PREGAME: I know this is a Tigers blog and all. And I usually try to stay pretty much on topic. But there’s kind of a big hockey game tonight. And I figure many people who frequent here are Detroit sports fans. So GO WINGS! And along with Ian, in the interest of blogger solidarity, a shout out to the Red Wing blogging brethern:

• Behind the Jersey
• Abel to Yzerman
• Gorilla Crouch
• Let’s Go Wings
• On the Wings
• Yzerman is God

As for our little baseball game, it will be Kenny Rogers and his crazy Oakland splits against Rich Harden. Harden strikes out oodles of people, but he’s already made 6 starts this year making any pitch a potential season-ender at this point.

UPDATE: Carlos Guillen is back at third. Brandon Inge tweaked his oblique on a check swing and is day-to-day.
1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Guillen, 3B
4. Ordonez, RF
5. Cabrera, 1B
6. Larish, DH
7. Renteria, SS
8. Thomas, LF
9. Rodriguez, C

DET @ OAK, Monday, June 2, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 10:10

POSTGAME: I guess you can say that if you have 3 walk-off decisions on a road trip, at least your competitive. Too bad the Tigers need to be better than competitive and start notching some W’s with regularity.

I can’t get too upset with the offense in this one. Rich Harden is good. Rich Harden was on his game. But the Tigers did manage to bust up a shut out and scratch across a couple of runs. They made a guy throwing mostly strikes work to the tune of 4.3 pitches per PA running his pitch count to 115 in the 7th. They got a clutch hit from rookie Jeff Larish to take advantage of a rare scoring opportunity.

Rogers struggled a little early on, but limited a first inning bases loaded situation to 1 run. He pitched out of a few jams as things went on, but still gave the team 7+ innings.

But oh that bullpen. Bobby Seay walked the .163 hitting Travis Buck to load the bases and fell behind Deric Barton 3-0 before escaping the 8th inning. And then Francisco Cruceta happened to the 9th inning. Again he takes the loss. Again.

PREGAME: The Tigers are looking for a series win, their first since the last time they played the Mariners. The match-up is a repeat from that series as well when Jeremy Bonderman beat Miguel Batista.

The Tigers trot out yet another different lineup with Carlos Guillen breaking in his outfielders glove for a trial in left field. He’ll bat 3rd. Thames is out of the lineup so Miguel Cabrera moves back to 5th.

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

DET @ SEA, Sunday, June 1, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 4:10

POSTGAME: The Tigers came into today 0 fer Sundays being outscored 52-14. But they got one today. Yes, it was against the Mariners, and yes it wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but there are no style points to gain or lose.

Jeremy Bonderman didn’t have the same sharpness he’d shown in his last few starts – at least early on. His fastball seemed to have that uncontrollable tailing action, but despite pitching behind in the count there weren’t many hard hit balls. Until the 5th inning anyways.

In the 5th he was getting drilled with line drive after line drive. But he escaped down only 1 run. He came back and seemed to regain his command and with the help of a balls-on throw from Curtis Granderson he pitched 2 more scoreless inning.

The Tigers offense wasn’t booming, but they took advantage of a couple early opportunities and hung around until a 1 out walk by Brandon Inge started a 4 run rally that put the win safely in the Tigers hands – even with a Todd Jones scare outing.

Guillen had several plays in left field and handled the position well.

Comment of the game thread honors goes to T Smith for:

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