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: 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 Indians and Rockies 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! So sorry to see you go…”

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 93^rd 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 3^rd 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.

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…

For the 2nd time in a month The Tigers have put up 19 runs in a game. Of course, there weren’t a whole lot of victories between those two games…but when the bats are on, it’s exciting.

Magglio was pulled early out of respect for the MLB record books (and more likely, a need to have him fresh for tomorrow’s game) after going 3 for 3 with 2 home runs and 6 RBI. Since Leyland went bat-shit crazy, Detroit has gone 4-1 putting up 53 runs in 5 games. Here’s to your bat-shit craziness, Jim!

But the most impressive thing for me was the sell-out crowd. This was on a day where The Detroit Red Wings were playing in game 1 of The Stanley Cup Finals, and The Detroit Pistons were playing in game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals - all in Detroit! The fact that The Tigers could sell out a night game with all of these things going on in Detroit is a true testament to this city being the sports capital of the world! Of course - it’s also the murder capital, the city with the lowest graduation rate in a non-third world country, has the highest level of unemployment this side of Mogadishu, and the highest rate of foreclosures in the world…but how ’bout our sports teams! It’s….really something to be #1 in so many areas.

But back to the game. Boof Bonser got tagged for 9 runs, getting pulled in the 4th with bases loaded. His relief didn’t do much better. It was an offensive onslaught. all 19 runs came in the first 5 innings, and The Tigers looked like they lost interest after that - probably went to the clubhouse to watch the Wings beat Pittsburgh in game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. It didn’t matter.

So let’s see where the batting averages are now

As a team, The Tigers are 7th in the MLB with a team batting average of .270 and 6th in the MLB in runs scored at 245. Individually, here’s how they stack up:

*Ramon Santiago .353 (*only 34 AB)
Magglio Ordonez .330
Placido Polanco .294 (amazing, after that horrendous start)
Carlos Guillen .288
Edgar Renteria .284
Miguel Cabrera .282
Ivan Rodriguez .275
Ryan Raburn .257
Matt Joyce .256
Marcus Thames .254
Curtis Granderson .245 (WTF!)
Brandon Inge .229
Gary Sheffield .208 (improving, but has a looong way to go)

But before we get excited, let’s look at the pitching. Team ERA is 2nd to last in the MLB at 4.90 and have served up the 2nd fewest strikeouts in all of baseball. The Pirates hold the distinction of being #1 in both of those categories. So although the hitting seems to be turning around, the pitching hasn’t. There is still a long way to go.

Jeremy Bonderman lasted 4 whole innings, giving up 6 hits, 4 walks and 5 earned runs. When Dontrelle Willis comes back, Dombrowski is going to have to do something with one of these starters - DL, or reassignment (or trade). I would like to place my vote that the one pitcher they need to keep is Armando Galarraga. I’m not really sure if I care what they do with the rest of the lot.

It didn’t help that the vaunted Tigers line-up couldn’t hit Darrell Rasner. The Yanks seem to have a good young pitcher in Rasner, who moved to 2-0 with 3.00 ERA. Matt Joyce did hit his first career homer - congratulations! You get your picture up, now keep at it. You’ve already surpassed Jacque Jones (not that it’s saying a lot).

But in the end, the Tigers found a way to lose to an undermanned Yankees line-up, allowing them to snap their 6 game losing streak. The Yankees are playing horribly right now, but come to think of it - not as bad as Detroit.

Try as he might, Todd Jones was not able to blow this save. Of course, it was a non-save opportunity, so maybe he just didn’t try hard enough. Going into the 9th inning up 6-2 was barely enough as the Tigers squeaked out a 6-5 win. He gave up four hits and one walk and has given up at least one run in 3 of his last 4 appearances. Not exactly awe-inspiring.

Earlier in the game, Kenny Rogers looked serviceable, and even managed to pick off his major league record 92nd runner, when he caught Wilson Betemit in the 2nd inning. He gave up only 2 earned runs, giving Detroit a chance to win.

The player of the game though, was Pudge. In an unorthodox move, Leyland batted Pudge at lead-off, and it paid off with Pudge going 3-4 with a walk, driving in 2 and scoring twice.

In other news, Sheffield got his 1,583 RBI, tying Detroit Tiger great Al Kaline for 35th place in major league history. The way he’s been hitting lately, it doesn’t look like he’ll climb too much further up that list.

How sweet it is! To think that Denny McClain was pitching the last time the Tigers went into the Bronx and swept The Yankees, helps to understand how historical this win was. The fact that it was their last trip to the soon-to-be-demolished Yankee Stadium, makes it that much sweeter.

At The Fort Street Brewery, we had the Pistons on as well, watching them eliminate the 76ers from the playoffs, and later - The Red Wings were on their way to sweeping The Colorado Avalanche out as well. But it was The Tigers that took center stage. That says something about the love of baseball in this town. We’re 5 months from baseball playoffs, and The Tigers took prominence over the playoff advances of both The Pistons and The Red Wings.

Congratulations Detroit.

Placido’s bat has really started to come around, and over the last week has returned to 2007 form. The importance of this can not be underestimated. Having Granderson and Polanco at the top of the line-up, setting the table for Ordonez and Cabrera is a sure recipe for success. Polanco went 4-5 and scored twice.

Better that that - Jeremy Bonderman pitched his best game of the year, going 7 2/3 innings and only allowing the two runs in the 1st. If Bonderman and Verlander can pitch the way they have for their last two starts, Detroit has a chance to do some good things.

Detroit needed this win, and wouldn’t it be oh-so-sweet to see the Tigers make their last trip to “The House That Ruth Built” a sweep? They haven’t swept The Yankees in The Bronx since 1966, so history is not on our side…

In other news, The Tigers traded Jason Grilli to Colorado (Good luck with your ERA there, Mr. Grilli), in exchange for a RHP in the minors named Zachary Simons. We’ll see how that works out, but more importantly, maybe that leaves room for Armando Galarraga after Dontrelle comes back from the DL.