50-41, 1st place, 2.5 ahead of Cleveland.

Onward and upward after a series against the White Sox that was, shall we say, insulting. Now come the Texas Rangers, a formidable opponent that matches up favorably (in their favor, that is) against the Tigers just about any way you look at it. The optimist’s view would be that this is one of those rise to the occasion opportunities.

Ah, the bullpen. When will that third trustworthy arm emerge?

But wait, there’s good news to cheer about. Miguel Cabrera. Max Scherzer. Matt Tuiasosopo. Victor Martinez. Torii Hunter. Yes, the Detroit Tigers are a good team. As frustrating as it can be when the offense is in a funk, or the starting pitching gets a bit soft, or when a bit of defensive or baserunning clown show darkens our view of a team rather average in these respects, the Tigers are a good team. The only thing standing between them and October baseball, aside from catastrophic injuries, is 71 more games with that bullpen. If you think Sanchez was left in too long, all that amounts to is saying that you wish Alburquerque or Coke or Putkonen or (had he been available) Downs would have given up the slam instead. That’s one way of encapsulating the bullpen situation. Another is: Evan Reed. Evan Reed?

Big series ahead. Let’s start it off right. Time for Doug Fister to shake off those first-inning blues and for Justin Grimm to be brought down to earth at Comerica.

Lineup to come, unless the ever-adroit Coleman or new challenger Vince beat me to it.

Tonight’s Bacon Hat lineup:

CF Jackson
RF Hunter
3B Cabrera
1B Fielder
DH Martinez
SS Peralta
LF Dirks
C Avila
2B Santiago

50-40, 1st place, 3.5 games up.

Last night’s win was about as ho-hum as an 8 -5 win gets. Porcello got the W by pitching well enough. Cabrera, Fielder and VMart each collected 3 hits, but only 1 XBH (a fielder HR) among them. And I gotta say, it’s a little disappointing when Cabrera only gets 1 RBI. Smyly was incredible and Benoit avoided trouble after 2 walks for his 8th save (is that in 8 chances?). Rondon makes me believe that we’ll have a new closer in here in the next 20 days.

This afternoon the Tigers face Chris Sale, who has established himself as one of the best lefties in the AL. His 5-8 record is purely a reflection of a complete lack of run support, as his stats paint him as one of the elite in the AL. Check this out (AL Rank in parenthesis):

ERA: 2.78 (4th)
WHIP: .96 (2nd)
BAA: .202 (3rd)
K/9: 9.77 (3rd)
brWAR: 4.5 (1st)

13 of his 16 starts have been quality, and he’s lost 4 games when he allowed 2 or less ER over 7+ innings. Thus, we need Sanchez to be sharp today.

Look, friends. We have to win this afternoon. You shouldn’t lose series at home, especially against the White Sox. The Rangers are coming into town tomorrow, so we’ll have our work cut out for us leading up to the AS break.

Today’s Series Winning Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Tuiasosopo. LF
8. Pena, C
9. Perez, 2B

49-40, 1st place, 2.5 games up.

Last night’s game left me with little motivation to write up anything today.

All I know is that we need to win to have a shot at winning the series.

Lineup coming later.

49-39, 1st place, 3.5 games up on Cle.

The Tigers head home for 6 against the White Sox and Rangers after a successful 7-4 road trip that ended with the club taking 3 of 4 from Cle. The White Sox are not good. We gotta win the series.

A few stars from last night’s game, other than VMart.

1) Brayan Pena. Pena made one of the smartest plays you’ll see all season. In case you missed it, Swisher hit a nubber down the 3rd place line to lead off the 8th. He watched it roll foul, assumed that was it, and turned towards the dugout to get ready for the next pitch. Pena watched it like a hawk and snatched it up when it rolled back fair, and then raced over to tag a bewildered, and embarrassed, Nick Swisher.

2) Drew Smyly. Wow. Other than Miguel Cabrera, has anyone been more valuable than Drew Smyly this season? He entered in the 9th after Rondon gave up a leadoff single. A Pena passed ball put a runner on 2nd with no outs. That’s a run expectancy of 1.06. Smyly then gets a fly out, a K, and a fly out. A well deserved W. On the season – batters are hitting .198 off of him, and he’s posting a 2.04 ERA and .98 WHIP.

3) The late inning walk. Seems like we are constantly burned by them; well, VMart made two count in the top of the 10th.

A few notes:

– Victor Martinez’s last 10 games: .390/.538/.928. No home runs, but I can live with the double brothers hitting 5 and 6 in this lineup.

– Prince Fielder’s splits: .314/.398/.520 ** .243/.346/.431. Man, lefties are killing him…except that those splits are the other way. His OPS v. lefties is .918, and it’s .777 v. righties. I’m expecting a monster 2nd half from him.

– Infante to the DL, retroactive to the 4th. I wonder if Colby Rasmus will send a card. 22 year old prospect Hernan Perez up and in the lineup.

– Are the Tigers eyeing someone from the Brewers’ bullpen?

– Could Miggy be joining Prince in the HR derby?

Tonight’s Series Opening Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Tuiasosopoa, LF
8. Perez, 2B
9. Avila, C

Detroit Tigers: 48-39, 1st Place (2.5 ahead of Cleveland). 

Well the Tigers made what looked like a potential blowout game interesting, only to have a bullpen fail that left them a few runs short. The 11 runners left on base didn’t help, former Indian Jhonny Peralta being the biggest offender (6).

At any rate, the Tigers still have an 8-3 lead in the season series, and have a chance to win the road series with a victory tonight, which would bring them to a very nice 7-4 on what looked to be a difficult 11-game road trip.

Tonight Magic Max looks to round off his charmed first half with a perfect 14-0 on his way to being the All-Star game starting pitcher (if I may make a wild prediction). The record, by the way, for consecutive wins to start a season is 15-0, set by Cleveland’s Johnny Allen in 1937 and tied by Baltimore’s Dave McNally in 1969.

*****

The Home Run Derby teams will be chosen tonight, too late for this post. I will be shocked if reigning champ Prince Fielder is not on the AL team. No word on whether Brandon Inge will get an invitation for the NL team.

****

I mentioned yesterday that this season will be Miguel Cabrera’s first All-Star game start. Since someone asked me who the starters were on the other years he went, I figured I would list them:

• 2004 NL RF Sammy Sosa
• 2005 NL LF Carlos Beltran
• 2006 NL 3B David Wright
• 2007 NL 3B David Wright
• 2010 AL 1B Justin Morneau*
• 2011 AL 1B Adrian Gonzalez
• 2012 AL 3B Adrian Beltre

*Cabrera actually started the game, since Morneau was scratched with a concussion.

You’ll note the gap in 2008-2009, which goes to show the difficulties in adjusting to a new league, if only in reputation–Cabrera’s numbers were actually quite good, even in the first half:

• 2008 first half .284/.837, 16 HR 57 RBI
• 2009 first half .321/.926, 18 HR 50 RBI

2009 of course is the famous season when Brandon Inge made the All-Star team and Miguel Cabrera did not.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Torii Hunter. Torii is heading into the All-Star game in style: he is on a 7-game hitting streak in which he is batting .419.

Today’s Mash-For-Max Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Tuiasosopo, LF
8. Pena, C
9. Santiago, 2B

Detroit Tigers: 48-38, 1st Place (3.5 ahead of Cleveland). 

Detroit continued its dominance of the division rival Cleveland Indians last night, with a 9-4 win which featured a good 5-inning return by Anibal Sanchez. The Tigers have now taken 7 in a row from the Tribe, and 8-of-10 for the season. The Tigers have already outscored Cleveland 16-4 in this series, and 49-22 over the 7-game run, which led the Indians to hold a players meeting after the game. Manager Terry Francona promised “we’ll show up tomorrow.”

The All-Star rosters were announced, and the Tigers have at least 6 players going. Miguel Cabrera finally landed a starting spot at 3rd base, and the pitching staff features Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander (manager’s pick…Leyland preemptively defends his pick). Jhonny Peralta, Torii Hunter, and Prince Fielder all made the team as reserves (I am mildly surprised about Fielder).

One more Tiger has a chance to make the team: this year’s AL Final Vote contest for the last spot uniquely features all relief pitchers, including Tiger Joaquin Benoit. Are you an MLB.TV subscriber? No? Then if you vote in the Final Vote you are eligible for a free 14-day MLB.TV trial.

Random stat of the day: Torii Hunter had a double, triple, and home run last night for Detroit. The 37-year old Hunter is the oldest player to do that since 39-year old Dave Winfield did it back in 1991. But you knew that.

In bullpen news, Darin Downs has been placed on the 15-day DL with left rotator cuff tendinitis, and has been replaced on the roster by Evan “White Flag” Reed.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Austin Jackson. AJax sets the table for the 3 All-Stars hitting behind him.

Today’s Same As Yesterday Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Dirks, LF
8. Avila, C
9. Santiago, 2B

Detroit Tigers: 47-38, 1st Place (2.5 ahead of Cleveland). 

Yes, it’s that time of the season, that 4th of July lull where DTW game threads only draw a couple of comments and places like ESPN resort to discussing topics such as the All-Star game snubs before the teams are actually named. Snub predictions, I guess.

Anyway, despite the lulliness of the week the Tigers are in gear to put some space in between themselves and Cleveland before the break, after a 7-0 series opener.  That makes it 6 games in a row now that the Tigers have taken from the Indians, which should give Indians fans serious pause when considering their playoff contention hopes, as should the Cleveland record of 18-29 vs. teams with a winning record.

For the Tigers, aside from gaining a game in the standings, the win over the Indians was encouraging because of how well Rick Porcello pitched. Jason Beck notes that Rick Porcello has started doing something that Max Scherzer has been doing all season–increasing his use of the curve, especially against left-handed hitters. In fact, Porcello got 5 outs against lefties in the first 4 innings of last night’s game with the curveball. Can we get a +1 for the coaching staff?

Tonight’s game features the much-anticipated return of Anibal Sanchez to the starting lineup. Anibal will be on a limited pitch-count, so the bullpen should get plenty of work.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Victor Martinez. Martinez continues to hit his ex-teams well. Yesterday’s performance leaves him with a 2013 average of .382 against Cleveland (.954 OPS), and a career BA of .364 (.995). He also hits Boston well (.318, .920). Strangely, the one team Martinez never hit well was Detroit, only putting up .244/.722. I would expect that to change if he ever becomes an ex-Tiger, based on the above.

Today’s Hit the Ball for Anibal Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Dirks, LF
8. Avila, C
9. Santiago, 2B

Detroit Tigers: 46-38, 1st Place (1.5 ahead of Cleveland).

Somehow the Tigers have pulled the Bengal-Bus into Cleveland in first place, and even-up on the road trip, pulling 3 of 4 from the previously-hot Blue Jays despite the lack of Cabrera and Infante in the Independence-Day-in-a-Foreign-Land-Finale.

(Although I will go on record here as saying that Kansas City will turn out to be the real division rival, despite the Franconized Indians).

In fact, the bench…OK, let’s have some respect here: The Bench…excelled: Santiago and Kelly were a combined 5-for-9, Jackson, Dirks, and Hunter followed up with a top of the order binge, and Justin Verlander remembered who he was. Perhaps he realized that he has to work harder, now that he is getting old and all, as Jack Morris says

Tonight Cleveland sends out the Other Justin, Justin Masterson, to face The Appealing Rick Porcello.

Jose Valverde is working hard too. In fact his minor league stint should only last a couple of weeks. The Potato will surely rise again after the All-Star break, n’est-ce pas?

Max Scherzer,  on the other hand, needs to work a bit harder. According to SI, if the Cy Young were to be handed out today, he would have to be happy with the Bronze.

Oh, and you will notice this is game 85 already. There are those out there who will be talking about the halfway point of the season “approaching.” Here, we realize that point has passed a few days ago. Nonetheless, it will be worth looking at the various halfway-point (even though the halfway-point is long gone) assessments. For example, did you realize that the Tigers could actually be doing better?

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Don Kelly. The Donkey has now raised his batting average to .240. I have a hunch that Kelly will follow up on his big game yesterday with a hit or two today.

Today’s Oh, No Omar Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Dirks, LF
3. Hunter, RF
4. Cabrera, 3B
5. Fielder, 1B
6. Martinez, DH
7. Peralta, SS
8. Kelly, RF
9. Avila, C
10. Santiago, 2B

45-38, 1st place again, 0.5 ahead of Cleveland.

Happy 4th of July, everyone. Let us pause to appreciate the value of civil society and all that it took to get here. Let us pause to admire America the Beautiful. Let us pause to consider the possibility of America the More Beautiful.

Max Scherzer is 13-0. Wow. Question: Would we as easily recognize how out of this world consistent and consistently good he has been if he was, say, 9-4 right now? Probably not. It’s one thing to recognize how overrated a stat the W-L of a starter is, and another thing entirely to overthrow how programmed we are to ooh and aah about it. Let me throw something out there: 31-6. If you know what that is, and I’m sure you do, it proves my point. These things end up tattooed on our brains. Recognize 24-5? I’m sure there are others you could pull out of your hat with ease. Do you know Denny McLain’s 1968 WHIP, SO/BB, or FIP off the top of your head? Me, either.

Justin Verlander v. Esmil Rogers tonight. On the face of it, this is a mismatch, but Rogers has been pitching well of late, while Verlander… hasn’t been pitching like Verlander for a while now, notwithstanding all the excuses made for it.

No Miguel Cabrera in the lineup tonight. His back needs the rest. Is it really a turf thing? Don’t know. Being an alarmist, I worry about the possibility of a nagging injury that Miggy will insist on playing through that will drag him down to greater and lesser degrees for the rest of the season. The Tigers can absolutely not afford that. Their lineup has consisted of The Big Two, The Little Five, and the Flat Tire Two. Let there be no doubt that Cabrera and Fielder have carried the offense on their considerable shoulders through 83 games, and Miggy has been the consistent one.

No Omar Infante tonight, either, following his left shin contusion from last night’s game. If that’s all it is, he shouldn’t be out long, and I speak from personal experience on this one. I’m not sold on the “dirtiness” of the Colby Rasmus takeout slide, myself.

It’s nice to see Alex Avila and Victor Martinez having good games. Two months of consistently good performance and I’ll be sold on it, and not until. Half the season is in the books, and these guys are way in the red.

It’s nice that Jim Leyland thinks the bullpen situation is shaping up nicely. To me, the bullpen is still Smyly, Benoit, and Next Please. So much to-do about Which Inning and How Often. What an unnecessary diversion the Valverde Experiment has revealed itself to be, eh? The true cost of all that was using a spot on the staff that would have been better devoted to What’s Working Now and Next Please. Oh, well.

I’m pretty sure that this is the time of year when the Tigers catch fire and start to run away with the division. That’s the script I got, anyway. It all starts with a remarkably successful road trip on the heels of a disappointing home stand.

Jim hasn’t called me back about the lineup yet, so I’ll take a stab at it myself and correct it later. Feel free to join me in the guessing contest.

Tonight’s Independence Day lineup guess:

CF Jackson
LF Dirks
RF Hunter
1B Fielder
DH Martinez
SS Peralta
C Avila
3B Kelly
2B Santiago

44-38, 2nd place, 0.5 GB Cleveland.

Triple-A Tigers All-Stars.

Miggy?

Leyland likes it.

Max’s milestones.

Tonight’s lineup:

CF Jackson
RF Hunter
3B Cabrera
1B Fielder
DH Martinez
SS Peralta
LF Dirks
2B Infante
C Avila

43-38, 2nd place, 0.5 GB Cleveland.

Porcello suspended and Sanchez returning.

Lee Panas checks out the D of C’s in the D.

Long-awaited return of the heavy lumber will save our city.

Long-awaited return of the heavy lumber will save our city, this time without the sarcasm.

Tonight’s lineup:

CF Jackson
RF Hunter
3B Cabrera
1B Fielder
DH Martinez
SS Peralta
LF Dirks
2B Infante
C Avila

43-37, 1st place tie with Cleveland.

The Detroit Tigers first went to 6 games over .500 on May 3 with a dramatic win over the Houston Astros. And here we are at 6 games over .500 again. Hmmm. Quite a few teams would be happy to say that. Hmmm. Tigers. Aren’t they that team with Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder and Justin Verlander? Hmmm.

A Monday day game seems a bit odd, but that’s what they’re doing in Toronto today. For that reason I won’t be able to post the starting lineup. Sorry.