Well, it was another bizarre game,  Andrew Miller couldn’t do much right as the left hander gave up five runs before getting a single out in the first inning as he fell to 5-5 on the season.  Oddly, Buddy Bell probably had just as much to do with the Tigers escaping with just five runs because of an odd call.  With runners on first and second and nobody out, he called for Joey Gathright to bunt with two strikes.  He missed and that led to a strike em’ out, throw em’ out to give Miller his only two outs.  Zach Miner then came in to get the final out.

From that point on, neither team scored the rest of the way and the Tigers ended up with a 5-0 final.  Zach Miner threw four shutout frames and then Tim Byrday, Fernando Rodney and Bobby Seay pitched the final 3 1/3 while giving up just one hit.  So the pen did their job, the Tigers’ hitters just couldn’t get on track to mount a come back for the second straight night.

Placido Polanco, Sean Casey and Timo Perez all had two hits a piece.  Perez had the only extra base hits with each of his hit’s being doubles.

Even worse, the Indians won, so now the Tigers sit a distant 4 1/2 games back in the division race (five back in the loss column).  And with the Mariners five straight losses, the Wild Card looks now to be the better option when everyone was saying it was out of reach just a week ago.  The Tigers sit three games back for the Wild Card with Seattle and the Yankees tied atop the heap.

This afternoon, it’ll be Jeremy Bonderman going up against Leo Nunez.  Bonderman hasn’t won since July 13, and this would be a great time for him to end that six game losing streak.

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