Game 14

It's a busy night for the Detroit sports fan. The Pistons tip off against the Toronto Raptors at 7:30. With only tow games left in the regular season most of the starters will see limited action to prepare for their playoff run. The only reason to tune in, is to see how Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell, and Will Blalock do with some extra playing time. Around 10:00 in Calgary, the Red Wings will face the Flames looking to take a commanding 3-0 lead in their first round series. The Wings look focused and determined to erase memories of previous playoff performances. The Tigers get another crack at Jorge De La Rosa, who (possible aided by the weather) shut down the Tigers in their previous meeting. The Tigers aren't sending the usual suspects up against him either. Sean Casey, Curtis Granderson, and Brandon Inge all have the night off. Pudge is in the line-up, so Mike Rabelo will probably get the start tomorrow afternoon.

Line-ups:
Detroit (8-5)
I Rodriguez C
P Polanco 2B
G Sheffield DH
M Ordonez RF
C Guillen SS
C Monroe LF
M Thames 1B
O Infante CF
N Perez 3B

Kansas City (3-10)
D DeJesus CF
E German 2B
R Sanders RF
M Sweeney DH
E Brown LF
A Gordon 3B
R Shealy 1B
J LaRue C
T Pena SS

Pitchers:
Tigers - Mike Maroth (2-0, 4.91 ERA)
Royals - Jorge De La Rosa (1-1, 3.55 ERA)

Post-game:

Tigers 7 Royals 6

Before I get to the game, I want to get to something serious that I would have addressed sooner had I known. As you may have seen on other Tigers sites, one of the 32 slain in the Virginia Tech shootings was Brian Bluhm. He was a dedicated Tiger fan, and a regular with comments on blogs and message boards across the Internet. Being relatively new to the Tiger blogodome, I didn't really know him, nor was I fortunate enough to have him share his insight on my blog, but that does not make the loss of his life, or of the 31 others any less tragic to me. What it does is gives us in the Detroit area a face this incident, a name that we recognize. Someone we can mourn and feel a connection to. When we mourn him we also are mourning with the friends and family of the other 31 victims. Wherever you believe we go when we pass on, you can be sure Brian is there with the best seat in the house for all the baseball he can watch.
Here are a few of the sites with something to say about Brian:

• Bless You Boys
• Detroit Tigers Weblog
• Mack Avenue Tigers
• Tiger Tales
• Motown Sports thread
• The Cutoff Man
• Minor League Ball
• The Wayne Fontes Experience
• Danny Knobler
• Lynn Henning
• The Free Press
• Curtis Granderson
  

As for tonight's game, the offense was there pretty much throughout, with the Tigers scoring in 6 of the 8 innings in which they batted. The swung early and often collecting 8 hits and 6 K's. Any team looking to beat the tigers in the playoff might want to think about acquiring David DeJesus. He was 4 for 5 with 3 runs and 2 RBI tonight. He has 21 hits in 14 games vs. the Tigers. The pitching bounced back after a shaky 6th inning in which 4 runs were scored for Kansas City. Will Ledezma allowed two hits and three runs (one was charged to Maroth) in that inning, but only allowed two base runners on walks the rest of the way to get the win. Todd Jones came in a recorded his 7th save of the season. Omar Infante did well in centerfield for the ailing Curtis Granderson. same goes for Marcus Thames who hit his first home run of the season.

Tiger Hero:
Placido Polanco and Magglio Ordonez. Both had big bats and nice defensive plays to secure the tigers win tonight.

Tiger Zero:
Neifi Perez. Not much went wrong for the Tigers tonight, but I have to give it to someone. It goes to Neifi despite his sacrifice to put Omar Infante in scoring position in the 8th. Still he was the only Tiger starter not to reach base.

Tigers record:
W - L
9 - 5
1st Place AL Central
Tied for best record in the AL