PREGAME: Okay, this series is kind of a big deal. The Tigers could pick up 3 games with a sweep and be right in the middle of stuff. They could be swept and be focusing on building the best team of 2009. Or they could inch a little in either direction. It’s also the last time the Tigers get the Sox at home, so taking advantage this series would be helpful.

Tonight the Tigers need to solve the riddle of Gavin Floyd. It’s something they’ve struggled with. In Floyd’s last 5 starts against Detroit he’s allowed a total of 5 runs in 32.1 innings. The last time he carried a no hitter into the 8th inning.

Floyd is much tougher on righties, with lefties posting a .797 OPS. He also is easier to hit on the road. At home he fans 7.1 batters per nine and allows a .177 BABIP. On the road it is a 4.5 K/9 and .273 BABIP.

One thing to note with Floyd is that batters are only posting a .630 OPS on first pitches. Hopefully the Tigers make him work.

On the other side it will be Nate Robertson. Robertson was awful his last time out, and some sort of bounce back statement game would be nice.

CHW @ DET, Friday, July 25, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

Toledo 6 Rochester 9
Freddy Guzman went 3 for 5. Timo Perez had 2 doubles. Mike Hollimon went 2 for 4 with a walk. Anastacio Martinez was knocked around for 9 runs on 11 hits, including 3 homers. Francis Beltran struck out the side in one inning of work.

Erie – PPD

Lakeland 11 Vero Beach 5
Ryan Strieby did it again – homers in 6 straight and 7 of 8 games. Justin Justice and Brandon Timm each had 3 hits. James Skelton doubled, singled, and walked. Jonah Nickerson fanned 5 and allowed 5 runs (2 earned) in 6 innings. Zach Simons pitched 3 perfect innings for the save.

West Michigan 6 Wisconsin 1
Kyle Peter, Justin Henry, Brandon Douglas, Ronnie Bourquin, and Cory Middleton all had 2 hits. Mauricio Robles pitched 6 shut out innings allowing only 2 hits with 4 K’s. Brett Jacobson struck out 2 in one inning.

Oneonta 3 Montana 5
Ben Guez and Hayden Parrott homered for 2 of the 3 Oneonta hits. David Stokes allowed 5 runs in 5 innings on 6 hits. Santo Mieses, Tyler Conn, and Anthony Shawler each pitched a scoreless inning with 2 K’s.

GCL Tigers PPD

PREGAME: The Tigers have now scored 500 runs on the season – exactly. That’s only 19 games later than expected by many. The Tigers also come into today’s game at 2 games over .500. That’s been their highwater mark for the season. It’s a mark they first reached on July 2nd, and they’ve gone 9-9 since then. Their playoff odds as calculated by Baseball Prospectus are at the highest (10.9%) they’ve been since that same day. Can the Tigers break through and move to the coveted 3 games over .500?

To do it they’ll have to get by Zach Grienke. Grienke has been inconsistent of late. He was hammered for 7 runs by the White Sox his last time out, but in his last 7 starts he’s also had 4 outings where he’s given up 2 runs or less. He still has great K and BB rates, but he has allowed 18 homers already this season.

Armando Galarraga threw strikes his last time out. He fanned six and walked none, but 3 of those strikes found themselves in the bleachers and he ended up surrendering 5 runs in 6.2 innings.

DET @ KCR, Wednesday, July 23, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 2:10

POSTGAME: I was the idiot blogger arguing that Armando Galarraga couldn’t keep it up – and that was back in May. I’m thrilled he keeps proving me wrong.

A potential no hitter/perfect game is so damn exciting that I don’t know how these guys can settle down and throw a pitch. I was listening at work and I was getting nervous/excited with each pitch. Dan Dickerson by the way did a great job painting the scene and his excitement was evident in his signature “and he GOT HIM ON STRIKES!”

Meanwhile it sounded like Zach Grienke was pitching a heck of a game but had some of the worst luck ever as bloops and ducks found safe harbor between the infield and outfield and a couple of well timed hits staked the Tigers to an early lead.

This was a heck of a bludgeoning that the Royals took and it should quell the jokes (which had been warranted) about the Tigers inability to beat Kansas City.

Things are set up for a monster series with the White Sox. Fortunately for the Tigers things are positioned such that as long as Detroit isn’t swept, things will still be okay. Of course anything the Tigers can do to cut into the White Sox lead – especially while playing in Comerica – would be quite the boost.

PREGAME: The Tigers will try and score some more runs, providing they aren’t too tired from circling the bases last night. They won’t have Jimmy Gobble to beat up because he’s now on the DL.

The Tigers are facing Kyle Davies who they have a tangential relationship with. The Royals decided to take up the Braves offer of Kyle Davies for reliever Octavio Dotel last year at the trade deadline over the pitching prospect the Tigers offered up – which was rumored to be significant and rumored to be Jair Jurrjens.

Davies is coming off a quality start against Seattle, and was one out short of one in his prior start.

The Tigers send out Kenny Rogers who has been giving up more than his share of hits as of late. In his last two starts he’s surrendered 20 hits and 4 walks, but only 7 of those runners came around to score.

DET @ KCR, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 8:10

POSTGAME: Kenny Rogers pitched a one-hitter over 6 innings to the 8 guys not named Mark Grudzelianekdsaskeak. In a rare outing for Kenny he fanned more than he walked and basically cruised through 6 innings and likely would have had enough for the 7th at least if not for a rain delay.

The offense dispelled questions about “using up their hits” in the 19 run outburst by scoring a run in the first inning. And basically just standing at the plate daring Kyle Davies to throw a strike. Davies was done after 4 innings and a ton of hitters counts.

About those hitters counts, it appears that Curtis Granderson is in a mini-funk. Yes, he has 3 hits in the series, but let’s take a closer look. He went 0 for 5 on Sunday. And of the 3 hits one was a swinging bunt. Another was a grounder through the pitcher that should have been fielded, and the last was a soft liner. But what makes it stand out is that he has been in 3-1 counts continually the last 2 nights, and hasn’t hit the ball hard. I’m not panicing or upset, I’m just sayin…

Placido Polanco had one of those patented, “wow, Polly just hit one out” homers that come out of nowhere and with no one on base. Gary Sheffield drove the ball well missing a homer by about 3 feet and hitting a deep sac fly to centerfield. Carlos Guillen was ripping the ball and had a 12 pitch walk to boot.

The one thing I really question is using both Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumaya. Rodney appeared by the boxscore at least (yeah, I went to bed) to be nasty, much like in his Baltimore outing (7 of his last 10 outs have been K’s). And using him 2 innings means he’s not available. But then to use Joel Zumaya with a 6 run lead, very late at night, with a day game today, seems to not be very forward thinking.

Toledo 6 Rochester 4
Brent Clevlen had 2 more homers to push his total to 19. He’s hitting .305 and while it took a few turns at AAA, he’s regained prospect status. Jeff Larish, Freddy Guzman, and Clete Thomas all had 2 hits. Eddie Bonine went 7 innings allowing 4 runs, 2 of which were earned, on 5 hits, no walks, and 5 K’s.

Binghamton 12 Erie 3
Jeff Frazier and Wil Rhymes each had 2 hits. Danny Worth returned to the lineup and walked. Luis Marte returned to Erie and struggled. He allowed 6 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks in 3.2 innings. And then the pen got hammered.

Lakeland 13 Vero Beach 5
Ryan Strieby is on some kind of tear. He has homered now in his last 4 games and 5 of the last 6. Adam Frost was a triple short of the cycle and had a walk. Jeramy Laster hit a grand slam. James Skelton tripled and walked twice.

West Michigan – delayed

Vermont 4 Oneonta 2
Matt Horman fanned 6, but allowed 4 runs on 3 walks and 4 hits in 4 innings. Lester Oliveros struck out 3 and with 1 walk and 3 hits in 2 innings. Orlando Perdomo struck out two in 1 inning of work. The O-Tigs were 3 hit.
Vermont 4 Oneonta 1
Trevor Feeney allowed just 2 runs in 6 innings. But Oneonta only mustered 4 singles.

GCL Tigers 4 GCL Indians 5
Luis Salas doubled and singled. Brandon Harrington and Brett Anderson had 2 hit games. Jordan Tata made it 6 innings and allowed only 2 runs, but he walked 6 as he continues to struggle.

PREGAME: Don’t know if you heard, but the Tigers are 0-6 against the Royals this year. In those 6 games the Tigers have managed all of 11 runs. They been shut out twice. Tonight’s starter Luke Hochevar held the Tigers to 4 hits, 3 walks, and no runs in 6 innings when the teams met earlier this year. He was hammered in 2 of his last 3 starts but allowed just 1 run in a 7 inning outing his last time out.

For the Tigers Zach Miner returns to the rotation. He made one emergency start in 2007, but that’s it dating back to September 2006. You may remember that start as part of the series when the Tigers blew the division. Miner did his part by recording 1 out, amidst allowing 5 runs.

DET @ KCR, Monday, July 21, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 8:10

POSTGAME: Too late for a proper recap. Zach Miner was awesome. He wavered a little bit after a 3rd inning single to Gathright. He started floating pitches outside, but he recovered, got the GIDP, and didn’t let another runner touch second base.

And then the offense. The 3-4-5 trio of Guillen-Cabrera-Joyce came to the plate 18 times and only made 4 outs. That makes for good offense. So does the corpse that was known earlier tonight as Jimmy Gobble who was charged with 10 runs in one inning of work. Manager Trey Hillman will likely be charged with crimes against humanity.

The bullpen wasn’t good. Freddy Dolsi was rocked and Aquilino Lopez was also hit hard – but more of his balls found mitts.

Tigers baseball, just when you think it can’t get any worse, it gets a little better. The White Sox and Twins both lose and the Tigers are 5.5 out. Damn that Saturday game.

PREGAME: The Tigers look to salvage a split and stave off baseball irrelevance. The Orioles don’t win on Sundays. They have a 14 game losing streak on Sundays. And the Tigers have their ace on the mound. Maybe if the pitching staff can keep the O’s under 7 runs the Tigers have a chance.

Verlander is pitching on extended rest, which given his workload leading up to the break is probably a good thing. Of course he maybe rusty or overly amped up so that may back fire as well.

Brian Burres isn’t a particularly good pitcher. He doesn’t strikeout many and his walk rate isn’t great either. And he’s left handed. But offense hasn’t been the Tigers problem in this series.

Guillen is back with the team, arriving from the airport just before noon. But he isn’t playing. Instead the infield consists of Cabrera, Inge, Santiago, and Raburn.

DET @ BAL, Sunday, July 20, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 1:35

POSTGAME: Justin Verlander is my hero. He finally managed to shut down the vaunted Orioles offense, pitching a 3 hitter and recording 26 of the 27 requisite outs. And he did it efficiently too. Not a lot of strike outs, but a lot of weak grounders and pop-ups. He preserved the pen on a day when basically nobody was available and/or trusted.

The offense did enough, extending innings with 2 out hits, and getting some power from Marcus Thames and Magglio Ordonez.

The Tigers leave Baltimore achieving the bare minimum. On to KC.

• On the decision to take Verlander out with one out to go. Yeah, it kinda sucks. And Verlander had pitched well. But how important is the complete game in the scheme of things? It was a 100 degrees and Verlander had lost a couple MPH off his fastball. Eight of the ten pitches he had thrown in the inning missed the strike zone, and pretty badly. Say he leaves him in and he walks another batter, or worse yet gives up a hit, or grooves one when falling behind in the count. Then you’re bringing in Jones to a very high leverage situation.
• And Jones typically makes a situation high leverage without any help. A walk was followed by a phenomenal play by Inge. It probably would have been a web gem, but no Baseball Tonight because it is important to show the ESPYs.
• The 3-4-5-6 hitters combined for 2 homers, 2 singles, a double, and 5 walks. That’s some nice production on a day when the top two hitters didn’t get on base.
• Finally, let’s talk about Brian Runge. Runge is the ump who blew the 10th inning call on Saturday night. His handiwork at homeplate complete, he went over for a stress free day at third base. But given the opportunity to deny the Tigers a run, he jumped all over it. Marcus Thames hooked a deep fly ball down the left field foul pole. Thames kept rounding the base while Runge called it foul. Fortunately he was promptly overruled by home plate ump Greg Gibson. Runge is approaching Angel Hernandez in my book.