Okay, I missed out on the Oregonfest parade in order to watch this game, although from what my parents told me, I didn’t miss much (besides people dressed like the Belle Tire mascot). Justin Verlander wasn’t quite as dominant as he was in Boston (probably BECAUSE he was so dominant in Boston, as that outing had to exhaust him), but he still pitched quite nicely through eight innings (by the way, his pants are still too tight). I’m not sure what to make of Rodney. On paper, it looks bad, cuz he gave up a couple hits and a run, but it didn’t seem so bad at the time I was watching. Bobby Seay got the final out of the game, and did so with authority. The bullpen does need to step up just a little bit more, cuz the starting pitchers can’t always go eight innings (especially Nate Robertson, who does a nice job, but his pitch count usually gets to 100 by the fifth or sixth inning) and the offense won’t always be able to get the job done by themselves. I’m not sure if the answer is to tinker with the bullpen or to wait it out like they did the offense (which has come around). At this point, most of the fanblogs are screaming for blood, which I think is still a bit premature. Patience has paid off for me so far this season, after all.

It was a day late, but Brandon Inge ended up getting a home run for his birthday after all. I kind of had to laugh because Rabelo (who was on first base at the time Inge hit the homer) was so busy watching the ball that he tripped over second base. Once again, both of the bench guys had themselves decent outings. Neifi Perez got an RBI, plus he turned a couple nice double plays. Rabelo had two hits (actually, he was the only Tiger with more than one hit yesterday), an RBI, and his first caught stealing of his Major League career, albeit a really slow one. Pujols was on first at the time. He took off running on a 3-2 count. The batter struck out, which left Pujols stuck between first and second base, but Rabelo just stood there with the ball in his hand for the longest time. He finally threw to second at the last possible instant. Maggs kinda/sorta had the day off, as he was the DH and Sheffield played right field for once. At one point, Sheff had four putouts in a row, and made some very nice sliding catches. Sean Casey had another nice game, hitting a two-run double which turned out to be the game-winner, and Curtis Granderson hit his sixth triple of the year. Carlos Guillen had yet another error (which makes for about four in the last week), and there was a home run to dead center field for the first time in a year and a half. Unfortunately, it was hit by Chris Duncan of the Cardinals, but congratulations nonetheless (of course, I would be offering nothing of the sort if the Cardinals had won). The closest the Tigers have come to hitting a home run to center was a few weeks ago, when Pudge hit a 420-foot double (it ended up banging off the center field wall). If only there had been a bit more wind that night…

The Tigers are off today. They’ll be back tomorrow, when the Angels come to Detroit. Mike Maroth, who missed his last start due to having the flu, will be up against John Lackey, who has one of the lowest ERAs in the American League. That won’t make it easy for the offense, but they dealt well with Tim Wakefield last week, so I have confidence in them. Unlike pretty much all the Central Division teams, the Angels love to steal bases, so Pudge, Rabelo, and the pitchers will have to be ready. They might be a little more reluctant tomorrow night, as Detroit’ll likely have a lefty on the mound and Pudge behind the plate, but we’ll see.

One Year Ago: On May 21, 2006, the Tigers won a pitching duel with Cincinnati 1-0, giving them two out of three for the series. Polanco delivered a pinch-hit RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning, scoring Brandon Inge, who had reached first base on a walk. Nate Robertson pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings. Rodney was awarded the win. From just looking at the box score (and the accompanying story), the part I find most ironic is that Tigers backup catcher Vance Wilson was both caught stealing and caught someone else stealing. This brought the Tigers’ record to 29-14 (current record in 2007 is 27-16). By the way, I did not realize this at the time, but in the “One Year Ago” photo from yesterday, Pudge is tagging out a runner at first base. That is very rare indeed, from what I hear.  

I know there are several reasons to be critical of the Tigers in last night’s game, but damn it, a win’s a win, and just as important (for me, at least), Pudge’s bat has heated up, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. His 3-run homer in the third turned out to be crucial. That’s his first home run of the season to NOT come against Kansas City (and it’s the first one he’s hit since his Grand Slam on April 16). Man, that was fun to watch. He also had a double in the sixth (?) inning, and eventually scored (though apparently he took a big risk with the way he slid into home plate). All in all, he accounted for four of the eight runs scored last night by the Tigers. Gary Sheffield also hit a home run, which turned out to be the difference. By the way, I feel I must explain the title of this post a little bit, for those of you who live outside of the Detroit sports market. The slogan for the Tigers is “Who’s Your Tiger?” They have commercials that spotlight one of the boys with some highlights of their great plays (last year they had commercials for Kenny Rogers and Joel Zumaya; this year so far I’ve only seen commercials for Craig Monroe, but they’ll probably have others as the season progresses). Anyways, it should be pretty obvious who “my Tiger” is, so I’ll move on.

Nate Robertson pitched pretty well, but, as usual, ran his pitch count up to around 100 by the fifth inning, so the bullpen had to come in during the sixth. Ledezma is still struggling (to the point where there are a couple fanblogs calling for his head; I think that’s a bit premature, but Leyland might want to consider not bringing him in during close games, at least for a while). Byrdak wasn’t as “lights-out” as he was in Boston, as he gave up a run, but he was still fairly solid. Rodney actually had a fairly uneventful outing. Todd Jones made things a little too exciting in the ninth, but recovered once he had no margin for error left. However, the pitching may not have been quite as bad as the score would suggest, because a lot of the Cardinals’ runs scored on some very lucky hits. There were two (one in the seventh, one in the ninth) that were just barely fair.

The Tigers defense was, for the most part, solid (save for a fielding error by Carlos Guillen, who was also having trouble with a contact lens during the game). Brandon Inge made a couple of nice plays at third base, and he caught the pop-up from Rolen to seal the Tigers’ win. Craig Monroe made what turned out to be a crucial outfield assist, allowing Pudge to tag out Albert Pujols at the plate. Speaking of Pudge, he showed his stuff both offensively and defensively last night, throwing So Taguchi out when Taguchi tried to steal second, getting the final out of the top of the seventh inning. This was also an important move, because Pujols was on deck at the time (I enjoyed watching that, too).

Today, Justin Verlander takes on Brad Thompson as the Tigers go for the sweep. Verlander’s been outstanding the last several times he’s been out, but still, I will caution that you can’t take anything for granted, especially since the Tigers have only had a combined total of nine at-bats total against Thompson, and four of those at-bats belong to Neifi Perez. Since the Tigers have already taken two out of three, and since it’s a day game after a night game, I’d imagine quite a few “second-string” guys will make the start (Even the official website’s preview says that Rabelo will likely start instead of Pudge). It’s noon right now, and the game starts in an hour, so I may have lineups before I even finish typing this.

One Year Ago: On May 20, 2006, the Tigers beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-6 in an extra-innings nail-biter. The Tigers had a 5-1 lead going into the seventh inning, but Ken Griffey Jr. hit a Grand Slam off Joel Zumaya to tie the game, and the Reds would add one more run to go ahead. Curtis Granderson hit a solo home run in the ninth, tying the game and sending it into extra innings. Carlos Guillen was able to score on an error by the Reds shortstop in the tenth inning. Maggs had also hit a home run earlier in the game, as well. With the win, the Tigers improved their record to 28-14, still slightly better than where they are in 2007 (26-16). What’s interesting is that for two consecutive years, the second game in the first Interleague series of the year has been a nail-biter victory for the Tigers. By the way, from now on, the photo above the “One Year Ago” paragraph will be a photo from the game “one year ago,” so don’t get confused. And I know that's a bad picture of Pudge, but it's better than the one from the game before it, and I'm noticing that there aren't too many good pictures of him anyways (the one at the top of this post would be a good one except Guillen and Casey are in the way).

UPDATES: The lineups are posted, and we will be seeing Rabelo and Perez instead of Pudge and Polanco...

Wow. I know that Jim Leyland and Tony La Russa are best friends (as are Albert Pujols and Placido Polanco), and that all the players have said that this was just another game, but there had to be some frustrations that certainly got aired out last night. If you were a Tiger and you didn’t get on base last night, you just weren’t trying. Before the game began, FSN showed a brief music video of when the Cardinals won the World Series. It featured a lot of shots of the Tigers sitting in the dugout looking dejected and shellshocked. The shot of Justin Verlander on the mound was especially heartbreaking. Jeremy Bonderman kept hugging Leyland and Pudge (It got to the point where it was getting a little weird). That video was the first time I have ever seen Pudge look compassionate (I’m not saying he’s not; I don’t know for sure; I’m just saying he normally doesn’t LOOK compassionate). He didn’t look quite as devastated as everyone else, maybe because he’s actually won a World Series before (or because he’s been through that kind of disappointment before, because when he was with the Texas Rangers, they got beat by the Yankees three times in the ALCS). By the way, I have to credit Steven Spielberg for the title of today's post.

Anyways, back to last night. I’m going to skip the obvious pun that the FSN people couldn’t resist, and say that Andrew Miller did a very nice job, pitching six shutout innings. Of course, the offense was the big story. Maggs and Sheffield both hit homers early on, but things really heated up in a nine-run fifth inning (and after that, the Tigers didn’t score anything, but they did get a few base hits). They chased the starter Looper out after Carlos Guillen got the second hit of the evening, and then they absolutely pounded the reliever Jiminez, charging him with seven earned runs in one third of an inning (and, I’m guessing, absolutely killing his ERA in the process). When all was said and done, the only Tigers starter to go hitless for the entire game was Craig Monroe (though he got two walks and scored a run), and the only one not to score a run was Pudge (who got tagged out at the plate AGAIN; does Gene Lamont hate him or something? However, this time that may have been the lesser of two evils, because it would otherwise have been a double play). Pudge did get a double, two RBIs (the final two of the game), and a walk (only his second this season).

As absolutely satisfying as that game was, there were a few things that concerned me just a little bit. Once Andrew Miller was done, they brought in Jason Grilli, who gave up the first three runs to the Cardinals. I’m not sure if he was genuinely struggling or if he really wasn’t trying that hard, because the Tigers were so far ahead. The Tigers defense also got a little sloppy after the sixth inning as well. Jason Grilli made a throwing error to first base, and Pudge ended up with a passed ball at some point, which is his first of the year (ironically, Rabelo got his first passed ball in Thursday night’s game). I don’t know how many he had last year (I know he only had two errors last year, though), but at this point I’m gonna conclude that it’s something that happens to every catcher occasionally, rather than worry that his offensive struggles are starting to affect his defense. He’s been around too long for that to happen. Andrew Miller’s pitches kept nearly knocking him over, though (plus he had to hit the deck to avoid being hit by the pitch in his final at-bat). Bobby Seay did a pretty good job in the ninth inning. He did give up a home run to Albert Pujols, but no one’s reading too much into that, because it’s Pujols. That’s almost like giving up a home run to A-Rod or Barry Bonds. It’s something that’s gonna happen.

Tonight, Nate Robertson takes on Anthony Reyes, who pitched for the Cardinals in Game 1 of the World Series, and gave my boys a preview of the frustration and heartbreak to come (and gave rise to the name “Reyes Effect.” He hasn’t done very well since then, but I know never to take these sorts of things for granted. By the way, happy birthday to Brandon Inge, who turns thirty today. Here’s hoping for a birthday victory!

One Year Ago: On May 19, 2006, the Tigers did not get off to a good start in Interleague play, losing to the Cincinnati Reds 9-4 at Comerica. Jeremy Bonderman gave up seven runs in the first three innings, and was taken out in the fourth (By the way, I get these old box scores from the official website, and it’s always accompanied by a photo from the game. This time the photo is of Pudge talking to Bonderman, and for some reason, Pudge looks really weird in this photo. I can’t figure out why. For that reason, I'm not gonna include the photo in the post, but I may start doing so in the future). Marcus Thames homered, and Polanco, Pudge, and Chris Shelton all scored runs, but Carlos Guillen went 0-for-4 and left a total of five men on base (plus he had a throwing error). This dropped the Tigers’ record to 27-14, which is still slightly better than where they are now (25-16), but it’s very, very close. By the way, I’m hoping for the 2007 Reds to step up a little bit and turn in a better performance against Cleveland in their next two games.  

Well, this time around, the offense was off and running but it never got anywhere. If the Tigers have to lose, I’d prefer that it’d be a situation where the other team was simply better on that given day, even if it is the dreaded Reyes Effect (that’s my current name for the “so-so/unremarkable pitcher who has the game of his life” brick wall that the Tigers keep running into; it's named after the Cardinals pitcher from Game 1 of the World Series, since he was the first example of this incident that I saw first hand). This time, I get the feeling that game could’ve been ours for the taking, especially since the boys had Curt Schilling on the ropes, of all people. The scoring opportunities always seemed to fall on the shoulders of either Gary Sheffield or Marcus Thames, both of whom didn’t have the same luck that everyone else had against Schilling. And as per usual, the Boston bullpen was absolutely lights out. As far as our pitching went, Chad Durbin wasn’t as impressive as he’s been (he walked the bases loaded at one point), but he was able to pitch himself out of several jams, and got the job done as best he could. Ledezma’s starting to become a problem, though. He was absolutely dynamite at the beginning of the season, but he’s struggled a whole lot since then. As far as I can remember, the only semi-good appearance he’s made in a while was against Baltimore, and even then he was helped out tremendously by Pudge, who accounted for two of the three outs (catching Baltimore base runners stealing) in the inning that Ledezma pitched. He was absolutely horrid on Sunday against Minnesota (then again, so were all our other pitchers), but hopefully he bottomed out on that one, cuz he didn’t pitch quite THAT badly last night, just bad enough to allow a two-run homer that won the game for Boston. Leyland also brought Todd Jones out of the bullpen in the eighth. It wasn’t a save situation (Ledezma made sure of that), but he hadn’t made an appearance since last Friday, so it was time for him to get a bit of a workout. Jonesy was probably the Tigers’ most efficient pitcher of the evening, as it was a very quick bottom of the eighth.

After Tavarez broke my boys’ extra-base hit streak in the day game, the Tigers made up for it with seven doubles and a home run. Unfortunately, only one of those doubles came around to score. Brandon Inge hit a home run over the Green Monster (off the Green Monster would be a better description), but struck out the other three times he was at bat. The embarrassing part (no matter what Jim Leyland says) is that the Tigers out-hit and out-slugged the Red Sox this time around, but really had nothing to show for it (though in the end, both teams left 11 men on base). I don’t even think you can blame the lineup that much, even though two bench guys were playing (with a third added late in the game, as Omar Infante pinch-hit, and grounded into a double play, for Curtis Granderson). Marcus Thames went hitless, though he did reach second base while the Red Sox had Guillen caught in a rather amusing rundown between third and home (I liked the official ruling of that rundown: a 5-2-5-1-6 putout; by the way, Guillen did a nice job of prolonging that rundown, which allowed Marcus to reach second base). I thought Leyland might bring the regulars in to pinch-hit at some point, but he didn’t. Craig Monroe might have fared better than Marcus Thames, but I don’t know why he didn’t start in the first place, so I can’t speculate too much (even though I called it perfectly). The commentators never gave a reason as to why it was Craig who sat instead of Maggs or Casey (Thames’s other positions), but I have to imagine that foul tip to his foot in the day game had to have something to do with it, though I suppose I won’t find out for sure until tonight. And though it pains me greatly to say this, with the way he’s been going recently, I seriously doubt that Pudge would’ve fared any better than Rabelo (other than the fact that Pudge can run faster). Rabelo, once again, did quite nicely at the plate. He got another double (aided by the wind, but who’s counting?) as well as a single, and was totally robbed of another RBI thanks to a diving catch by Eric Hinske in right field (Hinske also hit the game-winning home run; the Tigers are sure gonna have nightmares about him, aren’t they?). Rabelo has officially gotten himself above the Mendoza line (unfortunately, Marcus Thames is now below it). Behind the plate, things got a little ironic. When the commentators were laying out the Tigers defense, they decided to spotlight Rabelo by saying that he hadn’t had any passed balls this season. Well…that ain’t true anymore, guys. Luckily, no harm was done, cuz no one scored as a result (though it really doesn’t matter now, does it?). I also got a good look at him behind the plate, and for some reason, when he has the catcher’s mask on, he looks terrified (contrast that with Pudge, who always has a really intense look in his eyes, whether he’s behind the plate or at it). His catcher’s mask is still really cool-looking, though, and I probably won’t see it that many more times, cuz it looks as though Vance Wilson may be ready to come off the DL soon.

As much as last night’s loss sucks, I think it’s being blown out of proportion just a little bit. All the sports headlines say “Red Sox sweep Tigers” or something to that effect. Actually, they didn’t. They swept the doubleheader, but not the series. The media seems to have forgotten that the Tigers won on Tuesday, which is a very difficult thing to do at Fenway Park. Yes, the road trip ended up being below .500, but so far, it’s the only road trip where that’s happened, and going 3-4 when you’re up against Minnesota and Boston on the road really ain’t too shabby. Plus, the Tigers have got a nice, long, nine-game homestand coming up in which they can try to put up some nice numbers.

Tonight marks the start of Interleague play for the 2007 season, and for the Tigers, it’ll be a World Series rematch against the Cardinals, and you know that the Tigers have some unfinished business with them. Braden Looper makes the start for the Cardinals. Apparently, he pitched out of the St. Louis bullpen during the World Series, but I don’t remember him. As for the Tigers, Jeremy Bonderman had to be put on the Disabled List with his blister problems, so for the second time in a week, we’ve got someone making their first big league start. This time, it’s Andrew Miller, who’s been pitching out of Lakeland and was just recently promoted to Double-A Erie. He pitched out of the bullpen for the Tigers a few times last year, and oddly enough, I remember him. I know I saw a game that he pitched in. I don’t remember how he fared, but I remember him. He’s even younger than Joel Zumaya. Hopefully he fares better than Virgil Vasquez (though I do hope we see Virgil Vasquez again someday; I’d love for him to get a second chance). I don’t pay much attention at all to the National League, but I couldn’t help but notice that the Cardinals have really been struggling this season thus far. As a result, the online previews are handing this one to the Tigers. Sigh. We’ve been down that road before. Actually, if you believe the previews, tonight’s game is a little more up in the air, because Braden Looper is apparently the Cardinals’ best starter, and the Tigers’ll have an “unknown” on the mound. However, I’m all up for a little bit of payback, if my boys are willing to oblige me.

One Year Ago: On May 18, 2006, the Tigers swept their series at Comerica against Minnesota, beating the Twins 5-3. In the first inning, Polanco hit a rare home run, which was followed by an RBI single by Guillen. Brandon Inge hit a two-run homer in the second. Guillen got walked intentionally at one point, as well. Kenny Rogers became the first pitcher in the Major Leagues to record seven wins in the 2006 season. The Tigers won despite committing two errors (one by Rogers, the other by Guillen), although the Twins had three errors. They improved their record to 27-13, which is still better than it is right now (24-16), though I feel I have to point out that Minnesota really struggled at the beginning of last season, only to sneak up on the Tigers in the end. The Twins are once again struggling. They got swept by Cleveland, unfortunately, and they’re currently below .500 and in a fairly distant fourth place in the Central Division. However, as last season proves, I know better than to count them out. Another thing about last year’s game that I found interesting was that at the time, only two Tigers were batting above .300 (Guillen and Pudge). As of last night’s game, the 2007 Tigers have four (Infante, Polanco, Ordoñez, and Guillen).

If ever there was a classic example of the Tigers being unlucky and falling victim to the normally so-so pitcher who has the game of his life, this would be it (I need some sort of name for this type of performance, because my description of it is way too long; I was gonna go with “One-Hit Wonder,” but that might get misinterpreted if I were to adapt that for use in discussing baseball). I didn’t get home until after Boston scored both their runs, but I kind of heard what happened. It seems that an unfortunate error from Carlos Guillen ended up being the difference (I actually heard this on the radio as I was coming home; the error had just happened as I turned on the ignition, and at first I thought Pudge committed the error, for some reason; I’m glad that wasn’t the case, but this is the second time that an error on Guillen's part cost us the game). Mike Maroth must’ve been REALLY sick for him to miss his start, because from what I’ve heard, these pitchers’ll play through almost anything. Maroth had the flu in Toronto, Chad Durbin pitched one of his starts while battling strep throat, and Justin Verlander apparently had bronchitis when he made his start against Seattle. Zach Miner ended up doing a really nice job. It’s too bad he got tagged with a loss because of one damned unearned run. Tim Byrdak was outstanding for his second appearance, and even Jose Mesa didn’t exactly suck. The problem was that the Boston pitchers didn’t suck, either. Unfortunately, the Indians won today, so now we’ve got a bit of catching up to do.

Usually I spend the second paragraph of the post discussing the Tigers’ offense, but there really wasn’t much by the time I got home. I did see the inning where the Tigers loaded the bases, but that was with two walks and a single from Polanco. After Maggs flied out, the Tigers pretty much went 1-2-3 from then on (as a matter of fact, so did the Red Sox for the most part, but no one’s gonna remember that). The good news is that Polanco broke through his mini-slump with his base hit. The bad news is that one game after going 3-for-4, Pudge reversed that trend and went hitless (though the commentators gave him lots of props for calling the game). He’s back to being “pull-happy,” as the FSN guys call it. The first three times he was up, he hit groundballs to the shortstop, and the final time he was at bat, he struck out, which is actually the first time he has done that since Sunday, if memory serves me correctly (I’m not sure about Sunday being the last time he struck out, but I know he didn’t strike out at all Monday or Tuesday). Perhaps I’m reading too much into his going hitless today, cuz Granderson, Maggs, Casey, and Monroe all went hitless as well (Monroe scored a run, but he had been walked). I suppose I shall see what I can make of it once I see how he does tomorrow night (Why not tonight? Because I am convinced that he will not be in tonight’s game).

Tonight, Chad Durbin goes up against Curt Schilling. Durbin’s been outstanding in three of his last four outings, and totally sucked once in his last four (though that was the game in which he had strep throat, so perhaps there’s an explanation). Curt Schilling is regarded as one of the best pitchers in the American League. According to the Bloggers Who Know Way More About This Than I Do, he’s been pretty good at shutting down the Tigers’ offense in years past, as well as Gary Sheffield. As I detailed in the above paragraph, I am 100% sure that Rabelo will get the start instead of Pudge, and we might see Marcus Thames come in for Craig Monroe in left field. Craig fouled a ball off his foot during one at-bat in very much the same manner that Pudge did a few weeks ago (and that left him sidelined for most of the series against Minnesota; come to think of it, that’s about when his slump began). I know the Tigers’ offense doesn’t seem to like cold weather, but it’s gonna have to deal with it tonight, cuz apparently it didn’t get very warm in Boston today.  

EDIT: I want to correct something I said in my earlier post today. I said that Ramon Santiago was on the Disabled List. He's not on the DL, but I don't know where he is.

UPDATE: I was 2-for-2 in my predictions. Rabelo and Thames are in the lineup, which means that Pudge and Monroe are sitting out for this one. Damn.

I got home from work last night to discover the game had been rained out. I kinda figured that would happen. At any rate, there is now a doubleheader today, and I’m kind of at a loss as to how I’m going to do posts on two games in one day. I don’t want to combine them all into one post because: A) That would take up WAY too much space, and B) I’m not sure how I’d convey the proper tone should the Tigers win one and lose the other. I suppose I’ll try to do a post on the first game in the two-hours-or-so between games, if the AP’ll cooperate with pictures (where appropriate; you may have noticed that I’m not as picture-happy when the Tigers lose). Unfortunately, the possibility of a doubleheader never crossed my mind when I set my schedule this week, so when the day game starts, I’ll be at the dentist getting a filling (no brainer as to which place I’d rather be). I will probably be able to catch most of the game, albeit a little numb (Novocain is your friend during the procedure, but I sure wish it’d wear off faster), and I can catch the entire night game. Speaking of “catch” (Oh my God, that was the absolute worst segue I have ever written), I am 100% sure that Pudge will not start one of the two games, but I’m not quite sure which (I’m also 90% sure he’ll be joined by one of the other regulars in getting one game off, but as I honestly have no clue, I’ll go for broke and say Brandon Inge again). If I had a choice, I would prefer that Rabelo start the day game, for reasons which should be obvious (see above description of my scheduling issues), but Jim Leyland loves to mess with my head, so we’ll see.

Now, onto the little story which inspired the title of this post. It really isn’t all that funny, but perhaps it’ll give you a glimpse into what I have to deal with on a daily basis (and then maybe you’ll understand why I’d rather talk about baseball). A guy came through the drive-thru at the pharmacy today and as I waited on him, I realized that he bore a rather striking resemblance to Pudge Rodriguez. This guy was American (as far as I know), his name didn’t look Hispanic (although, as demonstrated by Mike Lowell of the Boston Red Sox, that doesn’t really mean anything), his hair was slightly longer and he didn’t have the same intense look in his eye that Pudge often has, but his eyebrows, skin tone, hair color, facial structure, and jaw were an almost perfect match. Come to think of it, the title of this post is probably a bit misleading. I suppose the guy wasn’t evil, but he certainly wasn’t very bright (I guess that would be another difference between “Guy at Pharmacy” and the real deal). He came to pick up his Nasonex, but the refill was about five days too early for his insurance to pay for. He said he was completely out, and then asked me, “Can’t I use it as much as I want?” First of all, as we in the general public are frequently told by Antonio Banderas in bee form on TV, Nasonex is a “once daily medication.” Second, the instructions (or “sig” as we in the industry call it) on the guy’s prescription label, which are written by the doctor and checked by the pharmacist, clearly say “Spray into each nostril ONCE DAILY.” Long story short: Pudge’s evil twin has been overdosing on Nasonex for two weeks. The guy was fairly nice about it, but I don’t want to see any more customers who look like Major League Baseball players. Their counterparts in the Big Leagues seem to have gotten all the brains.

I’m gonna try to start a new feature here about the Tigers called “One Year Ago.” It’s pretty self-explanatory: I’ll give a brief synopsis of how the Tigers did in their game exactly one year ago (if there was a game). I’m gonna try to use it as a way of gauging how they were doing last year versus this year. Either that, or I’ll end up looking very anal-retentive. It’ll be a nice history lesson for me as well, cuz though I’ve been faithful and devoted to the Tigers my entire life, I kind of zoned out on the identities of individual players until about mid-July of last year (In fact, between the Cecil Fielder days and whoever’s been on the current roster the longest, I couldn’t name a single Tiger for you). I wasn’t able to watch them a whole lot during college cuz Denison obviously wouldn’t carry FSN Detroit, so I became so oblivious to their performance that it took me until last year to realize just how bad the 2003 season was. I started watching it more last year, but I really didn’t think I was gonna learn the name of each and every guy on the 25-man roster, cuz as I explained before, it’s dangerous to have favorite players. However, fate apparently had a different plan, and by the World Series, I pretty much knew who everyone was. It took me a really long time, though. The first guy I figured out was Kenny Rogers, mostly cuz I had heard of him before and because I thought he looked a lot like George Clooney (and also because I just happened to tune into a lot of his starts). It didn’t take me long to consistently identify Magglio Ordoñez, either (must’ve been the hair). I heard the name “Pudge” in the very first game I saw last season, but it took me an inexplicably long time to connect the name with any one person. Once I did, though, I got really amused by the name, and then I started realizing that he was damn good at what he did, which has lead to him being my Tiger (though he didn’t gain that status until one of the last games of the World Series). With the exception of Pudge (and the pitchers), it took me a really long time to match names with their positions, and I honestly didn’t figure out who Brandon Inge was until Game 1 of the World Series. Anyways, you’ve now got me babbling on what was supposed to be a short post. Here’s my first bit: On May 17, 2006, the Tigers beat the Twins at Comerica 2-0, giving the Tigers their sixth straight victory. The game was scoreless until the eighth inning, when Tigers backup catcher Vance Wilson hit a two-run homer off Johan Santana. As I read this (keep in mind that I did NOT see any of these early games, and I probably only saw about 15-20 regular season games total last year, so most of these are gonna come from what I’ve read in the “2006 Recap” section of the official website), the fact that the homerun came from Wilson is kind of interesting. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe I’ve ever seen Vance Wilson play. I MIGHT have back when I didn’t know who anybody was, but I clearly remember hearing the name “Pudge” go by frequently in the games I saw, so it’s unlikely. He’s been on the DL for the entire 2007 thus far (though he is catching in the bullpen, which means that he could be ready to go soon), so I’ve yet to see what he can do. Rabelo took forever to get his first hit, but he’s been decent at the plate his last couple times out, so while I can’t realistically imagine him hitting a home run, he might just surprise us all and hit one before his tenure is through. Anyways, a couple more tidbits from last year: Other Tigers I’ve never seen from that day were Chris Shelton at first base (he now plays for Toledo), and Ramon Santiago at second base (I believe he’s on the Disabled List right now). Pudge was the DH for the game (Ahh, so he HAS done that before; I feel a little better now), but went hitless, as did most of the rest of the lineup. It was kind of a bizarre game in that Justin Verlander went eight shutout innings, but didn’t strike out a single Minnesota batter (He did pick off Nick Punto at one point, though). The victory improved Detroit’s record to 26-13 (better than they are right now, but not by much), and gave them at least 2-out-of-3 in their series against Minnesota (which is something they did NOT do this year at home; however, they were able to do it at the Metrodome).

UPDATE: Zach Miner has been called up from Toledo to start the day game because Mike Maroth is sick (I'm kind of nervous about them using a spot starter against a team like the Red Sox, but it's not like they have a choice and Maroth didn't have good numbers against Boston anyways). Plus, it looks like I did not get my "wish" as to which game Pudge doesn't start, as all nine regulars will be getting the start this afternoon.

It turned out to be a good thing that this game was in Boston and not in Detroit, cuz we got some pretty big storms around here (our backyard now has a ton of tree branches in it, and from what I hear, we were lucky the power didn’t go out), and I believe the weather was very similar up in Motown. The Tigers got themselves a huge win last night, which featured some nice outings from my Tiger (Pudge, in case you didn’t realize) as well as the boys who round out my top three (Maggs and Verlander). Justin showed exactly why he is my starting pitcher of choice for the Tigers. He was outstanding. He did exactly what Leyland needed him to do, which was to give the bullpen a rest, and he got himself several 1-2-3 innings in the process. He did give up a solo homerun in the eighth (and prior to that, the Red Sox had gone an astounding 49 innings with no homeruns), but I imagine he was getting pretty tired by that point. The most amazing moment of the night, though, was Justin Verlander getting a standing ovation from the Red Sox fans. I’d have to believe that THAT is very rare indeed. Rodney did all right, but someone really needs to teach him how to field the ball.

Brandon Inge started the run-scoring with his solo homerun (one of the more painful ones for J.D. Drew, I imagine), but the offense ended up featuring contributions from pretty much everyone except Marcus Thames and, oddly enough, Carlos Guillen (Polanco went hitless, but did reach first base on a walk; by the way, this was the first time that Polanco played in Fenway Park since his injury last August). However, the highlight footage of the game is gonna be Maggs hitting the ball over the Green Monster and out into the parking lot (and it was headed for the street last time I saw it). I loved the way his eyes lit up when he hit that ball. The amazing part is that it was a knuckleball, so Maggs had to have been supplying most of that power.

It was a big night for Pudge as well (You know prior to last night he was 5 for his last 38? Geez, even I didn’t think he was doing THAT badly). He was the first Tiger to get a hit against Wakefield (that really surprised me, not because he’s been struggling, but because he’s such an aggressive hitter), and ended up going 3 for 4 with two singles, a double, and his first RBI in weeks. After a bad call from Gene Lamont caused Pudge to get tagged out at the plate, he rebounded and got the run in the eighth. The commentators attributed this to the fact that he had a “good secondary lead” off second base, and ended up having a lengthy dialogue about it (hence the title of my post). They also gave him props for his game-calling (By the way, the AP sure provided some really unflattering pictures of him, didn’t they?).

Tonight’s game pits Mike Maroth against Julian Tavarez. Tavarez seems to be Boston’s weakest pitcher, but Maroth has never fared well against the Red Sox. Run support is gonna be key, and I have a feeling the Tigers’ll get into the bullpen tonight, so they’re gonna have to be ready to roll (we should have most of the bullpen available). This is also going to be a nationally televised game on ESPN, but I’ll stick with FSN. On second thought, I’m going to be at work tonight, so I may just have to catch the replay. However, the Boston area is expecting the same weather system that we got last night, so the chances for a game are not as high as they could be.

The Tigers ran into a brick wall named Daisuke Matsusaka last night, who had to pick this game to show what he was made of. The Red Sox offense did exactly what the Tigers have been doing to opposing pitchers for most of this season. They worked Nate Robertson to the point of exhaustion. Nate had a short, but relatively solid outing, and kept things close. Tim Byrdak made an impressive debut, going two scoreless innings. The problem was Bobby Seay, who, after having several outstanding games over the past few weeks, faltered and allowed four runs. As I said last week, every pitcher is gonna have a bad outing every now and then (unfortunately, the Tigers bullpen is really good at having bad outings all at the same time), so I’m not gonna read too much into that-yet.

I have to imagine that fatigue might have been a factor in something, because the Tigers didn’t arrive in Boston until about five in the morning, after having played a three-and-a-half-hour game Sunday night. They’ve gotta be a little drained. For the second night in a row, I did not watch the end of the game, but for a different reason. This time, I just couldn’t watch Pudge be the final out. As much as I like him, I know he’s been struggling, and I pretty much knew he wouldn’t be able to get anything going against Matsusaka (then again, at that point I would’ve had that assessment about pretty much any of the Tigers except maybe Curtis Granderson). Granderson seemed to have Daisuke’s number early on, culminating in a home run against him. The lefties seemed to have better luck, because until late in the game (when Maggs doubled and Gary Sheffield singled), the only righty who got a hit against him was Pudge (who also never struck out last night, which really surprised me).

The Tigers defense was pretty good. Curtis Granderson made a couple of sparkling plays out in center field. Pudge was totally robbed of an increase in his caught stealing percentage (there has to be a noun for that statistic, but I don’t know what it is; everything I look at just calls it “caught stealing”), as the instant replay clearly showed that Neifi Perez made the tag to Lugo before he reached second base. Pudge got his revenge later on in what I guess could be one of those “turnabout is fair play” instances where he successfully convinced the umpire to call a Red Sox batter out on interference when Pudge was trying to throw to second. The commentators decided that it was a bad call by the umpire, but they were really happy with something that Pudge did, though I’m not sure what (as for me, I couldn’t tell you if it was a bad call or not, cuz I’m not entirely sure what happened in the first place, but I do remember someone saying “Pudge deserves an Emmy for that one”). Carlos Guillen did make one play that, in all honesty, should have been an error, but it was ruled an infield hit. Other than that, the defense pretty much did all they could do.

Okay, you heard it here first: I specifically said last time that the game was gonna be a challenge for the Tigers. I just mistakenly made the assumption that the game was gonna be a challenge for the offense, not the pitching. The offense was actually fairly decent, and had the bench guys not all been called in during the seventh, the boys might have made a few more runs. However, as the ESPN guys pointed out several times, all four Tigers pitchers just could not get the ball down. I’m not sure why this was suddenly a problem in the final game of the series, and I’m not sure why it was a problem for all four pitchers. Whatever it was, even the Tigers offense couldn’t keep up. To tell you the truth, I didn’t watch the end of the game. I’m all for the “nine full innings” motto, so when I sense that Jim Leyland is giving up, I lose interest. When Marcus Thames went in for Craig Monroe, I started getting a little distracted. Then Omar Infante and Neifi Perez went in for Maggs and Guillen, and I lost even more focus, especially since I knew Pudge would be the next to go, and I was right. When that happened, I gave up. By that time, it was after 11:00, and I hadn’t gotten a whole lot of sleep the night before, so it was time to call it a night. I’m trying to figure out where to put this as far as perspective goes. We DID take two out of three, which is the important part, I suppose, but I really wanted this win, since the Tigers’ next opponent is bound to be even tougher (more on that in a moment). Luckily, Cleveland also lost, so Detroit’s first place standing has not been affected (and by the way, I did some research, and Detroit’s record is exactly the same as it was this time last year, 23-13).

I did feel really bad for Virgil Vasquez. Nothing he tried seemed to work, and he honestly looked devastated (though I read on one blog that both Justin Verlander and Zach Miner, who is currently with Toledo, lost in their test starts as well). I’m sure he’s normally a good pitcher, since he’s regarded as Toledo’s best starter. The pressure of having his Major League debut on national television must’ve gotten to him. I do hope he gets another chance eventually, just not at the Metrodome. The bullpen, like I said, had the exact same problem with all the pitches being too high, which either gave rise to walks, hits, or home runs from the Minnesota batters. As far as the Tigers offense went, things started off pretty well (and probably would have kept that momentum had the pitchers not been hemorrhaging runs). Magglio’s two-run homer in the first comes to mind, in particular. Granderson, Casey, and Inge all had two hits. Pudge was once again held hitless, but so was Guillen. Even though Pudge didn’t get any hits, I’m starting to sense that he’s swinging the bat a little bit better, and that he’s being a bit more diligent at the plate. Recently, he’s been hitting a lot of ground balls to either the shortstop or the third baseman, and he didn’t do that at all last night. His first time out, he struck out looking, which is unusual for Pudge (he strikes out a lot, but it’s usually from a swing and a miss), but Maggs also struck out looking on that exact same breaking ball, so I guess it’s just a tough pitch to gauge. His other two times at bat, he managed to work himself into a full count (I could be wrong, but I think that’s the first time this season). His second time up, he flied out to right field. It was well-hit, but it just didn’t have quite enough. The last time he was up, he grounded out to the second baseman (and nearly made it to first base when the second baseman bobbled it). Granted, that’s still a groundout, but at least it wasn’t to the shortstop or the third baseman, which indicates that he’s finding right field again (as the FSN commentators have said, he’s “been a little pull-happy” recently).

This was my first time watching the game with the ESPN commentators, and while I liked them better than the FOX Saturday Baseball guys, I think I prefer the guys on FSN. They spent an awfully long time talking about Torii Hunter’s batting stance and how it compares to pretty much every other power hitter ever. They also devoted a lot of time talking about the way Gary Sheffield wiggles his bat when he’s at the plate. One thing they did do which surprised me is that when they discussed Pudge, they referred to him as “Pudge” about 90% of the time. Occasionally they’d call him by his real name, but not very often. This was totally not the case during the World Series. To the World Series commentators, he was always “Ivan Rodriguez.” The play-by-play guy had a funny way of pronouncing “Rodriguez,” though (He also pronounced “Magglio” really weird). The ESPN cameras seemed to get the color balance in the Metrodome better than the FSN or FOX cameras, because the orange parts of the Tigers uniforms were no longer BRIGHT orange (During the Friday night game, Pudge’s mask was so BRIGHT orange that it was practically glowing; Rabelo didn’t have the same problem on Saturday, mostly cuz his mask is not a solid color).

Tonight, the Tigers are in Fenway Park, where they’ll be facing the Green Monster and the Boston Red Sox for the next four days, and we aren’t about to be eased into this series slowly, as Boston’s starting pitcher for this game is none other than Daisuke Matsusaka (Sometimes I don’t understand Microsoft Word. It recognizes “Daisuke” as a word, but it frequently tells me that “Pudge” is not a word). I’m surprised that his record isn’t better than 4-2, but I know the Tigers certainly won’t allow that to let their guard down. Nate Robertson is gonna start for us, and I’m pretty sure that Jim Leyland is gonna want Nate to stay out there for about seven innings, because the bullpen is really taxed right now (if I can recall correctly, the only pitchers we have available are Bobby Seay, Fernando Rodney, Todd Jones, and Tim Byrdak, who was just called up from Toledo to fill the seventh spot in the bullpen). It’s not gonna get any easier for us, either. Tomorrow’s starting pitcher for the Red Sox is the guy with the lowest ERA in the American League. I don’t recognize Wednesday’s starter, and by process of elimination (since I read yesterday that Josh Beckett was not scheduled to start against the Tigers), that leaves the dreaded Schilling for Thursday. See why I wanted us to win last night’s game? Luckily, we ARE currently ten games above .500, but I don’t want to lose too much ground on the Central Division lead, should Cleveland reclaim it. I’ve never seen the Tigers play the Red Sox before. I know that they’ve beaten them in the past, but I have no idea how (I do know one game in which they beat them last season was the one where Polanco was hurt). At least Fenway Park has real grass and real dirt. I’m sick of all the astroturf, and I’m sure the Tigers are as well.

Well, it seems my question about Chad Durbin was answered quite well in this game, as he did another fine job yesterday. Things got a bit dicey for him in the sixth (his last inning), and he loaded the bases in the second (?), but he got a few opportune double play balls and the defense backed him up well. The Tigers have now taken two out of three at the Metrodome, which is no easy task (I suppose it balances things out, since the Twins took two out of three at Comerica). Craig Monroe had quite a day offensively, as did Maggs and Gary Sheffield. Rabelo got a double and another RBI. Granderson, Inge, and Casey were all held hitless, but Casey was the only one of those three never to reach base (Happens to someone every game, doesn’t it?). Once again, Jim Leyland screwed up my track record when it comes to being wrong about who gets the day off, though this time I did soften the blow by using percentages, and I only got one out of three correct (Granted, it was the one I DIDN’T particularly want to be correct on, but what can you do?). Since Pudge was the only “regular” to get the day off (as opposed to Thursday, when Craig Monroe also got the day off), I wanted to find out why. The only blogger that mentioned it (who I believe is a Pudge fan, but I could be wrong) thought that it’s because Pudge has been struggling of late, but Jim Leyland said it’s because of the beating that he took Friday night behind the plate (which I touched on in my post about that game). He should be back in the lineup tonight, according to Leyland (with Leyland being so protective of Pudge, I’m surprised Maggs has been playing right field in the Metrodome, cuz that artificial turf is supposedly really hard on your knees; there were a couple times in Toronto where Gary Sheffield played right field and Maggs was the DH). And speaking of getting beat up, it always sucks when a player gets hurt, even if they’re on the other team. Twins third baseman Nick Punto caught Brandon Inge’s line drive and threw to first to try to get Craig Monroe out, but the ball bounced off the dirt (?), hit Justin Morneau square in the face, and took him out of the game with a broken nose. That was one of the most painful-looking things I have seen all season.

For as much as I enjoy offensive onslaughts from the Tigers, I actually found yesterday’s game to be kinda boring, actually, and it wasn’t just because Pudge was not in the lineup (he wasn’t in the lineup on Thursday and I still enjoyed that game). For one thing, it was broadcast “nationwide” (well, to 8% of the nation, at any rate) as part of Fox Saturday Baseball, which means that the game did not have the usual FSN commentators. I really didn’t like yesterday’s commentators all that much. They said many, many nice things about the Tigers, which I appreciated (especially since most of the media has yet to take the Tigers seriously), but their commentary lacked the sort of personality that the FSN guys have. Plus, they would get onto a subject and absolutely talk it to death (Sean Casey and NASCAR being prime examples). They would start talking about Sean Casey when he was at bat (in the #6 spot), and suddenly it would be three batters later, with Rabelo at the plate, and the commentators were STILL talking about Sean Casey. They spent entire top half of the ninth inning talking about Dale Earnhart Jr, which doesn’t have a damn thing to do with baseball. At a couple points during the game I kept hearing what sounded like a train horn, but no one provided any explanation. Also, they tried doing that “Sounds of the Game” thing that the FSN guys did with Mike Maroth a couple weeks ago, but it didn’t really work. One guy they had miked up was Nick Punto, the guy whose throw broke Justin Morneau’s nose. Most of the “sounds of the game” they got from him were laced with disappointment, frustration, and guilt. The other guy that they had a mike on was one of the umpires, but they only cut to him once, and it was some footage of him talking to Pudge before the game. That didn’t really work either, for a couple reasons. First, the umpire (who was talking about the fact that his daughter was at the game) spoke in that barking tone that you stereotypically associate with umpires, and I couldn’t understand anything he said beyond “My daughter’s at the game today.” Second, he was standing too far away from Pudge, so while I could see that Pudge was responding to him, I couldn’t hear anything he said.

The Metrodome is a weird stadium. First of all, the “bullpen” isn’t really a bullpen. It’s an area off the side of the field. There are no walls or other enclosures that would make it a “bullpen.” Second, the Metrodome seems to do weird things to the cameras. For the past two days, the Olde English “D” on the Tigers’ hats has been really blurry. Anything that’s orange (especially the orange trim on the catcher’s gear) is suddenly BRIGHT orange. Plus, it seems to be really hard for the camera to get long shots in focus. I was watching yesterday’s game, and at one point they had a shot of one of the Tigers at bat (can’t remember who, but it had to be a lefty), with a view of the Tigers dugout in the distance. I could see Jim Leyland clearly, but there was someone standing next to the dugout, and I couldn’t tell if it was Pudge or Aquilino Lopez, and they don’t look anything alike (It turned out to be Pudge, which makes sense, since Lopez would probably have been in the “bullpen” at the time). I’m not trying to trash-talk the Metrodome, but I definitely prefer Comerica Park. As another random note (that actually has nothing to do with the Metrodome), I’d like to add that Chad Durbin is another guy whose voice does not match his face.

Tonight’s game will be broadcast on ESPN as part of Sunday Night Baseball, so we’ll once again be with unfamiliar commentators. Let’s hope they’re better than the FOX guys. Jeremy Bonderman was scheduled to start tonight, but he’s still having blister problems, so Virgil Vasquez has been called up from Toledo to make the start. He’ll be facing Boof Bonser (I’m gonna assume that’s a nickname), who has been pretty good in his last few starts, or so I’ve read. Pudge should be back in the lineup for the Tigers (and if any of the regulars miss the game, I’m gonna say it’ll be Brandon Inge), and Justin Morneau has said he’ll play tonight for the Twins, broken nose and all. The previews seem to be handing this one to Detroit, but I get the feeling it’ll be more of a challenge than they think it is. Tonight is that “Pink Bats for Breast Cancer Awareness” thing that’s going on all over baseball. I’m proud to say that most, if not all, of the Tigers will be using the pink bats (the only one whose name I have not seen is Omar Infante).