This was a nice win.  Rick Porcello had a solid start before the pen kind of messed things up but then the Tigers stormed back in the eighth inning with four runs to walk away with this one.  Six of the eight runs that were scored in the game all came in the eighth.

Porcello struck out a career high eight batters as he needed 93 pitches to get through 5 2/3 innings.  He left with the bases loaded but Ryan Perry got Franklin Gutierrez to get out of the jam.  Perry then pitched a shutout seventh but Leyland may have left him in there for too long because he came out in the eighth and gave up a leadoff single that started the Mariners two run rally in the inning.

The Tigers struck back in the eighth though once Felix Hernandez was out of there.  Alex Avila belted his third career home run to cut the lead in half and then Miguel Cabrera came up huge with a two run single to give the Tigers the lead.  Ryan Raburn then came home on a weird double steal to give the Tigers some insurance.  The pitcher, Sean White, did that goofy fake to third, throw to first and it almost worked because they caught Miguel Cabrera in a run down.  While that was happening, Raburn bolted home and scored.  Cool stuff.

Fernando Rodney gave up a couple of hits but he struck out two in a shutout ninth to pick up his 25th save.  Cabrera finished the game three for four with two RBIs while Ramon Santiago had a big single in that eighth inning and he eventually scored.

The White Sox lost a tough one as they blew a 4-1 lead against the Royals.  That gives the Tigers a three game cushion.  Tonight, it’ll be Ian Snell against Justin Verlander.    Verlander bounced back from three mediocre starts in a row to throw eight shutout innings against the Red Sox last week.  Hopefully that’s the Verlander we see.

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