Wow, that must’ve been downright exhausting. It was certainly looking like an exercise in futility for a while. At any rate, it got us a split and an okay road trip. And in this day and age of setup men and closers, I propose that any time a starting pitcher goes nine innings, he should get credit for a complete game no matter how long the game lasts. Nate Robertson was tremendous, Joel Zumaya was dominant (he did walk two, but they were on, like, nine-pitch at-bats), Freddy Dolsi was very good (with help from Pudge), Aquilino Lopez did his job, and Todd Jones recovered from a leadoff hit batter to record a solid save.

The offense didn’t look all that healthy. They did have eight hits, but when you consider that Pudge had four of them, well, I think you get my point (But it was a real strong showing for Pudge, and even though only one was well-hit, boxscores don’t come with asterisks). Ryan Raburn went from being the goat to being a hero. If he hadn’t have homered, there would not have even been extra innings. But really, Seattle kinda handed this one to the Tigers in the end, which doesn’t make much sense. Why would you battle for 14 innings and then essentially just give up? I know they said Arthur Rhodes was battling a sore arm and couldn’t get loosened up and that Brandon Morrow was off-limits, but they could’ve used Dickey the knuckleballer or the next day’s starter. I mean, I’ll take it, but yeesh. You could criticize the Tigers’ offense for having to resort to small ball against a position player as opposed to just hammering the guy, but hey, I’ve seen games before where a position player’s pitched a scoreless inning (granted, those usually come late in blowout games). And he was getting his fastball up to 84, which is harder than anything Tim Wakefield can throw. Yeah, he got Pudge to swing and miss at one, but give Pudge a little slack. He’d been catching for 14 innings. He had to be on fumes by then. Speaking of which, Pudge got thrown out trying to steal, and that’s the first time he’s been caught this year. And he had a good jump. Kenji Johjima just made a perfect throw. But it’s all good. Pudge repaid the favor later on by making a perfect throw to nail Ichiro. By the way, does anyone else find it funny that Ichiro’s at-bat song is the Pirates of the Caribbean theme?

Well, I’m not going to downplay this homestand that starts tonight. It’s a big one, especially the four games against Minnesota. Actually, this whole month is huge, cuz it’s mostly divisional opponents. First things first, though, and that’s Cleveland, which officially raised the white flag yesterday, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. I mean, regardless of what happens tonight, I’m sure my boys would much rather face Jeremy Sowers than CC Sabathia any day (and apparently it’s now “CC” and not “C.C.”). However, the Indians have been known to give Justin Verlander fits, and so far, that’s been the case this year, although the last time he faced them, he was victimized more by lack of run support than by bad pitching. By the way, it doesn’t look like there’s been any sort of announcement about it, but it looks as though Ramon Santiago is back, cuz Michael Hollimon was playing for the Mud Hens last night. Also, I’m not the superstitious type, but for what it’s worth, the Tigers are 7-1 in games that I check in on during work. I *should* be able to do so tonight, provided we’re not busy and the pharmacist schedule hasn’t been changed since the last time I looked at it.

You CAN’T walk people. Actually, in Rodney’s case, it’s a little more specific: You have to be able to throw your fastball for strikes, otherwise the “unhittable” changeup becomes a little more hittable. And when it becomes hittable, it tends to go a long way. As for Galarraga, well, he didn’t really have the command he usually has, but somehow he was able to escape major trouble. The broadcasters praised him for this; Jim Leyland just thought he got lucky. You make the call. At any rate, Galarraga now has “enough innings to qualify” for about the next two games.

Not a lot of offense to speak of, other than a couple of solo home runs. And finally, at least on radio, they seem to have realized what I noted a long time ago: The offense struggles a lot more on the road than at home. Actually, despite what the FSN broadcasters said, there really weren’t that many scoring opportunities. It seemed that when they had runners in scoring position, it was always with two outs, which means you pretty much get one shot to make something happen. I could be wrong about this, but I believe the Tigers never got their leadoff man on in any inning. They DID get one hit with a runner in scoring position, but Dane Sardinha was the one running from second base and he got cut down at the plate. And that’s certainly a crappy way for Pudge’s hitting streak to end (coming in as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning; once again, only one shot).

Well, the All-Star starters have been announced, and there is nary a Tiger to be found, which was to be expected (Why don’t you just have the Red Sox play the Cubs and be done with it?). Obviously, they have to have at least one on the team, and I fully expect that to be the case (that there will be only one). My dad’s friend thinks it’ll be Pudge (since Magglio is on the DL), but I think he’s neglected to realize the year that Dioner Navarro is having for the Rays, so as much as I don’t want to, I disagree with him. My original guess was Magglio as well, but now I’ve shifted over to Polanco (although with the year Ian Kinsler is having, that may be a stretch). We’ll find out soon enough.

If we’re gonna finish this road trip without it being a “problem,” Nate Robertson’s gonna have to step up and pitch a whole lot better than he did in Minnesota. He’ll be up against Ryan Rowland-Smith, a reliever-turned-starter who is in the rotation because Felix Hernandez is on the DL. He’s from Australia (and whenever they interview him, it’s really strange hearing baseball jargon with an Australian accent), and the FSN guys take every opportunity they can to make fun of the hyphenated name, and that’s getting annoying. What’s interesting is that every Tiger who has faced him in their career is either 0-for-1 or 0-for-2. No variation. Hopefully there will be a little more variation than that at the end of this game or this series is gonna suck.

Going into this series, I kinda mentally labeled this game as seemingly the “hardest” of the four to win, and that appears to have been true. Kenny Rogers pitched exceptionally well, but I think he was left in just a little too long, and Jim Leyland admitted as much. Therefore, his line is a little bit worse than what it should have been. Then again, it could’ve been a LOT worse. Did you see what happened to Florida last night? They had a leads of 5-0, 7-1, 13-4, and 17-12, and they ended up losing 18-17. Yikes.

Erik Bedard is known for not giving up a lot of home runs, so it’s ironic that the only Tigers run came via the long ball. Leyland described him as “effectively wild” and the problem with facing a strikeout pitcher battling his control is that he still has that strikeout pitch. And Bedard demonstrated that numerous times, particularly to Ryan Raburn, who unfortunately was stuck in the role of “the guy who keeps coming up in crucial spots and the pitcher just has his number.”

It was all set to become just an average, ordinary, unremarkable loss, and then the ninth inning happened. Does Pudge like getting himself ejected in Seattle or something? It happened last year, too. This year’s ejection was almost as bizarre. I mean, yeah, he was definitely arguing balls and strikes, which you’re not supposed to do, but the umpire didn’t eject him until after he was back in the dugout and it looked as though he had said his piece and was done with it. And his back was turned when it happened. Is that some sort of taboo? Judging by the broadcasters’ comments (on the radio and both teams’ TV guys), that’s the impression I was getting. The Seattle broadcasters were wondering whether Pudge was arguing in English or Spanish. My guess would be English (I’m not much of a lip-reader, but I can recognize a swear word or two), but what difference does it make? And then there’s the matter of how he was acting before he marched back onto the field. Once again, I have no idea what he was saying, but his body language certainly was, for lack of a better term, sarcastic. He’s never struck me as the sarcastic type, but, well, you be the judge:

The still shot doesn’t clear it up that much, but to me, it’s kind of like the reaction you’d have if you’re not taking someone’s threat seriously and you want to let them know it. It was really strange to watch. As far as him having to be restrained by Guillen, well, he’s not the first player I’ve seen do that. What is it about being ejected that causes players to snap? It doesn’t seem to matter what the guy is like normally. If he gets ejected, he immediately wants a piece of the umpire. Hell, Polanco threw his bat and helmet when he got ejected last week. At any rate, shortly thereafter, Pudge’s expression went from sarcastic to downright dark:

I’m not sure how this is all gonna pan out, but stay tuned for tomorrow’s game, I suppose (and if something happens that I don’t like, I’m gonna have that same look). I like how he’s holding his bats normally, but he has an absolute vice grip on his glove. His knuckles look about ready to pop out of his skin. At any rate, perhaps I should have a running contest to see who the next Tiger to get ejected will be.

Well, with that all over with, there is a game tonight. It’d be nice to see Armando Galarraga pitch a good game, cuz he was okay in Minnesota, but he’s better than that (plus, those whispers about an All-Star appearance seem to have quieted down). The Tigers take on the knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who they saw in an extended relief appearance the last time they were in Seattle and didn’t do a whole lot against him. Then again, a knuckleballer is a bit of a wild card, cuz on any given night, the knuckleball either works or it doesn’t, and it can come and go at any moment. And lots of walks and wild pitches don’t necessarily mean the guy’s gonna get hit. Leyland’s is giving Edgar Renteria the night off again cuz he’s been struggling, and Dane Sardinha will catch (this was planned even before the ejection).

This’ll be an abbreviated post, cuz I don’t want to keep you from your 4^th of July celebrations. Justin Verlander maybe didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled. Congrats to Michael Hollimon for his first major league home run. Today’s game’ll likely be a tough one cuz the Tigers have to contend with Erik Bedard. I don’t know a lot about him, other than the fact that he led the AL in strikeouts last year and was supposed to be the big addition that would put the Mariners in contention. That obviously has not happened, but still, it ain’t gonna be easy today. Meanwhile, it’d be nice if Kenny Rogers could limit the number of baserunners the Mariners have. You can’t dodge bullets forever. I'd also like to figure out the proper way of pronouncing Jeff Clement's last name. I've heard two different variations. At any rate, here’s more photos:

That was certainly forgettable. Eddie Bonine has now learned the same lesson that his teammate down in Toledo (Virgil Vasquez) learned last year at the Metrodome: You have to keep the ball down. Casey Fossum gave up a couple runs, but considering the amount of time he was in the game, he wasn’t too shabby. And I feel that I have to address the style of the Twins, which, with the addition of guys like Gomez and Casilla, is rapidly approaching that of the Angels. Throughout this series, they kept on harping the notion that “speed kills.” And that seems to be a valid strategy in the regular season, as evidenced by the numerous division titles for both the Twins and the Angels in the past seven or eight years. However, it seems to mean diddly squat once you enter the postseason. Minnesota has won most of the Central Division titles this decade, and yet they always seem to be eliminated in the ALDS. The Angels won their division last year, but they were no match for Boston. You can even take that a step further to the World Series. I may be wrong on this, but from what I can tell, traditionally, National League teams rely a lot more on speed, stolen bases, and manufacturing runs (due to the fact that they have to bat their pitcher), while most American League teams are built for power. However, over the last ten years, the American League has dominated not only the All-Star Game, but the World Series itself (I believe they’ve won seven of the last ten). I don’t know why that is, but I guess it’s a pick your poison kind of deal.

Not a whole lot of offense to speak of, that’s for sure (although the newspaper this morning provided the interesting tidbit that throughout this season, Nick Blackburn has fallen into a pattern of being lights-out in his starts following a rough outing, and he had definitely had a rough outing in his start before yesterday’s, so make of that what you will). The Tigers really only had two good scoring opportunities, and both times the Twins made good defensive plays. The first was Nick Punto’s play on Polanco’s ground ball, and that was downright unbelievable. The other was the Carlos Gomez diving catch, and for whatever reason, Carlos Gomez just rubs me the wrong way. I know he said some things about Justin Verlander that could be construed as a little insulting (He said that he and Casilla kept trying to bunt against Verlander cuz they thought Verlander “wasn’t right in the head” and they supposedly were trying to make him mad by bunting. He failed to mention that both of them try to bunt against EVERYBODY).

I’ve got another screenshot for you (actually, a couple). It’s not the usual Amusing Things Behind Guys Being Interviewed feature, but it’s just something I noticed during the eighth inning. It would be more effective on video, but You Tube is so anal about MLB broadcasts that it wouldn’t be up for very long. Sorry about the graininess:

Take a look at Pudge (in the middle of the shot). Is he SLEEPING? I swear, he did not move during the entire shot (and it was a long one). If he is, I can’t really say I blame him. This was a good one to nap through.

Well, it sucks to drop two of three, but as it stands right now, there’s not much of a problem, BUT…it’s now up to Justin Verlander to make sure this doesn’t become a problem. Let’s nip this thing in the bud. I keep thinking it’s an off-day, but in fact it’s a late-nighter to herald the last west coast trip of the season. He’ll take on Carlos Silva and the Mariners. Silva’s gotten hammered twice by the Tigers, but reports indicate that he was much better in his last start.

I said that it was only a matter of time before I got burned for liking the “Robertson-against-Twins” matchup so much. Nate wasn’t able to Houdini his way out of all the baserunners for very long. It just seems that Craig Monroe gets that little extra amp when he plays the Tigers, and that’s understandable. Zach Miner walked WAY too many but amazingly did not give up a run (However, the walks have just become too much and now he’s been sent down to Toledo). The Tigers turned five double plays in this game (some conventional, some unconventional, and some really impressive ones), and the last time they did that…well…they lost that game too. The most unintentionally hilarious moment game when Guillen threw out Nick Punto at the plate. The way Punto tried to collide at the plate, he nearly ended up IN Pudge’s arms.

I also said that Scott Baker doesn’t usually give up a whole lot to the Tigers, and that pretty much held true as well. It’s nice to see Marcus Thames continue to hit home runs. However, despite what the guys on FSN say, I doubt he’ll be named Player of the Month. J.D. Drew also had a good month, and he’s a higher profile player who plays for a higher profile team.

Well, it’ll be up to Eddie Bonine to deliver a series win. He’s gotten better with each start, but this’ll be the first time he’s faced an American League team. The Tigers will face Nick Blackburn. The only regular out of the lineup today is Pudge, and for once, Sardinha may have the edge over Pudge as far as Bonine is concerned, simply because Sardinha’s been catching him in Toledo for most of the year.

Okay, it’ll be another short one…maybe. The Twins gave Galarraga some trouble, as they have all season long, but Galarraga also didn’t get much help from his defense. But still, at least he finally has enough innings to qualify for all the stats. Casey Fossum probably did the best job of any of the Tigers pitchers, and my speculation about Todd Jones’s availability last night turned out to have some credence. They kinda tossed Zumaya into the fire there (one-run lead and he’s only been back for a week and a half), but hey, if he’s the heir apparent to the closer’s job, he’s gonna have to do that. And if the postgame interview is any indication, the cockiness is back.

This was one of those games that was so “grind ‘em out” that you get exhausted just watching it. The Tigers really had to work to get this win. But hey, it’s the second game in a row where a Mud Hen comes up with a big RBI triple late in the game. Other than that, they really spread the wealth. Of the five RBIs, each went to a different guy.

This injury thing is getting ridiculous. The boys are dropping like flies. Not only is Magglio on the DL, but Cabrera had to leave last night’s game with a sore hip flexor, and Pudge seemed to be thisclose to leaving as well after he “felt something in the back of his knee.” Pudge is in the lineup tonight, but Cabrera is not.

Tonight, Nate Robertson takes on Scott Baker. I instinctually like it when Nate pitches against the Twins, cuz he was dynamite against them last year. That hasn’t been AS true this year, and I know it’s only a matter of time before he has a bad outing against them, but he was so good against them last year. Meanwhile, Scott Baker is tough on the Tigers, so this may be another “grind ‘em out” game.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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