I suppose I deserved that after complaining about all the pitching duels that have taken place over the past several weeks. I got home just as the bottom of the fourth was wrapping up, so I didn’t see a lot of Eddie Bonine (long enough to discover he’s one of those odd birds that still wear the old-fashioned stirrups, which is…interesting). Obviously he pitched well enough on this particular day, but usually when you give up six runs, you’re not gonna win. I can’t give an assessment beyond that, cuz my two sources (the TV and the radio) had wildly differing opinions. The guys on Fox Saturday Baseball thought he pitched well, just into some bad luck (in the form of balls that found holes or dropped in), and they thought enough of him to make him the “Chevy Player of the Game.” The guys on the radio thought he was too hittable. It was also not a good day for the defense. The only error I saw was the one that Bonine made, so I don’t have a lot of insight on Cabrera or Pudge (And there’s a dig that I really, really want to make, but I’ll take the high road for now and resist). The bullpen was decent enough, though. Casey Fossum gave up a run (of the tough luck variety, as it was an infield single that set it up), and Zach Miner walked a couple, but they were effective enough. By the way, is it just me, or did it look like the Dodgers were trying their own version of the Sock Rally? 

When I left work and got into my car, the Tigers were down 4-1 and there was one out in the bottom of the fourth inning. By the time I got home (and I live less than a mile away), the Tigers had taken the lead. Two two-run homers and a couple triples’ll do that. Isn’t that only Granderson’s second triple of the year? He’s got some catching up to do. Everyone seems to think that Miguel Cabrera is finally starting to heat up, and hopefully they’re right. And Marcus Thames, who tends to alternate streaks of lots of home runs and lots of strikeouts, appears to be in one of the home run streaks, so I say we gotta take full advantage of that. Meanwhile, Pudge is still stuck in that Catch-22, but it’s probably gonna be that way for a while (And strangely enough, after my brief comment on nobility the other day, Eric Karros has suddenly made him out to be some sort of magnanimous, noble, selfless player who is willing to sacrifice what he wants for the good of the team. Huh? Nice sentiment, but…I don’t think so). For now, he’s gotta just keep doing what he’s been doing. Put up lots of hits and good numbers until they just can’t afford to sit him every other day any longer. And I’d say three singles, a sacrifice, an RBI, and a stolen base will certainly help that cause.

Well, today the Tigers send out Nate Robertson to try to get the sweep. He had a good start his last time out, but he needs to limit the home runs more than he’s been able to. The Dodgers will start 20-year-old Clayton Kershaw, a left-hander who apparently is a VERY hard-thrower (96-98 MPH range). It’s an Inge day, so I’ll probably be in one of “those” moods again. You’re probably used to the standard gripe by now. I want to discuss a couple things, though. The first is sort of an addendum to what I said a couple days ago. I mentioned that I don’t blame Brandon Inge for the situation, as he is merely doing what he feels he needs to do to survive. That’s what you want a player to do, and I’m not going to criticize that. In fact, even if I wanted to criticize that, I’m not exactly in a position to do so. I mean, what is it I want to do most? Direct and edit movies. What AM I doing? Going to pharmacy school. In that sense, I am very much like Brandon Inge. Second, I’d like to delve into my deep and warped psyche and muse on one of the other reasons why I don’t like the alternating catchers. It’s more of a personal preference, so don’t take it the wrong way, but I’m just not real keen on American catchers, unless they’re from Hawaii (which means Kurt Suzuki and Dane Sardinha are thumbs-up in my book). It’s not that I think Americans make bad catchers. There are a lot of very good American catchers in baseball (Joe Mauer, Jason Varitek, A.J. Pierzynski, etc). It’s just that I have a thing for catchers anyways (since they’re regarded as the brains of the operation), and so I like it when the catcher is exciting, and the “foreign mystique” goes a long ways towards that. It’s the same reason why British, Australian, and Scottish accents are much sexier than American accents. To me, American catchers are…well…boring. And that’s not a marker that I place on any other position. Brandon Inge is actually a perfect example of this. When he’s playing third base, he’s one of the most exciting players in the game, but when he’s catching, he’s downright dull.  And with that in mind, I think if Pudge was splitting time with a foreign-born player versus an American, I’d probably be a little more okay with it. For the record, Puerto Rico tends to produce the best catchers (Look no further than Pudge, the Molina brothers, Jorge Posada, and Geovanny Soto for proof), but Venezuela’s got a good crop of representatives behind the plate as well (I’m not including Victor Martinez in that group, as I don’t really consider him to be a true catcher. His worth to the Indians is his bat, not his glove, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him playing a lot more first base in the future). And Miguel Olivo and Russell Martin, two other catchers I’m fond of, are from the Dominican Republic and Canada, respectively.

I told you I liked Friday the 13^th. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but all of a sudden, the Tigers’ home record is now above .500. Galarraga continued the string of strong starts by Tiger pitching. When his control is there, he can have a lot of success, cuz it seems as though it’s really difficult for opposing batters to get hits off him. However, last night two of the three hits the Dodgers had were literally off of him. His foot, to be exact. Hopefully it’s all right.

What started out as a pitching duel turned into a nice night for the offense. Marcus Thames got another chance to show off his power. They also did a good job scratching out a couple more runs, including Michael Hollimon’s first big-league RBI. And then Magglio, after having a couple shots die on the warning track over the past two days, FINALLY got one out.

This game also featured one of the strangest bench-clearings I have ever seen. It was really slow to develop, the benches were kind of jogging out rather than charging, there wasn’t a lot of shoving, and it was over with before the bullpens even reached the infield. The sight of Cabrera standing on the top step with that look on his face was hilarious, though. My dad said he looked like “the attack dog waiting for the command.” Pudge also got out onto the field in a hurry, but I’m not sure why everyone kept pulling him back. His demeanor didn’t exactly look threatening. But I suppose at this point he’ll try anything to get some action. I also learned something important: Like Pudge, Carlos Guillen swears in English.

Today, the Tigers are on Fox Saturday Baseball again (ack, though this is the last one for a while, and Eric Karros seemed to be in a good mood last night). They are gonna try to catch lightning in a bottle again like they did with Galarraga. Eddie Bonine, who was the Mud Hens’ most successful pitcher, will make his Major League debut (Clay Rapada was the one who was sent down to make room for him, which surprised me a bit). He got off to a tremendous start at Toledo this year, but has struggled lately. The Dodgers will start Brad Penny. I don’t know much about him except that he’s a hard thrower (he’s the one who took out an umpire with a 96-MPH fastball to the jaw a month or so ago), he struggled early on, but he’s pitched better of late. I’m working 9-5 today, so I’ll only be around for the late innings.

After spending all that time yesterday explaining all the Star Wars parallels, I can’t match this game to any specific plot point. Hmmm. Must be one of those so-called “Expanded Universe” novels that I have no desire nor interest in reading. At any rate, it was certainly a well-pitched game. Kenny Rogers was definitely on top of his game. It looked very vintage 2006. It’s a shame that all he got was a no-decision, but it’s better than a loss. By the way, he makes the dumbest faces when he delivers a pitch. That’s why I didn’t lead off with his photo.

For as well as Kenny pitched, Mark Buehrle was equally as good. It seemed a struggle just to tie the game. Funny enough, once Buehrle was out of the game, the swings got better. Magglio would’ve ended it himself had there not been so much wind blowing in from left field. Seeing that, Cabrera simply hit it out to right field.

I feel I must discuss the Star Wars thing a bit more. Just so you know, it was basically the result of not being able to sleep the night before last, and when I can’t sleep, I tend to start thinking a lot (which probably causes even more insomnia). Hence, that’s how that got all worked out. Then again, I’ve been peppering in Star Trek and MST3K references for a long time now. The one show that I haven’t been able to fit in was a relatively newfound love of mine, Doctor Who. At first I thought it was just way too British to ever be able to fit, but I think now I’ve got a suitable metaphor. I’m gonna keep it to myself for now, though.

Well, it’s Friday the 13^th and I love Friday the 13^th (just keep the Stevie Wonder to a minimum, please). Interleague play is starting up again, and so the Dodgers are coming to town. I don’t know a lot about their pitching staff (since they’re in the National League), but I do know that the one pitcher I didn’t want the Tigers to face was the sinkerballer Derek Lowe. Well, guess what? We’re stuck with him tonight. And his career numbers against Detroit are downright ridiculous. Armando Galarraga takes the hill for Detroit, and he was pretty good in his last start. He’s obviously never faced the Dodgers, but the important thing for him is to have control of his pitches. He’s really tough when he’s not walking people. It’s kind of a bittersweet series for me. I had looked forward to it simply because of the matchup of 2007 Gold Glove winning catchers. We’ve got one of the best catchers there ever was, and the Dodgers have one of the most highly-regarded (and talented) young catchers in Russell Martin. I was looking forward to seeing that, but now it’s looks as though the only time they’re gonna match up is tomorrow. Sigh. I know this is gonna come back to haunt me (in a “be careful what you wish for” sort of way), but I’m getting real tired of this alternating catchers business. It’s causing me to become mildly but unjustifiably hostile towards Brandon Inge on days when he catches (but not on days when he’s playing third base). I know that’s an extremely immature response, but damn it, I can’t stop myself. It’s really unfair to Inge, who’s merely doing what he feels he needs to do to “survive,” so to speak. When you’re in his position, you kind have to have that mentality, so I can’t blame him. I can’t blame Jim Leyland either. Given Pudge’s performance over the past couple weeks, it’s the logical choice. Pudge has been doing better his last couple games, but unfortunately, he’s now trapped in a Catch-22 of sorts. If he continues to improve, Leyland will attribute it to the increase in rest and that doesn’t get us anywhere. If he goes back into a skid, he’ll lose even more playing time (unless Inge struggles as well). At the present time, I cannot make a very good objective, logical argument against alternating catchers. All the arguments I can come up with are subjective in nature and deal mainly with gut feelings and bruised egos (and yes, mine is one of them). I do, however, have a proposal which I consider to be quite reasonable. If Pudge continues to improve at the plate (say, over the course of the remainder of the homestand and the next road trip), I would like for Jim Leyland to increase his playing time again to the “standard” starting catcher amount (usually two out of the three games in a series). If his offensive production stays good after that, then he can keep the increased time and we’ll all be happy. If it declines again, then Leyland was right in the first place and he probably should have a bit more rest (although I probably won’t be happy about it even then). That’s the only way to get out of the Catch-22. Unfortunately, I have neither the means nor the authority to enact my proposal, so ultimately these musings are for naught. I suppose I should concentrate on the big picture for now. The Tigers have swept the White Sox, but they’ve swept other teams before, only to immediately lose the momentum and go back into a nosedive. Can they break that trend this weekend?

See what Justin Verlander can do when you give him run support? Admittedly, I didn’t see a whole lot of this game, as it was already the top of the ninth by the time I got home. I was able to track it minimally at work. There was an “unlocked” Internet window on the computer I was working most of the night at, and so every once in a while I was able to sneak a very quick glance at the score (“very quick” because this particular computer was pretty much in plain sight of everyone else, so I really had to pick my spots). I have since watched some of it on the online archive. Justin was simply marvelous. And how ironic is it that almost one year to the day of his no-hitter, he throws a complete game? I don’t really know where his velocity was for most of the night, but he obviously had everything working. By the way, I feel I must explain the title. I said it was ‘70s Night at Comerica Park, so I was looking for a ‘70s song to use, and my dad is a real big James Bond fanatic. That is the song from The Spy Who Loved Me, which came out in 1977. It is sung by Carly Simon at the beginning of the movie and by (in the words of Chris) “a male chorus line” at the end. That and some saxophone music are all I remember of the movie.

It was another decent night for the offense against a pitcher who’s been tough this season and especially against Detroit over the past couple years. Larish was the only one who went hitless (though, on the flip side, Polanco was the only one who did not strike out). The big blow was Marcus Thames’s 3-run homer (and he had been 0-for-8 against Vazquez).  Cabrera only had one hit, but he also had that mammoth 14-pitch at-bat that ended in a walk. Meanwhile Guillen, after wearing that hideous afro in the dugout, made up for it with an RBI triple. And guess what? Polanco’s finally back to .300.

I would like to have an extended discussion about Verlander, if I may. This is mostly my observation (so it could very well be completely off the mark), although it was reinforced a little bit by Brandon Inge’s post-game comments, but it seems as though Justin’s starting to control his destiny on the mound a little bit more, as it were. He’s still in the process of maturing from a young pitcher with raw talent that needs to be guided into someone with confidence in what he can throw and can decide for himself what needs to be thrown and when. There’s still a ways to go, but I think last night was a big step in that process. It’s kind of hard to explain. From a cinematic standpoint, if Pudge Rodriguez is Obi-Wan Kenobi (And it’s becoming increasingly likely that that will indeed be his fate; He will soon die valiantly in a lightsaber duel and will thereafter be reduced to making ghostly cameos throughout the rest of the season), then Verlander is Luke Skywalker, which has its own kind of awesomeness. He may not be a jedi yet, but for the most part, he’s past the point where he’ll get his hand cut off if he tries to fight his own battles alone. He can now defeat Jabba the Hutt (that being the Chicago White Sox…no insult intended) largely on his own, at least in terms of leading the charge. I was having trouble trying to figure out how Brandon Inge fit into all this, but at last I came upon the realization that he’s probably the R2-D2 of this story in that he’s been around since “the beginning” (in that he’s the longest-tenured Tiger) and he can perform a number of different functions. It even fits well into the Jabba the Hutt scenario. Luke Skywalker may be able to defeat him without the direct guidance of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he still has to have someone resourceful enough to be able to get him his lightsaber when he needs it. And I have now successfully turned last night’s game into the first thirty minutes of Return of the Jedi (That one run the White Sox scored on Verlander? That was when Luke got shot in his artificial hand). Only on the Total Amateur Analysis, folks. By the way, I still haven’t figured out Han Solo, Chewbacca, or Lando Calrissian (though I’d imagine it’s some combination of Magglio, Cabrera, and Guillen). As far as Yoda goes, I was temporarily undecided between Leyland or Kenny Rogers, but I finally decided that the degree of power fit Leyland more and that Kenny Rogers would be more like Mace Windu (yes, characters from the prequel trilogy are up for grabs). Polanco, due to his stature, would probably be most like Wickett the Ewok (but don’t take that as a knock; Wickett was tough and extremely vital to the Rebellion in the end). I’m gonna be real careful with assigning C-3PO, cuz he’s kind of annoying. Obviously I can’t assign Princess Leia to any of the players (cuz that would just be…well…wrong), but I can use her to perhaps represent the Tigers’ fanbase, myself included (In fact, “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope” could have been a perfect rallying cry between the ’03 and ’04 campaigns, if you catch my drift…no pun intended). I haven’t picked anyone for the evil emperor, either. Darth Vader is a tricky one. From a villain standpoint, I can’t come up with anyone yet. From an Anakin Skywalker-type standpoint, Dontrelle Willis would actually be a pretty good match. He is a former “pupil” of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Pudge caught Dontrelle in his rookie year of 2003) and you could argue that he’s now fallen from grace and turned to the Dark Side (in this case, the Dark Side meaning “not able to throw strikes”). However, this in no way means that Verlander has to confront Willis in order to become a jedi. Hey, I never said it was a perfect fit.

Well, the Tigers find themselves in the surprising position of having a chance, albeit a small one, to sweep this series today. It’ll be a battle of lefties. Kenny Rogers will try his best to get them there. He’s been very good his last few times out. Mark Buehrle, meanwhile, hasn’t had that great a year, but he pitched better in his last outing, and he’s the type of pitcher that could show up at any time. This is also the true one-year anniversary of Justin's no-hitter, and I'm sure a few people will be waxing nostalgic about that. If you care to be one of 'em, here's the link to my post about it.

DISCLAIMER: Yeah, yeah, I know Obi-Wan Kenobi is far nobler than Pudge Rodriguez could ever hope to be. They both, however, fit that literary archetype of the Mentor who guides the Hero through the first part of the journey but ultimately is either unwilling or unable to aid him at the end. At the same time, though, it is an amazing coincidence that Obi-Wan Kenobi was, in part, played by the delightful Ewan McGregor, who, like Pudge, was born in 1971. How ‘bout that? My favorite actor and my favorite baseball player are the same age. The strange thing is that Pudge seems far older than Ewan, even though he’s actually the younger of the two.

You know, for a game in which each team had double-digit hits, it didn’t take very long, cuz it was the top of the eighth inning when I got off work and I was in the car. Anyways, Nate Robertson never had a 1-2-3 inning, but he did a nice job and was very efficient with his pitches. And it was a quality start. Meanwhile, the Freddy Dolsi balk was just weird. He looked like he thought time had been called or something. Brent Clevlen saved the day by gunning down Carlos Quentin, however. And normally the Fashion Police does not venture into the realm of facial hair (mostly cuz the one you’d talk about is Nate Robertson, and he’s gonna look different with every start so why bother), but Todd Jones really should get some more of the mustache back, cuz without it he looks a little too much like a Keebler elf. However (and this has nothing to do with facial hair), the creepiest-looking player on the field last night was Alexi Ramirez. He’s downright skeletal except for the very top of his head, which is almost as big as Polanco’s. I kept hoping he’d keep his hat/helmet on.

Miguel Cabrera had the biggest night offensively, and once again it was nice to see some big two-out hits. Polanco, after kinda struggling on the road trip, seems to be back into form, cuz he followed up his four-hit game with three hits. Renteria actually was the only one who didn’t have a hit. Meanwhile, if Pudge is gonna “prove ‘em wrong,” he’s definitely got his work cut out for him, but a single, double, run scored, and a stolen base is a good start (not to mention throwing out two Chicago baserunners).

As for the whole Dontrelle Willis thing, I didn’t even know he could be sent to the minor leagues. That makes the conundrum a whole lot simpler. I had been operating under the assumption that they were stuck trying to get him straightened out with the big club. It's unfortunate that they had to take this step, but I don't think really had any choice. Not with the way Dontrelle's been struggling. Now that he’s been sent down, I think that’s probably the right move, and hopefully he can do what Cliff Lee did and be tremendous when he comes back. Also, they had a picture of Joel Zumaya in the newspaper the other day, and surprisingly enough, that Mud Hens uniform looks good on him (and I’ve never said that about anybody). And one more thing. I got this screen capture off the FSN broadcast (the online archive, as it provides a better quality picture than my VCR hookup). Check out what I’ve circled.

Okay, that’s just unacceptable. Learn how to spell, people!

Tonight, the Tigers will try as hard as they can to score some runs for poor Justin Verlander. It’ll be a tough task, as they’re up against Javier Vazquez and he’s just seemed to have their number over the past two years. Meanwhile, Verlander, if he had any run support whatsoever, could easily be 7-3 or somewhere around that. However, in his career, the White Sox have really had Justin's number, so there's a couple of bad combinations going on here. Also, this’ll mark probably the only time I’ll be happy about the catching platoon cuz it’s ‘70s Night at Comerica Park, and with Inge catching, it means that Pudge is spared those creepy bad Photoshop jobs on everyone’s pictures, if they intend to do that again.

Well, as it turns out, this would not have been a good game for Pudge to catch anyways (partially because of the score, and partially because I would have gotten pissed off at him). Dontrelle Willis just could not throw a strike. Even the two balls that were hit out looked like they were out of the strike zone. He is only the third pitcher since 1956 to give up eight runs on three hits or less, but the consolation is that he’s in good company. The other two were Kerry Wood and Randy Johnson. And I’m not sure what Dontrelle’s problem is. I’m not one of the natives getting restless. I did my homework in the offseason and I did watch some of his old Marlins games, and so I know he can pitch effectively. I’ve seen him do it (By the way, did anyone else notice the Curtis Granderson bobblehead that Dontrelle had in his locker during his postgame interview?). On the flipside, the bullpen gave a tremendous effort and should get a lot of props.

Once the rain started falling, I was really hoping for a lengthy rain delay. I thought an hour would be enough to chase Cliff Lee, but apparently not. The Tigers did have seven hits, but Polanco had four of them, so make of that what you will. Then again, Miguel Cabrera had a home run taken away from him by Franklin Guitierrez. On the other hand, Edgar Renteria ending a nine-pitch at-bat by bouncing into a double play is somewhat anti-climactic.

By the way, that storm that blew through Detroit came through my neck of the woods about an hour and a half earlier. In fact, the first sound of thunder rolled just as I read the unhappy post about Pudge becoming essentially a platoon player. How’s that for ironic timing? At any rate, there’s not a whole lot of arguing I can make about the move without sounding unrealistic. It’s up to him to prove them wrong (and to not alienate me in the process). He can start by getting some good swings in tonight. That may be easier said than done, cuz the White Sox are on fire right now. Chicago’s a handful for the Tigers anyways, but they’ve won seven in a row, including a four-game sweep of Minnesota. For a long time they’ve been living by their pitching (which, out of nowhere, has become the best in the American League) and by Carlos Quentin. Now for some reason, the rest of the offense seems to have gotten hot, cuz they just absolutely massacred Twins pitching. First up for Chicago is Jose Contreras, who has turned himself around this season. The Tigers got to him back in April, but since then he’s been lights-out. Meanwhile, Nate Robertson needs to bounce back from that Oakland game. And I read somewhere that the last four times that Nate has faced Chicago (including tonight), he’s been up against Contreras. How weird is that? At any rate, the Tigers need to take this series. They’re so far behind Chicago as it is. If they fall any further behind, this season could be shot real quickly. However, I can't say I'm feeling real good about this series. Make of that what you will.

I can’t think of an intro today, so let’s just get to it. Armando Galarraga did a very nice job again. The walks in the sixth got him in trouble a little bit and ultimately prevented him from getting a quality start, but if it was nearly as hot up in Detroit as it was here, I can understand him running out of steam there. It was also nice to see Casey Fossum bounce back after that horrible outing in Oakland. Zach Miner didn’t quite have it, but Freddy Dolsi continues to make me wonder why I get nervous every time he comes in to pitch. Those strikeouts were sweet.

It was good to see a lot of two-out runs from the Tigers yesterday. I am a bit concerned that they didn’t do anything against the Cleveland bullpen, but the five runs they scored off Sowers proved to be enough. And hey, Curtis Granderson not only hit the lefty, he homered off him. In the end, the only RBI that didn’t come with two outs was the single that Pudge hit. As for Polanco, I thought about mentioning the 0-for-10 coming into the game, but I decided against it, and it turned out not to matter, cuz he got rid of that in a hurry. Meanwhile, Miguel Cabrera introduced us to a new (and universal) Fashion Police no-no: socks with logos on them. He does, however, get style points for the sweet-looking shoes.

Now here’s the hard part of a four-game series: They’re very hard to take. Ordinarily, I’d be happy with a split, but Leyland says they’ve gotta take every series they can. It’s gonna be a tall order with Cliff Lee on the mound. The Tigers have got several players who have had a lot of success against him in the past, but that may not matter with the way he’s been pitching. He’s been a bit more touchable recently, but his April/early May numbers were downright ridiculous. As for Dontrelle Willis, well, it’s no secret as to what he needs to do, and that’s not walk people. And as tough as it may be, it would behoove the Tigers to win tonight, cuz it won’t get any easier, not with red-hot Chicago coming in next. And it looks as though the next step in phasing Pudge out has happened. Leyland now says that Inge and Pudge are gonna alternate games behind the plate. I knew this was coming, but it doesn't make it any easier (plus, I have tickets to the August 9th game and this setup only gives me a 50% chance of seeing Pudge...if he hasn't been traded at the deadline, that is).

As I said, I missed this game entirely, so (other than watching the two scoring innings later on online) I can’t provide a whole lotta insight. However, from what I can tell, Kenny Rogers did a nice job, and yet another quality start. And our newspaper this morning pointed out the irony of Kenny Rogers starting the game after Bonderman had the blood clot removed from his shoulder. Todd Jones, meanwhile, is now tied with Goose Gossage on the all-time saves list, which I know is mind-blowing to a lot of people.

The offense seemed dormant (outside of the Guillen home run) until the eighth inning, when it kind of exploded. And I hate being sadistic, but it was maybe just a little satisfying to hammer Rafael Betancourt for once. Meanwhile, it seems that Edgar Renteria loves Cleveland pitching. Both of his grand slams this year have come against the Indians.

Well, it’s a day game today, and Armando Galarraga officially takes Jeremy Bonderman’s place in the rotation. Galarraga got his first major league win against the Indians back in April. I don’t know if today’s gonna be different, cuz now the Indians have the advantage of having seen him before. Oddly enough, he seems to pitch better on the road than at home. I believe all of his wins have come on the road. Still, the most important thing is for him to throw strikes and get ahead of hitters so he can get to his slider. No walking people. Jeremy Sowers, meanwhile, will take Jake Westbrook’s place in the Indians’ rotation today (The Indians are having pitching issues of their own, as it turns out that Westbrook needs to have Tommy John surgery and will miss the rest of the season). The Tigers saw him once last year and hit him pretty well. However, he wasn’t having a great year overall last season and he’s been pitching well in the minor leagues this year, so I wouldn’t get cocky just yet.

This isn’t gonna be much of a post, because I didn’t see/hear much of the game. It was already the top of the eighth when I got into my car, and so I was only able to watch the bottom of the eighth and the entire ninth by the time I got home. From what I can piece together, Justin Verlander pitched real well except for the inning in which Cleveland scored three runs. I haven’t heard what his velocity was, so if Justin says he feels like he’s gotten to where he needs to be, I would imagine it was still up. He walked four, which is too many, but he had eight strikeouts, so something was working for him, and in the end, it was a quality start against a team that has had his number, and you have to like that. He just didn’t get any run support. Again.

Equally, I missed Paul Byrd and what little Tigers offense there was completely. Therefore, I can’t really comment on who looked good and who didn’t. I heard that Larish, aside from the home run, had some real good swings but nothing to show for it, and Leyland said that the three outs made after the Cabrera double were all hard-hit. I’m gonna have to take his word for it, though. I will say this: Certain batting averages are headed into ugly territory, and it pains me to see them that way. That’s gotta get turned around real soon.

Well, a couple days ago, we were doing pretty well on the injury front. Rodney and Zumaya started their rehab assignments, Bautista just came off the DL, and Rapada was ready to start his rehab assignment as well. Now all of a sudden we’ve got eight guys on the DL. Yeesh. Yesterday Santiago went on with the separated shoulder and was replaced by Mike Hollimon. That was expected. Clete Thomas also went on the DL with a sprained ankle. That was not expected (he was replaced by Brent Clevlen). Now this morning brought news that Jeremy Bonderman has a blot clot in his shoulder and will miss the rest of the season. It might explain his inconsistency in his velocity this year, but that’s definitely not how I wanted them to solve the Dontrelle Willis/Armando Galarraga problem.

Well, the Tigers are back on Fox today, unfortunately (hey, maybe Eric Karros will still be in a good mood, but I doubt it). I’m working 4-9, so I’ll miss the whole thing, but Kenny Rogers will start for Detroit, and he’s had mixed results against Cleveland in the past. He can either dominate them or be destroyed by them. It all depends on how patient the Indians are on any given day. If they’re in a patient mood, that could mean bad things for Kenny. Meanwhile, the Tigers will see the first of three lefties in a row. They’ve never seen Aaron Laffey before, and so neither have I, but from the little bit I know about him, he tends to get a lot of ground balls. Leyland says that Brent Clevlen will play in left field for all three remaining games and that Inge will catch today (so maybe this ain’t such a bad game for me to miss, provided that means Pudge will be catching tomorrow and Monday…perhaps that’s too naive an assumption, though). I'm still feeling fairly mellow, though not as mellow as last night and probably not as much as I would be if Inge were playing third base, but I suppose that's a situation that can be rectified tomorrow.

In Other News: We had some somewhat stormy weather roll through last night. The storm came through while I was watching the bottom of the ninth inning. It consisted of about one 30-second wind gust, a few splashes of rain, and a few bolts of lightning. That’s it. However, it was enough to knock down our neighbor’s tree. It wasn’t a very big tree, but it was big enough that you’d think it’d be able to withstand a 30-second gust. There’s also a very large tree branch in our backyard.

This’ll probably be a short entry, as I spent the day totally nerding out and watching episodes of various Star Trek incarnations (well, mostly Next Generation, with a little Voyager mixed in here and there), which kinda put me out of the mood, at least for one day. Anyways, I did not see a whole lot of yesterday’s game due to work, so I can only give you a good assessment of the beginning of the game and well, Nate Robertson was kinda flirting with danger all afternoon and it finally caught up with him, although walks really weren’t as big of a problem in this game, unlike the last one. I was only home for about the first five innings, and I heard part of the top of the sixth on the radio, so I spent all of work blissfully unaware of the late-inning carnage that ensued, and apparently all that happened with two out. Poor Casey Fossum just got hammered. It’s probably too early to make an assessment on him, though. And it’s unfortunate that Ramon Santiago got hurt in a game such as this, but it is reminiscent of what happened to Polanco a couple years ago. Now Santiago’s probably headed for the DL, which means that they’re gonna have to call up another shortstop.

Well, the part of the sixth inning that I heard on the radio sounded promising, but it seems it quickly fell apart once I shut the car off. But you know, when Granderson grounds into a double play, that’s a sign that it’s just not gonna be a good day for the offense. Magglio FINALLY got his first hit of the series (but apparently he hates hitting at McAfee Coliseum anyways, cuz his numbers just aren’t good), and later got hit. Pudge unfortunately didn’t get a hit, but he did draw a walk, and that’s significant cuz that means he’s now exceeded his total from all of last year.

By the way, I was watching the Today show this morning, and they had a guy on showing (for lack of a better term) sports bloopers from the past month, which means there were a lot of baseball ones, including one from a Tigers game. It was Gary Sheffield fouling a ball off the mask of the home plate umpire (hard enough that the mask fell off). The umpire then picked up his mask and starting kissing it. They also showed the Victor Martinez bucket incident, and even my mom found that one funny. Also, I don’t watch a lot of hockey, but yay Red Wings!!!

Okay, no time to sulk. There’s a long homestand starting tomorrow night that includes a couple key division rivals, so my boys have gotta get it into gear now. First off are the Indians for a four-game wraparound set, and Cleveland’s had their own problems. Their starters have pitched well, but their bullpen has been shaky at times and now the injury bug is really starting to hit them hard. Hafner, Carmona, and Westbrook are all on the DL, which means, among other things, that their starting rotation currently has only one right-hander in it. That righty is Paul Byrd, whom the Tigers will see tomorrow night (the only guy they’ll miss is Sabathia). This is also kinda significant, because Justin Verlander starts for Detroit, and neither Byrd nor Verlander has gotten any run support this year. Statistically, Byrd gets the worst run support of any starting pitcher in the league, but I think if you take away the two games that Verlander won (in which he received double-digit runs), he’d probably give Byrd a run for his money in that department. Last year, it seemed like the Tigers were usually able to score between four and five runs off Byrd (and they saw him a lot), but the Indians won every freakin’ game he started, somehow, someway. On the other hand, Cleveland presents problems for Verlander. Things tend to get uglier against him at Progressive Field versus Comerica Park, but the Indians can still be a bugaboo (I do believe that’s the first time I’ve ever used that word here) no matter where they play. Oddly enough, Cleveland’s the only Central Division rival in which the Tigers have at least a halfway decent record against this year, but that’s cuz they’ve only played two games against them (and they’re at .500, having won one and lost one). Now, by the numbers, the Indians have the worst offense in the AL, in terms of runs scored and batting average. However, they didn’t seem to have any problem scoring runs in their recent series in Texas. Also, Victor Martinez has yet to homer this year. And that scares the hell out of me, perhaps with good reason (after all, he hit, like, half his home runs against Tigers pitching last year). However, despite the risk of being totally wrong and looking really stupid, I have to add something. Although I don’t really explicitly talk about it much, my intuition has actually served me pretty well this season. If I’ve felt good about a particular game/series, it’s usually turned out all right, such as most of their games against Seattle this year. Likewise, if I’ve had a bad feeling, things don’t seem to turn out that well, such as this most recent series in Oakland (you’ll have to take my word for it, but if you go back and read my preview paragraphs, perhaps my tone suggests that I wasn’t picking up good vibes). However, when I think about this series with Cleveland (or at least, the first game), I get this totally peaceful feeling. And I know that makes no sense whatsoever, especially when you consider that it’s Cleveland of all teams. You’d think that the big geographic rival would call for getting amped up big time, especially since the Tigers have the opportunity to either make up or lose considerable ground depending on how they do. But I’m still totally mellow. And that’s different from both the good vibes and bad vibes, so I have no idea what it indicates. At the very least, one hopes that the peaceful feeling can somehow carry over into work, cuz that’s where I’ll be tomorrow night. And Saturday. And most of next week. Sigh.

Okay, so that turned out to be a long post. Blame the zen.