It Rained,

and then the Tigers offense forgot the game got started back up

Galarraga was not at his best Friday night, and the game was delayed 40 minutes which pitchers hate. That being said, the Tigers hitting has been bad for about a week now. It is very difficult to win games when you go 4-5 innings scoreless day after day.

The Indians scored 4 runs in the 2nd and ended up carrying a 6 run lead for most of the game after that. The Indians starter Carl Pavano had been rocked all season, well, not today. The Tigers would remain scoreless until the 8th inning when they piled on 5 runs, capped by a 3-R HR by slumping Miguel Cabrera. The Tigers would fall a run short as closer Kerry Wood would shut the door on the Tigers in the 9th.

Indians 6 Tigers 5

The Tigers are now 11-11 on the season, which is fine, but it would be nice to get a win on Saturday and Sunday so they don't lose back to back home series.

Let's go boys, Miner takes the hill Saturday afternoon looking to get the Tigers back in the Win Column.

I Am Calling for it NOW!!!

Pretty much since the day Granderson stepped foot on the Comerica Park Field I have said that he is not a leadoff hitter. He just isn't exactly what you want from the leadoff position. He is a gap to gap hitter, and seems to be turning into a possible 30+ HR guy. Granderson needs to move down in the lineup, for a few years it was understandable why he was at the top. We didn't have anyone to move up to the 1 spot. Now we do, and it would be a move that helped the team in a variety of ways. How about this lineup.

1. Anderson LF
2. Polanco 2b
3. Granderson CF
4. Cabrera 1b
5. Ordonez RF
6. Guillen DH
7. Inge 3b
8. Laird C
9. Everett/Santiago SS

To me this balances the lineup better, and it moves speed to the top of the lineup. Now when opposing pitchers are facing the likes of Granderson, Cabrera, Ordonez they will also have to think about the fact that Anderson is on base and might steal on them.

I am not here telling you that Anderson is the next Ricky Henderson, definitely not, this is more based on the fact that I believe that moving Granderson down and letting him knock some more runs in would really benefit this team.

Anyways, I highly doubt Jim will even think of this, but he should.

*Anderson hasn't helped my cause in the past few days with his less than stellar play in the field.

2 days, 2 bad innings

Once again the Tigers lost the game in one bad inning. Today it was the 4th inning. Rookie SP Porcello left a lot of pitches up and over the strike zone tonight and got beat up for it. The yankees scored 7 runs in the 4th to go up 7-1.

The Tigers cut the lead to 8-6 on a 3-run HR in the 9th by Curtis Granderson, but it was too little too late. Bad couple of days for the Tigers. They will need to get over it quickly, and avoid the big innings.

The Yankees were led by Nick Swisher. He hit a HR from both sides of the plate and had 4 RBI for the bad guys.

Yankees 8 Tigers 6

That's a Pretty Bad Inning....

So,

The Tigers struggled at the plate all night. Edwin Jackson was once again money. Lasting 6 scoreless innings. He dropped his ERA on the season to 2.25. The bullpen today let them down, as did the defense. Josh Anderson dropped a fly ball with one out in the 7th with the score still 0-0, and that opened the floodgates.

What seemed like an hour after the dropped ball, the inning ended. At that point the Tigers had gone through 4 relief pitchers and the score was 10-0! Wow.

Ugly inning, wasted performance by Jackson. But, it's baseball. You play almost every day, you play 162 games. Things like this happen, and at some point in the season we will have a game that goes like this in our favor.

Tigers 0 Yankees 11


Porcello hits the mound in Comerica for the first time tomorrow night.

Welcome Back, Justin!

It sure was a nice sight today at Comerica Park. The old Justin Verlander showed up and pitched an outstanding game for the Tigers. Throwing 7+ innings, giving up 7 hits and striking out 9 Yankees.

The Tigers went up 1-0 on a RBI Single by clean-up hitter Miguel Cabrera in the first inning. They would go on to score 3 more in the 6th, 1 on a double by Polanco, and 2 more on a HR by Magglio Ordonez.

The rest of the work would be done by Verlander and his bullpen. Verlander ran into some trouble in the 8th inning, but Bobby Seay came in and saved the day. Seay entered the game with 2 runners on and nobody out. He left after retiring Damon, Texiera, and Matsui and without a run scored. Fernando Rodney was extremely shaky in the 9th, but held on.

Tigers 4 Yankees 2

Tigers Hang On 3-2, Take Division Lead

Brandon Inge and Josh Anderson led the way offensively and SP Armando Galarraga did his job again. The Tigers held the lead from the time Brandon Inge hit his 7th HR of the season in the 2nd inning. Josh Anderson went 3-3 at the plate, and helped manufacture the key third run, stealing a base and then advancing on back to back sacrafices.

Galarraga went 6 innings, only giving up 3 hits, but his control was definitely missing. He issued 5 Base on Balls. Seay, Perry, and Rodney closed the door and the Tigers held on by a run.

The Tigers end the road trip 5-4, mostly out west. Anytime you can head off to Seattle, Anaheim, and the Royals and come back with a better record than you left with, it's a very good thing.

The Tigers now return home for a series against the New York Yankees starting Monday. That series is followed with 3 straight series against divisional opponents. Key two week stretch ahead. Lets get to 22-18, that's my short term goal for this team.

Tigers 3 Royals 2
(10-8 through 18 games)

Tigers ROLL to 9-1 Victory (Zumaya returns)

The Tigers dominated the Royals from start to finish Saturday. While most of the world was watching the NFL draft and wondering who the hell Brandon Pettigrew was, the Tigers were playing winning baseball again.

Gerald Laird and Curtis Granderson hit 2 run homers in back to back innings, and the offense continued throughout. Magglio even hit a HR, his first of the season.

The best news of the day probably was to see a HEALTHY JOEL ZUMAYA. He pitched the 9th, gave up 2 hits, but 0 runs. We will have to see, but I like seeing him back, that much is for certain.

Zach Miner got the win pitching 5 solid innings. The bullpen came in and didnt give up a run in their 4 innings.

Tigers 9 Royals 1
(9-8 on the year)