As a kid, my favorite television show was the A-Team.  When it first started, there were occasional references to Hannibal being on the jazz.  This happened when he got particularly nutty/cocky or when one of the team members was fired up.  Johnny Damon must have definitely been on the jazz last night.  He not only picked up his 2,500 hit, but he also belted a walk off home run in the bottom of the eleventh to win it for the Tigers.  We also can’t discount Miguel Cabrera (MVP of the first half in my opinion), who hit a two run home run in the bottom of the ninth to force extra frames.

With the three for five game yesterday (which included a home run and a triple), Cabrera now sits atop the American League in all three triple crown categories. Granted he’s tied with two others in home runs but when Yaz won it in 1967, he was tied with Harmon Killebrew in home runs.  I know we still have 80 more games to play though.  And it’s also interesting how quickly people forgot about those off field troubles Cabrera had at the end of last year.  A nice start can heal those wounds pretty quickly.

Armando Galarraga had a rough start and for his troubles, he was sent down to Toledo just over a month after pitching his perfect game that should have been.  He gave up just three runs in 6 2/3 innings, but he gave up ten hits and walked three.  Robbie Weinhardt was called up in place.  The move was simply to give the Tigers another arm in the pen for the final four games and I’d expect Galarraga will be back up shortly after the break.  We already burned an option on him so we might as well take full advantage of it.

Jose Valverde got his ERA back below one with a shutout inning.  Ryan Perry got it done again and he was the winner.  He’s now 2-4 on the season.  The Tigers go for the sweep tonight.  Max Scherzer gets the ball for the Tigers and he’ll face Brad Bergesen.  The Twins and White Sox both won so the Tigers have little margin for error these days.

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