Okay, the title is somewhat facetious. I know they didn’t actually stumble. They did find themselves trailing for the first time this season. It was an uncomfortable half inning.

Also, Mike Maroth allowed a walk. The “incident” occured with one out in the 5th inning. It broke a string of 22 1/3 innings by Tigers starters without a free pass.

So the Tigers sit at 4-0 with two games to remain in the series. I think everybody would have been satisfied with a 4-2 roadtrip. The Tigers have at least assured themselves of that record. The next two games will be a test with Justin Verlander going today, and Sunday appears to be veteran rest day with Vance Wilson and Ramon Santiago set to get the starts over Pudge Rodriguez and Placido Polanco. On a side note, we’ve seen Santiago as a defensive replacement several times, and yet no Omar Infante at all.

Chris Shelton continued to do what Chris Shelton Ted Williams did. Maybe Gary Gillette needs to rethink his list of the top 10 young sluggers to make room for Big Red. Shelton’s major league leading 5th home run may just further validate Buc’s Dugouts assumption that the Pirates leaving Shelton unprotected was the worst move of the last 5 years in baseball.

Shelton’s home run was the big play of last night’s game as it increased the Tigers win expectancy from 62.9 to 77.3. I’ve been tracking WPA each game this season. I’m going to stop at this point because frequent DTW commentor Brian A has started his own blog expressly for this purpose. I hope he can keep it up all season, but if he starts to get burnt out, maybe some of us can take a turn to keep it going.

In other news, there’s a nice story about the Tata family’s reactions to be in attendance when Jordan made his debut. It was told via Pudge Rodriguez and his girlfriend. What was also nice is that some of the team went out to celebrate with him after the game.

The Freep also has a nice profile of Justin Verlander and his family, including a loan at a ridiculously high interest rate.