PREGAME: It just has to be better tonight right? Fewer errors. Fewer baserunning mistakes. More big hits with runners on base. No plunking in a run? Does that sound good to everybody?

Armando Galarraga will try and build on his last start, which was his only quality start in the month of May. He faced Boston once last year and wasn’t good, but he managed a no decision despite allowing 5 runs and not getting out of the 6th inning.

Meanwhile the Tigers will face Josh Beckett. Beckett faced the Tigers once last year and destroyed them with 8 K’s, no walks, and just 1 run in 7 innings. And Beckett is rolling with 5 quality starts in a row and his last 2 starts he has allowed 1 earned run in 15 innings with 13 K’s.  Game on.

Boston vs. Detroit – June 3, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Well, Josh Beckett was really good. The Tigers offense has had their share of struggles lately. But this is one of those tip-your-cap games. Beckett was nasty and worked the edges of a big strike zone masterfully. Tuesday the Tigers let Matsuzaka off the hook. Tonight was a pitcher on his game toying with a struggling offense.

But there is some good to take from the game. Armando Galarraga looks to be regaining his 2008 form with his second consecutive quality start. And the Tigers once again made the 9th inning way more interesting than it should have been with some good at-bats. And Curtis Granderson tripled.

Of course the bullpen proved to be awful with Zach Miner and Nate Robertson turning the game into a laugher. Leyland had no way of knowing that the Red Sox would forget how to field the ball in the 8th and how to throw strikes in the 9th and the Tigers 4 run deficit appeared insurmountable at the time. And conserving some bullpen in a lost cause isn’t a bad tactic. Still, those runs proved to be the difference.

PREGAME: This is some stretch of games the Tigers are about to embark on. Three against the Red Sox and 3 against the Angels (who give the Tigers fits) before a 5 game series in Chicago. The Tigers will be getting back Marcus Thames in the near future and likely Jeremy Bonderman and that means that 2 players will likely get sent down or out, whether or not they really deserve it. The team and its outlook could look really different by next Friday. Or maybe not.

With that preamble out of the way the Tigers welcome in the Red Sox who have the 3rd highest OPS in the American League. So it will be no easy task for the Tigers pitchers. The Sox are known for seeing a lot of pitches, will makes tonight’s match-up with Rick Porcello interesting because he typically doesn’t throw a lot of pitches.

Random factoid of the night: Dustin Pedroia has grounded into 11 double plays this year.

The Tigers don’t typically see a lot of pitches with their 3.70 P/PA only a smidge more than Seattle’s 3.69 which is the fewest in the AL. But Daisuke Matsuzaka typically throws quite a few topping the 4 pitch per PA mark in each of his first 2 years and he’s at 3.8 this year. Matsuzaka is looking for his first and he missed a chunk of time due to injury. He hasn’t gotten out of the 6th inning this year and has allowed at least 3 runs in each of his 4 starts.

Bonus Random factoid of the night: Magglio Ordonez has fanned in half of his PA’s against Daisuke.

Boston vs. Detroit – June 2, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: It happens. The Tigers had a decent game plan against Matsuzaka. They were willing to wait him out (4.6 P/PA). They got some walks, they got some hits, but not enough of either and throw in some bad baserunning and that’s how you waste 9 baserunners in 5 innings turn into 1 run. Actually, part of the problem is that of the 6 hits none were for extra bases, and a couple other hard hit balls were right at people, but…it happens.

Cabrera, Granderson, and Polanco all hit multiple balls hard. Gerald Laird had good at-bats but the Tigers didn’t get enough runs early and then they were playing uphill against a good bullpen.

Rick Porcello wasn’t bad, but not as sharp as he has been. He was also singled to death, but the Red Sox did mix in 2 exta base hits and those led to the 3 runs he gave up.

The Tigers bullpenning was passable except for when Ryan Perry lost the strike zone. We saw this a little bit with Perry early on and fortunately it hadn’t happened for quite sometime. You hate to see a run plunked in, which is what Brandon Lyon contributed but  in the end he came into a bases loaded, 1 out situation and allowed 1 run. Lyon pitched 2 more innings allowing only a double.

As for that rally off of Papelbon, let’s look at it for what it was. A broken bat, a check swing, and a seeing eye groundball. But I will give Josh Anderson a ton of credit for his 10 pitch strikeout .

PREGAME: The Tigers are running out kind of a different lineup today. One without Miguel Cabrera or Placido Polanco. They didn’t really do much last night, but still…

Edwin Jackson will try and get the Tigers a series split. Detroit hasn’t played particularly well in this series, and Jackson throwing a bunch of 0’s on the board would certainly help the Tigers chances.

He’ll be opposed by Jason Berken who is making his career start. He allowed 7 hits and 3 walks but only 2 runs in 5 innings in his debut against the Blue Jays.

Detroit vs. Baltimore – May 31, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Well Jackson certainly did throw a bunch of 0’s on the board. Eight of them to be exact and he was efficient enough that at 101 pitches he probably should have been given the chance to complete the shut out himself. I mean this as no disrespect to Fernando Rodney who has been pitching great. But Jackson has been asked to work deep into other games when he wasn’t as effective, or when the lead was ridiculously comfortable. I thought this would be one of those “it’s his game” type situations.

Regardless, he picked up 7 K’s while only allowing 2 hits and a walk. And somehow he held Luke Scott in check fanning him twice and getting a 3-1 lineout to first.

The Tigers offense was fairly anemic again. I don’t know how much credit should be given to the Orioles young staff, but they held Detroit in check and did so fairly easily the last 4 games. But Curtis Granderson drove a solo homer to right center and that was all the Tigers would need. Though they did add on when Clete Thomas and Jeff Larish drove in runs late.

Ordonez’s hitting streak was snapped, but he did take a walk his last time up.