It took well over a month, but Jeremy Bonderman finally won his eleventh game of the season as the Tigers finally put together and pulled out a win in their series finale with the Royals.  Bonderman improved to 11-7 and he gave up just one run on six hits with three strikeouts in seven innings.  Just as important, he didn’t walk a single batter after walking nine in 11 2/3 innings in his last two starts.  Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumaya each threw a scoreless frame to close out the 6-1 win.

It’ll be interesting to see how the talk radio scene reacts.  After Sunday’s beatdown over the Yankees, people were calling it the most important win of the season.  Then just one day later after the loss in the opener to the Royals, they were counting the Tigers out.  There’s still quite a few games so to place one game over another is a little silly even as we go into September.

Curtis Granderson hit homerun number 18 and he both drove in and scored twice.  The two runs put him over the 100 run for the first time in his career.  Magglio Ordonez also went yard with his 26th and he finished the game three for four.  With just a month to play, Ordonez leads Ichiro by nine points in the race for the batting title.

The Indians won their sixth straight game so the Tigers still sit 4 1/2 games back.  The Yankees also won but the Mariners lost so the Tigers made a baby step forward in the Wild Card race.

Andrew Miller was sent down to the minors, sort of.  He was optioned to Lakeland, who’s season ends on Monday so Miller won’t even report.  Then when rosters expand tomorrow, he’ll be put back on the squad but he’ll be used as a reliever for the forseeable future. 

The Tigers kick off a three game series in Oakland beginning tonight.  Virgil Vasquez will get the start and he’ll face Joe Blanton.

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