Detroit Tigers, 48-44, 2 1/2 games behind Chicago.

Doug Fister had his best start of the season, and after two good starts in a row he looks like the Fister from the 2011 pennant run. Fister gave up a solo HR to Albert Pujols in the 1st, and only allowed a single and 2 walks after that, until he was pulled in the 9th at 108 pitches.  Fister struck out 10, which hopefully won’t trigger Leyland’s Too Many Strikeouts response.

Leyland said after the game that he originally was going to give Fister a shot at the complete game, but that Fister felt a little bit stiff so it wasn’t worth the risk (also, as Jeff Molby pointed out last night he hadn’t gone beyond 96 pitches since his injury).

Brennan Boesch continues to bash, adding 2 doubles last night to his home run the night before. Since the break, Boesch is leading the Tigers with a 1.149 OPS, and also leading the team with 7 RBI.

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Today the Tigers look to go 2-for-2 in post-break series, and send out Max Scherzer vs Angels right-hander Jerome Williams. Scherzer had one of his Bad Max outings last out (4 runs and 9 hits in 5 innings); Williams is making his 2nd start since an asthma attack landed him in the hospital.

The Tigers are also going with Danny Worth again at 2B, instead of the usual Santiago platoon.  It may be the Tigers want to take an extended look at Worth (or give someone else one) before making a move.

The popular rumor of the moment has the Tigers re-acquiring 2B Omar Infante, which makes a lot of sense.  Not only is Infante an ex-Tiger, but he is a Marlin, and you know how that is. At any rate the Tigers are supposedly the team most likely to make a deadline deal.  

Stat of the Day: Prince Fielder leads the Tigers with an On Base Percentage of an even .500 since the break.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Brennan Boesch. Boesch is in a groove right now.  With Cabrera and Fielder getting on base regularly in front of him, Boesch adds to his RBI total (as long as Delmon can avoid the GIDP).

Today’s Let’s-See-What-Danny’s-Worth Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Quintin Berry LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Brennan Boesch RF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Danny Worth 2B

Detroit Tigers, 47-44, 3 1/2 games behind Chicago.

Alice Cooper threw out the ceremonial first pitch before last night’s game, and from that point on it was Welcome To My Nightmare for young Jacob Turner, who bombed.

An outburst of offense was predicted, but I didn’t quite have that in mind (the Tiger offense politely refrained from getting involved).

But the good news is that it only counts as one loss, and we go into tonight’s game all tied up in the series.

It isn’t going to get any easier to score runs though:  the Angels send out C.J. Wilson (9-5, 2.43).  Fister will try to duplicate his strong last out performance (7 innings, 1 run, 3 hits, 8 Ks) and show he is back from his injury.

Actually the Tigers already won today–they won a pick in the Competitive Balance Lottery.

On the trade front, the word is that Detroit is actively seeking pitching.  Ryan Dempster still tops the rumor list, but one angle not mentioned enough is that he would have to approve any trade, and has said he thinks the Dodgers would be a good fit.

Dempster isn’t good enough for Drew Sharp, who says the the Tigers MUST get either Cole Hamels or Zack Greinke.  No, no says Lynn Henning. The Tigers should be cautious and just make a little trade for a 2nd baseman.

Stat of the Day: The Tigers fell 4 games short of the equivalent of an entire season without being shutout, when their streak ended last night at 158 games.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Ryan Raburn. He is SO due!

Today’s Let’s-Hope-Fister’s-Really-Good-Tonight Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Ryan Raburn LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Jhonny Peralta SS
7. Brennan Boesch RF
8. Gerald Laird C
9. Danny Worth 2B

Detroit Tigers, 47-43, 2 1/2 games behind Chicago.

A lot went right for the Tigers last night, as they beat the Angels and finally gained a game on the White Sox.  Perhaps no moment was better than in the 7th inning, when Berry singled, stole 2nd, stole 3rd, and tied the game on the sometimes-elusive sacrifice fly.  The Boesch Basch was the cherry on top.

When was the last time the Tigers had someone in the top 10 in stolen bases? Q-Berry is now 13th with a bullet, as one used to say.

As Kevin noted, there was an almost playoff-like atmosphere to the game last night.  In fact, if the playoffs were to be held today, the first game would be a one-game wild card matchup between the Tigers and the Angels.

That game would not likely feature Jacob Turner, making his 2nd start of the season, or Garrett Richards, who is 0-1, 12.46 in his last 2 starts.  The forecast calls for an 80% chance of offensive outbursts.

Turner’s outing today could be a bit of a showcase; his name comes up regularly in the trade deadline rumors, which now include, in addition to the unlikely Dempster and more likely Scutaro rumors, one that has the Tigers pursuing pretty much half of the Diamondbacks.

Stat of the Day: Latroy Hawkins, who came in last night in the 7th, intentionally walked Prince Fielder, who was 3-4 lifetime against him.  Hawkins fared better against dad: Cecil Fielder was a career 1-for-11 against him.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Quintin Berry.  Berry is one of two players in the league with at least 10 stolen bases who has yet to be caught stealing (14-for-14).  The other is across the field, Maicer Izturis (11-for-11).

Today’s It-Worked-Last-Night Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Quintin Berry LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Brennan Boesch RF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Ramon Santiago 2B

Detroit Tigers, 46-43, 3 1/2 games behind Chicago.

The Tigers try to continue their 2nd-half surge with a 4-game series against the redundantly named Los Angeles Angels.  The series will feature neither Justin Verlander nor Jered Weaver, much less a rematch between the two, since they both pitched yesterday.  Perhaps that will have to wait until the 1-game wild card playoff.

Instead Rick Porcello will take the stage for tonight’s ESPN Monday Night Baseball affair, and try to stop the Trout-Trumbo express, which has combined for an 8.0 WAR (a fancy way of saying they are worth as much as the rest of the team combined).

They are right handers, but the righty-righty match won’t necessarily help Kid Rick:  Porcello this season has given up a .319 BA against RHB, and .318 against LHB.  (Yes, that seems awfully high…but you see, there are all those ground balls, and there is the Tiger infield…).

The Tigers face Ervin Santana, who has the AL 3rd worst ERA at 5.75

Or you could look at the matchup as the meeting of the two highest priced free agents:  it’s Pujols vs Fielder! (Just trying to guess the ESPN angle).

In other news, the Tigers are still supposedly interested in Ryan Dempster and Marco Scutaro.

Stat of the Day: The Tigers have yet to be shutout this season.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Jhonny Peralta.  Over the past 2 weeks he is hitting .344 (.989 OPS), and even his outs have been largely of the hard-hit sort.  Is he coming back into 2011 form?

Today’s Trying-To-Score-From-2nd-On-A-Shallow-Single Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Quintin Berry LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Brennan Boesch RF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Ramon Santiago 2B

45-43, 3rd place, 3.5 games back.

Well, the win streak (and Austin Jackson’s hit streak) came to an exciting end last night. I checked my phone yesterday on hole 14 of a rather forgettable back nine on a course in North Dallas. Down 4-1, bottom of the 8th, 1 out, and the bases full of Orioles courtesy of Darin Downs. Honestly, I didn’t have much hope, and put my phone down.

Lo and behold, I checked in 30 minutes later, and the game was tied. A double play ball and a few key hits, and we we’re going extra innings. Then we took the lead! And our closer was coming in! But our closer is Jose Valverde. Tie game again.

Then we took the lead again! Valverde couldn’t come back in again! Benoit was warming up, here comes 7 in a row! JJ Hardy is 0-28. ZERO FOR 28! Bomb. Okay, we’ll get them in the 14th. Taylor Teagarden hasn’t played all season. Two-run bomb; and an 8-6 loss.

In reviewing the game, I watched Berry’s game tying single in the 9th, the one where Boesch is thrown out by out 110 feet. What in the world was Lamont thinking? Watch this video, and pause it at the 9 second mark. Boesch still has 2 steps to go before 3rd base when Endy Chavez has the ball in his glove. As Coleman suggested, Lamont’s WAR is about -10.

The good news is that the White Sox and Indians lost, so after all that, we’re still 3.5 games out.

JV takes the ball today, looking to recover from Tuesday night’s All Star start debacle. JV admitted that he geared it up in the first inning because the fans don’t want to see him “paint the corners” but rather they want to see him throw 100. And give up 5 ER. Look for JV to get back to his low-mid 90s 1st inning self today.

The Tigers take on Orioles rookie Miguel Gonzalez. Gonzalez is a 28 year old rookie who will be making his 2nd big league start, and 5 big league appearance today. So far so good, as Gonzalez has only allowed 4 ER in 18 2/3 IP for a 1.93 ERA. He’s struck out 18 and walked 7 during that time frame. Not a big sample size, but the Tigers have been known to struggle against worst. That said, the guys are really hitting the ball well over the past two weeks, so let’s see if they can hand Gonzalez his first loss.

Today’s Series Clinching Lineup (because we can’t win every game, but we can win every series):

1. Jackson, CF
2. Berry, LF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Boesch, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Avila, C
8. Santiago, 2B
9. Kelly, RF

45-42, 3rd place, 3.5 games back.

They just keep winning and winning. The guys are playing some of their best baseball of the year right now, and have a lot of people thinking that the post season is a real possibility.

Unfortunately, those words could have been written about the Indians, White Sox, or Tigers. During this 6 game winning streak, the White Sox have only lost once, and over the last 10 games, the Indians and White Sox are both 7-3 to the Tigers’ 8-2. As a result, the Tigers have only been able to pick up 1 game since last week.

So we just gotta keep winning.

Max Scherzer gets the call  today, looking for his 6th straight QS. Over his previous 5 outings, Mad Max is 3-1, he’s allowed just 9 ER in 33 innings (2.45 ERA), and has posted 41 Ks against only 9 BBs with a 1.00 WHIP. Look for Leyland to scold Max for striking out too many.

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With the trade deadline approaching, there will be an increased focus on filling team holes. Even before Smyly’s most recent injury, another starter had to be on a shopping list that includes a 2B (is Infante much of an upgrade over Santiago?), and maybe a left handed bat since Boesch can’t seem to get anything going.

Problem is that there increased demand will increase prices (remember that there is an extra wild card spot this year) and the Tigers don’t have a ton of chips to begin with. Henning wrote a nice piece on Thursday which discussed some potential trade pieces.

A few notes:

– AJax hit streak is at a career high 16 games. Using WAR and wRC+, he’s a legitimate 1st half MVP candidate.
– Smyly to the DL retroactive to July 7th, Marte up. Turner likely to pitch on Tuesday.
– Tigers haven’t been shutout in 155 games now, the previous club record was 110.

Today’s Series Clinching Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Santiago, 2B
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Young, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Raburn, 2B
8. Laird, C
9. Berry, LF

44-42, 3rd place, 3.5 games behind CWS, win streak is at 5

The Tigers kick off the back half of the season with a 3 game set against the Orioles. The Orioles are in the middle of their predictable pattern of everybody’s darling to mediocrity to irrelevance as they get passed up by everyone else in the East. But this doesn’t mean that they aren’t full of talent, they simply have the unfortunate consequence of playing in baseball’s best division.

Tonight’s pitcher, Jason Hammel is in the midst of a career year (which also happens to be a contract year). On the year he’s 8-5 with a 3.47 ERA and 101 Ks against 38 BBs in 106.1 IPs, though he’s had a tough go against Detroit in his career. Covering 6 outings, the Tigers have roughed up Hammel for a 6.20 ERA.  Hammel’s worst inning is the 4th, so look for a Raburn bomb there. Peralta is averaging an RBI every 1.7 ABs against Hammel. Hopefully we can get to Hammel because the Orioles bullpen leads the majors in ERA (2.75) and Jim Johnson leads the majors with 26 saves and sports a 1.21 ERA.

Fister has allowed 18 ER in his last 14 1/3 IPs. To boot, the Orioles are batting .314 off of him as a team.  Let’s see what Fister can give us this 2nd half.

A few notes:

– The Orioles video production department was recently recognized by the other video guys at the “Best Overall Video Display In Baseball” as the sparsely attended and new to me Information Display Entertainment Association conference in Minneapolis earlier this week.
– Worth up, Ortega down.
– What could Delmon Young have in common with the following names that I know from Tony LaRussa Baseball for PC Circa 1991 – Rudy York and Vic Wertz, along with Hank Greenberg, Willie Horton and Marcus Thames? If he hits a HR tonight he’ll find out.
– AJax is on a 15 game hitting streak.

Tonight’s  Lineup:

1. CF Austin Jackson
2. LF Quintin Berry
3. 3B Miguel Cabrera
4. 1B Prince Fielder
5. DH Delmon Young
6. RF Brennan Boesch
7. SS Jhonny Peralta
8. C Alex Avila
9. 2B Ryan Raburn

Detroit Tigers, 43-42, 4 1/2 games behind Chicago.

Today the Tigers try to do something they have yet to do this season:  win 5 in a row.  And they will need it to keep pace in what has suddenly become the hot division in baseball.  Over the last 10 games, the White Sox are 8-2, the Indians are 7-3, and the Tigers are 7-3.

The Tigers send out Mysterious Max Scherzer, who has been hot and cold this season, most recently hot.  But he tweaked his hamstring, conceded his last start to Duane Below, and again takes the mound wearing a question mark.

The Royals counter with Sir Everett Teaford, Archduke of Kansas City.

Meanwhile, back in Kansas City, Tiger prospects Rob Brantly, Nick Castellanos, and Bruce Rondon prepare to play in tonight’s minor league all-star Futures Game (5pm, ESPN2).

Stat of the Day: Justin Verlander is tied for 9th in the AL with 4 sacrifice bunts.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Delmon Young. ESPN’s  Least Valuable Player of the first half has gone on a 3-game home run binge. Could he make it a 4?

Today’s Winning-Out-Into-The-Break Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Quintin Berry LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Brennan Boesch RF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Ramon Santiago 2B

Detroit Tigers, 42-42, 4 1/2 games behind Chicago.

Today the Tigers have a chance to win 4 in a row, which they last did when their starting second baseman was named Brandon Inge (April 15-18), and would tie their longest winning streak of the season.  Indicators are positive: the April 4-game winning streak was also against the Royals.

The Tigers will send Doug “Five-Inning” Fister out to the mound, who seems to have misplaced his fastball velocity when he returned from the DL.  The Royals counter with their lefty-du-jour, sometimes troublesome Bruce Chen (3-1, 3.00 in his last 4 vs. Detroit).

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The player of the game last night was Drew Smyly, who once again struggled after the 4th inning, but pulled it together, clowns be damned. And what a first 4 innings those were: Smyly struck out 9 batters, and only gave up 2 singles and no walks.  The Royals seemed to have no idea what he was throwing.  Was it a new pitch?

Or maybe he was just trying to impress Kate Upton. Yes, apparently Miss Upton has jumped on the Tiger bandwagon now that they are a .500 club.  Her appearance at Comerica last night set off a Twitter firestorm.

Personally, I have more important things to worry about.  Like these 4:00 starts.  When they do day/night game splits, they count as day games.  But don’t you think there are players who struggle in early day games, but do perfectly fine in 4:00 games? Should there be a 3rd category in the splits? Who has time for supermodel gossip when there are issues like this at hand?

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Stat of the Day: The Tigers have attempted 41 stolen bases this season (33 successful), the lowest number of attempts in all of MLB.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Gerald Laird.  The Royals like to run, and like to get caught–22 times in 75 attempts.  Laird obliges, and also nails Prince Fielder with a pickoff throw as retribution for the black eye Fielder gave him.

Today’s Winning Record Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Quintin Berry LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Ryan Raburn RF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Ramon Santiago 2B
9. Gerald Laird C

Detroit Tigers, 41-42, 4 1/2 games behind Chicago.

Well, here we go again.  The Tigers have their 9th shot at getting to the .500 mark since May 15, and are 0-8 so far at it.

They will have to do it against the Royals, who will go all-lefty on the mound for the 3-game series. The first lefty up will be Jonathan Sanchez, future topic of Worst Trade lists (the Royals traded Melky Cabrera, who is tied for the NL BA lead at .356).

Sanchez has had trouble finding the plate: he has given up 40 BBs in 46 innings, including 6 each in his last 2 outings.  The Tigers have had recent success with an aggressive approach at the plate.  It will be interesting to see if they change this up against the struggling Sanchez, or continue to whack away.

Detroit sends out Drew “Four-Inning” Smyly, who pitched against the Royals in April and held them to 1 unearned run in 6 innings.

Justin Verlander says cheer up fans, the 2nd half will be better.

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Yesterday’s game had a little of everything: a rain delay, two consecutive outs at the plate (nice throws by Cabrera and Raburn; nice plate-blocking by Laird), a little 3 Stooges action on a pop bunt, in which Fielder almost took out Laird (I guess that makes Laird Larry); dodge ball on the mound, which led to an early exit for Porcello; big hits by Jackson and Cabrera and a really big hit for Fielder (if you wait long enough, the 3-run homers will come).

But with everything that happened, Jim Leyland said the key to the game was the clutch relief performance of Darin Downs, who relieved Porcello after he took a line drive off of his bicep. Downs must have felt some sympathy for Porcello.  Nicknamed The Pitcher Who Lived, Downs suffered a fractured skull from a line drive in AA in 2009.

Stat of the Day: Detroit passed Minnesota, and is now only the 2nd worst team in the league in bases-loaded hitting (.219 BA, .531 OPS).

Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Austin Jackson.  AJax is hitting .400 with 6 RBI over his last 6 games, which doesn’t match what Cabrera has done in the same span, but Cabrera gets funny sometimes when he is at DH. Jackson stays hot against the all-lefty menu.

Today’s Clown Show Alert Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Quintin Berry RF
3. Miguel Cabrera DH
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young LF
6. Ryan Raburn 2B
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Ramon Santiago 3B

40-42, 3rd place, 4.5 games behind CWS.

JV turned in just the performance that the Tigers needed last night, tossing a complete game 4 hitter in the 5-1 win. Incredibly, he only needed 78 pitches to get through 7 innings, and only because of a few long ABs in the 8th did his pc escalate to 115. JV was efficient early on and pitched to contact, before logging more Ks later in the game. For the first time in a while, JV never hit 100 on the gun.

The Tigers get sophomore sensation Scott Diamond today, as Diamond looks for his 3rd straight win, and 8th of the season. Diamond is a soft tossing lefty with tremendous command, having only walked 11 in 72 IPs this year. Curiously, his lefty/righty splits are inverted, as he’s held righties to a .255 average with a 2.08 ERA and 1.12 WHIP, but lefties hit .324 off of him for a 4.60 ERA and 1.53 WHIP.  Which means that Quentin Berry should be starting.

Porcello looks to continue his hot streak, where he’s allowed only 3 ER in this last 20 IPs. Porcello has seen his ERA drop from 5.18 to 4.35 during that streak, and a win today would be his third straight, and make him 4-1 over his last 5.

A few notes:

– JV is Verducci’s pick for mid-season Cy Young.
– Scutaro at 2B? Let’s do it.

Today’s Why Is Raburn Even Playing Much Less Batting 2nd Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Raburn, LF (11-38 w/5 xBH since his recall)
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Young, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Boesch, RF
8. Laird, C
9. Santiago, 2B