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The Detroit Demolition, Detroit’s Women’s Football team, goes for their third straight title this weekend down in Louisville, KY. I’m not sure if this is on TV, but the Demolition are probably Detroit’s best kept secret. They’ve pretty much dominated the league in their three years of existance. The story on their homepage gives a nice narrative on the team.

It has become very apparent that it is time to “cut bait” with Ugueth U. Urbina. His overall value in the trade market is diminishing with each poor appearance he makes. Already, rumors suggest that the Tigers may have to part with a prospect along with Urbina in order to garner anything beyond a marginal prospect in trade for Urbina. Many will argue that the Tigers will have not have a Closer in their bullpen once they have traded Urbina. I agree that Urbina is well established as a Closer and any replacement will be temporary and unproven. I want to suggest to you that with their recent performances, Al Levine and Esteban Yan would be suitable, if not reliable replacements at the back end of the bullpen for Urbina.
2004 Season K/9 BB/9 H/9 HR WHIP IP G/F ERA
Urbina 10.75 6.18 7.09 5 1.47 39.1 0.42 4.58
Yan 6.42 2.63 9.88 5 1.39 54.2 1.46 4.12
Levine 4.37 3.23 10.65 7 1.54 47.1 0.89 4.75

Jun+July K/9 BB/9 H/9 HR WHIP IP ERA
Urbina 11.51 5.56 5.56 5 1.24 22.2 3.97
Yan 6.75 2.25 9.37 2 1.29 24 3.74
Levine 4.89 2.85 8.96 3 1.31 22.1 2.82

July 25 K/9 BB/9 H/9 HR WHIP IP ERA
Urbina 10.45 6.1 6.1 3 1.35 12 5.23
Yan 7.50 2.25 6.75 1 1.20 12 2.25
Levine 4.38 2.92 4.38 1 0.81 12.1 0.73

Many publications suggest the Tigers would need to turn to Danny Patterson or Jamie Walker as closer once Urbina is traded. I think the Tigers will elect to keep Walker in his designated Lefty speciallist role and possibly use Danny Patterson as a Closer/set-up man instead of Levine. My point is that there will not be that large of a dropoff, if recent performance holds true, between Urbina and Yan as Closer down the stretch.

Can anyone possibly explain the Tiger’s difficulties facing Kansas City this season. At the time of this entry, they are trailing by two going into the top of the 8th inning. It’s becoming much clearer that this team will not be able to get over the hump and make a run at contention. That being said I want to sit back and enjoy their competitiveness and the continuing development of Inge, Infante, etc. I am glad that Brian made mention of Urbina’s poor performance. He has a high save percentage and maybe the only semblance of a closer that the team posesses. That being said, he has never really appeared to get into the groove and approach the dominance you would hope for in someone who is going to close the game for you. Excepting a major turnaround, such as making a big run at the White Sox (like winning 13-14 out of 19) the Tiger fans will have to prepare for the prospect that Esteban Yan will be the closer for the remainder of the season and Urbina will be traded. His recent performance may be enough to warrant consideration for that scenario anyhow. Riffing on a theme in one of Brian’s recent entries I have enjoyed reading recently: Diamond Gems by Ernie Harwell, American Dynasty by Kevin Phillips (almost finished) and a Warren Cromartie bio/diary of his experiences while playing for the Yomiuri Giants of Japan. Musically, I have particularly enjoyed the newest release by Bobby Bare, Jr. and Grey DeLisle.

I resisted the urge to open my 2004 Topps Factory set yesterday. Not because it would drop in value the moment I took the shrink wrap off, but because I wanted to wait until my son is older to enjoy opening up and looking through the cards.

Which got me to thinking. I had collected pretty heavily in the 1980s. I have each Topps set from 1980-1993. But now I’m missing 1994-2003. So if anyone out there has an extra set they’d like to trade, or if there’s a vendor who wants to work something out with me, drop me a line. I know the card industry isn’t what it was like when I was a kid, but by filling in these sets, then I know I have at least one card of the good players coming through.

UPDATE

Since posting this, I’ve purchased a 1994 Topps set, so I can scratch that off of my list.

Like Hemingway and Fittzgerald I do my best work with some alcohol in me so let me say I hate the Yankees (and the Twins). I hate the Yankees (and the Twins). This doesn’t just stem from this little Tigers series in the Bronx where the saintly Yankees have been bullied by Ugueth Urbina and Esteban Yan. Every AL Central series has played out similarly to the current series at that dump they flock to in the Bronx…I think it’s called Yankee Stadium.

Nothing the 200 million dollar wonderboys have done this year really sticks out against their much more impoverished AL Central counterparts. Earlier in the year the Yankes eeked out a couple wins from the White Sox bullpen as the two teams split a 4 game series in the Bronx. The Yanks then took 2 of 3 at Comiskey in a less than stellar series in April, hampered by rain. In May the Yanks swept the Royals (who have contacted me to be their fourth starter) in a three game series in the ghetto (aka The Bronx).

Minnesota has not taken on the Yankess, Chicago has proven to be more than competitive against the Yankess, as have the Tigers, so this begs the question…why do the Yankees, their fans and the national media take for granted that the Yankess will again be in the World Series this season?

To say the Yankess have some problems with starting pitching is to say that the Lions had some quarterback problems in the 90’s. Tom Gordon’s arm is already starting to fall off because Joe Torre puts him out there every game, and much-rumored acquisition Jamie Moyer just got lit up by Toronto.

In the Tigers pursuit for the division, do not lose site of the fact that the American League is not a one horse race. We saw it tonight as New York’s #2 starter was hit around by Detroit. September in Detroit this year looks to mean more than Michigan/Notre Dame and the Lions season getting underway, and could we really ask for more after last year??

I visited Comerica Park on Tuesday, June 30th to watch the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians. The game was well attended coming off from the high of the 20th anniversary celebration of the Roar of ’84 and the buzz the current team was generating from it’s two successive nights ending in walk-off home runs. Those games restored some hope and excitement for local baseball fans at a time when the general sport’s public attention begins to shift towards baseball. That evening was another exciting display of offensive prowess and it’s walk-off ending in extra innings contributed even more to the local excitement. My counterpart and I listened to the Team 1270 on our ride back to Lansing and the post-game callers had elaborate visions of grandeur as to how this baseball club maybe able to make a run in the division and compete for the postseason playoffs. I have to admit to letting myself get a little caught up in the frenzy as well.

Three disappointing losses in Colorado to the lowly Rockies in heartbreaking fashion and cold-hearted whupping administered by the Yankees, one has to wonder if when we recollect upon this season if that three walk-off Hr weekend will be it’s nexus and the eventual turning point. The Rockies games exposed the Tiger bullpen for the fraud that it is and also showed that as good as the bats are in the lineup they may not be able to win slugfests when the pitching staff is ineffective. So if the Tigers are about to become “Sellers” as opposed to “Buyers” in the impending trade deadline market here are some things I would like to see happen:
1) I would hope the Tigers will at least top last seasons win totals before shipping off any players that may desirable to other organizations to assist them in their postseason runs.
2) I want to see what the dominant (at Erie at least) Wil Ledezma can do if he returns to the big leagues and has a few starts.
3) I hope they can establish a bullpen stopper who is capable of taking up some of Ugueth Urbina’s slack when he is eventually moved.
4) I hope they continue to see better performances from Carlos Pena and Eric Munson and see similar levels of performance from Brandon Inge and Omar Infante. The future of the Tigers is held in their development and continued improvement.

I don’t want have the tone of this article give the appearance of waving a white flag but the fact being that this team has exceeded our imaginations and yet hovers at it’s best just under .500 one can’t reasonably expect that it will rise above at this point. Factoring the lack of depth within the organization for future development, the pressures on Dave Dombrowski to improve upon it’s lack of big league talent will prevent him from mortgaging the future to acquire players for any sort of stretch run. I hope that Double-D is as succesful in his moves as some of the others he has made have been.

I’m in the market for a 2004 Topps Factory Set. I haven’t bought a set since the early 90s, and this is a tradition I’d like to restart with my son being born.

If anyone knows of a good deal in the area on this set, drop me a line. Or if you have a favorite card shop in the area you’d like to plug, let me know that as well.

I’ll be around this weekend, but if you’re going away, have a nice holiday weekend. By the time you get back, Independence Day and my birthday will have come and gone.

Each year there are players who have wonderful beginnings to their seasons and their performance compels their local fans to lobby vehemently for their selection to the all-star team roster. In most cases, the player who is elected by the fans to play that position is a proven commodity who for one reason or another has not quite had the same beginning to their season performance-wise.

Carlos Guillen, beyond a doubt has been one of the wonderful surprises to this season and beyond a doubt has out-performed his peers at the position in the American League. Even Jim Price and Dan Dickerson have taken to referring to him as Carlos Guillen, all-star shortstop. He has been a breath of fresh air with his controlled, almost relaxed style of play. His ever present cud of chewing tobacco makes him appear to be a throwback type of player. I think many Tiger fans are just clicking their heels at the thought that a team so miserable one season ago could actually be so close to .500 ball at this stage of the season. Still I believe their should be an en masse campaign for people to stuff the ballots online and at the ballparks to help Guillen to overtake Nomar Garciaparra in the fan voting. Especially considering the fact that Garciaparra only had 34 AB’s going into Wednesday June 23rd.

Here are Guillen’s rankings among AL shortstops as of the 23rd.
2nd .BA .326
1st .SLG .558
1st .OBA .386
1st Runs 49
2nd Hits 83
2nd Doubles 17
1st Triples 7
2nd Homers 10
2nd RBI’s 47
1st BB’s 28
1st .OPS .944
1st Runs produced 96 (runs +RBI)

Even more importantly, Guillen was not even targeted by the Tigers in the offseason as a primary target at a position they deemed important to upgrade in the offseason. For significantly less money they have gotten more production than they would have received had they been succesful in signing one of their two primary targets, Rich Aurilia and Miguel Tejada. In the process, they have made a significant upgrade over last year’s shortstop, Ramon Santiago.

AL Shortstop .BA .SLG .OBA R H 2b 3b HR RBI BB OPS

Guillen .322 .558 .386 49 83 17 7 10 47 28 .944
Tejada .298 .454 .357 33 78 11 0 10 51 24 .811
Aurilia .234 .316 .300 22 49 11 0 2 23 18 .616
Santiago .200 .267 .294 4 3 1 0 0 0 2 .561

Santiago has had limited action so his stats look particularly bad. I have recently learned of another telling stat from reading Allen Barra’s books. It is called SLOB which means .SLG X .OBP. This statistic tells you the number of runs a team of for example, Carlos Guillen’s would score in 100 innings. Guillen would score 21.53 if he continues at this rate. While Tejada’s team would score 16.21 and Aurilia’s 9.48.

In all of this I am not arguing that Guillen is a future Hall of Famer, like Garciaparra possibly is, I just believe he is more deserving as an All-Star shortstop and has had a greater impact for the Tigers than their other more desired options going into the season. I just hold out hope that he can continue to play at this level or close to it and it is not an aberration of their sort we endured while viewing Damian Easley, Bobby Higginson, etc through the years. You can vote for Carlos at MLB.com.

I believe it was Branch Rickey who stated that most teams can count on winning and losing 60 games and the relative success of their season is determined by the other 42. Thus far, the Tigers have been very competitive and quite enjoyable to watch. Most games have been close and has it has appeared that they have an excellent chance in any game until they have tendered their final out. On June 9, when I purchased my Pro Sports Weekly newspaper (published by USA Today) I was looking at team statistics for Detroit & Anaheim that I found interesting.

.BA Runs TB 2B 3B H HR RBI BB
Anaheim .282 297 855 102 16 547 58 280 145
Detroit .284 296 856 101 17 553 56 287 197

Anaheims team OPS (On-base + Slugging) was .780 while Detroit’s was .791. I realize that Anaheim has suffered from a rash of injuries (Garret Andersen, Troy Glaus, et al) and the Tigers have benefited from the stellar performances out of Carlos Guillen, Brandon Inge and Omar Infante, I was still surprised when I saw these stats especially after the way Anaheim had buzzsawed their way through the Tiger pitching staff earlier in the season. It also must be qualified that Anaheim consistently faces stiffer competition from the starting pitching of Oakland and Seattle as compared to the staffs the Tigers must face in the AL Central.

starting pitching W-L ERA BB SO IP
Anaheim 23-18 5.18 110 208 323.0
Detroit 20-21 5.19 119 217 311.1

I feel that the Tiger starting pitching has been better than expected and that Anaheim’s has been a slight dissappointment due to the less than spectacular performance of Bartolo Colon. On paper, superficially the two teams don’t seem too far apart although at the time Anaheim was in 1st in their division and the Tigers inhabited 4th place. The determing factor appears to be in their bullpens.

relief pitching W-L ERA IP SV BB SO
Anaheim 10-5 3.14 175.0 19 69 169
Detroit 5-10 4.61 179.2 11 88 134

Beyond these stats I looked at the Tigers and Anaheim bullpens excepting the swing starters (i.e. Ramon Ortiz, Aaron Sele, and Gary Knotts). Anaheim is missing setup man and former All-Star, Brendan Donnelly and have suffered from some poor performances by Troy Percival.

relief pitching WHIP H/9 BB/9 K/9 K/BB
Anaheim 1.34 8.42 3.62 9.15 2.53
Detroit 1.52 9.58 4.10 6.70 1.63

The Tigers relievers are pitching more innings and putting more men on base. These statistics don’t account for many variables that depend on 8 other position players, but still is quite clear that this aspect of the game has hurt the teams overall performance. Hopefully, the Tigers will remain competitive throughout and the bullpen will remain the largest of their concerns and possibly their performance will improve.

On May 24th and 25th I was given the opportunity to view some Tiger prospects first hand. I was able to watch the West Michigan Whitecaps play our local Cubs class A affiliate in Lansing, the Lansing Lugnuts. It was also a great opportunity because on the 25th Mark Prior had his second rehabilitation start. It would also prove to be a very difficult test for the Whitecaps hitters as Prior held them hitless with no walks and allowed one baserunner on a fielding error in 4 1/3 innings. I realize that 2 games is a very limited sampling but I was left with good impressions from three Whitecap players and their overall performance in those games.
Tony Giarrantano was very good at shortstop. He exhibited good range and a strong arm. In particular, during the 2nd inning of the May 24th game he snagged a hard hit ball in the 5 1/2 hole between second and third and threw out a baserunner at 1st going away that was very impressive. He had a double with an RBI and also reached base after being hit by a pitch in the 9 at bats I witnessed. He looked confident and was very good at working the counts. He will need to develop a little pop if he will continue to move through the system.
Vincent Blue, is a lanky centerfielder who appears to have good range and really moved to get after balls hit into the rangy centerfield of Oldsmobile Park. He did lose one line drive that was turned into a triple but otherwise performed very well. He had 4 hits in his 10 at bats in the 2 games and had a RBI. He was an aggressive base runner which lead him to being thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple. As Blue physically matures I can see him develop some more slugging potential because he is very long and thin.
Kody Kirkland performed very well in the games I saw but appears to have had a rough time at the plate to begin the season. He had 4 hits in nine at bats but also struck out 4 times. He seemed to have his best at bats versus Prior even if he was only able to get on base due to a fielding error. Kirkland who two triples very deep in right center, one of which might have been a homer if it hadn’t struck a protective railing on the outfield wall. Kirkland was sure handed at third and seemed to have a good arm. Kirkland may have the most difficult path to the majors since he will have not only his own performance to be concerned with but the fact that the organization also has a former first round draft pick in Scott Moore sitting just one level above him in the organization.

My name is Steve Butts. I went to Michigan State University and got a B.S. in Pychology. I have been a baseball fan since seeing a 1977 Detroit Tigers baseball program. The first World Series I remember viewing was the “We are Family” Pirates. I have also been at times a Cub fan thanks to cable television and a late grandfather who grew up in West Michigan and was a lifelong fan. I am also a distant relative to Toledo pitcher Andy Van Hekken on my mother’s side of the family. I am currently employed in the Music and Video Dept. of a local Barnes & Noble.

Ten runs on fifteen hits was the final line, as the Angels took the Tigers pitching staff to task. Three different Tiger pitchers (Cornejo, Yan and Levine) all gave up three earned runs in this one, as the Angels take the series opener.

The bright spot was, once again Brandon Inge. He made the game close by hitting his second grand slam of the season in the seventh to make it a 5-4 game, but five Angel runs in the eighth put this one out of reach. Equally impressive was Brandon getting three outfield assists in his first start in right field.

Mike Maroth squares off against Bartolo Colon tomorrow evening. Hopefully the Tigers will be able to break out of this mini-slump. They still need to win one more this month to make it a winning April.

And just a little teaser. Coming soon, Tigerblog 3.0. Jay, the webguy at Grousehouse Media, is working on a site revision that hopefully everyone will find a little more visually appealing and easier to navigate.

Jake Westbrook hadn’t pitched since his seven perfect relief innings back on Monday, but he pretty much started off right where he left off, and dominated the Tigers this afternoon. When it was all said and done, Westbrook would go the distance, giving up only two hits, three walks and two runs. Carlos Pena put the Tigers on the board with solo homer in the second, and later drove in Rondell White with a sac. fly.

Jody Gerut, the Tiger killer, came up with another homerun against Tiger’s pitching. The day the Indians trade this guy out of the division will be a happy day for Tiger’s fans.

Both the Twins and the White Sox won today, so once again, the Tigers will slip into third place, a game and a half behind the division leading Twins.

The Tigers get a day off tomorrow, and will square off in a series against the Angels, before facing the strugling Mariners in a three game series next weekend.

What a great day to be a sports fan yesterday. You had the NFL draft, the Pistons and Wings playoff games, and a Tiger game.

Oh, and I was cooped up at the Masonic Temple and missed most of it. I caught the Lion’s first pick, then the third period of the Wings game, all on the radio. But I guess I’d rather have them all win when I’m not watching as opposed to losing when I am.

But, the Tigers won in grand fashion yesterday. With one out in the bottom of the ninth, with the score tied 2-2, Rondell White hit a three run blast, his fifth homerun of the season, to win the game. The Tigers improve to 11-7, and sit a half game behind the Twins. One more win this month will guarantee the Tigers a winning record in April.

Nate Robertson may have had his toughest outing of the season, as he pitched five innings, giving up four hits, four walks, and two runs. He did strikeout six to keep up his torrid pace, and now has 30 strikeouts in 22 2/3 innings, once again putting him one strikeout behind Curt Schilling for the AL lead. The difference is, Curt’s needed 28 innings to do it.

Four different relievers shut the Indians out the rest of the way, as Urbina picked up his first win of the season.

Jason Johnson hopes to turn things around, and help the Tigers complete the sweep this afternoon. The Indians will put Jake Westbrook on the mound, the pitcher who three seven perfect innings in relief against the Tigers on Monday.

Oops, almost forgot to mention, Brandon Inge went 1 for 3, extending his hitting streak to 10 games. Unfortunately, his batting average “dropped” to .410, so hopefully he’ll be able to turn things around today as well.

That was the incredible line the Tigers accomplished in the sixth inning yesterday, as they crushed the Indians 17-3. It’s their 10th win of the year, and it’s still only April.

In all, the Tigers walked 10 times. Brandon Inge came within a double of hitting for the cycle, while extending his hitting streak to nine games. He also boosted his batting average to a mind boggling .417, and an OBP of .500. Pudge, Eric Munson, and Inge (who’s homerun was a grand slam) all had at least three RBIs and five Tigers scored at least twice (Munson scored four runs).

But it was that sixth inning, that looked more like a slo-pitch softball game on a windy day where the pitcher can’t quite control his stuff and get it over the plate, that turned this thing from a one run game to a blow out.

I should also mention, as watching the game, I was going to talk about how the little things help you win. In the fourth, with the Tigers down 3-2, Craig Monroe made a nice hustle play, tagging and advancing to second on a deep fly ball to center by Carlos Pena. He’d go on to score the tying run, but by the end of the game, this play would be lost in the excitement of the big inning.

Lost in the hitting barage, Jeremy Bonderman didn’t have his best stuff, walking a season high five batters in only five innings. But he hung in there, and lasted through five innings to pick up the win. Estaban Yan was just about perfect in the final four innings, picking up the save, and only giving up one hit and one walk the rest of the way.

May 22 was when the Tigers won their first game last year, so we’re almost a month ahead of schedule.

A three run home by Lew Ford off of starter Mike Maroth was the game winning blow this afternoon, as the Tigers dropped the series to the Twins. The Tigers got off to a good start, scoring runs in the third and fourth inning, but the three run blast by Ford put the Twins in the lead for good.

Mike Maroth threw a good game, but it just wasn’t enough. He did go seven innings, and once again, gave the pen some rest.

Brandon Inge caught today, and extended his hitting streak to eight games. He had a double, his first homerun of the season, and two walks. His batting average is now up to .375.

I also want to thank ESPN.com Page Two columnist Eric Neel’s kind words about my website in his weekly column On Baseball. I tried to find his email address to drop him a line and thank him, but I couldn’t track it down. Eric, if you wander back to the site, drop me a line.

And finally, I’m amazed how well covered the steroid issue is covered on John Perricone’s site, Only Baseball Matters. I tend to side with John on this, but whether you agree or not, it’s definitely some great reading so be sure to stop there and check it out.

The Tigers won a game at the Metrodome, a pretty rare event the last few years, and they almost let it slip away. The Tigers got off to a great start, giving Nate Cornejo a 9-0 lead, and then a 11-3, but he couldn’t pitch through the fifth to get the win. In another rough day, Nate threw 80 pitches, only 43 of which were for strikes. Eight hits and three walks in 4 1/3 aren’t great lines either.

But the bats got it done. Five different Tigers had multihit games, including Brandon Inge’s emergence as…. well, as a hitter, continuing his seven game hitting streak. He’s now boosted his average to .333. I-Rod went four for five. And all nine Tiger starters scored a run in this one. In all, they’d get fifteen hits off of four different pitchers.

Mike Maroth throws this afternoon for the Tigers, and he’s been, with Nate Robertson, one of the two consistent starters they’ve had. Hopefully they can keep things rolling.

And to draw some comparisons to last year, the Tigers have scored 92 runs so far this through 15 games. They didn’t score that many runs until their game on May 7. Their nine wins put them at their win total on May 14th, last year. You have to be happy with that kind of improvement.

Jason Johnson had another bad outing, and this was one of my primary concerns when we picked him up. He was basically being touted as our best pitcher because of his experience, and as close as you can get to an ace for this team. In my mind, an ace is a pitcher who, when put out there is going to give your team a chance to win well more then a majority of the time. So far, Johnson has had the one good outing on opening day, with three subpar outings since. Hopefully he can turn things around.

The Tigers actually had the lead in this one for a couple of innings when they scored they scored two in the fifth on a Carlos Guillen single. But Jason Johnson would be responsible for all three runs in the sixth without even getting a guy out. Once again, the pen looks like they put up decent numbers, but Danny Patterson allowed two inherited runners to score.

And things only get tougher, as the Tigers now have to face Brad Radke and Johann Santana the next two days.

Rondell White did have another good game, hitting his fourth homer of the season. Brandon Inge of all people is on a six game hitting streak. And as a team, the Tigers are hitting .280 (before yesterdays game). And at a record of 8-6, I don’t think we can complain too much. The hard part is, we see flashes of what look like greatness, then regressions back to what we’re used to the last few years.

This was definitely an odd one. Jeff D’Amico started the game, and gave up four runs without getting an out. There was a rain delay, and Jake Westbrook was brought out to relieve D’Amico, and was simply awesome, pitching seven perfect innings. Once Westbrook comes out, the Tigers go on to score six more runs in the final two innings.

The most obvious surprise of the season has to be the emergence of Nate Robertson. He did it again last night, throwing 6 2/3 and striking out eight. He didn’t get the win, but here’s what his numbers look like so far this year.

Nate Robertson – 17 2/3 IP, 11 Hits, 5 ER, 12 Walks, 24 strikeouts, 2.547 ERA, 1.301 WHIP.

The walks are definitely a concern, but Nate is currently the second in the AL in strikeouts, only one behind Curt Schilling.

Brandon Inge and Rondell White both had three rbis. Guillen, I-Rod, and White all scored twice.

Fernando Vina batted in the lead off spot with Alex Sanchez’s abscence. He didn’t make much of it, going 0 for 5, but I think this is a good move all the way around for the Tigers.

And the bad news is, once again, Bobby Higginson seems to have hurt his leg. I haven’t seen an official diagnosis, but lets hope we don’t have another hole in the outfield.

Everytime the Tigers lose, you wonder which team is the real Tigers. Is it the one who got off to a 4-0 start, and actually looked like they’d be respectable, or will the 2003 season creep back into this campaign like it appeared to do this afternoon.

The Indians aren’t a good team. And Jeremy Bonderman is supposed to be a future mainstay in the rotation, if not the Tigers ace. And the Indians simply shelled Jeremy in his 5 1/3 innings. He gave up three homeruns in three different innings (two of which were by Matt Lawton), and at one point, the Tigers were down 5-0 after five, then 8-3 after six. They made a little run at the end, but came up short, losing 9-7.

Throw in an Alex Sanchez pulled groin, and the Tigers now have a major hole to fill in centerfield. For now, Brandon Inge will roam the outfield, and with Andres Torres designated for assignment and not yet clearing waivers, he might play out there until Sanchez comes back.

Tomorrow, Nate Robertson tries to continue his impressive run, going up against Jeff D’Amico. Hopefully they’ll put another win under their belt before heading to Minnesota.

Just what the doctor ordered. Earlier I mentioned how the Tigers could use seven strong innings from Maroth to give the pen a break. Well, Mike did one better, going 7 1/3, giving up 10 hits, one walk, and only one run, all while striking out seven. Al Levine came in and finished the game, pitching the final 1 2/3, and shut the Indians down.

For some reason, 7-4 sounds so much better then 6-5, which would have been their record had they lost. Tomorrow Jeremy Bonderman takes the mound against another young pitcher, Cliff Lee. Jeremy is among the league leaders in strikeouts, so this should be a good game. 8-4 has a really nice ring to it.

This was a 1-0 game up until the sixth inning, when the Tigers put together a three run rally. Five different Tigers (Sanchez, I-Rod, White, Munson, and Inge) had multi-hit games. And Brandon Inge even made a nice play at third yesterday, so his value as a Shane Halter utility type remains intact. Throw in his current .333 batting average (5/15) and you’ve got a great option for Tram coming off the bench.

I thought the prime time Fox telecast of the Red Sox/Yankees game was great for the game. Here you have two of the best franchises around. It’s good for the game to showcase them. And the game was a pretty good on to watch.

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