PREGAME: The Tigers go for the series win with Rick Porcello and some day baseball. Porcello has been on a roll and in his 4 May starts he’s allowed just 3 runs in 24 innings. He’ll be opposed by Kyle Davies who has really only had 2 bad starts this season, one of them coming against the Tigers on April 25th. In his last 3 outings he’s allowed just 6 runs, he’s fanned 15, and he hasn’t allowed a homer.

Detroit vs. Kansas City – May 27, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: This was one of those “taking care of business” games where the Tigers came out and excelled on several fronts to take the series. Offense, defense, pitching, it was all working. Fortunately I’ve been able to say that quite a bit lately.

• Rick Porcello was a little off in the first inning, but he settled in VERY nicely and went 6 innings on only 82 pitches. I actually wouldn’t have minded him going another inning as throwing 95-100 pitches on occasion probably wouldn’t hurt. But perhaps his success and the team’s success are creating a great emphasis to keep him available deeper into the season – meaning more conservation now.
• When I saw Anderson leading off I im’d Ian how brilliant it was to maximize the at-bats for a guy with a .660 OPS. Of course he went out and notched a hit in each of his first 4 at-bats after getting 4 hits in his previous 24 at-bats.
• Is the top of the order starting to click? Polanco had good swings all series, Ordonez is riding a 13 game hitting streak.  If these guys start clicking that takes pressure off of everybody else.
• Bobby Seay got charged with a tough run after a bloop hit got over Adam Everett and Joel Zumaya allowed him to score.
• Both Zumaya and Rodney had been taxed last week, and have been gathering moss ever since. So Leyland wanted each to get work, and work they got. Too much work.

PREGAME: I have to admit, I’m a little bit excited about tonight’s pitching match-up. The Tigers will be taking on Zach Greinke who quite frankly has been dominating the bejesus out of all comers. But the Tigers get to send out Edwin Jackson who no one would mistake for a slouch this year.

Greinke is coming off a rare loss, one in which he allowed a season high 8 hits. He’s yet to allow a home run this season. Heck, he’s only allowed 7 runs (6 earned) all season.

Jackson is of course coming off his 132 pitch outing and it will be interesting to see how long he is left in, especially in a game that looks on paper to be tight.

Detroit vs. Kansas City – May 26, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Zach Greinke is really good. That’s kind of the story tonight. The Tigers picked up a run early, and they got some hits, but oh those GIDPs. The Tigers hit into 3 of them, one of them even on a hit and run. The double plays negated the benefit of getting the leadoff men on and they also prevented the Tigers from running up Greinke’s pitch count. And then Greinke just got better as the game went on and tallied 8 K’s with no walks allowed.

For awhile it looked like that early run might be enough. Jackson’s command wasn’t spot on early on and he fell behind a number of hitter with first pitch balls. But the Royals didn’t really seem to want to wait him out and he course corrected and started cruising until he came undone in the 6th inning. A single and an error by Jackson and the Royals were in business. When they plated 2 runs, it felt like he’d allowed 1 too many.

• It was another decent start for Jackson who still isn’t disappointing. It was also a light workload for him today with only 89 pitches thrown – which makes me happy after his last 2 times out.
• Magglio Ordonez extended the hitting streak to 12
• Brandon Lyon continues on his Farnsworthian pace with yet another homer allowed. I’ll admit to advocating for Brandon Lyon to help the bullpen. I thought many of the calls for his release were overblown back in April, but the leash has to be shortening

PREGAME: I don’t want to bash a team that went 7-2 in their last 9 games, but dropping the last 2 games of the homestand while only scoring 4 runs and seeing the top 3 inthe lineup fail to get a hit for 2 straight days didn’t really leave a good taste. Maybe some barbeque will get the offense clicking.

The trouble is they have to face Gil Meche. Individually the Tigers have some good numbers against Meche, but the offense never seems to do much against him as a whole with Meche turning in 5 straight quality starts against Detroit.

Hopefully the Tigers will only need a couple runs because they have Justin Verlander going for them. Verlander is on a 5 game quality start streak of his own. He’s also thrown a considerable number of pitches lately (averaging 118 pitches over his last 4 starts), so a “light” day in terms of workload might be nice.

Detroit vs. Kansas City – May 25, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Well, Meche didn’t turn out to be a problem…at least not for the Tigers. He was wild from the get go and the Tigers were inclined to wait him out. Meche threw 73 pitches and only recorded 7 outs, and he clearly wasn’t helped by an error by Mark Teahen (who has a habit of gunning down Tigers at the plate). And really, pretty much every ground ball found a hole for the Tigers and ever broken bat flopped into the outfield. It was one of those days. With the lopsided final score the Tigers have now allowed the fewest runs in the American League.

Justin Verlander was awesome again, retiring the first 9 batters in a row and picking up the first 6 outs on only 17 pitches. He finished the day with an easy 7 innings and only 96 pitches. He was efficient enough that he had a decent shot at a complete game shutout, but given his recent workload I loved seeming him lifted with the game out of doubt. The ERA is down to 3.55 and Verlander is looking better than he ever has.

• There has been some talk of fans not wanting Magglio Ordonez to return to the lineup. Coming into today he was at 378/465/541 in his last 10 games and he added a single and a walk today.
• Zach Miner gave up the shut out with back to back 2 out hits, but somehow managed to throw only 11 pitches in his inning.
• Jeff Larish donned the golden sombrero and still managed to reach base twice
• Miguel Cabrera is good at baseball. Not only did he have 4 hits, but he turned a nice 3-6-3 double play

PREGAME: The Tigers will try to get their second 40 games back on track as they try to close out their 9 game homestand on an up note. With 7 wins under their belt already, the homestand has been a success, but if they drop the series to the Rockies it will seem a lot less satisfying.

Dontrelle Willis will try to replicate his success against the Rangers, although a 1 hitter might be asking a bit much.

The Rockies will counter with Jason Hammel. Hammel has allowed a lot of hits this year, 45 of them in 31 innings. Lefties have beat him up with a 1.066 OPS this year so I’d expect to see the left handed hitting outfield and Ramon Santiago in the lineup.

Colorado vs. Detroit – May 24, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: Armando Galarraga takes the mound for the Tigers tonight and he’s looking to avoid being the weak link in the rotation. The Tigers have 7 quality starts in their last 8 games, the lone non-quality start belongs to Galarraga when he was chased in the first inning by the A’s. In May the Tigers have 12 quality starts in 19 games and 4 of the non-quality starts belong to Galarraga.

For the Rockies it will be Jason Marquis. Marquis has middling peripherals and a middling ERA (4.75) to go along with them. But he has compiled some very nice games this year, and they’ve been on the road where he has a 1.138 WHIP. In Colorado that WHIP is 1.583.

The lineup courtesy of Jason Beck is:

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

Colorado vs. Detroit – May 23, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: And the streaks are over. The seven game winning streak – gone. The eight game Comerica winning streak – gone. The undeated on days of the week that start with the letter S – gone. The Tigers had the go ahead run on base in the 9th, but they were outplayed by a larger margin.

The Rockies hit the ball hard consistently off of Armando Galarraga and probably could have had more runs with some better luck. Heck, they lost a run when Chris Ianetta couldn’t score because he pulled a hammy. As for the Tigers offense? Two-thirds of the runs came when the Rockies failed to throw out Magglio Ordonez on a failed hit and run. The Tigers got another gift when Ordonez wasn’t punched out on a full count pitch in the 9th.

• Galarraga wasn’t awful, but he wasn’t good either. Most troubling was that when the team did get him off the hook for the loss he came up and went 3-0 to Todd Helton and then served up a meatball. But for most of the game he wasn’t nearly as nibbly as he has been.
• Some nice bullpening tonight from the beleaguered Nate Robertson and Brandon Lyon who combined to allow 2 baserunners, no runs, and a stranded runner on second in 3.2 innings with 3 K’s.
• The top of the order was brutal with a combined 0 for 12 from the top 3 and only one well struck ball in those 12 pa’s

Toledo 3 Gwinnett 7
Don Kelly went 2 for 4 and Wil Rhymes was 3 for 4 with a triple. Ruddy Lugo allowed 5 runs, but only 1 was earned, in 4 innings on 6 hits, 2 walks, and 3 K’s. Fu Te Ni pitched 1.2 innings allowing no hits and 1 walk with 2 K’s.

Erie 1 Akron 0
Ryan Strieby was 1 for 1 with 3 walks. Alex Avila and Andy Dirks both doubled. Jon Kibler was one out short of a complete game shutout. He scattered 7 hits and 2 walks while fanning 6.

Lakeland PPD

West Michigan 14 Peoria 4
Billy Nowlin homered twice as he came up a triple short of the cycle. Jordan Lennerton had 3 hits and Avasail Garcia went 4 for 5. Brandon Hamilton allowed 2 homers among 5 hits in 6 innings. He walked 1 and fanned 5.

PREGAME: The Tigers welcome in the Colorado Rockies as their first interleague opponent. The Rockies have struggled this year, but their pitching has actually been pretty good with a 4.27 FIP which coincidentally is the same as the Tigers.

Tonight’s starter is Ubaldo Jimenez. Jimenez walks a batter every other inning, but he also fans nearly one an inning and has allowed only 1 homer in 46 innings this year. He’s thrown 4 straight quality starts and has allowed just 6 runs in his last 27 innings. The walks have also been under control of late with a 22:6 ratio.

Rick Porcello gets the ball for the Tigers. Porcello has also been rolling allowing just 2 runs over his last 3 starts.

And on a related note, Rod Allen will miss his 2nd game as he attends his youngest daughter’s graduation. In his place will be Dan Petry. Does anybody else remember a certain game where Petry filled in for Allen? It was also on a Friday night. Give up? It was the Yankees game that ended at 3:30 in the morning.

Oh, and GO WINGS Colorado vs. Detroit – May 22, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: It was a beautiful night at the ballpark, especially for those who appreciate stellar defense. This game had a reel full of web gem type plays. It’s probably best to just watch the highlights but here is a quick run down:

1. Inge charges and barehands a ball to make a play look easy.
2. Josh Anderson throws a seed to the plate to end an inning and save a run
3. Brandon Inge runs to left field to snag a foul ball with his back to the basket
4. Miguel Cabrera fields a ground ball along the line, spins and touches the bag and fires home to turn a 3-2 GIDP

Rick Porcello certainly appreciated the help, but he was pretty good on his own as well. He was very efficient up until that 6th inning when struggled a little. But he finished with 6 innings, 1 run, and another quality start.

Inge crushes a ball to right center for the big hit of the game, and it was even a pretty good pitch, so Inge deserves all the credit on that one.

The rest of the offense can be largely attributed nice baserunning. The first run was set up when Gerald Laird hustled to go first to third, and then nicely read (with some help from Placido Polanco) a wild pitch to score the first run. Later in the 8th inning the Tigers twice broke up double plays with hard slides (Polanco at third and Larish at second) that allowed a 4th run to score which proved to be the difference because…

Joel Zumaya wasn’t good. He was on in place of Rodney who had pitched the previous 3 days. He was wild and very fastball happy. He couldn’t find the curve ball and make a 3 run lead with the bases empty into a 1 run lead with runners at the corner. Unfortunately Perry was used 2 innings and Zumaya threw 31 pitches so both are likely unavailable for Saturday’s game.