The Tigers snapped their skid and remained in sole possession of first place late last night behind a solid first career start by Jordan Tata.  The righthander gave up just two runs on six hits and two walks with five strikeouts in seven innings of work.  Chad Durbin and Todd Jones each threw a scoreless frame to close the game out, but it was nice to see Tata, and Virgil Vasquez before him, put together a couple of nice starts.  It means the Tigers have some depth going down the stretch and I’m a bit curious to find out if this was a showcase start for Tata as far as a potential trade.  Guess we’ll find out since the first trade deadline is today.

Curtis Granderon and Placido Polanco both had three hits in the game and Polanco is now just eight points back of Magglio Ordonez for the batting title with Ichiro sandwiched between the two of them.  Granderson scored three more runs and that brings his season total up to 84.

You’d think the Tigers would have learned from last year’s mistake with Neifi Perez but the lastest trade rumor I’ve heard is that the Tigers might be going after Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson.  He has a career slugging percentage of just .366 which is actually lower then Neifi’s .375.  Yes, it’s hard to believe but there might actually be worse hitters then Neifi and the Tigers might be going after him.  Wilson also called out one of his teammates during the offseason and basically told the manager who he’d prefer to have as a double play partner (Jose Castillo was the player he called out).  Wilson actually is a pretty good fielder (10 fielding runs above average) but I still say we stay away from this one.

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