PREGAME: The Tigers won a road game. Is it getting too greedy to want them to win 2 in a row? Tonight it will be Armando Galarraga taking on Trevor Cahill.

Cahill has some pretty brutal peripherals with 25 homers allowed in 139 innings, only 70 strikeouts, and 57 walks. He somehow has an ERA under 5. But the Tigers have made lesser pitchers look greater.

Galarraga has 2 starts against the A’s. The last one was pretty good and gave us reason to think that Galarraga was starting to bounce back as he limited Oakland to 1 run on 2 hits (but with 6 walks) in 6.1 innings. The one before that he didn’t make it out of the first inning…coincidentally that one was against Trevor Cahill

Detroit vs. Oakland – August 22, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: The Tigers start their last left coast swing and they do it in Oakland where the Tigers haven’t been particularly impressive, save for 2 games in October, 2006.

Edwin Jackson slogged through a victory against the Royals last Saturday. He wasn’t especially crisp, but he got plenty of run support for a change. Really, out of Jackson’s last 4 starts only the one against Baltimore would you really call strong.

Gio Gonzalez is on the mound for the A’s. The lefty took the loss when the two team’s hooked up in July. His game log shows someone who a)rarely pitches through the 7th inning and b)seems to be really good or really bad. He strikes out a batter an inning, but he walks one every other inning and has allowed 8 homers in 56 innings. In 67 PAs lefties are OPS over 1.100 against him, bolstered by a freaky .459 BABIP

Detroit vs. Oakland – August 21, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: Some lefty-on-lefty action today with Jarrod Washburn taking on his old team and the hyphenated one Ryan-Rowland-Smith (yeah, it’s an extra hyphen but I don’t have time for a proper pregame so instead you get lame punctuation jokes – sorry).

Seattle vs. Detroit – August 20, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: The Tigers were wheels up for Oakland just before 7 p.m., but thanks to a Clete Thomas line drive to right they’ve been flying since Miguel Cabrera rounded home plate to head to first base and congratulate Thomas. A late rally from 4 runs down surely lifted the spirits of the team and the hopes of a fan base as the Tigers put a dramatic capper on a 4-2 homestand.

For a change today, it was the offense bailing out the starting pitching. Washburn has been extremely homer prone since coming to Detroit (his homer/flyball rate was unsustainably low with Seattle but c’mon with the ultra rapid regression) and with 4 more today it meant 3 bad outings out of 4.

Of course the Tigers did some thumping of their own and solo shots by Raburn and Inge cut a 4 run lead down to 2…but Washburn promptly gave those back. One of them on a near Pepsi-Porch shot by Russell Branyan. Coincidentally, I believe it was Branyan who hit one off the facing of the Porch back in his Cleveland days.

And then the rains came…but not before the Tigers loaded the bases in the 6th and chased Rowland-Smith. And then Jim Leyland started to really manage. He pinch hit Huff for Laird (who hit the ball too softly to second for an inning ending double play). And then Avila hit for Everett and came up with the big knock to close the gap to 6-5.

Fortunately Zach Miner (aka “the much maligned Zach Miner”) and Bobby Seay were perfect for 3 innings the giving the Tigers 3 more cracks at plating the tying run. They would have tied the score in the 8th were it not for some spectacular defense from Gutierrez and Wilson to rob Avila and Polanco on consecutive would-be run scoring plays.  But then there was the 9th.

A walk, a pop-out, some cursing, a double, a IBB, a sac fly with a collision, and a big knock and we had ourselves some walk-off fun.

• Inge made a couple of nice plays going into the stands. It was against Seattle 2 years ago where he literally laid out going into the stands. I’m sure they are tired of seeing that.
• The Tigers made a few loud outs today as well and were it not for some sterling defense maybe this one isn’t close. Cabera and Avila were both victimized by Gutierrez
• Unlike most of Granderson’s days off, he actually got the whole day off…and he’ll get tomorrow off as well
• Ryan Raburn (there is no y in Raburn) slotted nicely into the 3 spot with a homer and 2 singles.
• With 2 walk-offs recently, I think it is time for some Clete’s Cougars:

PREGAME: Justin Verlander has been a little up and down lately. He sandwiched 2 monster starts against Sox of different colors around 3 outings where he allowed at least 4 runs. The last time he faced the Mariners he had no hit stuff, except for the 5th inning where he had multi-hit stuff.

Ian Snell is still adjusting to the Pacific Northwest. He has made 3 starts since the M’s acquired him. The first one was pretty good (6 innings, 2 runs, 3 hits). The next 2 were pretty awful and he was chased in the 2nd inning in one of them. Snell lost to the Tigers earlier this year. He only allowed 2 runs in 7 innings, but the Tigers tagged him for 10 hits and 2 walks (they had some RISP issues)

The 80 plate appearance countdown to $18 million lineup is:

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

Seattle vs. Detroit – August 19, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Tigers didn’t hit good enough. Verlander was good except for a rough-ish inning. Tigers lost. Maggs didn’t make an out in 4 PA’s. Tigers waste a favorable pitching match-up. That is all.

PREGAME: Aubrey Huff makes his Tigers debut tonight and he’ll be batting 5th in the lineup. I don’t know if Daniel Fields will make an appearance tonight or not, but he’s in town.

As for the pitching match-up it will be a rehabilitated Rick Porcello. Rehabilitated in the sense that he has done time for his crime of having a helmet chucked at him (yep, still bitter). He’s facing Seattle after a lengthy layoff having only gone 1 inning and 1 pitch his last time out. The last time he faced Seattle it came on the heels of his summer vacation (that 2.5 week stretch where he was off) and it didn’t go so well.

He’ll have to be better this time out though because Felix Hernandez takes the mound for the Mariners. Hernandez is awesome. He just is. But he has had some problems with walks as of late with 14 issued in his last 3 games.

Your Aubrey-ized lineup is:

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Guillen, LF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Huff, DH
6. Thomas, RF
7. Inge, 3B
8. Avila, C
9. Everett, SS

Seattle vs. Detroit – August 18, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I think it’s safe to deem this game a battle. Porcello and Hernandez battled. Tigers hitters battled. Fernando Rodney battled Jose Lopez. Fortunately for the Tigers they won more of the battles.

Porcello and Hernandez was essentially a draw. Porcello was better than at any ponit this season through 5.2 innings. He picked up 8 K’s and he had the fastball and breaking ball working. It appeared he tired a little in the 6th though, because the ball started leaving the infield. Through the first 5 if the M’s weren’t whiffing they were grounding out meekly.

The Tigers didn’t fare any better at the dish while Hernandez was in the game and he held them to 4 hits and 1 walk and 1 run in 7 innnings. He made Granderson look particularly foolish as Grandy was on his way to the golden sombrero before he was lifted.

Bobby Seay struggled again against the Mariners. You may remember it was Seattle who broke Seay’s scoreless appearance streak in July and got to him on consecutive nights. This time it was a jam job double by Ichiro that set up a couple sacrifice flies.

Fortunately Mark Lowe struggled more with some “help” from his defense. Alex Avila started off the 8th with a monster mash to visitor bullpen and that opened things up. A great pinch hit at-bat by Santiago resulted in a single. A Granderson foul out was followed by a chopper to short . Probably not a double play but there should have been an out except the misplay resulted in runners at the corners. A Guillen walk was followed by a Cabrera clutch 2 run single that would pull the Tigers ahead and be the difference.

The Tigers added on with a “double steal” where Lowe tried the fake throw to third (after a nice job tagging up and getting to 3rd by Raburn who Leyland inserted for Guillen) then get the guy breaking off first. The play that never works…except Cabrera was actually moving on the play. Raburn managed to score as everyone was safe.

A composed Rodney gave up a ground ball single and a line drive single, but he fanned Russell Branyan and eventually fanned Jose Lopez after a tremendous 12 pitch at-bat to end the game. Rodney threw 28 pitches, 22 of them for strikes.

• A longer postgame than normal, but after a detailed bashing of the lack of offensive execution on Sunday this team/game deserved equal positive treatment.
• And to that end how about Adam Everett with the big hit early in the game to plate the first run.
• Very nice outing by Ryan Perry who came in with the bases juiced and 2 outs and got out of the innning, then fanned the side the next inning.
• Seay threw a lot of pitches, Rodney threw a lot of pitches, Perry pitched in parts of 3 innings. Is the pen thin tomorrow and do they make a move?
• Cabrera stole bases in consecutive games for just the 2nd time in his career, the other time was May 21-22, 2006
• Aubrey Huff was introduced to Comerica Park by hitting a 410 foot out to center