PREGAME: Tonight offers an awesome pitching match-up with Jeremy Bonderman taking on Curt Schilling. A quick glance at the lineup though reveals something equally interesting. Pudge Rodriguez has been moved to the 6th spot in the lineup and Dmitri Young will be hitting 3rd.

Moving Rodriguez down is certainly warranted. While his offensive output has been fine this year, it hasn’t exactly been prototypical 3-hole level. A similar move last year by Alan Trammell caused massive clubhouse disruption (or least led to it later on).

Game Time 7:05pm

PREGAME: In case you hadn’t heard, this is a really big game because the Tigers have a 5 game losing streak. Actually I can’t be that sarcastic because I kind of believe. At least I believe it to the extent that the longer the losing streak, the more important it becomes to stop it and 5 games is plenty long.

Nate Robertson will take on Josh Beckett. Robertson was on the short end of the stick against the Twins in his last start. He’s actually pitched pretty well in his last 2 starts allowing 6 runs over 13 1/3 innings but he only received 3 runs of offense.

Beckett has been good at home this year, but he’s been pretty hittable since the All Star break with a 266/320/420 line against.

Both Placido Polanco (back) and Pudge Rodriguez (0 for Chicago) will get the night off. Last year Omar Infante had a good game at Fenway peppering a couple doubles high off the Monster and Josh Beckett should provide a decent match-up for him.

POSTGAME: Well that was certainly more better ;)The Tigers exercised considerable patience at the plate and finagled 6 walks against Red Sox pitching. They also managed to hit the ball with some regularity. The pitching was solid, and it seemed like Robertson’s final line should have been more impressive.

And let me first say that Curtis Granderson is my Tiger. But despite the triple he is all out of sorts at the plate. Six times in the last 2 days he’s swung at the first pitch. That just isn’t part of his game, and he ended up fanning 3 more times.

PREGAME: The Tigers have lost 4 in a row. Their offense has been held to 8 runs over that span. Their defense has been bad. It’s time for it to change.

Freddy Garcia against Zach Miner.

The Tigers have only been swept once this year. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.

Game Time 2:05.

POSTGAME: Yes, losing streaks are no fun. Losing to your intra-divisional mates is all the more painful. Losing badly is…Okay you get the point. Before I talk about today’s game specifically, I will say for the first time I’m troubled with the Tigers performance against the White Sox. I don’t necessarily buy the “they’re in their head” speak, but the Tigers have made a habit of coming up short against the Sox. For awhile I thought it was close games not going the Tigers way. This weekend they were manhandled.

I know there is much concern in that a 10 game lead was halved so quickly. But to be fair you have to remember that the Tigers lead ballooned to 10 games rather quickly as well. Where for much of the season the White Sox and Tigers were in lockstep, for the last 2 weeks the teams have been moving in opposite directions.

Am I concerned? A little. But the Tigers just dropped 5 in a row, and they still have a 5.5 game lead. That is more a testament to the fact that the Tigers haven’t really hit the rough patches that their other counterparts have – until now.

As for today’s game, I’m not doing the sour grapes thing because the Tigers were flat out beat. They swung early and often in the count and chased balls out of the strike zone while Zach Miner couldn’t get a corner (more on this in a minute). Craig Monroe and Brandon Inge both made outs on ball 4 (I at least give them a little credit for getting to ball 3. Even Curtis Granderson swung at the first pitch in 3 of his plate appearances.

All that said, Tim Timmons was awful behind the plate. Miner was wild, but he was also getting squeezed. And that I believe is what led to Rodriguez’s frustration for being called out on a pitch that was close (for the record I actually thought that pitch was a strike). And as I’ve mentioned before, I hate it when umpires keep going after players. Timmons did it with Polanco (horrible call) and Rodriguez. Both were upset with called 3rd strikes and showed their displeasure while walking to the bench. In both instances with the player walking away Timmons takes off the mask and continues the argument. Timmons – you made the call, the player disagreed with it yet went back the bench, why continue the argument?

On a final note, it was a great day by Guillen who saved a run in the early going with a spectacular defensive play and came up with 2 2-out RBI.

PREGAME: It’s a battle of struggling left handed all star starters today with Mark Buerhle taking on Kenny Rogers.

Since the All Star Break Buerhle has an 8.68 ERA with only 13 strikeouts to go along with 8 walks and 8 homers. Buster Olney talked to a scout (Insider) who had this to say about Buerhle’s struggles

“His pure stuff is the same to me — velocity is the same, 84-90 mph. But he’s getting the ball up in the strike zone, and he’s paying for it. It’s got to be a mechanical thing. And to me, he needs to throw more changeups to right-handed hitters, too.” The scout disagrees with the view that Buehrle’s fastball is down from last year.

Rogers numbers are eerily similar with an 8.34 ERA, 14 K’s, 13 walks, and 6 homers allowed.

On another note, did you notice that the Tigers were using signs like when a runner is on second, but they did it the whole game? I noticed it in the first inning. Rod Allen picked up on it a couple innings later, but didn’t have any idea why. I’m guessing it’s because Jim Leyland trusts what his buddy Tony Larussa experienced back in June to be true.

Game Time 1:25pm

POSTGAME: So the Tigers have their first 4 game losing streak of the second half. Let the hand wringing begin. Actually, if you want to get upset about today’s loss, I can’t blame you. The Tigers seemed to crumble defensively despite an excellent outing by Kenny Rogers. The offense again looked stagnant with 7 of the first 10 batters striking out (to their credit they didn’t strike out after that until MacDougal came in so some adjustments were made).

The pressure is on tomorrow to avoid the sweep and keep the lead from shrinking to 5.5 games. That’s right, all the way down to 5.5 games. The Tigers are still in good shape despite their recent slide. That said, 7.5 would look a lot nicer.

PREGAME: The Tigers blow into the Windy City to take on the Wild Card leading White Sox. The Sox are coming off of 3 straight 1 run games against the Yankees where they came out on top twice. Over the last 10 days or so their has been quite a bit of shifting in the Central with the Tigers seeing their lead expand to double digits and the Twins briefly overtaking the White Sox. However all 3 teams are 6-4 in their last 10 so everyone’s right back where they started from.

Jose Contreras will be taking the ball for the Sox tonight. His best start of the last 4 was against the Tigers when he went 7 innings and allowed only 2 runs. Since then he’s still been effective lasting into the 7th inning in each of his last 3 starts, but a little more hittable allowing 4, 4, and 6 runs.

Justin Verlander who was given a free pass his last turn in the rotation, should be well rested for the Tigers. As Mack Avenue pointed out, the Tigers altered their rotation and bumped Verlander ahead of Rogers. While I don’t get into labeling starters #1, #2, etc., I did like the way Rogers was sandwiched between the 2 hard throwing righties. I’m not sure for the reasoning behind the move, except maybe to set a record for pick-offs in a game when Kenny Rogers takes on Mark Buehrle tomorrow.

Game Time 8:35pm

POSTGAME: Talk about a butt kicking. Jose Contreras owned the Tigers easily slicing through the lineup on his way to a 101 pitch complete game. Curtis Granderson and Carlos Guillen saw 30 of those 101 pitches. They also accounted for 3 of the 4 Tiger baserunners. Coincidence? Probably.

Meanwhile Justin Verlander was pitching from the stretch all night. The White Sox batting average on balls in play was .550. It seemed anything put in play was turning into a hit. Oh yeah, and there were those 2 bombs.

Craig Monroe made a nice play gunning down Alex Cintron.

PREGAME: The Tigers come into the rubber game of the series looking to avoid something that hasn’t happened since the first week of July. The Tigers haven’t dropped a series since a 3 game set in Oakland on July 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

Standing between the Tigers and another series win is Johan Santana. The Tigers have had some success (relatively speaking) against Santana. The last time they met in Comerica Park Vance Wilson’s homer proved the difference in a 2-0 victory. Wilson finds himself in the lineup again tonight spelling Pudge Rodriguez who’s back is acting up.

Johan Sanatana isn’t the only pitcher who figures to have a say in the outcome as Jeremy Bonderman will take the ball for Detroit. Bonderman outpitched Santana in their last meeting but took the hard luck loss as everything imploded around Jeremy in the 8th inning.

Sean Casey will be the only lefty in the lineup as Curtis Granderson gets the night off in favor of Brent Clevlen who made his Major League debut against Santana with a double and a walk.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME It was all set up so nicely. The pitching match up was everything we had hoped for. Brandon Inge was the late inning hero putting Jeremy Bonderman in line for the win. The Tigers had 2 of their most reliable bullpen arms up to pitch the 8th. But Jamie Walker issued just his 2nd non-intentional walk of the year and Jusitn Morneau hit a no doubter to hand the Tigers their first home series loss since the beginning of June.

Losing sucks, but I’ll just try and take solace in the fact that over the last 6 meetings the Twins and Tigers have played some very entertaining baseball.

Toledo 4, Columbus 2
I know it’s only 2 games, but Chris Shelton has back to back 3 hit games. Tonight he was a triple short of the cycle and added 2 walks. Alexis Gomez added 2 hits. Jordan Tata allowed 1 run on 5 hits, but he only lasted 4 innings as his pitch count crept up to 95 due in large part to 4 walks.

New Britain 6, Erie 5
Jackson Melian had 2 hits and Kody Kirkland was 1 for 4. Eulogio De La Cruz allowed 3 runs on 6 hits, 5 walks, and 8 strike outs in 7 innings.

Lakeland 3, Jupiter 1
Clete Thomas and Juan Francia each had 2 hit games. Andrew Kown allowed 3 hits and 1 unearned run in 4 innings. He fanned 6 and walked none. Kevin Whelan pitched 2 scoreless innings, walking 2 and striking out 3.

Fort Wayne 2, West Michigan 0
Mike Hollimon tripled and singled and stole a base. Cameron Maybin was 0 for 4. Erik Averill worked 8 innings and allowed 9 hits and 3 walks for 2 runs. He struck out 7.

Tri-City 4, Oneonta 3
Ronnie Bourquin hit his first homer as part of a 1 for 3, 1 walk night. In a rare hitless game for Scott Sizemore he still managed 2 walks. Zach Piccola allowed 4 runs, 1 earned in 5 innings.

GCL Tigers – DNP

PREGAME Dating back to last September, the Tigers have beaten the Twins 8 straight at home. The last time that happened was 1981/1982.

Nate Robertson will try to keep the streak going. In his last start he limited the Devil Rays to 2 runs in 6 1/3 innings before taking the 2-1 loss. In his last start against Minnesota he picked up the win despite allowing 5 runs in 6 innings. He got that win because the Tigers got to Brad Radke early an knocked him out after 4 runs in 3 innings.

Radke takes the hill again tonight for the Twins. This should make Craig Monroe happy. Not only is Monroe hitting as well as umm, anyone, he is 15 for 31 lifetime against Radke.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME Remember back before last night’s game when the Tigers held a double digit lead in the Central? Ahem.

The Tigers didn’t play a bad game, they just got beat. Nate Robertson was solid. The offense had no trouble getting men on base with 11 hits and 2 walks. The problem was that all but one of those hits were singles.

The biggest lost opportunity came when the Tigers loaded the bases with nobody out. They did so much right that inning. Carlos Guillen followed a leadoff single by Ordonez with an 11 pitch walk. Dmitri Young hit a rocket single to right that was hit hard enough that Ordonez really didn’t have a chance to score. Craig Monroe does his job by hitting a line drive to left field on an 0-2 count. Unfortunately it happened to be at Jason Tyner for the first out. Even more unfortunate for the Tigers was that Tyner flung a bee-bee home and easily cut down Magglio Ordonez who was trying to score.

You could question Ordonez coming home on the play when he was about by a couple steps. Yet if the throw bounces or is a couple feet up the line he probably scores. It wasn’t a bad gamble and you just have to give the Twins credit for executing.

The next inning the Twins took the lead on a jam job double by Joe Mauer.

And such is baseball. The Tigers have had the ball bounce their way a ton this year. It didn’t happen for them tonight, and the Twins played a very good game. Yet the Tigers still brought the go ahead run to the plate in the 9th against one of the best closers in the league. Good game, good effort, the Twins just happened to be a little better tonight.

Toledo 15, Columbus 8
The Mud Hens had 7 homers including 4 from Alexis Gomez. Chris Shelton added one as part of a 3 hit night. Colby Lewis wasn’t sharp with 6 runs on 8 hits and 4 walks but still picked up the win. Chris Spurling faced 8 batters and allowed 1 hit against 3 K’s.

Erie – DNP

Jupiter 8, Lakeland 5
Clete Thomas had 2 doubles and a single. Jeff Larish added 2 hits also. Kevin Ardoin allowed 8 runs on 10 hits in 6 innings. Kevin Whelan pitched 1 scoreless inning with 2 K’s and walk.

Fort Wayne 5, West Michigan 1
The Whitecaps were limited to 4 singles. Wil Rhymes, Matt Joyce, Cameron Maybin, and Mike Hernandez had one apiece. Josh Rainwater pitched 5 1/3 shut out innings on 6 hits. Ricky Steik allowed 5 runs, 4 earned, on 4 hits and a walk.

Tri-City 5, Oneonta 1
Scott Sizemore went 2 for 4 and James Skelton added a double and a single. Christian Martinez gave up 5 runs, 3 earned, on 8 hits in 5 2/3 innings.

GCL Tigers 13, GCL Indians 6
Gorkys Hernandez was a triple short of the cycle. Michael Sullivan and Luis Arlet each added 3 hits. Alfredo Figaro allowed 3 unearned runs in 5 innings on 9 hits. He walked none and fanned 5. Paul Hammond pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings.

Toledo – DNP

Erie 9, New Hampshire 6
Chris Maples had 2 doubles and a homer. Andrew Graham had 3 hits and ahomer. Virgil Vasquez allowed 5 runs on 7 hits, 3 walks, and 8 strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings.

Daytona 3, Lakeland 1
Jeff Larish went 2 for 4 with a double. Eddie Bonine allowed only 1 run on 5 hits over 8 innings. He walked none and fanned 9.

West Michigan 7, Fort Wayne 6
Cameron Maybin was 2 for 5 with 2 doubles. Mike Hernandez added 3 singles. Sendy Vasquez went 6 1/3 innings and allowed 2 runs on 8 hits. Orlando Perdomo allowed 3 runs on 2 walks and a hit without retiring anyone.

Oneonta 3, Aberdeen 2
Scott Sizemore was 2 for 4. Brendan Wise pitched 8 innings and allowed 2 runs on 4 hits and 1 walk. Brett Jensen pitched a scoreless 9th to pick up his 12th save and drop his ERA under 1.00. He has fanned 23 and walked 3 in 18 1/3 innings.

GCL Tigers 13, GCL Yankees 1
Eleazar Aponte was excellent. He allowed 4 hits over seven innings while fanning 8 and walking no one. Luis Arlet and Michael Sullivan each had 3 hits and Gorkys Hernandez added a 2 for 5 effort.

PREGAME: Wil Ledezma will be making his first start since June 4, 2005 as he fills in for Justin Verlander who is experiencing fatigue.

He’ll be opposed by C.C. Sabathia who the Tigers beat in Cleveland 2 weeks ago when Verlander outdueled him.

Brent Clevlen will be making his first Comerica Park start this afternoon.(thanks for the heads up Dillon)

Game Time 1:05 pm.

POSTGAME: I caught the bulk of this game on the radio while driving back from a weekend in Indianapolis (see, I went on vacation and kept the blog alive) and actually saw none of the game with the exception of what they showed on Baseball Tonight. But one didn’t have to see the game to understand exactly what kind of performance Wil Ledezma turned in. With 5 2/3 shut out innings, he just didn’t do as good as could be hoped for, he did as good as anybody else could have done as well. He took the game deep enough that a normal bullpen rotation could play out, and now everyone (save for Ledezma) will be available tomorrow night.

And surprise, surprise, Craig Monroe knocked in the deciding run in a one-run game. Meanwhile C.C. Sabathia, who committed the error that eventually led to scoring opportunity, has to be looking at his offense and saying “Do Something!” For the second time in a row against the Tigers he pitched quite well with nothing to show for it.

Of course the happy tone of this update was made possible by Jamie Walker and his punch out of Travis Hafner with the bases loaded.