Man, this game seemed big.  At the end of the day, we might look back at it and say it wasn’t as important as we thought but the perception of this series is that every game is critical.  The good news is, the Tigers took game one so regardless of what happens the rest of the weekend, the Tigers will still have the lead come Sunday.

Since August 27, Curtis Granderson has gone 12 for 43.  While that in and of itself isn’t all that special (.279), Granderson has scored nine runs in those eleven games.  It’s nice to see Granderson is now at least doing okay rather then horrible like he did through most of August.  And he got the Tigers started yesterday with a lead off homerun.

Justin Verlander was awesome.  He didn’t give up a run until his final inning in the seventh.  I still think Johan Santana is going to win the Cy Young, but Verlander could find himself getting some votes.  And at this point, he should be a lock for Rookie of the Year.

Four Tigers homered yesterday.  I already talked about Curtis Granderson but Marcus Thames, Ivan Rodriguez and Omar Infante all went yard as well.  Omar Infante has now lifted his batting average up to .290 after three hits last night.

The Tigers turned three double plays yesterday and Verlander picked off Luis Castillo so even though the Twins were getting on base, they weren’t there for long.

Tonight’s matchup is Wil Ledezma against Matt Garza.  Garza has had some good starts and some bad starts since being called up to replace Francisco Liriano.  His last start was a pasting by the Yankees but prior to that he put together back to back quality starts, but this is a guy we can beat.

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