PREGAME: The Tigers didn’t appear too intimidated by Chris Carpenter last night, and hopefully they can keep the sticks going as they take on Jeff Suppan. Magglio Ordonez, one of the heroes of last night’s game, is the only current Tiger with a significant number of at-bats against Suppan. Ordonez is 15 for 40 with two dingers lifetime against Suppan.

Kenny Rogers looks for win number 201 in his career, and for Detroit’s 50th. Rogers has been spectacular in June. Over 4 starts he has gone 30 innings and allowed only 6 runs, and only 25 baserunners.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: And a good time was had by all…

Well, maybe not the pitchers as home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski had a very small strike zone. For pitchers like Kenny Rogers and Jeff Suppan who don’t have overpowering stuff, the absence of all borderline strikes can make things rough.

But enough about the ump, how about Curtis Granderson. He reaches base 5 times and comes around to score 3 times including the 9th and 10th innings.

How about Marcus Thames to tie it up. This game felt very reminiscent of the Saturday night Reds game. After the dinger we just knew the Tigers would find a way.

How about Roman Colon, Jamie Walker, Jason Grilli, and Joel Zumaya shutting the door. The latter 3 recorded the last 8 outs on only 23 pitches.

How about Carlos Guillen reaching base in all 5 trips tonight. That’s beneficial when he’s hitting behind Ordonez who picked up 3 hits himself.

How about Vance Wilson going yard for the 2nd time this week.

And of course how about Placido Polanco shooting the gap, and getting official scored out of a triple.

There were a ton of stars tonight and over 42,000 on hand to witness it. A good time was had by all.

PREGAME: Okay, so this is another one of those pretty cool interleague matchups. This one of course evokes memories of 1968 and the two teams’ epic World Series battle.

Today’s game features a tremendous pitching match-up with ROY candidate Justin Verlander and last year’s Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter.

Game time 7:05 (that’s for you Jeff)

PREGAME The Tigers look for a sweep of the Brewers, and the road trip. Nate Robertson, who has been good, will take on Chris Capuano, who is also good. Sorry that’s all I have right now. Off to a meeting.

POSTGAME: Eh, what are you gonna do? It’s hard to get too upset about a loss after 6 straight wins. The Tigers had an unusual lineup to say the least and went up against a pretty good pitcher.

I just feel bad for Nate Robertson who did his part. The first two runs he allowed were the result of errors. He knocked in a run on his own. And his bullpen couldn’t hold the lead.

Oh well. Let’s come home and bring on the Cardinals.

PREGAME: The Zach Miner show comes to Milwaukee. Miner has proven to be a pretty capable replacement for Mike Maroth against some tough offenses. Things won’t get easier tonight, or even going forward, as the film library on Zach becomes more robust.

He’ll be facing Rick Helling who makes his first start of the season after coming back from elbow problems.

Craig Monroe will take Marcus Thames’s spot in the lineup as he makes his first start since Wednesday.

POSTGAME: Well at least that Zach Miner film library isn’t getting a lot of footage of guys having success against him. Awesome outing by Miner, and of course it was a slight disappointment he couldn’t get the shut out as well.

The Tigers went long ball crazy again and Jeremy Bonderman can’t help but wonder why an offense that hits 12 homers in 3 games can’t get give him a little run support.

And while the White Sox won again, the other team that is matching the Tigers blow for blow is the Twins. While the Indians may be wilting, the Twins are doing their best to make things interesting. I don’t think things will be as easy the next time they meet up.

PREGAME: The Tigers will try and make it a happy Father’s Day by completing a sweep against the Cubs. Kenny Rogers will make his first attempt at 200 career wins while Mark Prior will make his first attempt at starting this season.

We know that Pudge Rodriguez will get the day off, but I’d hope that Jim Leyland wouldn’t tinker too much with a lineup that has been crushing the ball in the first two games of the series

And on a non-baseball note, I’d like to wish Happy Father’s Day to all fathers today. There’s just something about baseball and it’s ability to bridge generations that make days like today special.

POSTGAME: Congratulations of course go to Kenny Rogers on securing his 200th victory. He did it while being dominant in one of baseball’s most historic venues on Father’s Day. I think the script is complete.

Of course his win was overshadowed by a power display by, well, everyone except Magglio Ordonez and Placido Polanco. If you had told me that in mid June Brandon Inge would be leading the team in homers with Marcus Thames close on his heels, I’d have thought the season would be a disaster. Instead, the Tigers have 6 players with 10-15 homers and Carlos Guillen hovering at 9. I haven’t done any research, but I can’t imagine too many times when the #7 and #8 hitter combine for 4 homers in a game.

Again we saw the talents of Curtis Granderson who picked up only one single in the series but still picked up 16 total bases. And Chris Shelton continues to look much improved. His first homer was a bomb to straight away centerfield. A .900 OPS hitter in the bottom 3rd will definitely help the offense.

PREGAME: It’s a rookie pitching battle today as Justin Verlander takes on Carlos Marmol. We know about Verlander already, but there isn’t much to know about Marmol. He’s only made one start and 2 relief appearances – and been very impressive. In his 10 innings he has 13 K’s against 3 walks, and has allowed only one run.

We’ll see who the true home team is today, with the crowd pro-Tigers yesterday.

POSTGAME: The Tigers continued to pound the ball against the ivy. Even pinch hitter Omar Infante hit a homer – er a triple thanks to crappy umpiring. And despite the fact that the Tigers picked up 14 hits, 7 for extra bases, they were still robbed on several occasions. In fact the last two outs of the 4th, and the entire 5th innings were basically web gem nominees for the Cubs.

Verlander’s control wasn’t entirely there, but he battled through and held the Cubs to one run. Wil Ledezma was awesome in relief coming into a bases loaded situation and stranding all 3 runner. Fernando Rodney pitched about as well as he hit, but with a 8 run cushion you could laugh about both.

With the win the Tigers move to 21 games over .500. That matches their highest point which they last achieved after a Verlander win against Cleveland on May 27th. So since racing out to a 35-14 record, they played .500 ball over the last 20 games.

PREGAME: The Tigers travel to Wrigley Field to take on the Cubs. It’s the occasional match-up like this that makes me actually like interleague play.

On a personal note, I made the trip to Chicago in 2000 to see the Tigers take on the Cubs. My wife and I took in two games. What made it even more memorable is that the morning we left we found out we were pregnant with my son.

But on to the game itself…Nate Robertson will be taking on Glendon Rusch. Rusch has been pretty awful and has allowed 14 homers in his 31 innings as a starter this season. He’s been particularly ineffective at Wrigley allowing a .387 BAA and 10 homers in 13 1/3 innings. Rusch is also the 4th lefty starter the Tigers have faced in the last 5 games.

POSTGAME: That game ended up a lot closer than it felt like it would be early on. I happened to be at home today, so I was able to see the game. While the Tigers only posted 5 runs, they hit the ball hard up and down the order (well except for Guillen). Pudge and Thames both had balls caught at the wall and Shelton and Granderson both had line drives that Jacque Jones made nice plays on. Even Nate Robertson had a hit taken away on a nice diving play by Juan Pierre.

Robertson was dominant, I think he only had one 1-2-3 inning, but he also was never really in trouble.

Marcus Thames homer was to the opposite field, which is a rarity. I mentioned his flyout to the wall which was also to right-center.

Todd Jones pitched an uneventful 1-2-3 inning. And it may be hard to believe, but that was the 3rd 1-2-3 inning he’s pitched this week. It’s just that one of them was followed by a disastorous 4 run inning.

And finally, the most encouraging item may have been Chris Shelton. Yesterday he doubled and walked twice. Today he doubled down the right field line and sent another line drive to the warning track. He also drew another walk today. And even when he struck out his last time up, he didn’t take the monster swing, he looked like he was trying to flilp it to right again. I’m not saying his slump is over, or that he’s even breaking out. But Chris Shelton today looked a lot more like the Chris Shelton of last year.

PREGAME The Tigers will try and recover from last night’s extra-inning loss to take the series. Zach Miner will make his 3rd start and we’d all be happy if he could repeat his performance from Toronto. Casey Fossum will pitch for the Devil Rays.

And in case anyone noticed, the Tigers no longer have the best record in baseball. The Tigers and Mets are both 18 games over .500, but the Mets edge the Tig’s by .005 in winning percentage.

POSTGAME: So if I were to say one Tiger would go 0 for 5 with 3 stikeouts, you might guess it was Chris Shelton. And if I told you one Tiger doubled and walked twice, you might guess Curtis Granderson. Well, it was role reversal day. I’m not at all worried about Granderson, but I am hopeful about Shelton. Last night he only K’d once and was at least putting the ball in play. Today he drew a couple walks and had a bloop drop in. Maybe he’s turning it around?

I don’t think we could ask anymore from Zach Miner in his first 3 starts. Today he didn’t allow an earned run. Early on he was far from efficient, but managed to get through 7 innings on 100 pitches. Wil Ledezma also got his first action and had a walk and 2 strikeouts.

And in an oddity, the Tigers didn’t homer in the 4 game series.

PREGAME: After a strong outing by Kenny Rogers, the Tigers bullpen is back at full strength. Hopefully they won’t be needed as Jeremy Bonderman will take the mound for the Tigers. Lifetime against the D-Rays Bonderman is 3-1 with a 2.20 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings.

He’ll be opposed by lefty Mark Hendrickson who sports a better ERA than Bonderman at 4.11, but has mustered only a 3-7 record.

I’m off to the game!

POSTGAME: It’s not just Todd Jones giving up runs in crucial situations. It’s the fact that for the 3rd time in 2 weeks he’s turned a close game into a blowout. Ergh! Awesome outing by both starting pitchers. Bonderman of course deserved better. Ergh!

PREGAME: The Tigers look to extend their winning streak to 4 tonight against the Devil Rays. The Tigers are back at the top of the rotation with Kenny Rogers who goes for win 199. He’ll be opposed by Seth McClung.

McClung has given up 4 or more runs in each of his last 4 starts and has walked 13 and only fanned 4 over that span.

Pudge will be in the lineup tonight despite last night’s overtime duty. Carlos Guillen will man first for the slumping Shelton. I guess the good news is that Shelton’s slump corresponds with Carlos Guillen’s various aches so that both get a break.

POSTGAME: We (the fans) really needed a game like that. The Tigers jump on top early, and then blow it open. After weeks of nail biters and coming from behind it was nice to have an “easy one.”

It’s stating the obvious, but Kenny Rogers was brilliant. Some 0’s turned into 1’s in the 8th inning, but 9 K’s and 8 innings of work on a night when the bullpen was depleted are spectacular. Oh yeah, and he made the defensive play of the night laying out and flipping a ball with his glove after deflecting it in the first place.

Offensively everyone chipped in. Curtis Granderson continued to set the table by reaching base 3 times and adding a sacrifice fly and a diving catch in the outfield.

And on bark-in-the-park night the Tigers drew almost 21,000. I’ll be doing my part tomorrow and taking in the game.

PREGAME: It’s an intriguing pitching match-up as young phenoms Justin Verlander and Scott Kazmir hook up. Verlander’s June hasn’t been as stellar as his May with 10 runs in his last 11 innings. However, 6 of those runs came in a 5 inning outing against the Yankees with a cut bleeding on his finger. He was solid in his last start against the White Sox. Verlander experienced “tenderness” in his arm/shoulder after the Yankee game so it will be interesting see how long he stays in.

The last time the Tigers faced Kazmir, he had some control problems. He hit Polanco anbd threw behind a couple other guys which prompted Nate Robertson to send one behind Carl Crawford. Robertson was ejected after the first pitch making for a short day.

POSTGAME: Serious, serious love for Curtis Granderson. I love him swinging away with the corner infielders 40 feet away. I love him seeing at least 4 pitches every at-bat. I love him getting everything hit to center.

The beleaguered bullpen duo of Rodney and Jones combined for 5 scoreless and uneventful innings. With Zumaya still shelved, look for Jamie Walker to serve as closer if one is needed tomorrow night.

The top of the order carried the day going 10 for 29 among the top 5 hitters. The bottom 4 combined for 1 for 22.