PREGAME: Jose Contreras and Dontrelle Willis. I’d put the over/under on pitches thrown tonight at 400.

The Tigers trade one set of Sox for another one. They arrived in the Windy City around 3:30 this morning. They will send out Willis who’s spring training control issues carried over into his first start. He walked 7 in 5 innings last Saturday while only allowing 1 hit.

The White Sox send out Contreras who had his own issues last Friday in Detroit. He allowed 14 baserunners in just 5 innings of work.

Gary Sheffield sits tonight due to finger swelling. Jacque Jones is your DH and Clete Thomas is your left fielder. Critique away.

1. Thomas, LF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Guillen, 1B
4. Ordonez, RF
5. Cabrera, 3B
6. Jones, DH
7. Renteria, SS
8. Rodriguez, C
9. Inge, CF

I will say putting the Jones behind Cabrera isn’t a bad move to make Contreras think a little about pitching around Cabrera to get to a left hander.

This one is on FSN+, and by now you should know the drill.

Game Time 8:11

DET @ CHW, Friday, April 11, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: For the second night in a row the bullpen is the story, but boy did they flip the script. Pressed into duty in the first inning, they picked up all 27 outs while allowing just 4 hits and 2 walks while fanning 10.

Aquilino Lopez who was supposed to be the Mud Hens closer went 4 innings and allowed the only run. He also wiggled out of a 2nd & 3rd none out situation allowing only 1 run to score.

Jason Grilli had an awful inning with a HBP and 2 walks, but wiggled out of it and chased it with back to back 1-2-3 innings.

Denny Bautista allowed a hit, but some bad baserunning and an excellent throw from Clete Thomas took care of Jermaine Dye’s single.

Todd Jones even pitched a 1-2-3 inning striking out the last 2 batters. Unreal. It was his first save opportunity of the season. Also unreal.

Offensively the Tigers plated 5 runs, and they probably deserved some more. There were multiple liners hit right at White Sox infielders. There were a couple rushed innings against Contreras, but they were generally patient.

The Tigers also got a hit with the bases loaded from Magglio Ordonez. Plus, Miguel Cabrera came up with a 2-out RBI. It’s starting to click like we had all hoped it would.

The only downside is that Willis may be out. Cabrera is becoming more hobbled. And Carlos Guillen’s hamstring started barking late in the game. There may be no bench tomorrow.

PREGAME: Time for the Tigers to put a win streak together. To do it they’ll have to get by knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. Inge moves into the leadoff spot based on his 6 for 22 history with two homers off of Wakefield. The rest of the lineup is what we’ve become used to with Pudge in the 8 spot and Marcus Thames at the bottom.

Nate Robertson takes the mound for the Tigers. Nate battled through 5 innings in his start against the White Sox. He fanned 5 and only walked 2, but found himself in a full count on six different batters.

This one is on FSN+ with the Red Wings playoff run starting tonight.

DET @ BOS, Thursday, April 10, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: That was an absolutely inexcusable performance by the bullpen. It was poorly managed, it was poorly coached, and it was poorly executed. The bullpen recorded 8 outs and allowed 8 runs, powered by 7 walks. The pitchers have to throw strikes, and if they can’t throw strikes (which they couldn’t) they need to be lifted. This is a bullpen with 8 pitchers and yet they were left out there to throw over 35 pitches in 2 different innings. Zach Miner averaged 15 pitches per out, that’s about the league average per inning.

Moving beyond the bullpen…

• Nate Robertson looked great with the exception of the 4th inning where it all went south. He basically matched his pitch count from the previous 3 innings combined in that dreadful 4th. But he did rebound and had an easy 5th.
• The offense looked pretty good for a second day in a row with everyone reaching base. The Tigers had 7 walks of their own, and yest they stranded most of them early on. But Wakefield had the knuckler dancing (part of the reason there were so many walks) and they just couldn’t find it.
• Pudge with walks in consecutive games?????
• Finally, the defense didn’t have any miscues today.

Has an April win ever felt so good? If it wasn’t dark and 11:00 p.m. I’d be inclined to say that the sun is shining and the birds are singing. Regardless, the Tigers and their fans can sleep a little better tonight. I was confident that the team wouldn’t finish 0-162 but am very happy to no longer have to test the theory.

Some thoughts from the game:

• The Tigers actually hit a couple balls hard early on, but they were gobbled up by Red Sox defenders. But unlike in other games, the offense didn’t go in a shell.
• The Tigers worked 8 walks tonight chasing Lester early. Nice to see the patience, but Magglio Ordonez still swung at the first pitch in 3 of his plate appearances.
• Meanwhile Carlos Guillen had a tremendous night seeing pitches working Lester for 15 pitches in his first 2 at bats.
• But the offensive star was Edgar Renteria who got the big hit with a 2 run gapper in the 4th. Everyone could take a breath and Marcus Thames followed with the 2 run bomb. Renteria kind of tormented Boston fans when he played for them, now he did it again.
• Jeremy Bonderman had one of those Nate Robertson type battling nights. His defense hurt him early on forcing him to get extra outs and raising his pitch count. But he limited the damage to 2 runs. He seemed to be getting quite a few swinging strikes but only 3 K’s. Also, his fastball really dropped off again around the 80 pitch mark where he was sitting in the high 80s.
• The bullpen did an excellent job. Bobby Seay got all 4 hitters we was called on to face. Francis Beltran and Denny Bautista did their jobs as well.
• And it was another scary Todd Jones night. He didn’t exactly get hammered with a handful of grounders and a pop up doing most of the damage. The only part that bothered me was when he lost the strike zone. Still, some add on runs courtesy of Inge and Guillen provide a cushion.

Okay. Time for a 7 game win streak and we’ll just start the season over again.

PREGAME: Jeremy Bonderman gets the unenviable task of trying to hold the Boston Red Sox to negative runs. In his last start he pitched well until running out of gas around the 70 pitch mark. I’d expect that Bonderman will throw heavy doses of 2 seam fastballs trying to get some early contact and prolong his outing.

The Tigers will try and right their bats against lefty Jon Lester. Lester went 6.2 innings and allowed only 3 hits in his last start against Oakland.

Jason Beck notes that Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera did some extra hitting work while Carlos Guillen worked on taking throws with Rafael Belliard.

Also courtesy of Beck, here is the lineup:
1. Rodriguez, C
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Sheffield, DH
4. Ordonez, RF
5. Cabrera, 3B
6. Guillen, 1B
7. Renteria, SS
8. Thames, LF
9. Inge, CF

DET @ BOS, Wednesday, April 9, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05 (note, this is on FSN+ so here is your channel listing)