It’s amazing how a couple things that I pointed out yesterday actually were discussed by the FSN guys last night. First was the one thing that always seems to get Detroit in trouble when they face Cleveland. If you look at the stats in the Detroit-Cleveland games, most of the numbers like batting average, runs per game, and starters’ ERA are pretty similar (and actually, Detroit comes out slightly better in all three of those stats). The big difference-maker is that Detroit has given up about twice as many home runs, and that once again proved to be Verlander’s downfall last night. Justin only gave up six hits, but the problem was that four of them found the seats. And the funny thing is that in the past couple days, it’s been Detroit’s “good” pitchers who have given up the long ball: Kenny Rogers, Justin Verlander, Joel Zumaya, and Zach Miner. Jason Grilli walked a couple of guys, but no further damage.

The Tigers, on the other hand, had 12 hits, but they never got THE hit, and Marcus Thames’s double was the only extra-base hit of the bunch. The biggest culprits when it came to stranding runners were Granderson (who did it three times), Guillen, Polanco to some extent, and Pudge, who just looks like he’s running on fumes and might be pressing too much again (though it does still look like he’s trying to hit the ball to right field; at least, that’s where most of his foul balls went). Once Cleveland’s bullpen took over, all the Tigers could manage was a hit batter with two outs, but that came to nothing cuz Sheffield struck out. By the way, the other point I made yesterday that got brought up last night was the “score a few runs early and then no more” problem. The Tigers need to figure out how to add on runs late.

I could be wrong about this, but I totally don’t remember the crowd at Jacobs Field being THAT amped up earlier in the season. It’s almost like it’s taking on a Yankee Stadium kind of vibe (And why are they booing Magglio? I understand that everybody boos Sheffield, and I understand why the Yankees fans would boo Maggs, but the Indians don’t have an MVP or batting title candidate). Of course, I probably shouldn’t be surprised. Back in 2000, I was in Cleveland on the day of the Indians’ home opener, and the atmosphere then was just downright insane. I was with my high school band/choir, and we didn’t go to the game, but we did go to the IMAX theater and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which are right across the street from Jacobs Field, and the streets were just a sea of Indians t-shirts, hats, jerseys, you name it. I was starting to get a little creeped out. Oh, by the way, the Indians lost their 2000 home opener. To the Texas Rangers. Knowing that, I managed to find the box score for that game online (I still have the ticket stub from the IMAX theater, so remembering the date was quite easy), and I was absolutely delighted to find out that Pudge hit a home run in that game. By the way, I didn’t see any nuns this time, but that doesn’t mean anything.

After today, we can say goodbye and good riddance to Jacobs Field, at least for the regular season (but, one can only hope that we may see it again soon). Nate Robertson faces the unenviable task of trying to outduel C.C. Sabathia. Nate has not pitched badly against the Indians, for the most part. In fact, the last time he faced them, he was downright spectacular, tossing 8 2/3 shutout innings. Unfortunately, he got a no-decision in that game cuz Joel Zumaya gave it up to Cleveland in extras. A giant first step in winning this game is to not give up home runs. I swear, about 75% of Cleveland’s runs in this season series have come via the long ball. If you keep the Indians in the ballpark, you’ve at least got a decent chance at winning. It’s still gonna be a tall order against Sabathia, though. The Tigers got to him once, back in July, but that was obviously an uncharacteristic outing. Leyland’s expected to use his all-right handed lineup. At least, Marcus Thames is starting, though I’m not sure if that means he’ll be in left field or first base. If he starts at first base, that opens the door for Brett Clevlen and Ryan Raburn. The only other question mark seems to be whether or not Pudge will catch. Even I’m not sure how to feel about that one. He’s not been hitting in this series (though Rabelo hasn’t been hitting much at all recently), but I’m not sure if that’s fatigue or what. All I know is that he certainly looks tired. But I suppose that’s why Leyland makes the big bucks. This one has a really early start time (12:05), so I’ll actually be in class for the beginning of the game (not fun, considering I’m also battling a sinus infection), but I’ll try to follow the rest of it on Gameday.

One Year Ago: On September 19, 2006, the Tigers lost to the White Sox 7-0. Justin Verlander cruised through the first three innings, then fell victim to the long ball, giving up three home runs: a grand slam to A.J. Pierzynski, and solo shots to Jermaine Dye and Jim Thome. Tadahito Iguchi would later hit a home run off Chad Durbin to account for the White Sox’s final run. Meanwhile, all the Tigers would manage were two singles, one by Pudge and one by Vance Wilson, who entered the game late, once Jim Leyland recognized the blowout and pulled all his regulars.

That whole thing about the Indians always somehow managing to win when Paul Byrd starts even though the Tigers can get to him a little bit? Well, it’s still going strong. While I did not expect the Tigers to sweep, I had been kinda hoping that they could win this one, cuz now that means they have to beat Sabathia tomorrow. In the end, though, I really don’t see how you could play this one any differently, and even Leyland doesn’t really seem at all upset about it. Kenny Rogers turned in a very solid performance, especially when you consider that Cleveland got his pitch count up very early. The Indians got to Zumaya, though. And it’s not really a question of whether or not Leyland should’ve pulled Joel when he was struggling with his command. He did get two outs before giving up the home run to Peralta. And Casey Blake’s role on the Indians seems to be to hit walk-off home runs. Zach Miner really didn’t pitch that badly, but apparently he must’ve thrown whatever it was Blake was sitting on. By the way, Kenny picked off Jason Michaels last night. That was his 91^st career pickoff, which ties him with Mark Langston for the most ever (and you have to believe that Kenny’ll get to 92 before all is said and done).

As far as offense goes, there’s not really that much to complain about other than perhaps the fact that the Tigers seem to have gotten back into that pattern that plagued them very early in the season: scoring four or five runs early, then nothing else for the rest of the game. Surprisingly, Ramon Santiago chipped in quite a bit with two RBIs. Polanco now has nine home runs, all solo shots, which is a franchise record. Pudge went hitless (he really should’ve gotten one in his first at-bat, cuz he hit an absolute missile; unfortunately, he hit it right at Byrd), but he did get an RBI and scored a run after reaching on an error. In his last four games, he only has two hits (and since they came in the first two games of the road trip, he’s now working on a somewhat sizeable 0-for), but he has six RBIs. So, while his batting average may be going down once again, he IS being productive. Meanwhile, Sean Casey may not be getting much playing time, but man, he’s coming up with some clutch pinch-hits. Brandon Inge bunting into a double play was probably the thing that ended up hurting them more than anything, from an offensive standpoint. Leyland also said that it seemed that late in the game, all the guys looked like they were trying to hit home runs, which doesn’t usually work.

During the third inning (I think), right around the time that Polanco was batting, but before he homered, apparently a spider showed up in the broadcast booth, and by the end of the inning, the FSN guys were paying more attention to the spider than the game. Also, there seemed to be a bunch of nuns at the game. Hmmm. Perhaps the Tigers were doomed from the beginning. It’s hard enough to go up against a first-place team, but to have to do it with nuns in attendance? They should’ve brought Father Leyland to balance things out (and for those of you who don’t know, Jim Leyland’s brother is a priest, formerly the pastor of St. Rose’s in Perrysburg; a few months ago he was forced into retirement after criticizing the bishop and other higher-ups in the diocese). And it was just a horrible night for Zach Miner in every sense. Not only did he give up the walk-off homer, but when the bullpen got the call for him to starting warming up, as he was taking his jacket off, his pants started falling down, and he had a really tough time fixing them. And of course, FSN was all too happy to show it on TV.

Tonight, it’s Game 2 of THE series, and with last night’s loss, it’s probably the one in which the Tigers stand the best chance of winning. Justin Verlander gets the start, and he’s been spectacular in his last four outings. However, two of his five losses this year have come at the hands of the Indians (and he was really roughed up in those outings), including his last one. Meanwhile, Cleveland will be starting Jake Westbrook. The Tigers usually have the ability to get to him and force him to get his sinkerball up, which makes it a more hittable pitch, but the last time they saw him, they couldn’t score anything against him. At all. Either he’s reinvented himself or the Tigers just weren’t having good at-bats that day. At any rate, the Tigers really do need to win this one if they want the division to remain a viable option. And I know that with so few games left to play, Leyland seems content on running out his A-list lineup until they all drop, and I know I was wrong about this yesterday, but as much as I want Pudge to play tonight (since A) I’ll be home tonight and at school tomorrow, and B) Verlander’s the starter), he needs a break real soon. He’s now played four games in a row, and apparently he took a nasty foul tip to the knee last night. I didn’t see it, but according to my dad, he was down for a long time, and in his at-bat following the eighth inning, he certainly looked to me like he was in pain (and, not surprisingly, both that at-bat and the one after it weren’t very good and he struck out both times). Plus, I know if he plays too many games in a row, he gets back spasms, and I’d rather he miss just the one game than have to miss three. Still, if he’s got enough stamina for one more game, I’m all for it. The only other question seems to be the shortstop/first base debate, meaning whether or not Casey starts.

One Year Ago: On September 18, 2006, the Tigers began their final road trip of the regular season with an 8-2 victory over the White Sox. Kenny Rogers held the White Sox scoreless over seven innings. Meanwhile, Magglio hit two home runs against his former team, Craig Monroe hit one in the first inning, and Brandon Inge chipped in with a three-run shot of his own. One interesting note is that Carlos Guillen hit into a triple play in the first inning. However, instead of killing the momentum, it just delayed it a bit.

UPDATE: After I made this post today, I realized that Kenny's pickoff would probably constitute a milestone. Chew on that one for a while. At any rate, Danny Knobler has posted the lineups, and yes, Pudge is indeed in there again, though Leyland is not sure yet whether he will catch tomorrow or not. Marcus Thames has homered off of Jake Westbrook in the past, so he's in left in place of Timo Perez.

Well, from flirting with a no-hitter to flirting with disaster, at least you can’t say that things weren’t interesting. The game ended as I was driving home, but I watched some of it later. Once again, Jair Jurrjens pitched exceptionally well, but I think he got his pitch count up too fast and kinda ran out of steam in the sixth inning (He IS just coming off the disabled list, after all). The Twins must’ve really been fouling off a bunch of pitches or something. Ross and I were following the game, and Ross certainly was hoping for a no-hitter. This is the second time already that Jurrjens has had a no-hitter through five innings. You kind of have to start thinking that one might not be too far off. As good as Jurrjens was, the bullpen…well…was not. Mostly, they just walked way too many people. Rodney in particular struggled with his command, and Zumaya had to come bail him out, and even he walked in a run before finally getting them out of the inning. And of course everyone is talking about how appropriate it was that Todd Jones made things REALLY interesting before getting his 300^th save. It was almost as if that Milestone Curse was trying to work its magic, but obviously, to get 300 saves, you have to win the game.

As I was watching the game, they were talking about how many hits everyone has had in this series, and really, nobody had that many. It seemed just about everyone only had one or two hits, so I’m not sure where all the offense came from. Granted, there have been a bunch of runs scored by the Tigers in this series that came without the benefit of a hit (sac flies, errors, squeeze play, bases loaded walks, etc). There was certainly a lot of that yesterday. There were a couple big hits as well. Curtis Granderson got things off on the right foot with a lead-off home run, and Carlos Guillen hit a double off Pat Neshek in the eighth that drove in a HUGE insurance run. Brandon Inge executed a rare suicide squeeze for the Tigers as well. I was absolutely shocked to see Pudge in the lineup, but I guess that’s how much Leyland wanted to win this game (no disrespect to Mike Rabelo, of course, but Rabelo’s been kinda struggling at the plate recently). Pudge didn’t get any hits, but he did manage a sac fly and an RBI off of Neshek, against whom he has struggled for the most part (in his five previous at-bats against Neshek, he has four strikeouts and a home run). That gives him 5 RBIs for the entire series, two of which came without the benefit of a hit.

After Todd Jones got his 300^th save, he had a team picture taken. I’m not sure if that was an AP photographer or not, but I’m kinda hoping it is, cuz if I can find it online somewhere, I’d like to use it for my desktop background. The funny part is that they showed the Tigers posing for the picture from behind on TV, and Polanco (who is quite short) seemingly could not fight his way up to the front, so he just jumped up on somebody’s back.

Tonight, the Tigers are in Cleveland for what is being billed as THE series (and hopefully this sweep of Minnesota won’t do what the last sweep of Minnesota did). The one that’ll determine all the playoff chances, etc. They’d probably have to sweep the Indians in order to have a chance at the Central, but that’ll be a very tall order indeed. Luckily, they will NOT have to face Fausto Carmona (though they will get Sabathia on Wednesday). Tonight, it’s Kenny Rogers against Paul Byrd. Kenny’s pitched very well since coming off the DL, and hopefully that elbow will hold up, but his ERA at Jacobs Field is not pretty (and he’s made several appearances there). He’s faced the Indians once this season, and did all right, though he got significant help from his defenders. The Tigers have been able to get to Paul Byrd a little bit this season, but the Indians have managed to win every game that he starts against Detroit. Meanwhile, I would have to think that Pudge would get tonight’s game off, since he played yesterday, which is why I’m confused as to why he played yesterday in the first place. This is considered to be the bigger of the two series on this road trip, and he’s had a reasonable amount of success against Byrd this season. But, then again, this IS the Total Amateur Analysis.

One Year Ago: On September 17, 2006, the Tigers found themselves on the losing end of a slugfest as the Orioles defeated them 12-8. Starter Wilfredo Ledezma gave up five runs on seven hits in only 3 2/3 innings. Twice, the Tigers rallied and were able to erase deficits, including a five-run fourth that put them ahead, and a two-run homer by Sean Casey in the eighth that tied the game and forced extra innings. However, in the tenth, Baltimore scored four runs off of Jason Grilli (though errors from Inge and Magglio kinda opened the floodgates) to go on top for good.  

I obviously missed the beginning of this game cuz that Yankees-Red Sox game went on forever (and I find myself in the uncomfortable position of rooting for Boston right now; in truth, I like the Yankees WAY more than the Red Sox, but in these circumstances, I have no choice). Anyways, Yorman Bazardo pitched fairly well. His only problem seemed to be once he gave up a hit or walked somebody, he got flustered and couldn’t really settle down, and I think that’s why he only lasted 4 2/3 innings. Leyland just didn’t want to take any chances. Things nearly got ugly with Zach Miner and that bizarre sequence of throws that didn’t get anybody out, but Joel Zumaya came to the rescue (and got the win, which is kinda confusing cuz I expected the win to go to Bobby Seay).

Today, it’s the final game for the Tigers at the Metrodome this year. They’re starting Jair Jurrjens, who has pitched very, very well, but you never know. Scott Baker will start for the Twins. He hasn’t given the Tigers much, but they’ve managed to win both games against him. Now, all I hear about the Metrodome is that it’s one of the toughest ballparks for visiting teams to play in, and as such, I keep expecting the ugliness to start. The Tigers, for the most part, have played exceptionally well, but I can’t help but feel that it’s gonna give eventually. It’s only got one more game to happen in, though, but I hope it doesn’t come to that. I’m gonna be at work during the game today (which sucks, cuz right now I ain’t feeling so great), but Ross is the pharmacist, so unless we’re insanely busy, I should be able to follow the game.

One Year Ago: On September 16, 2006, the Tigers assured themselves of their first series win since mid-August by defeating the Baltimore Orioles 2-0. Nate Robertson tossed eight shutout innings. Meanwhile, the scoring came from Infante and Pudge. Pudge got the Tigers on the board in the third inning with an RBI double, and Omar Infante added on a sac fly in the seventh.

Wow, Nate Robertson actually got some run support on a night where he pitched well. He’s been doing a pretty good job against the Twins this season regardless. At any rate, he got himself into trouble at times, but always seemed to escape it, with the exception of the 2-run homer to Justin Morneau. Rodney pitched a scoreless eighth (even striking out Morneau, who has had a lot of success against him in the past). He got helped out by some really bad baserunning from Lew Ford (He started for second, stopped, and then started again, and by that time Pudge was able to throw him out quite easily). Todd Jones had a 1-2-3 ninth courtesy of a really nice play by Polanco (it’d be a cryin’ shame if Polanco doesn’t win a Gold Glove this year).

As far as offense goes, it was the Timo Perez show last night. He accounted for three of the four RBIs in this game for the Tigers (and I had to laugh during the post-game show, cuz while they were showing his highlights, there was a namekey that identified him as Neifi Perez; oops). The odd thing surrounding this is that Timo Perez has been such a big producer in the Tigers’ lineup recently, but I haven’t seen a single interview on TV or a single quote online or in the newspaper from him. Is he some big recluse, or is it a language thing, or what? If it’s a language thing, then I’d understand not interviewing him on TV, but it would probably be easy enough to get a translator for the print media (hey, at the very least there are certainly enough Tigers that speak Spanish). They seem to like asking Pudge about him, though (and Pudge, for whatever reason, is being interviewed a LOT recently). Speaking of which, Pudge had the other RBI, and it came in probably the most unlikely way possible: being walked with the bases loaded. And he had to battle to get it. That was downright hilarious (not as hilarious as Sean Casey hitting a triple, but hilarious nonetheless), especially when you include his reaction. I have never seen anyone that thrilled about being walked (and don’t let the picture fool you, he was downright pumped). He had a similar reaction when he threw out Lew Ford later on, so it seems that he’s investing a lot of emotion into these last few games, for whatever reason.

Tonight, it’s Game 2 of this series. Yorman Bazardo will get his first Major League start for the Tigers. As with all spot starters, you can never tell what’s gonna happen. He could turn in a gem like Jair Jurrjens or it could be a disaster like Virgil Vasquez. Adding to the pressure is the fact that he’ll be up against none other than Johan Santana. Santana’s got an ERA of 3.09, but he has 11 losses, which really doesn’t make any sense. Anyways, Leyland’s gotten all of his lefties out of the lineup. Ryan Raburn (who we haven’t seen in a REALLY long time) will lead off in place of Curtis Granderson, and Brett Clevlen will bat ninth (and I have no idea which one is in center and which one is in left, cuz Jason Beck has both of them at centerfield, which obviously isn’t right). Marcus Thames will be at first base, and it’s been a really long time since we’ve last seen him there (of course, the Tigers seem to have about eight guys who can play first base, so this isn’t surprising).

One Year Ago: On September 15, 2006, the Tigers began their homestand by crushing the Baltimore Orioles 17-2. Brandon Inge hit a grand slam, and Magglio, Monroe, and Granderson all homered as well. Alexis Gomez had a double and a triple, and Pudge finished his night with two doubles and an RBI. Jeremy Bonderman, meanwhile, held the O’s to just two runs in six innings of work.

Geez, was that a short game or what? They were just about to start the top of the ninth when I got home (luckily Ross was the pharmacist last night so we were able to follow the game on Yahoo). I didn’t watch a whole lot of the game (other than the top of the fourth to check something that I’ll get to later), but it seems Justin Verlander was outstanding yet again. Giving up only one run in seven innings ain’t too shabby. Let’s hope he can keep this up. I know nothing about how Joel Zumaya pitched, but I’m guessing it was really good, and really quick, cuz they had just finished the bottom of the seventh when we turned the computers off at work, and when I got to my car, they had just started the bottom of the eighth. And perhaps the most surprising moment: Todd Jones struck out the side in the ninth inning.

Yesterday, I mentioned that Gary Sheffield had gotten hit by the pitch in his final at-bat on Tuesday, and I kind of joked that it might help him get his timing back, given how he’s reacted to getting hit by the pitch in the past (ask Daniel Cabrera). Apparently it was no joke, and he IS starting to get his timing back. The home run is certainly a welcome sight. And I didn’t mention this yesterday, but I had been kinda thinking to myself that it had been a while since Magglio had hit a home run. I think I’m getting better at this timing thing. Other than that, Edinson Volquez doesn’t seem to be that bad of a pitcher. He got a bunch of ground balls, that’s for sure. Carlos Guillen got two hits, which is kind of a welcome sight, cuz it hasn’t been a real good homestand for him. On the flipside, it had been a really good homestand for Pudge, but he did absolutely nil at the plate last night (2 strikeouts, 2 GIDPs; ouch). Hopefully that’s just a fluke (hey, there are nights when even Magglio goes hitless) and he can get things going again in Minnesota. Besides, he made that nice pickoff throw on what looked like a wild pitch and probably saved a run in the process (given that the next guy singled), so it’s all good.

I want to spend a little bit of time discussing that pickoff (or whatever it was; the boxscore doesn’t really identify it as anything). It’s kind of funny, cuz I had made up something similar months ago. Early in the season, I had a dream where I was watching a game. Normally my dreams are downright bizarre but from the one half-inning that I remember, this time it was a perfectly plausible sequence of events. The pitcher got two quick outs, then gave up a single and a walk. The runner at second was then caught trying to steal third to end the inning. As I said, perfectly reasonable. Anyways, I’ve been working on a story where one character is a catcher (no surprise there) for an independent team in Florida. I decided to incorporate this dream into that, but just to make things more impressive, I changed that last part to the ball getting away from the catcher (in a wild pitch sort of way), but he’s able to get to it and throw the runner out. I was thinking of changing it back, cuz I was starting to believe that was a little TOO implausible, but lo and behold, last night Pudge proved that it is indeed possible. And with the exception of the play happening at second instead of third, it happened exactly as I had written. And when you take into account that I’m still very much at the novice level when it comes to baseball, it just makes it even more bizarre. Maybe I should start making up more stuff like that…

Since the Tigers have no more regular-season Thursday games left, they’ll have today to travel and rest up. And from here on in, they’ve only got division rivals left to play. First up on this road trip: the Metrodome (aka Land of Artificial Surface) and the Minnesota Twins, who for some unknown reason, haven’t really made the playoff push that they’re expected to make. They still play the Tigers awfully tough, though (kinda like Chicago). Oddly enough, the Tigers have had more success against the Twins at the Metrodome than at Comerica Park, but you can’t take anything for granted this late in the season, given the precarious position that Detroit is in. However, given the rotation that Leyland has set, it seems he’s aiming to put more stock in the Cleveland series next week. Nate Robertson will start tomorrow. He’s been really up-and-down during the second half. He’s had outings where he’s been absolutely stellar, and he’s had really, really bad outings. His last start was one of the not-so-great ones, although the Tigers still won. He has pitched well against Minnesota this season, though, especially at the Metrodome, and with Bonderman likely out for the season and Rogers and Jurrjens still not 100%, he’s gonna have to step up. Justin Verlander can’t be the only anchor. Matt Garza starts for the Twins. The Tigers didn’t do a whole lot against him the last time they saw him. As a matter of fact, he only gave up one unearned run, but the Tigers still won cuz Nate and the bullpen combined to shut out the Twins. But like I said, you never know.

One Year Ago: On September 13, 2006, the Tigers had to settle for a split as they were pounded by the Texas Rangers 11-3. Justin Verlander got roughed up for six earned runs and ten hits in only 4 1/3 innings, and the bullpen (with the exception of Andrew Miller) wasn’t much better. Gary Matthews, Jr became the first visiting player to hit for the cycle at Comerica Park (and he did it in natural progression: single, double, triple, homer; the first three came off Verlander, but the homer was off of Mike Maroth). All three Tigers’ runs came in the bottom of the fourth, and at the time cut Texas’s lead down to one, but the Rangers would put up a 3-spot in the top of the fifth. All in all, the Rangers hit five home runs off of Tigers pitching (hmm…that sounds strangely familiar).

Round 2 turned out much better than Round 1, obviously. It started out looking like it might turn out to be more of the same, but then Jair Jurrjens settled in and looked very good for just coming off the DL. Now we’ll wait and see if he can take Bonderman’s place in the rotation. He says his shoulder started getting a little stiff, but they think that the slightly chilly weather had more to do with that. The bullpen atoned for their earlier meltdown as well. Grilli, Rodney, and Jones were all very good (and you don’t know how relieved I am to be able to finally say that on a regular basis). The defensive gem of the night belonged to Brandon Inge with a couple of nice snags at third, including a 5-3 double play (that’s an unusual one).

Both teams’ offenses got kind of shut down after the first few innings, but luckily the Tigers got more in than the Rangers before that happened. They chased Brendan McCarthy from the game after only 2/3 of an inning, but as I said yesterday, Texas has got a good bullpen, and Jamey Wright showed that off. Oddly enough, each of Detroit’s four RBIs belonged to a different Tiger (one each for Polanco, Sheffield, Magglio, and Pudge). The Tigers were certainly in a running mood in the first inning. Granderson stole two, and Sheffield stole second, and this against Gerald Laird, who’s a rather good catcher when it comes to throwing out baserunners. Sheffield also broke his 0-for-25, which you had to figure would happen sometime soon (apparently, in addition to lingering pain in the shoulder, he’s also fighting a sinus infection). He also got hit in his final at-bat, so we’ll see if that has any positive effect on his numbers (it certainly has in the past). Only one Tiger had a multi-hit game, and that was Pudge, who must’ve gotten all of the sleeping pill out of his system, cuz he went 3-for-4 and continues to produce on this homestand, which is pretty impressive considering that his career numbers against his former team really aren’t that good (the ironic thing is that while the FSN guys were talking about Pudge hitting the ball to right field a lot in this homestand, all his hits last night were to left field).

I had kind of an interesting drive to school yesterday. I was driving down Madison and stopped at a red light at the intersection of Madison and Michigan. Now, keep in mind that Madison is a one-way street. At this particular intersection, there are two lanes plus a left-turn lane. Anyways, someone driving down Michigan decided to turn left and ended up in this turn lane before she realized she was now driving the wrong way down a one-way street. She backed up into the intersection a little bit (partially blocking the left lane) and then stopped. Meanwhile, the light turned green, and the person in the pickup truck in the lane next to me decided to try and go around the car. Just as she started to do that however, the car backed up further and ended up with a broken taillight and a nice dent on the back fender. Now, I know I’m not the greatest driver in the world, but still…

Tonight, the Tigers wrap up their homestand with one last game against Texas. Justin Verlander takes the mound for Detroit. He’s had three good starts in a row, so hopefully he can keep that up. He had one start earlier this season against the Rangers in Texas, a game which the Tigers won 10-0. Little did we know at the time that it was just the warm-up act for his next start, which was the no-hitter. But I digress. Edinson Volquez (who is rather strange-looking in his press photo) starts for the Rangers. He’s a September call-up, but he’s won both his starts since then, and he pitched six scoreless innings in his last start against Oakland, so you never know. The Tigers have seen him once in the past. It was brief, but they did have success against him. But like I said, anything could happen this time. As for me, I’ll be at work tonight, so I’ll get the late innings, but that’s it.

One Year Ago: On September 12, 2006, the Tigers began their homestand with a 3-2 win over Texas. Kenny Rogers gave up ten hits in his outing, but held the Rangers to only two runs. Meanwhile, all the Tigers’ runs came on solo home runs. Carlos Guillen hit one in the bottom of the second to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Then in the seventh, with Texas up 2-1, Marcus Thames went deep to tie the game. Finally, in the bottom of the ninth with the score tied, Guillen again hit a long ball, this time for a walk-off homer.

I guess that answers the question of which Texas offense was gonna show up, and luck was not on our side. That one was most decidedly ugly, although you have to wonder why it is that when our pitchers got behind in counts (which happened quite often), they got clobbered, but when Vicente Padilla got behind in counts (which also happened quite often; I swear that about two-thirds of the Tigers’ hitters were in 3-1 counts at one point or another), he escaped unscathed. C’mon, just three infield singles? I suppose you have to hand it to the B-team for preventing the shutout and making it look almost like a proper slugfest. I’ve said that since the second half, they’ve gotten into this pattern where if they get pitching, there’s no offense, and if they get offense, there’s no pitching. Recently, there has been some signs of them getting both in a game, but I suppose there’s gonna be games where you get neither. Obviously the big problem for Tigers pitching was keeping the ball in the park. That goes without saying (although as windy as it is here in Toledo, I’d imagine conditions are similar up in Detroit; not that the Tigers seemed capable of taking advantage of it as well). The only Tigers pitcher who didn’t give up a long ball was Tim Byrdak. Now, I’m not so concerned about Durbin, Byrdak, or Bazardo, because they’ve given me evidence that they’re good on most nights, but Capellan and Rapada really haven’t been that effective since being called up.

Anyways, there’s not much time to stew over this one. We’ve only got about an hour or so before Game 2 starts, and it’s gonna feature two starting pitchers who are just coming off the DL. Hopefully, Jair Jurrjens will be just as dazzling as he was against Cleveland, cuz it’d be really, really nice if the Tigers could actually win a game in a doubleheader (currently they are 0-5 in doubleheader games). Brendan McCarthy starts for Texas, and he’ll be on a strict pitch count, only about 50 pitches or so, so he probably won’t last more than three or four innings. However, Texas has a rather good bullpen, so it doesn’t necessarily make things any easier. Leyland should have his normal starting nine all set and ready to go (well, starting eight and his left fielder of choice), assuming nothing’s happened that I don’t know about and that Pudge is now Ambien-free. One thing that made me laugh was that in the news story about Pudge and Zumaya, they had to mention that Pudge felt out of it all day yesterday, “even after drinking coffee.” You know, I’m glad they were so thoughtful to point out that he tried drinking coffee, cuz otherwise I would’ve spent the next five years wondering. And really, Pudge doesn’t strike me as the type of person who would drink coffee. Red Bull, maybe, but not coffee.

I’ll admit it, I had the post-loss entry all set up in my head. It was gonna be something about how the Tigers really can’t catch a break, going up against a guy with a career 1.83 ERA against them, then losing their only player with good numbers against him, then later losing their eighth-inning guy, and for the second game in a row falling victim to spectacular play after spectacular play from the opposing team’s shortstop. I’m glad I don’t have to use any of that. That even got me excited, and you can guess how down I had been since the third inning when Pudge was taken out of the game (more on that later). And watching Jim Leyland jump up and down like that was one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Kenny Rogers may not be 100%, but he still turned in a decent outing. He certainly pitched well enough to win. Zumaya started out sharp, then had trouble, then looked as though he would get out of it when he was taken out. Zach Miner maybe wasn’t as sharp, cuz he gave up both of Zumaya’s runs, and there was an instance in the bottom of the ninth where I felt as though I was gonna have to mention those add-on runs “looming large.” Yorman Bazardo pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the win. There was also some great defense from Brandon Inge and Curtis Granderson.

As expected, the offense struggled against Roy Halladay. The only Tiger with good career numbers against Halladay is Pudge, and he was gone after having only one at-bat, so once he was out it just seemed kind of insurmountable, although Rabelo did get an RBI in his stead. Maggs, who does not have good career numbers against Halladay, certainly stepped things up as well. For most of the game, the Tigers would be able to get a single with either none out or one out, but the next batter would ground into either a double play or a forceout at second. It looked as though that was how the game was gonna end, cuz Timo Perez hit a ball that looked as though it would get through, but John McDonald snagged it for a very impressive double play, which erased Rabelo as well (though, truth be told, Rabelo should not have been on first base anyways, cuz the ball that he hit to left field was caught; the umpires made a bad call on that one). However, stringing together four singles, a walk, and another single in the bottom of the ninth with two outs is one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. And I don’t know what John Gibbons was thinking. I thought sure he’d get either a left-hander or his closer to get Granderson for the final out, and yet he didn’t, and then he left the same pitcher in to face everyone else in that inning. It doesn’t make any sense to me, but I’ll take it, and so will the Tigers. And yes, Pudge may be my Tiger, but Magglio is freakin’ awesome, too. A-Rod may have a gazillion home runs, but (and my dad’s friend the Yankee fan agrees with me on this) I truly believe Magglio means more to the Tigers than A-Rod means to the Yankees, and that is my justification for Maggs winning the MVP. And then there’s that batting title, of course…

Amidst all the excitement, I still gotta address the darker parts of this game. They were dropping like flies in this one. Toronto lost Troy Glaus in the second, and then Detroit lost Pudge in the third and Zumaya in the eighth. Pudge was taken out of the game with “dizziness.” I’m not quite sure what that implies. Leyland was talking about it in the post-game interview, but Leyland’s so hard to understand. From what I could tell, either Pudge hadn’t been feeling well yesterday and took some medication, or not (and I missed the key phrase on whether he was or he wasn’t). In the case of the former, I can certainly understand the dizziness, cuz I’ve taken cold medication before that’s done that to me (The only thing that doesn’t seem to do that is Sudafed, but a baseball player probably can’t take that cuz of the pseudoephedrine, which I’m gonna guess is a banned stimulant. See, now I’m getting all pharmaceutical on you). In the case of the latter, I have no idea. It doesn’t seem to be anything long-term or major, but…I still wanna see him play tonight. At any rate, they did interview him during the post-game show last night, and he seemed all right then. However, they didn’t show his response to the reporter’s question about leaving the game. As for Joel Zumaya, he scared everyone at first, and he did have to be taken out of the game, but it turned out that he tore off or pulled back the nail on his index finger (ouch). It might sideline him for a few days (which sucks), but it could be worse.

Today, it’s twice the fun as Texas comes to town for a day-night doubleheader, one of which is a make-up game for a rainout in June. Chad Durbin will start Game 1 for the Tigers. He looked very good against Chicago, and hopefully this time the Tigers can give him a lot more run support. Vicente Padilla will start for the Rangers. He’s supposed to be a good pitcher, but his record and ERA this year has been described as “disappointing.” I just hope that the Tigers can take advantage of this. The Texas offense has been at both extremes this year. They’ve had a game in which they scored thirty runs, and they’ve had a game in which they were no-hit. As per usual with these doubleheaders, I’m gonna try to do a brief post after the day game before the night game starts. I’m not sure what’ll happen with the lineups for this doubleheader, but Leyland said last night that Pudge will NOT catch in the day game, which is fine by me, cuz I don’t work tonight, but I’ll be at school during the day game, so I’ll only be able to follow it on Gameday, and I’d rather Pudge be in the game that I can watch, for obvious reasons. Now, there’s no guarantee that he’ll catch in the nightcap. Leyland said it’ll depend on how Pudge feels tonight (and you can bet he’ll do everything in his power to convince Leyland that he should play, but if he’s not up to it, they’ll probably activate Dane Sardinha). And you know I'm gonna be in one of those moods until I see Pudge behind the plate for a full game. At any rate, I’ll be able to follow most of the day game cuz I have a break from 1 to 3. My Anatomy class ends at four, and the game should be over or close to over by then, so I’ll probably check the score before heading home. So that’s the plan, for now.

UPDATE: The day game is currently underway (and if Gameday is any indication, Chad Durbin ain't so sharp today), but I've got some all-important updates. Obviously you already know the lineup for Game 1, since they're playing it right now (Sheffield and Polanco take a breather, Rabelo's catching, Maggs is the DH, Marcus Thames is manning left with Timo Perez in right, and Infante is at second base). Danny Knobler and Jason Beck both bring good news regarding Pudge and Zumaya. Joel's gotten his nail repaired, and says he could even pitch today if he was needed. Meanwhile, Pudge says he feels fine and should be ready to catch tonight's game. Apparently he took a sleeping pill on Sunday night and ended up being out of it all day yesterday (um, yeah, you don't need me to tell you that's a common side effect). At any rate, I feel better now.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Tigers pitchers fall behind all day and the Rangers get home runs. Vicente Padilla falls behind all day and only gives up two singles. I'm confused.

So it turns out each team claims a slugfest in this one. I know there’s a certain temptation to get all depressed about it, but, especially coming on the heels of a four-game winning streak (not to mention taking two series in a row), at this point it’s unfair to take this for anything other than what you know it is, and that is a loss, plain and simple. If the Tigers fail to rebound, then you can get depressed. That said, Jeremy Bonderman didn’t have anything going for him, and apparently neither did the bullpen. And you do have to start wondering about Bonderman. Apparently, Leyland certainly has, cuz the website has announced that he’s shutting Bonderman down, possibly for the rest of the season. It’s probably the best move, cuz there’s definitely something wrong, but I wish they would have made this move a bit sooner. However, I really can’t think of anyone to take his place in the rotation (although I suppose with the off-day on Thursday, they could start Kenny Rogers on regular rest Saturday and worry about it later). The bullpen struggled as well, but hopefully that’ll turn out to be a fluke, cuz they have been very good over the past month or so. The 3-run homer given up by Clay Rapada seems to have been the death knell, though two of those runs were charged to Grilli. Virgil Vasquez struggled when he first came on, but he got better as he went along (and his tendency to give up flyballs may be less of a disadvantage at Comerica Park, where those flyballs can become outs instead of home runs). Jose Capellan gave up the one run, but with a leadoff triple, that was kind of inevitable. The ball just kept carrying out to right field over the past couple days. Stuff that looked like they should be routine flyballs became doubles, triples, and homers, and Seattle seemed to be better at taking advantage of it yesterday.

There certainly wasn’t anything wrong with Detroit’s offense. They did hammer Felix Hernandez, but just don’t have a win to show for it. Nonetheless, and though the Milestone Curse did rear its ugly head yet again, it seems, congratulations are in order for Curtis Granderson, who had his 20^th stolen base of the season yesterday. He becomes only the third player in Major League history with 20 or more doubles, triples, home runs, and stolen bases in a single season (the other two are Willie Mays and Frank Schulte, so it definitely isn’t something that happens very often). I did notice, though, that everyone either went hitless or had a multiple-hit game. There was no in-between (although some guys got RBIs without the benefit of a hit). Granderson had four hits, and Polanco, Maggs, Guillen, and Inge all had two hits (and the two-hit day for Guillen was definitely encouraging, although he still looks like he’s struggling a bit). You can’t even get on their case about lack of clutch-hitting, because I don’t think that was the problem. In the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings (I believe; I could be wrong, though), the Tigers started to rally, and things looked promising, and they would maybe score one run, only to be denied more by highlight-reel plays from Yuniesky Betancourt. He robbed Maggs of a couple of RBIs, saved Felix Hernandez from a run-scoring error and got a forceplay out of it, and then turned an impressive double play on a ball hit by Polanco. So I guess you could say that while the offense WAS handcuffed, not by the pitcher, but by the shortstop (Betancourt has been a thorn in the Tigers’ side in more ways than one this season; he was the one who got Pudge ejected in that first game in Seattle).  

I watched that special on Justin Verlander last night and I found it to be enjoyable. They had some footage from one of Justin’s spot starts back in 2005, and that was really weird to watch, cuz Justin looked so different (remember, I didn’t really know anyone on the roster until late last year). First of all, and this is gonna sound really weird, his calves looked a lot bigger. It may have been the high socks (which he’s since thankfully figured out don’t look that flattering on him; now he just needs to get rid of the striped polo shirt), but he still wears fairly tight pants nowadays and his calves don’t look THAT big. He was also wearing the wrong number and he didn’t have the goatee (and, by the way, I think he looks much, MUCH better with the facial hair). Apparently two years can do you a lot of good, cuz nowadays I say Justin’s the most attractive guy on the team (even if his hair is has got this weird spikey thing going on recently). They didn’t really talk much about last year, other than the story of him making the team and then going on to win Rookie of the Year (and not pitching very well in the World Series). Of course, the entire last segment of the program was devoted to the no-hitter (which my mom erased off the DVR without me knowing about it; luckily, I still have it on videotape, and I’m sure they’re gonna air it again sometime during the off-season). Apparently, once he got back into the clubhouse after the game, his teammates poured beer all over him. Lovely story.

Well, hopefully this game was just a fluke and the Tigers can get back to winning. Toronto comes into town for one night only, a makeup game from way back in April. And though the Tigers had just a one-in-five chance, they still drew Roy Halladay. The Tigers just can’t catch a break. They’ve seen Halladay twice this year, and didn’t generate a whole lot against him either time. The Tigers will be starting Kenny Rogers, who was very good against Chicago, and hopefully can pitch just as well, if not better than he did then. I’m not gonna say anything about runs being at a premium, cuz when I’ve said that, I seem to be wrong. Of course, if the Tigers can score a bunch of runs off of Toronto, they’re certainly more than welcome to. As long as Kenny can handcuff the Blue Jays offense, naturally.

One Year Ago: On September 10, 2006, the Tigers lost their third straight game at the Metrodome as Minnesota defeated Detroit by a rather painful-looking score of 12-1. Johan Santana was on top of his game, while Jeremy Bonderman was not. He gave up seven runs (six earned) in 5 2/3 innings, and the bullpen didn’t fare much better. The Twins would score one run off Jamie Walker, and four off of Jordan Tata. The only pitcher that had a scoreless outing was Zach Miner. Meanwhile, Santana gave up only two hits and no runs in 6 1/3 innings. The Tigers finally got on the board in the ninth thanks to an RBI single from Neifi Perez (!), but with the exception of the lack of offense from Detroit, there are a lot of similarities between this game and yesterday’s game.