Memorial Day was a good one for Tigers fans at they took on their not quite so arch-nemisis, the Minnesota Twins, in some afternoon action.  This was definitely a back and forth game.  The Tigers jumped to an early 3-0 lead, went down 5-3, then came back and won it.  Brad Penny got off to a nice start with three shutout innings but then he gave up a run in the fourth and four in the fifth for another rough outing.  To his credit, he’s been good for most of May and he almost got his ERA down below 4.00 but his last two starts have pushed him back closer to five.

Dave Purcey pitched a shutout inning in his second game as a Tiger.  I was out of town when most of this droppped but the Tigers traded Scott Sizemore to the Athletics for left handed reliever Dave Purcey.  This guy was off to a nice start with Oakland although he’s never thrown more then 50 innings in a season in the majors (mostly with the Blue Jays).  Purcey has already been traded twice this year because earlier in the season, the Blue Jays designated him for assignment and he the A’s scooped him up.  So far, so good because he’s throw two shutout innings for us.

Alberto Alburquerque pitched a shutout eighth and he was in the right place at the right time to pick up the win.    Jose Valderde pitched a shutout ninth to pick up his 13th save of the season.

Miguel Cabrera hit his tenth home run of the season and Victor Martinez joined him with a two run shot in the sixth to tie the game up.  For Victor it was his fifth of the season.  Ryan Raburn got another start at second base and it looks like they’re going to try to force him to play there.  You wonder how long that’ll last because he’s not even hitting .200 either.  As a team, Tiger’s second basemen have just a .615 OPS.    The sad thing is, that’s the bottom end of the middle of the pack because third base has been the least productive (.538) and centerfield (.610) are worse and right there with them is left field (.616).  So much for my prediction of Brandon Inge having a break out season this year.

The win puts the Tigers record on the winning side at 27-26.  The Indians have lost two in a row so the Tigers now sit five games back.  Just as important, they have a four game cushion between themselves and the third base White Sox.  Tomorrow it’s Max Scherzer against Brian Duensing.  I’ll be at the game whether it’s hot or not.  Duensing has lost five straight after a pretty good start to the season.  This isn’t your typical Twins team though.

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