jim Leyland. We were sitting in front of the bullpen, and they were all commenting on the difference between the A’s bullpen and the Tigers’–not the pitchers, but how it was managed.  “You guys are flat out professional” one commented.  “It’s all planned out.”

Player of the Pre-game:  Jim Leyland

OK, he isn’t actually a player.  But let’s celebrate his 1,500th, and be thankful he is not…Bob Geren.  Leyland’s lineup was heartily criticized on this very blog.  And yet almost all of his substitutions contributed to the victory:  even Donkey Don Kelly doubled.  And his pitching moves were right on.  So following that Smokey momentum, I will predict that Jackson and Ordonez spark the lineup tonight, with a timely contribution from Santiago.

Today’s Return-of-Magglio lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Ryan Raburn LF
3. Maggio Ordonez DH
4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
5. Victor Martinez C
6. Jhonny Peralta SS
7. Brennan Boesch RF
8. Brandon Inge 3B
9. Ramon Santiago 2B

Tonight in Oakland the Tigers have the chance to get to .500 for the first time this season, and in doing so get Jim Leyland his 1,500th career win.

Taking the mound for Detroit will be Rick Porcello, who hopefully will get a night as chilly as last night (no, really, it makes sinkers sink more).

The A’s will look for some relief from their strike-zone-aphobia from last night with Brandon McCarthy, who rarely walks batters (only 1 BB so far this season in 2 starts).

By the way, for all of the fretting about the Tigers not being patient enough at the plate last night, it was interesting to see this from the other perspective:  Gonzalez felt quite the opposite…

“These guys were being very patient,” Gonzalez said. “They’d give you one of these first-pitch swings and miss them, and all of a sudden they wait the next four or five pitches. It’s impressive. It was like a chess game. Every pitch was there but like a little hair off. Again, you live and you learn.” SF Chronicle

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Rick Porcello, who has his sinkerball working, gets a couple of double-play balls, and leads Detroit to the 4th straight  in another low-scoring affair.

Today’s What-Rhymes-with-Leadoff? Lineup:

1. Will Rhymes 2B
2. Ryan Raburn LF
3. Brennan Boesch RF
4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
5. Victor Martinez DH
6. Don Kelly CF
7. Brandon Inge 3B
8. Alex Avila C
9. Ramon Santiago SS

(Also known as today’s Because-They-Bat-Left-Handed-That’s-Why Lineup).

The Tigers packed up Wednesday with a to-go order of walk-off under their belts to travel to Oakland for a 4-game series with their good friends the Oakland Athletics.  Good friends because the A’s are returning home from a road trip which saw them take consecutive series from the Twins and the White Sox.

The Tigers will go from facing the team with the best ERA in the league, to facing the team with the 2nd best (2.73), who recently held the Twins to 5 runs in 3 games.  Add to that the A’s lack of offense and the Coliseum’s large dimensions, and this is likely to be a low-scoring series.

The first game features a left-coast lefty matchup of Phil Coke and Gio Gonzalez, who has only allowed 1 run in 13 innings so far this season, picking up where he left off last season (2nd half ERA of 2.59).  His weakness is a relatively high number of walks, so if the Tiger hitters are patient they may be able to get into the bullpen early.

One of the nice things about Gio Gonzalez becoming so successful is that he is not on the White Sox.  They had him, and traded him–twice.

• Player of the Pre-game: Ryan Raburn. Raburn vs Gio Gonzalez is a career 4 for 5 (.800) with a 2B and 2 HR.

If the Tigers win, Raburn will likely be involved.  If not, the loss can probably be blamed on me for not following the short-but-sweet lucky game post format.

Today’s no-Rhymes-nor-reason lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Casper Wells RF
3. Ryan Raburn LF
4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
5. Victor Martinez C
6. Jhonny Peralta SS
7. Brennan Boesch DH
8. Brandon Inge 3B
9. Ramon Santiago 2B

Short and sweet for a  W.

(can someone please post the lineup, meetings all morning)

Let’s try short and sweet for a W.

1. AJax – CF
2. Santiago – 2B
3. Raburn – LF
4. Cabrera – 1B
5. Martinez – C
6.  Boesch – DH
7. Peralta – SS
8. Inge – 3B
9. Wells – RF