PREGAME: After a lengthy game with a disappointing result the Tigers turn to Justin Verlander to stave off the Metrodome sweep. He’ll be opposed by Scott Baker. Both pitchers will be expected to log some innings today as both bullpens were burned up in last night’s marathon. Detroit does have a fresh option in Lucas French, who was due to take his regular turn in the Toledo rotation and is Nate Robertson’s replacement. (Nate hit the DL with a back injury).

With a 1:10 start (noon:10 local time) we’ll see which offense wakes up first.

Detroit vs. Minnesota – May 14, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: It’s not too hard to find someone to blame in this one. Bobby Seay and Zach Miner combined to be awful and give away a 5 run lead before recording 2 outs. The result was a wasted outing by Justin Verlander, and 5 runs which haven’t exactly been easy to come by lately.

Verlander

He was freakishly good yet again today with a career high 13 strike outs. The only knock is that his pitch count crept up too high too early on a day when the bullpen was depleted. But he didn’t surrender a run and didn’t ask his position players to do much of anything. He recorded 15 swinging strikes as batter just can’t find his fastball.

In reading the comments, there is a lot of disagreement as to whether he should have been pulled. Verlander topped the 120 pitch mark when he was lifted and it was the 3rd straight start with a heavy workload. In my mind he certainly wasn’t pulled too early, and may have come out too late.

Listening to the game I didn’t think he’d be back for the 7th inning at all, and if he did I thought it would be to get Joe Crede. With the bullpen spent, I thought a 5 run lead and a clean slate would be a good situation to indoctrinate Lucas French. More on this in a minute.

As it was, Verlander put 2 men on including a walk to Nick Punto. At this point Leyland had to get him. Whether or not you believe in pitch counts, this had nothing to do with it. Verlander was gassed. Justin is normally a quick worker, and in that 7th inning he was taking longer between pitches. He had fanned Punto on all fastballs in his first 2 at-bats and start to finesse him with offspeed pitches in that last at-bat. And the velocity had tailed off after a flurry at the end of the sixth inning. It was time.

The pen

As I mentioned up above, a clean start with a 5 run lead might have been a nice spot to get French in the game. The downside of Verlander putting 2 guys on was that the situation became much more dicey and did call for Bobby Seay. As one of only 4 options (Miner/Rodney/French) and lefties coming it made sense to go with Seay. Seay didn’t get the job done. Miner didn’t get the job done either. I’m not soured on Seay, but Miner does not seem to pitch well out of the pen. It was a Twins sereis last year where he couldn’t throw strikes out of the pen that led to his demotion and it was more of the same the last 2 nights.

The offense

With 15 runs over the last 2 games it is starting to show signs of life again. Granted, it was helped by Jason Kubel not embracing a direct route to Santiago’s double, but that’s part of the game and the Tigers added on. And everybody that isn’t wearing catchers gear found a way to contribute the last 2 games.

PREGAME: It is merely coincidence that Dontrelle’s first takes place alongside the Lost Season Finale right? It isn’t a harbinger of things to come right? Headline writers won’t be able to point to some combination of Lost Season or Finale to describe this game right?

Well, here’s hoping that Dontrelle Willis maybe visited the island and his control problems have been cured. Willis is making his season debut as his DL (anxiety disorder) stint concluded after starts for Lakeland, Erie, and Toledo . Each stop saw an improvement in command over what we witnessed last year. Still his combined 26.7 innings pitched saw 9 walks, 3 homers, 16 K’s, and 23 hits so he wasn’t exactly dominating.

I have no idea what to expect tonight. I’m rooting for Willis, not only as a Tigers fan but because he seems to be one of the good guys.

Lefty Glen Perkins is on the mound for the Twins. There was a time when the Tigers hammered lefty pitching. That time isn’t now. Perkins started the year with 3 straight 8 inning outings where he allowed a total of 4 runs. Since then he hasn’t recorded an out in the 7th and has allowed at least 4 runs each game.

Detroit vs. Minnesota – May 13, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: This game deserves more analysis than what I’m about to offer up, but it’s 1 a.m. and I’m grumpy. Bringing Brandon Lyon out for the last inning was stupid. Leaving him in was beyond stupid. It’s almost hard to believe that a guy that is used to throwing 1 to 2 innings hung a curve ball on pitch number 60. Unless Nate Robertson was on life support this was incredibly freaking stupid.

Information coming in that Robertson is injured and Lucas French is on his way from Toledo. This news makes the above paragraph, well, misguided would be an understatement. You can backtrack on various pitcher usage through the game and look for things that could be done differently, but there is a point where you can’t plan for a 14 inning game.

PREGAME: If there is one thing that really irritates me about the Metrodome (and this is of course hypothetical because there are many one things), it’s the fact that they have patterns in the grass like it has been mowed. Only it’s not grass and it’s never been mowed and never will be mowed.

That’s right, the Tigers are playing at the Metrodome. Sigh. New stadium coming soon though.

Tonight it will be Armando Galarraga going for Detroit. He’s the only starter in the last turn through the rotation to allow runs in the multiple sense. He’s struggled in his last 2 starts allowing 11 runs in 11 innings with 5 walks and 5 K’s and 3 homers allowed.

On the other side it will be Kevin Slowey. Slowey has been a strike throwing machine and he has a whopping total of 2 walks…this season. He has allowed 6 homers in 34.1 innings so maybe the air conditioner will be blowing out tonight.

Many of the Tigers were out for extra batting practice today and this is how they’ll lineup tonight:

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

Detroit vs. Minnesota – May 12, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: And the 3 game win streak is over. It was one of those games. Armando Galarraga wasn’t good again. He couldn’t find the strike zone consistently and when he did the pitches got hammered. The outs were well hit, the hits were well hit. The Twins hit 3 balls with home run distance but Clete Thomas brought one back.

Galarraga settled down a little in the middle innings before things kind of spun out of control. There was a tough 4 pitch walk, and 2 double play balls that didn’t get converted including Placido Polanco’s first error of the year.  Ryan Perry came in and gave up a run, but it wasn’t until his 3rd inning and I thought it was one of his better outings.

As for the offense, you can’t say it was dead. They had 9 hits, including 2 homers and they doubled Slowey’s walk total for the season. They even got the benefit of a misplay by Tolbert and another by Delmon Young. They had a runner on second in each of the first 5 innings, and in two innings they had 2 on and nobody out. But the big hit just never came. Cabrera came the closest with a flyball to the warning track in right and a sharp grounder up the middle that Tolbert instead turned into a double play.

But with Laird, and Ordonez, and now Inge struggling there are some holes in the lineup. Clete Thomas is still hitting 3rd in this lineup, and his production hasn’t been the problem. Detroit even got a couple of homers from Jeff Larish and Ramon Santiago, but somehow they came with no one on base.

• I don’t know that I’ve seen a hitter do less with 5 pitches than Laird did tonight. A 3 pitch K, a pop out, and a check swing back to the pitcher.
• Inge had nothing to show for his night, but he had a couple of lengthy at-bats. You’d like to see that pay in results, but it is hard to be upset with the approach.
• Thomas also had 2 8-pitch plus at-bats, one resulted in a hit, the other a DP

Lehigh Valley 5 Toledo 3
Mike Hessman hit 3 doubles. Don Kelly was 2 for 2 with 2 walks. Jeff Frazier also had 2 hits. Ruddy Lugo allowed 6 hits and walked 4 in 5.1 innings. Fu Te Ni allowed a solo homer and 2 other hits in 2.2 innings. Clay Rapada struck out one in his inning of work.

Bowie 5 Erie 6
Cale Iorg went 2 for 4 with a double. Andy Dirks also had 2 hits. Deik Scram homered and walked. Jonah Nickerson struck out 6 and walked 2 in 6 innings of 3 run ball. Josh Rainwater pitched 1.2 innings with no baserunners allowed.

Lakeland – DNP

Clinton 8 West Michigan 9 (13 inn)
West Michigan has played their share of marathon games this year. In today’s they came back from 8 runs down. Ben Guez homered and doubled. Ronnie Bourquin went 3 for 6. Brent Wyatt doubled, tripled, and walked. Brandon Hamilton got knocked out in the 2nd inning after allowing 6 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks. Jared Gayhart pitched 4 scoreless innings with 3 K’s and a walk. Tyler Stohr pitched the last 3 innings allowing just 1 hit with 4 strikeouts.

PREGAME: First of all, happy Mother’s Day to all the Mom’s out there. Now onto the game as the Tigers go for the sweep of the Tribe.

So how would you like to be Rick Porcello today? He’s sitting there in front of  his locker before the game. A teammate slides up next to him and says: “You know, the Indians haven’t scored in this series. Don’t screw it up.” Or course Porcello can point to earlier in the week when he tossed 7 shutout innings against the Twins and perhaps get credit for starting this 3 out of 4 game shutout string.

On the other side it will be Anthony Reyes. Reyes hasn’t pitched that poorly this year. While he does have a 6.84 ER, he has done a reasonable job keeping his team in the game, giving up more than 4 runs in just one of his 5 starts. The peripherals aren’t impressive though with 12 walks and 14 K’s and 4 homers allowed in 25 innings.

Detroit vs. Cleveland – May 10, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Hey, it’s a sweep. And a sweep of a divisional foe. And the rest of the division lost today. And the Tigers moved into a tie for first place in the Central. And they’re 4 games over .500, someplace they haven’t been since the end of the 2007 season.

Rick Porcello allowed a run. Bum. Kidding of course. Porcello wasn’t particularly sharp early on, but his curve ball was in full hammer form and he did rack up 5 K’s in 5 innings of work. Not a bad outing at all.

Offensively the Tigers didn’t wait until the 7th inning stretch to get things going. Were it not for 4 double play balls this could have been a laugher.

And then there was Fernando Rodney. Rodney struggle with his fastball control on Saturday night. As a result he threw a ton of pitches and I was surprised to see him come out in today’s non-save effort. Things looked pretty good early on as two outs sandwiched a Jhonny Perralta single, and he got ahead of Grady Sizemore. The fastball command was there. And then it was gone. Sizemore ended up walking and things got way too interesting. What looked to be a “get back on the horse” effort quickly turned into one that could be invoking too much self doubt.

• Maggs reached base in 5 of his 8 PA’s this series. Could this be something?
• Granderson out played Grady defensively this series. This will not be debated.
• Bobby Seay had a few struggles of late, but pitched an easy 1 2/3 innings
• How long does Eric Wedge stick around? The Indians now have the worst record in baseball.
• Jeff Larish making the most of his opportunities with a homer and a triple the last 2 games.

PREGAME: The Tigers hadn’t won a Friday night game this season until last night. They haven’t lost a Saturday or Sunday game this season. Hopefully that trend continues one this weekend.

Another trend is that the offense goes into hibernation when Edwin Jackson pitches. The Tigers have provided a whopping total of 8 runs of support to Jackson this season. Some early runs would be nice tonight.

The Tigers will go with a lefty heavy lineup against Fausto Carmona. Carmona has allowed 59 baserunners in 35 innings this season. This should spell runs but the Tigers have had struggles of their own offensively of late. Carmona has always allowed a plethora of baserunners, but with his sinker he also gets his share of GIDPs. The Tigers will try to mitigate that risk with a speedy lineup featuring Granderson/Anderson/Thomas.

Detroit vs. Cleveland – May 9, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Was anyone else nervous that Edwin Jackson was going to get screwed again? Here he is pitching another gem (and each one seems to be a little better) and his guys can’t get the bats going. Fortunately, the Tigers finally got to Carmona by staying patient.

Back to back walks, a nicely executed sac bunt by Brandon Inge, and a grounder by Gerald Laird scored Granderson for the go ahead run. The Tigers added on 3 more, but it turns out they only needed the one run as the Tigers tossed back to back shutouts for the first time since the summer of 2006.

• Fun fact of the night anyone? Detroit picked up their 16th win tonight. Last year they also got their 16th win on May 9th. The difference was they had 21 losses at the time.
• Granderson got on base 3 times tonight.
• Fernando Rodney seemed to struggle with his fastball command for the first time this year. He walked only his 2nd batter of the year, but went to other 3 ball counts.
• Jackson only has 11 walks in his 7 starts this year. A quick check of his 2008 game log in his “breakout” season and the best 7 start stretch I could find was 14 walks (June 21st to July 30th). And he didn’t have the 35 K’s to go along with it (he had 16 K’s over that stretch).