PREGAME: The Tigers will try to get their second 40 games back on track as they try to close out their 9 game homestand on an up note. With 7 wins under their belt already, the homestand has been a success, but if they drop the series to the Rockies it will seem a lot less satisfying.

Dontrelle Willis will try to replicate his success against the Rangers, although a 1 hitter might be asking a bit much.

The Rockies will counter with Jason Hammel. Hammel has allowed a lot of hits this year, 45 of them in 31 innings. Lefties have beat him up with a 1.066 OPS this year so I’d expect to see the left handed hitting outfield and Ramon Santiago in the lineup.

Colorado vs. Detroit – May 24, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: Armando Galarraga takes the mound for the Tigers tonight and he’s looking to avoid being the weak link in the rotation. The Tigers have 7 quality starts in their last 8 games, the lone non-quality start belongs to Galarraga when he was chased in the first inning by the A’s. In May the Tigers have 12 quality starts in 19 games and 4 of the non-quality starts belong to Galarraga.

For the Rockies it will be Jason Marquis. Marquis has middling peripherals and a middling ERA (4.75) to go along with them. But he has compiled some very nice games this year, and they’ve been on the road where he has a 1.138 WHIP. In Colorado that WHIP is 1.583.

The lineup courtesy of Jason Beck is:

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

Colorado vs. Detroit – May 23, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: And the streaks are over. The seven game winning streak – gone. The eight game Comerica winning streak – gone. The undeated on days of the week that start with the letter S – gone. The Tigers had the go ahead run on base in the 9th, but they were outplayed by a larger margin.

The Rockies hit the ball hard consistently off of Armando Galarraga and probably could have had more runs with some better luck. Heck, they lost a run when Chris Ianetta couldn’t score because he pulled a hammy. As for the Tigers offense? Two-thirds of the runs came when the Rockies failed to throw out Magglio Ordonez on a failed hit and run. The Tigers got another gift when Ordonez wasn’t punched out on a full count pitch in the 9th.

• Galarraga wasn’t awful, but he wasn’t good either. Most troubling was that when the team did get him off the hook for the loss he came up and went 3-0 to Todd Helton and then served up a meatball. But for most of the game he wasn’t nearly as nibbly as he has been.
• Some nice bullpening tonight from the beleaguered Nate Robertson and Brandon Lyon who combined to allow 2 baserunners, no runs, and a stranded runner on second in 3.2 innings with 3 K’s.
• The top of the order was brutal with a combined 0 for 12 from the top 3 and only one well struck ball in those 12 pa’s

Toledo 3 Gwinnett 7
Don Kelly went 2 for 4 and Wil Rhymes was 3 for 4 with a triple. Ruddy Lugo allowed 5 runs, but only 1 was earned, in 4 innings on 6 hits, 2 walks, and 3 K’s. Fu Te Ni pitched 1.2 innings allowing no hits and 1 walk with 2 K’s.

Erie 1 Akron 0
Ryan Strieby was 1 for 1 with 3 walks. Alex Avila and Andy Dirks both doubled. Jon Kibler was one out short of a complete game shutout. He scattered 7 hits and 2 walks while fanning 6.

Lakeland PPD

West Michigan 14 Peoria 4
Billy Nowlin homered twice as he came up a triple short of the cycle. Jordan Lennerton had 3 hits and Avasail Garcia went 4 for 5. Brandon Hamilton allowed 2 homers among 5 hits in 6 innings. He walked 1 and fanned 5.

PREGAME: The Tigers welcome in the Colorado Rockies as their first interleague opponent. The Rockies have struggled this year, but their pitching has actually been pretty good with a 4.27 FIP which coincidentally is the same as the Tigers.

Tonight’s starter is Ubaldo Jimenez. Jimenez walks a batter every other inning, but he also fans nearly one an inning and has allowed only 1 homer in 46 innings this year. He’s thrown 4 straight quality starts and has allowed just 6 runs in his last 27 innings. The walks have also been under control of late with a 22:6 ratio.

Rick Porcello gets the ball for the Tigers. Porcello has also been rolling allowing just 2 runs over his last 3 starts.

And on a related note, Rod Allen will miss his 2nd game as he attends his youngest daughter’s graduation. In his place will be Dan Petry. Does anybody else remember a certain game where Petry filled in for Allen? It was also on a Friday night. Give up? It was the Yankees game that ended at 3:30 in the morning.

Oh, and GO WINGS Colorado vs. Detroit – May 22, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: It was a beautiful night at the ballpark, especially for those who appreciate stellar defense. This game had a reel full of web gem type plays. It’s probably best to just watch the highlights but here is a quick run down:

1. Inge charges and barehands a ball to make a play look easy.
2. Josh Anderson throws a seed to the plate to end an inning and save a run
3. Brandon Inge runs to left field to snag a foul ball with his back to the basket
4. Miguel Cabrera fields a ground ball along the line, spins and touches the bag and fires home to turn a 3-2 GIDP

Rick Porcello certainly appreciated the help, but he was pretty good on his own as well. He was very efficient up until that 6th inning when struggled a little. But he finished with 6 innings, 1 run, and another quality start.

Inge crushes a ball to right center for the big hit of the game, and it was even a pretty good pitch, so Inge deserves all the credit on that one.

The rest of the offense can be largely attributed nice baserunning. The first run was set up when Gerald Laird hustled to go first to third, and then nicely read (with some help from Placido Polanco) a wild pitch to score the first run. Later in the 8th inning the Tigers twice broke up double plays with hard slides (Polanco at third and Larish at second) that allowed a 4th run to score which proved to be the difference because…

Joel Zumaya wasn’t good. He was on in place of Rodney who had pitched the previous 3 days. He was wild and very fastball happy. He couldn’t find the curve ball and make a 3 run lead with the bases empty into a 1 run lead with runners at the corner. Unfortunately Perry was used 2 innings and Zumaya threw 31 pitches so both are likely unavailable for Saturday’s game.

PREGAME: Some day baseball today as the Tigers try and pick up a second sweep and extend their winning streak to 6 games. It will be Edwin Jackson going for Detroit and Kevin Millwood for the Rangers.

Millwood has a reverse platoon split this year with lefties only managing a .591 OPS while righties are at .773.

Also, there will be no Rod Allen in the booth today so John Keating will join Mario Impemba and they will entertain questions from Twitter and Facebook. You can find them on Twitter @Foxsportsdet.

Texas vs. Detroit – May 21, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: It’s times like this that I really love baseball. When my team is winning, and things are clicking. The defense is solid, the pitching is dependable, and the offense is doing enough. Today the offense responded when they needed to. When the Rangers started the game with a first inning run, Clete Thomas answered with a shrubbery shot. When the Rangers tied the game, the Tigers responded with a two out rally to take the lead in the subsequent inning. The result was a 6 game winning streak.

• Thomas definitely had a stamp on the game with the aforementioned bomb. He also saved a run with a PERFECT gun home. But then in the 8th he struggled with a fly ball to the wall.
• Edwin Jackson wasn’t quite as sharp as his past starts, but still very effective and I feel like I didn’t jinx him. But I’m still worried about that pitch count. He walked 5 on the day, but I won’t hold the last one against him as he shouldn’t have been in at that point.
• Fernando Rodney’s string of retiring 16 straight hitters came to an end with a leadoff walk (and later a single). But Rodney once again notched a save, his 8th of the year. He’s pitched the last 3 games though so I’d anticipate that Joel Zumaya will be  your closer on Friday night.

PREGAME: Tonight’s pitching match-up is Justin Verlander against Matt Harrison. I don’t normally do tables in game posts, but this pitching match-up just calls for it.

Oh yeah, and they both pitched complete game shut outs on May 8th. I think we’re looking at two pitchers, one lefty, one righty who are at the top of their games.

Texas vs. Detroit – May 20, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: With a 5 game winning streak it is happy fun time in Detroit. Short wrap tonight as it’s been a long week already:

• Justin Verlander only notched 8 K’s in 6 innings. He had a legitimate shot at getting double digits before struggling in a very long 5th inning. Over 40 pitches in the frame ran his pitch count way too high and he was done after 6 innings. But only 1 earned run and his ERA dipped below 4 all the way to 3.99.
• Wilkin Ramirez homered in his debut, and not just a homer but a blast into the centerfield shrubbery.
• Brandon Lyon got touched for another homer. Ugh.
• Joel Zumaya gave up a couple seeing eye grounders and found himself in a bases loaded no out jam but a bounce out and 2 filthy K’s meant only 1 run scored.
• Fernando Rodney finally got in a save situation and retired the side in order. That is 16 straight batters retired for Rodney.
• Brandon Inge and Ryan Raburn. Who knew?