The Tigers have a chance to do something tonight for the first time since July, and that’s win a series.  They got to this point by putting together a nice performance yesterday that saw three homeruns, an injury to their starting pitcher, and some pretty good bullpen work.

Curtis Granderson led off the game with his inside the park homer and then Carlos Guillen belted a two run shot later in the inning.  Marcus Thames completed the scoring for the Tigers when he went yard in the third inning.

In the meantime, Jair Jurrjens left the game in the second because a shoulder injury.  The good news is, no structural damage was found on the MRI.  The bad news is, he hit the 15 day disabled list so the Tigers have suffered yet another injury to their starting rotation.  Chad Durbin came in and he gave up a three run homer to Robinson Cano to make it close, but Bobby Seay, Joel Zumaya and Todd Jones held the Yankees scoreless the rest of the way for the win.

The Indians won so the Tigers still sit 2 1/2 games back of the division lead.  The Mariners have lost two straight games so the Tigers have been able to make up some ground on them and they sit four games back for the Wild Card, with the Yankees between the Tigers and the Mariners.  The Twins have won five straight though, and they’re now three games back of Detroit and they look like they could make some noise down the stretch.

The final game of the four game series is tonight.  Mike Mussina takes the mound for the Yankees and it’ll be Justin Verlander throwing for Detroit.  The Tigers roughed up Mussina a week ago Friday so hopefully they can do it again tonight. 

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