PREGAME: The Tigers return home after that long west coast swing. I noticed a lot of Tigers hats on the Red Wings players in today’s parade. I wonder if Lord Stanley’s Cup will be making an appearance at the game tonight.

As for the pitching match-up it will be Paul Byrd and Justin Verlander. Byrd per usual is allowing a lot of hits, but walking nobody (only 8 this year). In fact he’s only been in 9 3-1 counts all year. That’s a typical start for Nate Robertson.

He’s the kind of guy that could give a confused offense like the Tigers fits. He has some pretty dramatic platoon splits to the tune of 914 OPS for lefties and 664 OPS for righties. We’ll see if Leyland goes with a bold move and puts Mike Hollimon in at shortstop for a struggling Renteria.

Byrd has allowed 14 homers this year, and it is hot and windy in Detroit today so maybe we’ll see some big flies.

Verlander has seen his ERA trending downward with quality starts in 3 of his last 4 starts (and would have been 4 for 4 if not for some poor defense in his last outing). He’s still walking too many and not striking out enough, but his high 90’s heat has returned. Verlander struggles against Cleveland though, with a 7.03 ERA in his career against the Tribe.

CLE @ DET, Friday, June 6, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Nice job by Verlander, again. Crappy job by the offense, again. These things really do start to write themselves. Oh, and to torment ourselves a little more here is Cabrera’s last at-bat. Pitch 5 is the one he swung at. I guess pitches 3 and 4 weren’t far enough away for his liking.

PREGAME: I’m tired from the last couple nights. So it’s Nate Robertson and Justin Duchscherer and all the data is available at the game preview link below. Or you can just follow the template.

DET @ OAK, Wednesday, June 4, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

PREGAME: Tonight’s starters are Dontrelle Willis, Dana Eveland, and Armando Galarraga. That’s right, it’s split start night in Oakland.

Dontrelle Willis returns to his hometown and the starting rotation. Willis has made 2 starts, but only recorded outs in one of them. The other saw his knee do a strange bendy thing that resulted in a DL stint. The key for for Willis is not to walk the whole ballpark.

Armando Galarraga will be the Tigers other starter coming in around the 5th inning or so. He’s coming off a near shut out complete game performance against the Angels that was spoiled by a Maicier Izturis 9th inning homer.

Eveland takes the ball for the A’s. The lefty has a 3.66 ERA on the year and a normal 6.4 K/9 rate and a normal 3.5 BB/9 rate. What he does well is keep the ball in the park. He’s only allowed 3 homers in 66.1 innings this year. Only 1 of those has come in Oakland where he boasts a 2.73 home ERA.

Everyday left fielder Marcus Thames who hasn’t played the last few games will be DH. Inge is available as a defensive replacement late, but Leyland doesn’t want to risk losing his back-up catcher early in the game aggravating his oblique.

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

DET @ OAK, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: I confess. I went to bed. After the 10th inning, with my alarm clock looming 3.5 hours later I just couldn’t do it anymore. I wasn’t surprised to wake up and see they lost. I was surprised to see it on an infield single from Jack Cust.

The Tigers left too many runs out there. The Clete Thomas play where he got a horrible read on the ball. The Pudge Rodriguez play where he couldn’t handle the short hop from Thomas allowing the tying run to score. Leaving runners at third with less than 2 outs. It all adds up to a loss.

Willis looked very good in the first 2 innings being in and around the strike zone. But then he struggled again the next innings and was all over the place yet somehow escaped unscathed. So there was some reason to be encouraged, but he didn’t exactly finish strong (although wiggling out of the jam should give him a lift).

Galarraga walked a couple in his first inning and then ultimately allowed the 3 run homer before settling in.

Curtis Granderson made a phenomenal play and with the help of a Emil Brown brain cramp kept the game tied in the 8th.

I don’t have any other thoughts. They are playing better-ish, but still not really crisp. Each of the last 2 nights, and really every game of this road trip save for the Felix Hernandez start, they had multiple chances to win a game but once again they come up short.

I’m just happy to be done with late night west coast games for awhile.

PREGAME: I know this is a Tigers blog and all. And I usually try to stay pretty much on topic. But there’s kind of a big hockey game tonight. And I figure many people who frequent here are Detroit sports fans. So GO WINGS! And along with Ian, in the interest of blogger solidarity, a shout out to the Red Wing blogging brethern:

• Behind the Jersey
• Abel to Yzerman
• Gorilla Crouch
• Let’s Go Wings
• On the Wings
• Yzerman is God

As for our little baseball game, it will be Kenny Rogers and his crazy Oakland splits against Rich Harden. Harden strikes out oodles of people, but he’s already made 6 starts this year making any pitch a potential season-ender at this point.

UPDATE: Carlos Guillen is back at third. Brandon Inge tweaked his oblique on a check swing and is day-to-day.
1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Guillen, 3B
4. Ordonez, RF
5. Cabrera, 1B
6. Larish, DH
7. Renteria, SS
8. Thomas, LF
9. Rodriguez, C

DET @ OAK, Monday, June 2, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 10:10

POSTGAME: I guess you can say that if you have 3 walk-off decisions on a road trip, at least your competitive. Too bad the Tigers need to be better than competitive and start notching some W’s with regularity.

I can’t get too upset with the offense in this one. Rich Harden is good. Rich Harden was on his game. But the Tigers did manage to bust up a shut out and scratch across a couple of runs. They made a guy throwing mostly strikes work to the tune of 4.3 pitches per PA running his pitch count to 115 in the 7th. They got a clutch hit from rookie Jeff Larish to take advantage of a rare scoring opportunity.

Rogers struggled a little early on, but limited a first inning bases loaded situation to 1 run. He pitched out of a few jams as things went on, but still gave the team 7+ innings.

But oh that bullpen. Bobby Seay walked the .163 hitting Travis Buck to load the bases and fell behind Deric Barton 3-0 before escaping the 8th inning. And then Francisco Cruceta happened to the 9th inning. Again he takes the loss. Again.

PREGAME: The Tigers are looking for a series win, their first since the last time they played the Mariners. The match-up is a repeat from that series as well when Jeremy Bonderman beat Miguel Batista.

The Tigers trot out yet another different lineup with Carlos Guillen breaking in his outfielders glove for a trial in left field. He’ll bat 3rd. Thames is out of the lineup so Miguel Cabrera moves back to 5th.

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

DET @ SEA, Sunday, June 1, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 4:10

POSTGAME: The Tigers came into today 0 fer Sundays being outscored 52-14. But they got one today. Yes, it was against the Mariners, and yes it wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but there are no style points to gain or lose.

Jeremy Bonderman didn’t have the same sharpness he’d shown in his last few starts – at least early on. His fastball seemed to have that uncontrollable tailing action, but despite pitching behind in the count there weren’t many hard hit balls. Until the 5th inning anyways.

In the 5th he was getting drilled with line drive after line drive. But he escaped down only 1 run. He came back and seemed to regain his command and with the help of a balls-on throw from Curtis Granderson he pitched 2 more scoreless inning.

The Tigers offense wasn’t booming, but they took advantage of a couple early opportunities and hung around until a 1 out walk by Brandon Inge started a 4 run rally that put the win safely in the Tigers hands – even with a Todd Jones scare outing.

Guillen had several plays in left field and handled the position well.

Comment of the game thread honors goes to T Smith for:

Maggs New Slogan:
Got chocolate milk?

PREGAME: Ah, Fox Sports and national TV means most of you will be blacked out. That’s too bad because the pitching match-up of Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez could be a good one.

Hernandez has a 3.60 ERA and is fanning 7.4 per nine innings. He’s had some control issues allowing 5 walks in 2 of the last 3 games. So his pitch count can get elevated around the 6th inning.

DET @ SEA, Saturday, May 31, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Hey look, another shut out. More defensive miscues. It’s your 2008 Tigers.

Felix Hernandez stymied the Tigers and only allowed 2 hits and no walks. The biggest indication of the Tigers woes today was Placido Polanco striking out 3 times.

Verlander gave up a couple first inning runs as he struggled with his command early on. He loaded the bases with one out and looked like he may get out of it when Granderson made a diving play and Jose Lopez forgot to tag up. But a jam shot single plated two and that would be all the Mariners would need.

They’d get two more in the 4th inning when the Tigers decided to trade a couple outs for runs. With a suicide squeeze attempt in the works, Verlander intentionally bounced a curve ball. Pudge blocked it but couldn’t find the handle and the run scored.

Later Edgar Renteria biffed an inning ending double play ball on the exchange and another run scored.

And Aquilino Lopez wasn’t very good after recording 2 outs.

And Jim Leyland got ejected on a call that even had Granderson arguing.

PREGAME: Detroit tries to avoid being swept and moving 11 games below .500. Oy.

Armando Galarraga against Joe Saunders.

Notes from Jason Beck include that Curtis Granderson is going to play against more lefties, starting tonight. Also Marcus Thames is the full time starting left fielder for the time being because he’s earned it over the last couple years. Make of that what you will. And Carlos Guillen gets the day off, and tomorrow, to take care of some “issues” if you know what I mean.

The Tigers lineup tonight is:

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

DET @ LAA, Wednesday, May 28, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: I’m sleepy. Offense – good. You go Marcus Thames. Pitching – good. Galarraga had a shaky first inning and was helped by a double play and a diving play. Then it was cruise control until the 9th. Defense – good. See aforementioned diving play and add 2 more double plays.

Ladies and gentlemen: Your 4th place Tigers!

PREGAME: It’s Jeremy Bonderman and Ervin Santana tonight as the Tigers try to snap a 19 inning scoreless streak.

Santana has been mediocre in his last 3 starts since coming off a complete game shut out. His pitch count has been running over 100 by the 6th inning despite the fact he isn’t walking many (only 15 in 66.2 innings). Of course I pointed out that Jon Garland wasn’t striking anyone out last night, and he fanned 5. So I’d expect Santana’s pitch count to be about 71 after the sixth.

The last time Jeremy Bonderman pitched in LAnaheim he surrendered 11 runs in only 2.1 innings. It was the beginning of the elbow problems for Bonderman. He’ll try to notch his 3rd straight quality start tonight.

It’s an odd lineup tonight reminiscent of the 2006 ALCS with Polanco batting 3rd.

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

DET @ LAA, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Nice job Leyland. Way to take the guy that’s dealing out of the game. Things worked so well with Cruceta on Sunday. Beautiful.

And Lopez. Walking the .167 hitting number 9 hitter with 2 outs and becoming afraid to throw another pitch?

Jeremy Bonderman threw a grand total of 30 pitches for balls in 7.1 innings. Cruceta and Lopez combined to throw 22 in 1.1 innings. In-frickin-excusable.

Buffalo 5 Toledo 3
Mike Hessman was 1 for 3 with 2 walks. Chris Lambert allowed 5 runs on 8 hits over 4.2 innings.

Erie 3 Akron 4
Jeff Frazier had 2 hits, as did Ryan Roberson. Dusty Ryan doubled and walked. Matt Righter allowed 3 runs on 3 hits and 4 walks in 4.1 innings. Angel Castro allowed 4 hits and a run in 2.2 innings of relief work.

Lakeland – DNP

Dayton 6 West Michigan 0
Joe Tucker had a double. Joe Bowen singled and walked. Alfredo Figaro allowed 4 runs on 9 hits, no walks, and 4 K’s in 7 innnings.

PREGAME: First of all Memorial Day wishes go out to everyone. And for those of you who are veterans or are currently serving…Thank You for all you do.

The Tigers head west for 9 games starting off with the Angels. Maybe the schedule makers did the Tigers a small favor. The Angels were in Chicago for Sunday Night Baseball last night so they probably got in about 5 hours after the Tigers did last night.

As for the game itself, it will be Kenny Rogers against Jon Garland.

Garland has been pitching to contact as evidenced by the 14 strikeouts he’s amassed in 64.1 innings. But he’s been on a roll his last 4 starts with a 2.25 ERA in 28 innings of work with opponents only mustering a .543 OPS against.

Rogers has been the weak link the last 2 times through the rotation only making it through 9.1 innings in his last 2 starts combined while allowing 19 hits, 3 for home runs. He hasn’t faced the Angels since September 2006 when he pitched 7 innings of 4-hit, shut out ball.

DET @ LAA, Monday, May 26, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 9:05

POSTGAME: Why does this team hate us fans so?

• Garland who doesn’t strike out anyone fanned 5.
• Kenny Rogers was awesome going 7 strong innings. Now all the Tigers starters have ERAs under 6!
• Freddy Dolsi showed me something tonight. He fanned Vlad Guerrero which is impressive in its own right. But when everyone failed to call time and Torri Hunter alertly took 2nd base, and during the subsequent intentional walk Dolsi threw a ball away, he didn’t get rattled. His next 2 pitches were strikes, the 2nd resulting in a bouncer to first base.
• Carlos Guillen with 2 more errors, and some excellent at-bats.
• Gary Sheffield is out with an oblique/back thingy.
• Ryan Raburn fanned twice and popped out in his place.
• A 4 pitch walk is no way to end this game. Especially to someone who doesn’t really walk. Only one of the pitches was close, and to be fair the Tigers took a ton of close pitches that went as balls. I have no problem with the calls in that at-bat. You have to put it near the plate.
• The Tigers have 11 bases loaded walks now this year. They had 9 all of last year.

PREGAME: The Tigers look to close out their 6 game homestand on a positive note. They’ll send out Justin Verlander who has pitched better as of late with 3 runs, 10 K’s, and 4 walks in 12 innings spanning his last 2 starts. True, those starts were against the Royals and Mariners, but still, it’s progress.

Glen Perkins will make his 4 start of the season. He’s 3 for 3 in quality starts with 12 K’s and 2 BB’s in 18.1 innings.

The Tigers haven’t won on a Sunday this season and have been outscored 46-13.

MIN @ DET, Sunday, May 25, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Just got back from the game. It was a lovely afternoon at the park, save for the game on the field. Actually, I think I’m getting desensitized to the losing, or maybe I’m relieved in some weird way when it’s the bullpen that falls apart instead of the rest of the team.

For the bulk of the day it was a pretty even pitcher’s duel. Verlander didn’t appear to be particularly sharp, but was effective nonetheless. I wasn’t watching the radar gun at the stadium, but judging by the comments it sounds like he had his old velocity back.

On the offensive side, the Tigers were making quick outs, but credit some of that to Perkins who was throwing strikes. Perkins through 69 of his 104 pitches for strikes. There’s a certain point where being down 0-1 automatically isn’t such a good strategy either. And the Tigers for their part had a number of hard hit balls. Guillen hit the ball well all 4 times. Ordonez had a couple line drives, one went for a double, the other an out. Raburn was robbed on a play by Cuddyer. Yes they scored only 1 run, but I never got the impression they were just rolling over. This was a tie game through 7 innings after all.

But then there was the Cruceta inning. I’m not a fan of the intentional walk in that situation, and even less a fan of the follow-up unintentional walk. But what was more idiotic is not having anybody warming up in the pen throughout the inning. It was the same situation in the 7th when Verlander loaded the bases and nobody was up.

Why wouldn’t you have a lefty available to face Mauer/Morneau in that situation? I know that both can hit lefties, Mauer especially, but I’ve got to go with platoon splits when you are cobbling together the back end of the bullpen. I still think that Cruceta can be effective, but we’re not at that point yet. Unless Seay and Willis were unavailable thanks to McClendon leaving both in too long on Friday night.