PREGAME Armando Galarraga takes on Shawn Marcum as the Tigers look for their first matinee win of the season.

Marcum has been the Jays best pitcher this season with 20 K’s and only 5 walks in 20.2 innings.

Galarraga has been the Tigers best pitcher this season with 6 K’s and no walks in 6.2 innings.

DET @ TOR, Monday, April 21, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 12:37

PREGAME I was listening to Danny Knobler on WDFN this afternoon and he was talking about how the highs and lows have become so much more pronounced because of the 0-7 start. It’s a pretty astute observation. The Tigers today salvaged a split of the series and a 3-3 road trip which is nothing to sneeze at. Yet the losses of the last two days were such a downer it hardly felt satisfying.

Still, going into the weekend I had said I’d be happy with a split so who am I to complain? The Tigers finally capitalized on walks and miscues to take an early lead which was more than enough for Armando Galarraga. He wasn’t quite as efficient as his 1st start. Only 54% of his pitches went for strikes and he walked 4. Still, he pitched out of his self inflicted jams so there was no damage.

Pudge Rodriguez led off the offensive attack from the 2-hole on a day when Jim Leyland challenged his big boys to step up. But he’s likely to be dropped in the order as the news on Placido Polanco’s back was encouraging and Polanco could return to the lineup tomorrow.

Tigers 5, Blue Jays 1

PREGAME: Nate Robertson and his sore lat takes on AJ Burnett. Sorry that’s all I have time for today.

Game Time 1:07

DET @ TOR, Sunday, April 20, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Another day, another loss. This time a depleted lineup couldn’t take advantage of an erratic AJ Burnett. And Nate Robertson pitched good enough to lose. But unlike other Tigers starters he actually had more strike outs (5) than walks (1) which was an encouraging sign. He had been having a good game until a poor 4th inning doomed the game.

If there was a positive it would be the 28 pitches thrown by Zach Miner. It was good enough to get him through 2 innings with only one baserunner. And 21 of them were for strikes. Miner had to be on the cusp of being sent down and needed a solid outing.

PREGAME: It’s an afternoon tilt today as the Tigers behind Jeremy Bonderman take on Dustin McGowan and the Blue Jays.

McGowan is off to a pretty good start this season. He sports a 3.71 ERA and has fanned 16 in 17 innings of work. But he hasn’t made it past the 6th inning because his pitch count has become elevated. The Blue Jays had to go to their pen early last night so making McGowan work could have benefits for the rest of the series.

Bonderman is coming off a pretty solid outing. He went 6 1/3 and probably could have gone farther were it not for 3 errors by his defense. He also fanned 5 which was a nice sign after he K’d only 3 in his other 2 starts.

DET @ TOR, Saturday, April 19, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 1:07

POSTGAME: In a lot of ways, a loss like today’s is much more irksome than the shellacking they took in Cleveland. In the Indians game they were just flat out beat. In today’s game, there were several opportunities to swing the game in the Tigers favor yet they couldn’t take advantage.

Bonderman was awful, but he kept the damage to a minimum. Six walks though keeps him in line with the rest of the staff. Bonderman said he couldn’t find his slider, but I think that was only part of the problem. In the inning where he walked in a run, he was getting ahead of hitters. But he kept throwing the slider to the same spot. The hitters knew the slider was coming, and they knew where it was coming so it was easy to lay off. It’s a pattern we’ve seen from Bonderman in the past.

And once again he was the victim of an unearned run and this one decided the game.

Still, the offense had their chances. Twice there were 2nd and 3rd no out situations and twice they only came away with one run. I’m not one to harp on the LOB stat too much, because I tend to think it works itself out over the course of a season. But their inability to cash in cost them in a very winnable game.

PREGAME: You know that both Kenny Rogers and Toronto starter David Purcey have received the exact same run support so far this season? The difference is tonight will be Purcey’s first start and it will be Kenny’s 4th. That’s right, the Tigers have been shut out in all 3 of his starts. Of course Rogers hasn’t pitched so great either. He had a quality start his first time out but hasn’t made it out of the 5th inning in the two starts since.

On the other side Purcey will be making his first start. The 2004 1st round pick of the Jays has a 21:6 strike out to walk ratio in two AAA starts this year.

DET @ TOR, Friday, April 18, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: So the Tigers exercised considerable patience early in this game picking up 5 walks in the first two innings but they couldn’t hit Purcey. If Purcey can get a handle on where the ball is going he could be trouble because the Tigers couldn’t hit him.

Although Jim Leyland did help him out by giving away an out when he called for a sac bunt in the 2nd inning following back to back walks. I’ll never understand letting a struggling pitcher off the hook with a sac bunt. It’s one thing if a guy is dealing and you get a double and want to scratch across a run. But that clearly wasn’t the case tonight.

Kenny Rogers turned in a solid outing going 6 2/3 inning and allowing 4 runs so it wasn’t quite a quality start. The 4 walks are still troublesome, as is the one strike out. But he was effective allowing only 3 hits.

The Tigers offense continues to swing it, at least off the bullpen. Seven of their 10 hits went for doubles and the did a nice job stringing them together.

For the second time this week Edgar Renteria belted a first pitch homer that would provide a nice cushion.

And is there anyone having as much fun out there as Miguel Cabrera? He just seems to love the game and it’s fun to watch. So is seeing him knock a couple doubles on his birthday and steal a base.

Finally, a nice job by Aquilino Lopez, Denny Bautista, and Todd Jones. Jones had some kind of mechanical flaw where he couldn’t get the ball down and walked two straight. A short chat with Chuck Hernandez and the game was over 5 pitches later.