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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If Marcus Thames, Magglio, Bobby Seay, and Gary Sheffield in the late innings are any indication, that seems to be the case. Nate Robertson looked exceptional for the first three innings and then kinda lost it. I don’t know if he tweaked his back after taking that big swing while he was at the plate, but it’s interesting that he started falling apart only AFTER that happened. At the same time, it’s gotten to the point where even Leyland admits that it’s hard for a pitcher who feels he has to avoid giving up any runs, at any cost. Still, Nate was just one out away from a quality start, and he just couldn’t get it (and walking the pitcher is a big no-no, unless the pitcher is Micah Owings; then it’s at least understandable).

They pointed out yesterday that had the Tigers gotten any offense whatsoever, they would’ve won five of the six games on this road trip. I agree with Jim Leyland about the lack of offense: Randy Johnson was good, but not shutout good. The Tigers had opportunities early, although a lot of those came with two outs, but still. There was the issue of stranding Cabrera’s leadoff double as opposed to employing the small-ball “get him over, get him in” strategy, but Marcus Thames will never be one of the “get him over” types. Raburn could’ve done it, but not Marcus, and even if Raburn had done it, they would’ve just pitched around Brandon Inge to get to Nate. After that everyone kinda went into shutdown mode. In fact, from about the fifth inning onwards, there was only one good swing, and that was Pudge in about the seventh or eighth inning on a line drive that looked like it was headed to right field until Chris Burke did his best Superman impression and brought it down (which sucks in more ways than one, cuz that means Pudge only had two hits in the series, although he turned in a tremendous defensive performance). Magglio did not take a good swing at all the entire game (and was arguably the chief culprit in stranding runners).  If there is anything positive to be had, well, Cabrera had five hits in the series, three of them for extra bases.

As bad and as perplexing as this season has been both to players and to fans, there’s another team and another group of fans out on the west coast who are equally as disappointed and perplexed. The Seattle Mariners were considered co-favorites for the AL West along with the Angels, but it hasn’t panned out that way, mostly because their offense has struggled as well. Someone’s gonna get some momentum out of this series, and one can only hope it’s Detroit. On paper, you would think that would be the case, since the Tigers will not see Erik Bedard or Felix Hernandez and we’ll be starting 1-2-3 in our rotation, but the way this season’s going, it’d be just as well to take the paper and build a big bonfire out of it. If Justin Verlander had gotten any run support whatsoever this season, he’d probably have about six or seven wins right now instead of having everyone compare him to Barry Zito. He’s never lost to Seattle and has a very good ERA against them, but that was also the case with Kansas City and it didn’t help him his last time out. Meanwhile, Carlos Silva beat the Tigers twice last year. The first time, he beat Verlander, and yes, the other win was a shutout. He’s a sinkerball pitcher, which is probably the last type of pitcher the Tigers need to see. The last time they saw him, Guillen was the only one who could consistently get the ball in the air off Silva. Meanwhile, one wonders if the Tigers will be trying any other “kumbaya” tactics, and I kinda hope they don’t, cuz I can only think of one other common tactic and…no. Just…no. The Sock Rally was apparently done before it really got started, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m a little disappointed, cuz I was actually starting to have fun with it. I think a lot of that stems from the fact that I was surprisingly curious as to what guys who normally wear long pants looked like with the socks up, and once I had a look at all 25 guys (which didn’t happen, as I didn’t see Sheffield and some of the pitchers), it probably would’ve gotten old. Still, they’re welcome to keep at it for the time being if they so choose, but everyone has to do it. Everyone. If only some guys do it, all bets are off and I will likely get mad (and I’m going to get mad at uneven pantlegs regardless).

(My thanks goes out once again to MST3K). Well, it wasn’t exactly a bust-out performance, but the Tigers need to win low-scoring games, and they got some decent pitching. There were still too many walks, but the Tigers got away with them this time. Galarraga was damn good through the middle of his outing. He didn’t have good command in the first and seventh innings, but one can only hope that was just due to rust and fatigue, respectively. Clay Rapada walked his only batter and Aquilino Lopez gave up a couple hits, which you don’t want to see, but he limited the damage, and this time, the defense didn’t disappoint. Pudge was probably the one largely responsible for turning the momentum back into the Tigers’ direction with his very heads-up play on the popped-up bunt by letting it drop and getting the double play (He’s been brilliant defensively this whole series). And the Granderson sliding catch helped out a lot too, especially since Todd Jones was giving up some hard-hit outs in the ninth. Let’s hope THAT’S just rust too.

The offense performed pretty much the same as it had on this entire road trip, but it was enough for once. Friday night Arizona stole one from the Tigers due in large part to a lot of mistakes on Detroit’s part. Last night it was the Diamondbacks’ turn to make the mistakes. I already mentioned the popped-up bunt where Orlando Hudson didn’t run. The other key moments were the walk to Galarraga (you know, I’m not all that familiar with the National League, but I do know that you never want to walk the pitcher) and the Connor Jackson error on a routine ground ball, which set up the two-run single by Guillen. And of course, the Matt Joyce home run was huge. It’s only a matter of time before pitchers start doing to Matt Joyce what they’re doing to Curtis Granderson, but until that happens, we might as well milk Joyce for all he’s worth. And perhaps it’s reassuring that Cabrera got two hits including a long double. Granderson also had two hits, and one of them even came off a lefty.

You knew it was only a matter of time before the Tigers resorted to one of those “kumbaya” tactics, and they opted for everyone hiking the pantlegs up (except for Todd Jones, and we soon found out why). Normally I’d get rather annoyed, but the Tigers really needed to win and somehow it didn’t seem so bad with everyone doing it (though if the goal was to change things up, you’re really not getting that much of a contribution from Granderson or Inge cuz they always wear the socks up; they probably should’ve gone for stirrups or something like that). In fact, once the Tigers actually did win, I was fairly lighthearted about it (which is probably good, considering I’ll have to contend with it for at least one more game). Even Pudge, Magglio, and Cabrera didn’t look as bad as they usually do, although Miguel was battling uneven pantlegs all night, which still drove me nuts (He was wearing some real sweet-looking shoes, though; I did not like Magglio or Pudge’s shoes). Ryan Raburn, Clay Rapada, and Matt Joyce pulled the look off rather well. Galarraga’s got the legs for it, but not the torso. Guillen, Aquilino Lopez, and Edgar Renteria all looked really tentative about it (which is somewhat puzzling in Renteria’s case, considering that it was his idea; he also had uneven pantlegs for most of the night). I also learned a few things. Guillen has huge calves, and Ramon Santiago has surprisingly long legs for a little guy. I can’t assess Polanco cuz I didn’t get that good a look at him, but I suppose I’ll have my chance today. And in an act of amazing coincidence, I noticed that in the Marlins-Royals game, Mike Rabelo had HIS pantlegs hiked up as well. As for me, well, I somehow got MY pants stuck in the Tony Little Ab Lounger chair that I always sit in during the game (It’s surprisingly comfortable), which meant I had to get out of the chair in an awkward fashion and now my legs are all scratched up.

Well, we head into the final game of this series, hiked-up pants and all. The good news is that the Tigers are facing a lefty today. The bad news is that it’s Randy Johnson. He’s not the pitcher he used to be, but he is still, like, 12 wins shy of 300 and he gets a lot of run support. It’ll be up to Nate Robertson to make sure that doesn’t happen. He pitched very well in Kansas City, although he gave up quite a few hits, which he probably won’t get away with when you consider how hot the Arizona offense has been. Leyland has said that Brandon Inge will play third base, so I’m not sure how he’s gonna handle center field and catcher (though one would think that Pudge would catch and, with the lefty on the mound, Ryan Raburn would then play center, but it doesn’t have to be that way). I’m also not sure if Pudge, if he plays, would lead off, cuz he took some real bad swings last night (although his defense more than made up for it). By the way, if you’re genuinely interested in the “Pants-Up Song,” here it is:

I guess even Interleague play can’t save you from yourselves. Bonderman pitched a whole lot better than I expected him to, but in the end, the walks and crappy defense did him in. Just as there’s a difference between “lots of hits” and “timely hits,” there are “lots of errors” and “untimely errors,” and I think the Tigers fit into the latter category. It’s not that they’re making a lot of errors (and no, I haven’t looked up the numbers to back up that claim), it just seems like they just can’t get away with the errors they do make. Last night, though, featured some downright ugly misplays, which is a shame, cuz there were a few heads-up plays from Pudge mixed in there (throwing out a runner, cutting down the lead runner on a bad bunt, etc), but he seemed to be the only one on the infield who had it last night. Throwing errors are gonna happen (though I will delve deeper into that momentarily), but not catching those pop-ups are flat-out unacceptable. They got away with Cabrera’s mistake, but if you’re Cabrera, when there are some in the baseball world who believe you’re just phoning it in, a botched play like that looks really, really bad. I’m not necessarily one of those who believe that, as I have no basis for comparison cuz I’m not THAT familiar with Cabrera on the defensive end of things, but I do know that Jim Leyland will not tolerate lack of effort. Then there was the other pop-up that wasn’t caught, and that looked even worse cuz there were three guys there, all of whom could have made that play, and they didn’t get away with it that time (you just can’t continue to tempt fate, especially not right now). As for the throwing error, well, Guillen bounced a lot of throws last year, but he has to remember that things are different now. Sean Casey makes that pick. Miguel Cabrera is still learning that position and defense is not his strong suit anyways. Zach Miner didn’t walk anybody, but he fell behind just about everyone he faced and got punished for it. Bobby Seay did his job, but Guillen let him down.

The offensive lines for both teams were actually pretty similar. The Tigers had one more hit, but the D’backs got their hits later and all bunched together, for the most part. I didn’t mention it here, but with Dan Haren pitching I thought to myself, “Two runs may be all you’re gonna get, so that’s gonna have to be enough.” Well, they actually did me one better by getting three runs, and that wasn’t enough. The home run by Cabrera was a welcome sight (especially since it came with someone on base, ending that long string of solo shots), and one can only hope he hits a lot more of those real soon. The Tigers didn’t do much after that, but it’s really hard to tell how much of that was struggling offense and how much was good pitching. With Dan Haren, you don’t hit him, you hit his mistakes, and the guys out of the bullpen came out were throwing very hard (Where do all these teams get guys who consistently spot 98 MPH fastballs on the outside black? Most of the hard-throwers I know are a little more wild than that). I mean, Polanco struck out twice, which tells me that this isn’t a good game to gauge the offense.

They showed some old footage from a few years back of Tigers hitting walk-off home runs against the Diamondbacks at Comerica Park, and I noticed that Nate Robertson used to wear the number 37, not 29. He must’ve changed it when Kenny Rogers showed up.

Tonight, Interleague play continues with a battle of rookies. We haven’t seen Armando Galarraga in a really long time. Hopefully he’s still sharp after the long layoff (and one wonders what kind of hitter he is). Arizona has a lot of right-handed hitters, and when he’s on, he’s very tough on righties, but hopefully he doesn’t get hurt by the fact that he’s coming right after Bonderman (another slider pitcher). I obviously don’t know much about Max Scherzer, other than the fact that he throws really hard, which has actually been a problem for Tiger hitters this year, and they used to be a really good fastball-hitting team. He’s had one good start and one bad start this year, although he’s coming off the good one, so we’ll see.

P.S. See the glossary for explanation of the title.

There’s been this mantra of “when we pitch, we don’t hit and when we hit, we don’t pitch” going around the clubhouse the past couple days, and you gotta watch out for that, cuz eventually things’ll sync up the wrong way and you won’t pitch OR hit. Such was the case yesterday. As far as Kenny Rogers goes, it reminded me of that start he had against Texas, the one right before he had the three good outings. Kenny gave up a lot of hits, but most of them weren’t hit that hard. Jose Guillen hit the home run and Miguel Olivo (who I actually like from his days in Florida) hit him pretty hard, but the rest of the hits consisted mostly of a bunch of bloops, bunts, and infield singles. I think he eventually got frustrated and didn’t execute his pitches well. And he and Brandon Inge just could not get on the same page. It seemed like Brandon was jogging out to the mound after every pitch. Perhaps the stolen base was the most shocking thing though. How the hell do you steal on Kenny Rogers? I did not see any of the relief appearances due to having to go to work, so I can’t comment on them.

I said this earlier in the year regarding Brandon Inge, and I’ll say it again, this time in regards to Matt Joyce: He should not be the lead offensive contributor on this team. And I think you know what I mean by that. Other than that, there WERE a few more doubles than there have been the past couple days. But most of the little bit scoring that happened occurred after I went to work, so I can’t comment on that either.

Right now I have the Disney song “Be Our Guest” stuck in my head. I have no idea why. Also, I tried to screen capture the "bats" from the game the other night, but they were just too blurry to be worth it.

I know things ain’t looking too good right now, but damn it, I’ll follow this team to hell and back. First, though, I’ll follow them to Arizona as Interleague play begins. The Tigers have done very well in Interleague play over the past couple years, but this year they’re primarily facing the NL West, which has some really good pitching, so to expect them to do as well as they have in the past is reasonably absurd. As we march into the Land of No Designated Hitter (which I’m sure leaves Dontrelle Willis being very disappointed that he’s on the DL right now), I would say that it might get Miguel Cabrera and Edgar Renteria going again (as it did Sean Casey last year) except for the fact that their first two opponents are a pitcher who spent his entire career in the AL, followed a rookie. I’m just eternally grateful that the Tigers do NOT have to face Brandon Webb (I watched their game last night and got a big eyeful of exactly why I do not want them facing him). Granted, the rest of the Arizona rotation is no picnic, but unlike Brandon Webb, they ARE mortal, so there’s a chance. A slim chance, but it’s still a chance. They’ll start off against a familiar face in Dan Haren, who they saw many times when he played for Oakland, and they some success against him. I remember a lot of those being tight games, but Magglio’s hit a couple home runs against him. The tougher task might be to hold down Arizona’s offense, which has been hot of late. And they’ve got some guys that I guarantee will run against Jeremy Bonderman. Which brings me to Bonderman. Yesterday’s pitching meltdown aside, I’ve seen more good than bad out of every starter except Bonderman (and Dontrelle Willis, but I don’t have a large enough sample size to bring him into the discussion). Jeremy’s gotta figure it out, stat. No more walks. That goes for all the pitchers.

The Tigers needs to start winning soon, if for nothing else but the fact that it’s getting harder and harder for me to come up with new and different sarcastic, witty comments every time they lose. There was nothing wrong with Justin Verlander last night. He was his usual dominant self against the Royals last night. Unfortunately, his usual dominant self wasn’t good enough. Even his no-hitter self would not have been good enough. He did pick someone off, which is noteworthy cuz it’s been a surprisingly long time since that’s happened, considering the good move he’s got. I do have a question, though. Why is it that every sports writer assumes that despite the offensive struggles, this team is “going to hit” (eventually) but the pitching will never come around? Everyone in the starting rotation has pitched well at this level in the past. And this isn’t the only place I’ve seen that. It seems that when a guy who’s a longtime career .300 hitter is in a slump, everyone believes he’ll get himself out of it, but when a longtime ace pitcher (career ERA of, say, 3.25) is struggling, everyone loses faith in him. It’s like they consider track records to be meaningless for pitchers. However, am I the only one who gets just a wee bit nervous when Freddy Dolsi is in a game? So far, he’s only given up the one run (that Manny Ramirez tape-measure shot), but he falls behind almost every hitter he faces. Up to now he’s gotten away with it, but that can’t last forever.

Last night, Leyland said that the Royals pitchers were pitching the Tigers backwards (with the exception of Greinke and the hard-throwers in the bullpen; they just blew fastballs by guys). If that’s the case, then that would account for two of my observations: Luke Hochevar routinely falling behind hitters, and the large amount of swinging and missing in 2-0, 2-1, and 3-1 counts. The KC pitchers would then finish guys off by getting them to swing at fastballs out of the strike zone. I’m not quite sure how one counters this other than either sitting on offspeed pitches when you first go up to the plate or laying off pitches that are thrown in those 2-0, 2-1, and 3-1 counts. By the way, I made a mistake yesterday when I said that the Tigers had never seen Hochevar before. They did see him late last year, albeit in relief. The bottom of the order really couldn’t figure him out at all. By the way, I’m not proclaiming a guy to be “not in a slump” any more, cuz Pudge didn’t take a good swing all night and now I look stupid. And I don’t know about you, but I’m getting really tired of sinkerball pitchers. They’re really not conducive to extra-base hits, which is something the Tigers need in order to get anything going.

Was it just me, or were there bats (as in the animal) at the game last night? During one of the times that Pudge was batting, I heard a bunch of squeaking and something fluttered in the camera shot. Also, there were a bunch of people in the stands looking up in the same direction.

I did some charting to see if I could pick up any patterns at the forty-game mark (I graphed the runs scored, runs allowed, runs allowed by the starter, and runs allowed by the bullpen). I was only able to make a couple of observations off my graph. The first is that when the offense bottoms out, there usually isn’t a steady climb back up. They just explode all of a sudden. I’m not saying that’s going to happen today (but I’d certainly welcome it). I’m just saying that’s been the trend. Also, over the last several games, the starters have been consistently giving up between 2 and 5 runs. Obviously, giving up five runs is not acceptable and that must get better. If the offense would ever live up to its billing, I’d take four runs any day of the week. And I’d happily embrace two or three runs.

Today is the proverbial day game after a night game and it’s up to Kenny Rogers to avoid the sweep. Well, perhaps I shouldn’t say that, cuz Nate Robertson and Justin Verlander certainly did their part. It’s really up to the offense to get some good swings against Gil Meche, who has struggled since Opening Day. I missed his Opening Day start (as I did not get home until after he was out of the game), but he seems to be the type of pitcher who would adhere to the pitching backwards strategy, which means the Tigers really need to lay off the elevated fastball. Pudge is one of the bigger culprits and he’ll get the day off, but Brandon Inge is known to chase a pitch or two. Hell, Brandon doesn’t even play every day and he STILL leads the team in strikeouts. Ramon Santiago will get the start at short in place of Edgar Renteria, who really needs to figure it out soon.

Sigh. I’ve been so Tiger-starved for the past three days. I didn’t see Saturday’s game, Sunday got rained out (hey, prior to that, the Tigers didn’t even have so much as a rain delay all year), and they were off Monday. I spent Monday watching the Marlins-Reds game (Our cable provider also gives us FSN Ohio, which carries the Reds games), and yes, the Marlins are a total shocker. Don’t get me wrong. I like the Marlins very much (they’re probably my favorite team in the NL), but it’s like the baseball equivalent of the tooth fairy got the records for the Marlins and Tigers mixed up when she handed them out on March 31. There was an article online that pointed out that a lot of teams that dealt big-name players away are currently doing better than the teams they traded the players to (i.e. the Marlins are doing better than the Tigers, the Twins are doing better than the Mets, and the Orioles are doing better than the Mariners). I also watched the end of that wacky Rangers-Mariners game on MLB.tv. So…I finally get to see the Tigers for the first time since Friday, and they didn’t give me a whole lot to get excited about. Nate Robertson pitched very well and nothing to show for it other than that little “quality start” bit, but considering that it’s Nate Robertson, should we really be that surprised? The writers and pundits have chosen to focus on the fact that he gave up ten hits rather than the quality start, which is kinda mean. Mark Grudzielanek had three hits off him, but none of them were hit hard. Grudzielanek just seems to magically find holes every time. The only hit that did any damage to Nate was the 2-run double by Jose Guillen, but he clobbers Nate Robertson anyways. The writers also focused on the fact that Nate didn’t walk anybody (for the first time all year), but that hasn’t been Nate’s problem. The most he’s walked in a start this year was two. At any rate, the game basically boiled down to two balls back up the middle, one off the bat of a Royal, one off the bat of a Tiger, but both in Kansas City’s favor. It sucks when the game comes down to an error, but that’s what happened (though I suppose since the Tigers capitalized on Julio Lugo’s error last week, turnabout IS fair play). Any way you slice it, it’s a night I’m sure Edgar Renteria would like to forget.

Now, obviously the big story regarding the offense was the lack of hitting with runners in scoring position, and with that in mind, I’d like to ask a question. I don’t mean this as a criticism, I’m just wondering, and perhaps those of you who have played more baseball/softball than I have might know the answer: Why is it harder to hit with men on base? Is there something you can do with the bases empty that you can’t do with guys on? I mean, I know there are certain situations where you should change your approach (runner on second with nobody out, you just want to hit a ground ball to second base to get the guy over to third, and the next guy should just be trying to hit a lazy fly ball deep enough to score the run), but outside of those situations, why can’t you have the same approach that you would with the bases empty, that is to try to get on base yourself? Having only played a minimal amount of softball back in high school, perhaps I just don’t get it. I think the big killer last night was that in most of those RISP situations, the guy batting was someone mired in a big-time slump. Granted, Pudge struck out with the bases loaded and he’s not in a slump right now (Greinke just blew him away), but in most, if not all, of the other situations, it was either Granderson or Renteria at the plate, and both of them are really struggling at the moment. Which brings me to the other “back up the middle” moment, and it was off the bat of Renteria (ironically, that was the only hit with runners in scoring position last night). Unfortunately, Grudzielanek smothered it and saved a run, which turned out to be crucial. That was probably the turning point.

Out of curiosity, I was taking a look at some of the team stats on Baseball Reference, and I came up with some very surprising observations. I had heard elsewhere that Renteria’s on-base percentage is not that good right now, and it isn’t, but before I looked up the stat, I got to thinking: I totally do not remember the last time Renteria walked. Sure enough, he only has six walks on the season. This is amazing because that means that Pudge does NOT have the lowest walk total among the starters (I’m not including the Matt Joyce/Jacque Jones/Marcus Thames slot because there’s just not a fixed person in there). Also, I looked up Renteria’s career stats, and he seems to be a guy that’ll take walks. He usually has about 50 to 60 in a season. I was a bit puzzled as to why Pudge’s OBP (.324) was so much higher than Renteria’s (.293), considering that Pudge only has one more walk than Renteria (albeit with a higher batting average), but Pudge has been hit twice while Renteria hasn’t been hit at all, and Renteria has significantly more at-bats. Speaking of which, nobody’s gotten hit very much yet. Polanco leads the team with three HBPs. Also (and perhaps this isn’t that surprising), there’s a three-way tie for the team lead in stolen bases. Pudge, Guillen, and Sheffield all have three, and none of them have been caught yet. You would expect Granderson to pass Pudge and Guillen eventually, but Sheffield’ll probably keep pace with him. Perhaps the most surprising stat is that Tiger hitters have only been walked intentionally twice. Polanco has one, and Cabrera has the other. I’m not sure what that signifies, but that’s a really low total.

Well, the first trip into Kaufman Stadium last year didn’t start real well either, but it got better after that, so one can only hope the same thing happens. Justin Verlander has not had any margin for error this year, both in terms of executing pitches and in terms of run support (which he receives the third-lowest amount in the majors). There’s apparently gonna be a bit more mechanical tweaking going on, so we’ll see what happens. If career numbers mean anything (and so far, they haven’t this year), Justin has been absolutely dominant at Kaufman Stadium in his career. He’ll be up against Luke Hochevar, who I believe is a rookie, and so far this year, the Tigers have done a nice job against pitchers they’ve never seen before (Jon Lester, Kei Igawa, Clay Buchholz). I’m not saying that trend’ll continue by any means, but I’m sure Justin Verlander would appreciate it. Seriously. The only game in which he got a sizeable amount of run support, he pitched very well. I am working tonight, but only until 8:00, so at the most, I’ll miss the first inning.