The Tigers have played four three game series in the month of June and with the win today over the Phillies, the Tigers locked up their third series of those four.  This afternoon’s game was won with the big inning as the Tigers picked up five of their seven runs in the 7-4 win in the seventh inning.  The inning was capped off by a two run double by Magglio Ordonez that gave him three RBIs on the day.

And staying on Ordonez, he picked up his 33rd double of the season.  My benchmark for a “good” season is 40 and he’s almost there at the half way point.  We ran through some of the doubles records in a previous post but even if he touches 50, which seems like a forgone conclusion, it’ll be the first time since George Kell had exactly 50 doubles way back in 1950.

Justin Verlander put together a nice outing and he improved to 8-2 on the season.  He gave up three runs on seven hits and two walks with six strikeouts.  It was a pretty hot day and he gave the Tigers seven innings and that’s worth something.  Leyland was also able to keep him under 100 pitches after the Tigers rallied for those five runs.

Fernando Rodney faltered again.  In 14 of his 25 games, he’s given up at least one run and that’s not the kind of number you want to see from a guy who’s probably the team’s best reliever with Joel Zumaya out.  It sure would be nice to see Rodney turn it around but whenever he comes into the game, I get the same feeling I get when Todd Jones comes in.

Next up is a pretty important series because it’s against onc of the worst team’s in baseball, the Washington Nationals.  Two of three should be a must and a sweep would be nice because this is a team that was bad before their rotation got hit by some injuries.  The opener tomorrow will have Mike Maroth going up against Matt Chico.

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