Game 82 Recap

Missed most of this game, trapped at work finished month-end thing. However I did manage to get home just in time for the rally in the 7th and 8th inning. Another day another Mud Hen, as Matt Joyce's triple tied the game. Curtis Granderson put the Tigers ahead for good with a single right after that. It was Curtis' third hit of the night, putting his average at .301 for the season. Jim Leyland gave Todd Jones the night off, as he had just thrown 40 pitches in the last two days. Joel Zumaya filled in for Todd, in more ways than one. His ninth inning was Jones-like, allowing the tying and go-ahead runs to reach base before getting the final two outs of the game. So what have we learned? Well the Tigers are in until the final out (just like 2006), and maybe it wasn't the NL team. Maybe the Tigers are this good.

Tigers 4 Twins 3
W: Fossum (1-0)
L: Guerrier (4-3)
S: Zumaya (1)

Tigers Record:
W - L
42 - 40
3rd Place AL Central (5 GB Chicago)

Game 81 Recap

The only thing in Colorado worse than the Rockies right now

The Tigers received bad news, with Magglio making a visit to the DL. The guys in the outfield today picked up the slack. Curtis continued his push towards .300, Marcus continues his push to replace Thor as the Norse God of Thunder, and Clete Thomas continued his push toward Sainthood. But the story at the plate today was Dane Sardinha. His first major league hit was a big one as it put the Tigers ahead for good. It was a 2-out triple in which Sardinha must have borrowed an extra gear from fellow Hawaiian Shane Victorino to scoot into third safely.

It's not like the Rockies didn't have their share of chances against Kenny Rogers. But as I mentioned in the BYB game thread (if you have never been, what better time to come aboard) Kenny was as un-killable as Rasputin today. In the second the Rockies had just taken the lead, and Willie Taveras reached on bunt single. Todd Helton at the plate. Taveras gets gunned down yet again at 2nd, and the next pitch Helton strikes out. In the third, the Rockies had the bases loaded with no one out. Kenny got Jeff Baker to pop-up to second base, and two pitches later got Clint Barmes to hit into a inning-ending double play. In the 4th, two on, one out, no problem for Kenny as he gets another double play. That was the last time a Colorado player reached base. Kenny combined with Freddy Dolsi and Todd Jones to retire the last 15 outs in a row.

Exactly halfway throughout the season, and the Tigers are a winning ballclub. The Tigers have ruthlessly taken advantage of inter-league play, using it to post the best record in the Majors since the point they were the furthest from .500. 16-3 since June 6th. The Tigers have not lost a series and have swept 3 in that span. They now travel to Minnesota, who are as equally hot, going 14-6 with a 10 game winning streak in the same span as the Tigers.

Tigers 4 Rockies 3
W: Rogers (6-5)
L: Reynolds (2-6)
S: Jones (15)

Tigers Record:
W - L
41 - 40
3rd Place AL Central (4.5 GB Chicago)

Game 80 Recap

80 games down and they're back where they started. Granted it didn't look that way after the Todd Jones Experience dropped trou and pooped all over the lead given to him. But Miguel Cabrera was not having any of that, and ripped a shot to the right-center wall to give the game back for the Tigers. The Tigers were 12 games below .500 22 days ago. Now they are back in the hunt. They just need to show they can play like this against teams in their own division.

Justin Verlander threw a lot a pitches yet again (118 to be exact), but was solid enough to leave the game in line for the win. Zach Miner had trouble early, but recovered to hand the ball to Fernando Rodney. Fernando took another big step, striking out his first batter, and then getting a groundout. He walked the next batter, but got the final out of the 8th on his next pitch. Then Todd Jones blew his first save of the year. Jones has games now and then where he just can't hit his spots and his aim is off. And if that's the case. 4 run 9th innings happen. The only good thing about this is that usually Jones will follow up an outing like this with a quick save.

Oh, yeah Ryan Raburn hit a Grand Slam. The Scrub came in after Magglio left the game with an lat/oblique strain. His next at-bat he had a good sac bunt, that resulted ina run scored when the pitcher threw the ball away. Next time up, the grand slam. His walk in the 9th ended up being huge as he was the winning run on Miguel Cabrera's double. Raburn makes his case for more playing time, throwing his hat into the ring with Marcus Thames, and Clete Thomas. It's nice to see the Tigers bench contribute and that there aren't any Perezes in sight.

So day game tomorrow, expect the Sunday line-up to be in full effect. Especially with Maggs leaving the game. But a win puts the Tigers over .500 for the first time all season. Weird.

Tigers 7 Rockies 6
W: Dolsi (1-2)
L: Fuentes (1-3)

Tigers Record:
W - L
40 - 40
3rd Place AL Central (5 GB Chicago)

Game 79 Recap

CLETUS!!!!

Clete Thomas and Eddie Bonine. Two guys that if I didn't follow the Tigers, I probably would think that they were involved in NASCAR. Instead they were involved in the Tigers beating the Rockies tonight. Clete followed up his 2 bases loaded walks, by reaching base all four times he stepped to the plate tonight. A walk (naturally), a double, and two singles tonight and it's looks like Tigers LF platoon is solid no matter whose playing.

As for Bonine, in his third major league start he held the defending NL champs to just one run on 5 hits. And this was the real Rockies line-up (minus Todd Helton) not the AAA squad they have been fielding most of the year due to injuries. He only struck out 2, but didn't walk anyone. He didn;t allow a hit until the 5th, and prior to the Garrett Atkins single, the only Rockie to reach base was Matt Holliday who was hit by a pitch in the first.

Not to be lost in the former Mud Hen praise, is the Grand Re-Opening of Grandyland. Curtis had two triples to cap a 4-hit night. That's 11 hits on the homestand, and extending a hitting steak to 15 games. In those games his average has risen from .235 to .294, and his OBP has jumped from .294 to .343. The quality of the starting pitching has been a huge reason for the turn-around of the Tigers recently, but the resurgence of Curtis has played a large part as well.

7 runs and not one home run. 3 triples though. Kinda of weird that the ball was traveling just not out for the tigers. And don't look now, the Tigers send Justin Verlander to the mound tomorrow to try to reach .500 for the first first time since the season started.

Tigers 7 Rockies 1
W: Bonine (2-0)
L: Jimenez (2-8)

Tigers Record:
W - L
39 - 40
3rd Place AL Central (5 GB Chicago)

Game 78 recap

Clete Told me to "Walk this way!"

Clete Thomas scoffs at your "swing the bat for runs". He can just stand there and it happens, twice. OK so maybe it wasn't so much about Clete and more that Cardinal pitchers had contracted Rodneyitis. It must have been a disease that someone had else had to catch for him to be cured, as Rodney was refreshingly effective today. I guess that's just the way it's going for the Tigers lately. Less than a month ago, they were playing the role the Cardinals played, hitting well but not well enough, and maddeningly horrible bullpen performance. Now the Tigers are the ones getting timing pitching and the clutch at-bat.

Yes it's only three games, it seems whomever that dude impersonating Gary Sheffield the first part of the year has been discovered and banished to Siberia. The real thing is back and swinging. Three games three big hits. Sadly, due to the rain delay yesterday, I was asleep when Sheff's bloop ended the game last night. But thanks to modern technology (thank Jebus for internet on phones to circumvent strict internet filters at work) I was following right along when Sheff served up a game tying home run today.

Another team another series win, another inch in the crawl back to the top. Now the Rockies roll into town as Inter-league play ends, with .500 on the horizon.

Tigers 3 Cardinals 2
W: Seay (1-1)
L: Parisi (0-4)

Tigers Record:
W - L
38 - 40
3rd Place AL Central (5 GB Chicago)

Game 76 Recap

One day at a time, one day at a time. Right, Schneider?

So, the Tigers dropped one. No big deal right? The starting pitching was bound to have a bad start sooner or later. It happened tonight with Kenny Rogers. 9 hits and 5 runs was not typical of the Kenny we've seen in the past few starts. Nine hits doesn't usually lead to good things. Especially against one of the better road teams in the majors. Kenny got out of a few jams early, but couldn't get out of them all.

Yes it was a loss tonight, but there are some positive things to dwell on. Gary Sheffield is back in the line-up and just like Nuke LaLoosh, he announced his presence with authority. Sheff had a no-doubter in the 7th, which coincidentally is where he was hitting in the line-up tonight. I like that spot for him. Put him down there in a no-pressure spot and just worry about driving the ball. If he does regain some of the HR swing, look for Marcus Thames to reap the benefits on hitting before him. Speaking of Marcus, he has 12 hits since inter-league play started. Also swinging a hot bat is Curtis Granderson, who extended his hit streak to 12 games.

but the most positive thing about tonight, was the fact that Fernando Rodney actually survived an inning of work. It wasn't 2006 Rodney, but that fact he showed that he can actually record three outs was a step in the right direction. That he didn't allow anyone to reach base, icing on the cake.

So here were are again. Tigers drop the first game of a series. All I'm thinking is bounce back strong tomorrow against Kyle Lohse. He's 9-2 this year? Really??? Is there another Kyle Lohse? Nope, same guy I'm thinking of. Well let tomorrow's start be the beginning of the regression to the mean for Mr. Lohse.

Tigers 4 Cardinals 8
W: Looper (9-5)
L: Rogers (5-5)

Tigers Record:
W - L
36 - 40
3rd Place AL Central (5.5 GB Chicago)

Un-Bury Them

The Tigers have begun to Dig-Dug themselves out of a hole

OK, maybe I was a little quick to pull the trigger a few weeks ago. But the team we've seen the past 12 games is not the one we saw the first three months of the year. At the time when I considered them done, the Tigers had just dropped 12 game below .500 after getting humiliated 10-2 in Oakland. They had just finished a 3-6 road trip losing 3 of those games in the 9th inning or later. The couldn't get the timely hit, field the ball, or throw strikes.

What changed?

Well, runners are no longer stranded, the infield can field a ground ball, and the starters are going deep into games. More importantly, after two horrendous performances on the mound by Dontrelle Willis and Fernando Rodney, the Tigers came back and won. In both of those wins the Tigers were patient and attacked vulnerable bullpens to get the win.

There has only been one loss in the last nine games. Despite that loss comes after the aforementioned Rodney fiasco, I wasn't worried about another losing streak being started. I can't explain why, but i just did. Part of it may have been knowing that the next 5 games were against the Giants and the Padres. Part of it might have been seeing a team play like they expected to win for once, instead of a team with that "what's going to happen now?" look about them. And wouldn't you know it, be the end of Inter-league play, the Tigers could very well be a game or two away form the .500 mark.

Now let's not get the playoff tickets printed yet. They still have a steep climb to reach that mark. But the fact that the prospect of making the playoff isn't that far-fetched is more than I would have though t a few weeks ago.