PREGAME: Aubrey Huff makes his Tigers debut tonight and he’ll be batting 5th in the lineup. I don’t know if Daniel Fields will make an appearance tonight or not, but he’s in town.

As for the pitching match-up it will be a rehabilitated Rick Porcello. Rehabilitated in the sense that he has done time for his crime of having a helmet chucked at him (yep, still bitter). He’s facing Seattle after a lengthy layoff having only gone 1 inning and 1 pitch his last time out. The last time he faced Seattle it came on the heels of his summer vacation (that 2.5 week stretch where he was off) and it didn’t go so well.

He’ll have to be better this time out though because Felix Hernandez takes the mound for the Mariners. Hernandez is awesome. He just is. But he has had some problems with walks as of late with 14 issued in his last 3 games.

Your Aubrey-ized lineup is:

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

Seattle vs. Detroit – August 18, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I think it’s safe to deem this game a battle. Porcello and Hernandez battled. Tigers hitters battled. Fernando Rodney battled Jose Lopez. Fortunately for the Tigers they won more of the battles.

Porcello and Hernandez was essentially a draw. Porcello was better than at any ponit this season through 5.2 innings. He picked up 8 K’s and he had the fastball and breaking ball working. It appeared he tired a little in the 6th though, because the ball started leaving the infield. Through the first 5 if the M’s weren’t whiffing they were grounding out meekly.

The Tigers didn’t fare any better at the dish while Hernandez was in the game and he held them to 4 hits and 1 walk and 1 run in 7 innnings. He made Granderson look particularly foolish as Grandy was on his way to the golden sombrero before he was lifted.

Bobby Seay struggled again against the Mariners. You may remember it was Seattle who broke Seay’s scoreless appearance streak in July and got to him on consecutive nights. This time it was a jam job double by Ichiro that set up a couple sacrifice flies.

Fortunately Mark Lowe struggled more with some “help” from his defense. Alex Avila started off the 8th with a monster mash to visitor bullpen and that opened things up. A great pinch hit at-bat by Santiago resulted in a single. A Granderson foul out was followed by a chopper to short . Probably not a double play but there should have been an out except the misplay resulted in runners at the corners. A Guillen walk was followed by a Cabrera clutch 2 run single that would pull the Tigers ahead and be the difference.

The Tigers added on with a “double steal” where Lowe tried the fake throw to third (after a nice job tagging up and getting to 3rd by Raburn who Leyland inserted for Guillen) then get the guy breaking off first. The play that never works…except Cabrera was actually moving on the play. Raburn managed to score as everyone was safe.

A composed Rodney gave up a ground ball single and a line drive single, but he fanned Russell Branyan and eventually fanned Jose Lopez after a tremendous 12 pitch at-bat to end the game. Rodney threw 28 pitches, 22 of them for strikes.

• A longer postgame than normal, but after a detailed bashing of the lack of offensive execution on Sunday this team/game deserved equal positive treatment.
• And to that end how about Adam Everett with the big hit early in the game to plate the first run.
• Very nice outing by Ryan Perry who came in with the bases juiced and 2 outs and got out of the innning, then fanned the side the next inning.
• Seay threw a lot of pitches, Rodney threw a lot of pitches, Perry pitched in parts of 3 innings. Is the pen thin tomorrow and do they make a move?
• Cabrera stole bases in consecutive games for just the 2nd time in his career, the other time was May 21-22, 2006
• Aubrey Huff was introduced to Comerica Park by hitting a 410 foot out to center

PREGAME: The Tigers have answered their 3 game losing streak with a 3 game winning streak, let’s keep it going today.

I love going to Comerica Park, and I enjoyed myself down there the last two nights. I’m happy to be watching this one in “crystal-clear HD” from the comfort of air condition. It is a scorcher today and many eggs could be fried various flat heat gathering surfaces today.

Throw in the fact that there are two run-preventionally challenged starting pitchers today and there could be much offense given the temperature and breeze and it could be a very long day.

A illness weakened Armando Galarraga will take the mound for the Tigers. I can’t imagine he’ll last long either due to the heat and fatigue or maybe just getting bludgeoned.

Kyle Davies is on the mound for the Royals. Earlier in the year when Davies was pitching good, the Tigers still beat him up twice scoring 12 runs against him and chasing him in the 6th inning both times. He was since demoted and in his 2 starts since returning to the rotation one was effective (5 IP, 1 Run, 3 W, 6 K) and one not so much with the effective (3.2 IP, 8 R, 2 W, 3 K). But he hasn’t allowed a homer in either of those starts.

The lineup gets a little bit of a shake up today with a lot of righties against Davies, who has struggled with righties this year. This might not be an optimal defensive configuration.

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

Kansas City vs. Detroit – August 16, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I think it is safe to tally this one under the column of “bad loss.” The game was there for the Tigers the whole time. Kyle Davies was nothing special as the Tigers repeatedly put runners on base. But their failure to do anything with those runners was somewhere between comical and pitiful. Let’s rehash it:

3rd Inning: Adam Everett leads off with a double. Curtis Granderson who routinely pulls ground balls to first or second manages only a pop-up leaving Everett at second. Polanco and Thames follow with grounders to the left side and Everett doesn’t move.

4th Inning: Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Guillen single so Ordonez his hitting with runners on first and second and nobody out. And he hits a 6-4-3 double play. Ryan Raburn catches the Royals off guard with a bunt that Kyle Davies fumbles. Cabrera was also caught off guard as he doesn’t budge off of third. Gerald Laird lays down a beautiful bunt but gets jobbed by a bad call at first by Country Joe West. The inning ends. At least Raburn and Laird gave the team a chance to score.

5th Inning: The Tigers are now down a run but Adam Everett leads off with a single. Granderson once again fails to advance him by striking out. A hit and run puts runners at the corners and fortunately the Royals incur a wild pitch allowing Adam Everett to score. The Tigers have the go ahead run at second but a K by Marcus Thames and a Cabrera ground out means once again he doesn’t move.

6th Inning: Carlos Guillen leads off with a hustle double. An Ordonez ground ball would be helpful here, but instead he flies out to shallow center. Guillen tried to take matters into his own hands and steal third which was unsuccessful and costly as Rabun singled.

7th Inning: Adam Everett again gets on base, this time via HBP. Once again Granderson can’t advance him, but Everett moves up on a passed ball while Polanco is batting. Polanco at least hit a grounder to get Everett to 3rd. The second time that Polanco actually advanced a runner. But he’d go no farther as Thames grounds out.

8th Inning: Cabrera reaches base via an error and then steals second! Guillen hits a ground ball to get him to 3rd (silver star for Carlos). But Ordonez strikes out and Raburn hit the ball deep to right center but it was easily tracked down by Josh Anderson.

9th Inning: Alex Avila walked with 1 out. Not that exciting as Granderson once again didn’t advance a runner and the inning ended quietly.

Yes, Ryan Raburn completely blew the 10th inning by biffing two routine grounders and undoing a very effective stint by the bullpen including 2 innings from Ni, 1 from Perry, and the 2nd inning from Rodney. But the truth of the matter is it never should have gotten to the 10th inning. This was a collective effort. It wasn’t just the inability to get a hit with a runner in scoring position (0 for 16) it was the collective inability to even advance runners save for Placido Polanco. In the end the Tigers wasted a very solid starting performance from a sick Galarraga, a great bullpen effort, and even all the offense that they did generate to start innings. And they wasted a chance to add an a win.

• Granderson failed to advance runners with less than 2 outs in 4 different PA’s. But he did make a tremendous catch and sacrificed his body crashing into the wall.
• If Brandon Inge is in the game at the end this one might have turned out differently, or at least it wouldn’t have ended in the 10th. But the guy is hurting and this was a chance for 2 full days off. I can’t fault Leyland for holding him out…but let’s be consistent. Don’t bring him in as a defensive replacement in a blow out game (like in Texas).
• I thought the Avila pinch hit move was curious. I thought that after Laird fouled the ball off his leg perhaps Leyland was going to take him out of the after the at-bat and I thought the move made sense because you might as well get Avila an AB if he’s coming in anyways. But it didn’t so much play out like that.

PREGAME:  The Tigers haven’t allowed a run since the Freddy Dolsi 5th inning horror show on Wednesday night. That’s 21 innings and counting. Let’s keep the streak going.

Edwin Jackson will be tasked with keeping the Royals off the board. He’s only lasted 4 innings in 2 of his last 3 starts, but in between he shut out the Orioles for 8 innings and then gave up a 2 run homer in the 9th as he went for the complete game. Maybe the every other thing will work in Jackson’s favor tonight.

He’ll be opposed by Luke Hochevar. Hochevar has been giving up a ton of hits, and subsequently a bunch of runs. But he’s also striking out quite a few and not walking many, so he’s probably been a little unlucky. In his last 3 games he’s allowed 15 runs in 18 innings, but he’s fanned 16 and walked 6. In the 2 starts prior to that he fanned 22 and walked none over 13.1 innings. He’s clearly capable of being dominant.

Hochevar has limited lefties to a 234/316/430 line but righties have hit him 293/338/503.

Kansas City vs. Detroit – August 15, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: The Tigers come home and they get to face Zach Greinke People have been saying that Greinke is fading some. I just don’t see it. In his last 3 games he does have a 5.50 ERA, but he still fanned 21 and walked just 6 in those 3 starts. Six of the 11 runs in those 3 starts came in one bad outing where  he allowed 10 hits in 5 innings. I think that is more of a hiccup than a fade.

Speaking of hiccups and/or fades the Tigers send out Jarrod Washburn. Washburn has allowed 11 runs in 11.1 Tigers innings including 4 homers. He last faced the Royals in May and held them to 2 runs (1 earned) in 7 innings.

Kansas City vs. Detroit – August 14, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I’m going to defer to my friend Ian’s intro to his game recap:

The Detroit Tigers have apparently found their formula for winning.  Don’t allow the other team to score any runs, and then wait for the third baseman to do something awesome.

You kind of got the sense in this one that it would take somebody “running into one” because there wasn’t a lot of manufacturing to be done. The Tigers had a couple of scoring chances, but those both came with 2 outs.

The Royals didn’t have any scoring chances until the 8th inning, but Washburn pitched out of that. (despite walking his former teammate Yuniesky Betancourt…really…Yuniesky Betancourt…the only guy he walked all night…Yuniesky Betancourt). In fact they didn’t get a hit until 2 outs in the 5th. That’s the Washburn we were looking for.

But all of that just set the stage for Brandon Inge’s heroics. Of the bat it looked to be hit well, but the David DeJesus seemed to be slowing down to track it. Fortunately he was just slowing down to time a fruitless jump at the wall.

• Granderson didn’t seem to have too much of a problem with Greinke notching a single, a double, and a walk
• Clete Thomas on the other hand, 3 K’s. Ouch
• Miguel Cabrera made a very nice sliding stop on a grounder and then got up and beat Billy Butler to the bag. Gerald Laird used the opportunity to go talk with Washburn, and let Cabby catch his breath
• Brandon Lyon with another 1-2-3 inning of relief.