Sure, I’ll take it, but man, did we dodge a bullet with that one. I really only have one complaint about the pitching: Too many walks. You are not gonna get away with eight walks very often against the Yankees. Other than that, Kenny Rogers pitched well enough to win, considering that this was a team that has given him fits over the years. Both of the other lefties were sharp (You know, without A-Rod or Posada in the lineup, I realized that the Yankees have a TON of lefties in their batting order. I suppose this makes sense, cuz you’re supposed to build your team to your home ballpark’s strengths, and Yankee Stadium has that short right field, but I would think it’d leave the team more vulnerable to left-handed pitching), but Denny Bautista just lost it. I’m willing to give him a mulligan for now, because he’s done a good job up to this point, and even Rodney and Zumaya were known to get a little wild at times. Then again, it could’ve just been one of those nights, cuz even Todd Jones walked the leadoff man in the ninth, which is rare. Say what you about Todd Jones, but if you’re gonna beat him, it’s usually gotta be with stringing a bunch of hits together, cuz he’s not gonna beat himself with walks or home runs very often.

It seems that Curtis Granderson came off the DL hot, cuz all he’s been doing is getting hits and scoring runs since he came back. Polanco looks a lot better at the plate, and his average is now over the Mendoza line. And even Gary Sheffield had one good swing, which I know is exactly what he wanted at Yankee Stadium. All in all, there was a lot of production from the top of the order, a little bit from the middle (Magglio and Cabrera singled), and not much from the bottom other than Pudge’s two hits (and a stolen base, which means he’s already exceeded his total from last year).

I think I found a kindred spirit to That F***ing Drum: That F***ing Frying Pan. There was a guy in the stands banging on a frying pan, and it got really annoying after a while. The frying pan also looked like it had a shamrock on it. Also, I know the Yankees’ long-time public address announcer (the name escapes me) is in bad health and hasn’t been working this season, but the guy filling in for him is certainly trying his best to imitate him. However, Pudge no longer seems to be “Pudge” at Yankee Stadium. This year he’s getting called by his real name, as he does in every other ballpark besides Comerica Park. Also, this was apparently Polanco’s first regular-season appearance at Yankee Stadium. That never occurred to me until now. Prior to the Tigers acquiring him in ’05, he’d been in the National League his entire career. I’m not sure when the Tigers got him nor when they played the Yankees that year, but it had to have been before they got Polanco. In ’06, the Tigers were at Yankee Stadium in late August, after he’d already gone down with the separated shoulder. And last year he had a really bad bout with the flu that caused him to miss the entire series in New York.

Well, it wasn’t pretty, but we got game 1, and now it’s time to build on that. Jeremy Bonderman’s gonna have his work cut out for him. Remember when I noted all those lefties in the Yankees lineup? You can bet they’ll all be in there against Bonderman. That changeup’s gonna have to be working. And no more walks. That’s been a problem for Bonderman early on, but it has to stop now, cuz he will NOT be able to get away with seven walks tonight. Complicating matters is that the Tigers will be facing Andy Pettitte, who is a very good pitcher and has been pitching well this season. The Tigers have a couple of guys (Maggs and Pudge) who hit Pettitte well, but that didn’t seem to help them the last time they saw him. It’s also unlikely that they’ll be able to put runners in motion, cuz Pettitte’s got a very good pickoff move and Jose Molina, like his brothers, throws the ball well. And for once, the Tigers are actually healthier than their opponent. A-Rod has joined Posada on the DL, which means we’ll miss both of them entirely this year, both at Yankee Stadium and at Comerica Park. I mean, the rest of the Yankee lineup is certainly no picnic, but if I were a pitcher, I’d much rather pitch to Morgan Ensberg and Jose Molina than to Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada. The Tigers have caught a huge break, and it would behoove them to take advantage of it.

UPDATE: So long, Jason Grilli.

It seems that the Angels did indeed bring a good helping of old-fashioned West Coast Twilight Zone Hell with them for this finale. Once again, we all watched Justin pitch very well but ultimately we were all asking, “How the hell did he give up six runs?” He certainly didn’t pitch that way. The velocity on his fastball was awesome and his offspeed stuff was working beautifully. So what happened? I’m sick of talking about all the bad breaks the starting pitchers have gotten, especially Verlander, because it makes me sound irresponsible, but that had to be at work here. The Torii Hunter triple was a ball that maybe Magglio should have caught (my dad thought that Granderson wasn’t backing Magglio up in the outfield). There was that weird situation with the balk. I know Justin said it was cuz he got his spikes caught in the dirt, but Cabrera was asking for time out as well, and it just looked strange. The inning in which Verlander got chased was one crappy strange thing after another. It started with the error by Guillen, who was trying to pick the ball up off the ground to keep Vladimir Guerrero from going to second but was having a lot of difficulty getting around Gary Matthews Jr, who was basically using Guillen as a prop to keep himself from falling off the base bag. Is he allowed to do that? I would think that would be some sort of interference call, but what do I know? And the Torii Hunter double certainly wasn’t hit very hard, but it landed in just the right spot. After that it just looked like Justin got flustered, cuz he lost his command and then gave up a sharp single. One thing I did like about this series, though, was that the Angels did not get a single stolen base. They were thrown out once in the finale, and they would’ve been thrown out a second time in the ninth inning had there not been a called third strike.

Jered Weaver certainly wasn’t helping Verlander’s cause. The Tigers had had good success against him in the past because they tend to be patient with him and he got a little wild in his previous starts. Well, it certainly looked to me like the Tiger hitters went to the plate with the same game plan, but it backfired this time, as somehow Weaver just kept hitting his spots. I know Leyland said that Weaver got helped out by the Tigers swinging at stuff out of the strike zone, but if the pitcher is ahead in the count all the time, the hitters are gonna swing at stuff they’re not supposed to. The Tigers did have four walks, but of the four, one was erased in a double play, one was caught trying to steal second, and one was picked off. And that’s kind of the mystery. Last year, pretty much the only outs Curtis Granderson made on the bases were when he was erased on a double play and the ONE time he was thrown out trying to steal. This year, he’s already been caught in his only steal attempt, and now he’s been picked off by a pitcher who is not known for a quick move (Granted, it helps that Casey Kotchmann is left-handed; had he been right-handed, Granderson probably would’ve been safe). What gives? By the time the Tigers got a little more aggressive, it was the sixth inning and all they were able to do was chase Weaver and score the two runners that were his responsibility. Pudge had the only extra-base hit of the night for the Tigers. At any rate, I’m withholding the Reyes Effect diagnosis…for now.

Did anyone else notice that ESPN seemed to have microphones IN the first and third base bags? Pretty much the only thing THAT accomplished was a bunch of crunching noises. And I’m almost sure they did NOT have a mic in the second base bag, cuz there was one point during the game where Pudge was standing on second base, and I could see he was talking to somebody, but all I could hear was a muffled male voice in the distance. By the way, Joe Morgan’s talking point of the night turned out to be “The Angels are successful because they put pressure on the defense.” Has anyone else noticed that he latches onto one talking point early in the broadcast and then incessantly repeats it every five minutes? Past talking points related to Tigers games (whether they be directed at the Tigers or at their opponent) include: “You just have to hope to minimize the damage,” “This is a different Kenny Rogers,” “Keep the ball down,” “All they can hit are infield singles,” “It becomes more than just a fastball for him,” and most recently, “Carlos Guillen is gonna be a Gold Glove winning first baseman.”

Well, despite not being very impressive against the Angels, it WAS a winning homestand (See, that sweep of Texas turned out to be crucial. You HAVE to take advantage of struggling teams). And now begins what could be a very long two weeks. First up is the final trip into Yankee Stadium ever. The Yankees hung on to get a split in the series with Cleveland. For the most part, though, they’ve been outslugging their opponents. Their pitching hasn’t been that great, and right now the offense is in a little bit of a lull, although it is the Yankees, and they’re liable to bust out at any time. One pitcher who has been doing a good job is Chien-Ming Wang, and luckily the Tigers will NOT see him on this road trip. They have gotten stuck with Pettitte in the middle game, but they’re also facing the two struggling rookies. That said, you can’t take their struggles for granted. Anyways, I would’ve very much liked to have seen Kenny Rogers have a good outing his last time, but it was not to be, and the Yankees are not an easy team for him to pitch against. Reason being is that they’re patient hitters and they don’t swing at the type of borderline pitches he throws. Of course, every Tigers fan knows what he did to them in the postseason in ’06 (Even I know, courtesy of the MLB.tv archives). However, he maintains there is no way he could do that again. He’ll have to figure out some way to get through their lineup successfully, though. If it’s any consolation, the Yankees will be without two of their big guns. A-Rod has a strained quad and is day-to-day, while Posada is on the DL for the first time in his career. Meanwhile, for the first game, the Tigers will be up against Phil Hughes, one of the two rookies. They saw him last August. He gave up home runs to Thames, Guillen, and Granderson (that last one being of the inside-the-park variety) very early. The Tigers won that game, but they probably should have lost, given the fact that they lost both halves of the starting battery by the bottom of the fourth inning and that they were held hitless by Hughes and the Yankee bullpen from about the third inning onward (I could be wrong on the specific inning, as I don’t remember this game as vividly as I do some others). Two other things bother me about this game. One is that FSN is being dumb by simulcasting the game on FSN and FSN-Plus until the Red Wings game starts, at which point they’ll shift over to FSN-Plus entirely, and everyone knows how much I hate FSN-Plus (You couldn’t put the Red Wings game on there? Geez). The other is that I’ll be working until 9:00. Granted, it IS a Tigers-Yankees game, so I may, in fact, only miss the first four innings or so. Then again, the last time I thought I was gonna miss a Tigers-Yankees game due to working late, the game didn’t start until 11:00 at night and wasn’t over with until 3:30 in the morning. I really don’t want that to happen again. That was a strange game that I could’ve really enjoyed but instead things just kept happening that pissed me off. I did end up missing the beginning of the Phil Hughes game, but that was an afternoon affair, and those don’t count. But I digress.

Man, I had forgotten how stressful watching a developing no-hitter can be, although unfortunately Vladimir Guerrero put an end to it. Armando Galarraga now has the FOX Sports pundits all buzzing. As for me, I’m just glad he pitched well again, especially since it was against a team that HAD seen him before, despite what Torii Hunter says. The bullpen was a just a tad shaky, but they made big pitches when they needed to.

Meanwhile, the offense continues to take advantage of the other team’s errors. Once again, that was at the center of a rally. And Curtis Granderson’s knack for triples sure came in handy as well. That didn’t take long to get the first one of the season out of the way. Polanco continues to look much better as well.

Was it just me, or was there WAY too much ooh-ing and ahh-ing over Jeff Mathis? Okay, he’s good at blocking balls in the dirt, and he throws well, but geez. You don’t have to praise him at length every time he blocks a ball. I’m saying this and I’ve got a notoriously soft spot for catchers. Besides, isn’t the best young catcher in baseball supposed to be Russell Martin? Also, they had the home plate umpire miked up for their “Sounds of the Game” segment, and they showed a brief compilation for that. The first bit was a ball that Galarraga threw that skipped to the backstop and made the batter move out of the way. Right after that, you can hear Pudge asking the umpire “Inside?” Uh, yeah. Just a tad.

Well, after finally getting his first win last time, hopefully Justin Verlander can do an even better job tonight on the ESPN national stage. He’s never beaten the Angels, but his ERA is just a shade over 2, and plus in his career he’s been one of the toughest right-handed pitchers to run on (although he’s given up a few more stolen bases this year). I don’t think he pitched against the Angels at all last year. Meanwhile, Jered Weaver has also struggled out of the gate this year. He’s been exceptionally good over the past couple years, but the Tigers have been able to get to him before, though he’s never pitched at Comerica Park.

I can’t really think of anything that could’ve been done differently last night, although I missed the first half of the game due to being at work. Nate Robertson seemingly pitched well except for the fourth inning, but when you consider that his ERA against the Angels in his career was around 8, it wasn’t too bad. And Vladimir Guerrero could probably homer off an intentional ball. And Nate went seven innings, which is nice to see.

But it’s Nate Robertson, and he doesn’t get any run support. I warned you that Ervin Santana had seemingly beaten his road demons prior to this game. As for the Tigers not taking advantage of opportunities late, well, you can’t really point at anyone and definitively say they had a bat at-bat. They really weren’t chasing pitches out of the strike zone in those situations, although I can’t really vouch for the Magglio pop-up. I mean, Gary Sheffield just missed a grand slam. He hit it to the wrong part of the park, and Torii Hunter can run down pretty much anything that doesn’t leave the yard. And in the bottom of the eighth with two on and two out, Pudge hit a ball about as hard as you can hit one. Unfortunately, he hit it right AT Casey Kotchmann. Brandon Inge did the exact same thing to lead off the bottom of the ninth.

Okay, I have another look-alike for you. It’s a little bit different spin this time. In honor of the Texas Rangers, who DID beat Minnesota last night (unlike the Yankees, who totally did NOT do what they were supposed to do against Cleveland), I’ve got David Murphy and Kameron Loe side by side:

Today is a late-afternoon affair on FOX Saturday Baseball (and I would project my dislike, except for the fact that I’m going over to my grandparents, who don’t have cable, this evening, and if need be, it’ll allow me to continue watching the game). Armando Galarraga finally faces a team that has seen him before, although it was last season while he was with Texas. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles a team whose strength is wreaking havoc on the bases. He is right-handed, after all, and so far this year, the pitchers have given Pudge very little chance to throw guys out. Nate Robertson seemingly did a good job in that department last night.

Well, we certainly can’t seem to stay healthy, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the score. For now, at least. Jeremy Bonderman had a weird outing. He struck out seven, but he also walked seven, and that’s just too many. His slider seemed to be working, but his fastball was not. Luckily, Zach Miner had a real good outing, and he really needed that.

The Tigers were certainly homer-happy yesterday. It’s nice to see Curtis Granderson get his first home run of the season so soon after returning. It was not nice to see him get thrown out trying to steal second, cuz A) he was only thrown out once last year, and B) the Tigers were 21-for-21 in stolen base attempts dating back to last year, and Granderson was the last player you’d expect to break that string. It was also nice seeing Polanco back in the lineup, even though he went hitless. I did not see Magglio’s second home run (the one which put the Tigers ahead for good) because FSN was having massive satellite issues. The video and sound kept cutting out or looking all pixilated, so I had to keep turning the radio on to figure out what was going on. Inge and Raburn went back-to-back to round out the home run totals.

Well, this is no time to rest on any laurels, cuz we’ve still got a lot work to do and the next two weeks are gonna be tough as hell. First up is the Angels, and unlike the Rangers, who are struggling right now, they are a hot team. They just took two out of three from the Red Sox at Fenway. Their offense is especially hot right now, but they’ve also got really good pitching, so our starters need to step up, because to expect the Tigers to score as many runs against the Angels as they did against Texas is just downright unrealistic. And you’re not gonna get away with seven walks against the Angels. They will hurt you. It’s kinda funny, cuz when we’re playing the Angels, I don’t really look at pitching matchups in terms of numbers. Instead, I look at our pitchers and contemplate which ones are best at holding runners on. In that vein, I’m rather relieved that Bonderman is not pitching in this series, but I’m kinda bummed that Kenny Rogers isn’t. Anyways, Nate Robertson gets the first shot at the Halos, and he’ll have to find a way to get it done, cuz his numbers against them in his career are not pretty (and they absolutely pummeled him in his one start against them last year). And he’s gonna have to find a way to give us some innings, cuz the bullpen’s gotta be a little taxed right now. Meanwhile, in the past, Ervin Santana has been horrible on the road (and that is reflected in his ERA of about 14 at Comerica Park), but he seems to have beaten back that particular demon, cuz his road record is really good so far this year. As for our guys, I doubt we’d have Sheffield back if he had to have ANOTHER cortisone shot, and I have no idea about Guillen or Jacque Jones (though if Guillen can’t go, I’m assuming Brandon Inge would play third base again). It could very well be that Leyland will have only one healthy player on the bench. It happened yesterday.

…to be loved by you? Hey, give me a break. It was Motown Night. I couldn’t resist (plus I really had to look long and hard to find even a halfway-appropriate song title). At any rate, it wasn’t a great night for either starter. I think Kenny Rogers pitched better early on than his line indicates. Most of the Texas hits against him were either bloop singles or ground balls that found holes. And his defense didn’t really help him out. The first two runs scored on a Guillen error and a wild pitch. And the next three scored because Ramon Santiago bobbled a double play ball and was only able to throw to first. If he had turned the double play, the inning would’ve ended with no runs scoring. Kenny lost his command shortly thereafter, though, walking three in a row, including one with the bases loaded. He’s gonna have to get it together real soon, cuz his next start is gonna be at Yankee Stadium. ‘Nuff said. Luckily, the bullpen stepped up and they were really good. Clay Rapada and Aquilino Lopez were sensational. Jason Grilli went to too many 2-ball counts, but you can’t have everything.

Well, welcome back, Curtis Granderson. I mean, I knew he was a sparkplug, but…wow. He certainly contributed immediately. It was a welcome sight to see his familiar stance and swing in the batter’s box. And it’s good to see the Tigers finally take advantage of some of these walks that they’ve been issued (and hit batters, for that matter, and there certainly have been a lot of hit batters in this series). I almost missed the 11-run sixth, cuz I had gone to take a shower right when the top of the sixth started (and, as I’ve mentioned before, I take long showers), and I got back just after the sacrifice bunt by Pudge (the amazing thing is that the first out of the inning was that sacrifice). Meanwhile, Guillen had been mired in a lengthy slump coming into last night’s game, but you wouldn’t have known it, and that’s typical for Guillen (almost as typical as him fouling balls off his legs, which also happened again last night). Normally, when a player is in a slump, he “shows signs of coming out of it” before actually coming out of it (taking walks, hitting the ball the other way, getting jam shots, etc). Guillen doesn’t do that. He just busts out of it and has, like, a three-hit game (I’m surprised he didn’t homer in his first at-bat last night). Pudge certainly had an interesting line: single, double, strikeout, sacrifice, bases-loaded walk, and 2 RBIs. Every Tiger who started the game had at least one RBI except Edgar Renteria, and every Tigers starter had at least one hit except Santiago.

Apparently, the 19 runs that Detroit scored was the most they had scored in a game since 2001, when they defeated the same team (Texas) by the same score (19-6), only that time it was in Arlington (the funny thing is that Pudge was the catcher for the Rangers in that game, so he’s now been on both sides of a 19-6 Detroit win over Texas). I also noticed something else about Pudge while they were interviewing him last night. He’s got this small, sort of triangular-shaped section right in the middle of his hairline that kinda juts back and there’s no hair there whatsoever (not in a male receding-hairline sort of way either). It’s really weird-looking and I don’t know what that is, cuz if his hair was just a little longer you wouldn’t even see it. Also, on a completely unrelated note, I see Ian Kinsler and I keep wanting to think that he’s Australian, because for some reason, “Ian Kinsler” is just a very Australian-sounding name to me. I don’t know why.

Well, it’s the proverbial day-game-after-a-night-game today, and as much as we’ve been kicking Texas’s ass over the last two days, we could just as easily get our asses kicked today, so we gotta stay focused. And there’s no way we’re gonna score double-digit runs every game, so we need some better outings from our starting pitchers. Jeremy Bonderman will start for the Tigers, and hopefully his slider is well-rested and ready to go after going AWOL in his last start. Jason Jennings was supposed to start for Texas, but we’re gonna get Scott Feldman instead. Feldman was just recalled from their Triple-A team, so I really don’t know anything about him (other than I think he might have pitched out of their bullpen last year). The Tigers are hoping that Polanco will be back today. I don’t know if “the switch” between Guillen and Cabrera will happen today (as Sheffield will probably still be out), but Inge is supposedly going to catch today (You think? Pudge has caught six games in a row).

It seems that, for the time being at least, Justin Verlander has found himself. I’ve seen him pitch better, but it’s nice to see him get a win. He was consistently at 94, touching 96 when he needed to, and his offspeed pitches seemed to be effective as well. He gave up a bunch of hits early and he walked two late, but he got out of it giving up only the one run. And the result was a quality start. Now it would be great for him to build on that. And maybe this is selfish of me, but I wanna see him hit 100, even just once. Just to show us he can still do it. Unfortunately, Verlander’s not the only ace pitcher who found himself last night (Figures. Just as we’re starting to play a little bit better, Cleveland gets Sabathia AND their offense turned around).

The Tigers certainly unloaded the power on Vicente Padilla (who, for some reason, I thought was Mexican, but he’s actually from Nicaragua). Magglio makes the prettiest home run swings. And if the 0-7 start taught me anything, it taught me to love and cherish every big inning the Tigers manage to put up. Maggs and Cabrera going back-to-back was pretty sweet. But then Ramon Santiago shocked everybody by hitting one out himself. Holy schnikes indeed. Then in the 8^th, the Tigers got three more with one hit in the inning, and that was the leadoff single by Edgar Renteria. The 3 RBIs came on groundouts and a bases-loaded walk. Every Tiger reached base, even those who went hitless (Inge and Pudge were both hit by a pitch, and Guillen walked; Inge and Pudge both had an RBI apiece as well). And it was nice to see Jacque Jones hit the ball hard a couple times.

Of course the big jaw-dropping shocking news is that Cabrera and Guillen will be switching positions. Really, this actually should not have come as that big a surprise, given how, when Cabrera made his first start at first a couple weeks ago, Leyland emphatically proclaimed that it was a one-time deal, just like Guillen was “not” moving to first base last year, and Brandon Inge was “not” going catch again. It’s also a move that’s plausible, I suppose. It’s no secret that Cabrera’s strong suit is his bat, and I’m obviously no judge on how skilled a particular person is at playing first base, but I haven’t seen anything that would make me question his ability to play the position. It seems a shame to waste that strong throwing arm that Cabrera’s got, though. As for Guillen, I looked up his career numbers, and he has played third base before, but not since 2003 (incidentally, that was the last time Santiago homered). I don’t know about his arm (since he was prone to throwing errors last year), but he would definitely have more range than Cabrera, since he used to be a shortstop, and a decent one. The whole reasoning behind moving Guillen to first base was so he wouldn’t hurt himself as much (and therefore would be in the lineup on a more consistent basis), but he’s already demonstrated this season that he’s gonna hurt himself no matter what position he’s playing, so it doesn’t really make any difference in that regard. The only thing that really gets me is that I can’t pinpoint the trigger, which, as you know, is a big thing with me, be it with pants or positions. What was the specific incident that caused Leyland to decide to have them switch positions? I don’t recall any defensive blowup from either of them. I mean, Cabrera’s made five errors and Guillen has had this tendency to stand in the baseline, but both of those are problems that can potentially be fixed without a position change. Something tells me that there’s more going on here than what’s being said, and I shall try ever-so-hard to get to the bottom of this mystery. Meanwhile, when I broke the news to my dad, the only reaction he had was to wonder where Brandon Inge fits into all this.

Well, a win like this is good, but you have to build on it, and Kenny Rogers will be trying to do just that. I know he only pitched one game against his former team last year, but I can’t, for the life of me, remember the score. I know the Tigers won the game and avoided getting swept, but that’s about it. The Rangers counter with Luis Mendoza, who has an elevated ERA, but ERAs in April are pretty meaningless. Just look at Verlander’s. Mendoza is also a sinkerball pitcher (They keep throwing those at us, don’t they?). There is a chance that we could have Granderson and Polanco back tonight as well.

For a game that I really didn’t feel that good about, things turned out pretty well. Maybe the apprehension that I felt had something to do with the fact that the pitching was kinda flirting with danger all afternoon (too many walks and 3-ball counts), but give ‘em credit for making the big pitch when they needed to. Galarraga didn’t quite have the command that he had last time, but he was able to pitch out of jams, as did Aquilino Lopez and Denny Bautista. And as for Todd Jones, well, I can’t complain, cuz once he was 3-1 on Greg Zaun I actually said “Just throw it down the middle. No more walks. If he hits it out, so be it. You’re still up by four.” And that’s just what Zaun did.

I did manage to find a TV in the student union that was showing the game (this is actually harder than you’d think, as most TVs in the student union are permanently locked on Sportscenter), but it wasn’t until after the Tigers put the 4-spot up. Also, the student union is very noisy, so even though I wasn’t that far away from the TV, the only thing I could hear on a consistent basis was the umpire’s strike call. I also caught part of the game on the radio and the very end on the TV at home, but I’ve since watched the MLB.tv archive. The funny thing is that the Tigers haven’t been real good about taking advantage of walks this season, but they do take advantage of errors. Just think back to the Minnesota series and you’ll see what I mean. Pudge led the way with four hits and an RBI (he actually had himself quite a nice series in Toronto). Renteria, who hit 12 home runs all of last year, already has three and all of them have come on this road trip. Most of the damage yesterday was done by the bottom of the order and the 1-2 hitters. The middle of the order combined for a single and a few walks. Maggs is still looking for that 1000^th RBI, and Cabrera’s hitting streak came to an end, but I’m really not that worried about either of them. For now, at least.

Well, the trap series is over and done with, and the Tigers return to Comerica Park having had a .500 road trip, which is what your standard goal is on a road trip. Now we got business to take care of at home, cuz this schedule ain’t gonna get any easier. First up: the Texas Rangers, who just endured a four-game sweep by the Red Sox at Fenway. However, teams mired in a funk sometimes turn out to be the most dangerous of all. Meanwhile, my boy Justin Verlander would really like a win. They were mentioning during the game yesterday that he’s going to try a slight mechanical tweak in his arm slot to try to get his control and his velocity back, so we’ll see what happens. Justin would also probably like some more consistent run support, cuz even though the offense hasn’t been as stingy with him as they were with Kenny Rogers prior to last Friday, they still haven’t given him a whole lot to work with. It’ll be a tough task, though, cuz Texas is starting Vicente Padilla, who has sparkling numbers against Detroit. And he’s another sinkerball pitcher. I think he only made one start against the Tigers last year and he only gave up three infield singles. Also, last year Texas had a decent bullpen, and I assume that would be the case again this year. We’re not gonna have Granderson as originally thought (one more game in Toledo), but there’s a chance we’ll have Polanco back, as his MRI showed no structural damage and he’s been put on medication (exactly what medication, they would not say, although I would hope it’s some sort of NSAID like ibuprofen or naproxen and not Vicodin). No clue about Gary Sheffield. I’d really like the Tigers to win tonight, cuz I have a Spanish oral exam tomorrow in which I have to give a news report, including sports, and I’d certainly like to talk about a win.

In Other News: Has anyone else noticed that female head coaches of NCAA women’s basketball teams all have the same hairstyle? What’s up with that?

Hey, on the bright side, walks were not a problem for Tigers pitching yesterday. Nate Robertson only walked one, so I’m not sure what his problem was in the fourth inning. I’m also not quite sure what transpired in the first inning cuz there were satellite issues or something and I was forced to briefly use the radio, but from the sounds of things, it was the flukiest of runs you’d ever imagine. As for David Eckstein, well, he killed us in the World Series and I guess he’s gonna continue killing us. And he’s a lot like Polanco in many ways, including the fact that you don’t expect him to hit a lot of home runs. Meanwhile, Zach Miner finally had a clean outing.

Say what you will about the Tigers offense but they sure do take walks this season. They just don’t do anything with them. And it hurts when you’re missing the first three hitters in your lineup, but still. It is a strange game when the Tigers have six walks and nine strikeouts. But from what I hear, A.J. Burnett is effectively wild in the best of times (They said that when he threw a no-hitter years ago that he walked nine in that game).

Okay, time for some more look-alikes. Today’s contestants are former Tiger Mike Rabelo and Shawn Fanning, the guy who created Napster:

The trap series comes to a close today and it’ll be Armando Galarraga against Shaun Marcum. This’ll be a big test for Galarraga. In his first start, no one had really seen him before and he was going up against an offense that was struggling (plus, considering the big blowout win, there’s some question of whether or not the Indians were giving away at-bats later in the game). Now there’s gonna be a full scouting report on him and the Blue Jays’ offense is not struggling as much as Cleveland’s. As for Shaun Marcum, well, I don’t know a lot about him, but his numbers so far this season look real good for Toronto. I don’t know. I just don’t feel real positive about this game. Anyways, we’ll be without the services of Gary Sheffield, as Leyland has already said as much. Nobody’s really said anything about Polanco, but if he had to go all the way to Detroit to have the doctors look at his back, I doubt he’d be back in the lineup so soon. It’s a really early game today, too (12:37 start time), but I don’t have Spanish today, so the possibility exists that I’ll be able to find a TV somewhere and watch for about an hour.

I can’t really think of an intro this morning, so let’s just cut right to it, okay? Obviously, Jeremy Bonderman didn’t have his slider working yesterday, and when that’s not working, he’s not gonna be very successful. With all the walks, though, things could’ve been REALLY disastrous, and yet somehow he was able to get a fortunate out when he needed one. He got a little bit lucky, like with the snared line drive, the 1-2-3 double play, and the popped-up squeeze bunt (although that was while Grilli was pitching), but it was a battle.

While I can’t say that Bonderman pitched well enough to win, he only gave up three runs, and he certainly could’ve won, but Dustin McGowan was on top of his game. There weren’t a whole lot of opportunities, and the two runs they got were pretty much manufactured. Granted, as many breaks as the Tigers got pitching-wise, they weren’t getting the breaks offensively. The Tigers could easily have had three home runs in this game. Ryan Raburn’s double literally bounced off the top of the bullpen wall and missed going out by about three inches. His next at-bat resulted in a flyout right to the wall. And Guillen also hit a double that got to the wall and missed being a home run by about a foot. Then there was the lined double that Marco Scutaro took away from Marcus Thames (returning the favor after Guillen made a very similar play on a ball hit by Matt Stairs earlier). It seemed like the hard-hit balls were being caught yesterday and the bloops were dropping in. Guillen and Pudge both had three hits, but the middle of the order was pretty quiet, outside of a single by Cabrera.

A couple of days ago I posted some pictures in an attempt to compare the resemblance of both Pudge and Jamey Carroll to a Romulan. I’ve got another one for you. This actually comes courtesy of something that Mario Impemba stated during a Tigers-Indians game last year, but today I want to investigate the resemblance of Travis Hafner to Vin Diesel, so here goes:

Well, today is game 3 of the trap series and it pits Nate Robertson against A.J. Burnett. Nate turned in a pretty good performance last time before having to leave with lat tightness. He says he’s good to go. Meanwhile, A.J. Burnett seems to be struggling this year. I really don’t remember him from last year, but I know he’s a good pitcher most of the time. The odd thing is that his ERA against Detroit is over 9, but very few Tigers have good numbers against him.