Fun game last night.  Good chatter on DTW too.

Grienke goes for the Royals tonight.  He’s 1-0 over his last three with a 2.45 ERA and 1.36 WHIP.  Though the Tigers won’t need to score much though.  In Grienke’s past 10 outings for the Royals, his teammates have averaged just 2.4 runs per game.

Bondo goes for the Tigers.  He has not done much to solidify his spot in the rotation this year, though he did limit the Royals to 2 runs on 8 hits over 6 innings in his last outing on August 23rd (remember, Figaro started in his spot 5 days ago).

Tigers’ last game at the new Target Field this season.  Good riddance.

Tigers look to their ace to salvage a win in the series.  It’s a shame that Galarraga and Scherzer were not rewarded for their dominant efforts already, though Liriano pitched like an ace yesterday. Man do I miss Seay.

Congrats to Max St. Pierre for a well deserved call-up after 14 minor league seasons.

Seay is likely out for 2011…ouch.  And on to tonight’s game.

Tigers have their work cut out for them tonight versus Liriano.  Liriano is 3-0 in august, with a 3.68 ERA, but a pedestrian 1.44 WHIP (compared to 1.27 on the year).  He averages 9.37 Ks/9 against just over 3 walks per 9.  His fastball is great, and his slider is devastating as the OPP BA against it is only .164.  Though the Tigers have had his number this year.  He’s 1-2 with a  7.47 ERA against the boys this season.

Scherzer has been nails as of late.  He has won his last three decisions allowing only 2 ER in 21 IPs, while striking out 22 and only walking 5.  Since the AS Break, he’s posted a 1.98 ERA and 7 quality starts in 9 outings.

Tonight’s Casper Wells batting thiiiiird lineup:

Jackson – CF
Rhymes – 2B
Wells – LF
Cabrera – 1B
Peralta – DH
Inge – 3B
Santiago – SS
Boesch – RF
Laird – C

Duensing has been nothing short of phenomenal since entering the rotation in late July.  During that span he is 4-1 with a 2.67 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP.  For the year his BABIP is a low .249 and he strands 85% of the runners that get on.  He’s been getting grounds outs at a 2/1 ratio over flyouts, and two starts ago he went 8 innings against LA, allowed 7 hits, struck out 6, and had a ridiculous 16 to 1 GO/AO ratio.  His only blemish for the season (he was a stud out of the bullpen) came in his last start in Texas, where he allowed 4 earned in six innings.  Which really isn’t all that bad.  He’s primarily a fastball guy who works the corners well.

Galarraga has been very good over his last three starts and has a sub-4 ERA since the All Star break.  He’s been getting more Ks as of late, and has been walking fewer batters.

A few notes:

– Rhymes is hitting .422 with six RBI over his last 11 games, and .333 for the month of August.

– Tigers have hit a HR in each of their last 11 road games.

– Raburn leads the AL with 21 RBI since August 5th.

– Cabrera is on a 12 game hit streak, batting .409 in that span.

There have been some flashbacks to the 1987 season when the Tigers took 4/7 games over the last two weeks to close out the division.  Incredibly, every single game was won by 1 run.  I’ll never forget when the Tigers clinched on a solo shot by Herndon and a complete game shutout gem tossed by Tanana.  (Did you know that the Twins ended that season with a pythagorean < .500?)  Baseball is fun.

Difference is these games don’t (seemingly) matter too much these days.  Though they have been exciting to watch.  I really hope that Leyland sits Santiago today after he managed to bunt into a double play with a runner on 2nd and no out in the first, and then struck out three times on 10 pitches (yes, on 10 pitches) in three of his other four ABs.  (He did work 1 walk.)  The last K was with the tying run on 2nd.  Tigers were 1-9 with RISP yesterday, which puts them at 2-25 or .080 over the last two games.

Rzepczynski has been a recent spot starter for the Blue Jays since being called up on July 7th.  He’s had one really strong outing against LAA where he blanked them on 2 hits over 7 innings, and a bunch of pretty bad ones.  On the season he’s got a 5.65 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP. He strikes out around 7 batters per 9, and walks over 3.  He’s given up 5 home runs in 25 2/3 IP.   He gets 2 ground balls for every fly ball, so expect a lot of stuff down in the zone.

Other than the start 10 days ago against the Yankees, Porcello has been very good as of late. He had his best outing of the season last time out against Cleveland where he went 7 innings and only gave up 2 hits with 0 earned.  Porcello has not allowed a home run in his last four starts after allowing nine over the previous 8.

Tigers need a win to salvage a split in the series before heading to Minnesota on Tuesday.

It’s easy to be upset with Coke following last night’s loss, but let’s focus on the real cause.  1 for 16 with RISP.  Even Laird should get 3 hits in 16 ABs.  And I still don’t get pinch-hitting Santiago for Boesch in the 7th.

It looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us today.  Morrow strikes out well over a batter per inning, though he also walks over 4 batters per 9.   He’s been fantastic over his last three games, allowing only 4 ER in 19 innings (1.89 ERA, .84 WHIP) and striking out 31 batters during that time.  He had a complete game shutout where he beat the Rays 1-0 on Aug 8 and struck out 17 (17!).  For the season he’s been up and down, with a dominating June and very good August, yet a 4.39 ERA overall.  He’s only give up 10 HRs in 137 1/3.

Bonderman was scratched with rib-cage inflammation, so Figaro will be making his first big-league start (though he does have 3 relief appearances with the Tigers this year).  Figaro started 23 games in Toledo this year, going 10-6 with a 4.14 ERA.  He’s 0-2 with a 10.05 ERA in three day starts.  He’s shown great control as he has struck out over 8 batters per 9 and walked less than 3 per 9 this season.    But he has given up over a hit an inning which has led to a 1.42 WHIP in the minors.

Tommy John for Strasburg…that’s rough.

Tigers are in a nice little run, thanks to their starting pitching.  They have seven consecutive quality starts and a 1.09 ERA during that time.  They have won 6/7 (let’s put that 8th inning Valverde debacle behind us) and are reminding us why May and June were so much fun.  The bats haven’t been too bad either, as the boys are averaging over 7 runs per game during the run.

Shawn Marcum got hit pretty hard by the Red Sox two weeks ago, allowing 4 HRs and 8 ER in only 4 innings of work.  That said, he’s been pretty good all season posting a 3.70 ERA and 1.13 WHIP.  He walks just over 2 per game, while striking out a hefty 8 batters per 9.  As you would expect for a power pitcher, he’s a flyball guy.  He and JV have almost identical GO/AO ratios ( .86 for Marcum and .79 for JV).

The Blue Jays hit a lot of home runs.  Tigers did a good job limiting this yesterday (where did Bautista’s year come from?), but the Blue Jays lead the league with 193 HRs.  Contrast that with Detroit’s 112 which is 10th in the AL.  (Cle, KC, Sea and Oak have all hit less than 100).  Bautista’s previous high HR for a season was 16, and his only career OPS+ positive season was last year, when it was 101.  This year it is 165.  Yeah, 165.

Verlander has been pretty good over his last three games, posting a 2-1 record with 2.37 ERA, despite a 1.42 WHIP.  The biggest offender in that WHIP is the very un-Verlander like 5 walks in 5 innings in the loss against the Yankees 10 days ago.  On the year he’s walking about 3 1/3 per game, which isn’t great, but not too far off of his career average of just over 3.

Scherzer has just been lights out as of late, no need to explain.

Romero has evolved into a front of the rotation guy in his own right, though he has been hit hard as of late.  He was tremendous early in the season, though his July and August ERA is at 5.23 with a 1.38 WHIP.  He doesn’t walk many and strikes out roughly 2.5 batters for every one that he walks.  His GO/AO ratio is 2.03, so beware of the double play.

Tonight’s Lineup:

Jackson CF
Santiago 2B
Damon DH
Cabrera 1B
Raburn LF
Peralta SS
Inge 3B
Wells RF
Laird C

O’Sullivan had a brief, and successful, stint in the pen before taking over the 5th spot in the Royals rotation, which hasn’t been quite as fruitful.  As a reliever O’Sullivan, O’Sullivan posted a .86 WHIP and 1.29 ERA in 7 innings.  As a starter, O’Sullivan’s WHIP has risen to 1.38, while his ERA has skyrocketed to 6.09 spanning 6 starts, 2 of the quality variety.  He made a relief appearance on Sunday since his last start ten days ago.

Galarraga was phenomenal last time out, allowing only 3 hits and 0 ER in 7 innings.  He has not bee consistently good in almost two months, but perhaps the Royals are just the potion he needs.  Note that opponents are hitting .185 against him the first time through the order, and .302 after that.  He’s also prone to the long ball, allowing 13 in 16 starts this year.

– Rhymes is batting .360 during August.

– Boesch is 6 for 18 during the homestand.

Today’s lineup coming soon.

Our red hot Tigers (including Johnny Damon) look to win their 5th game in a row tonight.  (More on Damon, courtesy of Jason Beck).

Kyle Davies is very hittable, posting a 1.53 WHIP in 136 2/3 IP this year.  He’s been decent as of late with 2 quality starts in his last three games.  The non-QS came against the Yankees where he gave up 3 runs in 5 innings, but still got the W.  In his career v. the Tigers he’s 2-6 with a 5.40 ERA, though he’s 2-1 with a 3.97 ERA at Comerica.

Porcello had two encouraging starts until he got shelled last Thursday in New York, allowing 6 earned in 5 innings.  Porcello hasn’t been right all season, but consistency can be the hardest thing to grasp for a young pitcher.  He’s still got great stuff, and well, it’s the Royals.

Cabrera has 11 BBs in his last 10 games, and 17 IBBs since the AS break.  It seems that he’s been getting IBBd every plate appearance, but note that Bonds had 120 IBBs in 2004 and averaged roughly 60/year over his final 7 seasons.  Dickerson pointed out yesterday via Twitter (Dan_Dickerson) that Cabrera’s last 4 intentional walks (over the last 3 games) have been followed by 4 hits that have driven in 6 runs.

Rhymes is batting .520 over his last six games, and .348 in August.  3/16 hits have been doubles.

Did you know that KC leads the all time series 280-264?

Tonight’s lineup is:

Jackson – CF
Rhymes – 2B
Damon – DH
Cabrera – 1B
Raburn – LF
Peralta – SS
Inge – 3B
Boesch – RF
Avila – C

Tigers looked sharp over the weekend, they look to extend the hot streak against the Royals starting tonight.

Bondo can only get better, as his last three starts have seen him allow 16 ER in 15.1 IPs.  As a team the Royals are 2nd in the majors with a .275 BA, but they are a light-hitting team who doesn’t walk much, as their OPS is .722, 9th in the AL.  (Compared to the Tigers .750 OPS, 7th in the AL.)

Chen has only made it out of the 6th inning twice this year, though he did beat the Tigers on June 4th after allowing 2 runs on 4 hits in 5 innings.  On the season he’s 8-6 with a 4.61 ERA, and a Tiger friendly 1.51 WHIP.

Two hits for Inge would put him at 1,000 for his career, or 67 less than his career strikeout total.

Tonight’s Casper Wells lineup is brought to you by the Marlboro Man.

Jackson – CF
Rhymes – 2B
Damon – DH
Cabrera – 1B
Raburn – LF
Peralta – SS
Inge – 3B
Wells – RF
Laird – C