These are the kind of days where it’s tough being a Tiger fans. Coming off of the heels of a dramatic four game series with the Yankees, the Tigers then drop two straight games to the Twins. The good news is we were in both games up until the very end. The bad news is, the Twins sent up two of their more ineffective starters, and the Tigers couldn’t get the job done.

The job done by Ugueth Urbina last was particularly disturbing. Way back when they signed him I had my misgivings because of his track record. And as I go back into the game log, I feel a little vindicated. Urbina has a lost four games and blown two saves. The net effect of that is five games where he entered the game to close it out, and didn’t, and we ended up losing. He also has a whopping three one run saves.

With that said, Urbina is, without a doubt, our best reliever. But, we need him to pitch like it.

Jeremy Bonderman’s numbers are going from bad to very bad. His ERA is now a run or two away from six. I still think he’s under a “trial by fire” scenario though, because he’s still only 21. But to do anything down the stretch, we need Jeremy to be effective. He looks great at times, but similar to Jeff Weaver when he pitched here, he’ll follow up the good innings with a bad inning that costs him the game.

With that, the Tigers are now six games back of the Twins. They’re two games back of the Indians. They now face the hapless Royals, but we’ve had our problems against them. I know these next two games mean as much as any other, and to call them “must win” would be an exageration, but, if they can’t do their job against the poorer teams, then they’ll have a problem against the White Sox and Indians, who are ahead of them.

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