Boy, am I glad that the Tigers still take precedence over college football, cuz I was not happy when I turned the TV on at 7:00 and saw Fresno State tie Texas A&M at the end of the 4^th quarter. Luckily, they went to Comerica Park right after that, so I had no need to complain (and it’s a good thing, too, because that game apparently went into about five overtimes or something like that). The first five innings were certainly frustrating. The Tigers would go ahead by one, then Seattle would tie, then the Tigers would go ahead again, only to have Seattle tie again. I guess Nate Robertson just didn’t have it. Zach Miner finally stopped the see-saw action. He did give up a couple hits and a run, but it didn’t really matter at that point. Rodney looked much better, and Yorman Bazardo pitched a scoreless ninth. The pitchers got some defensive help from Brandon Inge, Ramon Santiago, and Timo Perez, as well as a bad call from the umpires on the very first play of the game (Hey, I may be a Tigers fan, but I’ll admit that Ichiro was definitely safe).

It was a spectacular night for several members of the Tigers offense, with two Tigers having a three-hit game, and one with four. Guillen’s still battling, and Sheffield still hasn’t gotten a hit since coming off the DL (although he’s going to get one soon; he hit a couple of balls hard, but wasn’t rewarded last night, including one to center that would’ve been a home run in just about any other park), but every other starter had a nice game. Granderson hit another triple, though A-Rod still leads him in extra-base hits—barely. Polanco had three hits and four RBIs, most of which came courtesy of a bases-clearing double. Timo Perez continues to make a bid for that starter spot in left field with three hits of his own, and two RBIs. Brandon Inge is having a nice homestand, and continued that last night with a two-run homer that broke the tie for good. Meanwhile, Pudge seems to have picked up right where he left off at Safeco Field and continues to hit very, very well against Seattle pitching. He had four hits last night, including an opposite-field home run. So…yeah, I enjoyed this one.

A couple of quick notes: First, when Ryan Rowland-Smith was on the mound for Seattle, I could hear a hissing noise with every pitch he delivered. I have no idea what that was about (and he was the only pitcher I heard it from). Second, there were a ton, and I mean a TON, of Pudge fans at the ballpark last night (Why wasn’t I invited?). There were a lot of people with signs saying “Pudge is my Tiger” (one sign tried to make a pun out of his name that didn’t really work), and even more with “Rodriguez” t-shirts and jerseys. So...is it a coincidence that he got four hits? By the way, I think I figured out what was so odd-looking about Pudge in that picture the other day, but you’ve probably figured it out as well.

Today, the Tigers wrap up their season series with Seattle, and they’ve got Jeremy Bonderman going for them. Bonderman’s recent outings have been kind of like Nate Robertson’s: mixed, but in Jeremy’s case, he’s had more bad than good. He’s gonna have to be good today, though, because Felix Hernandez is starting for the Mariners, and the Tigers weren’t able to get a whole lot going against him when they faced him earlier this season (that was that “Twilight Zone Hell” game that featured Umpires On Crack and Pudge getting ejected). And because it’s Bonderman going for the Tigers, it’ll be even more crucial to keep Ichiro off the bases, because Bonderman’s not good at holding runners on, and though Ichiro rarely ever runs with Pudge behind the plate, I doubt he has the same reservations about Rabelo, who will undoubtedly start this game (I’m not knocking Rabelo’s ability here; he could probably throw Ichiro out, but as a rookie, he doesn’t have a track record that could intimidate Ichiro).

One Year Ago: On September 9, 2006, the Tigers lost to the Twins 2-1. Nate Robertson only gave up two runs (one earned) in seven innings of work, but in typical Nate-fashion, the Tigers couldn’t get much going against Boof Bonser. An RBI groundout by Omar Infante to score Sean Casey accounted for the only Tigers run.

I was able to follow the game a bit while I was at work (which was insanely busy for the most part, but it tailed off near the end). It also helps that Ross was the pharmacist. We have Internet access, but pharmacists are the only ones with passwords to “unlock” it. My store has three pharmacists: Rachel, Ross, and Dave (and yes, though I’ve never willingly seen an episode of Friends in my life, I realize the irony). Ross is our newest pharmacist, but he’s a Tigers fan and oftentimes will bring up the live boxscore without me asking him to, as long as we’re not too busy. And though he’s understandably frustrated with Detroit’s recent performance, he’s not being venomous like certain people online, and he’s not pointing fingers, which is refreshing. Dave is actually a Reds fan, but he lets me follow the game and he seems to like the Tigers (or, to be more accurate, he hates the Indians and roots for any team that has a chance of knocking them off). The problem with Dave is that with the Tigers’ recent slide, he keeps going on and on about the Tigers being “in trouble,” and I’m tired of hearing it (Dave does this whenever a team he likes loses a game or games, and most of the time he sounds downright disgusted with the team, even teams he likes such as Ohio State when they lost the championship earlier this year). Rachel is the one that I can’t really follow games with. She is a Tigers fan, and she’ll let me briefly check a score, but I really don’t ask her that often, mostly cuz she’s the pharmacy manager and I feel weird asking. Occasionally she’ll leave an Internet window “unlocked” (usually on weekends, when we make reminder calls, which are controlled via a website) and I can sneak a glance every now and then, but I gotta pick my spots if I’m gonna do that (if she’s caught me doing it, she hasn’t said anything). Anyways, with Ross as the pharmacist last night, I was able to pick up on the game from sometime during the rain delay, which both of us were frustrated about. Ross was frustrated because it came just short of the game being called officially, and I was just hoping they would be able to get underway before too long, because Verlander was pitching really well. Luckily, Justin was able to go back out there after the rain and do a fabulous job. His velocity wasn’t as high as it has been, but the control was there, as evidenced by the fact that he didn’t walk anybody in eight innings. He had trouble in the seventh with that bases-loaded-one-out jam (which he got into and out of rather quickly, because as we left the pharmacy, he had just given up the leadoff single, and he got the third out just after I started up my car), but other than that, he was very, very good. Joel Zumaya was a bit scary as he had some issues with his control, but recovered nicely and got the Tigers in the win column.

As for the offense, it seemed to be “share the wealth” night, because each of the Tigers’ six RBIs belonged to someone different. Magglio now has a little bit of breathing room between himself and Ichiro in the batting average, though that could easily change. Curtis Granderson got his 20^th home run, so he’s now become the first Tiger to hit at least 30 doubles, 20 triples, and 20 homers in a single season. Carlos Guillen, who’s been struggling at the plate over the past few days, broke out of it a little bit with an RBI single. Pudge also had an RBI single, though I think he still would’ve made it to second even if the ball hadn’t been bobbled in right field. Brandon Inge perhaps wasn’t as effective as he was on Thursday, but he did have an RBI. Polanco rounds out the RBI count with his double in the first.

Jim Leyland is fond of saying that momentum is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher, and with that in mind, the Tigers still have a job to do tonight. Nate Robertson has been a little mixed in his last few starts, but he’s been more good than bad. He just has that Achilles’ heel of no run support. For whatever reason, the official website’s preview says that Nate “gave up six runs on 10 hits over 4 2/3 innings to the Mariners at Safeco Field in July.” That doesn’t sound good, except that Nate never pitched at Safeco Field this year (he was the only one in the rotation not to). I think they’re getting him mixed up with Kenny Rogers. He’ll be opposed by Jeff Weaver, who has been struggling but he was pitching really well back when Seattle was on a roll. The Tigers have gotten to him a couple times this year, but you figure sooner or later he’s bound to show up (I’m hoping for later, personally; as in, “not against Detroit”). By the way, Curtis Granderson is one stolen base away from joining some very elite company, and you gotta figure he’ll get there. And I do know that the Tigers stole several bases off of Weaver the last time they faced him. Hell, Sean Casey has stolen a base off him. Granted, when they did that Seattle was starting their backup catcher, so I’m not sure how much that figures into things, but at the time, the impression I got was that the Tigers were stealing off of Weaver. Just a thought. Meanwhile, I know Sheffield just got back, and he’s probably still working on his timing, but it’d be nice if he could pick up a couple hits sometime soon. Like tonight, maybe? Also, barring unforeseen events, I’ll actually be able to watch the entire game live, which is something I haven’t been able to do in quite a while.

One Year Ago: On September 8, 2006, the Tigers lost to Minnesota 9-5. Magglio had a big night with 4 RBIs, and Craig Monroe had an RBI single in the ninth, but the pitching was just not good. Wilfredo Ledezma gave up five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings, and the bullpen didn't fare much better. Grilli pitched a scoreless 2/3 of an inning, and Andrew Miller got the first two outs of the sixth, but then proceeded to walk three straight batters. Zach Miner was brought in to try to get the Tigers out of the jam, but an infield single from Torii Hunter opened the door for a big inning. A fielding error from Brandon Inge scored two more, and all in all, the Twins put up four runs in the sixth.

UPDATE: Lineups are posted. Your top six consist of the usual suspects, and Brandon Inge is batting ninth as usual, but once again, Timo Perez is batting seventh and Sean Casey finds himself in the 8-spot. So...it's pretty much like it was last night, if I remember correctly. Also, with the Mud Hens being eliminated last night (I guess the fact that half their team was up in Detroit finally got to them), the Tigers have called up lefty Clay Rapada (who they acquired from the Cubs in the Craig Monroe deal) and outfielder Brett Clevlen (who was briefly with the Tigers last year). Toledo catcher Dane Sardinha is also with the big club, but not on the active roster. He's just gonna be there in case something happens to either Pudge or Rabelo. With that in mind, I hope he won't be needed.

Funny enough, I “watched” most of this game on Gameday yesterday, but all the “exciting” parts happened while I was in class, which is probably a good thing. Chad Durbin pitched very well against the White Sox once again. Jason Grilli also did a nice job, as did Bobby Seay. Rodney wasn’t so good, though he came oh-so-close to pitching out of the jam (and I’ve possibly found a link between his two bad outings since coming off the DL, but I’m not going to elaborate at this time because I don’t want it to be taken the wrong way and I don’t have a large enough sample size yet, and by the way, I don’t particularly WANT a larger sample size). Carlos Guillen also provided a rather athletic double play as well (and that’s actually one of the better pictures I’ve ever seen of Guillen).

I did watch the bottom of the ninth inning later on (after I knew the outcome), and there was a different feel to the comeback than you would expect. It was almost as if everyone KNEW the Tigers were gonna come through. It’s kind of hard to explain. Nevertheless, Detroit has had some games against Chicago this year where they came oh-so-close to getting to Bobby Jenks, including Tuesday night’s game, so in a sense it seemed inevitable, but the timing was perfect. Everyone who came to bat in that inning did a nice job. What’s up with Timo Perez being in the middle of rallies all of a sudden? I’ve also gotta give props to Rabelo for laying down a nice bunt with two strikes. Meanwhile, how about Sean Casey? He’s come up with some clutch pinch-hit singles recently. And I guess Brandon Inge CAN hit lefties. He’d gone a really long time without a home run (and that’s only his second since the no-hitter). Gary Sheffield didn’t do a whole lot in his first game back, but you really can’t tell anything from one game. We’ll see if he can get his timing back in the next couple days. Of course, Polanco was the big hero with the game-winning hit. It just feels really good to win a series against the White Sox, though, even if it had to be in walk-off fashion in two consecutive games. By the way, this was the last Thursday game of the regular season for the Tigers.

Yesterday, I touched on the fact that St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Toledo was getting a new steeple 27 years after the old one burned down. I saw the church on my way to school today, and it just looks very strange to me. It doesn’t even look like the same church. On a completely unrelated note, I really should go get my car looked at. It’s developed this knock that becomes more apparent when I accelerate. I already have a big dent in the door from something I did back before I got my license, so now this knock REALLY makes me feel like white trash whenever I’m driving.

Okay, enough messing around with sub-.500 clubs. The Seattle Mariners are in town starting tonight (By the way, when I first got the above photo, the caption said something like, “Bobby Seay is congratulated by Jason Grilli after earning the win in yesterday’s game.” Is Bobby Seay really the focal point of that picture? He’s all the way over to one side. It took me a second to find him. Also, there’s something really odd about Pudge in that picture, but I just can’t put my finger on it). Justin Verlander (who should NOT wear polo shirts) will get the start tonight and in his last two outings he has looked very, very good. He’ll be up against a pretty good pitcher in Miguel Batista. If I remember correctly, the one time the Tigers faced him this year, they couldn’t get much going against him (I think that was the game in which Kenny Rogers gave up the grand slam; I was in Cleveland during that game). Apparently a big key is to keep Ichiro off the bases (although from what I hear, he rarely runs on Pudge, if ever), and besides, it’d be nice to give Magglio a little breathing room in the average column as well. By the way, I don’t know about Detroit, but I’m assuming their weather is similar to ours here in NW Ohio, and right now it is REALLY windy.

One Year Ago: On September 7, 2006, the Tigers began their road trip at the Metrodome and defeated the Minnesota Twins 7-2. Justin Verlander pitched exceptionally well, giving up just one run (the other run scored off Todd Jones, and it was unearned). Meanwhile, the long ball proved to be prominent for the offense, as four Tigers hit home runs. Granderson, Thames, Infante, and Pudge all went deep.

It’s probably a bit early to tell (I’ll make a more thorough judgment in his next start), but Kenny Rogers looked very good last night. Nine hundred pitchers later, the Tigers won. And I’m counting both teams there. The bullpen was pretty good as well. They walked more than I wanted them to, and Todd Jones scared the hell out of me in the tenth, but they got the job done, and that’s all you can ask for. The pitchers got some nice defensive help from Sean Casey and Timo Perez, and Kenny even handled one of his own by snagging a line drive. But that shouldn’t be too surprising.

Up until the end of the game, it looked as though the story with the offense was gonna be that problem with stranding runners once again (with the win, that’ll be a little more overlooked; not that it should be). They had baserunners in almost every inning, but couldn’t score, not even with the runners on the move all night The Tigers had a whopping six stolen bases last night, which is obviously unusual. As one of the Seattle TV guys said back when Detroit was still going good, “The Tigers aren’t a team that’ll run a whole lot. They just prefer to clobber the baseball.” As far as stranding runners goes, maybe Magglio’s absence had something to do with it, but I don’t know (he did come in as a pinch-hitter and walked; he later grounded out to end an inning). Marcus Thames and Carlos Guillen both went hitless. Guillen in particular had an absolutely dreadful night. He struck out four times, and the one time he did put a ball in play was a hard-hit line drive, but straight to the second baseman, who doubled off Polanco on that play. In the end, it was the Toledo guys who came through. Hessman hit an opposite-field solo home run to tie the game, and the oft-maligned Timo Perez had the game-winning single (long single at that; had it come earlier in the game, it would’ve been a double). Of course, that would not have been possible without Brandon Inge already being on second base with a double, so you’ve gotta give him his props, too (and actually, Inge is a much better hitter against left-handed pitching anyways, which might be part of his problem; the Tigers haven’t seen too many lefties recently). I totally expected either Kenny Rogers or Timo Perez to be the Player of the Game, so I was really surprised when they gave it to Pudge (I still would’ve given it to Kenny or Timo, but hey, I’m not gonna complain). It’s a shame he never came up with runners in scoring position, cuz he had a really nice night at the plate with three hits (and he could very well have had four if not for the fact that Jerry Owens is an absolute speed demon in center field). Two of those hits were doubles, the second of which was number 500 for his career, so congratulations are in order (Pudge becomes only the 46^th player in Major League history to reach that marker; someone on Yahoo Sports this morning was really excited about it as well). He’s also really close to overtaking Ted Simmons for most hits by a catcher. In fact, he may have already gotten there, but I’m not sure (for whatever reason, this is not a list I can find, and I’m not sure if those stats leave out any hits he may have gotten as a DH or in those few games he played at first base last year). At any rate, I got somewhat nervous once he got that 500^th double, cuz as I’ve said before, the Tigers tend to lose when a player reaches a milestone (unless it’s Carlos Guillen, for whatever reason), but they were able to defy that particular jinx. At least for now.

In a completely unrelated story, things here in Toledo have been a-changin’ a lot recently. A week or so ago, they tore down the old Sports Arena that’s been here for ages. I went to a couple of Ice Capades and Disney on Ice shows there, but I’ve driven by it probably a thousand times, cuz it was right by the river. I haven’t been past there since they tore it down, but I imagine it looks really strange. They’re going to build a new Sports Arena downtown (their original plan was to build the new one near where the old one was, but a couple years ago they changed their mind and decided to build it downtown). The problem with this is that now they’re gonna have the Sports Arena, the SeaGate Convention Centre, and Fifth Third Field all within a couple blocks of each other. I can’t imagine what traffic/parking would be like should there be a hockey game, a Mud Hens game, and a concert all on the same night. The other thing that’s been happening concerns the historic St. Patrick’s Cathedral downtown. This is a church that kind of sticks out on the skyline, mostly cuz there aren’t too many tall buildings around it. At any rate, today the church is getting a new steeple. This church has not had a steeple since 1980, when the old one was struck by lighting and had to be removed due to fire damage (which predictably would spark my interest, since I seem to be drawn to stories like that; in fact, my entire senior project at Denison was inspired by the Granville Opera House, which burned down in 1982). Therefore, I have never seen this church with a steeple except in very old pictures, and certainly never against the skyline, so I imagine that’s gonna look weird to me as well. Ironically, according to the article in today’s paper, it’s been nearly 27 years to the day that the old steeple was destroyed (September 9, 1980). I realize this babbling means absolutely nothing without pictures, so I did some scouring around the Internet and found some for you:

This is St. Patrick's with the old steeple, which, as I've said before, I've only seen in old pictures like this one. It doesn't even look like the same church to me.

This is the steeple on fire after it was struck by lightning. I did not learn until today that the offending thunderstorm happened in the morning. For some reason, I always imagined that it happened at night. I also find it interesting that there's actually a picture of this fire.

This is the church as I'm used to seeing it. I know this isn't a great picture (cuz the construction equipment and parts of the new steeple are blocking the view), but it's the only one I could find on such short notice.

Face-lifting churches aside, there’s a day game today (and if you notice the time I’m posting this, you’ll quickly realize I’m cutting this one awfully close). Chad Durbin comes out of the bullpen once again to start for the Tigers. He hasn’t really gotten stretched out back into a starter cuz he hasn’t remained in the rotation for very long recently, so you really don’t know what you’re gonna get from him. However, he did have that game back in April when he was very good against the White Sox. He’ll be up against Mark Buehrle, who is one of Chicago’s better pitchers and who has had mixed outings against the Tigers this year. In their first matchup at U.S. Cellular Field, he gave up fourteen hits and was otherwise hammered by the offense (granted, a lot of those hits were bloops). Then at Comerica Park a couple weeks later, he was much better, and the Tigers didn’t get a whole lot going against him (I was at that game). The big story is the return of Gary Sheffield, and he is indeed back in his 3-spot, with Magglio behind him. Most of the A-listers are starting today, with the exception of Pudge and Casey (though as far as Pudge is concerned, that was kind of a no-brainer, it being a day game after an extra-innings night game). Mike Hessman will be at first base, and Ryan Raburn takes up the ever revolving-door of left field. He will bat sixth. For my part, I’m just hoping the Tigers get the big hit early today.

One Year Ago: On September 6, 2006, the Tigers lost to the Seattle Mariners 5-4. Seattle scored first, then a Vance Wilson solo home run tied the game 1-1 before Seattle put up three more runs in the sixth. In the bottom of the eighth, Brandon Inge hit a solo home run, which chased Seattle starter Gil Meche from the game. With a lefty reliever, Leyland had Pudge pinch-hit for Curtis Granderson. Pudge came through with a single, which was followed up by another single from Neifi Perez. Pinch-hitter Kevin Hooper bunted them over into scoring position. Magglio then flied out to right, but Craig Monroe came through with a 2-RBI double to tie things up at 4-4. Then the rain started falling. Three and a half hours later, both teams had a scoreless ninth to send the game into extra innings. In the top of the tenth, Joel Zumaya loaded the bases with nobody out. Obviously, things aren’t really in your favor when you do that, and he did give up an RBI single to Kenji Johjima. That’s all he would give up, but it was enough for Seattle to win. After the game, the Tigers released Dmitri Young and activated Mike Maroth from the DL.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I HATE pitching duels, and I’m pretty sure last night could fall into that category. Bonderman was gone by the time I got home from work, if you need a frame of reference. From what I can tell, he wasn’t quite as sharp as he was in KC, and he got his pitch count up too soon, but he really didn’t pitch all THAT badly. Certainly well enough to win on your typical night, given what the Tigers’ offense is capable of. Apparently there’s concern stemming from his last couple pitches, which I didn’t see, but apparently, the wild pitch (which Bonderman claims was a changeup) raised alarm from Leyland, and Bonderman’s two fastballs after that were way down in velocity, and he was gone once he gave up the home run to Alex Cintron (whom the Tigers seem to bring out the best in). Bonderman insists he’s fine, but Leyland, Chuck Hernandez, and Pudge all seem to be a little skeptical of that. Something’s bothering Leyland moreso than usual, cuz he seemed…well…teary-eyed in his post-game interview. Meanwhile, the bullpen is doing it’s best to prove that Sunday’s game was just a fluke. At least, that’s the impression you would get from Zach Miner, who did a very nice job. The problem is that the bullpen seems to get about as much run support as Nate Robertson. That is, not much.

I don’t know what it is, but for whatever reason, the Chicago pitchers who have downright sucked against everyone else always seem to get their A-game back when they play Detroit. And as for Jon Garland, it’s not really a Reyes Effect thing, cuz he’s always pitched well at Comerica Park. You know it’s not really a great night for the offense when they got closer to putting Bobby Jenks on the ropes than Garland. The only rally attempt against Garland came in the sixth, when an RBI single from Guillen put the Tigers on the board and put runners at first and third with one out, but that would be it. Pudge got a hanging breaking ball that he just missed and it didn’t go foul, and Marcus Thames grounded out (I think). Things got real interesting in the ninth. Brandon Inge walked with two outs, and then Sean Casey (who you’ve gotta feel bad for, cuz he’s not been getting very much playing time at all) came up with a big pinch-hit single (He’s been pretty good in those situations; this is at least the third time this season where he’s come off the bench and gotten a big hit), but with the tying runs in scoring position (Maybin the pinch-runner stole second), Granderson struck out (I kind of had a feeling that would happen once the FSN guys informed me that Granderson was 0-for-7 career against Jenks with six strikeouts). Oddly enough, Guillen was the only Tiger with two hits, but everyone else except Polanco and Thames got one (unfortunately, most of them were in different innings). The defense was perhaps not as sharp as it should have been. Marcus Thames made that bizarre-looking error (though it didn’t lead to any runs), and Guillen at first base kinda let his shortstop instincts take over, which allowed Konerko to reach and score on the Cintron homer (not that it would end up mattering that much). Pudge had a nice night behind the plate, though, throwing out two baserunners (and those were some real nice-looking plays, I might add). By the way, Magglio was named AL Player of the Month for August (first Tiger to do so since Pudge back in June of 2004), and Guillen is up for the Pepsi Clutch Performer of the month, so make sure you vote for him.

Yesterday, before Anatomy started, there was a guy from New Zealand (and I know it was New Zealand, because both he and his shirt said as much) who came to our class to talk about some student international summer volunteer program where you work with either underprivileged families or conservation efforts in Costa Rica or Thailand or another country that I can’t remember. Anyways, the guy’s sales pitch for the program was decidedly loud and overenthusiastic. I felt like I had been assaulted by some combination of the Oxy-Clean guy and the Crocodile Hunter. And no, it didn’t get me interested in the program. Meanwhile, confusion abounded in Japanese today. We were learning a bunch of new characters that included the character ふ, which our professor kept pronouncing like the word “who,” but in Romaji the character is spelled “fu.” However, some of us tried to mimic the way she said it while others tried to follow the Romaji (which is meant to be phonetic, so it’s not necessarily a bad strategy), and a few tried to ask the correct way of pronouncing it. Apparently, she honestly cannot hear the difference between an “h” sound and an “f” sound, because whenever someone tried using both, she would say that both sounded the same to her. As for me, I’ve been trying to settle on something in-between, which is hard to do cuz they sound completely different to me.

Kenny Rogers returns from the DL tonight to take on the last team he faced before going on the DL. He didn’t pitch well in that game at all, though the Tigers did win (that was the Ryan Raburn 7-RBI game). He probably would have returned last week had his rehab not been hampered by that flu bug that hit the Tigers a couple weeks ago. I’m really not at all sure what to expect from him tonight. He says he’s ready, but the whole thing seems just a bit rushed to me (and I’m absolutely hating myself for feeling that way, cuz I can’t stand it when the big bloggers online say stuff like that; after all, desperation is unbecoming). Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have a sense of impending doom or anything, but neither do I feel jubilantly optimistic, and I just can’t shake the feeling that we’re gonna get at least two innings from Jason Grilli tonight. In other words, it’s impossible to tell what you’re gonna get from Kenny tonight. It’s also impossible to tell what you’re gonna get from Gavin Floyd, either. He starts for the White Sox. The Tigers had a lot of success against him back in Chicago (though the Tigers did not win that game), but then once he came to Comerica Park, they couldn’t get anything going against him. I suppose we’ll find out soon enough whether that last one was the Reyes Effect or not. As for the lineup, I would not be surprised to see a lot of the Toledo guys in there, cuz they hit Floyd pretty well in Chicago. At the very least, Raburn and Hessman may garner a lot of consideration from Leyland. Rabelo maybe not so much, cuz Leyland probably wants to use him for tomorrow’s day game, but you never know. Meanwhile, poor Sean Casey hasn’t seen much playing time at all recently. Are they phasing him out or something? Also, in last night’s post-game interview, Leyland said he’ll probably have to rest Magglio tonight because of his heel, so that’s also something to think about. I’m not sure if that means he’ll sit him entirely or if he’ll have him DH again (with Sheffield coming back tomorrow, it’s likely his last chance to do that). While my intuition concerning the lineup sucks, my intuition concerning games has been pretty accurate, and right now, the feeling I’m getting is that this is a winnable game for the Tigers, but there’s something that just doesn’t feel right. I’m getting the feeling that something’s gonna happen that I’m not necessarily going to like. Whether that results in a loss, I’m not sure, but I just can’t shake that little dark spot.

One Year Ago: On September 5, 2006, the Tigers suffered a 4-3 loss to the Mariners. Things looked promising for Detroit early on. They scored three runs in the first inning, thanks to an RBI single from Craig Monroe and a two-run double from Pudge. Seattle would come back to tie in the fourth inning, scoring three runs (two earned) off of Jeremy Bonderman. Then a rain delay in the bottom of the fourth inning knocked both starting pitchers out of the game. After that, the Tigers offense only managed two hits, both singles, one of which was in the ninth inning (a single from Pudge, who was subsequently erased in a double play). Andrew Miller gave up the go-ahead run to Seattle in the sixth to take the loss.

UPDATE: Lineups are posted. Magglio is indeed not in there (though I would assume he would be available to pinch-hit; at least, I haven't heard otherwise), so Guillen's batting cleanup for just the second time this season. Marcus Thames is your DH tonight and will bat eighth. Ryan Raburn bats third and will be in right, while Timo Perez is in left and will bat fifth. Mike Hessman will get the start at third base for Brandon Inge and will bat ninth. Everyone else is in their normal spot, and yes, that means Sean Casey will finally see some playing time. Meanwhile, Leyland says that Jeremy Bonderman does have a sore elbow, but he claims it's not serious and Bonderman should be able to make his next start. There's a hint of "Do we have a choice?" about this story, but I suppose we'll find out soon enough.

I meant to use yesterday as a chance to finally check out the HD version of the Justin Verlander no-hitter (or, as I call it, “the feel-good movie of the year”) that’s been stored on our DVR since July. The reason I haven’t watched it is because our DVR and HDTV is in the living room, which is where my mom’s computer is, and the only time she’s not in there for any significant amount of time is either when she is at work (which is when I’m at school) or when she goes to bed (which is normally when I type up most of these Total Amateur Analysis recaps before I go to bed myself). Since she hates baseball, I can’t quite watch it while she’s in there, so hence my problem (I also have the All-Star Game stored on the DVR and I’ve yet to watch that whole thing as well). However, I didn’t watch it. Instead, I ended up watching a bunch of episodes of Doctor Who, which I haven’t really watched in a while (I’ve only got about half the episodes of season three, and since my PC is still in the process of being fixed, the others are gonna have to wait cuz my laptop doesn’t have a stable enough Internet connection). I think it was good for me to get away from the Tigers for a little bit (though I did do a bit of scoreboard watching, not that it brought good news), and I think it allowed me to get my thoughts clear on the subject (more on that later). At any rate, I still have a Spanish assignment in which I have to write one page on what I did over the long weekend, and I’m desperately trying to figure out how to stretch “I worked, watched TV, and did homework” into one page.

Today in Japanese we were learning the “n” syllables, which includes “ni,” and it was incredibly hard not to start laughing. Come on, I can’t be the only Monty Python fan in that class. By the way, “ni” means “two.” We also learned the word “inu” which means “dog,” and of course that reminded me of something else (you know, ever since I graduated from Denison, I haven’t really been that up to date as far as anime is concerned; I kinda got stuck on Inuyasha and nothing since; not that I mind). Right now I’m in the Bowman-Oddy computer lab, which is nowhere near as hot as it was last semester. And I’m cheating by reading the synopses of the Doctor Who episodes I haven’t seen yet on Wikipedia.

Okay, now for my deep thoughts regarding the Tigers (well, so to speak). I know I probably don’t have much credibility on the matter, given the fact that Detroit’s chances of making the postseason grow ever more bleak, but I’ve realized it’s not “when” that’s become important to me, but “who.” It seems that, in light of the success of last season, a lot of Tigers fans have developed a sort of Yankees-type mentality: Anything less than a World Series championship is considered to be a complete failure, which is kind of an unfair expectation for a team that had twelve straight losing seasons prior to last year. I’d like the Tigers to win the World Series this year, obviously, but what I really want is for THIS team to win a World Series. The year doesn’t matter. I just want it to be won by this exact cast of characters that I’ve come to know and love (Magglio, Guillen, Pudge, Sheffield, Verlander, Inge, everyone…even Jason Grilli). I think one thing that motivates that particular desire is the fact that a few of those guys have been under fire from just about everyone for whatever reason, and nothing would please me more than to see them prove their critics wrong, even me (and I have been critical at times). The only reason why I may feel a more pressing need for the Tigers to win the World Series this year is because there are a couple guys near the top of my list who will be free agents at the end of this season, and the last thing I want is for them to be seen as some sort of failure and be let go by the team. THAT would be the real tragedy. As I said yesterday, I don’t think you really need to “improve” this team by adding new people or getting rid of guys. The sheer number of injuries prevented this team from ever being at full strength. The pieces are all there. It’s only a matter of time before they all come together. Whether that means tonight, next year, or three years from now I can’t say, but I believe that once everyone’s healthy, this group has more than enough, and I can only hope that Dave Dombrowski recognizes that (he’s never given me reason to believe that he doesn’t, but I can’t help worrying just a little bit). Bottom line: Should the worst happen in the coming weeks, I’ll be disappointed, but it may be months before I can give you my final verdict.

First thing’s first though: There’s still a game tonight.

One Year Ago: On September 4, 2006, the Tigers defeated the Seattle Mariners 6-2 at Comerica Park. Nate Robertson only gave up one run in seven innings of work (Jason Grilli gave up the other). Meanwhile, the Tigers started off their scoring in the first, when Magglio hit a two-run homer. They then put up four runs in the bottom of the seventh, capped off by a two-run double from Omar Infante.

I know you have no reason to believe me on this, but I sensed this one coming yesterday. Somehow, I knew it even when I got home (bottom of the fifth) and saw that the Tigers were ahead by a huge margin. I saw that 7-0 score and I still didn’t feel excited. At all. As I’ve said before, I really wouldn’t change anything about this team as far as the players are concerned. Despite recent showings to the contrary, this really is a team that’s built to win. All the pieces are there. The problem is that they just can’t seem to come together. You get one aspect rolling, and another one falters, and then once you fix that, something else goes wrong. This series against Oakland is a good example. With the exception of Virgil Vasquez, there were some signs that the starting pitching was beginning to come around, and the offense was able to score a decent amount of runs, but now the bullpen, which has been spectacular over the past month or so, has started to falter. And it’s not really guys like Jason Grilli. Zumaya gave up the winning run on Friday, Rodney was just plain not good yesterday and probably stayed in a little too long (though I realize it wasn’t entirely his fault, cuz Cameron Maybin lost a popup in the sun), and Jonesy blew his first save since mid-July. Yorman Bazardo obviously wasn’t the answer for the tenth inning. After the Tigers failed to score in the top of the tenth, I knew they were going to lose. The only thing that I was wrong about was that I expected Oakland’s winning run to score on a walk-off homer, not a bloop single. As I said, Leyland probably should’ve taken Rodney out once he gave up the RBI single to Suzuki (Him again?), but I hate armchair quarterbacking so I’m not gonna harp on it that much. As for Todd Jones, I don’t think you could’ve done anything differently, even after he gave up the leadoff single. It’s not uncommon for Jonesy to give up a base hit or two in his outings, so there was nothing alarming about that in and of itself. Two pitches later, Oakland tied it up. I mean, for whatever reason, I saw it coming, but it’s not something you could’ve predicted simply by watching Jonesy pitch. And this is also the latest example of “the Tigers just can’t catch a break.” I mean, Suzuki’s home run went to dead center (hey, if they had been at Comerica Park, it would’ve just been a long flyout), and the bloop single that won the game for the A’s just barely stayed fair. Even so, I have no idea how Jonesy managed to get himself out of that bases-loaded nobody-out jam in the ninth inning. Not that it mattered. But as I said, somehow I knew this was gonna happen, long before there was any indication of it, so I don’t have the devastation of an emotional-rollercoaster bottoming out that I imagine most have. Just your typical run-of-the-mill “losing sucks” mood.

The Tigers were done scoring by the time I got home (though I “heard” Rabelo’s RBI single in the car), so I missed that whole thing (and maybe that’s what prevented the emotional rollercoaster). From the lineup, it looked like the Toledo show again (Raburn, Santiago, Rabelo, Hessman, and later Timo Perez), and all of them except Hessman and Perez had pretty good outings at the plate early, especially Santiago, who had three hits. Rabelo broke an 0-for-11 with an RBI single, but in his next at-bat, he struck out swinging on a pitch that was at his eyes and way outside. There weren’t too many good at-bats after the fifth inning, which turned out to be a problem. Then again, in the top of the tenth, Polanco struck out. You know (and this goes back to my title), he struck out in the top of the tenth on Friday, and the Tigers went on to lose in the bottom half. The same thing happened yesterday. Perhaps there’s a connection, like maybe Polanco striking out is so out of character that it just puts everybody else out of whack. I don’t know.

Well, regardless of how I feel about it, the Tigers still have a bit of extra time to chew on this one, cuz they’re off today (unfortunately, the three teams ahead in the division and/or wild card are not, though New York is playing Seattle, so the Tigers are gonna lose ground on somebody regardless). Tomorrow, the last-place White Sox come to Comerica Park (Last place? Wow, I guess it really could be worse). For whatever reason, the White Sox have struggled against everyone else, but always managed to play the Tigers real tough this season. I suppose this is the big test to see if Jeremy Bonderman is indeed back on track. He looked real good in his last start, but he also looked good against Cleveland a couple weeks ago, and that was followed by a couple of really bad outings against the Yankees. I’d be more apt to put more faith in him if he can string together at least two good starts in a row. Now would be a good time. Jon Garland is starting for Chicago. I believe the Tigers saw him in early April, but I can’t remember how they fared against him (If it’s the game I’m thinking of, I know that the Tigers won that game, but it was in extra innings). At any rate, he’s got a losing record and his ERA is almost five, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything (Hey, the struggling Jose Contreras managed to shutout the Indians yesterday). I’m not even sure what to speculate anymore, cuz it seems that the Tigers have the entire force of the universe going against them. And the universe is something that’s pretty tough to battle.

One Year Ago: Meh, the Tigers couldn’t buy themselves a series win at this point last year either. They found themselves on the losing end of a pitching duel against the Angels, 2-1. Wilfredo Ledezma made a very strong start for the Tigers, giving up only three hits and two runs. However, Kelvim Escobar was just a little bit better. He only gave up two hits and one run. Magglio had the only RBI for the Tigers (and he had two of the eventual three hits for Detroit; Santiago had the other hit).

We were really behind at work today, so I never got the chance to sneak a peek at the score while I was there. I had to settle for listening to the radio on the way home and watching the later innings on TV when I got home, so I only saw about the last three innings or so. At any rate, though, Justin Verlander apparently was very sharp. He did give up the home run to Mike Piazza, but at least it was a solo shot. I only saw the tail end of his outing, when it looked as though he might have been running out of steam a little bit (he DID throw 129 pitches, and Leyland has informed us that Justin will get an extra day of rest before his next start), although his last pitch apparently hit 100. The bullpen actually made me perhaps a bit nervous. Bobby Seay did strike out Jack Cust with the bases loaded, but Zach Miner routinely fell behind hitters. He only gave up one hit, though. I didn’t see most of Todd Jones’s outing, but I suppose you can’t complain.

Since I only saw the late innings of this game, I was a bit mystified as to the lineup. Looking at the box score later on cleared things up, but at the time I was extremely confused as to why Brandon Inge was hitting third and Ramon Santiago was hitting seventh. Once I learned that Ryan Raburn and Sean Casey started in those spots, it made a lot more sense. Considering the fact that Dan Haren was pitching for Oakland, the Tigers’ offense did a good job. Curtis Granderson led the way with four hits (a triple shy of the cycle), and Polanco and Timo Perez each had three (and in Polanco’s case, I think that sets a new franchise record for most 3-hit games since 1957). Magglio had a double and an RBI (What else is new?). Oddly enough, the two big producers in Friday night’s game (Guillen and Pudge) both went hitless. Guillen did have a sacrifice fly, though. Pudge didn’t get much of anything. He apparently lined out to center field in his first at-bat (which just boils down to bad luck, something that has plagued him for most of the second half), grounded out to third a couple times (which he is NOT supposed to be doing), and struck out looking (which probably doesn’t help the cause of encouraging him to be more patient at the plate, but what can you do?). Cameron Maybin continues to struggle at the plate somewhat. He might still be trying too hard.

I have a couple of random notes. First of all, during the eighth inning, the FOX Saturday Baseball commentators had an extremely long discussion about the proper type of sunglasses to wear and the proper way to wear them. It got quite boring real quickly. Also, the boys on the field seemed to be in a good mood. While the grounds crew was repairing the mound for Jonesy in the ninth inning, Pudge and Inge were having a little fun with each other. Inge kept tapping Pudge on his helmet, so Pudge (who was holding a baseball) grabbed Inge’s jersey and dropped the ball inside it. It was totally random, but I thought it was funny anyways. Finally, I suppose I gotta give props to Clay Buchholz of the Boston Red Sox, who threw a no-hitter last night in just his second Major League start. He chose a bad time of year to do it, though, cuz he didn’t get a whole lot of publicity. At least, not as much publicity as Justin Verlander. See, Verlander was smart enough to get his in June, when there was no college football to take away the media attention. Just sayin’ (and I hope you’re not taking me THAT seriously here). By the way (and this’ll mark a rare instance in which I will discuss college football), Michigan got beat by some team that most people have never heard of (Appalachian State). Hmmm (and yes, I am that rare hybrid fan of the Detroit Tigers AND Ohio State).

Today’s another day game, and the last game of the season against Oakland (you know, the Tigers have got a TON of games within their own division this month). And it’s another rematch. Nate Robertson goes up against Dallas Braden for the third time this season. It’s similar to yesterday’s story. Round 1 went to Braden. Round 2 went to Robertson. With Nate, you’ve always got that “no run support” hurdle to clear. He’s been more good than bad recently, but his last outing was pretty bad. And the Tigers FINALLY go up against a lefty (I realized that the Tigers only faced four lefty starters last month, all of whom were the ace of their respective team’s staff in Buehrle, Kazmir, Sabathia, and Pettitte). They couldn’t muster much against Braden the first time they saw him, but they hammered him the second time (that was the game in which Magglio homered twice in the same inning). With these September call-ups, I haven’t the slightest idea what the lineup will look like. I’m assuming that Rabelo will catch, and that most of the lefties will be out of the lineup (Granderson, Perez, Casey), but I couldn’t speculate much beyond that.

One Year Ago: On September 2, 2006, one day after a 9-0 victory over the Angels at Comerica Park, the Tigers were defeated 7-2 in extra innings by the Halos. Justin Verlander pitched seven strong innings (including pitching himself out of a bases-loaded, nobody out jam in the second inning), but the Tigers were unable to muster any offense while he was in the game. Neither team scored until the top of the eighth, when the Angels scored a run off Fernando Rodney. Detroit came back in the bottom of the eighth and took the lead on an RBI hit by Marcus Thames. However, in the top of the ninth, with two out, nobody on, and Todd Jones pitching, a throwing error by Carlos Guillen opened the floodgates. An infield single later and Jonesy was facing Vladimir Guerrero. He made a pitch that got in on his hands, but Guerrero was able to muscle it into the outfield and the Angels tied things up. Jonesy was able to escape the ninth with no further damage, but despite a leadoff double for Guillen in the bottom of the ninth (after which he had to leave the game with a hamstring injury), the Tigers were unable to score, and they went into extra innings, where things went downhill (Sound familiar?).  In the top of the tenth, with the bases loaded, Jonesy gave up a triple to Chone Figgins. Zach Miner entered the game and surrendered a two-run homer to Orlando Cabrera. All in all, the Angels exploded for five runs in the tenth, and obviously the Tigers couldn’t answer. This whole thing is kind of similar to the extra innings loss the Tigers had a couple days ago, right down to the late-inning heroics gone to waste. If anything, this 2006 game is probably worse because of the 5-spot put up by Los Angeles.

2006 record: 84-52

2007 record: 73-63

Okay, VERY short entry, cuz I gotta get to work real soon and today’s game will start before I get home. Yeah, it was a big emotional rollercoaster last night (and seriously, it HAS to be a west coast thing, cuz there was a somewhat similar game that the Tigers lost against the Angels back in April), and the finger-pointing online has gone into a frenzy. The general consensus seems to be that the loss is Timo Perez’s fault for not throwing out Mike Piazza at second base. I did not see the play, so I can’t comment on that, but once again, I find it REAL interesting that no one seems to be blaming Joel Zumaya for giving up the hit to Piazza in the first place. I don’t want to go down that road, because then you might as well blame Polanco for not snagging the ball that Johnson hit before it went into right field, or Magglio for not having a stronger throwing arm. Granted, I do get the feeling that this’ll be Joel’s last free pass. They’ll probably land on him next time he gives up a go-ahead run. I’m guessing. As for me, I just think it was one of those games. Virgil Vasquez looked okay to start things off, but he was just giving up way too many home runs. It’s probably good that he was pulled after four innings. Zumaya wasn’t good, but the rest of the bullpen was decent. There were a few too many walks, though (but I totally understand the walk to Jack Cust).

Leyland didn’t seem too happy with the offense in the post-game interview. Marcus Thames and Brandon Inge really didn’t have anything going and mostly just killed rally attempts. Polanco hit a triple, but didn’t do anything else and actually struck out on a pitch out of the strike zone in the tenth (and this is the guy who bats .500 against the A’s). Magglio had a hit and a run scored but didn’t do much else. Guillen had a really good night with three hits including a triple, an RBI, and two runs scored. Pudge also had a decent night. He went 2-for-3 with a couple clutch singles, an RBI, and even a walk (the amusing part is that that was the ONLY walk given up by Oakland pitching). Cameron Maybin was absolutely robbed a couple times by Nick Swisher, and that play by Swisher in the second inning probably saved the game for Oakland, all other things being equal.

Anyways, today it’s FOX Saturday Baseball (yuck). And it’s Justin Verlander against Dan Haren. Again. These two have already met up twice this season. Round 1 went to Haren. Round 2 went to Verlander. Something’s gonna give. Verlander was spectacular in his last start and I really, really want him to turn in the same performance today, if not better. Because of the extra-innings situation last night (and it being prime “second day syndrome” AND the day game after a night game), we may see Rabelo start in this game. I would prefer to see Pudge, cuz Verlander’s the starting pitcher (and if the rumors are to be believed, I may not see that much more of the Verlander/Pudge battery, which is quite depressing, cuz that’s my favorite combination), but I get the logic (plus, I think Oakland’s starting a lefty tomorrow; not sure, though). Marcus Thames has gone a bit cold of late, so we may see someone else DH/start in left field. Then again, Marcus DOES average a home run about every fourteen at-bats or so, so you could make the argument that he's a bit overdue.

By the way, the thought had occurred to me: Isn’t it strange that the Tigers’ slide started right around the time George Bush predicted them to win the World Series? Hey, he’s been wrong about virtually everything else.