I have to admit that seeing Zumaya try to get this save made me a little nervous. You never want to see runners on first and second, up one run, and Joe Mauer up to bat. Needless to say, it proved to be another nail biter. But he pulled it off recording 5 outs for his first save in over a year. I guess Todd Jones taught him something other than pitching – how to keep it interesting.

Polanco and Guillen came up big with RBI’s in the 7th and Granderson came through in the clutch leading the way in the two run 8th inning that pushed the Tigers ahead of the Twins. Grandy’s RBI double drove in Matt Joyce, who had just scored Sheffield with a nasty triple. Like clockwork, the Tigers came through with more late-inning heroics. What needs to be realized is just how good Minnesota’s bullpen has been. They hadn’t given up a single run in the last 24 1/3 innings going back almost 2 weeks. To come back in that manner was really impressive, but to do so against the Twins was downright special.

The only team in baseball that has been playing as good as Detroit lately, is the Twins – so every one of these wins should be appreciated. The Twins beat the piss out of the NL just like Detroit did, going 13-2. This win put the Tigers 2 ½ back of Minnesota and still 5 back of Chicago.

One note of possible concern: Armando Galarraga hasn’t looked all that good in his last 2 starts. This guy really stepped up when Detroit needed someone to step up, so he should certainly get the benefit of the doubt. Something to watch for…

I don’t want to jump the gun. After all, only the Cardinals in that group are any good and they were a little banged up. But this team is starting to look a lot like they did in “06 with the late inning heroics and the role players coming through in the clutch. They’ve got a long way to go if they expect to make it to the post season, but they’ve gone from 12 games back to only 5 in the blink of an eye. I wouldn’t expect them to continue playing .800 baseball the rest of the way through, but 5 games back at the end of June is easy enough to overcome.

More importantly, if they are able to manage to get to the post season, I would hate to be the team playing them. Leyland can say what he wants about chemistry in baseball, but if you’re a fan, you’ve seen it before. The Tigers had chemistry in “06 and the Rockies and Indians had that Mojo going last year. Granted, they didn’t win it all, but they finished strong. And the Red Sox have had it ever since they came back on The Yankees in “04 down 3 games to nothing. They’ve got 2 championships to show for it in the last 4 years, so it does make a difference.

They may not score 1000 runs as many (myself included) expected, and they sure as hell ain’t the new Murderers Row (What the hell was I thinking), but they are starting to play really good baseball. They’re hitting well, and hitting timely. Before, they were scoring 19 runs in useless one sided games, then losing 4-1. Now they’re winning the close games.

The pitching staff will never be confused with the Braves from the 90’s, but the starting pitching has quietly gotten a helluva lot better in the last month. As bad as Rodney looked when he came back, he has begun to regain his control. Todd Jones, rollercoaster ride that he is, has only blown one save all year – and The Tigers came back and won the game anyway.

All of this leads me to one conclusion: There is a reason that Jim Leyland manages The Tigers, and I only write about it. Because he knows what he is doing, and most of us can only second guess it.

Dane Sardinha redeemed himself big time after a rally killing double play, by hitting the game winning triple. Huh? Damn right – Dane Sardinha. It was his first major league hit and the triple scored Thames and Renteria to win the game. Way to go, kid.

Kenny Rogers looked so-so at first but got better, and Dolsi and Todd Jones came in and pitched lights-out, combining to retire the last 17 Rockies in a row. The Rockies did it to themselves though. Bases loaded in the 3rd with no outs, and they failed to score. Can’t win games like that.

Magglio Ordonez was placed on the DL with a pulled oblique from last night’s game. The Tigers called Matt Joyce back up to replace him. First Inge, now Maggs…I hope this team’s health can hold up through the second half.

More on my love for the National League in my next post – “Thank You National League! Please Come Again…”

Pujols is eligible to come off the DL on Thursday, so this is one of those games that you’d kinda like to win. But it is baseball, and you can’t win ‘em all. We’ll see if they can turn this thing around tomorrow.

Kenny Rogers looked pretty rough, giving up 5 earned runs in 5 1/3. However, he did pick off his Major League Record 93rd runner. It never ceases to amaze me that teams still try to steal against Rogers.

The big news was of course, Sheffield was back off the DL. I am on record as stating that the Tigers have looked better without him, than they have with him. But he did hit a homerun in his return, albeit a meaningless one. I’ll hold my opinion for a couple of weeks to see if my mind is changed on this one. No disrespect to Sheff, but the Mendoza line must not be crossed – not this late in the season.

Cabrera and Pudge both hit homeruns, but the team never really seemed to click. Granderson extended his hitting streak to 12 games which means his average is climbing back to respectability. I don’t think DiMaggio has anything to worry about, though.

The 3rd largest crowd in Comerica Park history (44,446) witnessed a fitting tribute to the 1968 World Series (against St. Louis of course). Mickey Lolich threw out the first pitch to Bill Freehan. Too bad those two couldn’t have given the Tigers a hand on the field today.