PREGAME: For the 3rd time in the last 3 weekends the Tigers come into Sunday looking to avoid a lost weekend. It will be Kenny Rogers and Cliff Lee today.

On another note, I’ve been bombarded with spam comments over the last 12 hours – to the tune of 300. The spam filters are catching many, and others are being held for moderation, but still too many are getting in. I’m considering switching to a system where you’d have to register with the site to leave comments. Would any of you be opposed to that?

Game Time 1:05

POSTGAME: Sigh. Last night the Tigers put a hit and run on, and the ball was hit right back up the middle – right to the 2nd baseman covering on the play. That’s pretty much what the Tigers fortunes had been for the last 20 games. Today, in the 6th inning with Kenny Rogers trying to end a threat with runners on 1st and 2nd induced a foul ball bouncer down the third baseline. Inexplicably it bounced back fair right before the bag, and right into Brandon Inge’s glove. Inge stepped on 3rd and the rally was thwarted. Like the ball changing directions, hopefully the Tigers fortunes will be also.

The Tigers needed a pitcher to put a stop to the bleeding, and they turned to the old man with the history of 2nd half collapses to shut down a very potent offense. Rogers gave the team 7 innings or 1 run ball when they needed it the most. If nothing else it tells you how ludicrous it is to have discussions about post season rotations before the All Star break.

Marcus Thames got a rare start, hit a homer, and was of course lifted for a pinch hitter. I don’t get it.

Curtis Granderson really seems to be getting his stroke back with a homer, double, walk, and most importantly no strike outs. Strike outs typically don’t bother me, especially if they come with a high OBP or big power numbers. Granderson hadn’t been providing those other elements making the K’s more of a concern.

Another good day for Omar, hope he enjoyed it. He had a couple hits and made nice defensive plays to both the glove and barehand sides.

PREGAME: This afternoon I watched Tiger Town. You remember the movie right? A made for TV, Disney Sunday night movie about Billy Young, a Tiger legend who was nearing the end of his career and the boy that believed in him.

I only bring this up because if Roy Scheider can lead a team from 16 games back to capture the division, than anything can happen right?

Tonight the Tigers once again turn to Justin Verlander to play the role of stopper. Last month he pitched in Jacobs Field when the Tigers bullpen had been pretty worn out and went toe to toe with CC Sabathia for the victory. Here’s hoping he can have the same fate against Jake Westbrook.

Game Time 7:05

PREGAME: The Tigers head to Jacobs field in search of their first weekend win since, well since the last time they played the Indians and swept them with late inning heroics.

Jeremy Bonderman meanwhile will be in search of his first August decision – preferably a win of course.

He’ll be opposed by Jeremy Sowers who’ll be facing the Tigers for the first time this year.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: The silver linings are getting harder and harder to come by. At least Omar Infante made the most of his opportunity for whatever it’s worth.

PREGAME: The Tigers play their final home game against the White Sox and will be sending Nate Robertson out against Jon Garland.

Garland has turned in quality starts in 6 of his last 8 outings, so runs could be at a premium. Then again, Robertson has a string of 4 straight quality starts so hopefully the White Sox won’t exactly have an easy of day it either.

Game Time 1:05pm.

POSTGAME: That was a good old fashioned thumping. Any time you’re looking at a 5-7-3 out, it’s probably a bad sign. At least it is hard to pin this one on Neifi Perez. Another positive sign is that slumping Curtis Granderson picked up 2 hits.

Yes this game today wasn’t fun. A 7.5 game lead would have been a lot more comfortable, and a series win would have been nice. But at the same time the White Sox played 4 games with a chance to gain on the Tigers, but in the end they are right where they were at the beginning of the series – but with less games left on the schedule.

The pennant race is a new experience for Tiger fans. The day-in-day-out is proving to be a grind from a fan’s point of view. Yet there are still 6 weeks of season left. I don’t like the losing or the way the team has been struggling. My mechanism for coping will be to try and relish the anguish and excitement because this team is finally playing those “meaningful games” at the end of the season.

PREGAME: Flashback to last Monday. The Tigers had just come off a winless weekend and there next opponent was in the thick of the Wild Card hunt and trying to stake a claim in their own division. The Tigers managed to take the first 2 games to stave off the impending tailspin.

Here we are one week later. The Tigers come off a winless weekend and their next opponent is in the thick of the Wild Card hunt and trying to stake a claim in their own division. Once again the Tigers take the first 2 games to stave off the impending tailspin.

The Tigers of course dropped the 3rd game to the Red Sox last week. Here’s hoping for better results in game 3 against the White Sox series.

By taking the first 2 games, the Tigers assured themselves a split of the series and a worst case scenario where the White Sox played 4 more games without gaining ground. Wins either tonight or tomorrow afternoon will just be gravy as far as the division is concerned. However, the Yankees have closed to within 4 1/2 games of the best record so each game still has playoff seeding/home field implications.

The Tigers will turn to Zach Miner as the White Sox trot out Freddy Garcia.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: There was a lot not to like about this game. Whether it was Zach Miner getting ahead of hitters 0-2 and then falling behind 3-2, or it was the inability of the team to hold the gains when they cut away at the lead in the 1st and 7th innings. You can definitely pick out things not to like, but most of those are covered in the comments already.

Other thoughts from today:

• If Neifi converts the double play in the 2nd, only one run would have scored instead of 3. I know I said I wouldn’t dog Perez everyday, but if he’s playing despite his offense, he has to be perfect with the glove.
• Zach Miner wasn’t good today, but you shouldn’t view each of his starts as an automatic loss. He’s not dominant, but he generally keeps the Tigers in the game and eats 5 to 6 innings every 5th day. That’s about all you could hope for a replacement 5th starter.
• All the credit for Crede’s first homer has to go to Crede. That wasn’t a bad pitch, it was low and away and he one handed it.
• I have to say I love seeing the hustle from Ordonez the last 2 days. When he was going from 1st to 3rd on the hit and run that was the fastest I’ve seen him and for the second night in a row he got his uniform dirty.
• Even when the Tigers are getting thumped, they still manage to stick around in the game. The White Sox had runners in scoring position it seemed in every inning. I don’t know how much credit should go to the Tiger pitchers, or blame to the White Sox hitters, but they were stranded for many of the middle innings.
• That homer by Young was Abreu-esque as it went to the last row in right center. That had to be one of the 5 longest in Comerica’s history.

PREGAME: Well the last time Mark Buerhle faced Kenny Rogers, the Tigers scratched out 3 runs. But then the Tigers surrendered 4 unearned runs amid an awful weekend series.

Then again, the last time the Justin Verlander faced Jose Contreras things didn’t work out so well for the Tigers either but last night’s game had the opposite result.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: The Tigers came in to the series scrambling, but by taking the first 2 games of the series, the pressure is squarely on the White Sox.

Kenny Rogers seems to have shaken his July slump. In his 4 August starts he’s allowed only 5 earned runs. He also has owned the White Sox only allowing 3 earned runs in 4 starts.

In the process the Tigers secured a .500 season, which based on preseason expectations already makes this year’s edition a success.

Other thoughts:

• It was nice to see Magglio Ordonez laying out for a ball. His defense hasn’t been very good this year, but the effort on that play was very much appreciated by this blogger.
• It was nice to see Marcus Thames crush the ball a couple times and work a walk. What I don’t understand is pinch hitting for a hitter who is doing that well with a 4 run lead. This wasn’t giving a regular an early night off, it was taking the bat out of the hand of a guy in need of playing time.
• And speaking of things I don’t understand, Neifi Perez leading off? Sorry Omar, you’re getting the short end of something. Neifi did make a nice play getting up for Thome’s line drive in the 9th inning.
• And one more thing I didn’t understand was having Brandon Inge sacrifice bunt when the Tigers had tagged Buerhle for 7 hits that early in the game. Why concede an out with the team’s most prolific out maker (Perez)waiting on deck?
• I know I shouldn’t complain about strategy in a 4-0 shut out, but some of Leyland’s moves have left me scratching my head lately. And I won’t rip Neifi everygame. Besides, the way things have been working for the Tigers this year he’ll probably hit .350 with 4 homers over the next couple weeks.
• And while I’m all for Ozzie Guillen getting tossed out, again I don’t understand umpires yelling back. Dan Iasogna had to be seperated from Guillen by his crew chief. I don’t understand why umpires are allowed to do this.

PREGAME: There’s something going on with my webhost, so I’m not sure if you can even read this. That being the case this is a very short game post. Justin Verlander against Jose Contreras.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Judging by the comment volume, the site seems to be loading now. As for the game itself, what’s not to like?

After a season in which the Tigers kept finding ways to win, they spent a weekend finding ways to lose. As a fan, it was nice to see them rebound with such a complete effort. There was the balanced offensive attack fueled by line drives born of good pitch selection. The defense was solid. And Justin Verlander returned to form.

As for Verlander’s velocity, that is something that he’s been dialing back for quite some time. I think part of it is fatigue, which really is probably to be expected. For a 23 year old to still be throwing 99 at inning totals he’s never experienced may be an unrealistic expectation. The other part is maturity. He had stopped dialing it up consistently back in May. He still seemed to be working at 93-94 most of the game and he did dial it up to 96 for 3 straight pitches in the 6th inning.

And one last note. I’m not ragging on Todd Jones by any means, because he has been very good. But I would love it if he would stick his glove out for a ground ball once in a while. Those ground balls back through the box, he seems to go out of his way to avoid. Not a big deal by any means, but I’m just sayin’.

PREGAME: Normally when a team needs to stem losing, they look to their pitcher to be the stopper. But I don’t think you could ask for a better effort than what Zach Miner and Nate Robertson turned in the last 2 days. The way the Tigers offense is going, Jeremy Bonderman will need a perfect game.

Hopefully the offense can perk up against John Koronka. Tiger chased him after 5 innings and 4 runs in their first meeting.

Game Time 1:05pm

PREGAME: The Tigers didn’t fare well against the Rangers ace Kevin Millwood last night. Hopefully the going will be a little easier against right hander Robinson Tejeda who was called up from AAA to make tonight’s start.

Nate Robertson will take the mound for the Tigers.

Game Time 7:05.

PREGAME: With their next win, this will become the most successful Tigers season since an 85-77 mark in 1993. The Tigers will try to get that wrapped up tonight as Zach Miner takes on Kevin Millwood.

The Tigers beat Millwood back in April on the strength of 2 Chris Shelton triples (prompting Buster Olney to make Paul Molitor comparisons – sigh) and 7 innings of Verlander shut out ball.

Zach Miner will try to match his rookie teammates success against the Rangers. Step 1 would probably be not walking a lot of batters, an affliction that the last 2 Tigers starters battled.

Game Time 7:05

PREGAME: The Tigers return home and face the Rangers. If it seems like it’s been a really long time since Detroit played Texas, well it has. You have to go all the way back to the first week of the season when Chris Shelton was smacking a home run a game. After hanging around in the AL West most of the season, the Rangers are now 6.5 games behind the A’s and trying to hold onto playoff hopes.

Tonight the Tigers will send Kenny Rogers out against his old team. After an awful July, Rogers has bounced back somewhat in August with a pair of 7 inning, 4 hit starts but with an 0-1 record to show for it.

He’ll be paired against right hander Edinson Volquez who is making his 3rd start. In his last outing he pitched 7 shut out innings against the Mariners.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Here is the super ultra delayed post game. The family and I went to the game last night, got home late, and I got a slow start this morning. I agree with most of the comments already left so I won’t add too much more.

Is it me or did that game seem like shouldn’t have been that close. The Tigers were hitting balls hard all night, and getting guys on base. It really felt like it should have been a blow out.

Carlos Guillen’s homer was a laser. Craig Monroe continues to smack the ball around. And Tiger pitchers keep walking a frustrating batter an inning.

And on one final note, if there was anything positive to come out of the Polanco injury (which now looks to be a 4-6 week thing), it is more Omar Infante at-bat music.

PREGAME: The Tigers will be taking on left hander David Wells tonight, and have stacked the lineup with right handers. Sean Casey will be the only lefty stick starting. Brent Clevlen will man centerfield and Pudge Rodriguez will handle leadoff duties. Craig Monroe and Marcus Thames will look to set the table in front of Magglio Ordonez.

The Rodriguez selection is interesting as leadoff, but he has had considerable success aginst Wells in the past. In 57 at bats he has hit .333 with 4 homers.

Justin Verlander will take the mound for Detroit. He’ll look to regain the command that was lacking in his Chicago start and pick up his 15th win.

Game Time 7:05pm