PREGAME: It will be a battle of rookies as the Yankees send out phenom Phillip Hughes while the Tigers counter with Jair Jurrjens.

Jurrjens seems to have mastered the Cleveland Indians with 2 strong starts against the Tribe. Of course it’s hard to say what will happen when he faces the Yankees because we’ve never seen him face anyone else.

Hughes is making his 5th start since coming off the DL. He struggled with control in his last start walking 5 in 6 1/3 innings. In the early going he’s done a good job keeping the ball in the park with only 2 homers allowed.

Game Time 1:05

POSTGAME: I missed this entire game, but watched the condensed version on MLB.tv. So really, I have nothing to add to the 150 comments that you guys already covered. I will say that at least in the condensed version, Maybin appeared to have his best game in the field.

Also, I think Leyland is trying to get the Rodney/Zumaya platoon working like last year. There’s a huge misconception that Leyland followed a 7-8-9 pattern with Rodney/Zumaya/Jones to close out games. In actuality, he was more likely to going an inning plus with 1 of the 2 before going to Jones. That way at least one of the set up men would be available the next night.

Great win for the team today, despite only mustering 4 hits. But when 3 of them are homers that can help. But the 5 runs wouldn’t have meant a whole lot if not for the efforts of the bullpen.

PREGAME: Earlier this week the Tigers won a pretty dramatic game and sent one of their young aces out the next night. Things didn’t go so well as Justin Verlander was rocked early and often. Tonight Jeremy Bonderman will try and better that effort, and help rest a bullpen that pitched 6 2/3 innings last night.

A key to that will be getting Bonderman off the mound with fewer that 20 pitches thrown in the first inning, which we know to be a struggle.

The Tigers will go up against Chien Ming Wang. The Tigers knocked around Wang last weekend, but only converted 11 baserunners into 3 runs in 6 innings.

The task will be tough tonight with a lineup with 4 consecutive hitters who don’t exactly scare you. I know that guys need a break after last night, like Rabelo playing was a given. But after Carlos Guillen the Tigers will send up Mike Rabelo, Sean Casey, Brandon Inge, and Ramon Santiago. It’s not exactly murderer’s row. It’s not exactly toe-stubbers row. I’ll amend this slightly. In looking back at the last start Mike Rabelo did have 3 hits off Wang, and Sean Casey hit the ball hard 3 times in that game. Small sample sizes and all I know, but Wang might pitch to their strengths.

Game Time 7:05pm
NYY @ DET, Saturday, August 25, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Pretty disappointing follow up to last night’s game. The extra base hit string is snapped. Bonderman’s slider wasn’t there any he recorded now strikeouts. He threw 100 pitches and didn’t get out of the 6th inning because he couldn’t put anyone away, even going up 2 strikes. Just a terrible showing.

Ordonez had 2 ground ball singles, but when your number 2 hitter hits 3 back to the pitcher and your number 3 hitter fans twice, that doesn’t make for a lot of RBI opportunities.

If you’re looking for bright spots, Jason Grilli was quite good for the second night in a row and pitched 3 scoreless innings. And Brandon Inge had 2 singles, one was solid and one was a snort and he looks to be breaking out of his funk.

But when the perennial whipping boys represent your highlights, you know it was a rough night.

PREGAME: Tigers pitching is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. Today it is Nate Robertson and Jake Westbrook.

Game time 1:05pm
CLE @ DET, Thursday, August 23, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Get away day hasn’t been friendly to the Tigers this year. I don’t have the inclination to go back and look up the record, but it seems that I listen to a heartbreaking loss on the radio at work, and have to think of something to say later that night. Again, I didn’t see this one, just going by the radio broadcast and your commentary, here are my thoughts:

• Nate Robertson was one of those really yummy caramel flavored chocolates today (uh, that doesn’t sound quite right). He out pitched Westbrook, but didn’t get the win, and that just seems to be Nate’s luck as of late. When he’s awesome, he still can’t get a win. Still he did everything in his power to get the team a W, and he at least provides a little hope going forward.
• And Westbrook was also very good, but Nate out pitched him. One could make the case that on Tuesday Carmona out pitched Jurrjens so this might be justice, but that ain’t a lot of consolation. And Carmona still allowed 2 homers (or at least one and a half).
• Sean Casey batting third is a mystery. I like Guillen behind Maggs, so I’m not necessarily on the Guillen to the 3rd spot camp. But do something different. Drop Grandy to 3rd, or put Marcus third. Or even keep Granderson and Polanco where they are, and slide everybody up a spot. Give me some kind of threat before the best hitter.
• As for the managerial decisions, I can’t say one way or the other on pulling Nate when he did. It sounded like there were several harder hit balls in the last couple innings. Not seeing the game I’m just going off of Dan and Jim’s account. While I’m a proponent of using pitch counts as a tool (a tool, not an absolute) in deciding when to stop an outing, I don’t think a favorable pitch count should be a justification for keeping a pitcher in the game.
• On Zumaya, I wasn’t surprised he came back out. I was surprised he stayed out as long as he did. Thirty pitches is a ton for a guy just getting back, and with him maxing out at 95mph it doesn’t sound like this was free and easy throwing – not to mention all the guys on base.
• As for the pinch running and pinch hitting, I wasn’t bothered by Pudge pinch running for Rabelo. Yes, Maybin is faster but in the even they didn’t score you’d need Pudge at that point anyways. And Pudge is fast. Characterizing him as a 35 year old catcher is factually correct, but not accurate reflection of his running ability.
• The pinch hitting move that had to be made though was someone, preferably Raburn, for Ramon Santiago. You then move Guillen to short, Thames to first, and Raburn in left. Santiago just can’t hit in that situation. He’s not on the team for his bat, if that was the case Infante would be in Detroit and not Toledo. He’s here for his glove and expecting offense isn’t fair.
• Granderson or Maybin facing the left hander? Again I could go either way. It sounded like Granderson had some of the better swings on the day, but his numbers against lefties are abysmal this year. But I’d also wager that is a little bit of bad luck. His K rate against lefties is pretty much the same as last year, but his batting average on balls in play is 206 this year versus 298 last year. Regardless, he still stood a 30% chance of fanning.
• Regardless, Leyland appeared to fall asleep at the wheel in the 9th inning and the top of the 10th. last year he was credited for magically “pushing all the right buttons” when in fact he made bad decisions routinely and got away with it.
• At least the team still had that 9, or in this case 10 inning mantra going. Each of the last 2 nights they haven’t gone down quietly even after falling behind. Though that’s little consolation.
• The fact of the matter is that it never should have gotten to these dire points in the first place. The Tigers had ample opportunity to score just that one run, and much like the Clemens and Wang games over the weekend they just couldn’t do it. But unlike those games they were putting the ball in play with only 4 K’s.
• It appears that Inge made some adjustments at the plate as he went 2 games without a strike out, and for a guy who was whiffing every other at-bat that may be progress. He also drew a walk in a key situation off a pitcher who just doesn’t walk guys. Of course that gets lost when he makes as big of a baserunning mistake as he made in getting doubled off 2nd base.

I’ll have more stuff tomorrow, but I’m pretty bummed tonight. That’s just too good of a pitching performance in too important of a game to waste.