PREGAME: For those anxious to see the Tigers new defensive alignment, you’ll have to wait. Gary Sheffield and Placido Polanco miss tonight’s game so Miguel Cabrera DH’s and Carlos Guillen plays first. Here’s your lineup:

1. Granderson CF
2. Rodriguez C
3. Guillen 1B
4. Ordonez RF
5. Cabrera DH
6. Jones LF
7. Renteria SS
8. Inge 3B
9. Santiago 2B

That line up will be taking on Luis Mendoza. In his last start Mendoza allowed 5 hits and 3 walks and 7 runs in 3 innings. In his two starts so far this year he has twice as many walks as strike outs.

He’ll be opposed by Kenny Rogers. Rogers nearly picked up quality start against the Blue Jays on Friday night but was hurt by 4 walks. For the season he has 12 walks and only 9 K’s over 4 starts.

TEX @ DET, Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

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Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: That was a nice offensive performance. Granted, the Rangers pitchers weren’t putting up much resistance (unless you count the 10 walks and 2 HBPs as resistance). But this one started off pretty ugly.
Continue reading Game 22: Rangers at Tigers →

PREGAME:  The Rangers have really been struggling and have won only 2 of their last 11 games for an awful 7-13 record.  Err, umm, that’s the same record as the Tigers by the way.

Vicente Padilla takes the mound for Texas.  He’s allowed 40 base runners in 26 innings, but still has a 3.12 ERA.  He allowed 2 homers in his first outing, but none in the last two.  Padilla will look to give his team a chance to snap a 4 game losing streak.

The Tigers will send out Justin Verlander who is searching for his first win, his first quality start, his fastball velocity, and his command.  He allowed 5 runs in 5 innings against the Indians but it felt like so much more due in large part to 4 walks.  In two starts against the Rangers last year he limited them to 1 run over 14 innings with 13 K’s.

TEX @ DET, Tuesday, April 22, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: I actually had a lot of things I wanted to hit on from tonight’s game, but some late game control problems from the Rangers, excessive pitching changes from the Tigers, a slow ride home, and some kind of announcement about a switch conspired against me.

• In the first inning Verlander got ahead of Hank Blalock with 2 strikes and then bounced 2 breaking balls. I said to my friend, “last year Verlander just blows him away with a 98mph elevated fastball.” Next pitch was 96mph above the belt and a swing and a miss. The velocity seemed to be partly back last night. And the good news, like in his other starts, is that the velocity he had at the start of his outing was there at the end.
• It wasn’t a dominating outing by any means, but still effective and encouraging.
• Jason Grilli pitched an uneventful 9th.
• The fan who touched the ball was heartily boo’d if you were wondering.
• Ordonez’s homer was a blast, Cabrera’s was a bullet (seriously, who would try to catch that?), but Ramon Santiago? For real?
• Jacque Jones tried to join the party but picked the wrong part of the park to hit it to. We’ll see if his double-triple night is something to get him started or just a blip.

PREGAME Armando Galarraga takes on Shawn Marcum as the Tigers look for their first matinee win of the season.

Marcum has been the Jays best pitcher this season with 20 K’s and only 5 walks in 20.2 innings.

Galarraga has been the Tigers best pitcher this season with 6 K’s and no walks in 6.2 innings.

DET @ TOR, Monday, April 21, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 12:37

PREGAME I was listening to Danny Knobler on WDFN this afternoon and he was talking about how the highs and lows have become so much more pronounced because of the 0-7 start. It’s a pretty astute observation. The Tigers today salvaged a split of the series and a 3-3 road trip which is nothing to sneeze at. Yet the losses of the last two days were such a downer it hardly felt satisfying.

Still, going into the weekend I had said I’d be happy with a split so who am I to complain? The Tigers finally capitalized on walks and miscues to take an early lead which was more than enough for Armando Galarraga. He wasn’t quite as efficient as his 1st start. Only 54% of his pitches went for strikes and he walked 4. Still, he pitched out of his self inflicted jams so there was no damage.

Pudge Rodriguez led off the offensive attack from the 2-hole on a day when Jim Leyland challenged his big boys to step up. But he’s likely to be dropped in the order as the news on Placido Polanco’s back was encouraging and Polanco could return to the lineup tomorrow.

Tigers 5, Blue Jays 1

PREGAME: Nate Robertson and his sore lat takes on AJ Burnett. Sorry that’s all I have time for today.

Game Time 1:07

DET @ TOR, Sunday, April 20, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Another day, another loss. This time a depleted lineup couldn’t take advantage of an erratic AJ Burnett. And Nate Robertson pitched good enough to lose. But unlike other Tigers starters he actually had more strike outs (5) than walks (1) which was an encouraging sign. He had been having a good game until a poor 4th inning doomed the game.

If there was a positive it would be the 28 pitches thrown by Zach Miner. It was good enough to get him through 2 innings with only one baserunner. And 21 of them were for strikes. Miner had to be on the cusp of being sent down and needed a solid outing.