PREGAME: The Tigers have one last chance at their first 20 win month since August 1979. They are also scrambling to set up a split of this series, and avoid only their second 4 game skid of the season. And it won’t be easy.

The Tigers will send out Nate Robertson to try and shut down the injured Yankees, and give the bullpen a reprieve. Meanwhile, the Yankees will counter with Mike Mussina who for years has owned the Tigers.

Now there have been several pitchers who owned the Tigers for years, but Detroit has fared better as of late with their new additions. However, even Pudge, Ordonez, and Guillen don’t have overly impressive numbers against Mussina.

This will also be the Tigers first tilt on national TV with ESPN2 picking up the game. I’ll be in attendance, as will the boy, who has brought the team luck in his two games so far this year.

POSTGAME Another frustrating performance by the Tigers. I know you need to “tip your cap” when the opponent outplays you. It’s just thats too much hat tipping in one week. And at some point the hitters have to take responsibility and not tip their hats. Case in point: In the sixth inning with the Yankees leading 2-0, the Tigers put runners on first and second with nobody out. Mussina was out of the inning 3 pitches later after a failed sacrifice and double play. The next inning was completed in 7 pitches. Late in the game with the Tigers in the game, Mussina recorded 6 outs on 10 pitches. Curtis Granderson seemed to be the only hitter who actually worked Mussina each at-bat totaling 17 pitches for the night.

And it wasn’t just the hitting, a lot of the fielding isn’t there either. Whether it’s missing cut off men, a bad route to a fly ball (Granderson mis-played Alex Rodriguez’s triple), or as we’ve seen this week the inability to turn a double play, things are getting sloppy.

It’s one thing to lose to the Yankees, and Mike Mussina. It’s another thing to lose to the Yankees sans Jeter/Damon/Matsui/Sheffield. Now they still have a lineup featuring Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada, and Jason Giambi which just serves as a reminder of how freakishly talented the Yankees are. But if you are going to beat them, now is the time to do it.

The one bright spot for the Tigers of course was Nate Robertson. He pitched quite well and deserved a better fate. More importantly, he gave a tired bullpen the night off while keeping his team in the game.

PREGAME: The Tigers go in search of some suddenly elusive runs. As I’m sure you’ve heard they’ve been shut out by a pair of Johnson’s the last two games. Hopefully they’ll fare better against a Small, and perhaps a Wang on Thursday (there’s a joke in there somewhere).

Aaron Small will take the ball for the Yankees while Roman Colon will make his first start for the Tigers. Colon filled in admirably for Mike Maroth last Thursday. He allowed 2 runs in 5 1/3 innings. In his last two outings Colon threw 70 and 76 pitches so it will be interesting to see how long Leyland will let him go.

POSTGAME: I don’t know how to feel after this game.

Frustrated? Frustrated that out of two bases loaded, no out situations, the Tigers managed 1 run via a force out. (In all fairness, while Ordonez and Shelton had horrible at-bats in the first, Carlos Guillen had an 8 pitch at-bat that resulted in a line drive hit right at Jeter. It’s hard to be mad at Guillen for that).

Perplexed? Perplexed at the fact that the Tigers have now failed to turn 4 double plays in the last two games.

Relieved? Relieved that the offense finally did manage to put some runs on the board, even though many of those runs came off a booted double play and Kyle Farnsworth making 3-4 pitches that could have been called strikes but weren’t.

Satisfied? Satisfied that the Tigers did come back from 5 runs down to send the game to extra innings. Also, that it was the first time the Tigers were in a game since Saturday.

Frustrated? Back to frustrated after a 3 game losing streak.

PREGAME: It’s hard to believe that we’re at the 50th game of the season already. After the 4 game set with the Yankees we’ll offically be at the one-third mark of the season.

It is an interesting match-up today with Kenny Rogers taking on the man he replace in the rotation – Jason Johnson. Johnson pitched well against the Tigers two weeks ago, but lost due to a couple unearned runs. Ivan Rodriguez is 11 for 19 lifetime against Johnson, and with Vance Wilson starting last night Pudge will be in the lineup.

Kenny Rogers looks to rebound from his 4 homer outing against the Royals. It won’t be easy against the Indians offense. Throw in the fact that it will be almost 90 with humidity and a breeze today, and it becomes imperative that the ball stays down.

POSTGAME: It was another Sunday shut-out, but not for the good guys. There weren’t many balls hit hard off of Jason Johnson. The few that were, were swallowed up the the Cleveland defense.

Kenny Rogers had another rough, but not awful, outing. It turns out that a shutout wouldn’t have even been enough.

PREGAME: Justin Verlander will try to extend the Tigers win streak to 8. Now here’s the thing. The last time I went to a Tiger game where they were looking for their 8th straight they got beat handily by the Reds (amazingly that was only 8 days ago). And the last time I saw Verlander pitch in person he was shelled by the White Sox. I’m going to tonight’s game, so any bad mojo can be blamed on me.

The Tigers will face Paul Byrd who has seen his ERA improve in each of his last 5 starts. The last time the Tigers faced Paul Byrd it resulted in the famous Leyland tirade. They have since gone 27-8.

POSTGAME So it is a very delayed post-game synopsis, but you guys picked me up with the comments. It was a fantastic atmosphere in and around Comerica Park last night. Two hours before the game there were long waits at area restaurants and people were buzzing. Inside a nearly capacity crowd was hanging on most every pitch. The roar that went up in the crowd when Justin Verlander fanned Travis Hafner was incredible.

Justin Verlander continues to exceed expectations, and doesn’t seem phased by any team or hitter. His stuff is incredible, and he has command of it as well.

I’ve got to say, this whole Tiger winning thing is fun.