In a truly proper slugfest, the lead changes several times. In this game, the lead changed only twice, but it’s close enough for me, and as I’ve said before, I’m usually not that bothered by losses in proper slugfests, although the Tigers really could use a win right about now. Suffice it to say that Jordan Tata did nothing good for his ERA, and really, only a handful of pitchers on either team lowered their ERA in this game. Tata only lasted two innings, the bullpen was already somewhat taxed (Grilli will almost certainly not be available tomorrow, and I would think McBride and Miner would be questionable as well), and with that combination, trying to hold a one-run lead when you’ve still got four innings to go is really a tall order for any pitching staff, especially on a night when balls were being hit hard off everyone. That said, all of the Tigers pitchers (with the exception of Tata and maybe Grilli) had ups and downs. Macay McBride pitched two scoreless innings before giving up the grand slam to Jack Cust (and the irony of it is that probably about 99% of guys would never be able to hit it out to dead center). Obviously, McBride was left in for one inning too long. Zach Miner was roughed up when he first came out, but once he settled in, he looked pretty good. Fernando Rodney looked really good once again, and it’s a shame they can’t get him into the role he’s meant for more often.

Say what you will about the pitching, but the other end of the vicious cycle has been broken, at least for now. The offense was alive and well in this game (though oddly enough, the Tigers only had nine hits). I’d like to officially welcome back the bats of Gary Sheffield and Marcus Thames (that’s seven grand slams for the Tigers this year, which leads the majors). Magglio has reclaimed the lead in the batting title chase (coming into tonight, he was third, behind Ichiro and Polanco). The only ones who were totally unproductive offensively were Rabelo and Infante. Oddly enough, they made the last two outs in each of the Tigers’ big innings, so if you were really mean, you could say they were actually kind of a hindrance, although I’m not sure I would go so far as to say that neither of them should have started. For one thing, you’d change the batting order, and then perhaps things would not have proceeded in the same way.

A couple other random notes: First of all, Polanco is one game away from tying the Major League record for most consecutive games without an error for a second baseman. He’s expected to start tonight. Also, FSN is slipping a bit on their gratuitous shots of Pudge in games he doesn’t play. They only had one last night (It was early in the game and he was having a rather lighthearted conversation with Kenny Rogers that involved him pointing at the bridge of his nose and crossing his eyes). Ironically, I got to thinking that in all the videotaping I did during Monday night’s game (the game I was at), I kind of built in my own gratuitous shots of Pudge. They weren’t that exciting though (talking to Leyland, talking to Craig Monroe around the water jugs, smiling and waving at some kids that were behind the dugout, and congratulating Guillen on his triple).

Tonight, one would expect runs to be at a premium, because it’s a rematch between Justin Verlander and Dan Haren. Verlander’s been a little shaky recently, and it’s time he straightened himself out. He’ll have to, because Leyland needs him to go deep into this game. The bullpen is nearly stretched to the breaking point right now. Dan Haren only gave up two runs to the Tigers his last time out, but hopefully the Tiger offense can stay alive for another game. By the way, tonight is Latin Night (also called “¡Fiesta Tigres!”), and so they’re gonna have some events honoring the contribution that the Latino players have made to baseball. They’ve certainly contributed to the Tigers this year. Four of the starting nine are from Latin American countries. Anyways, they were advertising this on the official website, but whoever did their ad didn’t do a very good job, cuz the pictures were just really bad-looking, and it wasn’t composed very well. Feeling creative, I tinkered around in Photoshop for about an hour and a half and came up with something much better:

And so I’m really hoping the Tigers win tonight, cuz I don’t want my hard work to go to waste. Or, to put it another way: ¡Quiero una victoria por los Tigres! I’ll be at work from 4-9, so I’ll only be able to get the late innings.

One Year Ago: On August 11, 2006, the Tigers began their road trip by losing to the Chicago White Sox 5-0. Justin Verlander was rocked for thirteen hits and five runs (four earned) in just five innings of work. Meanwhile, Jose Contreras pitched a three-hit complete-game shutout against the Tigers.

2006 record: 76-39

2007 record: 63-52

You know, one these days, I’ll manage to see an entire game, but until, I must once again apologize for any vagueness I may have. This time, though, I saw the first six innings, and heard the top of the seventh on the radio. This post is gonna be a bit more jumbled than usual, because I’m working on a certain premise, and that is that recently, the Tigers may have entered into a vicious cycle. Recently, it seems that the starters just haven’t been getting any run support. Therefore, they have to pitch in stress because that means they have to be perfect, and when someone does that, the stress is gonna get to them, and they’ll start making mistakes, first by giving up maybe one or two runs, and then eventually they’ll start hemorrhaging runs which puts the game out of reach. Meanwhile, the offense, after going three or four innings with one or no runs scored, start trying too hard and as a result they become too aggressive and either strike out a lot or try to pull stuff they shouldn’t and end up hitting ground balls to the shortstop. And around and around we go. Such was the case with Bonderman today, who apparently stayed out one inning longer than he should have (losing 4-1 sucks, but it doesn’t look as bad as 8-1). The bullpen wasn’t too bad. Tim Byrdak gave up the rest of Bonderman’s runs, plus an unearned run of his own (and the passed ball happened sometime between me leaving the house and going to the car, so I know nothing of the circumstances, but the fact that it happened leads me to conclude that Pudge probably should not have played, and you know that’s something when it comes from me). I did not see nor hear Bobby Seay’s performance, so I can’t really comment on it, but he didn’t give up any runs. And it’s ironic: For the past two weeks, I’ve been commenting on the fact that the pitchers need to cut down on the walks. Well, in the past two games, they’ve done just that (Bonderman walked three, but they were all in the traditional bad first inning, and Byrdak had an intentional walk, but that doesn’t really count). Now they’re just getting hit. Maybe the pitchers all need to reinvent themselves, cuz it seems that the other teams have all of a sudden become psychic and just know what they’re gonna get.

Meanwhile, the offense has now run out of excuses, cuz Sheffield’s back and so is Marcus Thames, although from what I hear, Scott Kazmir is no product of the Reyes Effect. They only managed three hits off of him, but in the end they were able to get themselves up to eight. And yet Omar Infante was the only Tiger with an RBI in this game. Clutch hitting seems to have gone away, as was the case in the fourth inning, when they had runners at first and second with nobody out. A strikeout and a double steal later, the runners were at second and third with one out. All Carlos Guillen needed to do was hit a ground ball to the shortstop or the second baseman. Instead, he struck out, and Pudge was not able to get the base hit to drive in the run. Speaking of Pudge, he really should not have played yesterday, cuz it just wasn’t his day. Bonderman never bothered to hold Carl Crawford on first base, and when he took off, Pudge had no chance of throwing him out (and people wonder why his numbers are down this year; there’s your answer, folks). He went hitless, his batting average has dipped below .280, he grounded into a double play, and he had a passed ball. And now he’ll probably have to wait until tomorrow night to make up for it. By the way, it seems that no one could lay off the elevated fastball yesterday. I expect as much from Pudge, but Magglio and Guillen should know better. Speaking of Maggs, this series has taken its toll on him. Polanco’s batting average is now higher (Polanco also kept the extra-base hit streak alive by hitting a double).

On a lighter note, I think I found out exactly why I found the badly Photoshopped picture of Pudge on ‘70s Night so disturbing (though not half as creepy as Guillen’s). One of the more prominent bloggers (the same one that discovered the Rabelo/Jones mismatch) was at the game, and so he saw all the pictures. In his description he mentioned that the ‘70s Pudge “was the spitting image of Erik Estrada.” Upon further thought, I realized he was right. Now I’m REALLY gonna have nightmares…

Starting tonight, the Oakland Athletics come to town for a four-game series. Oakland is a below .500 club, but what they do have is very good pitching, so the Tigers starters absolutely must do a better job than they’ve been doing (Boy, they must be missing Kenny Rogers about now. He has great career numbers against the A’s). The first three games in this series is gonna feature the exact same pitching matchups as they did back when the Tigers were in Oakland a couple weeks ago. First up: A rematch between Jordan Tata and Joe Blanton. Tata pitched pretty well in his start against the Athletics (although he kinda played with fire all night, cuz he kept getting behind in the count), and from what I hear, he was somewhat erratic against the White Sox, but limited the damage (not that it mattered). The Tigers had a reasonable amount of success against Joe Blanton, but apparently he pitched very well in his last start against the Angels, and with the luck this team has been having, you can’t count on lighting striking twice. As far as the lineup goes, I’m just about 100% sure that Pudge will not play (and to tell you the truth, I’d rather have him play tomorrow night anyways, even though I will be at work during that game), but I have no clue as to the rest of the lineup.

UPDATES: Lineups are posted, and this time I'm right. Rabelo's catching, and Infante is at third base once again. Marcus Thames has beat out Ryan Raburn and Craig Monroe for the start at left field.

Okay, now that the obligatory ‘70s title is out of the way, let’s move on to the report (by the way, I only saw the end of the game, from about the bottom of the seventh on, plus I heard part of the top of the seventh on the radio, so keep that in mind). As much as everyone wanted the Tigers to sweep the Rays, it’s a tall order, no matter which team you’re facing, especially in a four-game series. From what I hear, Chad Durbin didn’t pitch THAT badly, but it’s gonna take him a while to get re-accustomed to that starter’s role, and therefore he only lasted 4 1/3 innings. The bullpen was kinda 50/50. The lefties (McBride and Seay) had problems, while the righties (Grilli and Miner) pitched well enough. Granted, the Rays had sixteen hits, which doesn’t speak well for any pitcher, but I’ve noticed that when the Rays do win, they tend to put up a TON of hits like that (and they’ve done it against other good teams as well; the Yankees come to mind). One odd comment I heard from either the radio guys or the FSN guys was that the Tigers pitchers may have been throwing too many strikes. This is somewhat ironic, as I’ve been complaining that all the pitchers need to get the walks down. Therefore, I shall not weigh in any further.

I know the bullpen is gonna get the brunt of this one from the fans, but when your offense only gets you one run, there’s only one way to win, and 1-0 victories just don’t happen that often. It usually doesn’t bode well for the Tigers if the opposing team’s starting pitcher strikes Polanco out not once, but twice. After handcuffing the Tigers offense not once, but twice, I’m officially removing my “Reyes Effect” moniker on James Shields and I will give him full props. How the hell does this guy have an ERA of 4.32? In another twist of irony, the offense goes cold on the night Sheffield returns (ironic because I’ve been talking a lot about how the team needs him), although Sheffield did chip in with a double. Polanco rescued the Tigers from being shut out by hitting a home run, but that was about it. Apparently, the only other real scoring opportunity for the Tigers came in the fifth, when Pudge and Casey led things off with back-to-back singles, but Shields came back to strike out Raburn, Inge, and Granderson to strand them. In fact, the only Tiger to not strike out at all during the game was Sean Casey. Maggs, Guillen, and Raburn all went hitless (and Raburn probably had the roughest night of anyone, striking out three times).

As I’ve already mentioned a couple of times, it was ‘70s night at Comerica Park, and yesterday I wondered what all that would entail. Apparently, it involved badly Photoshopping ‘70s hair and clothing on those publicity stills of the Tigers that they have up on the screen whenever the Tigers are batting. This was accompanied by their name in a ‘70s-style font. Whoever thought this up, as well as whoever actually did the Photoshopping, must be on some ‘70s-style drugs. They showed a couple of them on TV during the game, and the first one I saw was the one of Pudge. And then they kept showing it almost the entire time Pudge was at bat, to which I could only plead, “Make it stop!” In retrospect, though, I am eternally grateful that they did NOT stick a ‘fro on him. It was a really bad picture, but as I found out later, it could’ve been so much worse. I later saw the ones of Inge and Guillen. For Inge, it looked like they used the same hair template that they used for Pudge, except they made it blonde. As a result, Brandon bore a strange resemblance to Mark Hamill, and not in a good way. Guillen’s was just downright frightening. They put a ‘fro on him, and it about gave me nightmares. I don’t even want to know what they did to Granderson or Sheffield. Or Polanco, for that matter. In other news, Marcus Thames made his second rehab start with Toledo last night, this time at first base, and there’s good news: He homered in the ballgame. He will probably be activated today (the general consensus seems to be that Mike Hessman will go back down to Toledo). Also, Joel Zumaya will pitch to a “live batter” today, and if all goes well, he could begin a rehab assignment as soon as Monday, while Andrew Miller may make a rehab start in about a week as well. Kenny Rogers, however, is not making as much progress as he’d hoped to, so he may be shelved a little while longer.          

Today is the final game against Tampa Bay this season. Jeremy Bonderman starts for the Tigers. He learned the hard way his last time out that while a bad first inning is forgiveable, giving up four runs might be just a bit too much, even for an offense like the Tigers’. He’ll be up against Scott Kazmir, who has been described as the ace of the Rays’ pitching staff. That said, it’s tough to tell what’ll happen. It could be a pitching duel of the ages, or one or both of them might not show up. As far as the lineup goes, it’s anyone’s guess. Brandon Inge will probably not be there, as his wife is due to give birth today, so my guess is that Omar Infante will play third base. There is a strong possibility that if Marcus Thames is activated off the DL, he will start at first base, so that leaves the question of who to put in left field: Raburn or Monroe? As for the catcher, Pudge has one thing going for him (Kazmir’s a lefty, and for some reason, Jim Leyland has shied away from starting Rabelo against lefties, for the most part), and two things going against him (It’s the day game after a night game and he’s been playing for the past two nights with a sore ankle). That leads me to conclude that Rabelo will start.

One Year Ago: On August 9, 2006, the Tigers finished their homestand by losing to the Minnesota Twins 4-3. Most of the game was marked by a pitching duel between Jeremy Bonderman and Johan Santana. Minnesota led 1-0 for most of the game. Detroit tied things up in the bottom of the sixth, but Minnesota came right back in the top of the seventh. Then in the bottom of the seventh, Brandon Inge hit a two-run shot off Santana to put the Tigers in the lead, 3-2. However, in the top of the eighth, Joel Zumaya gave up a two-run homer to Justin Morneau to put the Twins back on top for good. This was the first time Detroit had lost a series since before the All-Star Break, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last. By the way, Pudge once again started at first base (and proceeded to have no luck whatsoever against Santana, which seems to be commonplace), but was replaced by Sean Casey later in the game for defensive purposes.

2006 record: 76-38

2007 record: 63-50

UPDATE: Lineups are posted. Apparently the lefty starter won out over sore ankles and day games, cuz Pudge is in there (which means he will likely not play tomorrow night, which is unusual for a Friday game). Also, Raburn will start at center for Granderson, and Marcus Thames is starting at first base for Sean Casey, so that means Craig Monroe is indeed in left field. There's a lot of rain in the area, though...

First off, let me say that I would much rather have been at Comerica Park in the sweltering humidity than at work, where we’re critically shorthanded (we’ve had two people quit in the last week, so that means we’re now short four people). I have no idea how this game went by so quickly, what with a whopping thirty hits between the two teams, but when I got home (shortly after 9:00), it was already the top of the eighth inning, but I got a good feeling when I saw that Nate Robertson was still out there. Yeah, Jason Grilli proceeded to undo all of Nate’s hard work by giving up a grand slam, but what can you do? Tim Byrdak was effective, and Jonesy had a fairly routine outing (although he was helped out immensely by a very nice catch by Curtis Granderson…I’m telling you, Granderson, Inge, and Polanco all need to win Gold Gloves this year). I have yet to review the tape, so I’m not gonna be able to get into much detail.

After kind of limping along for the better part of two weeks, the offense showed some signs of life on Monday, and last night it came out full-force. Every Tiger touched base at least once (Craig Monroe went hitless, but he was hit by a pitch and scored a run). Once again, I’m a little vague on the details, cuz the only offense I saw on TV was the bottom of the eighth, so bear with me. That was a great rally, though. Ryan Raburn had quite a night with three hits, plus he started that rally and scored a run on a close play at home plate. Polanco also had three hits (and this was only his second game ever as a DH). Casey, who had a big home run Monday night, knocked in the first and ninth runs of the night for the Tigers. During that eighth inning rally, the Tigers sent eight men to the plate, which means that the only batter I never saw was Pudge, ironically (and he didn’t even succumb to superstition, thank God). Apparently, his ankle is not 100% (I heard someone make mention of the fact that he was not running all that well), but I guess it was good enough that he could play. He did have a single and a run scored. By the way, Pudge must have the fastest-growing facial hair ever, cuz when I saw him on Monday night, he had nowhere near the five o’clock shadow that he had last night. Curtis Granderson, meanwhile, has now joined fellow Tiger Charlie Gehringer as only the second player in team history to have at least 30 doubles, 15 triples, 15 home runs, and 10 stolen bases in a single season. It wasn’t all good news for Granderson, though: He no longer has a perfect stolen base record.

By the way, I forgot to mention this yesterday, but when I was at the game on Monday, I got an autograph from Gates Brown, who was the Tigers’ very first DH, back in 1973. He was also their hitting coach for several years, including the 1984 season. Also, Marcus Thames has started his rehab assignment with the Mud Hens. He was the DH last night, and finished the night with a single, an RBI, and a run scored. He’s supposed to start at first base tonight. And finally, Barry Bonds is the new home run king. He hit #756 last night. I don’t particularly care for Barry Bonds (and it doesn’t really even have anything to do with the steroids issue; I’ve just never cared for him), but I felt I should acknowledge the milestone.

Tonight, as I suffer through another 1-9 shift (I don’t particularly have a problem with 10-6, 9-5, 4-9, or 5-9, but I’ve always disliked the 1-9 shift), the Tigers will take on the Rays yet again. Chad Durbin will come out of the bullpen to make the start in place of the injured Andrew Miller. This’ll be his first start since June 24^th, so it’s hard to tell just how long he’ll be able to go. Leyland’s hoping for five innings, and luckily, Nate Robertson saved most of the bullpen, just in case. He’ll be up against James Shields, who has already faced the Tigers this year and the Tigers really couldn’t do a whole lot against him (at the time, I blamed the Reyes Effect, but apparently Shields is a good pitcher). There are rumors that Gary Sheffield will finally return, so if they turn out to be true, it’ll mean ending the game of “pass-the-DH.” As for me, I’m just hoping that whenever he returns, he’ll be back to doing what he was doing in May and June. Also, tonight is ‘70s Night at Comerica Park, and I’m not sure what all that entails. I doubt they’d be using the throwback uniforms (though for some reason, Todd Jones was wearing Vance Wilson’s throwback jersey during the pre-game show yesterday), since: A) The Tigers’ home uniforms have not changed much in the last fifty years, and B) The Devil Rays did not exist in the ‘70s. It’d be fun if they did, though. However, I used up all my ‘70s puns on that report of their game in Cleveland, so I’d have to recycle some material.

One Year Ago: On August 8, 2006, the Tigers lost to the Twins 4-2. Nate Robertson pitched a quality start and only gave up three runs (that fourth run belonged to Fernando Rodney), but he didn’t get any run support. Hits were not a problem. The Tigers finished the game with eleven of them (in fact, Craig Monroe was the only starter not to get a hit). Apparently, they just couldn’t get THE hit. Sean Casey and Dmitri Young knocked in the two runs for the Tigers. By the way, Dmitri Young hit a triple, which is apparently an amusing prospect. I don’t remember him that well, but from what I hear, he’s slower than Casey.

2006 record: 76-37

2007 record: 63-49

Unfortunately, I am unable to do this post justice, as I have to go to work in less than an hour and a half and I’m supposed to be cleaning in the other room so I gotta work fast. Anyways, it was another fun-filled night at the ballpark, and this time the Tigers were able to get me a win. Justin Verlander maybe didn’t have his best stuff, but it was a thrill to watch him anyways (by the way, we were in the suite right above the Tigers dugout), although earlier in the season, when the Tigers offense was on fire, you probably wouldn’t find four runs to be any big deal. The bullpen was stellar. Macay McBride walked one, but that’s about it. It was nice to see Fernando Rodney back on form, and wow, Mike Rabelo caught Todd Jones and he still had a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Last night I was finally able to see my first Tigers home run in person, and it came from a very unlikely source: Sean Casey. And it was an impressive home run too. I’ll tell ya, that seventh inning rally was really exciting to watch. Plus, I got Guillen’s 1000^th hit on camera (sort of). Maggs, Guillen, and Infante led the way with three hits each, and oddly enough, Polanco went hitless. Guillen was a home run away from the cycle, and oddly enough, in both games I’ve been to, he has hit a triple.

I was a little bummed that Pudge was not able to play (he was a late scratch because he aggravated an ankle injury over the weekend and it was a little too sore), but obviously it’s not like I didn’t see him at all (and I took so much video of guys in the dugout that I was beginning to feel like the paparazzi). Actually, despite the sore ankle, he apparently was available to pinch hit. I’m not sure if this got on TV (haven’t watched the broadcast yet), but during the fifth inning, when Maggs and Guillen were on base and Raburn was batting, Pudge was in the dugout looking like he was about to enter the game (he had the batting gloves on and looked like he was trying to get loose). Apparently it was one of those situations that depended on what Raburn did. Raburn grounded into a double play, which was apparently *not* what he was supposed to do, and Rabelo continued the game (so you could imagine that I was not real happy with Raburn; at least until the RBI single in the seventh inning; by the way, I did not find out why Pudge was not playing until I got home). After that, Pudge mostly hung out around the water jugs (pictured) and talked to Craig Monroe. Oh well, it seemed that Pudge was trying to annoy me with his wardrobe choices anyways (let’s hope he doesn’t get any superstitious ideas from the win; and yes, as far as Pudge is concerned, the high socks look just as bad in person as they do on TV), but I was in too good a mood to be TOO annoyed by it. By the way, I did learn one thing last night: Pudge claps VERY loudly. I just happened to be looking at him while he was applauding something that someone did on the field (can’t remember what the play was), and I could hear him from where I was sitting. Very clearly, as a matter of fact.

One thing I’ve been wanting to touch on are the at-bat/theme songs of the players, now that I’ve gotten a chance to hear most of them. Personally, my favorite is Polanco’s (It’s called “Lamento Boliviano,” and it’s totally impossible to find), and I also like Omar Infante’s. As far as the pitchers go, I like Zach Miner’s (“Lying From You” by Linkin Park) and Todd Jones’s, even though his is a religious song (“Last One Standing” by MercyMe). Ironically, my least favorite is probably Pudge’s song (“Latino Heat,” and I have no clue who the artist is). It was originally used as entrance music for some WWE wrestler, and I just find it to be rather dumb.

This pic is a little blurry, but I had to get a picture of two of my favorite people on the Tigers.

And Sean Casey gets interviewed for the post-game show. Tonight, it’s Nate Robertson’s turn to take on the Devil Rays. He’ll face Jason Hammel, who has recently joined the rotation after pitching out of the bullpen for most of the season. Gary Sheffield will be out at least one more day, so apparently Carlos Guillen will DH once again. And even though I won’t be at this game (and by the way, it’s extremely unlikely that I’ll be able to go to another game this year), I’m hoping that Pudge will be able to play tonight (and that he’s not feeling superstitious). Other than that, I have no more insights.

One Year Ago: On August 7, 2006, the Tigers continued their homestand by beating the Minnesota Twins 9-3. The offense really beat up on Francisco Liriano (who was apparently starting to have some concerns about his elbow; I believe he later had to have Tommy John surgery). Marcus Thames and Craig Monroe both homered, and everyone who started the game had at least one hit, and Monroe led the way with three. Carlos Guillen, Maggs, and Vance Wilson all hit doubles. Pudge (who was playing first base during this game, as you might have guessed from the photo…there’s still something not right about that to me) had a little bit of everything: an RBI single, a sacrifice, and a GIDP (but he also helped turn a couple of ‘em, so it evens out). Meanwhile, Zach Miner only gave up three earned runs in 6 1/3 innings of work.

2006 record: 76-36

2007 record: 62-49

First off, the disclaimer: I did not see any of this game (work), which means I’m basically flying blind here, so bear with me. I did follow the game as much as I could while I was at work, but even then it was the Yahoo live box score thing. I was kind of half-expecting a rainout, and given the results, that probably would’ve been preferable. The pitching was downright decent yesterday. From what I hear, Jordan Tata was a little wild. He walked four and he gave up a slew of extra base hits, but only three runs in five innings, so basically, he played with fire all day, but limited the damage. Tim Byrdak, Fernando Rodney, and Bobby Seay combined for four innings of scoreless relief from the bullpen (so if Tata was okay, the bullpen was damn good). The pitching staff was helped out immensely from the field, as the Tigers defense turned five, count ‘em five, double plays.

However, this terrific outing from the pitching and the defense went to waste, cuz the offense was only able to muster one lousy run against a starting pitcher with an ERA of over ten and a bullpen that has been described as downright pathetic. Reyes Effect? Sure does look like it. Gavin Floyd gave up a scattering of singles, and for most of the game, it looked as though the extra-base hit streak was in danger of being snapped. My thanks goes to Magglio for coming to the rescue in that respect (and for saving the Tigers from being shut out). From what I hear, it was an impressive home run (dead center, apparently), but it was too little, too late. To add insult to injury (or, more accurately, injury to insult), Gary Sheffield still wasn’t able to play and DH Sean Casey had to leave the game after being hit by a pitch in the elbow. From what I hear, it’s nothing majorly serious, but Craig Monroe did not make for a very effective DH in Casey’s stead (although Leyland didn’t really have many guys on his bench to choose from in the first place).

Tonight, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays come to town for the first of a four-game series. They’re a last-place club, and they have one of the worst road records in baseball, but with the way the Tigers have been out of sync recently, that could mean absolutely nothing. This series kind of scares me. On the one hand, it could be the catalyst that puts the Tigers back on track if they’re able to do what they’re supposed to (i.e. beat last place teams), but on the other hand, if they don’t take this series, it could be a major blow. At any rate, they’ll have their best shot from a pitching standpoint, cuz Justin Verlander’ll be starting. He lost his last time out and received a couple of no-decisions prior to that, so he’s been stuck on eleven wins for quite a while now. What he needs to do is keep his pitch count low, limit the walks and wild pitches, and not get himself on fast forward. He’ll be opposed by Edwin Jackson, who has a nice juicy ERA of 6.56, although as Gavin Floyd has just demonstrated, sometimes that doesn’t mean a damn thing. Apparently, he does sometimes pitch better than his record or his ERA suggests, but when he does, he doesn’t get any run support. He’s faced the Tigers once this year (that game ended in a no-decision for him). He gave up a fair amount of runs early, got hit in the face by the ball as someone was trying to throw to home plate, and proceeded to become a strikeout machine, so I’m not sure what to expect from him. However, the key thing is that Verlander needs run support. Seriously. You need to give him more than three runs (something in the neighborhood of nine or ten is more like it; it’d be nice for the offense to give us some signs of a heartbeat), or it really won’t matter how well he pitches. As far as the lineup goes, I expect Pudge to be back in, I wouldn’t be surprised if either Polanco or Guillen got the night off, and Gary Sheffield might be back, but probably not. If he is, I can only pray that he’s back to form. Oh, and by the way, I will be at this game.

One Year Ago: On August 6, 2006, the Tigers completed their sweep of the Cleveland Indians by defeating them 1-0. Wilfredo Ledezma, making the start for the Tigers in place of Justin Verlander (who skipped his start in order to rest his arm) outdueled C.C. Sabathia. Craig Monroe drove in the lone run of the game.

2006 record: 75-36

2007 record: 61-49

This is beginning to get a little bit on the same old, same old side, isn’t it? Anyways, the first inning woes for Jeremy Bonderman continue, but this time they came back to haunt him. He settled in pretty nicely after that (except for the solo shots he gave up to Thome and Pierzynski), and he went seven innings, but apparently the White Sox had already done too much damage. Bonderman also got helped out by four double plays. Jason Grilli gave up a run on a wild pitch, but otherwise didn’t do too badly. Bobby Seay was all right as well, even though he also got some help from the defenders, in this case Pudge, who threw out Richar trying to steal second base. Here’s something encouraging, though: Tigers pitching only gave up two walks.

It’s kind of unfair that the Tigers got stuck with both of the good pitchers in this series (Buehrle and Vazquez), but the offense has gone pretty cold all of a sudden. Vazquez turned in a similar effort to his last outing against the Tigers. He retired the first five batters in order before Pudge hit a triple, thus ensuring that the extra-base hit streak continues (also, he did not strike out for the second night in a row; he hit a couple other balls hard that were run down). Also, the home run drought has finally ended for the Tigers, thanks to Polanco, of all people (actually, Casey would’ve been more unlikely). The Tigers WERE able to get a couple runs off the bullpen, but once again, they allowed Vazquez to get deep into the game so they weren’t able to see the bullpen all that much. I think the past week or so has illustrated a couple of things. One is that the Tigers really rely on the home run, especially at times when the pitching hasn’t been up to snuff. The other is that this team really needs Gary Sheffield. Without him it’s pretty much the offense from last year, which was known to go cold on occasion.

Another blow to the Tigers is that Andrew Miller is now on the disabled list. Fernando Rodney was called back from Toledo and activated off the DL to take his spot on the roster, although Rodney did not pitch last night. No word on who will start for Miller on Wednesday, although the assumption is that it’ll probably be Zach Miner or Chad Durbin. Meanwhile, Kenny Rogers is eligible to come off the DL on Friday, but Leyland says he’ll need more time than that. As for other guys on the DL, Marcus Thames is supposed to begin a rehab assignment in Toledo sometime next week.

Today, it’s “avoid-the-sweep” time in the day game after a night game, which I will not see as I will be at work. Jordan Tata, who pitched well in his first Major League start, will take the mound one more time. The FSN guys said that Tata will have to pitch the game of his life, which doesn’t really instill a lot of confidence, plus I have no idea what gave them that impression. He’ll be up against Gavin Floyd, who was called up to start for Jose Contreras (Who is having his start skipped for some reason). Floyd has made two spot starts for the White Sox this year, and both times he was roughed up pretty good. The last time was against the Tigers, and he got a big, fat no-decision out of that one. However, there has to be a reason why the White Sox keep calling him up, and my guess is that it’s only a matter of time before that reason shows up. Here’s hoping that it waits until after the White Sox leave town. And here’s hoping that the Tigers are able to play more “nasty,” whatever that means. Gary Sheffield will still be out of the lineup, so I have no idea who Leyland will want to DH. It’s possible he could start Ryan Raburn in right field and have Maggs DH. The Toledo guys (Raburn, Hessman, and Rabelo) had a lot of success against Gavin Floyd when they first met, so we might see them back in the lineup in some fashion. And yes, just this once, I am hoping that Rabelo starts instead of Pudge, and it has nothing to do with any of their numbers. I just want a guarantee that I’ll see Pudge again. In person, I mean.

One Year Ago: File this one under “Games I Wish I Had Seen.” In fact, this might be #1 on that list. On August 5, 2006, the Tigers defeated the Cleveland Indians 4-3. Kenny Rogers gave up three runs in the first inning, but settled down after that and didn’t allow any more runs. However, Paul Byrd was pitching for the Indians, and he is notoriously tough on the Tigers. Marcus Thames got the Tigers on the board with a solo home run in the fifth inning. Polanco added an RBI single in the seventh. The Tigers went into the bottom of the ninth inning trailing 3-2 having to face their closer, Fausto Carmona (yes, THAT Fausto Carmona). Brandon Inge started off the ninth with a single that just got past Carmona’s glove. Curtis Granderson attempted to bunt him over, failed to do so, and struck out. Polanco hit a ground ball that looked like it would be a game-ending double play, but he was able to beat out the throw to first, keeping the inning alive for Pudge. With two out and one on, Pudge hit the first pitch he saw into the left field seats for a walk-off home run. Fast forward to this year, and I’m just gonna say that the Tigers are overdue for a comeback like this, right?

2006 record: 74-36

2007 record: 61-48

Okay, I’m gonna try to cram what normally takes three paragraphs into one cuz I’ve got pictures, and I want to use most of the space for that. It’s kind of crazy that in my first Major League baseball game ever, I see a grand slam. Unfortunately, it was hit by the wrong team. Yeah, it’s kind of an understatement that Andrew Miller got a little roughed up in the fourth inning. I’m not sure if the hamstring strain that chased him from the game in the fifth had anything to do with it or not, but at any rate, his problem with not going deep into games continues. That said, the bullpen did a nice job when you consider that they had to pitch for five innings. Todd Jones gave up the home run to Josh Fields (and, having been there, I can tell you that that ball went a LONG way, but the funny part is that whoever caught it threw it back), but seeing as how the offense failed to make up for the deficit set down by Miller, it doesn’t much matter. Besides, that’s only the second home run that Jonesy has given up all season. As for the offense, they really miss Gary Sheffield when he’s not in the lineup. I hope this whole “mis-aligned collarbone” issue isn’t a long-term thing, cuz they need him. And they weren’t able to get into the Chicago bullpen until the ninth inning, mostly cuz Mark Buehrle showed up this time. Curtis Granderson, who had all kinds of success against Buehrle last time, came up empty with two strikeouts (he did manage a walk). Most of the offense came from Maggs, with three hits. Guillen hit a triple in the ninth inning, which was really exciting to watch. Pudge went hitless (plus he got foul-tipped in a really bad spot, after which he kicked the baseball so hard it shot all the way to the backstop), but he did get an RBI on a sac fly (and for some reason, the Yahoo preview decided to single him out as an example of the struggling offense, but I’ve said before that I don’t think he’s really struggling; the high number of strikeouts are a problem, but other than that, it’s mostly been bad luck). Because Buehrle lasted eight innings, poor Sean Casey never got to enter the game. Plus, the home run drought continues.

As much as I should be bummed about the outcome of this game, I still had a blast (And besides, the Tigers have one more chance to get me a win). I didn’t get any autographs (mostly cuz we just had bad timing, plus I’m a wuss), but we were able to watch batting practice and our seats were right near the bullpen, so we got a really good view of the relievers (and of Craig Monroe in left field). According to my dad's friend Chuck, we got on TV when Ryan Raburn hit his double, but I tried to look back at the tape and I didn't see us. That doesn't mean we didn't get on TV. Plus, I got a little bit of video, and some pictures. Not great pictures, mind you, but pictures nonetheless:

I was actually trying to get Carlos Guillen in this shot, but I discovered later that Jim Leyland is right next to him.

Curtis Granderson walks by as Magglio goes through some warm-up stretches or something.

Obviously I tried to get a bunch of pictures of Pudge, but it was a little difficult cuz we were seated down the left field line near the bullpen and he was mostly around home plate, so I kept having to rely on the digital zoom. This is probably the best picture I got of him, but even it's kinda blurry. What I find amusing is the woman in the seats on the right side of the picture. She looks absolutely thrilled that Pudge is warming up right in front of her.

This is probably the best picture I got overall. In terms of clarity, that is. Not necessarily in terms of what's in the picture. I mean, I'm glad I got a picture of Magglio, but he's in kind of a weird pose.

Obviously, the sun had set by the time I took this picture. Oddly enough, I only got two pictures of guys at bat: This okay shot of Guillen, and one not-so-great shot of Pudge. I decided to go with the one of Guillen.

And one more of Pudge for good measure, even though it's really dark (and I swear they had the lights on).

A couple other observations that I don't have pictures for. One: There is no freakin' way that Placido Polanco is 5'10". No way. He has to be a lot shorter than that. Two: The announcer's voice is not as boomy-sounding as it seems on TV. Three: I was able to follow this game a lot more easily than I could the Mud Hens game.  

Tonight, Jeremy Bonderman takes the hill for the Tigers, looking to rebound from his last start. And I know I’ve said I like to use constructive criticism, but there’s no way around it: He was just plain awful against the Angels. Luckily, that’s an uncharacteristic performance, so hopefully he’ll be able to turn that around. He’ll be facing a tough opponent: Javier Vazquez, the guy that beat him last time in Chicago. Hopefully the Tiger offense can jump-start themselves.

One Year Ago: On August 4, 2006, the Tigers rallied from a 5-0 deficit to defeat the Cleveland Indians 7-6. The offense was capped off by a two-run homer from Craig Monroe to put the Tigers in the lead. Brandon Inge made one of those Gold Glove-caliber “lean-into-the-seats” catches.

2006 record: 73-36

2007 record: 61-47

Expect a full report tomorrow!

One Year Ago: On August 3, 2006, the Tigers lost to the Devil Rays 2-1. Nate Robertson pitched 6 1/3 shutout innings, and departed the game with runners at first and second (and Detroit leading 1-0 at the time). BJ Upton then shot a Joel Zumaya offering back up the middle for a single, scoring one run. Upton then got caught in a rundown, but it took the infielders a really long time to tag him, and by the time they did, the second run had scored. As for the Tigers offense, apparently guys were hitting the ball hard all night, but right at the defenders. Craig Monroe’s solo homer accounted for the Tigers’ only run.

2006 record: 72-36

2007 record: 61-46

It seems that things are just a little out of sync right now. I only saw the very beginning and the very end of this game so my impressions may be a little off, but there really wasn’t anything wrong with Tigers pitching yesterday. It was kind of a tough-luck loss for Nate Robertson cuz he only gave up three runs, but I guess the home run was just the crushing blow, plus he left the game in sort of a dicey situation. Durbin, Inge, and Pudge all combined to bail him out, and the ‘pen held Oakland to a one-run lead, although Bobby Seay didn’t exactly make things easy for them. The walks are still up, though.

Nate pitched well enough to win, but once again, he didn’t get any run support. I’m not sure if the Reyes Effect had anything to do with it or not. The box score seems to suggest as much, but at the same time, Dallas Braden only lasted 5 1/3 innings (by the way, I discovered that Braden is exactly one day older than me). He must’ve been using a lot of pitches to get his outs. For some reason, the “clutch” offense just went cold yesterday. It doesn’t really help matters that a few of the guys are in minor funks right now. Guillen hasn’t been all that spectacular on this road trip, nor has Sheffield (although in his case, it may be something worse; he’s supposed to see a doctor about his shoulder once he gets back to Detroit, and we’ll know more then; hopefully it’s something that can be treated quickly, cuz the Tigers need Sheffield). Craig Monroe’s been in a slump just about all season, although he’s been getting at least one hit in most of his recent games, including yesterday (RBI single, as a matter of fact). On the other hand, Polanco was terrific on this road trip, as was Granderson and to some extent Inge. Magglio’s been pretty even keel, but he is striking out a bit more. Pudge is somewhere in the middle. He’s gotten at least one hit in pretty much every game on this road trip, including yesterday, but he’s had a lot of strikeouts as well. In fact, he struck out three times yesterday, and it’s gotten to the point where even I know how to strike him out (If you get him into a two-strike count, which isn’t hard since he fouls off a lot of pitches, just throw him an elevated fastball. He’ll chase). That’s the price you pay for being an aggressive hitter, I suppose, but he’s managed to keep his batting average somewhere between .280 and .300 for most of the season, so I can’t complain (He is still kind of stuck in that “tough luck” stretch that was plaguing him for most of July, although that never came into play yesterday). Plus, he did help the cause in the eighth inning yesterday with a single, which loaded the bases and keep the near-rally going. The Toledo guys were real hot in Chicago, but haven’t done a whole lot since then. Here’s something kind of startling: The Tigers have not hit a home run since the second game of the Angels series. Several Tigers made a bid for one yesterday, but the ball either went foul or died on the warning track. It could be because the weather in Oakland’s been on the cool side, though (Yes, I’m a dork and I tracked down an article explaining how temperature affects how easy it is to hit a home run). However, Polanco’s double did keep the extra-base hit streak intact, so yay for him.

A couple of posts ago, as I was detailing Mike Rabelo’s second three-hit night in a row, I ended my discussion by observing that it looked as though Rabelo, for whatever reason, was no longer allowed to catch the ninth inning if the Tigers were in the lead. The last few times the Tigers were in the lead and Rabelo had started the game, Leyland would bring Pudge in as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning. At the time I just stated the observation and kind of shrugged it off as something only I would notice in the first place, since I tend to gravitate towards discussing Pudge anyways, but last night I discovered that one of the premier bloggers had the exact same observation and went into it in greater detail than I did, and what he says makes sense. I had been thinking along a similar (but not exactly the same) line, but I never said anything here because I didn’t want it to look like I was knocking Rabelo, cuz that was not my intention. I think the thing that threw me off a little bit was that the last time Pudge was brought in for the ninth inning, he only caught Tim Byrdak and Todd Jones never entered the game. However, upon further thought, I’ve realized that in that game, the Tigers went into the bottom of the ninth leading by four runs. If Byrdak had allowed a run to score (he didn’t), it would have become a save situation and therefore Jonesy would have entered the game, so that very possibly could have been Leyland’s line of thinking when he brought Pudge into the game. This is not mentioned in the aforementioned blog, but the Tigers are only two games above the .500 marker (14-12) when Rabelo starts (versus 48-34 when Pudge has started). This likely has very little to do with Rabelo, because he is a very decent catcher, but when you take the whole Todd Jones thing into consideration, it does make you wonder. At any rate, if this trend of bringing in Pudge for the ninth inning continues, it’ll be interesting to see if those numbers improve. And it may just be coincidence, but the only reliever to struggle in yesterday’s game was Bobby Seay, and there were definitely some communication issues between him and Pudge. I’m not going to try to look into this further than the few examples I can come up with off the top of my head, but when the pitcher and the catcher can’t get on the same page, it doesn’t seem to bode well for the game. Verlander and Rabelo had that problem Tuesday night. Pudge and Bonderman had the same problem in Bonderman’s first loss of the season back in June. For the most part, these communication issues don’t happen on a consistent basis, as evidenced by the fact that most of the pitchers work well with either catcher on most days (with the exception of the apparent Jones/Rabelo mismatch), but when there are issues, it usually turns out to not be a very good game. At any rate, I found it interesting that I made the observation long before “those-who-know-more” caught onto it (and by the way, I refuse to look at the comments on that particular blog post).

So, after an incredibly long and incredibly unproductive road trip, the Tigers head back to Detroit and get a very-much-needed day off (and they’d better make good use of it, cuz their next one ain’t until the 20^th), where hopefully those which some aches and pains can get at least a little healed up (and with a little luck, Gary Sheffield gets his shoulder fixed). Tomorrow night marks the beginning of an eleven-game homestand, which may not necessarily be good news, given how the Tigers have played at home this season, but here’s hoping their homestand will be the exact opposite of the recent road trip. First up: Those White Sox (after being thoroughly clobbered by the Yankees) are coming back to town, and it’ll be a rematch of the first game of the road trip. Andrew Miller takes on fellow lefty Mark Buehrle yet again. Buehrle gave up fourteen hits to the Tigers when they last met, but a lot of those were bloop singles, so luck did play a factor in that, and it’s foolish to assume that they’d have the same amount of success against him once again. Buerhle’s too good of a pitcher for that to happen (plus, he pitched eight shutout innings in his last start against Toronto, and the Blue Jays have a pretty good offense). However, if the Tigers get their pitching straightened out (and there were some signs of that yesterday and on Monday, not so much on Tuesday), and the offense can at least make Buerhle work for his outs, they’ll have a chance against the Chicago bullpen. Of course, I think a lot of that hinges on getting Andrew Miller through at least six innings, which is something he hasn’t done in a really long time. It’s the middle innings that seem to present problems for him, although I don’t know the solution. And everyone, and I mean everyone, on the entire Tigers pitching staff need to cut down on the walks. It’s been killing us in recent days (although Tadahito Iguchi, the guy who took about six or seven walks in the recent series, is no longer with the White Sox). On the other side of the story, it’d be nice to get the Tigers offense jump-started once again (and I’m seriously hoping that Sheffield’s shoulder is okay, cuz he really does seem to be the catalyst on most nights). As for the home run drought, here’s something to consider: It’s supposed to be high ‘80s/low ‘90s this weekend. This game might also feature the return of Fernando Rodney, who has been pitching rehab in Toledo. He’s done well in most of his outings, but struggled a bit last night (they were only gonna let him throw 15 pitches, though, so it’s hard to tell if he would’ve been able to bounce back). By the way, it’s about time I take the Total Amateur Analysis to the next level, which means that I’m gonna take a very good look at this game. That said, I am desperately hoping for a Tigers victory tomorrow night, probably moreso than any other game this season, and not so much because of the recent slump or to get the folks online to shut up about the bullpen. This time, I’ve got a much more personal and rather childish reason for wanting the Tigers to win (Hint: You might find it a couple of lines below the picture of Pudge in the profile area).

One Year Ago: On August 2, 2006, the Tigers defeated the Tampa Rays 8-3. They scored 2 in the first inning, and led 2-1 for most of the game, before the Rays scored one in the fifth and one in the sixth off of Zach Miner to go ahead 3-2. Then in the eighth, the Tigers put up a 4-spot, and scored two more in the ninth. Dmitri Young and Craig Monroe both homered in the win.

2006 record: 72-35

2007 record: 61-46