PREGAME: It’s the pitching stupid! Justin Verlander and Johan Santana will do battle tonight – barring inclement weather of course. Then again, starting the game and experiencing a lengthy rain delay would probably help the Tigers. While I’d prefer to see Verlander throwing, I think our fresh long relievers would have the advantage against the Twins weary bullpen.

But Pudge Rodriguez, Magglio Ordonez, and Craig Monroe have all had success against Santana in the past. Tonight’s lineup feature Pudge at DH with Vance Wilson catching. Ramon Santiago gets the nod over Placido Polanco at 2nd base.

PREGAME: The Tigers try to complete the sweep, extend their winning streak, and try to stop another trend. The Tigers have yet to win the last game of a homestand or road trip.

Mike Maroth shut out the Indians the last time the two sides squared off, also on a holiday (Easter) and also on a Sunday. He’ll be opposed by Jason Johnson, who I would really like to see the Tigers beat.

Curtis Granderson played in his 88th game without an error last night. That matches the longest string for a Tiger player to start his career errorless since Danny Bautista from 1993-1995.

Happy Mother’s Day to any of my readers who are mothers!

POSTGAME: Don’t look now – actually do look now – but the Tigers are tied for first place, sort of. They aren’t any games back, but the White Sox have the edge in winning percentage.

I didn’t see the game in its entirety due to Mother’s day obligations, but from what I did see Mike Maroth was once again very effective. The Jason Johnson that pitched today was the one that we saw the first half of 2005. He kept the ball down, and induced a ton of groundballs.

If you caught the FSN Detroit broadcast, you probably heard that this was the Tigers first ever sweep at Jacobs Field. This marked the end of another productive road trip and elevated their road record to a remarkable 16-7. The Tigers have now played 23 of their 37 games on the road.

PREGAME: Today should be an interesting pitching match-up between two of the talented young arms in the AL Central, Jeremy Bonderman and CC Sabathia.

Tiger hitters have had little success against Sabathia in the past, especially Brandon Inge who is 3 for 31 lifetime. Given my proclivity lately for pointing out interesting notes which then get obliterated by the actual game, expect big numbers from Inge tonight.

On another interesting note, the Tigers lead the majors in home runs and doubles among visiting teams at Jacobs Field.

POSTGAME: Yet another shut out for the Tigers pitching staff. Jeremy Bonderman out dueled CC Sabathia. Bonderman finished officiallywith 8 strikeouts, but he actually struck out Travis Hafner 3 times in the 6th inning while being squeezed by the ump.

It also appears that Chris Shelton minght be getting his groove back. He’s had consecutive multi-hit games, and he crushed two balls yesterday.

PREGAME: The Tigers make their first trip to Jacobs Field this season. Cleveland begins a homestand after being swept by the Royals. While the Tigers look to avoid their first losing roadtrip of the season.

Kenny Rogers, who was the fastest Tiger pitcher to 5 wins since Frank Tanana in 1988, will take the mound for the Tigers. He last faced the Indians 4 weeks ago, also on a Friday night, and put an end to the Tigers 4 game losing streak.

Cliff Lee will go for the Indians. Among current Tigers, the red hot Magglio Ordonez has the best numbers against Lee. Ordonez is 7 for 14 against Lee in his career.

This will be the first game that Roman Colon has been active after getting called up on Wednesday.

POSTGAME: So smart guy, the red-hot Ordonez who has hit .500 in his career against Lee did what tonight? Two K’s, a double play, and a foul out to first? Baseball is weird.

I think it’s safe to say that Craig Monroe was the player of the game. He had the dinger, a double, and an outfield assist.

The Tigers keep their Friday night fun fest intact as they are perfect on Fridays.

On an interesting side note, it appeared that Pudge Rodriguez had several animated exchanges with Ronnie Belliard. One time after striking out, Pudge was yelling at someone in the field. Later, when he doubled he continued to be expressive. Finally, after Belliard flew out to end the game, I’m pretty sure that when Pudge went out to shake hands, he was flipping off someone in the general direction of where Belliard would have been. I’m curious to hear what’s going on between those two.

PREGAME: When things were going good, the Tigers were winning losable games. Now they’re losing winnable games. The former is more fun for everyone. Justin Verlander gets the ball for Detroit, and he was the last pitcher to throw quality start. And even that start was stretching the limits of quality with 4 runs (but only 3 earned) in 6 innings.

Rodrigo Lopez will be starting for the O’s, and probably the nicest thing to say is that he’s been consistent. He’s allowed at least 4 runs in each of his starts. He’s also shown an ability to give up a homer with 1.95/9 innings this year. This could be advantageous to the Tigers, and particularly Magglio Ordonez who is looking to homer in his 5th consecutive game.

Placido Polanco returns to the lineup tonight, as does Shelton. Polanco resumes his spot inthe 2-hole while Shelton drops to #7.

POSTGAME: I guess it’s a nice change of pace win the Tigers cap off a 3 game losing streak, and I think to myself FINALLY! It was a very solid win tonight, and I liked seeing the rookie come out and be the stopper. Verlander was very effective, save for a couple instances where he started overthrowing with men on base. And keep in mind, he did that without his normal curve last night.

The offense once again put up a six-spot, but actually had this one hold up. Craig Monroe broke and 0 for 17 streak, which was well deserved. He’s hit a number of rockets, with nothing to show for it. Also nice to see was Polanco hitting a little more like he did last year. That first inning double was only his second extra base hit this year.

As for myself, I’m once again 100% and will be back to my normal posting routine tonight. Thanks for being patient while I slept.

Also, I don’t know if anyone noticed, but the Indians were just swept by the Royals. You think they might be a little upset for this weekend?

PREGAME: I’m still not feeling good, so the only tidbits for today are those I picked up in the car on the way home. Pudge will be playing first to give Shelton a scheduled day off, and Placido Polanco is back in the lineup. Apparently Polanco is still out.

Game time is 7:05.

POSTGAME: At least Fernando Rodney did his part to put the closer controversy to rest. I’m not too upset about the loss in and of itself. I’m just more frustrated that for the second time in three games a struggling team found their legs in a come from behind win against the Tigers.

What is more disconcerting than the blown save, is Carlos Guillen’s defense. While errors are never the best way to measure a players effectiveness, eight at this point in the season is terrible. It was easy to shake off his multi-error games in the Oakland series as a fluke, but the more it happens the less flukey it looks. It’s a shame that a night where he reached base 5 times with a bases loaded double, is overshadowed by sloppy defense. I just hope it doesn’t become one of those things that’s in his head (because it’s already in mine).

PREGAME: The Tigers will try and bounce back from their first late inning blown lead. It won’t be easy as Mike Maroth takes on Johan Santana. Then again, the Tigers keep showing the ability to hit Twins pitching – even if they haven’t had success in the past.

POSTGAME: Jim Leyland sent out a substitution laden lineup against arguably the best pitcher in the game. That’s why it wasn’t that much of a shock that the Tigers were being no hit into the 7th inning. Despite that, the Tigers weren’t that far off. A couple of drives that were just out of the reach of Thames, actually one was within his reach, and Minnesota has as hard a time scoring against Mike Maroth. Not to say that Maroth pitched as well as Santana, because it wasn’t close, just that despite being dominated Detroit stayed in the game without their best players.

And speaking of could-ofs, the Tigers had a bevy of pinch hitters available today. Yet in the 7th inning with the tying run on second base and one out, Leyland left Ramon Santiago to hit against Santana. That move made little sense, and it made even less sense in the 9th inning when he sent Carlos Guillen in to pinch hit with two outs and nobody on. Who knows if Guillen would have been successful, but if I have a choice between two contests where one gives me a one in three chance and the other gives me a one in five chance – the choice is simple.

PREGAME: The Tigers look to raise their record against the Twins to 5-0 on the year. Scott Baker will be taking the mound for the Twins. While the Tigers have had success in the first 4 games, this will be the first time facing Baker this season.

Jeremy Bonderman will try to regain the pitching magic as the Tigers starters have failed to record a quality start in their last 2 games. Let’s nip that in the bud.

Last night featured the return of Dmitri Young and he hit a couple balls well to center, singled in a run, and walked. No matter what you think of Dmitri, it will be nice to have his bat in the lineup. My son got a little confused and started calling the position Desperating Hitter. Given the inconsistency, until Marcus Thames surge last week, it was hard for me to correct him.

Game time is 7:05.

POSTGAME: Yeah, the blown save – not so much a fan. I guess the silver lining is that this is game 31 and this is the first time the Tigers bullpen has surrendered a lead. Todd Jones has had a shaky week, and it will be understandable when people start calling for Fernando Rodney or Joel Zumaya to close.

In other news, the Tigers banged out 8 extra base hits. They had 5 situations where they had a runner on second base and no body out. Only 2 of those runners scored.

PREGAME: The Tigers face the Twins, hoping to repeat the last series. The only matchup that will be the same though is tonight’s Kyle Lohse-Kenny Rogers re-enactment.

The Twins have been shut-out 3 times in the last week, and Rogers will try to continue and make it tough for Twins batters.

Meanwhile, since the Twins left town, Detroit has only mustered 11 runs in their last 4 games.

Dmitri Young is set to be activated, and is likely to get the start, but Marcus Thames is 7 for his lat 10. Included in that is a homer and single against Lohse on Sunday.

POSTGAME: That struggling offense from the last two series had no problems tonight. After so many games where the starters kept the team in the game, the bats picked up a sub-par outing from Kenny Rogers.

With the Royals knocking off the White Sox, Detroit moves within a half game of the AL Central lead.

PREGAME: The Tigers go for their third straight sweep with an afternoon get-away-day tilt against the Angels. The Tigers will face Kevin Gregg who is making his first start of the season. In 3 relief appearances he’s allowed a single run in 11 2/3 innings. He’s also yet to allow a home run, and the Tigers have like hitting homers as of late.

Justin Verlander will take ball for the Tigers and look to keep the string alive.

Game time is 1:05pm.

POSTGAME: It had to happen sometime. The pitching staff was going to give up hits and runs at some point. Silly things like a day job kept me pretty much away from the game so I can’t comment too much. I heard bits on the radio including a gem from Jim Price about a diving catch by Murphy

That is one of the all time very good catches that we’ve seen this year

I’m not slamming Jim here, because if any of us talked for two to three hours at a time, we’d all be prone to say some strange things.

Once again the Tigers struggled when they had to board a plane. The first road trip ended with a loss to Texas. The first homestand ended with a loss to Cleveland. And the Angels spoiled the finales of both the last road trip and homestand.

PREGAME: For the second time in a little over a week the Tigers take a 5 game win streak into a series with the Angels. Last time this happened, the Tigers were shut out in two of their next 3 games. Here’s hoping for better results.

Nate Robertson will take his 14 inning scoreless streak into tonight’s game. He’ll have a tough time keeping that streak alive in the first inning as he will probably face Orlando Cabrera who is 5 for 5 lifetime against Nate, and possibly Vladimir Guerrero who is 7 for 10.

The Tigers will face former Tiger Jeff Weaver who is sporting a 7.48 ERA.

Interesting split of the day: The Tigers are 17-3 when scoring first. What is most impressive is that they have scored first in 20 of the 27 games.

Make sure to watch tonight, because the Tigers won’t be on TV again until Saturday.

POSTGAME: Well I managed a couple jinxes. Nate broke his scoreless string in the first inning, and the Tigers failed to score first. Fortunately, neither proved to be detrimental. This wasn’t the Tigers crispest game, but they still managed to eke it out. Magglio was doubled off when he misread the ball on a hit and run. Curtis Granderson was picked off first. Brandon Inge made an error on a routine play. The Tigers failed to score off of Santiago’s triple with no outs.

This was a very lose-able game for the Tigers, and yet they found a way to win. It’s one thing to win when everything is going your way, it’s another thing to win despite some mistakes.

And somehow everything Leyland does seems to work. Santiago triples, and Alexis Gomez picks up the game winning hit. Who knew?

Another thing to note, is this is the second time that Brandon Inge had a pivotal at-bat in which he probably should have been struck out, only to survive and change the game (the other being in Oakland).

One little factoid: that wild pitch by Nate Robertson was the team’s first since April 23rd.