PREGAME: For the first time in 3 series the Tigers enter the last game of a set without the risk of being swept. It sure would be nice to pick up a win today, and a series win before Boston comes to town.

There is quite the pitching match-up this afternoon as 2 All Stars, C.C. Sabathia and Justin Verlander face off.

Game Time 1:05pm

CLE @ DET, Thursday, July 5, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: And what do you know, the Tigers have won 3 of their last 4. It’s amazing how 2 little wins can change the mood. Then again, 2 little losses to the Rangers pretty much wiped out all the good will of an 8-1 road trip.

The Tigers put a thumping on the Tribe and have now won 4 of the last 5 after dropping the first 5 to the Indians.

Sabathia clearly didn’t have it today. He was wild in the first inning and was leaving the ball up in the zone. Fortunately he never settled in, and the Tigers kept the pressure on until Sabathia had hurled 87 pitches in 4 innings.

Justin Verlander was mostly dominant, including a streak of 4 straight strike outs in the 4th and 5th innings. He also didn’t walk anyone, marking his first game with out a free pass since May 15th

• Magglio Ordonez had his first big game in awhile. His 3 hits pushed him back ahead of Ichiro for the batting title. His RBI was the first since June 22nd and the double was the first since June 19th.
• Bonus Maggs info: he’s one walk short of matching his total from last season.
• Placido Polanco was using a new bat today, and was good enough for 3 hits including a homer.
• Craig Monroe got a hit. It was a bloop hit, but there was considerable relief on his part – and a little bit of justice after he hit the ball very well his first time up. Of course Marcus Thames reached base twice and was subbed out for defensive purposes in the 5th inning. No word yet on if Thames or Monroe will start tomorrow.

Tigers 12, Indians 3

PREGAME: Happy 4th of July. The Tigers kick off the second half of the season tonight.

It’ll be Jake Westbrook and Kenny Rogers on the mound.

CLE @ DET, Tuesday, July 4, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05 pm

POSTGAME: Now that I’m back in town, I’ll comment on the last 2 games.

First of all the extra inning loss was a heart breaker, but I thought it was a fascinating game to watch. There was the Hafner/Pudge interference/not in the batters box debate which FSN captured brilliantly. There was the Betancourt issue and again FSN picking it up right away (were they tipped as well?). There was the back and forth of the game. There was a clinic in the advantages and disadvantages of playing no-doubles-depth. But in the end the Tigers lost a tough one so you look for someone to blame.

The bullpen is a typical culprit, but they collectively did pretty well save for 2 homers. Jose Capellan looked awesome for the first 5 batters he faced, and really if Carlos Guillen had come through in the 10th that 11th inning homer would have never happened.

So is it Guillen’s fault? He didn’t have the best at-bat but did deliver a bases loaded single earlier in the game so it’s hard to not call him clutch. With some other non-clutch performances by the rest of the offense maybe they aren’t in extra innings in the first place.

But even then, the Tigers hitters blasted some balls that just turned into outs. Magglio Ordonez had an awesome at-bat that ended in a deep drive to left center. Curtis Granderson hit a rocket to the wall to start the 10th. Pudge Rodriguez hit a deep drive that landed just foul. It’s not like they were flailing hopelessly.

In the end it was just a loss. Nobody was to blame. Of course it’s easier to say that 24 hours later after a win…

Of course tonight’s game was better – they won. The offense had 14 baserunners so that seemed to be back to normal. Kenny Rogers was good enough, and the bullpen was good enough as well.

As was the case with the bullpen, there was some good and bad. Jason Grilli comes into a pressure situation, gets out of the inning unscathed, and then walks the lead-off batter the next inning. Macay McBride then doesn’t do his job giving up an opposite field homer on a 2-2 count. Miner got in a little trouble, but didn’t really get hit hard, and ultimately didn’t allow a run thanks to a great play by Brandon Inge.

The best of the pen though was Todd Jones who recorded his 3rd straight 1-2-3 outing.

• How much fun is Comerica Park where you can get back to back triples? Love the triple.
• Carlos Guillen really brought the glove tonight making 2 great plays on the back hand. He routinely makes the tough plays but can’t make the routine ones. It makes me wonder if moving to first would really help him.
• Speaking of defense Marcus Thames made a very nice diving play. I guess Craig Monroe finally managed to play his way out of the lineup, at least in the short term.
• I had a real good feeling about this game early on when Travis Hafner wasn’t able to score on a ground rule double. Somehow the ball bounced over the highest fence. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a ball bounce over the fence in triplesville.

Tigers 6 Indians 4

PREGAME: The Tigers will see if their 1-0 Sunday night victory will spark something else for the homestand which has been lackluster to say the least. They’ll also try to even the score against the Indians who won the first 5 match-ups of the season before Detroit took the last 2 in Cleveland.

Tonight feature Paul Byrd. The last time the Tigers faced Byrd they knocked out 9 hits and 4 runs, but came up short.

The reason they came up short was because Nate Robertson gave up 5 runs on 3 homers. Nate will be starting again tonight for the Tigers. He is coming off a strong return from the DL in which he allowed 1 run on 4 hits in 5 1/3 innings. Fatigue was his biggest opponent his last time out, this time it will be Victor Martinez.

CLE @ DET, Tuesday, July 3, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05 pm

PREGAME: It’s pretty simple if the Tigers don’t want to get swept, they need to play better. They need to hit better, pitch better, and field better. Brandon Inge has missed 2 games at third and there have been two errors. Carlos Guillen is fumbling routine ground balls. Pitchers are walking batters and giving up homers. And hitters, well they haven’t been too bad, just not as hot as they were.

The pitching match-up is Scott Baker and Jeremy Bonderman – which would look to favor the Tigers – but I’m not taking anything for granted on this homestand.

Game Time 8:09pm

POSTGAME: I went to the game tonight, and it was just another example of how things have changed. Tonight was on field photo day. We went to this in 2002 and it was great. You get to go on the field before the game, and the players are in the outfield and you simply take pictures with them. You could go right up to Bobby Higginson and Matt Anderson and perhaps wait 3-4 minutes per player. Tonight was just a mass of humanity. The entire perimeter had to be 10 people deep. We showed up when the gates opened, and the lines at each gate stretched for blocks. There had to be at least 25,000 people at the stadium before 6:00pm, 2 hours before game time.

On to the game:

• Of course just a terrific outing by Jeremy Bonderman. Seven K’s, one walk, and 6 hits, 5 of which were singles.
• I think the key inning for Bondo was the 7th. He started the inning at 92 pitches (I believe, unofficial total from my scorecard) and I figured it would be his last. However, he retired the side on just 7 pitches (again unofficial) which allowed him to keep his pitch count in check for the 8th. If the Twins run it up to 105 or so in the 7th, they get to the pen an inning earlier.
• Of course the pen didn’t falter today. Todd Jones made it look easy. I know the easy innings from Jones seem rare, but he did have 26 outings last year where he picked up 3 outs on 3 batters (not all 1-2-3, some of those were baserunners getting on and then a double play).
• Scott Baker on the other side deserved better. I think he retired the first 7 hitters on 17 pitches. Even when guys would take the first pitch, it was usually for a strike. I only counted 5 really hard hit balls all night.
• As the game progressed, I was just hoping that Jeremy Bonderman could hold them down long enough, because the Tigers do have a number of guys who can get a quick run by knocking one out. Stringing hits together just wasn’t going to work today. Luckily Marcus Thames came through.
• I know Jim Leyland wants to keep trotting Craig Monroe out there hoping he’ll break out of his funk. But Monroe’s struggles and Thames homers make it hard to justify, at least for the time being.
• Placido Polanco striking out on a night when only 2 Tigers fanned, and with a runner on third? I still can’t believe that happened.
• I’ve now seen 3 Grandy triples in person this year. Sweet grab also on the Cuddyer play.
• And a final note, the National Anthem singer tonight was Amber Strand Grand (at least I think that was her name). She was really quite good, and really quite attractive. Has anybody noticed if she’s done other games? I’m thinking she should be the Tigers version of Karen Newman.