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.

PREGAME: Okay, let’s just take this game so that the series is in hand. Enough rubber games. Let’s just win the series. Deal?!

Tonight it will be Paul Byrd and Justin Verlander doing battle. Verlander should be over the flu, which should help. He gutted out 5 1/3 innings against the Yankees but only fanned 2 and threw 119 pitches.

Paul Byrd can be hittable with a .302 batting average against, but he usually does a good job of preventing those runs from scoring. He’s been all over the place in his last 3 starts which include a complete game 4 hit shutout, a 7 run 2 inning affair against the Yankees, and a 6 inning/8 hit/1 run game against the Devil Rays.

Game Time 7:05pm

CLE @ DET, Wednesday, August 22, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Take the walk Pudge! I’m not blaming the loss on Rodriguez, but twice he swung at ball 4 to end the game when a walk would have brought the winning run in the form of Marcus Thames to the plate.

So much for momentum.

• Verlander has hammered. Even in the first when he escaped allowing one run, the outs were even hammered. This trend continued until it caught up with him in the 4th. He was sitting at 91/92mph very rarely hitting 94. The velocity and overall hit-able-ness are very troubling.
• The bullpen didn’t fare much better. Zach Miner turned it into a blowout allowing a 3 run homer.
• Chad Durbin actually pitched pretty good. He came into a 2nd and 3rd 1 out situation and got a pop up and a ground ball. Unfortunately the grounder went through the box scoring a run, and a muff by Granderson made it 2 runs.
• At least those that thought the team hadn’t been showing life can’t really complain. They knocked the ball around and repeatedly chipped away at sizable leads.
• Another strong Venezuelan 1-2 punch between Ordonez and Guillen who both homered and added another hit apiece. And both put together good at-bats in late inning situations (Maggs in the 7th and Guillen in the 9th) but without anything to show for them.
• Cameron Maybin misplayed the first ball hit to him (leading to the first run). He did look more comfortable after that though. Let’s hope this is a real quick learning curve.
• He did have 2 doubles, and his last at-bat was pretty impressive. He took several close pitches and then went with a pitch on the outer edge. He also showed off an unusual running style with his right arm actually waving

Indians 11 Tigers 8

Indianapolis 0 Toledo 4
Good night for top young pitchers in the organization as Virgil Vasquez threw a complete game 2 hit shutout. He walked 1 and fanned 7. I’m a little concerned though as he threw 123 pitches. Chris Shelton hit a grand slam homer to plate all 4 runs.

Akron 5 Erie 6
Mike Hernandez, Jeff Larish, Wilkin Ramirez, and Matt Joyce all hd 2 hit games while Mike Hollimon and Kody Kirkland went deep. Eddie Bonine pitched all 7 innings allowing 5 runs on 8 hits with 2 walks and 1 strikeout.

Akron 3 Erie 1
The only offense came from Steve Torrealba who homered and walked. Cory Hamman started and went 2 2/3 innings and allowed only 3 hits, but with 3 walks leading to 2 runs.

Lakeland 1 Sarasota 7
Kyle Sleeth was knocked around for 5 runs in the first inning but stuck around through the 5th allowing 10 hits. He did fan 6 and walked only 1. The Flying Tigers had 3 hits so there’s not much to report offensively.

West Michigan 6 Great Lakes 1
Brennan Boesch had 2 hits and a walk. Jase Skelton and Jordan Newton each had 2 hits as well. It was another great outing for Charlie Furbush who allowed 5 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run while fanning 7 in 7 innings.

Vermont 7 Oneonta 3
Chris Carlson doubled and singled for the only multi hit game, and only extra base hit. Jose Fragoso allowed 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks in 2 innings.

Minor League Baseball: Scoreboard: Scoreboard

PREGAME: This is kind of a big series ya think? While I’m not one to put too much on any one series, the Tigers really need 2 out of 3. They can certainly recover from less, but then they are relying on others.

Tonight marks the return of Joel Zumaya and the backend of the bullpen is once again healthy and intact. Now if only they can get a lead to protect so we can hear some Voodoo Child.

The pitching matchup is a rematch of last week’s Fausto Carmona/Jair Jurrjens tilt. The good news is that Carmona can’t really pitch any better than he did in his 8 inning, 4 hit, 10 K performance of a week ago.

The Indians will get their second crack at Jair Jurrjens who had a pretty nice debut with only 5 hits allowed in 7 innings of work.

More good news is that Placido Polanco returns to the Tigers lineup for the first time in a week.

Game time 7:05

CLE @ DET, Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Oh to get back that 2 strike hanger to Jhonny Perralta…Tremendous outings for both Jair Jurrjens and Fausto Carmona. I said Carmona couldn’t get better, and he almost did. The Tigers managed only 3 hits, but 2 were of the long ball variety and that was enough because Jurrjens only allowed a solo shot to Perralta, the only hit of the night.

Jurrjens recorded 20 outs, and 19 of those were courtesy of his fielders. While there was quite a bit of weak contact, like pop ups and comebackers, there was also some luck as a couple of well hit balls found Placido Polanco and Ryan Raburn’s gloves. Jurrjens also wasn’t hurt by 4 walks as 2 were eliminated on double plays. Most impressive may have been the efficiency as Jurrjens recorded first pitch strikes on 17 hitters and was lifted after 78 pitches in the 7th inning.

Of course when he was lifted it meant the return of Joel Zumaya who chucked a 98mph seed right down the middle on his first pitch. He eventually got to 2 strikes before picking up a weak bouncer to end the inning, and his night. A one batter appearance in a tight game may have been the best possible way to break him in.

Fernando Rodney and Todd Jones pitched perfect 8th and 9th innings and next thing you know the game was over at 9pm.

As much as I want to think this is a sign of things turning, I’m just not sure. Just look at the emotional win the Tigers picked up a week ago in extra innings, only to drop 4 of the next 5. Still, it’s a big win and something to build on.

• After pounding the ball into the ground the first 4 innings, the Tigers looked like they were going to jump all over Carmona late in the game. After the 2 homers int he 5th, the Tigers elevated the ball int he 6th with a couple flyouts, a double for Granderson, and a line drive by Polanco. But Carmona self corrected and that was it as the Tigers went quickly from then on.
• Very nice catch by the fan on the Ordonez homer, that ball should have been a double but it seemed to fool everyone. Grady Sizemore didn’t say anything and Eric Wedge probably couldn’t see it. But a follow up homer made it a moot point.
• Talk about your tough luck losses, Carmona threw exactly 2 pitches from the stretch all night.

Tigers 2 Cleveland 1

PREGAME: The Tigers head into today trying to salvage a split in Yankee Stadium. They’ll send out Jeremy Bonderman to try and hold down the Yankees. Bonderman picked up a no decision in his last start, but he pitched a very strong game allowing just 4 hits and 2 walks in 7 innings while fanning 8. Trouble was that was his first quality start since July 19th. Let’s hope it was a sign of him coming out of his funk instead of just a blip.

The Tigers will be opposed by Chien-Ming Wang. Wange doesn’t strike out many, doesn’t walk many, and therefore gets pretty deep into games without crossing the 100 pitch threshold. He also keeps the ball in the park with only 7 homers allowed this season, and only 2 in the Bronx. Left handers have much more success with an 804 OPS as opposed to a 624 for right handers. With the Tigers lefties Curtis Granderson (2 for his last 24) and Sean Casey (5 for his last 24) slumping as of late, this doesn’t bode well – especially with them hitting 1-2 in today’s lineup.

Placido Polanco misses yet another game, and despite previous statements Cameron Maybin will be in left field again. If you’re facing a groundball pitcher, you might as well have your fastest guy playing and trying to beat a few of those out.

Game Time 1:05
DET @ NYY, Sunday, August 19, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Ugly. For the 2nd day in a row the Tigers played the Yankees even for 5 innings, and then were smoked the rest of the way. Jeremy Bonderman struggled with the strike zone walking 4 in the first 2 innings and leaving with 115 pitches in the 6th inning.

The bullpen combo of Zach Miner and Aquilino Lopez made sure the game wasn’t in doubt and that Mariano Rivera could rest. The worst part of Lopez’s performance is that it pretty much insured that it would be he, and not Jason Grilli on the way out when Joel Zumaya is activated on Tuesday.

Ryan Raburn and Mike Rabelo had nice games, combining for 5 hits, but those rallies were thwarted by 3 Brandon Inge K’s and a pop-up. Coming into today Inge was hitting 237/262/351 over the last month with 7 extra base hits, 2 walks, and 38 strikeouts. Throw in an error today that cost the Tigers a run, and their lead, and it’s safe to say he’s the anti-player of the game.

The Tigers have started this 13 game series 2-4 and now really have put themselves in a tough spot over the next 7 games.