PREGAME: Justin Verlander looks to keep things rolling. If I recall correctly this is Justin’s 3rd home start on get-away day. I remember the other 2 (one against the Angels and one against the White Sox) didn’t turn out so well.

The Tigers will be facing Andy Petitte and his 5.75 ERA. The Tigers will be sending out their regular starters, including a rare day-game-after-night-game start for Pudge Rodriguez. His lifetime 394/412/576 line against Pettite may have something to do with it. Also, the Tigers have an off day and then 3 against the Pirates so there may be a few more regulars resting this weekend.

Game Time 1:05.

POSTGAME: So was Justin Verlander tired of being overshadowed by Francisco Liriano? Verlander turned in his best performance in a month as he shut out the Stros for 8 innings.

Aside from Verlander, it seems like the Astros lost this game more than the Tigers winning it. With 3 runs being unearned, one walked in, and the last scoring on a wild pitch.

Things were a little scary when Magglio Ordonez left the game, but reports are that X-rays are negative and Maggs is day-to-day with a shin contusion.

A day off, and then on to Pittsburgh.

PREGAME: After beating up on Wandy Rodriguez last night, the Tigers will face a slightly more formidable challenge in Roger Clemens…I really don’t have much more to say. Roger Clemens is really good, and none of the current Tigers have had a great deal of success.

I’ve seen Clemens pitch in person one time. It was when he was with the Blue Jays and our seats were in the 2nd row by the visitor bullpen at Tiger Stadium. I don’t remember the game itself, but I distinctly remember being 15 feet away as Clemens was warming up. Very cool.

Big League Nate Robertson takes the ball for the Tigers. The Tigers are 2-2 in June when Robertson pitches, and he really pitched 4 winnable games. His bullpen let him down in 2 of his starts.

Game Time 7:05pm.

POSTGAME: I just got back from the game and it had exactly what I hoped for. The Tigers won. Roger Clemens was looking like a Hall of Famer. Nate Robertson battled and matched him.

Two of my favorite moments from this season came during the 7th inning of this game. In the top half of the inning, when Nate Robertson was in the midst of crawling out of a runner on 3rd no out jam, the crowd rose to its feet as Willy Taveras came to the plate. The park was electric as 40,000 willed Robertson to get that final out.

And then in the bottom half when Roger Clemens was taken out of the game, the Detroit faithful gave him a standing ovation out of respect for his effort that night, and for his complete resume. I’m tired of the Roger Clemens retirement/non-retirement saga every year, but I still fully recognize his stature in the history of the game.

I’ve been to sold out games at Comerica Park before, but they weren’t like this. Opening Day is a party, and the Yankees are the Yankees. Tonight was all about baseball. The fans were collectively engaged the whole game. The crowd sensed momentous turning points and rose in unison. This wasn’t a bunch of bandwagoners following a winner. These were baseball fans thrilled with finally having something to cheer about from the home team. This was a whole lot of fun.

PREGAME: The story of this game may turn out to be last night’s Houston/White Sox game, which Houston was kind enough to win a a very protracted fashion. With the game going 13 innings, the Astros bullpen is tired physically. With the team probably not getting to their hotel until 4am, chances are they are sleepy too.

Zach Miner continues his quest to become the best rookie in the Tigers rotation. He’ll be opposed by Wandy Rodriguez. I don’t know much about Rodriguez except his first name is Wandy and he weighs 160 pounds. He walks his share (4.26/9IP), and doesn’t strike out a ton (5.71 K/9IP). Oh yeah, and he’s left handed.

The game also marks the return of former Tigers Phil Garner, Brad Ausmus, and Eric Munson. I’d like to see Munson hit a meaningless home run in this series. I always liked Eric, and I thought he got a raw deal from the organization with the various position changes. Then Trammell really relegated him to the bench. Of course if he’d performed better, he might have met a better fate.
Continue reading Game 77: Astros at Tigers →

PREGAME: The Tigers look to finish off the sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon (1:05pm). The Cardinals have probably felt like they’ve seen enough of the AL Central after dropping 5 straight to the White Sox and Tigers.

Sidney Ponson will start in place of the recentl DL’d Mark Mulder. Ponson has been awful as of late with 19 runs allowed in 15 2/3 innings. Magglio Ordonez might normally get today off, but with 3 hits last night and a .464 lifetime average against Ponson, I’d guess he’s in the lineup.

Meanwhile Jeremy Bonderman has been scary-good with back to back 1 run, 12 K outings.

POSTGAME: One day Curtis Granderson will come up in the 8th or 9th or 10th inning and have a chance to change the game, and he’ll fail. It is hard to believe given his performance this year. It will feel strange and unpleasant, but it will inevitably happen. But until then (and really even after that) it is okay for men and women alike to declare their love for Curtis Granderson.

But the clutch-iest moment of the game probably came in the first inning when after a couple bad luck singles, the Cardinals had runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out and Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, and Jim Edmonds looming. Bonderman fanned Pujols and Rolen and enticed Edmonds to hit a fly ball. The game could have been blown open, and Bonderman slammed the door. After that he cruised to another 1 run, no run support outing.

And while it might be aggravating to see the White Sox match us win-for-win, isn’t it kind of fun and exciting at the same time. I know it’s only June and we haven’t even hit the halfway point, but so far this has been a very entertaining battle.