I don’t really have a cutesy first sentence planned today so let’s just dive right into it. Nate Robertson unfortunately ended the quality start streak that he started, but considering he was sick and it was very obvious he was really battling through it, he did pretty well. And if they had gotten Ichiro at third base, it would have been a quality start, so he came real close. I’m still not completely sold on Freddy Dolsi, but it appears as though it’s now Zach Miner’s turn to try taking up the 8^th inning role. At least for the time being.

I’m a little uneasy about the fact that the Tigers never added on any runs after the 7-run first, but they got away with it this time, unlike in Minnesota. Every Tiger who started had at least one it, with most of them coming in the first inning. It was nice to see Granderson and Cabrera each get three hits (and apparently Cabrera is sick as well). However, what’s the deal with Magglio swinging at the first pitch all the time? Also, it may just be me, but it seems like Guillen is fouling a lot of pitches straight back and then popping up on a pitch that looked like it was at the bottom of the strike zone. Meanwhile, Jeff Larish got his first hit and his first RBI in his major-league debut. His batting stance is…interesting, to say the least. First of all, he wears his helmet so low that you can’t see his eyes. Second, he stands amazingly still and then all of a sudden swings. It’s hard to describe.

I know that games on the west coast tend to be weird anyways, but last night’s game just had an increasingly strange vibe to it. It got to the point where I was starting to not like it. After Leyland made his defensive changes in the eighth, though, it started to settle down. I don’t know if it was that little bit of normalcy or what, but I felt a lot better after that. I was kinda surprised to see Pudge show up all of a sudden. At first, I thought Leyland was using him like he did last year when Mike Rabelo started a game (that is, having Pudge catch Todd Jones cuz for some reason, Rabelo just could not get on the same page with him), but upon further thought, I’ve concluded that it probably had more to do with putting Brandon Inge at third base. And that’s a move that I’ve kinda thought Leyland should do more often. If the Tigers have a lead late in a game and Guillen has had what will likely be his final at-bat of the night, why not take him out and insert the better defender? Apparently Leyland has been thinking along those lines, cuz now he’s having Guillen take fly balls in left field, and after digesting that news, I’ve decided that’s not such a bad idea. I obviously don’t know what the eventual outcome of this is, but left field is such a revolving door right now, and if Guillen can make a successful conversion to the outfield (since third base isn’t really suiting him all that much), then why not? That way, Brandon Inge would get to play where he wants to, and more importantly, Inge would be playing where I want him to (that being third base). Once you get over the initial weirdness of seeing Guillen in the outfield, I think it’s an arrangement that could work. But that’s still probably a long ways off, and right now, Marcus Thames is still the starting left fielder.  

We got ourselves a couple of day games for the rest of this series. Today’s game features a matchup of Golden Arms of the Future, and it’s gonna be on FOX Saturday Baseball, which I hate. I really don’t like watching the Fox Saturday Baseball games, but for the love of Justin Verlander, I will do it. Hopefully, Jose Mota is the analyst and not Eric Karros (who tends to be more of a critic than an analyst). I did not see Justin’s last start, but I hear that he was outstanding and that his fastball is back up to the upper 90s. I’m hoping to see him pitch even better today. The problem has been getting Justin some run support, and that may be a problem again today, cuz Seattle has pushed back Jarrod Washburn (probably a wise move on their part, though that will not stop me from being frustrated about it), and they’re starting Felix Hernandez, who beat the Tigers twice last year.

In Other News: I was at Rite-Aid today and I heard something that sounded like someone had stepped in something sticky. Turns out, it was a kid (about early high school age) in a baseball uniform trying to walk around the store with his cleats on. And he had to walk really slowly cuz if he even tried to walk at normal pace, he would start sliding all over (cleats are made for traction on dirt, not tile). He eventually wandered out of the store without buying anything. I’m sure the Rite-Aid people appreciated him.

I’ll admit it. I got greedy and I really, really wanted Galarraga to get the complete game shutout, but it was not meant to be. Still, a win is a win, and I’ll take all of them. That’s now one turn through the rotation where the starters have each posted a quality start. The Angels were hitting some balls hard against Galarraga in the first couple innings, but he settled down and pitched beautifully after that.

Well, mere hours after Leyland announced that Thames would be the everyday left fielder (Why not? Everyone else has already tried it) and that Granderson would bat leadoff against all but the toughest lefties, Granderson gets a base hit and Thames hit two home runs. And it was nice to see the Tigers add on a couple runs late. I guess the fact that Saunders was a lefty trumped the numbers. Or something like that.

Well, after the off-day, the Tigers now go to Seattle, where they’re so aware of Detroit’s dominance over left-handed pitching that they’ve moved Jarrod Washburn out of this weekend’s series entirely and are instead throwing out three right-handers. Damn it. I know the Tigers trounced the Mariners in Detroit, but Seattle has been playing a lot better of late, especially from the pitching aspect. They just took two out of three from the Red Sox. Their offense is still struggling a tad. Hell, Ichiro is batting .290, which is the lowest batting average he’s ever had this late in a season (or something like that). At any rate, first up, it’s Nate Robertson and Carlos Silva. Nate began the “one turn through the rotation” streak of quality starts, and so it’d be nice for him to keep it up. Silva got hammered by Detroit back at Comerica Park, but he tends to pitch a lot better at Safeco Field. In the meantime, Jeff Larish will make his major league debut. Also, it seems that they have indeed milked Matt Joyce for all he’s worth (at least, for now), so they’ve sent him down to Toledo and brought Clete Thomas back up. Leyland has also hinted that’s not gonna be the end of the roster/lineup tinkering, which makes me just a little uneasy. By the way, maybe it’s just me, but the photos from this game seem really high-quality.

You know, I could readily just copy and paste yesterday’s post, switch out a couple names, and make it today’s post, and you probably wouldn’t notice anything. Bonderman was terrific, and I really wanted for him to stay in for the complete-game effort. I understand Leyland’s logic in taking him out of the game when he did, but I’m starting to question Cruceta’s ability to be a setup man. I mean, he’s got good stuff, but there’s been a whole lot of situations in which he has not been able to protect leads or ties. And as for Aquilino Lopez? Well, that’s why you should not walk people, especially not guys who are batting under .200 and guys who are 3 for their last 30 or something like that.

Well, at least they didn’t get shut out this time, but the offense still sucked. Still, there was no problem with stranding baserunners. Literally. The team left-on-base was zero. Magglio singled ahead of the Cabrera home run. Brandon Inge later singled, but was erased on a fielder’s choice by Granderson, who was subsequently caught stealing and no one walked. Other than that, well, with only three hits it’s difficult to recognize general trends among the others, but Matt Joyce striking out four times had to hurt. It appears that the “honeymoon period” of being thrown lots of fastballs is over and now he’s gonna have to make the adjustment.

Even with the absent offense, I felt like last night was a winnable game, but now they’re back in the position of trying to avoid being swept. Armando Galarraga was not that good his last time out. It could’ve been just one of those nights, or it could’ve been because the Twins had seen him before. I suppose we’ll put that second theory to the test tonight, because the Angels have also seen him before. But no more walks. That goes for both Galarraga AND the bullpen. Meanwhile, Joe Saunders will start for the Angels. He’s left-handed, but his pitching has been outstanding this year and he’s got one of the best ERAs in the league, so he may actually be the toughest challenge of the three pitchers the Angels have thrown at us. The lefty on the mound means that Leyland will NOT be starting the Tigers’ newest member, Jeff Larish (who came up with Sheffield went on the DL). Meanwhile, Guillen is suffering from a case of Too Much Information and so will likely DH again tonight, which means that Brandon Inge will likely play third base (which almost paid off last night, cuz he made a couple of real nice plays). In the meantime, I'd really like the Tigers to win tonight, because I sense that another kumbaya tactic is on the horizon, and honestly, I'd just as soon avoid it. At the very least, I get the feeling I may have at it again with Pudge and Cabrera.

In Other News: I keep hearing an ice cream truck outside, and it's driving me nuts. It really shouldn't be, cuz I got a freezer full of Ben & Jerry's.

Welcome to the 2008 edition of Twilight Zone Hell. There sure was enough of that last night. God, I hate pitching duels. That’s a tough loss to take because it was extra innings, which inherently involve a lot more emotional investment, which increases the longer they go. But it’s even tougher cuz the Tigers gift-wrapped that game to the Angels with the bases-loaded walk. You know, if you’re behind 3-0 in that situation, just lay one in there if you need to. There’s always the chance he’ll swing through it or hit it at someone. At the very least, make him earn the win by getting a base hit. Don’t give him the free pass. Kenny Rogers was tremendous. He scattered some hits, but he was getting a lot of ground balls, which is what happens when he’s at his best. Zach Miner was also very good. Freddy Dolsi still makes me nervous, but he was able to pitch himself out of jams until the 12^th inning. And Bobby Seay just couldn’t throw a strike. There was plenty of Twilight Zone Hell/West Coast Things going around. There were the two errors (maybe it’s just me, but Guillen seems to be the most susceptible to West Coast Errors), several loose beach balls, that really weird play where Torii Hunter took second base while everyone else was getting ready to face the next batter (Would someone please explain to me what happened and why that’s ruled a stolen base if no one was holding him on?), the wild pitch on an intentional ball, and if you listen to the guys on the radio (and Bobby Seay, apparently), an Umpires on Crack call involving a checked swing on Garret Anderson in the pivotal at-bat that did not go the Tigers’ way.

Lack of offense on the road is starting to become a problem. Leyland said he was frustrated at the team’s inability to manufacture a run. Usually, when that occurs, the problem lies in getting him over. This time the problem was getting him in. If they got a guy on, they were usually able to get him over somehow (sacrifice bunt, wild pitch, whatever), and that’s because the scenario usually unfolded at the top or bottom of the order. But once they got the guy to third, no one seemed to be able to hit a ball in the air. And there was one instance where they walked Polanco intentionally to get to Ryan Raburn, and I’m kind of puzzled as to why Marcus Thames didn’t pinch-hit in that situation. I also kind of believe that the caught stealing really hurt as well. Everyone’s batting average took a dive cuz just about everyone (except Sheffield/Raburn) had five plate appearances and they either had only one hit or nothing. Also, opposing pitchers are starting to do to Matt Joyce what they did to Granderson, so hopefully he can adjust quickly.

Well, after that futile show of offenses (BOTH teams went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position), we’ll see what transpires tonight. It’s Jeremy Bonderman against Ervin Santana. Bonderman traditionally struggles at Angel Stadium. Both his starts there last year were really ugly. Santana, meanwhile, has been lights-out this year, but has struggled a little bit in recent starts. However, he’s been notoriously tough at Angel Stadium in his career. My guess is that Sheffield will not be playing cuz of the back problems.

I did not see any of this game, so I’m gonna be a little scarce on the details, but from all reports, Verlander was marvelous. He walked four, which is too many, but his fastball finally hit 99, which we were all waiting for. The bullpen was not so stellar, but that just goes to show why you can’t fall behind guys. And that also goes to show why I hate pitching duels.

Not much offense to speak of, as has been the case for most of Justin’s starts this year. Guillen homered, and that’s it. From what I can tell from what Jim Leyland said, apparently the issue was that Glen Perkins pitched more aggressively inside than they thought he was going to, which probably means they weren’t able to execute their original game plan. Also, Miguel Cabrera’s hitting streak came to an end.

It’s a late-night affair tonight as the Tigers have headed out to the west coast, which means two things: A) The next two weeks are gonna involve a lot of late nights for me, and B) Be on your guard for Twilight Zone Hell. First up is the Angels, which is gonna be a big challenge, cuz the Angels have got some real good pitching. Tonight, Kenny Rogers takes on Jon Garland. Kenny’s gonna have to be better than he was in his last start, but on the flipside, there’s no pitcher who’s better at shutting down the running game. However, in, like, three of his last four starts against the Angels (or something like that), his team has gotten shutout. That is a possibility with Jon Garland, who was really tough on the Tigers when he was pitching for the White Sox (plus, the only two in the lineup with decent numbers against him are Sheffield and Polanco). From what I’ve read, his MO seems to be lots of baserunners, but very few of them score.

In Other News: I saw the new Indiana Jones movie earlier today, and I was quite pleased with it. There were a few moments that are a little awkward or weird (not to mention predictable, and I’m not talking about the relationship between Indiana Jones and the Shia LeBoeuf character, which is obvious to just about everyone), but on the whole, the movie is very fun and keeps to the spirit of the other movies.

Relatively short entry today, as I gotta get to work soon. Speaking of which, I was at work during all of the fun part, but I watched the game later on MLB.tv, and now I’m paying the price for that. Anyways, lost in this game was a rather nice outing for Nate Robertson. As I’ve said on numerous occasions, he almost always seems to pitch well against Minnesota, although I’m not sure what the deal is with giving up a home run to Alexi Casilla (Then again, the Tigers sometimes have a tendency to give up home runs to guys who normally don’t hit home runs). However, he was still pretty sharp and it was a quality start. 

Well, Magglio almost singlehandedly turned a close game into a blowout. He had six RBIs and four runs scored, and he didn’t even stay in for the entire game. It was pretty much a great night for all the starters, although Minnesota’s defense kinda disintegrated in the midst of it all as well. Polanco quietly had himself a real nice game as well. He had four hits, and his average is now oh-so-close to .300. The hilarious moment of the game came when Miguel Cabrera actually scored from first base on Carlos Guillen’s single cuz, well, Miguel’s not exactly blessed with speed (and I’m not sure of this, but I think the guys on FSN referred to him as “el caballo,” which means they called him a horse).

There was something else strange last night. They showed a story about Todd Jones and Zach Miner visiting some veterans for Memorial Day. Todd Jones was signing autographs for the veterans, but he was signing them left-handed. Huh? Is he ambidextrous? I know there are a few left-handed pitchers who are naturally right-handed (Billy Wagner of the Mets comes to mind), but given the demand for left-handed pitching, I never really thought about the other way around.

Well, I hope the boys do some good work today, cuz it’s the last home game for a long time. We’ve got Justin Verlander going, and he just needs to pitch in that awesome manner that I know he’s capable of. He’s pitched very well in his last two starts, but Minnesota has had his number a little bit in recent games. Meanwhile, Glen Perkins starts for the Twins. He was just called up not too long ago and he’s been pitching pretty well for them. The Tigers also haven’t seen him a whole lot, but he IS left-handed. More than likely, I’ll miss the entire game today, but I’ll see what I can do at work.

I did not get home last night until after Galarraga was done, so I can’t really comment too much on him, but it looked as though he was fighting control problems all night, since he walked five. Now’s the time where you really watch his next start very carefully to see how he bounces back, cuz this was probably the first start he’s made in which he really didn’t have it (I know he walked five in Arizona as well, but I think the two early walks had more to do with rust and the two late ones were fatigue-related, cuz he really settled in during the middle innings in that start, which didn’t happen last night). It also raises the question of how effective he’s gonna be against a team that’s already seen him, which Minnesota has, so that’s something to watch for as well, cuz his next start will be against the Angels. Still, he did go six innings, so give him some credit for that. I only caught the tail end of Dontrelle Willis’s outing as well, so I can’t give a lot of insight on that as well, except that giving up a leadoff triple right after your team has pulled to within one is never a good thing. It just wasn’t the bullpen’s night, that’s for sure. Plus, I seem to remember the Tigers doing a better job against Mauer and Morneau last year (granted, Morneau did hit a few home runs against Tigers pitching and Mauer was hurt a lot last year).

I got home just in time for the bottom of the seventh, which means I actually saw the entirety of the Tigers offense. Apparently, they just needed to see a lefty, cuz most of the damage came against Dennys Reyes. And it turns out that I did not have the words that I thought I would have for Pudge or Cabrera, which means that it especially sucks that the Tigers should lose this game (That’s what I mean by bad timing). Still, Pudge did his part with the triple, and that came after an 11-pitch at-bat. Of course, the Gary Sheffield home run went on to cause an extreme bout of “if only” cuz of what happened to Marcus Thames. You can’t really call that a baserunning “mistake,” cuz oversliding is more a matter of physics and inertia than anything else. He would’ve been safe had he not done that, and there’s really no way he could have known that Casilla dropped the ball when he went to tag him cuz it all happened so fast and by the time he realized what happened, he had already overrun third base and was stuck in no-man’s land. It’s just one of those freak plays that you can’t really do anything about.

Here’s another couple issues I have. After the Tigers are done (or if they are off), I oftentimes like to watch the Marlins game on MLB.tv. It used to be that between innings, there would be a graphic saying “commercial break in progress” or something like that, and no sound. Unfortunately, they’ve finally figured out that instead of doing that, they can generate advertising revenue, so a few commercials (mostly for themselves) have been playing instead, and they are extremely loud. One of the commercials is for some videos you can get on Yahoo music that consist of interviews with certain artists or something like that. One of the artists they’re advertising is Christina Aguilera, and her commercial is driving me nuts, cuz there’s video of her performing and she’s not wearing any pants. She’s wearing kind of a long button-down shirt with a vest and tie, and then black tights and black boots, but no pants. She doesn’t really look slutty or anything, cuz the shirt is long enough that it covers all the essential parts, but still. I’m not being a prude or anything like that. I just think not wearing pants looks stupid. Or a skirt or shorts or something.

Right now I’m considering it to be too early to read anything in particular into last night’s game as far as bad trends are concerned, but in order for it to remain that way, they gotta win tonight. The first step is for Nate Robertson to pitch the way he pitched against the Twins last year, and that was outstanding. The second step is for the Tigers to do to Boof Bonser what they did against him in the first inning of the only game in which they saw him, and then keep doing it. Last time, they scored six runs off him in the first inning, but after that, it was zip, nada, nilch, as they went down quickly and quietly while all the while allowing Minnesota to chip away and eventually take the lead. I work tonight so I’ll be late tuning in (and for the record, work has been pretty hectic this week, cuz a nearby pharmacy recently closed and we’re getting TONS of people who want to transfer to us).  

I don’t intend for the title to be a knock on anything; it’s a Styx song, and one that I thought appropriate for this post. At any rate, I read something yesterday that summed up the starting pitching for this series rather well: Justin Verlander was outstanding, Kenny Rogers was adequate, and Jeremy Bonderman was good. He wasn’t quite as sharp as he had been against Arizona, and he found himself in quite a few jams, but he was always able to make the pitch he needed to. And after being not so wild about Freddy Dolsi, hey, he got his first Major-League save.

It has been pointed out that the Tigers were stranding runners more yesterday than they had been, but there was so much offense that it didn’t really matter. Matt Joyce is still hot, and he finally hit a home run with someone on base, plus he made a great defensive play. Jeremy Reed almost made a great play on Brandon Inge’s home run, and he would have if not for the fact that his glove came off. What I’m wondering is who gave him his glove back, cuz it fell into that narrow space between the building and the wall. And Gary Sheffield had three hits, which is good. But from the Fashion Police aspect? Ack. First Pudge and now Cabrera. I can’t leave you two alone for a second. Usually Cabrera at least has a discernable trigger, but not that time. Here we go again.

Okay, so we swept the Mariners and in the process put up some good offensive numbers, but can we keep it up? There’s already been a couple of “false starts,” so to speak, and the last one came when the Tigers swept the Yankees and proceeded to get swept by the Twins. Well, guess who’s coming to town? I’m going to be working all weekend, but I’ll try to watch as much as I can. First up, it’s Armando Galarraga against Kyle Slowey. Galarraga’s pitched so well that he’s kinda knocked Dontrelle Willis into the bullpen for the time being. The Twins are the only team that have beaten him, though he didn’t really pitch badly against them. I’d like to see him have more control than he did in his start against Arizona, though. Slowey beat the Tigers the only time he saw them last year in a game that I really don’t remember all that well. Meanwhile…Es probable que yo voy a tener algunas palabras para Señor Cabrera y Señor Rodriguez. Consider yourself warned.

Sorry, I tried to come up with a country song title for this post, but I just don’t have enough knowledge about country music to do that. You know, the Tigers got shut out in Kenny Rogers’ first three starts of the season, but since then, they’ve actually been pretty generous to him, and last night held to that trend. Kenny pitched very well through the first four innings. I don’t know what happened after that, but it’s a win nonetheless. And the bullpen was a whole lot better than it had been the other night (though, in Clay Rapada’s case, if he was pitching in pain, that might explain a few things).

The offense, meanwhile, continues to love left-handed pitching. The merry-go-round they had going in the third was amusing, but Marcus Thames clearing the bases was even more amusing (Didn’t Jarrod Washburn give up a grand slam the last time the Tigers faced him). Every Tiger had a hit in that inning except Edgar Renteria. Brandon Inge didn’t look too bad either, and he’s been struggling lately. Meanwhile, Pudge apparently just owns Jarrod Washburn. Even his one out against him was loud (Pudge’s reaction to Washburn catching that liner was hilarious). But the pants? Sigh. I actually predicted that he would do that, and it’s funny cuz I had no reason to make that prediction due to the fact that there was NO DISCERNABLE TRIGGER. He really hasn’t been struggling and the team won the night before, so I have no idea what the logic is here. Given the fact that he had two hits and an RBI, though, one would assume we’re gonna have this discussion again, most likely after tomorrow night’s game, cuz I’m assuming that he’s not catching today. Still, he’s now grounded into three double plays in his last four games. What’s the deal with THAT? Also, I’m a little bit uneasy that the Tigers were not able to do anything against Seattle’s bullpen.

Today, it’s a matinee affair, and the Tigers are in an unusual position. They’ve already won the series, so a sweep would basically be a bonus. Hopefully, Jeremy Bonderman can pitch the way he did in Arizona. Meanwhile, Seattle will start Miguel Batista. He’s had problems with walks and high pitch counts, so it might behoove the Tigers to display some patience today.

After a whole lotta frustration, Justin was finally able to show what he can do when you give him a lead to protect. His velocity wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be, and his pitch count got to him a little too early, but it’s a quality start, and you can’t argue with that. He still pitched beautifully. The game became needlessly exciting late, thanks to the bullpen and some bad defense from the outfielders. Granted, some of the late Seattle runs scored on balls that weren’t hit all that hard, but there were also way too many walks mixed in there, especially since Aquilino Lopez and Clay Rapada have had very good control for most of the year. Rapada in particular didn’t do anything good to his ERA.

Did the Tigers leave all their run production and slugging percentage back home or something? I got home just in time to watch the floodgates open. The game featured a lot of bust-out performances. Curtis Granderson showed a couple of really good signs. The more promising sign was the opposite-field double. The more exciting sign was the two-run homer, which snapped that incredibly long string of, like 23 solo shots (and that’s one streak that you don’t mind seeing it end). It had gotten to the point where the Tigers would be lucky if they hit one home run in a game, and all of a sudden they got four. It was nice for Magglio to hit one, especially since he had some really bad swings in that last game in Arizona. I had mentioned before that it had been over a month since Guillen last homered, and I thought it odd that no one on TV had brought that fact up, but damn, all that pent-up power came out all at once. His home run went to dead center. I didn’t know he had that kind of power. Meanwhile, Edgar Renteria seems to be the lone remaining participant in the Sock Rally (which, upon further thought, is probably just as well, cuz it really would have gotten old at some point). I know I said I would get mad, but obviously, Renteria was not who I was thinking of when I said that, and actually, now that he’s not being so tentative about it, he doesn’t look half-bad. And it’s a good thing I reached that conclusion, cuz boy, did he bust out of it, going 4-for-4 with 5 RBIs and a double short of the cycle. Gary Sheffield and Matt Joyce were the only starters to go hitless, and Pudge was the only one with just one hit (although he probably could’ve gotten more if he wasn’t swinging at just about every single pitch). By the way, the unexpected Pudge vs. Ichiro battle ended in a draw. Round 1 went to Pudge, while Round 2 went to Ichiro (who probably only ran in Round 2 cuz he felt that he was safe in Round 1, which may the case, but had Pudge been able to come up with the ball cleanly in Round 2, Ichiro probably would’ve been out, so it all balances).  

I really don’t want to comment on the stuff that went on earlier yesterday, but, since the Total Amateur Analysis strives to be thorough, I suppose I have to. I did not read the USA Today article that started the whole thing, nor do I intend to. I am aware of what Jason Grilli and Carlos Guillen said, and I know that Sheffield and Inge have made some comments as well, but I don’t know what they said. I do know that a large chunk of the discussion centers around the clubhouse, but things like “clubhouse chemistry” leads to kind of a catch-22. Are they losing a lot of games because the clubhouse chemistry is bad, or is the clubhouse chemistry bad because they’re losing a lot of games? Either scenario is plausible, but since this team hasn’t really gotten on a roll very much, it’s impossible to tell. I will say this, though: There are a lot of the same guys there from the ’06 and ’07 seasons, where they were winning a lot of games, and no one had problems with the clubhouse then. On the flipside of that, while I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the ’05 campaign, I do know that it was one that was kinda tinged by bitterness and disappointment, and I know there were a few personal issues going on at the time as well that led to some tension in the clubhouse, as well as some uncharacteristic behavior, at least in my mind (I know that Pudge had a major falling out with Alan Trammel, and I also found a video clip of Guillen charging the mound after being hit in the helmet, and I could never imagine him ever doing anything like that). But unless you have a situation like the Cubs had last year, when Michael Barrett just could not get along with his pitchers, “chemistry” and “performance” are a little too intertwined to determine which is the cause and which is the effect. And as Leyland pointed out last night, winning makes for a happy clubhouse. Still, I buy a little more into chemistry than Leyland does, which is why I don’t want the Tigers to sign Barry Bonds (not that that’s a realistic possibility). Bottom line, I don’t need the Tigers to be 25 best friends who all hang out and have a beer together after every game. I just need them to be able to get along and work as a team, and since most of these guys have worked together before in some way, shape or form (even most of the new guys were teammates with at least one of the other Tigers at some point earlier in their careers), I have no reason to believe that that can’t be the case with this team.

If this season has taught me anything so far, it’s that I can’t extrapolate any trend from any game, so essentially, going into tonight’s game knowing that my boys scored 12 runs last night means absolutely nothing. They could get shut out again or they could score twelve more runs. Kenny Rogers could pitch like he did his last time out or he could pitch like he did in his three starts prior to that. Of the six games on the road trip, his featured the only poor performance by a Tigers starter, although to some extent, he got victimized by balls that found holes. In any case, I’d like him to do a better job with Ichiro than the Tigers pitchers did last night (cuz last year, they handled Ichiro really well, and I’d like that to continue). Kenny has not pitched well against Seattle since he’s been with the Tigers, although one may argue that his one (horrible) start against them last year had a lot to do with the elbow issues. Meanwhile, the offense will be treated to a lefty, Jarrod Washburn, who has not beaten the Tigers in a very long time and has been struggling this year. And with Guillen having homered last night, it’s now Pudge who is overdue (I know he’s not the power hitter he once was, but you’d think he’d have more than just one home run by now, and hell, that one was only a home run cuz Denard Span helped it get out). Washburn may be the solution to that. He’s batting well over .400 against him (and he’s had a large sample size of at-bats), and three of those hits were home runs. Still, another thing this season has taught me is that apparently, track records mean nothing in ’08, so everything I just said could just as easily be total BS. Meanwhile, I find it extremely ironic that it’s Country Night at Comerica Park and Kenny Rogers is the starting pitcher.