PREGAME Ah, the day night double header. In the first game it will be Jeremy Bonderman taking on Javier Vazquez. Once upon a time there was a rumor that the Tigers had a deal worked out for Vazquez where they sent Joel Zumaya and Curtis Granderson to the Diamondbacks. Glad that didn’t work out.

But Vazquez has been pretty good this year with a 3.73 ERA. He’s fanning nearly a batter an inning and has a 4:1 K:BB ratio. He can be taken deep though with 17 homers allowed, and it isn’t just a product of playing in the Cell because he allows long balls at the same rate on the road.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Bonderman will be looking for his 6th straight quality start. He allowed 10 base runners in 6 2/3 innings his last time out, but limited the damage to 3 runs thanks in part to 6 strikeouts.

Game Time 2:05

DET @ CHW, Tuesday, July 24, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

PREGAME: The Tigers head to Chicago for a 5, yes 5 game series. The extra game is the result of a rain out that oddly didn’t produce any rain. Hmmm. Now the White Sox find themselves with a 3 game losing streak and tied for 4th or last place (depending on your point of view) in the division.

In any case, tonight it is a battle of left handers. One who is just beginning his career, and one just got a big payday.

Andrew Miller takes the bump for the Tigers. Pitch efficiency will be an objective tonight with Miller racking up pitch counts in the high 90’s through just 5 innings in 3 of his last 4 starts.

On the other side will be Mark Buerhle. He can be that model of efficiency for Miller. In 6 of his last 7 starts Buerhle went at least 7 innings and completed 8 innings in 3 of them. His last time out he allowed 10 hits to the Indians, but limited the damage to just 1 run. He hasn’t allowed more than 2 earned runs in a game since June 5th.

Mike Hessman jumps right into the lineup and will bat 8th. Curtis Granderson gets a rare start against a tough left hander and will be in his familiar spot on top the order. The rest of the usual suspects are in the lineup.

Game Time 8:11

DET @ CHW, Monday, July 23, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: This game had some of everything, in fact too much of somethings. Those 5th and 6th innings were excruciating to say the least. Andrew Miller once again racked up a huge pitch count early on and relied on his bullpen to get 12 outs. With the 7 K’s you can see good he can be, and with the 5 walks and back to back pitches to the backstop you can see he still has some work to do.

Jason Grilli turned in an awful inning with 2 walks and a 2 strike HBP to score the go ahead run. And then he comes out in the 7th and gets the first 1-2-3 inning of the night for the Tigers.

McBride, Seay, and Miner kept the game in check until they handed the ball to Todd Jones. Jones turned in a 1-2-3 inning, as if we’d expect anything else. Right?

• Reaching bases all 5 times makes for a nice boost to the OBP. A homer and a double make for a nice boost to the slugging percentage. And with the bulk of the damage coming off of a left hander, Curtis Granderson was easily player of the game.
• It’s not often teams knock around Buehrle like the Tigers did tonight, so it was important to come out on top.
• The Tigers offense was exactly explosive tonight, but they put the ball in play and it really seemed to work out. The Tigers blooped and snorted their way to 9 runs.
• Of course the White Sox had some luck as 2 choppers turned into hits in the 4th and another roller was to slow to turn a double play on.
• Here’s hoping Bonderman can put up 7 or 8 innings in the matinee tomorrow to keep the pen from being too taxed on a doubleheader.

PREGAME: And the homestand is over today. For the Tigers it will be Nate Robertson who is coming off of his best start of the season in Minnesota. He’ll take on Brian Bannister.

Bannister has been the mark of consistency going at least 5 innings in his last 11 starts, and allowing 4 runs or less in 10 of them. His biggest asset is keeping the ball in the park with only 7 homers allowed on the season – and 3 of those came in his last start.

Game time 1:05

POSTSERIES: Seeing as I missed wrapping last night’s game (a little up North time) I figured I just knock out the series here. In all, blah. But not at all unexpected. I just had the feeling that the Tigers were pretty burnt after the Twins series. I don’t mean to imply they played tired or without effort. That’s pretty hard to judge on TV regardless and any effort without a lot of offense can give that impression.

Plus, the Royals are playing really good baseball right now as they cleaned up on the road in Cleveland, Boston, and now Detroit. The Tigers were just out played, plain and simple.

• As for Todd Jones, I read the ire in the comments. Early in the year Jones was getting hit hard with regularity, and/or he was walking people. That wasn’t the case Saturday night. He was mostly ahead in the count and was inducing weak contact. The weak contact found holes, and so did some decent contact. It had nothing to do with the size of the lead. Jones isn’t a strikeout pitcher, and that’s what happens when you don’t have strikeout pitchers.
• Craig Monroe looks to be getting back on track. He had 3 big hits the last 2 days, but still left quite a few on base with pop outs or strike outs. Still, production is better than non-production. And I was happy to see him start today over Timo Perez.
• I thoguht the Tigers would get to Bannister today when the first 3 hitters all reached full counts. At the very least I thought they might get him out of the game. And even after a 7 pitch 2nd inning, the first trip through involved 5 full counts. But that was about it, and when you measure offensive production in terms of full counts you can tell it was a slow day.
• Brandon Inge had been on quite the roll with highlight plays at the corner, but had a miscue on Saturday night (not coming home on a slow roller) as well as throwing a bunt away today. But he redeemed himself on one account with the walk off homer.
• I admittedly only saw parts of today’s game, but whenever I’d come back into the room it seemed that the Royals had a man on third base. Nate was pitching in stressful situations all day today.

Now back to Harry Potter…

PREGAME: In the retro uni’s tonight will be Justin Verlander taking on Jorge de la Rosa.

I was looking at de la Rosa’s game logs trying to get a feel for tendencies, and I really have no idea what to expect. He has decent control except when he doesn’t, and he strikes out a decent amount except when he doesn’t. What I do see on his splits page is that right handers have a 893 OPS against versus a .687 mark for lefties. And right handers account for 15 of the 16 homers he’s allowed. So I’m guessing/hoping that either Ryan Raburn or Craig Monroe have left field duties tonight.

Justin Verlander hasn’t been quite the unhittable pitcher we saw in June, but has still pitched through the 7th in his last 2 starts while fanning 13 and walking only 1.

Game time 7:05pm

KCR @ DET, Saturday, July 21, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

PREGAME: The Tigers have come home, for a whole weekend no less. And sure the Tigers are taking on the last place team in the division, but this will be no easy task.

Now I realize I run the risk of sounding Lou Holtz-ish here, but Kansas City has been playing some inspired ball. Over their last 17 games they are 10-7. They also have allowed a division best 3.76 runs per game over that stretch. This isn’t the same Kansas City team that we’ve seen the last couple years – or at least they’re not playing like it.

Tonight they send out their ace Gil Meche. Meche has a 3.69 ERA for the year and the last time he faced the Tigers he allowed only 3 unearned runs in 8 innings. But he’s been in a bit of a funk in his last 2 starts where he didn’t make it past the 6th inning either time and surrendered 4 runs in one game and 6 in the other.

Meche actually has fared a little better against righties this year with a 739OPS against righties and 725 versus lefties. Curtis Granderson has cited him as one of the toughest pitchers for him to face. And Jim Leyland will go with Timo Perez again in left field.

Don’t be surprised to see the Tigers swinging early in the count. When the first pitch is put in play against Meche, hitters are posting a 1.272 OPS with 6 homers.

The Tigers send out Kenny Rogers. Rogers struggled with a tight zone in his last start and ended up walking 4 and not striking out any before surrendering a grand slam.

Game Time 7:05pm

KCR @ DET, Friday, July 20, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Bad pitching, bad fielding, bad hitting. That about covers it. There’s really not a whole lot else to say. Brandon Inge made a sweet barehanded play, Magglio Ordonez picked up another RBI ripping a ball between third and short, and Gary Sheffield homered. That’s about it for noteworthy performances.

Retro uni’s tomorrow night and that has to bode well right?