I actually did something last night that I’ve never done before: I gave up on it. It was 1:30 in the morning (middle of the 10^th inning), I wanted to go to bed, and watching this particular game had become (to quote another show) “like watching a dog try to die.” And that sentiment goes to both teams. Yeesh. It was like nobody wanted to win this game. Do I even need to spell it out? Too. Many. Walks. WAY too many. Yikes. Ironically enough, though, it was an infield single that ended it and not a walk, but there was a walk mixed in there that pushed the winning run to third base.

The Tigers’ inability to take full advantage of the base on balls is something that has been happening all season. Errors? Yes. Walks? No. Unfortunately, Oakland did not make any errors, otherwise the Tigers probably would’ve scored 12 runs. But when Polanco pops up with runners in scoring position, something’s screwy. On the other hand, Pudge has now matched his entire 2007 walk total, and we’re barely into June. He still needs to lay off the elevated fastball, though. He’s going to keep getting ‘em if he doesn’t.

Well, Comerica Park is on the horizon, but first we got one more game we gotta get through, and it’s all up to Nate Robertson, who has had trouble with Oakland in his career but pitched decently against them last year. But most of all: Please, no more walks. That goes for the bullpen too. Meanwhile, Justin Duchscherer (I hope I spelled that right) used to be a reliever but has been converted into a starter and has yet to allow more than three earned runs in an outing this year, so once again, the Tigers have their work cut out. I warned you that it wouldn’t be easy.

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of all these pitching duels that end in walk-off losses. Kenny Rogers perhaps wasn’t at the top of his game, but for the most part, he displayed that veteran know-how and got himself through seven good innings. The bullpen just plain walked too many people. I know none of those walks came around to score, but still, you can’t walk people late in games. But Cruceta? I don’t know. He really hasn’t pitched that effectively at this level and he hasn’t really shown the dominance he had in his brief stint at Toledo. At the same time, though, you hate to give up on an arm like his, but it appears that the Tigers have, or so I’ve read. Apparently, they’ve designated him for assignment and called up Casey Fossum from Toledo. That’s probably the end for Cruceta in a Tigers uniform, as I highly doubt they’d be able to sneak him through waivers, but with the possible return of Rodney and Zumaya looming on the horizon (not to mention Denny Bautista, if he can get his control back), perhaps that factored into the decision. As for Casey Fossum, well, the only memory I have of him is the one start he made against the Tigers last year when he was with Tampa Bay, and the Tigers lit him up. However, the Tigers need another lefty in the bullpen, and he’s pitched very well in Toledo, so he’s earned the chance.

This isn’t one of those games where you can go off on the offense for not doing more than they did, because Rich Harden is just that good. When someone like that is on, you just hope you can scratch across two runs, and they were able to do that. However, after Pudge chased Harden with an infield single (not hit real hard, but I’m sure he’ll take it and maybe that makes up for all those “at ‘em” balls he was hitting earlier in the road trip), they couldn’t get a hit against the Oakland bullpen. They got a walk from Renteria, but gambled on sending him and he was thrown out. As for the Cabrera rundown after Larish had singled, well, it depends on which media you listen to. The guys on FSN praised him for drawing the throw from the cutoff man to make sure the run scored, but the guys on the radio viewed it as a baserunning mistake. I suppose we’ll never know what the real story was.

One amusing moment of the night: Zach Miner dancing in the bullpen.

This’ll be the last late-nighter for me for the next couple weeks (since tomorrow will be a day game). Tonight’s gonna feature that weird piggyback start with Dontrelle Willis and Armando Galarraga. It’s a big dilemma, cuz Galarraga has pitched so well, but Dontrelle’s not being paid to sit in the bullpen and Leyland hasn’t been able to find work for him there anyways. I’m not sure this is the greatest team for him to be returning to the rotation against, given how patient Oakland hitters are and how badly he’s battled his control since coming over to Detroit. Still, Oakland by necessity has a lot of lefties in their lineup and as long as things don’t get too out of hand, you’ve still got Galarraga coming in at some point. Oakland counters with Dana Eveland, who is left-handed but, like Joe Saunders, has been pitching exceptionally well save for his last start. The Tigers have their work cut out for them once again. Given the lefty starter, this may be a good game to put Guillen in left field again and have either Magglio or Thames DH (since we know Granderson will start), but that all probably depends on how Brandon Inge’s oblique is doing.

I forgot to mention this peculiar stat in my last post, but it turns out that the Tigers did something yesterday that they hadn’t done all season: Win on Sunday. Bonderman was obviously battling himself, cuz he didn’t seem to have command of his slider, but he did a real good job of damage control. Oddly enough, he didn’t walk anybody. He just kept giving up base hits, but in the end, it was still a quality start. Zach Miner made pitches when he needed to, and looked pretty solid. And Todd Jones? Well, if you’re gonna give ‘em up, they may as well be impressive, and Ibañez’s shot was just that. The pitching staff also got a lot of help from the defense, especially from Granderson, Polanco, and Inge (that’s why I prefer Brandon at third base). And as for Guillen’s first day in left field, well, it didn’t look as weird as I thought it would.

Well, they didn’t exactly light up Miguel Batista, which actually didn’t surprise me all that much. What did surprise me was just how much they got to J.J. Putz (but then again, you know what they say about closers in non-save situations). Guillen, Cabrera, and Magglio all had two hits, and the double by Cabrera turned out to be huge. Polanco struck out again, but came up big with the go-ahead RBI and in doing so broke an 0-for-10 that had largely been ignored. On the other hand, Pudge’s 1-for-18 and horrible road trip (offensively) has definitely NOT been ignored. However, lost in all this was that his sacrifice fly tied the game, and he got it against a pitcher who usually gets a lot of ground balls. They just seem to prefer talking about how badly he’s doing on the road this year, and yes, .227 is not a good road average for him, but right now, it’s one of those skids that doesn’t feel a whole lot like a skid. He hasn’t struck out a whole lot (although he is going after a lot of elevated fastballs, which he really shouldn’t do), and he’s hit quite a few balls hard, but right at people. The rest of the time, it seems he’s either grounding out to second base or flying out to center field, and I have no idea what that signifies. Let’s hope he can get that batting average back up while he’s in Oakland (though that statement comes with an asterisk; I do not want to be in a position where I have to start throwing the stress ball again).

Well, now it’s onto Oakland (from one Suzuki to another, so to speak), where the A’s were supposed to be rebuilding but instead are only a few games behind the Angels in the AL West. They don’t really have that potent an offense on most nights, although they just came off a game in Texas where they had a 9-run inning, so maybe the offense is headed into a bit of a hot streak (unfortunately). However, what they sometimes lack in offense they greatly make up for in pitching, so the Tigers definitely have their work cut out for them. First up is Rich Harden, who is considered to have ace potential but spends a lot of time on the DL every year. His ERA is under three right now as well. I know the Tigers saw him in the ’06 ALCS, but I don’t remember which game it was or how they did (other than that they won the game). Kenny Rogers goes for the Tigers, and his numbers against Oakland are downright ridiculous, especially at McAfee Coliseum. It’s also very surprising to me, because Oakland is known as a patient team that walks a lot, and those teams generally have a lot of success against Kenny (witness the Red Sox, Yankees, and occasionally the Indians). They also don’t steal bases, so that part of the game is unlikely to come into play (then again, not stealing bases makes your team vulnerable to double plays, and Kenny Rogers DOES get a lot of ground balls when he’s going right). At the same time, though, apparently Kenny's one of the guys suffering from that bug that was going around, so he may not have much stamina. Left field appears to have become a rotating door again, cuz Leyland wants to get Marcus Thames out there as much as he can, but he also wants Clete Thomas to get a start in this series, and he’s trying to get Brandon Inge as much time as possible at third base.

Well, the first phase of Seattle’s pitcher strategy paid off, as Justin Verlander was victimized by the “no run support” bug yet again. Justin gave it his all and pitched very well (seven innings, as a matter of fact). Even the ultra-critical Eric Karros couldn’t find a whole lot of negatives in his performance. And really, he should only have given up two runs, not four. The two-run single by Johjima was the result of a pitch he probably should’ve located better. Fair enough. But the two runs that scored in the fourth should never have happened. His defense kinda let him down there, both Pudge not being able to pick up the missed bunt and Renteria bobbling what should’ve been a double play ball (But I’ve warned you time and time again about the west coast). And how ironic is it that on Seattle’s Latin night, it was the Japanese players who did most of the damage?

There have been some games this season where the Tigers have been shut out and you feel like they really should not have been. This actually is not one of them. Felix Hernandez was pretty dominant, as was the Seattle bullpen. Hell, Polanco struck out three times, which is indication enough for me right there. It seemed like every time someone hit the ball hard, it was right at somebody. Pudge seemed to be the only hitter not fooled by Hernandez, and all he has to show for it is a lower batting average. He hit a couple of bullets, one of which almost took off Felix Hernandez’s head (How did that not hit him in the face?). The other one was hit right at the second baseman. He then hyper-extended his elbow later on for good measure (trying to corral a 95-MPH fastball that got away from Verlander), so I suppose that’s something to be wary of later on today.

Well, we’ll see what the Tigers can do today against Miguel Batista, whom they hit pretty hard back at Comerica Park. Still, he’s right-handed, which has been a problem, and the one time they faced him at Safeco Field last year, he pitched very well. Detroit’s making their own strategic pitching shift, so Jeremy Bonderman will go instead of Kenny Rogers (This is based partly on Seattle’s success against lefties, but mostly on Kenny’s ridiculously good numbers at McAfee Coliseum). With Bonderman on the mound, it’ll be critical to keep Ichiro off the bases. Much to my great surprise, it is (as of last night) Leyland’s intention to start Guillen in left field today (wow, that was fast), freeing up third base for Brandon Inge.

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.