PREGAME: Jim Leyland took advantage of an off day this week to shake up the rotation and put Alfredo Figaro in between Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson. The thinking was that it would help balance the bullpen use some. He wasn’t figuring on Verlander getting chased in the 6th inning. The bullpen would have been more taxed if the Joel Zumaya hadn’t blown the lead in the 8th so I guess we can thank Joel for keeping Fernando Rodney fresh. Let’s hope Figaro can give the team at least 6 solid tonight.

Felipe Paulino returns from the DL to take the hill tonight. His K and BB numbers aren’t bad, but he will give up some long balls with 7 homers allowed in 43.1 innings.

Detroit vs. Houston – June 27, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Well…No offense. Not much pitching. And a thumping. It happens.

• Figaro’s fastball was live, and he threw strikes. But his breaking ball was getting hammered, mostly because he was leaving it up in the zone way too often. When he got it down he had a couple nice sings and misses.
• Paulino looked pretty amazing. He was pounding the strike zone with all of his pitches and was consistently in the upper 90’s with his fastball. He had struggled earlier this year, but I’m  not going to say this was another case of the Tigers making a bad pitcher look good. I think this was a pitcher with good stuff making the Tigers look bad.
• Figaro did eat 6 innings meaning the Tigers only needed to turn to the bullpen for 2 innings which Freddy Dolsi took care of meaning the bullpen is pretty much full rested. By the way, did anybody see the snot that Dolsi blew out in the 8th last night? It was freakin huge. (Yes, that may have been the highlight).