PREGAME: The Tigers play their final home game against the White Sox and will be sending Nate Robertson out against Jon Garland.

Garland has turned in quality starts in 6 of his last 8 outings, so runs could be at a premium. Then again, Robertson has a string of 4 straight quality starts so hopefully the White Sox won’t exactly have an easy of day it either.

Game Time 1:05pm.

POSTGAME: That was a good old fashioned thumping. Any time you’re looking at a 5-7-3 out, it’s probably a bad sign. At least it is hard to pin this one on Neifi Perez. Another positive sign is that slumping Curtis Granderson picked up 2 hits.

Yes this game today wasn’t fun. A 7.5 game lead would have been a lot more comfortable, and a series win would have been nice. But at the same time the White Sox played 4 games with a chance to gain on the Tigers, but in the end they are right where they were at the beginning of the series – but with less games left on the schedule.

The pennant race is a new experience for Tiger fans. The day-in-day-out is proving to be a grind from a fan’s point of view. Yet there are still 6 weeks of season left. I don’t like the losing or the way the team has been struggling. My mechanism for coping will be to try and relish the anguish and excitement because this team is finally playing those “meaningful games” at the end of the season.

PREGAME: Flashback to last Monday. The Tigers had just come off a winless weekend and there next opponent was in the thick of the Wild Card hunt and trying to stake a claim in their own division. The Tigers managed to take the first 2 games to stave off the impending tailspin.

Here we are one week later. The Tigers come off a winless weekend and their next opponent is in the thick of the Wild Card hunt and trying to stake a claim in their own division. Once again the Tigers take the first 2 games to stave off the impending tailspin.

The Tigers of course dropped the 3rd game to the Red Sox last week. Here’s hoping for better results in game 3 against the White Sox series.

By taking the first 2 games, the Tigers assured themselves a split of the series and a worst case scenario where the White Sox played 4 more games without gaining ground. Wins either tonight or tomorrow afternoon will just be gravy as far as the division is concerned. However, the Yankees have closed to within 4 1/2 games of the best record so each game still has playoff seeding/home field implications.

The Tigers will turn to Zach Miner as the White Sox trot out Freddy Garcia.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: There was a lot not to like about this game. Whether it was Zach Miner getting ahead of hitters 0-2 and then falling behind 3-2, or it was the inability of the team to hold the gains when they cut away at the lead in the 1st and 7th innings. You can definitely pick out things not to like, but most of those are covered in the comments already.

Other thoughts from today:

• If Neifi converts the double play in the 2nd, only one run would have scored instead of 3. I know I said I wouldn’t dog Perez everyday, but if he’s playing despite his offense, he has to be perfect with the glove.
• Zach Miner wasn’t good today, but you shouldn’t view each of his starts as an automatic loss. He’s not dominant, but he generally keeps the Tigers in the game and eats 5 to 6 innings every 5th day. That’s about all you could hope for a replacement 5th starter.
• All the credit for Crede’s first homer has to go to Crede. That wasn’t a bad pitch, it was low and away and he one handed it.
• I have to say I love seeing the hustle from Ordonez the last 2 days. When he was going from 1st to 3rd on the hit and run that was the fastest I’ve seen him and for the second night in a row he got his uniform dirty.
• Even when the Tigers are getting thumped, they still manage to stick around in the game. The White Sox had runners in scoring position it seemed in every inning. I don’t know how much credit should go to the Tiger pitchers, or blame to the White Sox hitters, but they were stranded for many of the middle innings.
• That homer by Young was Abreu-esque as it went to the last row in right center. That had to be one of the 5 longest in Comerica’s history.

PREGAME: Well the last time Mark Buerhle faced Kenny Rogers, the Tigers scratched out 3 runs. But then the Tigers surrendered 4 unearned runs amid an awful weekend series.

Then again, the last time the Justin Verlander faced Jose Contreras things didn’t work out so well for the Tigers either but last night’s game had the opposite result.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: The Tigers came in to the series scrambling, but by taking the first 2 games of the series, the pressure is squarely on the White Sox.

Kenny Rogers seems to have shaken his July slump. In his 4 August starts he’s allowed only 5 earned runs. He also has owned the White Sox only allowing 3 earned runs in 4 starts.

In the process the Tigers secured a .500 season, which based on preseason expectations already makes this year’s edition a success.

Other thoughts:

• It was nice to see Magglio Ordonez laying out for a ball. His defense hasn’t been very good this year, but the effort on that play was very much appreciated by this blogger.
• It was nice to see Marcus Thames crush the ball a couple times and work a walk. What I don’t understand is pinch hitting for a hitter who is doing that well with a 4 run lead. This wasn’t giving a regular an early night off, it was taking the bat out of the hand of a guy in need of playing time.
• And speaking of things I don’t understand, Neifi Perez leading off? Sorry Omar, you’re getting the short end of something. Neifi did make a nice play getting up for Thome’s line drive in the 9th inning.
• And one more thing I didn’t understand was having Brandon Inge sacrifice bunt when the Tigers had tagged Buerhle for 7 hits that early in the game. Why concede an out with the team’s most prolific out maker (Perez)waiting on deck?
• I know I shouldn’t complain about strategy in a 4-0 shut out, but some of Leyland’s moves have left me scratching my head lately. And I won’t rip Neifi everygame. Besides, the way things have been working for the Tigers this year he’ll probably hit .350 with 4 homers over the next couple weeks.
• And while I’m all for Ozzie Guillen getting tossed out, again I don’t understand umpires yelling back. Dan Iasogna had to be seperated from Guillen by his crew chief. I don’t understand why umpires are allowed to do this.

PREGAME: There’s something going on with my webhost, so I’m not sure if you can even read this. That being the case this is a very short game post. Justin Verlander against Jose Contreras.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Judging by the comment volume, the site seems to be loading now. As for the game itself, what’s not to like?

After a season in which the Tigers kept finding ways to win, they spent a weekend finding ways to lose. As a fan, it was nice to see them rebound with such a complete effort. There was the balanced offensive attack fueled by line drives born of good pitch selection. The defense was solid. And Justin Verlander returned to form.

As for Verlander’s velocity, that is something that he’s been dialing back for quite some time. I think part of it is fatigue, which really is probably to be expected. For a 23 year old to still be throwing 99 at inning totals he’s never experienced may be an unrealistic expectation. The other part is maturity. He had stopped dialing it up consistently back in May. He still seemed to be working at 93-94 most of the game and he did dial it up to 96 for 3 straight pitches in the 6th inning.

And one last note. I’m not ragging on Todd Jones by any means, because he has been very good. But I would love it if he would stick his glove out for a ground ball once in a while. Those ground balls back through the box, he seems to go out of his way to avoid. Not a big deal by any means, but I’m just sayin’.