PREGAME: This afternoon I watched Tiger Town. You remember the movie right? A made for TV, Disney Sunday night movie about Billy Young, a Tiger legend who was nearing the end of his career and the boy that believed in him.

I only bring this up because if Roy Scheider can lead a team from 16 games back to capture the division, than anything can happen right?

Tonight the Tigers once again turn to Justin Verlander to play the role of stopper. Last month he pitched in Jacobs Field when the Tigers bullpen had been pretty worn out and went toe to toe with CC Sabathia for the victory. Here’s hoping he can have the same fate against Jake Westbrook.

Game Time 7:05

PREGAME: The Tigers head to Jacobs field in search of their first weekend win since, well since the last time they played the Indians and swept them with late inning heroics.

Jeremy Bonderman meanwhile will be in search of his first August decision – preferably a win of course.

He’ll be opposed by Jeremy Sowers who’ll be facing the Tigers for the first time this year.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: The silver linings are getting harder and harder to come by. At least Omar Infante made the most of his opportunity for whatever it’s worth.

PREGAME: The Tigers play their final home game against the White Sox and will be sending Nate Robertson out against Jon Garland.

Garland has turned in quality starts in 6 of his last 8 outings, so runs could be at a premium. Then again, Robertson has a string of 4 straight quality starts so hopefully the White Sox won’t exactly have an easy of day it either.

Game Time 1:05pm.

POSTGAME: That was a good old fashioned thumping. Any time you’re looking at a 5-7-3 out, it’s probably a bad sign. At least it is hard to pin this one on Neifi Perez. Another positive sign is that slumping Curtis Granderson picked up 2 hits.

Yes this game today wasn’t fun. A 7.5 game lead would have been a lot more comfortable, and a series win would have been nice. But at the same time the White Sox played 4 games with a chance to gain on the Tigers, but in the end they are right where they were at the beginning of the series – but with less games left on the schedule.

The pennant race is a new experience for Tiger fans. The day-in-day-out is proving to be a grind from a fan’s point of view. Yet there are still 6 weeks of season left. I don’t like the losing or the way the team has been struggling. My mechanism for coping will be to try and relish the anguish and excitement because this team is finally playing those “meaningful games” at the end of the season.

PREGAME: Flashback to last Monday. The Tigers had just come off a winless weekend and there next opponent was in the thick of the Wild Card hunt and trying to stake a claim in their own division. The Tigers managed to take the first 2 games to stave off the impending tailspin.

Here we are one week later. The Tigers come off a winless weekend and their next opponent is in the thick of the Wild Card hunt and trying to stake a claim in their own division. Once again the Tigers take the first 2 games to stave off the impending tailspin.

The Tigers of course dropped the 3rd game to the Red Sox last week. Here’s hoping for better results in game 3 against the White Sox series.

By taking the first 2 games, the Tigers assured themselves a split of the series and a worst case scenario where the White Sox played 4 more games without gaining ground. Wins either tonight or tomorrow afternoon will just be gravy as far as the division is concerned. However, the Yankees have closed to within 4 1/2 games of the best record so each game still has playoff seeding/home field implications.

The Tigers will turn to Zach Miner as the White Sox trot out Freddy Garcia.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: There was a lot not to like about this game. Whether it was Zach Miner getting ahead of hitters 0-2 and then falling behind 3-2, or it was the inability of the team to hold the gains when they cut away at the lead in the 1st and 7th innings. You can definitely pick out things not to like, but most of those are covered in the comments already.

Other thoughts from today:

• If Neifi converts the double play in the 2nd, only one run would have scored instead of 3. I know I said I wouldn’t dog Perez everyday, but if he’s playing despite his offense, he has to be perfect with the glove.
• Zach Miner wasn’t good today, but you shouldn’t view each of his starts as an automatic loss. He’s not dominant, but he generally keeps the Tigers in the game and eats 5 to 6 innings every 5th day. That’s about all you could hope for a replacement 5th starter.
• All the credit for Crede’s first homer has to go to Crede. That wasn’t a bad pitch, it was low and away and he one handed it.
• I have to say I love seeing the hustle from Ordonez the last 2 days. When he was going from 1st to 3rd on the hit and run that was the fastest I’ve seen him and for the second night in a row he got his uniform dirty.
• Even when the Tigers are getting thumped, they still manage to stick around in the game. The White Sox had runners in scoring position it seemed in every inning. I don’t know how much credit should go to the Tiger pitchers, or blame to the White Sox hitters, but they were stranded for many of the middle innings.
• That homer by Young was Abreu-esque as it went to the last row in right center. That had to be one of the 5 longest in Comerica’s history.