Yeah, I’m cutting it close again. As far as I can tell, Kenny Rogers really flirted with danger to start out with, but somehow got it together and actually turned in a quality start. I was a little surprised to see Todd Jones back at it in the ninth, not because of the blown save, but because he had thrown so many pitches the night before. One wonders what his status is tonight.

After the merry-go-round of singles to left field in the first inning, Glen Reynolds basically stymied the Tigers, which was kinda bizarre. It took a pitching change for Detroit to get anything going. And Dane Sardinha? Well, I haven’t seen that much of him, obviously. Going into yesterday, I’d only seen him once at a Mud Hens game (which I saw in person), a little bit in Spring Training (which I did not see in person), and his other start (which I also did not see in person), but I did notice that despite the low batting average, he was putting some decent at-bats together. It finally paid off yesterday at just the right time. Plus, he also threw out the speedy Willy Tavares. You know what? I like him. He’s no Pudge, but I like him.

Well, Interleague Play for the Tigers has come to an end. Now they gotta be just as impressive against the American League, especially the Central Division. It’s not gonna be easy, cuz they’re getting thrown right into the fire by facing Minnesota, which is one of the hottest teams right now. They recently had a 10-game win streak. They’re getting some good pitching, but their offense is really clicking, to the point where no lead is safe. And there’s something else that’s a bit ominous. Twice this season, Detroit has looked like they’ve gotten it together (first by sweeping the Yankees, then later by sweeping the Mariners), only to be sent reeling by Minnesota. Still, Detroit’s gotta find ways to beat them, cuz they’re gonna face them seven times before the All-Star Break, and a bad performance against them could rapidly undo all the hard work they’ve done this month. Also, with Magglio out for the foreseeable future, it’s crucial that Miguel Cabrera steps up and becomes the hitter he was last year. At any rate, Armando Galarraga will be the first to get a shot at the hot Twins. That may be a problem, cuz Minnesota has beaten him twice this year. In fact, they’re the only team to have beaten him. Meanwhile, lefty Glen Perkins starts tonight for Minnesota, and he handcuffed the Tigers last month, holding them to one run.  

I’ve been battling computer problems all morning, and so, with today’s game set to begin in about five minutes, I don’t have time to do this post justice. Here’s a brief summation of the points I would’ve made: Verlander was good but threw too many pitches, Todd Jones was gonna blow a save sometime (happens to every closer), Raburn did an admirable job filling in for Magglio, and Cabrera had the biggest hit of the night. And now, more pictures:

By the way, Magglio's on the DL. Ack.

I haven’t seen all of this game yet, and this is gonna be a short post, so bear with me. I was able to follow it online at work last night, and it looked as though Eddie Bonine was terrific. He threw strikes, which was the key part. Joel Zumaya also threw strikes, which was refreshing. Zumaya sure was pumped, I can tell you that much.

Is it safe to say that Curtis Granderson is out of his slump now? And he’s hitting triples again, which is a good thing. They sure did make Ubaldo Jimenez work (and I will say this: Jimenez is one of the few individuals who actually look good with the stirrups). Gary Sheffield ended up being the only Tiger without a hit, but he did have a walk. And finally, there were no ejections, which was also refreshing.

Tonight is game 2 of this series and it pits Justin Verlander against Jeff Francis. Verlander was the flamethrower that everyone was looking for in his last start. I’d like it if he’d go at least six innings tonight, though. I don’t know much about Jeff Francis, other than that he’s left-handed and he’s Canadian. He’s been struggling this year, but I’ve watched a couple of his starts, and he seemed to pitch well in both of them. At any rate, Marcus Thames is supposed to be back in the lineup, as is Edgar Renteria (something screwy’s going on with Renteria, because no one will comment on why he was out of the lineup for two days straight).

By the way, here’s your explanation for the title:

That was…interesting, to say the least. I ended up seeing most of it at home, then I listened to it on the radio on the way to and from my doctor’s appointment, but on the way back, there was a huge storm so the reception was kinda spotty in places, but it seemed very bizarre to be listening to a baseball game at that time (I had the same reaction during Spring Training, when I would be watching a game and it would be snowing outside). I got home just in time to see the final pitch—literally. At any rate, I was surprised that the game was still on once my appointment was over. Nate Robertson flirted with danger the whole time, but he was able to make the big pitch when he needed to, and really, of the 11 hits, three were infield singles and one was a checked-swing roller into right field. I missed Rodney’s outing entirely, but it looks as though he pitched well. I also missed Todd Jones giving up the RBI single to Albert Pujols, but considering the fact that Pujols apparently owns Todd Jones, he’s probably lucky that it was only a single. I did hear Bobby Seay’s inning on the radio, though.

Well, between spotty radio reception and the doctor’s appointment itself, I missed just about every critical moment of this game. Clete Thomas was about to receive the 3-1 pitch prior to his first bases-loaded walk just as I got to the parking garage, and you know how radios don’t work in parking garages. By the time I got out of the appointment and out of the parking garage to a place where I actually had reception, Michael Hollimon was batting in the bottom of the ninth, so I had just missed Gary Sheffield hitting the game-tying home run, but once again, Sheffield’s swing looks healthy. But I was able to see the walk-off…walk, so to speak. Meanwhile, what’s up with Polanco getting ejected? That’s even more surprising to me than Marcus Thames. Polanco seems to me like one of the most mild-mannered players on the team, and definitely one of the LAST players I'd expect to be ejected. And I do know that he’d only been ejected once before in his career (and I only know that cuz I looked the stat up after playing MLB The Show and seeing Polanco get ejected in one of those games, and as you can’t control whether or not your player argues with the umpire in this particular video game, I wanted to see how realistic that was). By the way, throwing the bat and the helmet was probably not a smart move.

Well, Interleague Play comes to an end this weekend, and to close it all out, we’re taking on the Colorado Rockies. They were the NLCS champs last year and were on fire until being totally overmatched by the Red Sox in the World Series. They came out of the gate really struggling, but they had been playing better until they were swept by Kansas City. Tonight, Eddie Bonine takes on Ubaldo Jimenez. Jimenez throws very hard, and has had control problems in the past, but has been pitching very well as of late. Eddie Bonine pitched much better in his last start, but got a no-decision for his efforts. I’ll be at work tonight, so I’ll be joining in late. By the way, it’d be nice if the Tigers could win tonight. Their recent pattern has been to lose the first game of a series and win the next two, and that’s fine, but it’s a really stressful way to do it.

Well, I ended up seeing more of this game than I thought I would, but I still missed Galarraga’s entire outing. It’s kind of painful, cuz he needed 5 2/3 innings to get himself to the marker where he would “qualify” for league leader stats, and he fell one inning short. At any rate, Jim Price, the Tigers’ radio analyst and probably Galarraga’s #1 fan, summed up the outing as “you’re not always gonna have your best stuff.” Galarraga’s line would probably have been better had it not been for Rick Ankiel, who just seemed to have his number. Ankiel did most of the damage to him. The bullpen did all right, but Miner and Zumaya walked too many people. In Miner’s case, I understand why you’d want to pitch around Rick Ankiel, but if you walk him, you gotta finish the deal by getting the next guy, and Miner didn’t do that. Bobby Seay and Todd Jones held their own, though. Granted, Todd Jones was helped out by Guillen doing his best Brandon Inge impression. That was a nice play.

I guess the guys’ career numbers against Kyle Lohse did indeed trump Lohse’s recent pitching performances, cuz they hit him pretty well. They were probably sad that he got knocked out of the game by the rain delay. However, they didn’t appear to have much of a problem scoring against the Cardinals’ bullpen. I had pegged Guillen as the “most overdue” in the home run category, and he came through, plus he was a triple away from the cycle. Meanwhile, Gary Sheffield is giving every indication that he’s finally healthy. He also had four hits, including the big walk-off single.

I took a look back at the Marcus Thames ejection. Geez, that was quick. And I’ve never seen Thames act like that before. In fact, according to Retrosheet, he’d never even been ejected in his career prior to last night. Also, apparently during rain delays, fans at Comerica Park get “treated” to the Todd Jones Variety Show. His Magglio impression was rather creepy. But oddly funny, though not as funny as the fact that someone in the Tigers’ dugout had a video camera and was taping the whole thing. And hey, if you stuck around to watch it, you may have been lucky enough to be rewarded with a baseball or a bag of sunflower seeds. By the way, was I the only one thinking of that Yankees game last year? You know, the one where Guillen finally hit a walk-off home run at 3:30 in the morning? I still haven’t gotten over how strange that game was.

It’s a quick turnaround, as it’s a day game today (You know, another weird thing is that the Tigers won the middle game of last year’s series against the Cardinals by a score of 8-7 as well). Nate Robertson was pitching very well until his last start, although he got the win in that game. He wasn’t particularly effective last year against the Cardinals, but he won that game as well (then again, even though the Tigers swept the Cards last year, no one really had an easy time of it except Andrew Miller). The Cardinals, meanwhile, aren’t sure who they’re starting. They want to start Todd Wellemeyer, whom the Tigers are familiar with from his days in Kansas City. However, Wellemeyer has pitched a lot better as a member of the Cardinals. Meanwhile, look for Dane Sardinha to start behind the plate. Leyland said as much before the game yesterday, but I would expect it to happen anyways just because last night’s game didn’t end until after 1:00 AM. I’ve actually seen Dane Sardinha in person before (that one Mud Hens game I’ve been to). From what I’ve read, he’s a good defender, a decent thrower, and he works well with pitchers, but he’s not gonna bring a whole lot offensively, though he’s got the ability to run into one from time to time. At any rate, I’ve got a generally favorable impression of him. Maybe cuz he’s from Hawaii. I’ll likely miss the end of this game as I have a doctor’s appointment, but I’ll do my best.

Well, with a pitcher like Kenny Rogers, sometimes things like that will happen. They had an interview with Pudge during the postgame show and usually when they interview him after a loss (which is not very often) and they ask him about how his pitcher was throwing, he generally tends to give the hitters a little too much credit, but this time I think he was right. Kenny maybe didn’t have his best stuff, but he also wasn’t getting the low strike that he needs. The Cards realized this, laid off that pitch, made him work and get the ball up in the zone, and balls that weren’t necessarily hit hard found holes or fell in. The same thing happened to Freddy Dolsi and Casey Fossum to some extent. There were a lot of broken bat singles in that span. Fernando Rodney was still pretty wild, but he did set down the Cardinals in order.

The ironic thing about this game is that the Tigers probably hit the ball harder than the Cards, but such is life sometimes. Hey, they had three home runs. You’d think that would normally indicate success. Cabrera’s barely got out, but it was to the opposite field. Pudge hit his a LONG way. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him hit one that far. Normally his go into the Tigers’ bullpen, not the visiting bullpen. That was his only hit on the night, but he could’ve easily had two if not for some good defense from Adam Kennedy to end the game. And it was good for Sheffield to homer in his first game back (I don’t know about you, but I’m glad to be back to having the DH). What I don’t get is the fact that everyone’s making such a big deal that it’s his first home run since late May. If I recall correctly, he hit that home run about three days before he went on the DL. It’s not like he’s been in a homer drought since then.

Now for a couple Fashion Police points: First off, you already know what I think about Cabrera and the high socks, especially socks with logos on them. But I thought I had his pattern figured out. Now he’s messing it up for me. Still, he’s got some really nice-looking shoes and those are his saving grace. Speaking of socks, I have decided that the Cardinals have the ugliest socks in all of baseball. I kept getting dizzy from looking at those stripes. They’re just about as distracting as the Gaping Void of Darkness black socks that are sported by the Orioles and Astros. Finally, during his postgame interview, Pudge was wearing one of the weirdest shirts I have ever seen. I swear there were sequins on it.

Well, everyone’s hoping the Tigers stick to the pattern they had on the road trip: Lose the first game, win the next two. The Cards will start Kyle Lohse, aka The Free Agent Pitcher That No One Wanted But Now Every GM Is Kicking Himself Over. Most every Tiger has seen him before, and they all have very good numbers against him, but he’s been pitching so well this year, that might not matter. On the other hand, there are a few quiet whispers about an All-Star appearance for Armando Galarraga. However, I feel I must raise a red flag over this. Without Albert Pujols, the Cardinals seem to be playing in a style very similar to the Minnesota Twins. And the Twins are the only team that has beaten Galarraga. Something to keep in mind. Also, apparently yesterday (and I somehow missed this) Leyland said he wasn’t going to be as strict about the catching platoon, but that Brandon Inge was going to catch this game. Well, all that can be put on the shelf now, cuz Brandon’s oblique has finally landed him on the DL. I kinda saw that one coming. That’s unfortunate, cuz as much as I wanted Pudge to have more playing time, that’s NOT how I wanted it to happen. At any rate, Dane Sardinha has been called up from Toledo to fill the backup catcher duties.

Hey, I figured I oughta tie in that whole Star Wars thing I did a couple weeks ago. At any rate, it was a well-pitched game from Justin Verlander. He did walk too many (granted, two of them were intentional), but it didn’t come back to haunt him, except the walk to the pitcher (Apparently, he hadn’t learned his lesson). The 10 strikeouts were cool, but I’m not one of those people demanding that Justin rack up strikeouts, mostly because strikeouts can get one’s pitch count up in a hurry. And that’s exactly what happened in this game. I’d prefer him to stick around longer, even if that meant fewer strikeouts, but it is what it is. I am puzzled by one thing, though. Verlander spent the majority of the afternoon throwing the fastball right by everyone, but once Zumaya, who throws even harder than Verlander, came in, the Padres were nearly all over his fastball. And as for Todd Jones…well, the ball to the knee reiterates something I said a month or two ago: As much as Tigers fans like to complain about him, if the Tigers were to lose Todd Jones for an extended period of time, they’d be pretty much screwed, cuz they don’t really have anyone else who can close.

The Tiger hitters were a little more stumped by Randy Wolf than I thought they’d be, but Magglio chose a good time to break out of it. And am I just making the whole thing up about the back spasms? I know I heard that somewhere, but I haven’t seen it anywhere else. Meanwhile, Pudge FINALLY got himself a legit home run (which means that both guys on the team who were “given” home runs by opposing outfielders this season homered in this game), and that leads me to believe that the 0 for 2 he had on Friday had more to do with Greg Maddux than fatigue, as he had the same amount of rest before Friday’s game that he did before Sunday’s game. However, despite all the whining and griping I’ve been doing over this platoon situation, I do believe that the extra rest accounts for most, but not all, of his recent offensive upswing. I’d dearly for him to prove me wrong on that, but I’m not sure how that’s gonna happen, unless Brandon Inge injures himself again. And I do think motivation plays a bigger role than a lot of guys think it does. I mean, his numbers started going up immediately after the platoon was announced. Immediately. If it was just a matter of fatigue, I would think it’d happen a lot more gradually. Still, if you want an emotion to pin on it, I kinda feel like the kid who knows he’s been getting away with something he shouldn’t and all of a sudden finds out he’s not gonna get away with it anymore. Meanwhile, Marcus Thames did NOT homer, which all of a sudden seems weird. It’s like realizing that Curtis Granderson only has two triples this year and his stolen base percentage isn’t very good (granted, they’ve been pitching out on him a lot more this year). There’s just something wrong about that.

So now we’ve reached the point where we’re oh-so-close, but we’ve been there before, only to slip back (and unfortunately, as good as the Tigers have been against the NL this year, the rest of the AL Central has been equally as good, for the most part). Now it’s time to take on a much-improved Cardinals team, albeit one currently lacking the services of Albert Pujols. They got swept by KC, then took two out of three from Boston. At Fenway. And they made the third game an extra-inning affair. Go figure. According to their broadcasters, the Cardinals’ MO this season seems to be that they lose the first game in the series, only to come back and win the next two. Now, that hasn’t been the case in their last two series, but it’s something to keep an eye on. Tonight, Braden Looper starts for the Cards, and he’s been pitching exceptionally well. So I’ve read. Kenny Rogers will face St. Louis for the first time since the World Series, where he was spectacular. It’s the only game the Tigers won in the World Series. It’s also gonna be the 1968 World Series tribute game tonight, although I have no clue what all that entails.

Well, it wasn’t the prettiest game in the world, but we got a win out of it and that’s what counts. I mean, hopefully Nate Robertson hasn’t gotten back into the “big inning” pattern that he was in at the beginning of the year. Granted, two of the runs should never have happened. Walking the pitcher is a BIG no-no (and it’s one that he’s now done twice), but Jody Gerut’s ground ball that should have been a routine out was what set up the two-run double. Still, Nate did go six innings. The bullpen got a little help from Magglio, but other than that, they held their own.

I had forgotten that the only time the Tigers faced Cha Seung Baek last year, he was opposing Nate Robertson. At any rate, the first Tigers rally of the night (when they went up 4-3) came because they got a lot of help from San Diego. First the two-base error which allowed Granderson to get to third and set up the Polanco sac fly, and then the Magglio home run which only became a home run cuz it bounced off Jody Gerut’s glove and over the fence. That’s the second time that’s happened to the Tigers this season (the first accounts for the only home run Pudge has hit all year). As for the rally in the seventh inning, well, just about everyone was questioning Leyland’s decision to pinch-hit Marcus Thames for Granderson (the FSN guys, the guys on the radio, even the San Diego broadcasters). I wasn’t exactly questioning it, but I was concerned that taking Granderson’s glove out would come back to haunt them, but it turned out rather nicely. By the way, Marcus’s home run ball was caught by one of the San Diego relievers in their bullpen, which was kinda funny. Meanwhile, Polanco’s hitting streak was snapped, and Brandon Inge continues to take HUGE swings. I would think that’s the LAST thing you’d want to do when you’re dealing with an oblique problem. Still, I give him a lot of props for laying down the sac bunt after Clete Thomas had doubled, which made Jeff Larish’s job a lot easier, and hey, Larish came through.

Well, today wraps up our tour of National League parks for the year. Justin Verlander will take on Randy Wolf, and you know all about Verlander despite his numbers. Randy Wolf is left-handed, but he was pitching well up until his last start, which was against the Yankees.

Ack. As it turns out, I gave up on this game one inning sooner than I should’ve. Once Khalil Greene hit the home run, I turned off the TV and went to bed. I normally wouldn’t do this, but I had to be up REALLY early today (Anyone who is fully dressed and picking up their prescriptions at eight in the morning is out of their mind). The television in my bedroom does not have cable, so I turned on the radio and tried to fall asleep to that, but I didn’t fall asleep until after the game was over (specifically, I dozed off during the postgame show, woke up again just as it was ending, switched over to the Marlins game on MLB.tv, and fell asleep for good sometime before they lost in extra innings…and by the way, the Tigers could tell the Marlins a thing or two about walk-off losses in Oakland). At any rate, Eddie Bonine pitched rather well (He also absolutely drowns in his jersey). He gave up the two home runs, but he had a quality start. Oddly enough, the problem came in the eighth inning, when the bullpen just had all kinds of problems. Rodney literally couldn’t throw a strike. Too many walks. And too much falling behind hitters. I still really haven’t formed an opinion about Casey Fossum. Zumaya got the strikeout, but he also gave up a lot of hard hit balls.

Well, I chose Greg Maddux over Jake Peavy, and I’m still willing to live with that decision. Curtis Granderson had him figured out, at least. And I know I have no way of proving this, but I totally called the back-to-back pitchouts that cost Granderson a caught stealing. There seemed to be a lot of flying out to the warning track in right field. I’m not quite sure what that was about. Marcus Thames’s consecutive home runs streak came to an end, as did Pudge’s hitting streak (Yeah, but was that fatigue or was that Greg Maddux?). And did I hear correctly that Magglio’s had back problems recently? It would certainly explain the 1-for-18, but if that’s true, I’m surprised Leyland hasn’t rested him. Then again, Magglio IS the only Tiger who has played every game so far.

Well, tonight is another late night, but this time I don’t have to get up early, so I should be able to stick around for this one. It feels like forever since the last time we saw Nate Robertson, but as I recall, he did a nice job in his last start. The Padres, meanwhile, will start Cha Seung Baek, whom the Tigers know from his days with the Seattle Mariners (in fact, he got traded not so long ago). He’s a pitcher that the Tigers have gotten to earlier this year, but he’s also shown the ability to pull a Reyes Effect every once in a while. He recently did it to Cleveland, and he did it to the Tigers last year. Brandon Inge is finally behind the plate for this one, and I’m gonna let the standard gripes about this slide for now, cuz even I think Pudge needs the break after catching four games in a row, which I never advocated, I might add. However, I’m still somewhat mixed about it. On the one hand, it theoretically grants me a Verlander/Pudge battery tomorrow. On the other hand, assuming the platoon is back in place, it takes Pudge out of order for the 1968 World Series Tribute game against the Cardinals on Tuesday. I don’t know what that entails, but if it’s a throwback night, I’d like to see Pudge in it (the other two games that I *really* want Pudge in are the Negro League game next month and, for very obvious reasons, Latin Night on August 9^th). By the way, does anyone else find it ironic that this whole platoon was ostensibly done, in part, to prevent Pudge from succumbing to the wear and tear, and yet, it is Inge who seems to be the one suffering from wear and tear?

Ack, I know I’m running extremely late with this post. At any rate, I watched some, but not all, of the game. From what I can tell, Galarraga didn’t have quite the sharpest command he’s ever had, but he did pitch well enough to win and he was able to come up with a big pitch when he needed to get out of trouble, and bottom line, that’s what you want.

I get the feeling that had Barry Zito stayed out there for more than two innings, the Tigers REALLY would’ve unloaded on him. I never really saw Zito in his heyday. The only other time I’ve seen Barry Zito face the Tigers was in Game 1 of the ALCS a couple years ago. At any rate, Marcus Thames’s consecutive-games homer streak has come to an end, but the hits-as-home-runs streak is still intact. It was Polanco who had the big day, with four hits. And Magglio got his first and only hit of the series (I guess Magglio just doesn’t like hitting in the Bay Area, cuz he doesn’t hit well in Oakland either). Meanwhile, Pudge had a hit but really wasn’t doing much to help his own cause. Then again, since this ordeal started, I never once advocated him catching three games in a row. At the same time, though, I’m not entirely convinced that fatigue is what causes guys to swing at stuff out of the strike zone.

It’s now time for another installment of Amusing Things Behind Guys Who Are Being Interviewed. It happened during the pre-game show. Rod Allen was interviewing Edgar Renteria about his 2000^th hit, and well, I didn’t even bother circling it this time cuz it’s just that obvious:

Prior to this interview, Pudge never really struck me as one who would mug the camera, but there you go. The funny thing is that the editors attempted to cover this up by showing the footage of Renteria’s hit, but they missed the tail end of it. Silly editors.

Well, it’s time for the final National League-style series of 2008. To that end, the Tigers’ll have a rematch with their 1984 World Series foes, the San Diego Padres. For most of this season, the Padres have pitched well but their offense has been virtually nonexistent (except for Adrian Gonzalez, who’s actually having a real good year). However, for most of the month of June, they had been hitting pretty well prior to being swept by the Yankees in their most recent series. At any rate, like I did with the Dodgers and Giants, I picked one pitcher that I absolutely did NOT want the Tigers to face. That pitcher was Jake Peavy, and for once I actually got my wish. Now, they WILL have to face Greg Maddux, who is also a Cy Young winner. He’s known for his exceptional command and his ability to field his position very well. Eddie Bonine will oppose him in his second big league start. Hopefully, the numbers’ll look a bit better this time for him. I’m assuming that Brandon Inge will indeed be catching the first game, as I have yet to hear otherwise. That’s fine, I suppose. I’ll resume the battle at a later date. Maybe Sunday.