8-5, 1st place, 1 game up.

Last night’s win had a little bit of everything. To begin, a second consecutive tremendous start by Fister. 4 hits, 1 walk and 2 earned over 7, which was just enough time to give the Tigers an opportunity to make the game un-blowpen-able. The top of the lineup again showed why they are the best in baseball, with #s 1-3 going 7-13 with 6 RBI and 4 runs scored. Add in Fielder and VMart, and 1-5 went 10-22. Fielder had an off game including 4 Ks, but he’s not going to collect multiple hits every night, and this lineup is deep enough that on a night when your cleanup guy goes 0-5 and strands 3, the Tigers still win comfortably.

I was impressed with the major league debut of Yoervis Medina, who was baptized into the league in a very JL manner -bases loaded pressure situation. To which he responded by walking Hunter, and then striking out Cabrera on a nice outside fastball (I thought he got squeezed on the first pitch of the AB as well. He then K’d Fielder to lead off the 9th with a fastball in the same location. Fielder was walking out of the box before the umpire could raise his hand.

In case you didn’t notice this from last night – the Tigers struck out 16 (SIXTEEN) times. 10 out of the last 12 outs were Ks. They were also 2-10 with RISP. 12 base hits and 4 walks will mask a lot of things.

So on to tonight.

The Tigers face the great King Felix, otherwise known as the 2nd biggest contract in the AL AKA the 2nd best pitcher in baseball. That aside, Felix has dominated the Tigers over his career, to the tune of 9-2, and has been unbeatable as of late (if you consider 6 years “as of late”), going 9-0 with a 2.86 ERA covering 10 starts dating back to July of 2007. At Safeco he’s even better – 4-0 with a 2.42 ERA. Despite that, Miggy (.429 in 21 ABs) still hits Felix well. Look for Hunter (.324 career v. Felix covering 68 ABs) to get us going. The Tigers roster only has 2 career HRs off of King Felix – Peralta and VMart each have 1.

Tonight’s Is Something Wrong with Avila? Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Dirks, LF
7. Peralta, SS
8. Pena, C (remember, he’s a switch hitter, so my guess is that Jimmuh wants to give AA a night off)
9. Infante, 2B

Moment of silence for Boston, please. Really cool what the Yankees did earlier tonight.

*******

7-5, 1st place, tied with KC.

The Tigers cruise up to Seattle on a sweet 3 series winning streak perched atop the AL Central. No reason why it shouldn’t be 4, but with Felix Hernandez pitching tomorrow, winning tonight becomes critical with an eye towards taking the series.

With Jeremy Bonderman not quite yet ready to step into the M’s rotation, they had to go out and make a move to get 34 year old righty Aaron Harang. Harang will begin his M’s career tonight by making his 300th career appearance. Harang looks like he had a decent year last year – posting a 3.61 ERA in 180 IPs, but his 1.40 WHIP and 6.56 K/9 demonstrate why the Ms were able to get him for AAA guy Steven Hensley. This will be Harang’s 4th start against the Tigers (0-1 5.63 ERA), but he’s barely faced the current lineup. Fielder has 3 bombs and a .318 average in 44 PAs, Peralta is batting .304 in 23 ABs. Harang has frustrated Cabrera to date – .133 BA in 15 ABs.

In case you forgot after an off day, Porcello pitched late Sunday afternoon (most of us were likely plugged into the Cabrera/Scott showdown in Augusta). Thus no Porcello in the image rotators above. Instead, it’s ice man Doug Fister.

Fister shook off a shaky start in a W over the Yankees with a  masterful 8 IP, 1 ER win over Tor last Thursday. Remember that we plucked Fister from Sea for Casper Wells, Charlie Furbush, Francisco Martinez and Chance Ruffin (PTBNL).  Furbush is the only player on the Mariners active roster. This begs the question – can you name a trade in the past 5 years where DD hasn’t come out on top?

Tonight’s Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, C
6. Peralta, SS
7. Avila, C
8. Infante, 2B
9. Kelly, LF

After a three-HR assault, a three-hit six-inning Verlander gem, and a three-K 9th by Joaquin Benoit to end some bullpen drama, the Tigers go into today with a chance to start their only West Coast trip with a series win.

The Tigers give the call to Anibal today. Sanchez has had two strong outing so far (1-0, 1.50 ERA), and has struck out 13 in 12 innings so far. Look for some more today, as Anibal faces an Oakland lineup missing Coco Crisp and Yoenis Cespedes to injuries, and seems to have a game plan of taking a lot of pitches against the Tigers staff.

Left Fielder Seth Smith is one guy that Sanchez might want to be careful with: Smith is a career 7-for-15 with 3 home runs agains Anibal.

When Anibal does need to hand over the ball the A’s will get to face a bullpen that is not only shaky, but depleted: not many pitchers will be available today. Dotel suffered elbow soreness in Friday night’s game). Coke should be available, as is Wild Brayan. And of course Don Kelly. But beyond that, who knows? The main option though, is likely to be…Rick Porcello.

You may have noticed Porcello warming up last night. Since the one off day on the West Coast trip falls on Monday, Porcello will skip his normally scheduled Tuesday start and Fister will take Tuesday, leaving Porcello as a fill-in bullpen guy.

Speaking of bullpen guys, Jose Valverde pitched to his first live batters in an extended spring training game in Lakeland (1 scoreless inning with a walk and a strikeout). Only one walk per inning? That is looking good these days.

*****

We had a lot of good input on the potentially controversial BHIP (beard hit by a pitch) situation inspired by Josh Reddick. I should add that it should be pretty clearcut that if his beard is in the strike zone (even if his body is not), the correct call would be a strike. I think there are also potential issues such as interfering with the catcher’s throws that should be considered while forming a MLB beard policy.

Today’s A of the Day is Eric Sogard, who is one the few position players in MLB in this century to sport eyeglasses. Here we have a proposed All-Time players-with-glasses list, which overlooks a certain Tiger closer for the closer spot, preferring instead a fictional character.

*****

Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Victor Martinez. Snakebit or not, the longer his slump goes the more pressure it will create. A three-hit day would solve that nicely.

Today’s Sub-less Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Dirks, LF
7. Peralta, SS
8. Avila, C
9. Infante, 2B

Well, that is the A’s for you–beating you with a guy like the testosterone-deprived Bartolo Colon, who really did manage to shut down the Tigers, who, with the exception of Prince Fielder, were helpless against his array of, um, pitches and stuff, and who suffered a virtual shutout (no runs in the last 9 innings of the game).

Not that he had stuff like Max Scherzer. Maxwell had the silver hammer out last night, striking out 11 in 6 innings, with only 1 walk and 5 hits, and even had an error, which is a Tiger pitcher way of saying hey, I’m ready for the postseason.

[By the way, how good does the Granderson/Edwin Jackson for Scherzer/Coke/Austin Jackson trade look right now?]

Anyway it’s too soon now, and hopefully in two weeks this will seem like a silly question, but at what point would one be willing to say uh oh, Victor has lost it? The All-Star break? And what is Plan B?

*****

April 27 is Reggie Jackson bobblehead night in Oakland. OK, who would YOU schedule bobblehead nights for? These things need some lead time, you know. They have to design, produce, and distribute the things, so the bobblehead nights now were probably planned months ago, and the A’s lineup seems to turn over quickly.  Actually I would go for a Josh Reddick bobblehead night, but only if the bobbleheads could have real hair beards and not just plastic mold ones. That would make all the difference.

Speaking of Reddick, I have pursued all avenues to answer a nagging question I have, without satisfaction. Bud Selig, the Major League Umpires Association, this guy I know who knows a guy, nobody will answer my question. Which is: if Josh Reddick continues growing his beard, say to chest length, and it is blowing in the breeze, all blonde and fluffy, and a pitch flips it aside–does he go to first base? You might laugh now, but it will be no laughing matter when this happens in the playoffs (Brandon Inge nods his head in agreement).

*****

Today’s Jet-Lagged, Sleep-Deprived Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Tuiasosopo, LF
7. Peralta, SS
8. Infante, 2B
9. Pena, C

Yes, the game post picture is a mite creepy. But then again, it is a 10:00 pm EST game, and creepiness is thematically apt.

Whenever the Tigers play at Oakland, there are three unavoidable questions that come to mind:

1. Will anyone stay up late enough to watch?
2. Who named O.co Coliseum, and how much would it cost to rename it? And what civil or criminal remedies are available? and
3. The team name. I mean, Athletics is easy to work with, but A’s? It seem so…possessive. And what would the possessive of A’s be? A’s’s? As in the A’s’s record so far is best in the American League?

And it is. Against all odds, the A’s seem to be doing it again.

The Tigers just played the anti-A’s, and came within a bullpen meltdown from a series sweep. The Blue Jays spent the offseason stalking the Marlins and others like some crazed Ebay mavens, and gobbled up half a team’s worth of star players: Jose Reyes. Josh Johnson. Mark Buehrle. Melky Cabrera. R.A. Dickey.  It was like a fantasy league draft. And yet currently the Blue Jays sit at a glum 3-6, and just claimed Tiger (and Mariner!) castoff Casper “The Ghost” Wells.

The A’s, on the other hand, after surprising everyone with their unexpected run into the playoffs last season, bolstered their team for 2013 by…well, what, exactly? After making a big fuss about how important the clubhouse presence of Brandon Inge was, they flicked him aside without much ado. They lost Dallas Braden, Brandon McCarthy and Stephen Drew, and added…umm, Chris Resop? And yet there they sit at 8-2, with the best record in the American League, having just swept the “juggernaut” California Angels.

It’s still early, but still impressive.

Tonight they send out the Reanimated, Rehabilitated Bartolo Colon to face Mad Max Scherzer. Bartolo has no business being in a Major League Baseball uniform, which means he will probably shut out Detroit.

*****

By the way,  one of the best value tickets in all of Major League Baseball: the tickets behind the bullpens in Oakland, which are on the field between 1st/3rd and the outfield. I had the pleasure of watching Brayan Villarreal, Al Alburquerque, and Daniel Schlereth warm up there from about 20 feet away, and it was most informative.

*****

Stat of the Day:  Teams who rest two .400 hitters on a West Coast trip opener win 66.6% of the games on the road trip.

Really Weird, Check-It-Out-Yourself, No-Really, Stat of the Day: This is the ONLY West Coast road trip. All season.

Player of the Pre-game: Don Kelly. With the fearsome Ramon Santiago hitting behind him finally Kelly will get some good pitches to hit. And having Kelly on base in front of him will clearly get Santiago “going.”

Today’s Clearly-Hunter-And-Infante-Need-A-Rest-From-The-Long-Plane-Trip Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Dirks, LF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Avila, C
7. Peralta, SS
8. Kelly, RF
9. Santiago, 2B

Victor Martinez back in the lineup already, what a trooper. Martinez is on the unlucky side of BAbip at the moment. Ain’t nothin’ but a thang.

How about that bullpen? Abysmal with inherited runners. 6 of 6 scored… in one game?? But it’s early, much too early to contemplate Villareal and Alburquerque being sent to Toledo and replaced by Rondon and Valverde, so I won’t even mention it.

Rain in the forecast threatens to seriously delay or postpone today’s game, but in the unlikely event it comes off, here’s one angle on the pitching matchup:

Josh Johnson has, for all practical purposes, never faced the current Tigers. Doug Fister’s OPS-against (90 PA, 0 HR and only 8 XBH) vs. current Blue Jays is a sparkling .668 vs. a sparkling  career .676. Too bad if the game is rained out, because Fister could be Fister against the Jays and rule Toronto, unless we factor in regression to the mean, in which case Fister gets bombed. Prayers for rain would appear to be unnecessary today, in any event.

Actually, the Tigers bullpen is making the starting pitcher matchups somewhat irrelevant. Unless that turns around (in a good way, not a reversal of failure), it might be more informative to pit bullpen vs. bullpen in my little OPS-against doo-dads.

And now today’s starting lineups, courtesy of the dejected but resilient…

POST-GAME: Tigers 11, Blue Jays 1. Sometimes a lopsided score makes a great win. This time a GREAT win makes a lopsided score. Pitching, baserunning, hitting, defense – the Tigers had it ALL going on. Detroit (5-4) takes the series from Toronto (3-6) in what could easily have been a sweep. In keeping with a game to remember, Miguel Cabrera had a career first – same game triple and stolen base (a brilliant steal of third by the smartest baserunner on the team). Doug Fister did indeed rule the Blue Jays. Watch the Arencibia at bats.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Doug Fister, Prince Fielder, Torii Hunter

HONORABLE MENTION: Jhonny Peralta, Austin Jackson, Miguel Cabrera, Andy Dirks

NOT SO GOOD: Josh Johnson, Esmil Rogers

Turning point: 1st inning,  Miggy catches the Jays sleeping and steals third (two outs!), scores shortly thereafter. Game winner: 2nd inning hit parade, kicking off with 6 hits wrapped around a sac fly. Game keeper: 3rd inning, Peralta ranges to keep one in the IF that could have sent Reyes to 3B, then ranges right again to get the force on Reyes at 3B. And then Dirks nails Melky at the plate to take the wind out of Toronto’s sails for good. Two on with no outs and nothing to show for it. Beauty.

Houston (Dallas?), we have image. Thank you, man!

Victor Martinez is day to day after cutting his thumb badly enough to require stitches. I think it’s time for some bat rack modifications. Jason Beck says no Kelly and no catch if V-Mart is in there. I say more runs for Tigers if Kelly isn’t. Not to take away from Don’s awesome play.

Today the Tigers are up against that old nemesis archetype, the crafty lefty, while Rick Porcello would do well to avoid mistakes against a team far more liable to make you pay for them than the Twins were.

Mark Buehrle’s OPS-against vs. current Tigers (360 PA) is .752 vs. a career .734, and when he’s hittable, these Tigers find him hittable for extra bases. Porcello’s OPS-against vs. current Blue Jays (78 PA… 3 strikeouts)  is a whopping 1.150 (BA is .446!) vs. a career .770. This could be a game of Toronto speed (they’re going to get on base against Mr. P)  vs. Detroit long ball. Or worse. Or better. Rick appears to have taken it up a notch so far this season. This is not your grandfather’s Porcello.

And now your starting lineups, courtesy of the alert and helpful…

POST-GAME: Blue Jays 8, Tigers 6. Tough loss, a win handed right back to the opponent. Long rain delay before the game and some rain during the game. Dangerous game to be a pitcher, batted balls bouncing off them, knocking them down, and worse.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: J.P. Arencibia

HONORABLE MENTION: Miguel Cabrera, Phil Coke, Prince Fielder, Mark De Rosa

NOT SO GOOD: Brayan Villareal, Octavio Dotel, Steve Delabar, Emilio Bonifacio

Turning points: Both 5th inning: Plus side, Hunter not trying to score on Cabrera double and Buehrle being pulled for Delabar; minus side, rally-fizzling ABs by Avila and Infante. Game loser: Villareal losing batters on 3 straight full counts and Dotel serving it up to Arencibia on a tee for the 3-run double. Tough luck: Martinez ahead 3-0 and flies out deep left in the 6th, Avila’s heartbreak flyout to the RF track in the 7th. Funny, kind of: Dotel taking one for the team where it hurts. Really tough luck: Pouring rain in the home 9th and a home plate umpire calling balls as strikes to get the game over with.

I know. It’s invisible ink, that’s all. Hold a candle to it.

After a Monday off for both teams, the Toronto Blue Jays (2-4) come to Detroit (3-3) for a three-game series. There is rain in the forecast for the Detroit area Tuesday through Thursday, and cooler temps those last two days, so the weather is likely to become a factor in the games at some point. Game time is 1:05 PM ET each day.

Probable starters for the series:

Tuesday, April 9: RHP Brandon Morrow vs. RHP Anibal Sanchez

Wednesday, April 10: LHP Mark Buehrle vs. RHP Rick Porcello

Thursday, Aptil 11: RHP Josh Johnson vs. RHP Doug Fister

The Blue Jays, like the Tigers, are a star-studded team with big fan expectations that has scuffled a bit out of the gate. Maybe more than a bit. Toronto’s team BA is .223 and OBP .295; fully half their runs (of 3.7 per game) are home runs, which doesn’t even include from home runs. Pitching? Team ERA of 4.82 and WHIP of 1.5. Compare Tigers: BA .282 & OBP .341 (but only 9 of 58 hits were XBH), ERA and WHIP of … um, OK, it’s a wash, 4.64 and 1.41. The Blue Jays have been sloppy defensively and erratic overall. The Tigers have been good defensively, and are technically without an error through 6 games (but we know better). Detroit’s major weakness has been a shaky bullpen, one game blown and two more put out of reach. If it’s less who you’re playing and more when you’re playing them, in Toronto’s favor is that they may choose this time to get it together. In Detroit’s favor is that the Jays will be attempting this in the face of better starting pitching than they’ve faced in three consecutive games so far this season. I like Tigers chances for a series win, myself. The Tigers have stolen as many bases as Toronto this year, by the way.

Brandon Morrow’s OPS-against vs. current Tigers (61 PA) is .635 vs. his career .695. He’s also struck out this bunch at a higher clip than his already impressive 9.6 K/9 would suggest. Anibal Sanchez’s OPS-against vs. current Blue Jays (113 PA) is .858 vs. his career .712, and he’s a bit more walk-happy against them as well. All this can only mean one thing: Anything. My guess is that Sanchez dominates and Morrow doesn’t make it through the 5th.

Back later with the post-game.

And now, may I present the up-to-the-minute and accurate starting lineups, courtesy of the wildly amusing and highly mobile…

POST-GAME: Detroit 7, Toronto 3. Wins don’t get much more satisfying than this. Sanchez got better as the game went on and showed off his considerable arsenal of pitches. Cabrera was just plain great.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Miguel Cabrera, Anibal Sanchez

HONORABLE MENTION: Don Kelly, Torii Hunter (who picked up career hit #2,000)

NOT SO GOOD: Jhonny Peralta, Joaquin Benoit

A turning point: Don Kelly’s tremendous HR-robbing catch of Arencibia’s smash to LF in  the 2nd. A potential turning point: Another questionable attempt to take an extra base by Hunter, nailed at the plate in the 3rd. The game winner: Miguel’s sneaky 2-out, 3-run HR in the 4th. Backbreaker: Izturis’s throwing error in the 8th.

When I first took a look at the schedule, I thought that the Tigers should be able to take each of the first 2 series, and get out of the gate 4-2. After a disappointing games 2 and 3, the Tigers can get to 4-2 with a sweep today, which would be the first regular season sweep of the Yankees since ’08, and first in Detroit since 2000.

The Tigers face Yankees ace CC Sabathia. In his career, Sabathia is 18-12 with a 4.43 ERA against the Tigers. Over his last 8 starts at Comerica, he’s 2-5 with a 6.80 ERA. Which segues nicely into my next point – is Sabathia losing his stuff?

Looking at Fangraphs Pitch f/x data, you can see that Sabathia’s fastball has lost a few mph. Early in his career he averaged about 94 mph and topped out at 99. Last year he averaged 92.4 and topped out at 96.3. He looked slow in spring training, and in the Yankees opener, his fastball averaged 89.9 mph and topped out at 91.3. I recognize that one game doesn’t make a sample size, but his 2011 and 2012 have begun the downward trend. I don’t know if he can reverse it at this point in time. As we’ve discussed here before, losing a few mph on your fastball is killer for a starting pitcher, and low 90s got Jose Valverde booted from the big leagues.

This is CC’s 10th time to match up against JV, he’s 4-4 with a 5.01 ERA. Both Cabrera (1.147 OPS) and Fielder (1.098) rake against CC. Peralta (1-17) not so much.

Let’s see if JV can pitch into the 6th today.

*************

A few notes:

– Austin Jackson has led off each game by reaching base, and has scored 4 times. He has 7 runs scored in 5 games this season. And he’s Kd 2 while walking 3 times.

– ESPN did a touching article on Max Scherzer and his brother yesterday.

– I’ve gotta take back my “6.74” post yesterday. The Tigers bullpen ERA is actually a bit lower because none of the ERs were charged to Al Al yesterday, despite a 3.0 WHIP performance.

– Off day tomorrow – so root extra hard today.

Today’s Series Sweeping Lineup (coming soon – update, gotta jet, someone please post). I think we’ve established that Pena will be starting, look for Tuiasosopo to start in left.

Now that was a Hope Opener.

Like most of you, I surmise, I came into baseball consciousness well before the internet, streaming scores and instant updates. Growing up in Arlington, the only way I could get Tigers scores was to maybe catch a glimpse on the evening news (if I was allowed to stay up that late), or hopefully catch the “out of town scores” during the Rangers radio broadcast. I didn’t understand how they got those scores, but I wasn’t complaining. I don’t remember the TV guys being too concerned with the AL East back in the day (or AL Central post 1994). Typically, I did not get the Tigers score until the next morning when it was a race against my brother downstairs to grab the sports page and dive into the box scores. I used to stare at them for what seemed like an hour a day.

Then, however, there was the magic of the ballpark – and the out of town scoreboard. I didn’t quite understand how, but ballparks had mystical powers which allowed them to get updated scores every inning! And they would even let you know who was pitching (if you knew their numbers)! I yearned to see the wormhole in time which allowed the scoreboard guy at Arlington Stadium to get instant score updates; but I was content to just watch the numbers roll over.

Well, I went out to the Ballpark yesterday, and thanks to cell phone connectivity issues in crowded places, I was transported back to my childhood and found myself scoreboard watching. And it was fantastic.

2-0. Nice start.

2-3!?! I hate the Yankees!

5-3!!! There must have been a home run, right? 5th inning – I wonder if one of the big boys hit one out? Did Cabrera get another RBI?

6-3! That was fast. Maybe a solo shot? A double then single? Not enough time to load the bases and WP one in. When did I last check the scoreboard?

8-3. Final. I couldn’t wait to get home and read about it.

Just like I had hoped.

**************************************

Remember that today’s game is the Fox Game of the Week.

1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Dirks, LF
7. Peralta, SS
8. Avila, C
9. Santiago, 2B