PREGAME: The Tigers will try to embark on a new winning streak with Kenny Rogers taking the mound. Rogers has only allowed 3 earned runs over his last 4 starts. He’s still not striking many out, he only has 34 on the season, but he’s cutting down on the walks which were hurting him early in the season and running up his pitch count.

For the Giants it will be lefty Jonathan Sanchez. Sanchez is another guy fanning a batter an inning, and limiting homers to the tune of 6 in 80.1 innings this year with no one taking him yard since May 16th. In his last start he snapped a string of 5 consecutive quality starts when he was touched for 7 runs in 7 innings.

Your lineup for tonight:

1. Renteria, SS
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Guillen, 3B
4. Ordonez, RF
5. Cabrera, 1B
6. Thames, LF
7. Rodriguez, C
8. Granderson, CF
9. Rogers, P

Notice that Pudge is starting for the second game in a row. According to Beck it isn’t the end of the alternating catcher plan, but Leyland thinks Inge is still bothered by the oblique.

DET @ SFG, Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 10:15

POSTGAME: Very nice bounce back win for the boys and combined with a Cleveland loss the Tigers are now tied for 3rd place. Sanchez was some kind of filthy as he fanned 6 in his first time through the lineup. But the Tigers made some adjustments and got to him a little after being no hit for 5 innings.

• Kenny Rogers brought it again tonight going 7 strong yet again and keeping the team inthe game when there was no margin for error.
• Marcus Thames is some kind of wonderful. He got down to his last AB with a full count before crushing a ball to centerfield for a 5 game, 8 hit, homer streak.
• Edgar Renteria gets on base 3 times including his 2000th hit.
• Ryan Raburn comes through with the big pinch hit homer and Jeff Larish gets a pinch hit RBI as well.
• More excellent defense today with diving plays from Brent Clevlen and Marcus Thames and some nice picking by Guillen and Renteria as well.

PREGAME: Once upon a time there was a surging team coming off of back to back series sweeps. They went on the road to play a team that many had given up for dead and who had just dropped 5 of 7. That surging team was swept and went on to lose 5 of the next 6.

Of course “a time” was last Tuesday when the White Sox came roaring in to Comerica Park. The Tigers, sweepers of consecutive series, will try to avoid the same fate when they face the Giants who have lost 5 of their last 6.

It’s a dandy of a pitching match-up tonight with Tim Lincecum and Justin Verlander squaring off. Lincecum has been the best pitcher in baseball. He’s thrown a quality start every time out, so getting 4 runs would be quite the accomplishment. He has a freakishly small 1.99 ERA and has allowed only 3 homers in 90 innings while fanning 92. It’ll make it kind of hard for Marcus Thames to extend his homer streak to 4 consecutive games for the first time in his career.

Fortunately, Verlander doesn’t exactly suck and he’s spun quality starts in 5 of his last 6 including a 101 pitch complete game his last time out.

DET @ SFG, Monday, June 16, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 10:15

POSTGAME: So much to say about this game and yet it’s so late…

• The Tigers had really good at-bats against Lincecum and they made him work for the most part. They hit into a couple tough luck double plays, one on a liner and another where a steal attempt led Vizquel right to the ball.
• Verlander was pretty good, and seemed to pick up steam as the game went on as he racked up the strike outs.
• Marcus Thames is out of this world right now.
• Mike Hollimon did a nice job getting to balls, but needs to set his feet and not rush things. He threw away a ball leading to the first run.
• Pudge is a terrific hitter as a platoon partner.
• The Tigers got a gift of a run on the sac fly when the home plate ump missed a tag on Pudge.
• Freddy Solid was sexy in his first inning, not so sexy in the second. He allowed a couple 2 strike hits before giving way to Fernando Rodney.
• The Rodney move was controversial because it was his first game back. But the Tigers needed a strike out with the tying run on 3rd and 1 out. And with a lefty at-bat the choices were Fossum or Rodney (with Seay probably not available given yesterday). The platoon splits for each are nearly a push. Rodney got ahead with 2 strikes but then allowed his first homer since June 23rd. And then he allowed some more 2 strike hits.
• The Tigers mounted a rally in the 9th but came up 2 runs short. Nice battle, disappointing result. It’s a shame they couldn’t take advantage of a shaky outing by Lincecum (by his own crazy standards) and a solid outing by Verlander.

PREGAME: Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there. I had a nice brunch with my Dad this morning and I received a Tigers golf shirt from Mrs. Billfer and the kids. Let’s cap it off with a a lazy day watching the Tigers win.

It’s more southpaw pitching today with Nate Robertson taking on Clayton Kershaw.

Kershaw has lots o’ stuff, but hasn’t totally harnessed it this year. He’s walked 13 in 20 innings but also fanned a batter an inning. The result is 4 starts without seeing the 7th inning.

Robertson turned in a typical Nate start, minus 1 run. He only allowed 3 instead of his usual 4 as he started the sweep of the White Sox. Hopefully he can finish the sweep of the Dodgers.

Today’s lineup:

1. Renteria, SS
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Guillen, 3B
4. Ordonez, RF
5. Cabrera, 1B
6. Thames, DH
7. Inge, C
8. Raburn, LF
9. Clevlen, CF

LAD @ DET, Sunday, June 15, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: The Tigers get to have a happy cross country flight tonight as they head to San Francisco. It has to be more fun than many of the flights they’ve taken after dropping a series or getting shellacked on get-away day. Plus they get to revel in the fact that they are only 1.5 games out of second place and 6 games out of first. This is a nice little reminder that while a double digit deficit may seem insurmountable, the Tigers shaved off 5 games in a week.

• Robertson was a strike throwing machine and the Dodgers were off balance all day. His efficiency before the rain kept him available to earn a quality start despite throwing a couple innings worth of pitches under the stands while waiting.
• The Tigers couldn’t connect off of Kershaw, but they were also waiting him out and he amassed 63 pitches in 4 innings rendering him unavailable after the delay.
• That ended up being a good thing because the Tigers found Chan Ho Park’s pitches to be much more crushable. Some excellent at-bats battling back from 0-2 counts led to walks and hits. And then Marcus the Magnificent went yard again. And so did Brandon.
• All of Thames homers in the homestand were absolute blasts. No cheapies at all. Even the one down the line against Cleveland was high up on the foul pole.
• Denny Bautista pitched 2 nice innings. Bobby Seay and Todd Jones not so much. Jones complete lack of control (the multiple 59 footers in particular) were very disturbing.

PREGAME: Yet another Fox Saturday game, and yet another afternoon spent with Eric Karros. The Tigers managed to win last Saturday on national-ish TV (only 12% of the nation gets this one), so hopefully that “bright spotlights” thing is in the past.

Did you know the Tigers have played .500 ball for the last 60 games? I’m just sayin’

Today it will be Brad Penny and the major league debut of Eddie Bonine. Penny’s fastball has been getting hit with regularity this year. And according to Rod Allen the Tigers are a fastball hitting team so that could bode well.

One guy who hopes for the good boding is Mr. Bonine. Bonine is a control pitcher with only 24 walks all of last year and 14 so far this year. It sounds like he is quite the prankster. He also may be the first minor league Rule 5 pick the Tigers have had make the big league roster.

LAD @ DET, Saturday, June 14, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 3:55

POSTGAME: The Tigers have assured themselves of a at least a 7-3 homestand which is definitely something to be happy about. If they manage to win tomorrow and pick up back to back sweeps it would have to be deemed a stunning success. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, the Tigers did play a game today.

• Eddie Bonine got hit around, but not hit hard for the most part. Russell Martin had a blast to center and Andre Eithier tagged his homer, but outside of another single or two the hits were bleeders and bloops. And he didn’t walk anybody which is fun for everyone. Definitely worth another look.
• The defense wasn’t quite as good as it’s been. Pudge airmailed a throw to second and Cabrera and Bonine both botched routine grounders. But everything seemed to be a step away. I’m not saying guys were slow or out of position, I think it was just the way things went down. Maggs and Marcus both layed out for balls and came up empty and Renteria couldn’t quite convert an up the middle ball leading to a run.
• The offense was pretty darn good. Marcus Thames has hit 3 homers on this homestand that have put the team ahead or tied the score. Miguel Cabrera is finding his groove. Even slumping players like Granderson and Pudge and Larish managed multiple hits.
• The one guy that didn’t hit was Carlos Guillen. You can’t help but wonder if it is the effects of his injury Friday night.
• Three times in this series the Tigers have had a runner hung up between 3rd and home and only once have the Dodgers executed. That’s some good luck for the Tigers.
• The White Sox just lost. That’s good. And the Indians just went down 5 runs to the Padres in the top of the 10th. That’s good too. So the Tigers at least gained some ground today.

PREGAME: So the Tigers are playing good. We’ve seen this a couple times before where they swept a team, only to slide backwards. What’s different this time is that the Tigers aren’t playing the Twins immediately following said sweep.

The Tigers welcome in the Dodgers and Derek Lowe tonight. The Tigers as a group have pretty limited experience against Lowe, but it hasn’t been good. Lowe has only allowed 6 runs in the 29 innings spanning his last 4 starts. He’s struck out 17 and walked 7 over that time with only 2 homers allowed.

Taking the mound for Detroit is Armando Galarraga. Galarraga defeated the Indians his last time out.

It looks like we’ll have some weather tonight so hopefully they can get this one in amidst the storms.
LAD @ DET, Friday, June 13, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Hey all, it’s a 4 game winning streak. Your 2008 Detroit Tigers first shut out of the year came via Armando Galarraga and Freddy Dolsi. Just like Dave Dombrowski drew it up I’m sure.

• Galarraga was awesome. Yes, I was the dumb blogger that said he’s the guy that had to come out of the rotation. Just ignore me. The guy has to be in the mix for AL Rookie of the Year.
• And how ’bout that defense behind him? Marcus Thames makes a sweet play at the fence. And Carlos Guillen was pickin’ it at third base all night.
• After the Tigers had hit several balls hard, but right at Juan Pierre I mentioned to my buddy Russ that they just need to get one over everyone’s head. Thames obliged with a missile in to the visitors bullpen.
• Mike Hollimon is still looking for his first hit, but he got that first RBI out of the way with a sac fly.
• On that weird first inning play with Carlos Guillen, it was actually pretty heads up running. The Dodgers just went unconventional. If Maggs beats out that chopper, and it was going to be close, Guillen would have been safe at home. He got a great jump running. But who expects the opposition to come home with 2 outs.
• As for the emptying of benches and who the Tigers will drill tomorrow? I don’t see it happening. Not with a rookie on the mound making his debut. Maggs offered up his own payback with a 2 run homer.
• And I couldn’t let the postgame go by without mentioning Sexy Freddy Solid pitched 2 perfect innings earning a save.

Happy times at the ballpark tonight. If Detroit can get 1 of the next 2 I think you have to call it a successful homestand.