PREGAME: The Minnesota Twins make their first journey to Comerica Park as the Tigers complete the homestand with a 2 game series. The Twins have been outscored by 26 runs this year, but are only a game under .500.

The Twins are one of only 3 AL teams to be slugging below .400, but the return of Joe Mauer should help to boost that number. On the pitching side, the team ERA is an uncharacteristic 5.42, but their FIP ERA is only 4.67, a hair better than the Tigers 4.71. What is normal is that they are once again leading the league in walks allowed.

Tonight it will be Edwin Jackson taking on Francisco Liriano. Jackson pitched 6 shutout innings his last time out, and got a no decision on the night of the infamous 10 run 7th inning.

Liriano brings in a 6.04 ERA, but his peripherals are fairly average. Baseball Tonight took a look at Liriano and noticed he’s throwing fewer sliders, and when he does he gets fewer swings and misses since his surgery.

Batters are hitting .333 and slugging .524 against his fastball while swinging and missing less than 10 percent of the time. While they aren’t hitting the slider well this season, they aren’t swinging-and-missing as much as they did preinjury, when batters missed the pitch almost half the time. Liriano (0-4, 6.04 ERA) takes the mound Monday night against the Detroit Tigers, who swing and miss against sliders 32.9 percent of the time, slightly higher than the league average.

One other note, Matt Treanor was moved to the 60 day DL which frees up a spot on the 40 man roster.

Minnesota vs. Detroit – May 4, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Will someone please get Edwin Jackson some runs. In a near duplication of last Tuesday’s tilt against the Yankees, the Tigers went into the 7th tied in a pitchers duel. They came out of the 7th looking at a substantial deficit.

Jackson was good, probably better than his final line indicates. But  he did struggle in the 7th. After Justin Morneau hit a pretty good pitch for a two strike single, he lost Jason Kubel to a walk after getting ahead with 2 strikes. And it was all down hill from there. Curtis Granderson got a bad read on a shot to the base of the wall in center and the tie was broken.

Brandon Lyon plunked the first guy he faced. And then Miguel Cabrera converted a bunt into an out at the plate on a fine play. Clay Rapada made some good pitches but it restulted in a soft single off of Adam Everett’s glove and a bloop single to left.

Of course the Tigers offense was completely stymied. Miguel Cabrera was half the scoring, and the Tigers looked to be putting a mini-rally together late but it resulted in only one run.

And Carlos Guillen was brutal defensively. He is playing a ridiculously deep left field meaning runners can round third at will on ground balls, and the aforementioned blooper can happen. Yet he isn’t getting to the deep balls either. I don’t know how much has to do with his various ailments or inexperience compounded by a spring in which he spent too big a chunk as the Venezuelan DH. But it isn’t working.

PREGAME: As I start to write up today’s game thread, I realize the team has split the first 2 games of a series quite frequently. Basically every series since their first 2.

Today it will be Justin Verlander who is coming off his best start of the season. We’ll see if the stuff is there again, and it better be because the Indians can beat up Verlander pretty good. He has a 4-10 career mark against Cleveland and they’ve hit him at an 837 OPS clip.

The Indians send out their ace as well, lefty Cliff Lee. Clifton Phifer Lee was shelled in his first 2 starts, but has posted 3 quality starts since then allowing 3 runs in his last 20 innings.

One thing to watch today, Inge has hit Lee to the tune of 400/471/633 in 34 plate appearances. Inge is also riding that consecutive games on base streak. Things look favorable for him today in terms of match-up, but will these be one of those paradoxical baseball things where he gets stymied?

Inge might get an extra shot for his streak as he moves up one spot in the order with Gerald Laird getting the day off.

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

Cleveland vs. Detroit – May 3, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Verlander’s fastball was the story of this game. He rode his high 90’s heater to 11 strikeouts, good enough to put him on top of the AL leaderboard. It was simply a matter of overpowering the Indians hitters. It wasn’t fancy, it was just raw heat. He’d mix in a curve or change early in the count, but more often than not it was the fastball that either had Cleveland frozen or waving at air. It was beautiful.

And when Verlander did get in trouble in the 7th inning, with the bases loaded and nobody out, it was more domination. His last 7 fastballs AVERAGED 99.25mph. As Rod Allen would say, that’s some serious cheese. He went to that cheese 79 times today, 55 for strikes and 11 of the swing-and-miss variety (plus 2 foul tips into the glove).

Bobby Seay was a little shaky for the second straight day, but Joel Zumaya came in and induced a bullet right at Adam Everett. Fernando Rodney finished things off with a 1-2-3 9th inning on 12 pitches.

As for the offense, it was Brandon Inge again going deep. Everybody had a hit except for Guillen and Raburn. Guillen hit the ball well in 3 of his at-bats, but right at the right fielder every time.

This one felt good, and in what was a very up and down week finishing the week 3-3 isn’t so bad.

PREGAME: It’s the Tigers first foray into “National TV” (by National I mean Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, the Dakotas, parts of West Virginia, Erie PA and Spokane) today with an afternoon tilt as game 3 of Fox’s MLB Saturday.

Zach Miner takes the hill for Detroit. This may not bode well because he posts an 857 OPS against at home (653 on the road) and a 799 OPS against in day games (738 after dark). Oh yeah, and the Indians have a 987 OPS against him. Then again Carl Pavano was supposed to be awful and he stymied the Tigers.

For the Indians it will be Aaron Laffey. The 24 year old lefty has a 2.41 ERA in 18.1 innings due in large part because he’s kept the ball in the park. He’s yet to allow a homer this year. He has walked 10 and only fanned 9.

Cleveland vs. Detroit – May 2, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

Game Time 3:40

POSTGAME: Well a lot happened in that game. The Tigers got a big inning and an Adam Everett grand slam. The Indians got a Raburn induced big inning right after. And the the teams took turns picking on each other’s bullpens but the Tigers prevailed. That was your 4 sentence summation.

• Everett had a great at-bat (and not just the result) when he hit the grand slam. It was nice to see him rewarded. But I have to wonder how often a player hits a slam, and then is asked to sacrifice bunt, and then is pinch hit for? I’m not saying any of the decisions were wrong, but an interesting day for Everett
• Inge continues to pick it and get on base.
• A lot of people love small ball. When it works it can be fun. But thank goodness Leyland wasn’t having Granderson sacrifice in the 8th inning. I love it when we beat up on Betancourt.
• Miguel Cabrera is back to ripping the ball.
• Carlos Guillen has been a ground ball machine lately, but he kept the ball in the air today. He only had a sac fly to show for it, but is this the start of something?
• Miner didn’t deserve to be hung with 5 earned runs. Official score keeping is bizarre. It started in the Angels series, but the Comerica scorer has been awful this week as well.
• Bobby Seay gave up a run. First one this year. I can’t complain, especially since the boys still got a W.
• Joel Zumaya is making me smile
• Fernando Rodney has pitched 5 innings in save situations this year and has allowed 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out 5.

Toledo 5 Lehigh Valley 6
Dontrelle Willis walked 2 in the first, but finished after 5 IP, 7 hits, 2 BB’s, a HBP, and 4 K’s. Sixty of his 102 pitches went for strikes.Fu Te Ni allowed 2 runs on 4 hits while recording just 2 outs. Jeff Larish homered and drove in 2. Wilkin Ramirez singled and added his 7th stolen base of the season.

Erie 5 Bowie 2
Max Leon, Deik Scram, and Brennan Boesch each had 2 hits. Brooks Brown allowed 2 runs (his first this season) on 7 hits and 2 walks in 7 innings. Cody Satterwhite allowed 3 hits and fanned 3 in 2 innings.

Lakeland 0 Brevard County 2
There was really no offense to speak of. Lauren Gagnier fanned 5 and walked 2 while allowing 7 hits and 2 runs in 4.1 innings. Robbie Weinhardt struck out 3 and allowed 2 hits in 2 innings.

West Michigan 6 Cedar Rapids 5 (15 inn)
Joe Bowen went 3 for 7. Brandon Douglas, Bryan Pounds, and Jordan Lennerton each had 2 hits. Casey Crosby allowed 4 runs in 4 innings on 6 hits, 2 walks and 6 K’s. Matt Hoffman pitched 8 shutout innings in relief with 5 K’s, no walks and 4 hits.

PREGAME: It’s AL Central season for the Tigers. After playing only 5 intra-divisional games in the month of April, the next 13 are against divisional foes. First up are the Indians, who are for the time being Hafner-less.

Carl Pavano will make the start for the Tribe. Pavano has given up more than a run an inning this year, thanks in part to a 9 run 1 inning effort his first time out. Things have been a little better since then, but he still only has one quality start. One thing Pavano has done well is limit the free passes with only 5 walks in 18 innings.

Armando Galarraga gets the ball for Detroit with his 1.85 ERA. He’s done that by fanning a batter an inning and keeping the ball in the park with only one homer allowed on the season. He has been a little susceptible to the walk though with 8 issued over his last 2 games.

Your Guillen-returns-to-the-field starting lineup:

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

Cleveland vs. Detroit – May 1, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: The Tigers dropped their 3rd in a row. It’s the first time they’ve dropped more than back to back games this year and now find themselves back at .500.

Armando Galarraga wasn’t good and he followed a disturbing Tigers pattern of being undone by a big inning when 5 runs crossed in the 2nd.As such he was done after 5 leaving 4 innings for the bullpen. The pen, by comparison didn’t fare too poorly with Nate Robertson allowing a run in 3 innings and Ryan Perry pitching a scoreless 9th. It wasn’t a real clean performance with 6 baserunners allowed, but the damage was minimal.

Of course it also proved difference making with the team coming up one run short.

The most troublesome aspect of the game was the offense being 4 hit by Carl Pavano. Pavano just breezed through the Tigers lineup way too easily. I appreciate the fact that they rallied in the 8th inning, but they have to generate more offense consistently.

• Nice to see Miguel Cabrera ripping the ball again. He had a couple hard outs as well as the homer.
• Carlos Guillen is playing too deep in left field, especially with runners in scoring position
• Brandon Inge continued his streak of being on base every game. He also add a web gem-ish quality play on a foul ball