Well, they did it:  the Tigers finished off the 3-game home series against the Twins with a sweep, which makes them 5-0 against the Twins this season.  Hopefully the home series was good for cash flow–the Tigers appear to be one of 9 MLB teams that have unacceptable debt loads.

The last time the Tigers and White Sox met, the Tigers swept the 3-game series, and held Chicago to a total of 3 runs for the entire series.  So, yes, the Tigers are a combined 8-0 vs the Twins and White Sox so far in 2011.  Add to that the last 6 games between the teams in 2010 that Detroit won, and Detroit tonight has a chance to win their 10th straight vs the White Sox, something they last accomplished in 1923.

The White Sox come into this game though with a lot of momentum, fresh from a 3-game sweep of the previously hot Red Sox, scoring 24 runs over 3 games.  So which White Sox will we see this series, the 3-run version or the 24-run version?

Attempting to make it the former will be Andy Oliver, making his 2nd start in place of Phil Coke. Chicago counters with lefty Mark Buehrle, who struggled in his Apr 22 start vs Detroit, and gave up 6 runs in 5 2/3 innings, including a 2-run HR to Ryan Raburn.

Rain is in the forecast, so stay tuned.

Oh, and the Free Press has officially jinxed Al Alburquerque, comparing him to Joel Zumaya.

Today’s Player of the Pre-Game:  Danny Worth

With Brandon Inge on the 15-day DL with mono, Danny has a chance to prove his worth at 3B. (Curiously, the Tigers called up C Omir Santos to take Inge’s spot).

Today’s Everyday Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Casper Wells RF
3. Brennan Boesch LF
4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
5. Victor Martinez DH
6. Jhonny Peralta SS
7. Ryan Raburn 2B
8. Alex Avila C
9. Danny Worth 3B

Tonight is the closet game of the Twins series, as the Tigers look to break out the brooms.  Last night’s game was filled with glove-clownery on both sides, and a phantom tag at home, but the Tigers again came out with the one-run victory.

After the game, Leyland had this to say of Ryan Raburn:  “he’s played good left field this year.”  He then went on to say that Raburn will “probably” be back at 2nd for tonight’s game.  Then today he submitted the lineup:  Ramon Santiago 2B.

He only made the briefest of appearances, retiring the pesky Jim Thome, but the third of an inning by Charlie Furbush gave him the cumulative equivalent of a 9-inning complete game shutout for his young career.  His 9 scoreless innings to start off his career is the most by a Tiger since Chris Mears in 2003.  Nonetheless, he is still stuck carrying the bullpen backpack, a new larger one apparently.  But is it still pink?  Still Hello Kitty?  Or some other horror?  We demand to know.

About the bullpen:  they came through last night.  But, say your closer isn’t available, and your 8th-inning guy blows through his 3 hitters in devastating fashion–well, is there some reason you couldn’t bring him back out for the 9th?  I’m just saying.

Rick Porcello tries to dust himself off tonight from the roughing up he took from the Red Sox last out.  Scott Baker was roughed up by his own bullpen last outing–they blew a 5-0 lead over the last 2 innings.

Today’s Player of the Pre-Game:  Andy Dirks

The Dirks has impressed with his play in left field;  now he gets to take a crack at the vast Comerica centerfield.

Today’s I Bet You Didn’t Expect This Lineup:

1. Don Kelly LF
2. Ramon Santiago 2B
3. Brennan Boesch RF
4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
5. Victor Martinez DH
6. Jhonny Peralta SS
7. Andy Dirks CF
8. Alex Avila C
9. Brandon Inge 3B

The Twins.  We all know what happens when we play the Twins:  balls are lost in the lights, infield squibs take strange hops, umpires don’t see batters hit with pitches, etc.  Yesterday, luck was finally reversed, as the umpires reversed a fan interference call that gave the Tigers the winning run, and detonated Ron Gardenhire’s head.  The Twins are officially having an awful year.

Tonight Mad Max Scherzer steps up for the Tigers.  His last outing was rather forgettable.  At least I wish it were.  Not to worry, though:  that was actually his evil twin, Matt Scherzer.  You can tell because the twin has the blue eye on the left side.  Or wait, is that Max?  Anyway, the Twins will be without their leading hitter, Jason Kubel.  Those Twins, with the .237 team average, without their leading hitter in the lineup, do you hear what I’m saying Max?

Lefty Brian Duensing takes the mound for the Twins.  Duensing pitched 2 innings against Detroit on May 10 following the hail storm delay, and gave up 2 runs, 2 hits and 4 walks.  He throws a lot of off-speed stuff, and I’m sure the Tiger plan of attack will be to take a lot of pitches, right? Right?

• Answer: 1
• Question:  How many hits does Raburn have at Comerica in May?

Today’s Player of the Pre-Game:  Miguel Cabrera

The state of Florida has returned Mr. Cabrera’s driver’s license, and he celebrates by driving in a few runs.

Today’s Everyday-Except-Today Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Casper Wells RF
3. Brennan Boesch DH
4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
5. Victor Martinez C
6. Jhonny Peralta SS
7. Brandon Inge 3B
8. Ryan Raburn LF
9. Danny Worth 2B

Happy Memorial Day everyone!  Summer is here, and no better way to celebrate the beginning of summer than with some Tiger baseball.  And Twins.

Spring ended on a pretty nice note, as Justin Verlander was back to his dominant self and shut down the Red Sox machine 3-0, the AL-leading 8th Tiger shutout of the season.  Verlander was pulled with 2-out in the 8th, because he was at 135 pitches and seemed to lose the strike zone, but it should be noted that his 135th pitch was 100 mph.  100.

With the streaky Tigers this season, a win has usually meant more are coming (as has a loss).  Normally, the Twins have not exactly been the best team to start a win streak against, but this year is not a normal year for Minnesota.  Their team batting average is a woeful .237, they have an AL-worst 3.43 runs per game (Detroit is at 4.23, league average is 4.26), their team ERA is a league-worst 4.77 (Detroit is 4.26, league average is 3.86).  So, not surprisingly, they also have a league-worst record at 17-34.

In the brief 2-game series the teams already played the Tigers battered the Twins pitching for 19 runs in 2 games.  But the Twins will start this series off with the one bright spot in their rotation, Nick Blackburn, who is 3-0, 1.72 for the month of May.  The Tiger least likely to get to Blackburn might be Jhonny Peralta, who is 3 for 20 lifetime against him.

The Tigers offer the Twins a Penny for their thoughts, as Bad Brad Penny returns after his 3 shutout innings against Tampa Bay were disappeared by the rain.

Today’s Player of the Pre-Game:  All U.S. Service members who have given their lives serving the country.

Today’s Memorial Day Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Andy Dirks LF
3. Brennan Boesch RF
4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
5. Victor Martinez DH
6. Jhonny Peralta SS
7. Alex Avila C
8. Ryan Raburn 2B
9. Brandon Inge 3B

Speechless and kinda sick to my stomach after game 1.  Beckett v. Verlander II sounds fun, more later.

(game will be televised on FSD)

Lots going on today.

First of all, in a move that reeks of DD desperation (and rightfully so), Scott Sizemore was traded yesterday to the athletics for LH reliever David Purcey. Considering Sizemore was once a top organizational prospect and is now gone after just over 200 ABs in the bigs demonstrates that there were some serious evaluation problems up and down the chain.  David Purcey is in his 3rd year in the bigs and looks to have finally figured out how to pitch at this level.  He was having a pretty decent ’10 campaign (1.21 WHIP, .210 BAA) until an injury ended his season after 34 IP. Detroit is his 3rd team already in 2011 as he was dealt to Oakland after being DFAd from Toronto early this season.  Though he had pitched well for the A’s, they have a plethora of worthy relievers (and Bailey is coming off the DL soon) which made Purcey expendable.  Apparently, the A’s have coveted Sizemore for some time.

I make the point about desperation because 1) DD is not under contract for 2012, 2) DD is admitting that the bullpen needs help as he has not been able to develop talent internally, nor has Benoit panned out thus far and 3) Sizemore is not the answer at 2B.

I also make the point about desperation because Ryan Raburn, who seems to have tree limbs for hands at times, will now be the regular 2nd baseman.  Whether this move came from the top, or it is Ol’ Smokey’s own doing, a fellow  2012 contract-less Jim Leyland is also beginning to realize that time is of the essence.  Lowe’s article in Today’s Freep contains a very scary chart which displays the offensive output for each of the four different 2B starters this season.  Read it at your own risk.

In today’s exciting news, Andy Oliver makes his 2011 debut after an impressive 9 starts in Toledo. Covering 9 starts with the Hens, Oliver had a 3.31 ERA , 1.26 WHIP, and 8.53 K/9.  The 2009 second rounder will fill in for Phil for at least two starts over the next week.  It will be interesting to see what happens to the rotation if he pitches well.

In other roster news – Wilk & Perry down to make room for Purcey & Oliver.

Tonight’s reasonably composed lineup:

1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Andy Dirks, LF
3. Brennan Boesch, RF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Victor Martinez, DH
6. Jhonny Peralta, SS
7. Alex Avila, C
8. Ryan Raburn, 2B
9. Brandon Inge, 3B

Thank goodness yesterday’s game was rained out.  Wait, scratch that.  It actually counts.

Though the Tigers are still over .500 and stand comfortably in second place, they are 6.5 games behind the Indians and are hitting about as well as the Gas House Gorillas.  In fact, the first few innings in that clip look eerily similar how Max Scherzer did yesterday.  Rosenberg put together a piece today in the Freep on some of the aforementioned troubles, but here was the strongest line (not that it’s news to us): “They are getting below-average production from second base, third base and — perhaps most critically — all three outfield positions.”

The red hot Red Sox have won 11 out of 13 and are now tied atop the AL East.  Their bats are booming, plating more runs in the past two games than the Tigers have in their last 10 games (and that includes 13 in the short sweep over Tampa Bay).  The elder statesman of the Majors, Tim Wakefield, takes the mound celebrating his 44th year and 298th day birthday.  Wakefield has been a spot starter for the Red Sox, posting a 4.50 ERA for the year.  In his 3 starts he’s had two decent ones, allowing 1 ER in each though he never made it out of the sixth, and got drilled for 6 ER in 4 1/3 innings against the meek Twins on May 6th.

The Tigers counter with Rick Porcello, who has been phenomenal for over a month now, posting a 1.59 ERA and .98 WHIP over his past 6 starts.  A win tonight would match Porcello’s career best of 5 consecutive wins.

Today’s Miggy at DH/VMart at 1B for the first time all year lineup is:

1. Jackson cf
2. Santiago 2b
3. Raburn lf
4. Cabrera dh
5. Martinez 1b
6. Peralta ss
7. Avila c
8. Wells rf
9. Inge 3b

Just 24 hours ago and the Tigers were cruising toward finishing off a sweep of the Rays:  they had put up 2 runs already and threatened more, and Brad Penny was mowing through the Rays lineup.  Then the clouds let loose, that bit of a game became a daydream, and we awake here instead looking at a Red Sox team that just put up 2 touchdowns against Cleveland, and has already swept a short series against the Tigers.

Of course it’s more than likely the whole downpour/partial-game-unhappening could happen again today: early weather reports show a small but well-timed window without rain today.

If they do play, Max Scherzer will have his hands full with a Boston lineup which has won 10 of its last 12, while outscoring its opponents 74-41.  And the hottest hitters have been the lefties:  Adrian Gonzalez, David Ortiz, and, finally, Carl Crawford.  Scherzer will counter with Comerica magic: he is 3-0, 0.77 at home so far this season.  The Tigers will face Alfredo Aceves, added to the Boston rotation when Daisuke Matsuzaka ran off to Japan with a sore arm.

Kevin Youkilis is day-to-day with a sore hand, so we may or may not see a rematch of Kid Rick vs The Youk on Friday, weather complications pending.

Today’s Player of the Pre-Game: Brandon Inge

Inge’s job is to provide the hockey gear for the rain delay, as Brad Penny, fresh from a sharp 3-inning outing which never happened, gets another chance to put a few shots on goal. When the game resumes Inge, having read that Avila’s recent show of power is due to a heavier bat, attempts to bat with the warmup donut still on the bat and strains an oblique.

Today’s Singin’ in the Rain Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Don Kelly LF
3. Brennan Boesch RF
4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
5. Victor Martinez DH
6. Jhonny Peralta SS
7. Alex Avila C
8. Scott Sizemore 2B
9. Brandon Inge 3B