PREGAME: Don’t know if you heard, but the Tigers are 0-6 against the Royals this year. In those 6 games the Tigers have managed all of 11 runs. They been shut out twice. Tonight’s starter Luke Hochevar held the Tigers to 4 hits, 3 walks, and no runs in 6 innings when the teams met earlier this year. He was hammered in 2 of his last 3 starts but allowed just 1 run in a 7 inning outing his last time out.

For the Tigers Zach Miner returns to the rotation. He made one emergency start in 2007, but that’s it dating back to September 2006. You may remember that start as part of the series when the Tigers blew the division. Miner did his part by recording 1 out, amidst allowing 5 runs.

DET @ KCR, Monday, July 21, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 8:10

POSTGAME: Too late for a proper recap. Zach Miner was awesome. He wavered a little bit after a 3rd inning single to Gathright. He started floating pitches outside, but he recovered, got the GIDP, and didn’t let another runner touch second base.

And then the offense. The 3-4-5 trio of Guillen-Cabrera-Joyce came to the plate 18 times and only made 4 outs. That makes for good offense. So does the corpse that was known earlier tonight as Jimmy Gobble who was charged with 10 runs in one inning of work. Manager Trey Hillman will likely be charged with crimes against humanity.

The bullpen wasn’t good. Freddy Dolsi was rocked and Aquilino Lopez was also hit hard – but more of his balls found mitts.

Tigers baseball, just when you think it can’t get any worse, it gets a little better. The White Sox and Twins both lose and the Tigers are 5.5 out. Damn that Saturday game.

PREGAME: The Tigers look to salvage a split and stave off baseball irrelevance. The Orioles don’t win on Sundays. They have a 14 game losing streak on Sundays. And the Tigers have their ace on the mound. Maybe if the pitching staff can keep the O’s under 7 runs the Tigers have a chance.

Verlander is pitching on extended rest, which given his workload leading up to the break is probably a good thing. Of course he maybe rusty or overly amped up so that may back fire as well.

Brian Burres isn’t a particularly good pitcher. He doesn’t strikeout many and his walk rate isn’t great either. And he’s left handed. But offense hasn’t been the Tigers problem in this series.

Guillen is back with the team, arriving from the airport just before noon. But he isn’t playing. Instead the infield consists of Cabrera, Inge, Santiago, and Raburn.

DET @ BAL, Sunday, July 20, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 1:35

POSTGAME: Justin Verlander is my hero. He finally managed to shut down the vaunted Orioles offense, pitching a 3 hitter and recording 26 of the 27 requisite outs. And he did it efficiently too. Not a lot of strike outs, but a lot of weak grounders and pop-ups. He preserved the pen on a day when basically nobody was available and/or trusted.

The offense did enough, extending innings with 2 out hits, and getting some power from Marcus Thames and Magglio Ordonez.

The Tigers leave Baltimore achieving the bare minimum. On to KC.

• On the decision to take Verlander out with one out to go. Yeah, it kinda sucks. And Verlander had pitched well. But how important is the complete game in the scheme of things? It was a 100 degrees and Verlander had lost a couple MPH off his fastball. Eight of the ten pitches he had thrown in the inning missed the strike zone, and pretty badly. Say he leaves him in and he walks another batter, or worse yet gives up a hit, or grooves one when falling behind in the count. Then you’re bringing in Jones to a very high leverage situation.
• And Jones typically makes a situation high leverage without any help. A walk was followed by a phenomenal play by Inge. It probably would have been a web gem, but no Baseball Tonight because it is important to show the ESPYs.
• The 3-4-5-6 hitters combined for 2 homers, 2 singles, a double, and 5 walks. That’s some nice production on a day when the top two hitters didn’t get on base.
• Finally, let’s talk about Brian Runge. Runge is the ump who blew the 10th inning call on Saturday night. His handiwork at homeplate complete, he went over for a stress free day at third base. But given the opportunity to deny the Tigers a run, he jumped all over it. Marcus Thames hooked a deep fly ball down the left field foul pole. Thames kept rounding the base while Runge called it foul. Fortunately he was promptly overruled by home plate ump Greg Gibson. Runge is approaching Angel Hernandez in my book.

PREGAME: It will be Nate Robertson and Daniel Cabrera. Cabrera isn’t on pace to walk over 100 batters for the first time in history. But he’s still walking 4 batters per nine innings. Cabrera typically posted above average K’s numbers in his career, but now he’s only fanning 5 per nine innings.

DET @ BAL, Saturday, July 19, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: Worst loss of the year. Blown lead. Blown comeback. Blown call. Blown season.

PREGAME: The Tigers and Armando Galarraga take on the Orioles and Jeremy Guthrie. Guthrie has a 3.49 ERA this year. None of his peripherals are exceptional, but he does 2.6 walks per 9. Lefties have a 90 point OPS advantage, but even then they’re only hitting 255/312/405 against Guthrie. He’s most hittable in the first inning so hopefully the Tigers can make some early noise.

Galarraga has pitched okay of late, but has had efficiency issues. He hasn’t recorded an out beyond the 6thinning since June 13th.

Guillen is still in Detroit and Renteria’s hamstring is still hurting. Renteria will play, and of course Guillen won’t. And Freddy Dolsi cut off all of Fernando Rodney’s hair. No word on how it will effect the tilt of his cap.

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

DET @ BAL, Friday, July 18, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

PREGAME: As the second half kicks off it will be Kenny Rogers taking on Garrett Olson. Olson has struggled in his last 2 starts surrendering 13 runs in 9 innings. He has a 5.65 ERA this year but is better at home.

Carlos Guillen is out of the lineup because he’s in Detroit. He’s with his wife who needed surgery due to complications from giving birth last week.

The Tigers send out the following lineup:

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

DET @ BAL, Thursday, July 17, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: The second half gets off to a smashing start as everybody’s favorite whipping boys come up big. Gary Sheffield walked and went deep twice. True, one of them was taken away by Jay Payton. Edgar Renteria had two hits and a walk. One of the hits was even a double. And Brandon Inge even managed a two run, go ahead homer to go along with some nifty defense. And in typical Todd Jones fashion he made the ninth inning very interesting. But in his defense his defense didn’t help him at short and he needed 4 outs. Finally, Fernando Rodney even managed to retire the one batter he faced.

Kenny Rogers wasn’t good today. The Orioles battered him with line drives all over the place. His saving grace was some horrendous baserunning. The Tigers managed to turn a 5-4-2 double play and a 7-4 double play. To cap it off they managed a 3-2 put out.

And while there was much consternation about the Tigers-O’s game being the only AL game today, the good news is they picked up a half game on both teams they are chasing in the division and they gained on EVERY team they’re chasing in the Wild Card race.