PREGAME: It’s A.J. Burnett against Zach Miner.

Miner has had a quality start in 3 of his first 4 efforts since returning to the rotation. Burnett has great peripherals. He fans a batter per inning and 2.3 for every batter he walks. His home run rate of .8 per 9 innings is solid also. Somehow he has a 4.62 ERA though.

The lineup is the same as last night’s.

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

TOR @ DET, Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: Sigh. Well, the Whipping Boys (Sheffield, Renteria, Inge) power was activated in the 6th inning. Sheffield hit his 2nd homer and the other 2 hit back to back 2 out doubles. That should have been enough to beat the Blue Jays until Bobby Seay and Joel Zumaya combined to give it back.

Whether it is injury, or needing more recovery time, or simply needing more time to work on things, Joel Zumaya has to be sent down. There needs to be a spot made for Todd Jones on Friday, and it has to be Zumaya that is sent down. He now has 23 walks in 23.1 innings. Francisco Cruceta and Zach Miner were demoted for far less. If the fastball isn’t what it was, finding his change up and commanding his curve ball need to be next on the to do list and he shouldn’t be doing it with the big league club.

Zach Miner was very good again. That kind of got lost in everything else.

PREGAME: The Blue Jays come to town. Shaun Marcum is on the mound for Toronto. He struggled in his first 3 starts off the DL allowing 17 runs in 14.2 innings and 5 homers in those 3 games. But in his last start he got well holding Oakland to 1 run in 7 innings with 7 K’s and only 2 walks. Whether that means he’s back to the low 3’s ERA pitcher he was earlier in the year, or it was a product of facing the A’s remains to be seen.

For the Tigers it will be Justin Verlander. Verlander made progress in his last start before his line was blown up in his 8th inning of work. Oh yeah, and he threw 130 pitches.

TOR @ DET, Monday, August 11, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: The weather was perfect. Outside of that, I’ll go bulleted list style:

• I have no idea if Verlander’s previous outing impacted the current one- at least in terms of performance. He was lifted around the 80 pitch mark and so that was probably a factor in not letting him pitch through it.
• Control didn’t seem to be a problem, with his first ball not coming until pitch number 15. I was at the game, and haven’t gone through the pitch f/x data so this is pure speculation, but I’d say he was just chucking the ball over the plate to try and get quick outs. I base this mostly on the knowledge of the length of his previous outing, and the number of scorched balls coming with 2 strikes.
• I’ve seen a decent number of homers to straight away centerfield at Comerica. They’ve all been well hit of course, but given the sheer vastness of the outfield, you never really know if they’re gone. Cabrera’s was a no doubter off the bat.
• The Sheffield situation wasn’t pretty. He was awful again today, and the boos just rained down in a grilli-esque fashion. I’d say it was probably even louder than Jason received.
• Jason Beck transcribed Leyland’s quotes in response to the Sheffield article. I agree completely with the skipper on this.
• I don’t get too worked up about guys not sprinting all the way down the line on every ball. A comebacker to the pitcher and you’re out before you get half way down the line. But Sheffield hit a groundball down the third base line. It wasn’t hit hard and it was fielded behind the bag. Chances are he would be out, but it wasn’t a given. Sheffield ran half speed. It should have been a close play but he was out by 3 steps. That is inexcusable from anyone, but especially the leader he fancies himself.
• The game seemed very blah, due in large part to Verlander getting rocked and the offense not clicking. But outside of Sheffield guys were playing hard. Renteria laid out and made a nice stop on a ball up the middle. Maggs made a nice diving play, as did Miguel Cabrera.

PREGAME: Remember when the Tigers bludgeoned the Royals for a series sweep a few weeks back? Yeah, that was the last time they won a series. They have a chance to turn the feat again this afternoon.

It will be Nate Robertson taking the mound for the Tigers. Robertson has been horrific with a 6.11 ERA. He’s allowing 1.3 hits PER INNING. He has been much better at home (4.45 ERA) and much better during the day (4.47 ERA). So maybe he doesn’t blow up today.

Greg Smith takes the ball for the Athletics. He turned in a quality start his last time out against the Blue Jays. He has an okay strike out rate 5.95 and a poor 3.92 walk rate. But he hasn’t given up a lot of hits. He’s given up 62 fewer hits than Robertson in the same number of innings. Lefties have managed only a 572 OPS against him this year. And don’t swing at the first pitch. He’s only allowed a 172/169/328 line when the first pitch is put in play.

OAK @ DET, Sunday, August 10, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Well this was a nice clean, crisp win. Nate Robertson was in and around the strike zone and efficiently marched through the A’s order for 7.2 innings. In the process he dropped his ERA to the right side of 6.00. Fernando Rodney picked up the last 4 outs, including stranding the runner he inherited, allowing only a double along the way.

The offense had a controlled approach, not offering at pitches out of the strike zone for the most part. They drew 10 walks, though only 2 came around to score. But they did enough to build a comfortable margin by the end of the game.

Gary Sheffield had a kind of cycle of futility. He was 1 for 1 in GIDP opportunities. He also popped up with a runner on second and no outs. And he K’d both looking and swinging.

The only other bad thing about the game was that Curtis Granderson struck out bunting. Grandy has looked so good in so many facets of the game, but his last couple bunt attempts have been awful. I believe it was just last week he popped up a sac bunt attempt.

PREGAME: After spending basically every waking minute since the All Star break on the road, the Tigers return home for the awhile. This was the part of the schedule, where if the Tigers kept things close, they could make their run. Except they didn’t keep things close.

As for the game at hand it will be Kenny Rogers and Dallas Braden. Braden is making his 4th start and he’s had mixed results. The Tigers faced him 3 times last year and beat the stuffing out of him the last two times lighting him up for 14 runs in 6.1 innings over the 2 games.

With the exception of the Royals game, Rogers has been awful since the break. he hasn’t recorded an out in the 7th inning, and in his last start he threw 109 pitches before being lifted in the 4th.

OAK @ DET, Friday, August 8, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

PREGAME: I’m going out to enjoy a lovely day on the beach. When I settle in tonight I’ll see if the Tigers as a collective team have anything left – like pride, or if they simply mail in the season. Zach Miner and Javier Vasquez. Last time this pitching match-up was a win. The bullpen should be well rested after they only had to get 1 out last night.

DET @ CHW, Thursday, August 7, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Nothing to complain about in this one. Zach Miner was solid. The offense was good with the Carlos Guillen and Miguel Cabrera reaching base in each of their 5 respective plate appearances. Ryan Raburn made a bacon saving diving catch. Fernando Rodney was okay enough, and did K 2 without walking anyone. My man Bobby Seay was rocky, and Ramon Santiago had a 3 K game with an error. But otherwise good times. Now the Tigers just need to win 8 of their next 10 and we can all get excited again.