PREGAME: Gio Gonzalez takes on Armando Galarraga.

Galarraga continues to teeter on the edge of the rotation. Gonzalez makes just his 2nd start of the season. He was rocked in his first start and was knocked out in the 4th inning after allowing 10 hits (but with 6 K’s).

1. Granderson
2. Polanco
3. Cabrera
4. Thames
5. Raburn
6. Inge
7. Ordonez
8. Ryan
9. Everett

Detroit vs. Oakland – June 30, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: This wasn’t the text book way to go about getting a win, but it’s a win.

You aren’t supposed to win when your starter gives up 6 walks, but the A’s didn’t hit Galarraga hard at all so there were only 2 baserunners via hits and only 1 run to show for all of their patience. I guess that’s what you call scattering your walks. But Galarraga did seem to have some bite on his slider and it was inducing some swings and misses – I just think he used it too often, like when he was ahead of Jack Cust 0-2 and he threw 3 straight sliders nowhere near the zone.

You aren’t supposed to win when you make 2 baserunning errors where outs are made between 3rd and home. Those are runs you have to have, or at least not toss away so easily. The baserunning mistakes, and the ill advised sacrifice bunt attempts early in the game against a struggling pitcher are why the Tigers only plated 3 runs off of Gio Gonzalez despite having 7 hits, 3 of which were for extra bases, and 2 walks in 5 innings.

You aren’t supposed to win when you make 3 error-like plays in the field. But Galarraga pitched around a dropped foul fly by Ryan Raburn, a fumbled grounder by Everett, and another play by Everett where the Tigers only got 1 out instead of 2.

You aren’t supposed to win when your closer allows 3 baserunners and a home run, but Rodney only let the game get to 2 runs before a double play grounder ended the night on 19 pitches. Oddly, it was Rodney’s fastball getting hit and really, his control improved after an initial walk.

• Ryan Raburn and Placido Polanco were the offensive stars. Raburn hit everything hard. Polanco drove in 3 of the 5 runs and is on a mini-Marcus power surge as of late.
• Inge was having a rough night offensively but he got a blooper to drop behind a drawn in infield to score an insurance run.
• Dusty Ryan was patient, and he took called 3rd strikes his last 2 times up
• Magglio, I don’t know. He did drive a ball to right field once, and a 2-0 count. He was also late on a 3-1 fastball. He also swung and missed a ball well off the plate as it looked like he was gearing up to try and pull a fastball.
• Bobby Seay and Joel Zumaya (pictured above thanks to photos from westcoasttigerfan) had good games. Zumaya hit 102.7 and 102.6 matching his fastest pitches from the Cubs series.

PREGAME: The Tigers once again find themselves in the middle of a very long road trip, next stop Oakland. The Tigers salvaged a happy plane ride at least after dropping 2 in Houston. The A’s meanwhile are scuffling having lost 5 in a row and their bloggers are deservedly restless.

As for the pitching match-up it will be Rick Porcello taking on Brett Anderson. Anderson faced the Tigers earlier in the year and his infield pretty much error-ed for the cycle as he allowed 9 runs, only 3 of which were earned. Anderson has a 45/18 K/BB ratio in 69 innings with 13 homers allowed.

Porcello turned in a QS when he faced the A’s in that same series. He’s allowed 21 baserunners in his last 2 outings spanning 10.2 innings, but he has limited the damage to 3 earned runs (5 runs total).

Detroit vs. Oakland – June 29, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: That was some kind of ugly. Porcello gave up a ton of baserunners and didn’t make it out of the 5th inning. There were some defensive lapses (and a couple nice plays to be fair) and the offense was shutdown by another pitcher with an ERA over 5.

The Tigers fanned 14 times in the game. They did make Anderson work and ran his pitch count up, but they sure couldn’t hit him. They couldn’t even make contact off him with 11 swinging strikes and 3 foul tips on 46 swings. That’s a 30.4% swing and miss rate which is just brutal and dumbfounding.

The only brightish spot was Fu-Te Ni making his debut (and wearing Todd Jones’ old number). He did allow a monster homer, but that was the only baserunner he allowed and he fanned 3 of the other 5 batters he faced.

PREGAME: The Tigers will lean on Edwin Jackson to try and avoid being swept in Houston. Jackson has been a little afflicted by the walk phenomenon that is spreading like swine flu through the Tigers clubhouse with 10 free passes in his last 3 games.

Russ Ortiz has some pretty dramatic reverse platoon splits with an 840 OPS against for right handers and 663 for left handers.

Detroit vs. Houston – June 28, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I missed this entire game live. I was at an outdoor thing, and was limited to updates on the Blackberry. The offense looked pretty frustrating from that regard. We were in the car on the way home for the 9th inning and the family let out a huge yelp in the car. When I got home I saw the Cliff Notes version I DVR’d. Not as dramatic but just as satisfying as seeing it live.

A loss today wouldn’t have been the end of the world. The Tigers still have a cushion in the division. It would have been frustrating but I think the team would have coped with it better than the fan base who’s emotions are tied to the mini winning losing streaks the team takes them on, only with a multiplicative factor.

That said, if this season turns out the way we’re all hoping for, the Inge homer could be one of the defining moments. The unexpected star put the team on his back and limping them home on an injured knee. Marcus Thames and Curtis Granderson get to be the supporting cast where Granderson and Inge  pound it out for the team lead in homers and Thames is one strike from capping a sweep and ends up scoring the tying run.

In other words, the win is likely bigger than the loss would have been.