PREGAME: Today will be a battle of AL Central rookies with Kevin Slowey going up against Andrew Miller.

Miller won’t be fazed by national TV if his start last Sunday was any indication. He pitched 6 shutout innings allowing only 4 hits and 2 walks.

Kevin Slowey will be making his 6th start. He’s allowed 36 hits in 27 1/3 innings. He’s allowed 9 homers already. But he doesn’t walk people with only 6 allowed, and 4 of those came in one outing.

With Gary Sheffield serving his suspension, Sean Casey will bat 3rd and Marcus Thames will DH.

MIN @ DET, Saturday, June 30, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 3:55

PREGAME: It’s a gorgeous night in Detroit for what should be a phenomenal pitching match-up. It will be Justin Verlander taking on Johan Santana.

This is the 3rd time that the Tigers have faced Santana this season. They haven’t lit him up by any means, but they did push across a couple runs each time and more importantly ran his pitch count up to 100 after 6 innings both times. The Tigers will have Gary Sheffield tonight, the only game in the series where he’ll play because he’ll serve his shortened suspension on Saturday and Sunday.

Justin Verlander has been on quite the roll and will make one last statement in his case for pitcher of the month. So far in 4 starts in June he has a 1.24 ERA and a 35:10 strike out to walk ratio.

MIN @ DET, Friday, June 29, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: Another home clunker for the Tigers. Justin Verlander was nearly unhittable. But he got himself into a ton of trouble with walks. It took him 31 pitches to get through the first inning, and part of that was the fault of Carlos Guillen who had a couple of miscues that could have shortened the inning. After mowing through the 2nd through 4th innings, Verlander did himself in by walking the bases loaded and surrendering a grand slam to Joe Mauer.

I don’t know if it was something about pitching from the stretch. Only one of the walks came when he was throwing from the wind-up, and that came on a full count. But with runners on base he couldn’t find the strike zone.

The Tigers threatened in the first against Johan Santana and made him throw 25 pitches. But an 8 pitch second inning put him back in control and the Tigers didn’t really muster any offense until Placido Polanco’s homer in the 6th.

Macay McBride did a nice job out of the pen. Eulogio De La Cruz came in and wasn’t great, but wasn’t helped when Neifi Perez made an error and 3 more unearned runs would come across.

And if you missed it, Perez started in place of Brandon Inge who was a late scratch with back spasms.
Twins 11 Tigers 1

PREGAME: Nothing’s really changed, same starting pitchers (Kenny Rogers and Kevin Millwood) and all only it’s 20 degrees cooler, half the humidity, and all the clouds are pretty instead of ominous. Oh yeah, and I’ll be at there today.

For more info check out BR’s game preview

Game Time 1:05pm

POSTGAME: Beautiful day for a ball game today, so a 15 minute delay so the umpires could arrive was hardly an inconvenience. I guess that explains the black town car getting a police escort on the Madison ramp at about 12:30.

• Kenny Rogers was amazing again. I saw the last run he gave up (the one in relief on the last day of the season), as well as the one today. But I also saw 2 of his playoff starts so I don’t think you can blame me for the scoreless inning streak ending.
• But a couple other streaks continued, most notable was Carlos Guillen’s 11 game RBI streak. Guillen and Magglio Ordonez also both extended their hitting streaks to 14 games.
• Remember how a couple days ago I questioned the issue of Ordonez turning on a ball? He certainly turned on one today hitting a long drive with home run distance that landed foul in leftfield.
• Pudge Rodriguez was certainly stymied today. He racked up a ton of swing and misses, and from my vantage point it didn’t look like he was over swinging. He looked to be trying to shoot the ball to right, but contact seemed to be alluding him.
• Gary Sheffield’s jumps on both the stolen base and wild pitch were incredible. Stealing third he was probably a third of the way before the ball was released, and he seemed to leave as soon as the ball hit the dirt from third base.
• The Tigers drew 9 walks today, the second time this season they accomplished the feat.
• And the bullpen was good too, even Todd Jones.

Tigers 5 Rangers 2

PREGAME: Time to get rid of that case of the uglies that the Tigers have picked up since returning home. Kenny Rogers will try to replicate his debut outing in Atlanta. Meanwhile the Tigers will try to replicate their last effort against Kevin MIllwood.

Marcus Thames is in for Craig Monroe today and Neifi Perez is playing for Placido Polanco.

For more see: TEX @ DET, Wednesday, June 27, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 1:05pm

POSTPONED – Sept 11th make up as a day-night doubleheader

PREGAME: Hopefull it’s a bounce back night, both for the Tigers who played a clunker last night, and Nate Robertson who returns to the rotation after a stint on the DL and a really bad month of May. Nate’s last start was against the Rangers when he allowed 6 runs without retiring a batter. I bet he does better tonight.

The Tigers will face Willie Eyre who was moved from the bullpen to start in place of the injured Vincente Padilla.

For more stats see: TEX @ DET, Tuesday, June 26, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: I thought I’d go to bed and wake up in a better mood. Didn’t happen. It’s amazing how 2 really poorly played games can wipe out the good will from an 8-1 road trip. The bullpen was awful again, and made worse by fielding gaffes.

Todd Jones and Mike Rabelo had a conference between every single pitch, and still couldn’t get the signs right which is the excuse for the 0-2 fastball to Sammy Sosa. Jones wasn’t supposed to throw the pitch in that spot, but he’d have to throw a pitch at some point. No word on what happened on the Marlon Byrd triple or the Ramon Vasquez single.

PREGAME: The Tigers return home for the next couple weeks after getting through a 9 game DH-less stint with an 8-1 record.

The Tigers have struggled in the game after Sunday night games, what with getting in late and quite frankly probably being sleepy. But this time they are coming home, and it was a shorter flight, and they didn’t change time zones. So it might not be so bad.

They’ll face Kameron Loe who they saw a couple weeks ago, and knocked out with 9 runs in 2 2/3 innings. In his next start he threw 8 shutout innings against the Pirates and turned in a quality start in his last turn against the Cubs.

Jeremy Bonderman looks to extend his unbeaten streak. He’s had the benefit of some good offense his last few times out. Bonderman hasn’t recorded an out beyond the 6th inning since his first start back from the DL on May 24th.

The real question though is what Tiger will start padding his resume for player of the week honors. There’s pressure to keep it going with Carlos Guillen being the 3rd Tiger in as many weeks to pick up the award.

For more see: TEX @ DET, Monday, June 25, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: All good things must come to an end, and the winning streak is toast. I’ll give credit to the Rangers, they got in later than the Tigers this morning, and put a thumping on them. The team just looked out of sync all game. There were only a handful of hard hit balls for the Tigers. And early threats were squandered.

Jeremy Bonderman wasn’t sharp. His final numbers look okay, but he was all over with his control, especially on a routine throw to first. Eulogio De La Cruz had even more trouble and turned it into a blow out.

Jim Leyland was overmanaging early on. He had Sean Casey steal with a full count to Monroe. He sac bunted Brandon Inge in the second inning, playing for small ball with a big ball offense.

Alas, the streak is over. But at least Granderson got a triple…

PREGAME: The Tigers and Braves take center stage on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. This hasn’t worked too well this year, and with tonight’s tilt coming at the end of a 9 game road trip it wouldn’t surprise me to see the team struggle.

For the Tigers it will be Andrew Miller who looks to hold down an offense that has mustered 1 run in the last 4 games. Hopefully that number stays meager for at least one more night.

The Tigers will be opposed by Chuck James. James has decent peripherals, but a propensit for allowing the long ball with 14 in 81 innings.

Omar Infante will start in center and leadoff against the lefthander. Interesting to note that despite plans to get Craig Monroe into the lineup in NL parks by having him man centerfield on occasion, that never came to fruition.

For more see: DET @ ATL, Sunday, June 24, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 8:05

PREGAME: And all of a sudden the Tigers have a 5 game win streak. What may be most remarkable, and some kind of record, is that in each of those games, the Tigers have had an inning in which they’ve batted around (or Tiger’d around as my 6 year old son calls it). Five straight games sending 9 men to the plate in an inning.

Today is a Fox “National” game in which only a quarter of the country gets it. That quarter will get to see Justin Verlander in his 2nd game removed from his no hitter.

The Tigers will be opposed by Kyle Davies. Davies has a 5.65 ERA. He’s allowed 10 homers in 71 2/3 innings and he walks a batter every other inning.

For more relevant stats: DET @ ATL, Saturday, June 23, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game time 3:55

POSTGAME: After spending the last month bludgeoning teams into submission, the Tigers tore a page out of the 2006 playbook. A solo homer backed a great starting effort while the bullpen made a narrow margin stand up.

It was the first game the Tigers have won this year when they’ve scored fewer than 3 runs. They won 10 such games last year, and 6 at this point in the season. Then again, the Tigers offense has only failed to muster 2 or fewer runs 11 times this year. Last year it happened 38 times, and 17 at this point in the season.

Justin Verlander has turned himself into the strikeout pitcher that we all thought he could be with 29K’s in his last 22 innings. Like the no-hitter, he had command of 3 pitches, and against a struggling offense he had an easy time of it.

Tim Byrdak surrendered a leadoff double, but retired the next batter and Fernando Rodney retired the next two batters without drama. Todd Jones pitched well in the 9th keeping the ball on the edges of the strike zone and the only blemish was a 2 out full count walk to Andruw Jones. That’s 4 routine nights from the pen in a row, and the results is a 6 game winning streak.

Tigers 2 Braves 1

PREGAME: Kenny Rogers returns from the disabled list and will be taking on John Smoltz.

Game Time: 7:35

POSTGAME:
This game was just a real pleasure to watch. A couple of pitchers on top of their games, except that the Tigers managed to dissect John Smoltz while the Braves couldn’t solve Kenny Rogers.

It took Smoltz only 34 pitches to make it through the order the first time. He was wicked with even Placido Polanco swinging and missing at a ball that broke a foot off the plate. But then the second time through the Tigers were able to hang in and see a few more pitches. They didn’t have great results, but it took Smoltz 51 pitches to get through the order the second time. The Tigers had some exteneded at-bats including a 9 pitch effort by Sheffield.

Now the third time through the Tigers had put it together. Starting with Curtis Granderson they went single-single-pop out-dingle-double-double-walk-single. This offense still continues to amaze me.

Kenny picked up right where he left off. I was a little surprised to see him lifted as early as he was, but the bullpen came through again. Three innings with only a walk allowed from Jason Grilli, Bobby Seay, and Eulogio De La Cruz was quite impressive – even against a team who is struggling at the dish.

Tigers 5 Braves 0

Toledo 8 Ottawa 2
Timo Perez was 2 for 5 with a homer. And Ramon Santiago added a single and homer as well. Chris Shelton picked up 3 hits and Ryan Raburn added 2 hits and a walk. Jordan Tata started and allowed 2 runs on 9 hits, 1 walk, and 4 K’s in 7 innings.

Altoona 4 Erie 1
Matt Joyce was the offensive leader with a double and a walk in a game without much offense for the good guys. Andrew Kown allowed 4 runs on 5 hits in 6 innings. Zach Miner pitched an inning of relief and allowed 2 hits and fanned 2.

Altoona 4 Erie 3 (8 innings)
Mike Hollimon doubled and singled. Jeff Larish didn’t play in either end of the double header. Randor Bierd moved from the pen to make the start in the double header and allowed just 1 walk and 1 hit in 3 innings.

Lakeland 4 Dunedin 6
Ryan Roberson doubled and singled and Cameron Maybin doubled and walked. And Ovandy Suero is up to 51 stolen bases now. Jsoh Rainwater allowed 2 runs on 5 hits, no walks and 3 K’s.

West Michigan – All Star Break

Oneonta 4 Lowell 2
Kody Kaiser likes pro ball and he added a single and a double and 2 RBI tonight. Catcher Devin Thomas doubled and singled.

GCL Tigers 1 GCL Phillies 6
Luis Arlet had 2 hits and a walk. Wade Lamont added 2 hits as well. Brent Clevlen was 0 for 4. Aaron Fuhrman allowed 4 runs, 2 earned, on 4 hits, 2 walks, and 2 K’s in 3 innings.

PREGAME: The Tigers have a chance to sweep the Nationals tonight. They’ll send Jeremy Bonderman out to the mound. Bonderman has allowed 5 earned runs in 6 innings in each of his last 2 starts. His last time out he allowed 4 homers. But he also got a single so I guess that evens out.

Mike Bacsik starts for the Nationals and he throws lots of pitches. I don’t know about different pitches, just that he’s not terribly efficient. He hasn’t made it to the 6th inning in his last 3 starts.

The Tigers lineup has a different look tonight with Gary Sheffield and Placido Polanco getting the night off. Craig Monroe will bat second and Marcus Thames will hit 3rd and play first base.

For stats and such see: DET @ WSN, Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Here’s hoping that Pudge’s hamstring spasm doesn’t keep him out too long. The off day tomorrow is very fortunate. Nothing against Mike Rabelo, but I’d just assume see the Kenny Rogers-Pudge battery on Friday.

• Note to Todd Jones – if you pitch like that people won’t pick on you. Very nice effort tonight by Jonesy. Eight pitches, 7 strikes, 3 outs.
• Jason Grilli, Tim Byrdak, and Fernando Rodney had pretty good results but were far from perfect. Grilli allowed a couple of balls to the warning track. Byrdak allowed 3 hits. Rodney was erratic around the strike zone. But I’ll take one run in 4 innings from the pen.
• How spoiled am I by Magglio Ordonez that when he doesn’t get an extra base hit I’m disappointed despite the fact he reached base in 4 of 5 PA’s? And even a couple of those hits were cheap. C’mon Maggs!
• I totally understand pinch hitting for Bonderman in the 6th. That decision is one that could be defended either way. I think if the Tigers had one more run at that point, Bondo would have stayed in the game. I can’t blame Leyland for wanting to get all the offense he could in that situation. It’s just the beauty of NL baseball where pitchers get taken out prematurely.
• The first 3 innings Jeremy Bonderman looked every bit as good as Verlander did in his no hitter. Then the 4th inning happened where Bondo was hammered. It reminded me of the Mets game where he was cruising, and then struggled in the 7th.

PREGAME: Baseball Reference continues to develop really cool stuff. My game thread prep was usually drawn in large part from that site. Now they’ve made it even easier – by compiling game preview. Here’s tonight’s for the Tigers/Nats match-up.

Looks like my work here is done. Off to play a quick game of pickle with the family before the game starts.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: So that’s what a real blow out feels like…

• Sean Casey finally goes yard. I didn’t call it tonight (cuz I didn’t expect it) so I won’t take credit for being a couple days off. The silent treatment in the dugout was great.
• And Neifi doubles. You know things are going right.
• Rod and Mario seemed very loose in the booth tonight. Favorite moment came early on when Rod lamented not going to Montreal. He said it was a great city, clean. Mario asked him his favorite part – pregnant pause – Rod “umm..the restaurants?” – Mario – “I see”
• All 3 pitchers made cases to keep their current roles tonight. Durbin was very solid again – 5K’s, no walks and a 4.37 ERA for the season. Wil Ledezma fanned 3 in 2 innings and Frankie DLC looked very good for the second consecutive night.
• With a 3 for 3 and another double, things keep going well for Magglio. Baseball Musings notes that even if he returns to his normal double pace here on out, he still threatens the record of 67. Never mind. Bad math. But still visit Baseball Musings on a regular basis. Nice catch Kyle