What an amazing game. It’s rare to see a true pitchers duel, but it’s a wonderful thing when it happens. And to see Cabrera win it with a walk-off homer really felt good. So, should we start to believe again? Three straight pitching gems against the White Sox, leading to a sweep of the 1st place team has to count for something…

Not so fast. The Tigers are still 8 games under .500, and 8 games out of first. Granted, there are a lot of games left, and the Central doesn’t appear to be very strong this year. But what do we know about this team right now? Well, Bonderman is likely out for the season with a blood clot. It’s unfortunate, because he seemed to have turned things around. The only bright side to this – now Jim Leyland can’t steal anymore innings from the best pitcher on the staff – Armando Galarraga. However, Dontrelle Willis (21 walks in 11 inning pitched) is a bust, and has been sent down to A-Ball to see if he can regain his control (He can’t – he’s never had good control). So now we’re down 2 starters, and no – Rick Porcello is not ready for the Big Show. Technically, we’re only down 1 starter since Galarraga wasn’t factored into the rotation at the start of the season. But missing a starter is still a big deal. Who is going to pitch the 5th game of the rotation?

Second – Curtis Granderson has become very pitchable. Any pitcher worth his salt can strike Grandy out now, so there goes your spark plug.

Renteria has cooled off considerably, and is far from a defensive powerhouse. Cabrera has been hitting better, but nowhere near where we thought he would. Pudge is washed-up as a hitter and Vance Wilson’s career is over. Guilen’s defense is horrible. Inge’s offense is horrible. Gary Sheffield is on the DL – right where he belongs.

Now for the positive. Magglio Ordonez is hitting well, and Polanco has really heated up. The starting pitching had gotten better, but now we have to see what happens with Willis. Fernando Rodney should be back Monday, and Joel Zumaya in a week or two. But they aren’t going to help this team hit. And they may not be worth a damn pitching anymore, either.

The Tigers just won 3 in a row and that’s great, but how can we really expect the winning to continue? When you look at it unemotionally it becomes apparent that they are an overpaid, slow, terrible defensive team, and doesn’t score very many runs except in rare flashes.

Dombrowski is going to have to make some moves soon…

Justin Verlander finally got the monkey off his back. He looked almost unhittable through stretches of the game, giving up only 4 hits and no walks in a 101 pitch complete game. It was a truly masterful performance. To be fair – Justin looked great last time he pitched against the White Sox, but didn’t get the win. That all changed today, as he finally won a game in Chicago.

He was hammering the White Sox hitters with fastballs all night long. He mixed in a few change-ups here and there, but essentially dominated the Chicago line-up. It was his first complete game since the no hitter against the Brewers last year.

Thames, Guillen and Ordonez all came up big, but it was an at bat by Miguel Cabrera that impressed me the most. After falling behind 0-2, Miggy worked the count and got a lead off walk that took 14 pitches. Good things tend to happen when you make a pitcher waste 14 pitches on a walk.

Well, the win assures Detroit of actually winning the series, but a sweep would be so important right now. After losing Bonderman to the DL for who-knows how long, they need all the wins they can get. It will be interesting to see who takes Bonderman’s spot in the rotation.

It’s always good when you beat the first place team. The fact that Chicago was in the midst of a 7-game winning streak makes it even sweeter.

Nate Robertson actually looked pretty good, giving up three runs in 6 1/3 innings of work. He got a lot of big outs when the Tigers needed him to. Todd Jones finished up with the save.

Miguel Cabrera seems to be swinging the bat a little better, which could help this team go on a run. Two more games against the White Sox will certainly be a test though. If the Tigers win one of the next two games, they’ll have only gained a game on Chicago. Now if they could sweep…well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Clevlen came up big with an RBI, and showed off his cannon by throwing out a runner at the plate from left field.

In other news, the Tigers sent Dontrelle Willis all the way down to Single-A ball in Lakeland in hopes of him regaining some control. A day after giving up 8 earned runs and 5 walks in a little more than an inning against Cleveland, the Tigers finally decided they had enough. Thus far he has walked 21 batters in 11 1/3 innings. My 10-year old son has better control at this point.

I feel bad for him. He really needs something to build his confidence, and pitching a great game only to be left in too long and get no run support, surely isn’t going to help with that confidence. To be charged with 6 earned runs after all that is a slap in the face. A real pity. Detroit needs Justin to be a workhorse if they’re going to do anything this year, and with Dontrelle being place on the 15 day DL, the fate of the Tigers starters is very much in doubt.

It looked like things were only going to get worse when Dontrelle went down with a knee injury facing the 2nd batter, but the bullpen finally stepped up and really looked good. Aquilino Lopez and Jason Grilli pitched seven innings of one-run ball which was completely unexpected, but sorely needed. The final numbers on the much maligned bullpen: nine innings pitched – one run, four hits, two walks and 10 strikeouts. Now that’s quality.

Now we need to see some consistency from these guys, and things might start to turn around.

0-6.

And now we get to go to Boston to see how we can do against the World Champion Red Sox – at Fenway no less.

Yeah, OK.

I hope these bats come around soon, because The Tigers are going to have to start scoring a whole lot if they want to get in the win column.

Here’s my prediction for the series finale: Tigers 9, White Sox 2. Now let’s see how good I am.

Tigers lose 8-5, what more is there to say? Where is Chet Lemon when we need him?

Sheff didn’t get a hit, but his presence in the line up will no doubt help in September (and hopefuly October). There’s no doubt that the return of Kenny Rogers and Gary Sheffield will make the Tigers better, provided they can stay healthy. The million dollar question though, is “Is it too late?”. Mathematically, no. And seeing the Angels crush the Indians certainly gives a warm fuzzy feeling. But we have to maintain a realistic perspective on this. The Indians will have to have a monumental collapse for the Tigers to catch them, or the Yankees will have to stop scoring 12 runs a game. That being said, todays win brought Detroit one game closer.

Chad Durbin was effective against a horrible White Sox line-up. But one glaring problem was Fernando Rodney. Hopefully it was just a bad day, but he who looked unhittable for awhile has now become less ferocious. We’ll see how this plays out down the stretch.

But for now we rejoice in two in a row. We’ll worry about all of these other things if they manage to get a little closer to Cleveland or the Yanks.