PREGAME: It’s kind of a Jekyll and Hyde pitching match-up today. Nate Robertson has been all over the place, shutting down Cleveland and getting knocked around by the Royals. For the A’s it will be Dallas Braden, who’s last big league start ended in the 2nd inning when Magglio Ordonez homered twice off him. Since then he threw 2 complete games in the minors in which he’s allowed only 8 hits and 2 walks while fanning 26 (17 of those in his last start).

Game Time 4:05

DET @ OAK, Sunday, September 2, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

PREGAME: Afternoon tilt tomorrow with Justin Verlander and Dan Haren doing battle. It seems so long ago that there was debate about who should start the All Star game and both pitchers were in the discussion.

Game Time 3:55

PREGAME: It’s just not an A’s series without facing Joe Blanton. Fortunately the Tigers find him to be kind of hittable, at least so far this year. They rocked him for 9 runs in just 4 innings in his last start (the infamous come back from way down only to get blown out again when Macay McBride was left on the mound to languish).

The Tigers send out Virgil Vasquez who will make his 3rd start. One was really bad, another was pretty good. But he still doesn’t have a win so here’s hoping the Tigers can get him a game ball.

Game Time 10:05

PREGAME: Things that annoy:

Starting off a game post after winning a series with they Yankees by saying “the Tigers look to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Royals…”

I can talk pitching match-ups until I’m blue in the face, but only one pitcher matters in this one and it is Jeremy Bonderman who has to perform. I don’t even care if he gives up a run in the first inning. I just want to see a strong effort that spares a bullpen that was burnt out in the first 2 games of this series. I want him to go shut down a team and get the Tigers a win. It’s that simple.

POSTGAME: Yeah, totally sorry about the game thread today folks. I knew I was going to be away from a computer the bulk of the day, so I used one of the neat features with the blog software that allows me to schedule a post ahead of time. So I wrote the game thread last night, and set it to go live like it were a night game. But it wasn’t. Plus it was actually game 134 not 135. See, the season is wearing on me too. Sloppy play on my part.

As for the game itself, Bonderman was good. Yes it was the Royals, but look how much trouble Robertson and Miller had the last 2 nights, and how much trouble Bonderman has had regardless of the opponent. He made it through 7 innings on only 87 pitches and 63 were for strikes. A pretty incredible ratio no matter who you’re pitching against.

And Grandy and Ordonez powered the offense, with…wait for it…help from Timo Perez. Some may call it Jim Leyland pushing the right buttons by batting a guy who couldn’t crack the big league roster until late August at DH in the 3 hole pushing the right buttons. Or maybe it was dumb luck. Or maybe Leyland knows something that we don’t. (I’ll go with door number 2)

The offense has hardly been dormant in this series as they’ve piled up hits in each of the 3 games. Today they finally cashed in some of those baserunners into runs. And once again a solo homer sparked a crooked number inning. We’ve seen it several times in the last few weeks and it was Granderson who got it started this time.

On to the West Coast. Again.

PREGAME: Andrew Miller will be pitching on short rest, slightly, he of course of the 4 hour rain delay start. Here’s hoping he pounds the strike zone and doesn’t walk any lefties, like he had a propensity for doing against the Yankees. It was his first start back so I’ll cut him some slack, but he ran into the same pitch efficiency issues he did prior to the injury.

For the Royals it will be Zach Grienke who is back starting after a sabbatical in the bullpen where there was talk of him being a back end guy for the Royals. He made his first start since the beginning of May last week against the Indians and allowed just one hit and one walk in 3 innings before being lifted after 48 pitches. We’ll see how long he goes tonight.

Game Time 8:05

POSTGAME: Ummm. Andrew Miller. Really, really, really not good. Four free passes and he didn’t even make it out of the first inning. And one of the outs was a pickoff. Nice night for Zach Miner though who came in and picked up 12 outs giving his team a chance to get back in it…but they didn’t.

Eight left on base tonight is a sign that the offense isn’t a total wasteland (it means they are getting baserunners), just very disappointing. The star tonight would of course have to be Timo Perez who had 2 doubles, a walk, and would have had a couple RBI if not for Sean Casey being the runner on first when he hit both doubles. (talk about your irony, hours after I bash the reasoning of “he can score from first on an extrabase hit”). Of course that presented Brandon Inge with 2 2nd and 3rd situations where he fanned both times. One of them being the patented check swing. So much for new approaches and breaking out of a slump.

Now the Tigers are looking to avoid a sweep by the Royals. And the 2 long men in the pen won’t be available after long outings each of the last 2 days. Bad, bad scene.

PREGAME: The Tigers, after taking 3 of 4 from the Yankees, head to Kauffman Stadium to take on the 4th place Royals. The Tigers looking to build on the momentum of their first series sweep in eons will send out a line up that features both Timo Perez and Ramon Santiago. See, this is the danger in having Perez on the roster is that Leyland will use him, and bat him 3rd!.

Luckily the Tigers are going up against Brian Bannister so it’s not like it will be tough. Bannister hasn’t allowed more than 3 runs in a game since July 16th, whlie pitching 7 or more innings in 5 of his last 6 starts. Left handed batters have a pretty distinct advantage against Bannister with a 769 OPS against compared to .580 for righties. Of course that probably includes a bunch of guys who normally have OPS’s of 769 or better regardless of the pitcher, which the Tigers don’t seem to possess short of Grandy and Guillen.

For the Tigers it will be Nate Robertson who has pitched better of late including a bad luck loss against the Yankees (crazy hops, crazy routes to fly balls) and a no luck no-decision against the Indians when he allowed 4 baserunners in 8 2/3 innings.

Game Time 8:05

DET @ KCR, Tuesday, August 28, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: I caught the first 2 innings, and got back just in time to see the 8th and 9th. So working mostly off the boxscore I see:

• Sixteen hits for the good guys. That’s good. Offense is still producing.
• Only 3 runs. I’ll have to take a look at the play by play but oh yeah there it is…
• #9 Ramon Santiago – 3 for 4, #1 Curtis Granderson/Ryan Raburn 2 for 4 plus a walk, #2 Polanco – 3 for 5, #3 Timo Perez 1 for 5, #4 Ordonez 4 for 5. One of these things is not like the others.
• But with 13 runners left on base it can’t all be Timo Perez’s fault, but he certainly gets a chunk.
• Nate Robertson, not so much in touch with his inner strike zone with 4 walks in 4 1/3 innings and 92 pitches, only 53 for strikes.
• Jason Grilli was good, again, and kept the team in the game with 3 2/3 perfect innings. He also save the rest of the pen on a night when the starter didn’t help the cause.

A disappointing result for sure and thanks for the active comment thread.

PREGAME: As big as any of the Tigers recent games have been, this one is right on par if only from a fan confidence perspective. Lot’s going into this game:

• a win means the first series win since the Metrodome sweep
• a win means splitting the season series with the Yankees despite all 8 games coming when the team is slumping and injury riddled
• a win probably means a decent outing by Justin Verlander. One of Bonderlander really needs to follow a big win with a strong outing and create some semblance of a winning streak

Mike Mussina has a little bit riding on this game because Moose’s rotation spot is at stake. The Tigers rocked him good in the Bronx last week. I’d be ok if he loses his job if it means a win for the Tigers.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Well that was fun. The Tigers won a series, and each of the 3 wins had that something extra in them. The first one actually had extra innings, and extra rain. The second had the bullpen hanging on to a 1 run lead, and the third had extra bases galore, even from Sean Casey.

It really says something though when the story of the night when you hang 16 runs on a team is the performance of your starter. Justin Verlander looked awesome. There was more velocity, more bit on his curve ball, and he was in or near the strike zone most of the night. If you’re looking for signs that the Tigers are breaking out of this, getting Verlander back on track is a big part of it.

The offense of course was awesome and fortunate, but you need some of both when you’re going to get 20 hits. Not all of them are going to be pretty, but there were plenty of legit ones as well. Including 3 doubles from Brandon Inge who for the last week or so has looked to have made some adjustments.

Tigers 16, Yankees 0 – certainly looks nice doesn’t it?

PREGAME: It will be a battle of rookies as the Yankees send out phenom Phillip Hughes while the Tigers counter with Jair Jurrjens.

Jurrjens seems to have mastered the Cleveland Indians with 2 strong starts against the Tribe. Of course it’s hard to say what will happen when he faces the Yankees because we’ve never seen him face anyone else.

Hughes is making his 5th start since coming off the DL. He struggled with control in his last start walking 5 in 6 1/3 innings. In the early going he’s done a good job keeping the ball in the park with only 2 homers allowed.

Game Time 1:05

POSTGAME: I missed this entire game, but watched the condensed version on MLB.tv. So really, I have nothing to add to the 150 comments that you guys already covered. I will say that at least in the condensed version, Maybin appeared to have his best game in the field.

Also, I think Leyland is trying to get the Rodney/Zumaya platoon working like last year. There’s a huge misconception that Leyland followed a 7-8-9 pattern with Rodney/Zumaya/Jones to close out games. In actuality, he was more likely to going an inning plus with 1 of the 2 before going to Jones. That way at least one of the set up men would be available the next night.

Great win for the team today, despite only mustering 4 hits. But when 3 of them are homers that can help. But the 5 runs wouldn’t have meant a whole lot if not for the efforts of the bullpen.

PREGAME: Earlier this week the Tigers won a pretty dramatic game and sent one of their young aces out the next night. Things didn’t go so well as Justin Verlander was rocked early and often. Tonight Jeremy Bonderman will try and better that effort, and help rest a bullpen that pitched 6 2/3 innings last night.

A key to that will be getting Bonderman off the mound with fewer that 20 pitches thrown in the first inning, which we know to be a struggle.

The Tigers will go up against Chien Ming Wang. The Tigers knocked around Wang last weekend, but only converted 11 baserunners into 3 runs in 6 innings.

The task will be tough tonight with a lineup with 4 consecutive hitters who don’t exactly scare you. I know that guys need a break after last night, like Rabelo playing was a given. But after Carlos Guillen the Tigers will send up Mike Rabelo, Sean Casey, Brandon Inge, and Ramon Santiago. It’s not exactly murderer’s row. It’s not exactly toe-stubbers row. I’ll amend this slightly. In looking back at the last start Mike Rabelo did have 3 hits off Wang, and Sean Casey hit the ball hard 3 times in that game. Small sample sizes and all I know, but Wang might pitch to their strengths.

Game Time 7:05pm
NYY @ DET, Saturday, August 25, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Pretty disappointing follow up to last night’s game. The extra base hit string is snapped. Bonderman’s slider wasn’t there any he recorded now strikeouts. He threw 100 pitches and didn’t get out of the 6th inning because he couldn’t put anyone away, even going up 2 strikes. Just a terrible showing.

Ordonez had 2 ground ball singles, but when your number 2 hitter hits 3 back to the pitcher and your number 3 hitter fans twice, that doesn’t make for a lot of RBI opportunities.

If you’re looking for bright spots, Jason Grilli was quite good for the second night in a row and pitched 3 scoreless innings. And Brandon Inge had 2 singles, one was solid and one was a snort and he looks to be breaking out of his funk.

But when the perennial whipping boys represent your highlights, you know it was a rough night.

PREGAME: Tigers pitching is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. Today it is Nate Robertson and Jake Westbrook.

Game time 1:05pm
CLE @ DET, Thursday, August 23, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Get away day hasn’t been friendly to the Tigers this year. I don’t have the inclination to go back and look up the record, but it seems that I listen to a heartbreaking loss on the radio at work, and have to think of something to say later that night. Again, I didn’t see this one, just going by the radio broadcast and your commentary, here are my thoughts:

• Nate Robertson was one of those really yummy caramel flavored chocolates today (uh, that doesn’t sound quite right). He out pitched Westbrook, but didn’t get the win, and that just seems to be Nate’s luck as of late. When he’s awesome, he still can’t get a win. Still he did everything in his power to get the team a W, and he at least provides a little hope going forward.
• And Westbrook was also very good, but Nate out pitched him. One could make the case that on Tuesday Carmona out pitched Jurrjens so this might be justice, but that ain’t a lot of consolation. And Carmona still allowed 2 homers (or at least one and a half).
• Sean Casey batting third is a mystery. I like Guillen behind Maggs, so I’m not necessarily on the Guillen to the 3rd spot camp. But do something different. Drop Grandy to 3rd, or put Marcus third. Or even keep Granderson and Polanco where they are, and slide everybody up a spot. Give me some kind of threat before the best hitter.
• As for the managerial decisions, I can’t say one way or the other on pulling Nate when he did. It sounded like there were several harder hit balls in the last couple innings. Not seeing the game I’m just going off of Dan and Jim’s account. While I’m a proponent of using pitch counts as a tool (a tool, not an absolute) in deciding when to stop an outing, I don’t think a favorable pitch count should be a justification for keeping a pitcher in the game.
• On Zumaya, I wasn’t surprised he came back out. I was surprised he stayed out as long as he did. Thirty pitches is a ton for a guy just getting back, and with him maxing out at 95mph it doesn’t sound like this was free and easy throwing – not to mention all the guys on base.
• As for the pinch running and pinch hitting, I wasn’t bothered by Pudge pinch running for Rabelo. Yes, Maybin is faster but in the even they didn’t score you’d need Pudge at that point anyways. And Pudge is fast. Characterizing him as a 35 year old catcher is factually correct, but not accurate reflection of his running ability.
• The pinch hitting move that had to be made though was someone, preferably Raburn, for Ramon Santiago. You then move Guillen to short, Thames to first, and Raburn in left. Santiago just can’t hit in that situation. He’s not on the team for his bat, if that was the case Infante would be in Detroit and not Toledo. He’s here for his glove and expecting offense isn’t fair.
• Granderson or Maybin facing the left hander? Again I could go either way. It sounded like Granderson had some of the better swings on the day, but his numbers against lefties are abysmal this year. But I’d also wager that is a little bit of bad luck. His K rate against lefties is pretty much the same as last year, but his batting average on balls in play is 206 this year versus 298 last year. Regardless, he still stood a 30% chance of fanning.
• Regardless, Leyland appeared to fall asleep at the wheel in the 9th inning and the top of the 10th. last year he was credited for magically “pushing all the right buttons” when in fact he made bad decisions routinely and got away with it.
• At least the team still had that 9, or in this case 10 inning mantra going. Each of the last 2 nights they haven’t gone down quietly even after falling behind. Though that’s little consolation.
• The fact of the matter is that it never should have gotten to these dire points in the first place. The Tigers had ample opportunity to score just that one run, and much like the Clemens and Wang games over the weekend they just couldn’t do it. But unlike those games they were putting the ball in play with only 4 K’s.
• It appears that Inge made some adjustments at the plate as he went 2 games without a strike out, and for a guy who was whiffing every other at-bat that may be progress. He also drew a walk in a key situation off a pitcher who just doesn’t walk guys. Of course that gets lost when he makes as big of a baserunning mistake as he made in getting doubled off 2nd base.

I’ll have more stuff tomorrow, but I’m pretty bummed tonight. That’s just too good of a pitching performance in too important of a game to waste.

PREGAME: Okay, let’s just take this game so that the series is in hand. Enough rubber games. Let’s just win the series. Deal?!

Tonight it will be Paul Byrd and Justin Verlander doing battle. Verlander should be over the flu, which should help. He gutted out 5 1/3 innings against the Yankees but only fanned 2 and threw 119 pitches.

Paul Byrd can be hittable with a .302 batting average against, but he usually does a good job of preventing those runs from scoring. He’s been all over the place in his last 3 starts which include a complete game 4 hit shutout, a 7 run 2 inning affair against the Yankees, and a 6 inning/8 hit/1 run game against the Devil Rays.

Game Time 7:05pm

CLE @ DET, Wednesday, August 22, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Take the walk Pudge! I’m not blaming the loss on Rodriguez, but twice he swung at ball 4 to end the game when a walk would have brought the winning run in the form of Marcus Thames to the plate.

So much for momentum.

• Verlander has hammered. Even in the first when he escaped allowing one run, the outs were even hammered. This trend continued until it caught up with him in the 4th. He was sitting at 91/92mph very rarely hitting 94. The velocity and overall hit-able-ness are very troubling.
• The bullpen didn’t fare much better. Zach Miner turned it into a blowout allowing a 3 run homer.
• Chad Durbin actually pitched pretty good. He came into a 2nd and 3rd 1 out situation and got a pop up and a ground ball. Unfortunately the grounder went through the box scoring a run, and a muff by Granderson made it 2 runs.
• At least those that thought the team hadn’t been showing life can’t really complain. They knocked the ball around and repeatedly chipped away at sizable leads.
• Another strong Venezuelan 1-2 punch between Ordonez and Guillen who both homered and added another hit apiece. And both put together good at-bats in late inning situations (Maggs in the 7th and Guillen in the 9th) but without anything to show for them.
• Cameron Maybin misplayed the first ball hit to him (leading to the first run). He did look more comfortable after that though. Let’s hope this is a real quick learning curve.
• He did have 2 doubles, and his last at-bat was pretty impressive. He took several close pitches and then went with a pitch on the outer edge. He also showed off an unusual running style with his right arm actually waving

Indians 11 Tigers 8