I got to watch a lot of the game last night, and one thing jumped out at me.

43 for 86.

That’s what Ivan Rodriguez hit for the month of June. That’s .500. They showed a quick listing, and only two others players have hit .500 in a month ever. Todd Helton was one, and another person, who I can’t recall, hit exactly .500. So that’s tied for second best ever.

Seven Tigers had a multihit game last night in a 12-5 drubbing. The Tigers scored nothing in the first two innings, then scored at least one run in each of the next six innings. And Nate Robertson, who should be looked at to pitch in the All Star Game, threw seven quality innings to earn his seventh win. His .220 batting average against leads all AL qualifying starters.

Yes, you read that right. ALL AL starters. He’s also near the top in strikeouts, despite not getting his first start until he second week of the season. And if you want to read even more on Nate, Billfer has a nice writeup over at the Detroit Tigers Weblog.

I also got to listen to a good interview with Brandon Inge on the The Big Show on AM 1270, with Doug Karsch and Art Regner. Brandon credits his recent hitting with a more relaxed approach at the plate. Brandon sounds like quality guy, and I’m really glad he’s “made it.”

And speaking of The Big Show, when the Locker Room got cancelled on AM1270, I was pretty bummed because I liked the show a lot. And despite Doug Karsch and Art Regner being very different from Gary Danielson and Eli Zaret, I’ve really taken a likely to the show. Between the quality guests (the interviews with Chuck Daly and Scotty Bowman are definitely great) and a nice interview style, I still enjoy my ride home from work.

The Tigers now stand tied for first in all of baseball with a .284 batting average. They’re 4.78 ERA is closer to the bottom, but it’s still a nice improvement from the 5.30 ERA last year. And most importantly, they now stand two games below .500, and only five games back of the White Sox. It’s been a few years since we’ve had excitement in baseball around here in July.

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