So Long Until Next Year, You Beautiful Ballpark

Photo: AP

It’s kind of sad that there will be no more baseball at Comerica Park when there is still a week left in the season. Nevertheless, they went out in impressive fashion. Rick Porcello had a nice bounceback start after his uneven performance against Kansas City. The only damage was a solo shot by Delmon Young on a hanging slider, but other than that, Porcello was on his game. He was so fluid it was almost subliminal. Before I even knew it, he had gone eight strong innings. Then in the ninth, we had a Jose Valverde sighting for the first time in what seemed like forever. And he looked good with a 1-2-3 inning, even though he seemed a little slower and less boisterous than usual.

Brian Duensing continues to mystify me by not pitching all that badly, but he did hang around long enough to give up five runs, all on home runs. The Twins’ 1-0 lead was short-lived, because in the bottom half of the inning, Ramon Santiago (who has gotten very little playing time recently) belted a three-run shot that probably took Duensing completely by surprise. Miguel Cabrera’s line-drive home run should not have taken anyone by surprise. He has now established a career-high in home runs and has a real strong chance at getting to forty for the season (He’s two away, and Camden Yards in particular is very home-run friendly). I’m kind of wondering if Cabrera’s family was in town for that series. He homered in each game, and each time he did, he would point and wave at someone in the stands. He’s done that before, and each time, he has politely refused to say who it was (That’s okay, though; it’s his right). The “MVP” chants that rang out through the crowd were awesome. After all that Cabrera went through at the end of this season, it is refreshing to see that he’s seemingly overcome his demons and that the city has, in turn, embraced him once again.

The Tigers now finish the season on the road. First up is a stop in Cleveland for three games. If the Tigers win just one of the games in this series, they will have secured a winning record against every team in the Central except Minnesota (against whom they went 9-9, which is a big improvement over the last couple years). The first pitcher they’ll face is Carlos Carrasco, who was the big acquisition in the Cliff Lee deal. The Tigers faced him a couple times late last year and beat up on him each time, but by all accounts, he’s much better this year. He’s gone at least six innings in each of his starts, and he’s not given up more than three earned runs in any start. Meanwhile, do I even have to say that Armando Galarraga needs a good outing? For four innings, it looked like he was going to get one against the Royals, but then everything fell apart for him with two outs in the fifth. And it’s not like the Royals bombed the ball against him in that inning. He basically hurt himself with walks and his own throwing error. At this point, I don’t think there’s any way he can guarantee himself a spot in next year’s rotation, but he can certainly hurt his cause if he doesn’t pitch well. You know by now that I badly want him to be in next year’s rotation but that I don’t think he’ll be with the Tigers for much longer. Right now, having that outlook isn’t making it any easier on me. I have an ability to (subconsciously and uncontrollably) mentally prepare myself for the departure of a beloved player (or, on a different level, the death of a loved one). For instance, I am very fond of both Magglio Ordoñez and Brandon Inge (and remember, I like Maggs better than I like Galarraga). I really, really don’t want to see them go, but I am mentally prepared for the possibility that they might not be back. But this mental preparation doesn’t always take place (and I can’t make it kick in). It didn’t happen with Pudge (even though I sensed that trade coming well in advance), and it’s currently not happening with Galarraga (there are others that it’s not happening for right now either, but those guys are not in danger of departing any time soon). At this point, I would be devastated if he got traded, claimed, non-tendered (which I don’t think will happen, but evidently Lynn Henning has been hinting that it will), or otherwise discarded. All this could potentially be avoided if he could just come up with the courage to trust his stuff (and I guess that is also a reflection of myself, because I also routinely overthink, second-guess myself, and battle confidence issues, so I suppose in some way I’d like some reassurance that those demons can be overcome). His struggles last time out left me emotionally drained and it took Justin Verlander’s masterpiece three days later to bring me out of that funk. But more than just me, I want a strong finish from him for his sake. I like him as a person, and I know he’s disappointed with how things have gone since the perfect game. I realize life’s not fair, but I still hate seeing bad things happen to good people. Hopefully, facing the Indians will give him a confidence boost, because he’s been dominant against them this year. But he’s got to stop being his own worst enemy.

Night of Milestones

Photo: AP

Nothing like a wild win on a Saturday night. There seemed to have been a lot of sentimentality around Jeremy Bonderman because it might be his last home start as a Tiger, but to say he didn’t have it would be an understatement (Bonderman’s not my favorite, but I’m certainly willing to give him his props when he pitches well; I have no props to give him this time). I only missed part of the first inning, but by the time I got home, he had already given up five runs. He did settle down for three innings, but once the Tigers gave him the lead, he served up long home runs to Jason Kubel and Danny Valencia, ending his night. This probably isn’t the best time to say this, and I have no justification in saying this other than player preference, but if Jeremy Bonderman is in the Tigers’ starting rotation next year and Armando Galarraga is not, I am going to be pissed. Anyways, things changed after Bonderman’s exit, because the bullpen was terrific. Even Eddie Bonine pitched better than his line indicates (He gave up three runs, but in that sequence, not a single ball left the infield). Ryan Perry and Daniel Schlereth were perhaps the most impressive. Perry retired every batter he faced, and Schlereth worked around a single, error, two intentional walks and a double steal to strike out Kubel and Valencia with the bases loaded.

Meanwhile, the Tigers offense hit Carl Pavano like they’ve never hit him before. If they’d have done a little more of that last year, they would’ve won the division. Going into last night’s game, none of the Tigers had ever homered against Pavano. They hit three home runs against him in the fourth inning. Alex Avila led off the inning with a solo shot. Don Kelly later hit a two-run homer, and after a Johnny Damon single, Miguel Cabrera absolutely launched one over the bullpens in left. Once the Tigers came back later to tie up the game against John Rauch, there wasn’t a whole lot of scoring after that. There also weren’t a whole lot of chances until the bottom of the 13^th inning. After loading the bases with no out on two singles and an error, Brandon Inge came up the hero on a night where he became the Tigers’ franchise leader in strikeouts (which I don’t really care about as much as the haters do). He laced a single to right to score Cabrera and give the Tigers the win. Also of note is that Austin Jackson scored his 100^th run of the season, putting him in rare company for a rookie.

And now for some lighthearted fare. Yesterday morning, a friend of mine and I had a very entertaining discussion on Twitter about which Wizard of Oz characters the members of the Tigers’ starting rotation would be. This is what we came up with: Jeremy Bonderman would be the Scarecrow (for obvious reasons), Max Scherzer would be the Tinman (He seems to be the most emotionless on the mound), Armando Galarraga would be the Cowardly Lion (He needs the courage to trust his stuff), Justin Verlander would be Dorothy (He has twelve wins at home as opposed to six on the road, and his home ERA is over two full runs lower), and Rick Porcello would be Toto (mostly by process of elimination, but he is the youngest of the group). We also decided that the Chicago White Sox would be the flying monkeys, and so by extension, that means Ozzie Guillen would be the Wicked Witch of the West. I want to hear him say “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too,” just for kicks.

It is a sad day today, because it is the final home game of the season. Rick Porcello gets the ball today. He’s coming off a strange start against the Royals in which it looked like he was cruising and then ended up with five earned runs and a no-decision on his line. He hasn’t faced the Twins since early May, when he gave up five runs (three earned) in a Tigers loss. He’ll be up against Brian Duensing, who continues to pitch well and I don’t know why. He got a no-decision the last time he started against the Tigers in which he did not pitch badly (though he got outpitched by Armando Galarraga even though the Tigers bullpen gave it up later). He also made a relief appearance in an extra inning game in that series.

Justin Verlander Makes Everything Better

Photo: AP

Because I have to make this an abbreviated post (stupid work), there is no way I can do Justin Verlander’s performance justice. He was masterful, racking up eleven strikeouts and walking none. He said he didn’t have his changeup working, but with his fastball blazing and curveball dropping, he didn’t need it. I’ll fret about next year’s rotation later. For now, I’ll just enjoy Verlander.

Meanwhile, the Tigers’ offense took advantage of Liriano’s illness and a jetstream blowing out to left to hang some big-time runs on the board. Miguel Cabrera was the first to ride the jetstream with a two-run homer. After that, Liriano left with the flu or something (or he and Alexi Casilla had had some bad sushi). After that, the Tigers poured it on the Twins’ bullpen. Jhonny Peralta also rode the jetstream en route to a four-RBI night. Casper Wells didn’t need the jetstream. He hit a lined shot that would’ve gone out anyways.

Tonight continues the final home series. Jeremy Bonderman starts for the Tigers. The last time we saw him was the Joe Morgan changeup game in Chicago, where he dodged all sorts of baserunners but managed to go 5.2 innings. How he did that I’m not sure. Carl Pavano starts for the Twins, and he and his pornstache have been a pain. Between the two of them, it won’t exactly be an aesthetic pitching matchup.

Good, Bad, AND Ugly

Photo: AP

Perhaps the fact that this was a night game (as I had discussed yesterday) made it destined to be strange. I have no idea what to make of Justin Verlander’s performance. For one thing, I only saw half his outing (it was the bottom of the fourth when I got home). For another thing, he didn’t really get any help from his friends. The defense on both teams was terrible, especially when it came to trying to turn double plays. Verlander got victimized by it and ended up surrendering three unearned runs. Jose Valverde later got hung with a blown save that really wasn’t his fault (he got really squeezed on the leadoff walk, and once he struck out Joe Mauer, he got two consecutive game-ending double play balls that weren’t turned). However, after that Valverde pitched really well without incident, although he probably won’t be available for the next couple days.

The Tigers offense likewise took advantage of some defensive miscues by the Twins. They had two RBI groundouts on what should have been double play balls. The second of the two came off the bat off Miguel Cabrera, who left the game shortly thereafter with biceps tendinitis. He doesn’t seem to think it’s serious, but it was adversely affecting his swing, and he is not in tonight’s lineup. The guy who replaced him in the lineup was Casper Wells, who did his best job impersonating Cabrera and picked a good time to hit his first big league home run. Just about everyone in the lineup contributed at some point, whether they started the game or came in later (and almost everyone was in the game at some point; Max St. Pierre was the lone Tiger remaining on the bench). The Tigers ended up hitting five home runs (in contrast, all the Twins’ hits were singles). Gerald Laird ended up being the final hero of the night by hitting the home run that put the Tigers in front for good. He now has more home runs at Target Field than Joe Mauer has. And they did a nice job screwing up the Twins’ pitching staff, because the Twins lost Scott Baker after two innings, so they burned their long man early, and they had two use two of their other starters in extras, including Nick Blackburn, who was supposed to start tonight. The Texas Rangers should be thanking them.

Tonight the road trip moves on to Kansas City and the Tigers can avoid Zack Greinke no longer. They haven’t seen him since Opening Day. He’s not had a particularly strong follow-up to his Cy Young year, but he’s pitched well in his last four starts and has gone eight innings in three of them. He may be finding his stride again, and without Cabrera in the lineup, it’s going to be even harder for the Tigers to get to him. The only two in the lineup with good numbers against him are Damon (7-for-20) and Laird (6-for-20). Jeremy Bonderman is pitching for the first time since the series with the Royals in Detroit. He suffered a ribcage injury and Alfredo Figaro took his spot for the last turn through the rotation. He won that start against the Royals rather easily, since the Tigers scored a bunch of runs for him.

The Drawback of Pitching Duels

It seems the Tigers have fallen into that same trap they were in about a month ago, where they would fight their hearts out but consistently came up just barely short. Max Scherzer was very impressive. For the most part, he mowed through a normally stressful lineup rather easily. Unfortunately, the one lapse he had ended up costing him. For a span of about five batters, the Twins hit absolute bullets. Scherzer escaped with minimal damage thanks to a terrific double play by Austin Jackson, but the one run he gave up proved to be too much. I still think that in this day and age, any starting pitcher who goes nine innings should get credit for a complete game, even if it goes into extras, but I digress. However, Ryan Perry failed to bounce back from his rough outing on Tuesday and ended up losing the game (though, to be fair, he did not get help from his friends; Cuddyer probably would have been out on the stolen base attempt if Alex Avila had made a good throw). Meanwhile, the offense ended up getting the Francisco Liriano that they saw in April, not the one from June/July. It’s hard to tell where Liriano’s effectiveness ended and the hitting ineffectiveness began. There were a couple baserunning mistakes that should not have happened, and potentially that cost them runs as well.

The series concludes tonight, and it’ll be up to Justin Verlander to get the win. Like Scherzer, he was very good in his start against the Blue Jays, giving up two solo home runs as his only damage. He’s had two decent starts against the Twins this year, although he actually pitched better in the game he lost than in the game he won, at least in terms of innings pitched and pitch count. And you can bet that unless Jim Thome’s back is still bothering him, he’ll be in there against Verlander. The Tigers will face Scott Baker, who is coming off a win against the Mariners. I’ve given this spiel before. Against the Tigers, he usually gives up somewhere between three and five runs. Usually. Occasionally he’ll only give up one run or give up a bunch of runs just to shake things up. This is already shaping up to be an odd sort of game. Usually in Minnesota they have a day game to end a series. This is a night game.

Que Lastima

Even I admitted that the odds weren’t good for Detroit in this game, and that’s how it turned out, but I don’t think any of us really labeled a bullpen meltdown as the most likely scenario. Both Phil Coke and Ryan Perry had command problems, and the result was a walk, two hit batters, and then another walk, this time with the bases loaded, before Delmon Young delivered the death blow single. Perry eventually recovered, but it was too late. And it’s really a damn shame, because Armando Galarraga deserved better. That was by far the best he has ever pitched against the Twins. I was really impressed. He looked to be just about in complete control for the first five innings. They did start to center his pitches in the sixth inning, and the wheels almost came off, but after a fortuitous bounce that created a ground rule double and cost the Twins a run, he got the last out and left with the lead intact (I wonder if that’s a fatigue factor, because the same thing happened to him in his last start, and to a lesser extent, the start before that; he’s been able to get out of it every time, though). One other important point is that he didn’t walk anybody, and that’s especially noteworthy because in the past he’s had a lot of trouble throwing strikes to Twins batters. I did read a quote from him where he said he was unhappy that he couldn’t go deeper into the game, but I hope he takes a lot of positive things from this outing and gets a big confidence boost from it.

And I still can’t figure out Brian Duensing. I mean, he could definitely be a solid lefty starter, but I can’t see anything that would support his dominant ERA. The funny thing is that his ERA actually went down after his outing last night because all the runs the Tigers scored were unearned. Still, Casper Wells has looked good over the past couple games. He had three hits last night. Jhonny Peralta also had three hits, which everyone seems to have forgotten about because he struck out to end the game. It was an unusually quiet night for Miguel Cabrera, who got pitched to in all his at-bats (even when there were runners in scoring position), and he only went 1-for-5 to show for it (and that one hit was a single with the bases empty).

Well, if the Tigers are still going to take the series, they have their two best candidates to make it happen. Tonight, it’s Max Scherzer. He was brilliant in his last start against the Blue Jays. He hasn’t faced the Twins since very early in the season, where they knocked him around real good. However, he’s a different pitcher now. Those numbers might mean nothing (or they could mean everything and the Twins are destined to be his kryptonite as well). Meanwhile, Francisco Liriano has been very good as well. He’s also coming off a win, this one against the Texas Rangers. He did give up five runs to the White Sox two starts ago, though. He’s had a strange season against the Tigers. Throughout his career, he has dominated Detroit. The Tigers have very rarely done anything against him. And yet they’re responsible for his worst two starts of the year in terms of giving up runs. They scored six runs off him in six innings at Target Field in late June (that was the game in which Joel Zumaya was injured, and remains their only win in the Twins’ new ballpark). Then at Comerica Park a couple weeks later, they scored seven runs off him in 1.2 innings. Something’s gotta give. Because it’s September, the rosters have expanded and the Tigers have called up Robbie Weinhardt and Max St. Pierre. For Max St. Pierre, this will mark the first time he’s been on a big league roster after fourteen years in the Tigers system. It’s been a long road for him, and that’s an understatement. He’s actually had a decent year between Erie and Toledo, especially when you consider the fact that just about none of the catchers in the Tigers’ farm system did anything offensively.  He hit .274 between the two teams, albeit in only 59 games (he suffered a broken hand that kept him out a while).  With the lefty on the mound, I’m not sure if he would get a start or if Gerald Laird (assuming his back is healthy) will get the call (Laird does not have good numbers against Liriano, for what it’s worth).

Into the Break + Further Adventures with the Mud Hens

I’m going to be brief in my discussion of Sunday’s game, because there really wasn’t much to get excited about. Andy Oliver didn’t have enough command and made an early exit. It’ll be interesting to see how things shake out in the second half as far as he, Porcello, and Galarraga are concerned (well, “interesting” is probably the wrong word, because someone’s going to be left out in the cold). Carl Pavano was about as tough as he’s been. The Tigers tried to make a comeback late, but the inherited runners and add-on runs that scored off the Tigers’ bullpen was too much to overcome.

After that game, I headed out to see the Mud Hens for the second night in a row. That game had two different rain delays, and the Mud Hens lost 6-4, but most of the fun happened before the game started. As it turns out, Armando Galarraga was not there (which makes sense, since he is not scheduled to pitch in Toledo at all), but I came away with a satisfactory amount of consolation prizes and no regrets (Hey, I did all I could). I kind of met Alfredo Figaro, who was the starting pitcher that night. I was hanging out around the dugout with a bunch of kids, two dads, and a guy about my age who had no kids. Figaro (not in uniform yet) came into the dugout talking on a cell phone. After he finished, one of the dads yelled out, “You ready to mow ‘em down?” Figaro kind of unenthusiastically said yeah and yawned. The dad observed that he looked tired, and he said his friend was bringing a Red Bull. He then unlatched the gate that we were standing in front of and tried to open it, but the latch was stuck on the padding. A couple of us (including me) tried to help him open it, with no success. Finally, he just decided to jump over the gate. When we saw him again a few minutes later, he was back on the field, Red Bull in hand. I never got his autograph, but I got plenty others to join Scot Drucker and Robbie Weinhardt’s signatures on my baseball. My final haul: LJ Gagnier, Brendan Wise, Brent Dlugach, Robinzon Diaz, Casper Wells, Jeff Frazier, Casey Fien, and Rick Porcello. That’s right, folks. I met Rick Porcello. And I made him blush. I told him he had done a nice job the night before (which he had) and he got all shy and sheepishly said thanks. By the way, the Tigers’ front office was smart to have Porcello start Saturday instead of Sunday, because the rain delay was long enough to chase Alfredo Figaro after just two innings.

Well, I suppose I could preview the All-Star Game. I watched the Home Run Derby last night, although it was a lot less interesting once Miguel Cabrera was eliminated. He definitely hit the most majestic shots of anyone, though. And hopefully he’ll get a hit or two tonight, because apparently he’s hitless in his previous All-Star appearances. Jose Valverde has been designated as the closer for the American League, and I never congratulated Justin Verlander on his late All-Star selection to replace CC Sabathia/Jered Weaver (long story). Hopefully we’ll see him tonight as well. At any rate, this might just be the NL’s year because their pitching seems especially strong, but I’ll be rooting for the AL all the way. Also, head on over to Bless You Boys tonight to see me unveil my All-Star Photoshops for this year.

Home Run Derby Starts Early

Photo: AP

I did not see much of this game, so the recap will be brief. It looked early like this one was going to be a slugfest, but Jeremy Bonderman managed to dig deep and give the Tigers six good innings. And one thing I’ve noticed with Bonderman is that his velocity is slowly creeping back up. I’ve seen him hit 93 MPH several times in his last few starts. Meanwhile, four different Tigers homered off of Nick Blackburn: Cabrera, Avila, Maggs, and Damon. Speaking of Cabrera, it looks like he’s feeling a lot better, judging by his body language. And that’s a good thing, because Justin Morneau has bowed out of the All-Star Game due to a concussion, which means Cabrera is now the starting first baseman. And he deserves it (even though I had started to fantasize about him being the late-inning hero).

The reason I missed a lot of the game was that I was at the Mud Hens game. If you’re wondering, I did not see Armando Galarraga at all (though he could’ve been in the dugout later), and I didn’t get any autographs because I was outdone by a bunch of pushy kids and I didn’t want to be seen as the “obnoxious adult.” However, Rick Porcello pitched very well. He threw seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts and plenty of groundouts. I noticed he got a lot of swings and misses on his changeup in particular. At any rate, Porcello was in line for the win, as the Mud Hens led 1-0 going into the top of the ninth, but Jay Sborz gave up a three-run homer to Jonathan Van Every to erase that lead and send the Hens to a loss. By the way, remember former Tiger Wilfredo Ledezma? He’s now pitching for Indianapolis.

Today’s game wraps up this series as well as the first half. Hopefully the Tigers can go out on a high note. They’ll have Andy Oliver starting for them. He’s coming off a very rough outing against the Orioles. I’m not sure what the Tigers plan on doing with him for the second half, but I know they wanted the lefty against the Twins. This game is the entire reason why Galarraga is in the minors right now (even though I can’t find him). He had an okay start against the Twins a couple weeks ago, but was done in by defensive lapses (one of them his own). Meanwhile, the Twins will start Carl Pavano and his porn ‘stache (usually I like facial hair, but that thing looks fake). Pavano’s turning into the Tigers’ personal nemesis, except this year he's beating other teams at a high rate (though he did stumble against the Blue Jays in his last start), but they have beaten him the last two times they saw him. One was late last season, the other was earlier this year, when he got outdueled by Dontrelle Willis. And I should be able to see the whole game as long as it doesn’t go too long, but I am going to try another Mud Hens game tonight (It’s their last home game before the 20^th, so it’s my last chance).

[Insert Appropriate Elvis Song Here]

Photo: Getty Images

I forgot that last night was Elvis Night, or I would have played some Mood Music for you. At any rate, Justin Verlander had his curveball working really well last night. He also finally got a couple pickoffs, which I knew he was looking for all season. I’m not sure what happened in the sixth. Robbie Weinhardt did a terrific job in his outing. Unfortunately, Ryan Perry couldn’t get an out in the ninth and had to be bailed out by Jose Valverde. Meanwhile, the Tigers jumped on Francisco Liriano like they did the last time they saw him. I’ve never seen him like that against Detroit. There were big nights for Maggs and Guillen in particular. I am somewhat disappointed that they weren’t able to score any runs against the Twins’ bullpen, but I’ll take the win any way it comes.

Today the Tigers and Twins are on big Fox. Jeremy Bonderman is coming off a rough start in which he allowed two 3-run home runs and got ejected because of a wacky strike zone. He won his last start against the Twins, but had to pitch out of trouble quite a bit. There are theories that he’s entering a dead arm phase because he hasn’t pitched much the last couple years. Meanwhile, Nick Blackburn continues to struggle, although he pitched well against the Tigers back in Minnesota. However, he pitches a lot worse on the road. And as for me, I will be at the Mud Hens game tonight, scouting Rick Porcello for a trade that will not happen (at least, I hope it doesn’t happen because I don’t want Dan Haren).  

When a Fire Alarm Malfunction is the Most Exciting Part...

Here’s a fun fact for you: The Tigers have actually scored first in six of their last seven games (and even in the one game in which they didn’t score first, they had the lead at one point), but they’ve only won three of them. Lead protection is apparently an issue right now. At any rate, it’s hard to determine what to make of Andy Oliver in this particular game, mostly because I had to listen on the radio for a good chunk of it. I think defensive lapses cost him as much as bad pitches. And one of those defensive lapses was his own on the bad throw after fielding the bunt. And a lot of the rest was Johnny Damon (and I was warned he would do stuff like that, but with Maggs needing to DH, they didn’t have much choice but to put him in the outfield). Meanwhile, there was not a whole lot going on with Kevin (not Kyle) Slowey, who is another Minnesota pitcher who pitches better at home. On a side note, just when I thought Miguel Cabrera had built himself a nice little cushion in the RBI lead (he has 66), Vladimir Guerrero proceeded to have a 5-RBI game to overtake him. Miguel’s gotta get busy again.

I can’t say it was a great road trip but a 3-6 mark let them survive it without too much damage in the standings (and they were a bad call away from possibly going 4-5). But that means it’s now time to take care of business at home for the next nine games. First up is the Seattle Mariners. They may be very much in last place in the AL West, which most people weren’t expecting), but that doesn’t mean they’re an easy team to beat. And the reason is that they can pitch. And they’ve played a bit better overall recently (They had a .500 June and just took two of three from the Yankees at Yankee Stadium). Tonight they send Doug Fister to the mound. At one point, Fister was at (or near) the top of the AL in earned run average. As a matter of fact, the Tigers faced him at that point. He gave up three runs (two earned) in seven innings in a game the Mariners eventually won. In his next start, he got roughed up by the Twins for five runs. He went on the DL after that. This’ll be his second start since coming off the DL. In his first, he gave up four runs in four innings against the Brewers. Every Tiger who has faced Fister has at least one hit off him (though for a lot of them, it’s just one hit). Max Scherzer will start for the Tigers. He pitched well against the Braves in his last start, although he battled control during the later innings. He beat the Mariners back in April (the only win the Tigers have against the M’s so far this year, and this is a team they’ve had a good amount of success against the last few years). I will be at tomorrow’s game, but it’d be nice to have a victory tonight for a warm-up act.  

Old Demons Return

Alas, Armando Galarraga’s struggles against the Twins continue. The Twins came out of the chute very aggressive against him, which certainly surprised me (I think it surprised him, too), because part of his problem in the past had been the inability to throw strikes to Twins hitters. This time he was much better with throwing strikes, but the two walks he did give up cost him (and sometimes you can have games where you only walk one or two and all those walks score while the other team walks six or seven and none of them score). I had also said that the two big problem players for him were Mauer and Span. He was able to neutralize Mauer for the most part. He still had no answer for Span, and neither did anyone else on the pitching staff. Span either scored or drove in the first five runs of the game. The killer for Galarraga was the walk to Nick Punto ahead of Span. Galarraga sounded rather frustrated with Punto after the game (Who wouldn’t be?), as well as angry at himself. At least Punto had to work him for that walk (and the full count pitch sure looked like a strike to me). Fu Te Ni came in next inning and walked him on four pitches. I’m thinking Galarraga was yanked a little too early. At the very least, I maintain he would’ve done a better job in that inning than Ni did. Things got totally out of hand once the bullpen came in. And so we never did find out what would have happened if a save situation arose.

I had said that Nick Blackburn was struggling, but I failed to look at his game logs. If I had, I would have qualified that more strongly that he was actually just living up to his normal tendencies of pitching well at home and struggling on the road. In his lone home start in June, he pitched very strongly, giving up only two earned runs in seven innings against the Braves. All his bad starts this month had been on the road, so the fact that he didn’t give up a whole lot to the Tigers’ offense really isn’t that surprising. They had the one inning where they scored three, and they tacked on kind of a meaningless run later, but that’s it.

Today is the day game rubber match of the series, and Andy Oliver will make his second big league start. It’ll be interesting to see what he can do now that there’s at least a bit of a scouting report on him. Also, the Twins’ lineup is dominated by lefties, but a lot of them can hit left-handed pitching real well. The Twins will start Kevin (not Kyle) Slowey. He beat the Tigers back in May despite giving up three home runs (they were all solo shots). Two were to Miguel Cabrera and the other was to Alex Avila (which makes me kind of surprised that Avila’s not in the lineup today, but I’m not going to make a big fuss over it). Magglio is the DH today, and that’s probably a good idea because he wasn’t moving real well in the outfield last night. Other than that, it’s a fairly regular lineup.

Doesn't Feel Like It

Photo: Reuters

The Tigers have a knack for doing what you want in ways that leave you feeling disappointed about it. If they go on a six-game road trip, you’d be thrilled if they finish .500 on the road trip, but not if they sweep the first team and get swept by the second (they’ve certainly done that before). Armando Galarraga threw a perfect game, but he’ll never be officially recognized for it, and God knows I didn’t feel very good about it after the last out was made and I’m pretty sure most of you felt the same way. But no one got hurt in that game. Now the Tigers have finally gotten back into first place, but at the price of losing Joel Zumaya. I initially thought he might have somehow broken his arm on the pitch to Delmon Young. I only know of one instance where a guy broke his arm mid-pitch, and other news reports on this story has reminded me that the guy’s name was Dave Dravecky. However, the reason behind Dravecky’s injury was that he had cancer that was weakening the bone structure and he eventually had to have his arm amputated (Dravecky now works as a motivational speaker and I know this because I originally learned of the story from a video our church pastor showed us in Sunday School many years ago). Thankfully, it does not appear that this is Zumaya’s problem. At this point, all we know is that he had an MRI this morning, Gerald Laird heard a pop all the way from behind the plate, the Tigers are describing it as an elbow injury, and Zumaya’s been placed on the DL (which should surprise no one). This makes speculation dangerous (especially since if I do so, we’ll hear something definitive about five minutes after I publish this post), but in general, news of an elbow injury is generally preferable to a shoulder injury because elbows seem easier to fix. The rehab is often lengthy, but guys usually make a full recovery. Tommy John surgery has been floated around a lot in this case, although most cases I know of don’t involve the ligament tearing that suddenly and that dramatically. At the same time, I wonder if maybe this injury wasn’t as sudden of an onset as it seems. I’ve pointed out at least twice that Zumaya had had some control problems recently and that in the past, that has been a warning sign of injury. Perhaps he was already pitching in discomfort or minor pain and that pitch to Delmon Young caused something that was already weakened to snap. But until the Tigers announce something more specific, we have to assume that Zumaya will at least be gone for the rest of the season, and that has some not very favorable implications on the bullpen. We saw in 2007 the type of negative effect that losing your setup men can have. For the time being, Casey Fien, fresh off from playing Ring Around the Waiver Wire in spring training, has been called up, but I’m not sure what they intend for his role to be. Ryan Perry is not that far off from coming off the DL, and if he can return to what he was doing in April and early May, that would be a huge boost. If he can’t, then I don’t know what the next move is.

 There are still other things to talk about with this game. That was the biggest offensive outburst against Francisco Liriano that I’ve ever seen the Tigers have. Granted, most of it was in the first inning when the first six batters reached base safely, and Liriano proceeded to pitch a lot deeper into the game than it looked like he was going to, but the Tigers did manage to tack on a couple of important insurance runs later in the game. And a lot of those were bunts and infield singles (turning the tables on the Twins, for once). All in all, Inge was the only one never to join in on the fun (someone always goes 0-for in these types of games). At the same time, I do wonder when people will get off Laird’s case. He’s been getting hits with a lot more regularity recently, same as Avila. I should note that Magglio was scratched late, partially because of the oblique issue and partially because he was sick. Keep him away from the other Tigers.

And so, high price or no, the Tigers have themselves their first win at Target Field. Thanks to a recent AT&T Trivia Question (I miss the AFLAC duck), I know that in the span of a week, the Tigers have narrowed down the list of ballparks that they’ve never won in from five to three. The three remaining ballparks are New Yankee Stadium, Nationals Ballpark, and Great American Ballpark (and those last two are understandable because the Tigers haven’t played there; yes, it’s really surprising that they’ve never been to Great American Ballpark because it’s been around for about 7 or 8 years now). Now it’s time to get win #2 at Target Field. They’ll be facing Nick Blackburn, who has struggled so much this month that his ERA has gone from 4.28 to 6.10. He did not pitch well on the Twins’ last road trip. However, he has pitched well this year at home, and his career against the Tigers kind of reflects this. For the most part, they’ve hit him real hard at Comerica Park, but in Minnesota, they’ve done next to nothing against him. They did face him this earlier this year at Target Field. Blackburn got a complete game win against them, but not in the way he imagined. He went into the ninth inning leading 3-2 when Brennan Boesch hit a mammoth solo home run against him which tied the score. Blackburn stayed in the game and got out of the inning (only because Alex Avila had rounded third base too far when Santiago hit an infield single), and got the win when Ryan Perry gave up a triple and a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth (That was the night Ernie Harwell died). On the flipside, however, Armando Galarraga has his own issues with the Twins. Even in his good rookie season they got to him early and often (his best performance resulted in a 3-2 loss, and even in that game he walked five). He did beat them last August, but it wasn’t easy and the Tigers had to absolutely nurse him through five innings just so he’d qualify. At this point, I wonder how much of it is mental, because he knows how he’s struggled against them. Looking at the individual numbers, however, I’ve noticed that the bulk of the damage has come largely from only two batters: Denard Span and Joe Mauer (both of whom have punished many a pitcher). Span is 6-13 (.462) with a double, while Mauer is 8-17 (.471) with a double, two home runs, and a whopping ten RBIs. Other Twins (Morneau, Kubel, and Young) have homered off Galarraga, but they haven’t done as much damage in terms of average (Morneau’s home run was a grand slam, though). Somehow Galarraga’s gotta figure out how to stay confident and not overthink things when he’s on the mound. Making things more complicated is that since Valverde had to record a five-out save last night, Leyland has said that he will absolutely not be available tonight, so the Tigers are without their setup man AND their closer.

UPDATE: The diagnosis for Zumaya has been announced (and it was actually announced before I published this, but I didn’t feel like changing what I already typed). He has a non-displaced fracture of the olecranon (basically, the tip of the elbow). He is done for the season, but there hasn’t been word on what happens after that. Since it’s a non-displaced fracture, he might not need surgery this time. Unfortunately, they don’t teach a lot of orthopedics in pharmacy school, but from what I’ve read, the fracture itself takes about 12 weeks to heal, but most of the information about how long it takes to return to full strength (I’ve read everything from 4 months to over a year) seems to revolve around patients who have surgery, so that’s still unclear.

Third Time's Not a Charm

So the Tigers got swept. It sucks and yet it does not carry the emotional hollowness that it should, for some reason (You know that feeling, even though every team gets swept at some point). It’s got more of a “shit happens, let’s move on” kind of feel. This is the third year in a row that the Tigers got swept in their first series in Minnesota. Rick Porcello looked about the same as he did against the Angels, with the exception of the fact that he walked more people (4 walks is excessive for him, so for now it’s an outlier). He was getting plenty of ground balls, but not getting away with any mistakes (Those of you clamoring for Toledo might want to know that Armando Galarraga is currently being shelled by the Norfolk Tides, much to my great sadness). The Boesch error was a costly one, though (Why can’t our corner outfielders catch the ball? I was repeatedly told that Johnny Damon would do that all the time and yet he hasn’t done it yet, but Raburn and Boesch have each done it twice).

On offense it was the Cabrera and Avila show, but there was no one on base to enjoy it. Those of you who live in Michigan can enjoy some free curly fries as consolation. I still haven’t figured out if that promotion is good for Arby’s in NW Ohio. As a minor note, I’m starting to think that abdominal strain is bothering Magglio more than he’s admitted. It just doesn’t seem like he’s hitting as well as he was beforehand.

The Tigers FINALLY got their much-needed off-day today (I was so used to baseball every single day that I wasn’t sure what to do with myself). Now they head to Cleveland for a three-game series to wind up the road trip before a challenging homestand. Cleveland just got swept by the Blue Jays, so one of these teams will be forced to get hot. Jeremy Bonderman still has a rather unsightly ERA, but that really stems from one bad start. He’s done a good job in all his other starts. I did not see his last start against the Angels, but the line score looked decent enough. And he won his other start against Cleveland this year. The Indians will counter with David Huff, whom the Tigers saw in the home opener this year. They beat him, but only because of some major defense fail on the part of the Indians. He had been one of their better pitchers this year but I’ve noticed his ERA has been creeping upwards. As for me, I’ll be at work during the beginning of the game, and I’ll have my (brief) Ernie Harwell piece up tomorrow.

But There is No Joy in Detroit-ville...

Or in a great deal of Michigan and parts of Ohio, I would say (and yes, that was a really bad attempt at evoking “Casey At Bat”). The Red Wings (who would have no problem with the San Jose Sharks, or so I was told by a great many people who know much more about hockey than I do) lost and are now on the verge of getting swept (with dire consequences). The Tigers lost and are also on the verge of getting swept (with sucky-but-not-quite-so-dire consequences). And, of course, the passing of Ernie Harwell kind of pushes all that aside (as evidence of that, the Bless You Boys post on Ernie currently has 42 comments, while the post on the game recap has one). I’ll work on my requisite Ernie Harwell piece over the off-day and have it for you on Friday (It’ll be short, as I don’t have a lot of memories of him, regrettably). For now, there is still baseball to discuss.

Dontrelle Willis started off shaky, but finished fairly strong. If that’s going to be a rough outing for him, I’ll take it. He kept the Tigers in the game, as did Zumaya. Meanwhile, perhaps I was wrong about a guy’s sinker not sinking on extra rest, cuz the Tigers sure did pound a lot of pitches into the dirt. Nick Blackburn managed to vulture his own complete-game win. The final inning of this game was characterized by rookie power followed by rookie failure. Brennan Boesch hit one of the longest home runs I have ever seen (398 feet? Really? That thing just about made it out of the stadium). Alex Avila doubled, though I’m not sure why that wasn’t called an error (He hit the ball hard, but Young dropped the ball in a similar fashion to the Raburn clank-job from last week and that was called an error). After that it kind of went downhill. Avila rounded third too aggressively and didn’t see the stop sign when Santiago’s bit for a run-scoring single was snagged by J.J. Hardy and he got trapped off third for the final out of the inning. In the bottom of the ninth, what probably should have been a double by Hardy got played into a triple by Jackson and Boesch, both of whom got too close to the wall (although, in fairness, no one, rookie or veteran, really knows how that wall will play yet). Then came the wild pitch that scored Hardy for the winning run. And it was ruled a wild pitch, but to me at least it looked like it was a blockable ball (Let’s not forget that Avila is still learning the finer points of catching). I’ve seen passed balls charged on tougher plays than that.

Well, if the Tigers don’t want to get swept, they’ll have to get some good work out of Rick Porcello, or else chants of “We want Galarraga” will echo throughout the land (though, to tell you the truth, considering Armando’s bad history against the Twins, he probably wouldn’t be much help in this particular game). Now’s the time for the stat geeks’ predictions to come true. He looked better in his last start, though the final line doesn’t indicate that. He was getting more groundballs, but didn’t get away with any mistakes. However, there seemed to be fewer mistakes. Rick hasn’t pitched against the Twins since game 163, which was one of his best starts. Jason Kubel has mashed against him, as has Delmon Young. Everyone else’s numbers are pretty pedestrian. The Tigers will face Kevin Slowey, and here’s where I give you that warning I give every year: At some point this season I will call him “Kyle.” I don’t know why. I just have an incredible urge to call him Kyle. His mother totally should have named him that. Anyways, Kevin (not Kyle) Slowey is 3-0 with a 6.50 ERA against the Tigers. He must get some massive run support with those numbers (either that or the ERA ballooned in one outing, cuz I really don’t remember the Tigers knocking this guy around). Plus, that damage must’ve been done by guys who have moved on, because the current numbers would not seem to indicate that ERA. No Tiger has homered off him (hell, there are only two extra-base hits off him), and there are several people in today’s lineup whom he has not faced (or has seen very little of). Johnny Damon is 4-for-10 against him, while Magglio is a respectable 3-for-9, but Cabrera’s only 1-for-10. Ouch. The Tigers will begin wearing patches on their sleeves honoring Ernie Harwell starting today (I imagine the patches were made up before the season started; it was just a matter of them getting sewn on).

Bring Out the Dramamine

That wasn’t exactly the game you wanted to happen when you have food poisoning (although I can tell you that my stomach was most assuredly empty before the game even started). That whole thing about Max Scherzer doing worse in a second consecutive start against a team seems to be alive and well. All of his pitches seemed to be up. He settled down in the third and fourth innings and looked as though he’d at least be able to eat some innings, but fell apart again in the fifth (and I was totally right about the Twins not missing Joe Mauer at all). Brad Thomas proceeded to let all the inherited runners score, but he did spare the bullpen by finishing the game.

Well, as I said before, the Tigers generally score between three and five runs against Scott Baker, and they did so again, but three runs was not enough in this game. Austin Jackson ended the game a home run shy of the cycle, and continues defying the stat geeks who say his luck will run out soon (oh, and congratulations to him for being named the AL Rookie of the Month for April). As for Target Field, I noticed nothing quirky except for the cardboard backstop providing an intriguingly strong carom back to the catcher on wild pitches.

Let us hope that tonight’s game brings a much happier ending. Dontrelle Willis was very, very good against the Twins in his last start, but can he do it again so soon? I don’t need to rehash his numbers against the Twins, do I? Meanwhile, the Tigers will get their first look at Nick Blackburn this year. Blackburn has given up five earned runs in each of his last three starts, although the Twins won two of those games. He was scheduled to start last Friday, but did not due to a death in the family or something, so he will be pitching on extra rest (He’s a sinkerball pitcher, and I’ve heard that extra rest isn’t always good for that type because it makes them too strong and their sinker doesn’t sink). If memory serves, the Tigers tend to beat him up when they’re at Comerica Park, but don’t do a lot against him in Minneapolis. Maggs and Cabrera have hit him particularly well (.400 for both of them). Inge has not (.214, but he has homered against him). Everyone else in the lineup is either at .250, .273, or has never faced him. Your Mood Music for tonight: It’s National Star Wars Day (so I learned on Facebook), so why not?

D-Train Gets It Done

Photo: Getty Images

I suppose there is something to be said for being the first team to win a series against the Twins. The Tigers did what teams like the Angels and Red Sox couldn’t do. Dontrelle Willis did a very nice job indeed. I mean, granted the Twins were missing Mauer and Morneau, but they still had some potent bats in there and Dontrelle was able to handle them, for the most part. It was somewhat reminiscent of his one-hitter against Texas last year, but that was a one-time thing. This year, he’s been fairly consistent, certainly more consistent than Tigers fans have ever seen him. Combine that with some good work by the ‘pen and you’ve got yourself a nice victory.

The Tigers didn’t exactly knock Carl Pavano around (that’s an understatement), but they did just enough. The scoring of runs, for the most part, involved Austin Jackson, Johnny Damon, Scott Sizemore, and Don Kelly. They weren’t with the Tigers last year (except for Don Kelly, and he wasn’t with them all that much), so maybe they didn’t get the memo about Pavano’s dominance. One encouraging sign: Austin Jackson didn’t strike out this entire series. And of course, the big milestone was Magglio’s 2000^th hit, and he became the sixth Venezuelan to do so (three of the six are still active, which is interesting).

With the Twins gone, the Angels come to town. We just saw the Angels, which probably doesn’t bode well for the pitching staff. And first up is Rick Porcello, who had problems with the Angels the last time he saw them. Porcello’s one pitcher that has the numbers people and the scout-type people at odds. The stat geeks all say he’ll even out on his own because his peripheral stats are all good (more ground balls, more strikeouts, fewer home runs, fewer walks, etc). From an observational standpoint, it looks like he’s falling behind a lot of hitters and his sinker isn’t sinking. That sounds to me like a mechanical problem more than hitters adjusting to him. They’ve said he’s made some tweaks during his last side session, so we’ll see what happens. Joel Piñeiro will be starting for the Angels. He shut out the Tigers when they last met, but I thought the Tigers had a very good approach against him, just nothing to show for it. They should hold that same approach because it’s unlikely that something anomalous would happen again. However, it is a west coast team.

We're Starting to Make a Habit of This

Photo: AP

Things sounded kinda sucky when I got my lone update while at work. Okay, they sounded really sucky. The Tigers were down 6-1 and Max Scherzer was in the process of being removed from the game. I can’t give you my take on him, obviously, because he was gone while I was still at work. He didn’t walk anybody, but the Twins must’ve gotten him figured out or something. I don’t know. At any rate, things were slightly better when I got home, and after that they really took off. Kudos goes to Brad Thomas, who shut the door on the Twins when Scherzer was knocked out, as well as the rest of the bullpen.

I didn’t see the beginning of the comeback (when I got home, the score was 6-5), but I saw the important part of it. Of course, the whole thing got spurred on by the Span dropped ball that might not have been. I kinda think the umpire blew the call, because it looked to me like he dropped the ball on the exchange. However, Span’s back was turned to the field so I have no idea how the ump would see this. And then the floodgates opened. First, a walk to Magglio to load the bases, followed by a Miguel Cabrera hit-by-pitch to tie the game, and then three straight doubles (and all three of them were absolute ropes). One interesting stat from Jason Beck: The Tigers are 9-5 in games where they don’t get a quality start from their starter, but only 3-5 in games where they do. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, but then again, neither does a lot about this team (and that’s both good and bad).

Okay, so this afternoon’s game is a very unlikely rubber match, but again, the Tigers’ bullpen is just about stretched to the limit. They need Dontrelle Willis to give them some innings. The Twins have drawn a lot of walks this season. Dontrelle has been known to walk people. Might not be such a good combination. In addition, he wasn’t very sharp in his last appearance, but there were two major confounding variables that make that hard to assess. First, he was sick. Second, he was pitching out of the bullpen, which is an unfamiliar situation. He’s only made one start against the Twins, which came last year and he lasted less than five innings (but didn’t give up that much in terms of runs) in a game which lasted 13 innings. Therefore, most of the Twins have at-bats against him, but not that many. Some former Rays and National League guys have a better sample. Other than Orlando Hudson having some success against him, nothing really stands out. He’s just gotta throw strikes. And then there’s Carl Pavano. No need to rehash what happened last year. If it’s any consolation, the Tigers finally figured him out in the final week of the season. Hopefully that carries over. Inge, Maggs, and Damon have all hit him well, for what it’s worth. And Magglio is one hit away from 2000 in his career, but he is being bothered by an abdominal strain. Still, he is in the lineup as of 12:20 PM.

At Least It Wasn't 8-6

And even though that same-score win/loss pattern has been broken, I still despise getting shut out. Justin Verlander did look better. He threw a lot of pitches, but they were pitches that looked quite good. He reached 3-ball counts on several batters, though the only walks he gave up were to Jim Thome (which I don’t really get; much has been made over the seven home runs he’s given up to him, but Thome doesn’t hit him for a really high average, and Justin knows this). He had completely mastery over Justin Morneau. Tigers’ pitching walked too many (Minnesota stranded a TON of baserunners in this game), but they held Mauer and Morneau hitless, something that’s hard to do and if you do it, you should win. However, they didn’t get a lot of help from their friends, as both Minnesota runs scored on errors. And it wasn’t even a matter of “speed kills.” Raburn just flat-out missed the ball, and Scott Sizemore rushed a throw on the slowest guy in the Twins’ lineup.

I still can’t comment about anything Francisco Liriano has done with any other lineup (though I hope he doesn’t get the Cy Young), because he was pretty much the same as I’ve always seen him against the Tigers. If there was any difference it was maybe that he was a little more efficient. And there were a ton of strikeouts looking. Either there was a favorable strike zone or Liriano was able to spot the slider on the outside corner with regularity. I don’t know, maybe his past success against them just gets into the Tigers’ heads? At any rate, in all irony of ironies, on a night where the Tigers had 12 strikeouts, Austin Jackson broke his strikeout streak.

As I said, I wasn’t expecting a lot of offense off of Liriano, so the Tigers will try again tonight. Scott Baker is a pitcher they can usually score runs off of. Not a lot, but usually enough (generally 3 to 4 runs). At least, that’s been the case recently. And a lot of the Tigers have good numbers against him. Brandon Inge is the only one in tonight’s lineup that doesn’t. Given that, I was surprised to see that he’s 3-1 at Comerica Park with a respectable earned run average. And I remember the one loss. It was a 1-0 game that the Tigers won on a Marcus Thames home run (a rare ESPN win for the Tigers). Perhaps all the offense I’m remembering happened at the Metrodome? He did pitch game 163 last year, and I have seen at least two articles this morning that mentioned what a “masterful” job he did in that game. Huh? I don’t remember seeing any mention of the sort last year. All the buzz was around Rick Porcello. At any rate, Max Scherzer will face the Twins for the first time in his career. As such, only two Twins have ever faced him. Orlando Hudson is 1-for-8 with a double, and JJ Hardy is 1-for-4 with a home run. You’re on your own for the beginning of this one, kids. I’ll be at work.

2010 and the AL Central: September/October

This is what it all comes down to, doesn’t it? As we learned the hard way in 2009, sometimes all it takes is one month. Which is why you work real hard the rest of the season to make sure you’ve either got a big cushion (if you’re leading the division) or you keep it close enough to give yourself a chance (if you’re in second or third place). So let’s see how that final stretch maps out for each team:

Tigers
September 3-5 (Fri-Sun): @ Kansas City Royals (3)
September 6-9 (Mon-Thu): vs. Chicago White Sox (4)
September 10-12 (Fri-Sun): vs. Baltimore Orioles (3)
September 13 (Mon): Off-day
September 14-15 (Tue-Wed): @ Texas Rangers (2)
September 16 (Thu): Off-day
September 17-19 (Fri-Sun): @ Chicago White Sox (3)
September 20-22 (Mon-Wed): vs. Kansas City Royals (3)
September 23 (Thu): Off-day
September 24-26 (Fri-Sun): vs. Minnesota Twins (3)
September 27-29 (Mon-Wed): @ Cleveland Indians (3)
September 30-October 3 (Thu-Sun): @ Baltimore Orioles (4)

Contrary to popular belief, the Tigers didn’t collapse in September. They went 17-16 in September and October combined, which is what everyone said they had to do (they were really bipolar about it, with lengthy winning and losing streaks, but still). Just like in 2009, the final month of the regular season will be jam-packed with the AL Central. They’ll play each division foe at least once, and they’ll have to deal with the Royals (who like to screw with us in September) and the White Sox twice. And that’s how the month begins: A series in Kansas City followed by a return home to meet the Sox for a four-game series. After they depart, the Orioles come to Comerica Park for a second time (which seems really random, and I’m guessing it’s the result of the high number of two-game series the Tigers play in 2010). Then there’s the other off-day/2-game series/off-day sequence of the year (the good thing about this is that it provides the Tigers with ample rest down the stretch). After that brief 2-game stay in Arlington, they journey to the Cell to see the White Sox one more time. September 20th marks the beginning of the final homestand, which’ll feature visits from the Royals and Twins (That point I made about playing well against your own division? Yeah. It comes into play right here). Unlike 2009, where the Tigers seemingly had the advantage by concluding the season at home (this was nullified once a tiebreaker became necessary), they’ll have to do it the hard way in 2010: on the road. Their last seven games are away from Comerica Park. They are against teams that are not expected to be contenders, but if you’re the Tigers, you can’t think that way at all. At the same time, though, they ARE teams you must take advantage of and based on how the Tigers’ September opponents did in 2009, they have the easiest schedule in the Central. At any rate, they wrap up the 2010 regular season with three at Progressive Field and then four (not one, as other sites have reported) at Camden Yards (and hopefully they’ll be busy getting ready for the postseason during this road trip). Do I need to stress the importance of playing better on the road?
Home games: 13
Road games: 15
Detroit’s 2009 record against opposition: 51-39
Combined 2009 winning percentage of opponents: .459

White Sox
September 2 (Thu): Off-day
September 3-5 (Fri-Sun): @ Boston Red Sox (3)
September 6-9 (Mon-Thu): @ Detroit Tigers (4)
September 10-12 (Fri-Sun): vs. Kansas City Royals (3)
September 13 (Mon): Off-day
September 14-16 (Tue-Thu): vs. Minnesota Twins (3)
September 17-19 (Fri-Sun): vs. Detroit Tigers (3)
September 20-22 (Mon-Wed): @ Oakland Athletics (3)
September 23 (Thu): Off-day
September 24-26 (Fri-Sun): @ Los Angeles Angels (3)
September 27-30 (Mon-Thu): vs. Boston Red Sox (4)
October 1-3 (Fri-Sun): vs. Cleveland Indians (3)

By September, whereas the Tigers and Twins will be done with the AL East’s “three-headed monster” (Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays…Seriously, could any of you imagine me typing that about three years ago?), Chicago still has seven games left with the Red Sox. Like the Tigers, they also get a healthy dose of the AL Central down the stretch as well. Their September starts with what could be a grueling road trip through Boston and Detroit. However, after that they start a nine-game homestand where it’s all AL Central all the time (Royals, Twins, and Tigers). By the way, if you haven’t noticed, they have a ton of home games in September/October. Their final road trip of the year takes them out to the west coast to face the A’s and Angels. While the Tigers have to finish the year on the road, the final seven games for the White Sox will be at home. They’ll square off with the Red Sox for four, and then finish 2010 the way they started: a three-game series against the Indians.
Home games: 17
Road games: 13
Chicago’s 2009 record against opposition: 47-51
Combined 2009 winning percentage of opponents: .502

Indians
September 2-5 (Thu-Sun): @ Seattle Mariners (4)
September 6-8 (Mon-Wed): @ Los Angeles Angels (3)
September 9 (Thu): Off-day
September 10-12 (Fri-Sun): vs. Minnesota Twins (3)
September 13 (Mon): Off-day
September 14-16 (Tue-Thu): vs. Los Angeles Angels (3)
September 17-19 (Fri-Sun): @ Kansas City Royals (3)
September 20-22 (Mon-Wed): @ Minnesota Twins (3)
September 23-26 (Thu-Sun): vs. Kansas City Royals (4)
September 27-29 (Mon-Wed): vs. Detroit Tigers (3)
September 30 (Thu): Off-day
October 1-3 (Fri-Sun): @ Chicago White Sox (3)

For a while, it looked as though the Indians were gonna do what they’ve done for most of the past several years and have a good second half. I mean, they had a decent August (15-12). Then September rolled around and they went 7-25. Now THAT’S a collapse. And yes, they get a good dose of the Central in the final month of 2010 as well. They’ll begin September on the west coast with a four game series in Seattle followed by a three-game series in Anaheim (This’ll end 16 games with no break). During the ensuing homestand, they’ll have an off-day/3-game series/off-day sequence, which is not as wacky as what Detroit has, but still. The opponents on this homestand include the Twins and Angels. They then head on the road for six, visiting Kansas City and Minnesota. Their final homestand of the season features a four-game series against the Royals, followed by a three-game series against the Tigers (at which point the Indians will probably just be happy to be facing a team that is NOT the Royals, Twins, or Angels). They end their season on the road in Chicago. If the Indians are in contention, they’ll have to work for it down the stretch. They’re on the road a lot, and they have the toughest schedule of anyone in the division.
Home games: 13
Road games: 16
Cleveland’s 2009 record against opposition: 38-50
Combined 2009 winning percentage of opponents: .512

Twins
September 3-5 (Fri-Sun): vs. Texas Rangers (3)
September 6-8 (Mon-Wed): vs. Kansas City Royals (3)
September 9 (Thu): Off-day
September 10-12 (Fri-Sun): @ Cleveland Indians (3)
September 13 (Mon): Off-day
September 14-16 (Tue-Thu): @ Chicago White Sox (3)
September 17-19 (Fri-Sun): vs. Oakland Athletics (3)
September 20-22 (Mon-Wed): vs. Cleveland Indians (3)
September 23 (Thu): Off-day
September 24-26 (Fri-Sun): @ Detroit Tigers (3)
September 27-29 (Mon-Wed): @ Kansas City Royals (3)
September 30-October 3 (Thu-Sun): vs. Toronto Blue Jays (4)

Oh, yes, indeed. All it takes is one month sometimes. Sometimes you can hover near the .500 mark all season and then inexplicably go 17-4 down the stretch. Remember when I said that even if the Royals and Indians aren’t contending, they’re going to have a lot to do with who wins the Central? Yeah, you see it now (By the way, if Detroit is out of it in September, I don’t think they’ll have a lot to say about the division race because history indicates they suck at playing spoiler). Plus, Minnesota has a ton of home games in September AND they end the season at home. They have home series against the Rangers and Royals to start the month. They’ll embark on a six-game road trip after that, which takes them to Cleveland and Chicago. The Twins return home on the 17th to host the A’s, followed by the Indians. After their final off-day on the 23rd, their final road trip involves three against the Tigers, followed by three against the Royals (boy, they sure do see Cleveland and Kansas City a LOT in September). As I said before, they end their season at home with four against the Blue Jays. So as you can see, between the large number of home games and the ease of the opponents based on 2009 results (not as easy as Detroit’s, but still very sub-.500), the conditions are ripe for another huge September surge for the Twins.
Home games: 16
Road games: 12
Minnesota’s 2009 record against opposition: 59-42
Combined 2009 winning percentage of opponents: .469

Royals
September 2 (Thu): Off-day
September 3-5 (Fri-Sun): vs. Detroit Tigers (3)
September 6-8 (Mon-Wed): @ Minnesota Twins (3)
September 9 (Thu): Off-day
September 10-12 (Fri-Sun): @ Chicago White Sox (3)
September 13-15 (Mon-Wed): vs. Oakland Athletics (3)
September 16 (Thu): Off-day
September 17-19 (Fri-Sun): vs. Cleveland Indians (3)
September 20-22 (Mon-Wed): @ Detroit Tigers (3)
September 23-26 (Thu-Sun): @ Cleveland Indians (4)
September 27-29 (Mon-Wed): vs. Minnesota Twins (3)
September 30-October 3 (Thu-Sun): vs. Tampa Bay Rays (4)

Is it just me, or do the Oakland Athletics show up a lot against the AL Central in September? At any rate, the Royals went 14-15 in September/October 2009, though that featured a hot streak that occurred at the most inconvenient of times for the Tigers. The rough finished featured being swept at the Metrodome, the turning point of which was a bad decision by Zack Greinke to pitch to Joe Mauer with a base open and two outs in a scoreless game (So in a battle of the Cy Young winner vs. the batting champ, the batting champ wins? I thought good pitching was supposed to beat good hitting). At any rate, their September starts with them at home against the Tigers. After that they head out on the road to Minnesota and Chicago. Following the six-game road trip is a six-game homestand against the A’s and Indians. The off-day on the 16th is their last of the year, as they’ll play the remaining seventeen games consecutively. Their final road trip takes them to Detroit and Cleveland. The Royals finish up 2010 at home with three against the Twins and four against the Rays.
Home games: 16
Road games: 13
Kansas City’s 2009 record against opposition: 35-55
Combined 2009 winning percentage of opponents: .489

2010 and the AL Central: August

Ah, August. The last hurrah before school starts again. It’s usually a busy month for me (my birthday, my annual trip to Comerica Park, etc). This is the month where the grind of the season starts to wear on some teams. Who will be the one to collapse in August 2010? Hopefully not Detroit.

Tigers

August 2 (Mon): Off-day
August 3-5 (Tue-Thu): vs. Chicago White Sox (3)
August 6-8 (Fri-Sun): vs. Los Angeles Angels (3)
August 9-11 (Mon-Wed): vs. Tampa Bay Rays (3)
August 12 (Thu): Off-day
August 13-15 (Fri-Sun): @ Chicago White Sox (3)
August 16-19 (Mon-Thu): @ New York Yankees (4)
August 20-22 (Fri-Sun): vs. Cleveland Indians (3)
August 23-25 (Mon-Wed): vs. Kansas City Royals (3)
August 26-29 (Thu-Sun): @ Toronto Blue Jays (4)
August 30 (Mon): Off-day
August 31-September 2 (Tue-Thu): @ Minnesota Twins (3)

The Tigers begin August with a Monday off-day before starting a nine-game homestand that’ll likely prove to be a challenging one. The White Sox come a-calling on my birthday, and the last time that happened, it was 2007 and it didn’t go so well (That was the first Tigers game I ever went to. They lost 7-4, three White Sox hit home runs and it was the only time I ever got to see Pudge play in person. The Tigers tend to lose on my birthday, although they won in 2009). After the White Sox depart, the Tigers will host the Angels and then the Rays. They have an off-day on the 12th, after which they’ll find themselves in a stretch of seventeen games in a row, beginning with a difficult seven-game road trip to U.S. Cellular Field and Yankee Stadium (and remember, the Yankees tend to be a much better second-half team). They then return home for three against the Indians (another team that usually does better in the second half) and three against the Royals (who tend to be a pain in the ass at the most inconvenient of times). They finish August on the road. Specifically, it’s a ten-game, three-city road trip that begins in Toronto (Wow, we go there in August and not April? That’s unheard of). The Tigers wrap up August in Minnesota. In recent history, August has generally not been kind to the Tigers. That was not really the case in 2009, as they finished the month 16-13. Hopefully that starts a new trend.
Home games: 15
Road games: 14
Detroit’s 2009 record against opposition: 53-50
Combined 2009 winning percentage of opponents: .505

White Sox

August 2 (Mon): Off-day
August 3-5 (Tue-Thu): @ Detroit Tigers (3)
August 6-9 (Fri-Mon): @ Baltimore Orioles (4)
August 10-12 (Tue-Thu): vs. Minnesota Twins (3)
August 13-15 (Fri-Sun): vs. Detroit Tigers (3)
August 16 (Mon): Off-day
August 17-19 (Tue-Thu): @ Minnesota Twins (3)
August 20-22 (Fri-Sun): @ Kansas City Royals (3)
August 23 (Mon): Off-day
August 24-26 (Tue-Thu): vs. Baltimore Orioles (3)
August 27-29 (Fri-Sun): vs. New York Yankees (3)
August 30-September 1 (Mon-Wed): @ Cleveland Indians (3)

August killed the White Sox in 2009. They went 11-17, culminating in a hellish road trip to Boston, New York, and Minneapolis that completely took them out of contention. August 2010 gives them a fair amount of the East and a lot of the Central. They begin in Detroit for three before heading to Baltimore. I should point out that August features the second of only two long stretches with no break for the entire season for the White Sox (The schedule was kind to them in that regard). They return home on the 10th to face the Twins, followed by the Tigers. They’ll see Minnesota again on their next road trip, as well as Kansas City. After their off-day on the 23rd, they’ll have a six-game homestand that features the Orioles and the Yankees. The White Sox finish up August in Cleveland with three games against the Indians. The Sox have slightly more road games than home games in August, but they’ll be seeing a lot of the same teams twice, and they have the easiest schedule of the Central in terms of winning percentage.
Home games: 12
Road games: 15
Chicago’s 2009 record against opposition: 41-47
Combined 2009 winning percentage of opponents: .483

Indians

August 2-5 (Mon-Thu): @ Boston Red Sox (4)
August 6-8 (Fri-Sun): vs. Minnesota Twins (3)
August 9 (Mon): Off-day
August 10-12 (Tue-Thu): vs. Baltimore Orioles (3)
August 13-15 (Fri-Sun): vs. Seattle Mariners (3)
August 16 (Mon): Off-day
August 17-19 (Tue-Thu): @ Kansas City Royals (3)
August 20-22 (Fri-Sun): @ Detroit Tigers (3)
August 23 (Mon): Off-day
August 24-26 (Tue-Thu): vs. Oakland Athletics (3)
August 27-29 (Fri-Sun): vs. Kansas City Royals (3)
August 30-September 1 (Mon-Wed): vs. Chicago White Sox (3)

The Indians will be at Fenway Park for four games to begin August. They’ll then return home for a nine-game homestand against the Twins, Orioles, and Mariners. Following the off-day on the 16th, they’ll head out on the road, visiting Kansas City and Detroit. They have another off-day on the 23rd, followed by a nine-game homestand against the A’s, Royals, and White Sox that’ll take them right into September. The Indians have a TON of home games in August, and as I said earlier, the Indians tend to be a better second-half team (even if they are out of contention at this point, these two facts make them a dangerous team). In 2007, they ran away with the Central crown after spending most of the first half in a tight back-and-forth battle with the Tigers. In 2008, they recovered from an awful first half (during which last place seemed all but assured) to finish the season in third place at exactly 81-81. It looked like they were going to do the same in 2009. After going 12-12 in July, they went 15-12 in August (the only month they had that was north of .500). Then September came, but that’s a story better suited for next time.
Home games: 18
Road games 10
Cleveland’s 2009 record against opposition: 45-60
Combined 2009 winning percentage of opponents: .490

Twins

August 2-5 (Mon-Thu): @ Tampa Bay Rays (4)
August 6-8 (Fri-Sun): @ Cleveland Indians (3)
August 9 (Mon): Off-day
August 10-12 (Tue-Thu): @ Chicago White Sox (3)
August 13-15 (Fri-Sun): vs. Oakland Athletics (3)
August 16 (Mon): Off-day
August 17-19 (Tue-Thu): vs. Chicago White Sox (3)
August 20-22 (Fri-Sun): vs. Los Angeles Angels (3)
August 23-26 (Mon-Thu): @ Texas Rangers (4)
August 27-29 (Fri-Sun): @ Seattle Mariners (3)
August 30 (Mon): Off-day
August 31-September 2 (Tue-Thu): vs. Detroit Tigers (3)

The Twinkies will be on the road to start off August (a ten-game, three-city road trip, to be exact). After a four-game series at the Trop, they head on up to Progressive Field for three, and finish up at the Cell. They then return home for nine. Their homestand features visits from the A’s, White Sox, and Angels. After long stays both on the road and at home, their next road trip is a bit shorter (seven games) and features visits to Arlington and Seattle. The end of August marks the beginning of another nine-game homestand for the Twins (most of which will be in September). We’ll be the first opponent. As you can see, the Twins will be on the road a lot in August and it’s a difficult schedule in terms of the teams they’re facing, but they are also teams that they did well against in 2009.
Home games: 12
Road games: 17
Minnesota’s combined 2009 record against opposition: 51-45
Combined 2009 winning percentage of opponents: .507

Royals
August 2-4 (Mon-Wed): @ Oakland Athletics (3)
August 5 (Thu): Off-day
August 6-8 (Fri-Sun): @ Seattle Mariners (3)
August 9-11 (Mon-Wed): @ Los Angeles Angels (3)
August 12-15 (Thu-Sun): vs. New York Yankees (4)
August 16 (Mon): Off-day
August 17-19 (Tue-Thu): vs. Cleveland Indians (3)
August 20-22 (Fri-Sun): vs. Chicago White Sox (3)
August 23-25 (Mon-Wed): @ Detroit Tigers (3)
August 26 (Thu): Off-day
August 27-29 (Fri-Sun): @ Cleveland Indians (3)
August 30-September 1 (Mon-Wed): vs. Texas Rangers (3)

The Royals begin August with a nine-game west coast swing. Their series with the A’s to kick off the month marks the end of a 20-game stretch with no off-day. They then visit Seattle and Anaheim before coming back to KC for a ten-game homestand against the Yankees, Indians, and White Sox (August features a lot of the West and a lot of the Central for the Royals). This is followed up by a six-game road trip to Detroit and Cleveland. They finish up the month at home with a three-game series against the Rangers. This’ll be a challenging month for the Royals. They’ll be on the road slightly more than at home, but it includes a long west coast trip and series against several teams that are expected to be in the playoff chase. Not surprisingly, the Royals are forecasted to have the most difficult August schedule of the AL Central teams.
Home games: 13
Road games: 15
Kansas City’s combined 2009 record against opposition: 39-54
Combined 2009 winning percentage of opponents: .522