PREGAME: The Tigers return home after a disappointing end to an otherwise good road trip. They’ll kick off a 9 game homestand against the Cardinals, who I think were pretty good last year – at least good enough to win the World Series.

Andrew Miller’s debut is perhaps overshadowing the world series rematch. I’ve written about Miller’s minor league numbers already. So I’ll just say that I hope this goes better than the first starts for Virgil Vasquez, Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman, and Zach Miner. Miller at least has the benefit of having some big league experience.

The Cardinals will send out Braden Looper, who through the first 572 appearances of his career was a reliever. He’ll be making his 9th start of the year (and his career). He’s doing quite well with an ERA of 2.29. He’s done it by striking out twice as many as he walks, and keeping the ball in the park with 2 homers allowed in 51 innings.

Interesting Looper stat #1: Opponents putting the first pitch in play only have a 515 OPS.
Interesting Looper stat #2: He’s been great the first 5 innings, but as it gets later in the game and past the 75 pitch mark he gets more vulnerable.

So, make him throw pitches and wear him out. Sounds simple enough huh?

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: I had some other commitments tonight, so I just got home and watched the condensed version of the game on mlb.tv. Nothing like a good thumping in front of a sold out crowd as a welcome home present. I’ll take a closer look at Miller’s outing tomorrow. Even without seeing him pitch, the results look to be pretty impressive. But I don’t think this will change the Tigers plans with him. Although it will put less pressure on them to get Bonderman back in his regular spot (of course they could monkey with this anyways with the off day and Mike Maroth being available).

• Sean Casey destroys Cardinals. He of course torched them in the World Series, and added 4 hits today. If only the Tigers and Cardinals were in the same division…Seriously, it was nice to see Sean get rewarded today after having a couple hard hit balls yesterday end up in Hinske’s glove.
• Placido Polanco has pulled 4 doubles to left field over the last 2 games. After he began the season slapping everything to right field, teams began to pitch him inside. I think it’s safe to say he’s adjusted.
• Jason Grilli – awful again.
• Now granted, Monroe and Inge are a little better than many 8 & 9 hitters, at least in terms of power. That said, each picked up 2 walks tonight which had to drive LaRussa nuts. Four walks to the bottom 2 guys in the order has to be infuriating.
• The Tigers walked 5 times tonight. That 5th walk went to Pudge Rodriguez bringing his season total to 2.
• Looper didn’t make it out of the 5th, meaning that Tony LaRussa used quite a few bullpen arms. Here’s hoping the Tigers can make Anthony Reyes work tomorrow night as well.

Tigers 14 Cardinals 4

PREGAME: Every once in a while I’ll pull up a stats site called Dougs Stats. I like it because he has leaderboards for the last 20 games, and it can be interesting to look at. I bring this up because tonight’s starter, Chad Durbin, has posted the 10th best ERA over the last 20 team games in the American League. (equally surprising is that Jeremy Bonderman is 8th worst). Not a bad stretch for a replacement 5th starter.

He’ll need to be that good again tonight as the Red Sox send out Curt Schilling who is having a typical Schilling season with a 3.63 ERA.

The Tigers will keep most of their starters in for the second game with only Marcus Thames spelling Craig Monroe and Mike Rabelo catching for Pudge.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Now this one hurts. So much to like and not like about this game. Certainly the final score falls into not-like.

• Do you get pissed at an offense with 8 extra base hits, and 4 walks against Curt Schilling? An offense that kept putting runners in scoring position with less than 2 outs? An offense that kept driving the ball hard and probably could have had a few more hits is one to get mad at?
• I guess maybe you do when only 2 runs are plated. Gary Sheffield and Marcus Thames in particular missed some choice oppotunities.
• Do you cheer or jeer Brandon Inge who homered and drove in half the runs, but also fanned 3 times and made an error that resulted in the tying run?
• I certainly won’t get mad at Chad Durbin who turned in another fine effort, even if he walked a few too many for my liking.
• Okay, I can just be mad at Ledezma. Even though he induced weak contact for the tying run, he put the tying run on 3rd with a walk. And then it became moot in the 7th with the home run
• And when the team struggles, Jim Leyland seems to over-manage. Taking out Curtis Granderson who had doubled twice, walked, and made a diving catch in favor of Omar Infante was simply bizarre. Yes a sidearm lefty is a tough match up for Curtis, but Leyland did exactly what Francona wanted him to do.

Frustrating day to say the least. You’d like to say a 3-4 road trip to the Metrodome and Boston is acceptable, especially since the Tigers had to patch rotation together. And on the surface it’s not so bad. But given that the starting pitching was pretty good (save for Vasquez), and that the offense generally hit the ball pretty well, it seems there should have been more. And that’s what makes it hurt. Today’s game was there for the taking, and the Tigers just couldn’t put it away.

PREGAME: It’s double header time! The first game is slated for a 12:35 start and will feature Mike Maroth taking on Julian Tavarez.

Tavarez is really the only weak link in the Red Sox rotation. He posts a 6.60 ERA and has struggled pretty much every time out. He’s also had more trouble with right handed hitters who have posted a 976 OPS against him (lefties are at 630).

Mike Maroth is coming off his best start, a 6 2/3 inning, 1 run effort against the Twins. The key for Maroth will be keeping the ball in the park. He’s allowed 7 homers already this year.

Forget all the Maroth stuff, Miner is starting today because Mike is sick. So this will be 3 starts this week by pitchers not in the rotation. Sheesh.

Game Time 12:35

POSTGAME: Mud Hen pitchers unite!

Really, any time you call up a guy from AAA to make a spot start and he gives you 5+ and only 1 earned run you have to be satisfied. Given that it was a few hours notice, and against the best offense in the league I think you should be overwhelmed.

If it was possible Miner was upstaged by fellow Mud Hen come Tiger, Tim Byrdak. Byrdak came in with 2 men on and one out and got out of the jam. In total he retired all 6 batters he faced, fanning 5 of them.

Unfortunately the Tigers bats couldn’t get going, despite putting out their A lineup against a pitcher with an ERA over 6. It was the first time the Tigers didn’t pick up an extra base hit since April 15th when coincidentally they lost 2-1 to Josh Towers and the Blue Jays.

Losing a close game is always tough, because by definition it was winnable. But I’m not to bummed, not sure why. Maybe if I’d seen it (I was at work listening) it would have bugged me more. Instead I just get to appreciate the unpredictability of baseball where a pitching match-up that looked to induce a slugfest instead turned into an unexpected pitcher’s duel.

Red Sox 2, Tigers 1

PREGAME: The Tigers will try to nip this losing streak at 2 games. Tonight it will be heat (Justin Verlander) against the opposite of heat (Tim Wakefield)

Wakefield has been ridiculously good this year posting a 1.79 ERA. He’s done it by keeping the ball in the park with only 2 homers in 45 innings. Combined with a WHIP a smidge over 1 and that isn’t a lot of scoring. He’s been particularly tough on left handers with only 2 extra base hits allowed this season.

Justin Verlander has been pretty good himself with a 2.83 ERA. His weakness is that he’s been prone to bouts of wildness with 2 5 walk outings already.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: Describing Verlander’s start as excellent may be an understatement. In fact, I’d probably rank it as the 2nd most impressive start this year by a Tiger (behind Bonderman’s duel with Halladay). Statistically it was on par with several other starts by Robertson, Durbin, and of course Justin himself. However, given the context of the situation: against the Red Sox offense, after a couple bad losses, with a depleted bullpen – that was really stepping up.

And props to the Sox fans who recognized the effort with a standing ovation.

Fernando Rodney came in for the last 4 outs, and was quite effective despite allowing 2 baserunners on a fly that found a spot between Granderson and Monroe and a tough chopper to Rodney.

The Tigers bats bounced back after struggling against Matsuzaka. They racked up 12 hits and had a couple other hard hit balls that were fielded clean. Every player except Marcus Thames was able to contribute one way or another.

It was a nice 7-2 win, returning the favor from the night before. It also kept the Indians at bay who thumped the Twins tonight.