… And that strategy is to abuse Justin Verlander’s arm for no reason whatsoever as the team loses a sixth straight game and falls 8.5 games out of first place, effectively ending that fraud they pretended was a chance at winning the division.

White Sox 5
Tigers 1

• Just for the record, Verlander threw 130 pitches. … Why? I guess because the bullpen needed a rest after Tuesday night. But why would you do that to your star pitcher’s arm needlessly? It’s not like you’re in a pennant race or playoff game here. Use a reliever or two, call someone up. THIS SEASON DOESN’T MATTER ANY MORE.
• Verlander mostly did fine, of course. He gave up a 3-run home run in the first inning, which sealed the deal on the game. But soonafter he recorded 12 straight outs. He finished the night with eight strikeouts. Two of his runs scored with two outs in the eighth off Aquilino Lopez.
• The Tigers ran into a fine pitcher in John Danks, of course, but they also ran out a lineup featuring Ryan Raburn at leadoff, Dane Sardinha at catcher, and black holes Edgar Renteria and Gary Sheffield.
• Raburn was coming off a career night, but that doesn’t mean I want him leading off.
• And thanks for making those speeches about holding guys accountable, Leyland. We fans appreciate watching this crap continue to do nothing in games.
• OK, to be fair, Sheffield drove in the Tigers’ only run and had one of the team’s five hits. He also got caught in a double play on a popup hit to the shortstop.
• It’s sad when the team’s goals go from world series to playoffs to not finishing under .500. Well, they’re 3 games under .500 now.
• Hopefully they’ll avoid the sweep. … yeah.
• This team is incredibly hard to watch and when you get right down to it, not giving anyone a lot of reason to bother.

Update:

• Verlander leads baseball in the Baseball Prospectus’ statistic Pitcher Abuse Points, Bilfer pointed out. As you can imagine, this is not a good thing.

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Carlos Guillen is the Tigers’ lone representative at the all star game, a far cry from last year’s five Tigers. Truth be told, it’s hard to make an argument for anyone else being on the team. Armando Gallaraga has pitched great but that was always going to be a long shot. Placido Polanco had to compete with some pretty decent second baseman, too. On the bright side, the players will get to rest and try to make up some of that distance in the A.L. Central.

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AL 5, NL 4

Hmm, nearly a blown game in the ninth inning. Looked sorta familiar. This time it was JJ Putz of Seattle and K-Rod of the Angels who tried to burn the AL and lose home-field advantage in the World Series. Fortunately for Detroit (we hope) the AL held on for a 10th straight win. Of course, we also found out last year, it may not really matter who has Game 1 of the Fall Classic at home.

As for the game, well, typical overproduced game. Too many things distracted Fox’s annoying announcers from the actual game, which, well, let’s face it, is still an exhibition. The best solution for the game would be allowing managers to re-insert players, that way everyone can get in and we don’t watch a game “that counts” end with Albert Pujols on the bench with a chance to win the game. Maybe we can blame Tony La Russa for that, but what if it went into extra innings?

The Tigers played but didn’t do much. Justin Verlander gave up a run in relief and hit 100 on the radar gun. Carlos Guillen played a lot but didn’t hit much, not that any other Tigers did anything too exciting at the plate. Pudge got a hit. That’s it. Not much else Detroit-wise went on that I can recall. Ultimately, everyone came out healthy, so that’s what counts.

Of note, Ichiro’s in-the-park home run was pretty cool.

Box

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and other All-Star notes… and I swear I didn’t steal Ian’s headline! Great minds think alike!

If you read the blog comments or forums, the scare associated with the home run derby is that it messes up swings. Whether it really does or not — evidence both ways — nobody wanted to see Maggs come in with the best average in the majors and come out a hacking mess.

He obliged Tigers fans by showing off how well he can line drive the ball to the outfield. That’s a bit short for the home run derby, of course. He finished with two homers and 10 outs. He was eliminated first.

But the swing is fine.

I didn’t actually watch the home run derby. I didn’t watch after his two home runs. I didn’t watch before. I lucked into the timing of seeing him walk up to the plate, so I actually did catch his few minutes on screen. Of course, it was a split screen with Barry Bonds, so ESPN hardly acknowledged Maggs while they nattered on, bothering Bonds about one thing or another. I wonder if his passive-aggressive act draws it out of the media. In any case, the obsession is old and shouldn’t have been allowed to take away from Tigers fans enjoying our guy in the HR derby.

Leyland announces lineup

Jim Leyland started Dan Haren of Justin Verlander, a move I think makes good sense. Haren is having a heck of a season and had a pretty good one last year too. More run support, he’d easily match the best in the AL for record, which means nothing. So Leyland picked the right guy. He also put the Tigers batters at the bottom of the order. Apparently he doesn’t want to appear to be playing favorites. Well, “half jokingly” as the term used. I think maybe he thinks of himself as host of the AL and is letting other players get the first thrills. Really, who knows.

Maggs deserved to be higher. Still, I don’t think it’s a big deal or anything. It’s just the All-Star game, even if we like to pretend “it counts.”

From Who? to All-Star

Admit it. When the Tigers traded for Placido Polanco, you said “Who?” I think baseball fans were still saying that long after we learned just who is he and how good he is. The PA Sportsticker baseball writer follows the “Polly” storyline from Philly to Detroit to San Francisco.

It appears Polanco will play in the game after being injured Saturday. That’s a good sign. Not just for Polly or for our viewing habits, but especially for when the Tigers take on Seattle after the break.

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Vote Bondo!

Bonderman, who apparently can care less, needs the same support Placido Polanco got when he surged into the the role of starting second baseman for the American League, so go to the link to vote as much as you can. Hopefully it works. You can try Tigers.com if it doesn’t.

After the first day’s voting, Bondo is in first place. So I think there’s a pretty good shot at him becoming a sixth Tigers player at the All-Star Game next week.

Also, props to the fans who wrote in Curtis Granderson — nearly 400,000 votes is a pretty good showing for a guy left off the ballot.

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As announced on TBS:

Starting Tigers:

C Pudge Rodriguez

2B Placido Polanco

OF Magglio Ordonez

Bench Tiger:

SS Carlos Guillen

Pitching Tiger:

SP Justin Verlander

To be named?

Jeremy Bonderman may be voted on for the at-large spot.

My thoughts:

Gary Sheffield probably deserved it too, but it’s great that those five guys made the team. Jim Leyland did not select a single Tiger, all were picked by fans and players. So I think that’s pretty cool, too.

Update: The more I think about it, the more I think Curtis Granderson deserved it. I thought I mentioned that to begin with and noticed I didn’t. He added a 15th triple to his season total midway through the year. He’s on pace for 31. He also has 11 homers, the fifth most runs scored in the AL and the sixth highest slugging percentage. I think he’s too young to get his due — although I think Grady Sizemore was getting his at the same year in the league. But the Tigers had better make darn sure to put him on the ballot next year, because his play at the plate and in the field is truly deserving. I don’t think that alone kept Grandy from being voted in by fans or players, but he should be quickly gaining the name recognition for his play, and the ’star’ recognition for being all over the media. Grandy really is my definition of an All Star.

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Hmm. Paradoxical.

Welcome to all the new visitors, by the way. Hope you’ll come back from time to time!

A day later, it’s still amazing. A no hitter! Wow. We already knew since last year we had a special team to root for, one that’d we’re remember and talk about many years from now. We’re still waiting to put an exclamation mark behind the name some cold October night. But what a story so far, huh?

Even Drew Sharp forgot he was a serious, tie-wearing journalist and became a fan afraid to jinx the game like the rest of us. John Lowe captured the buildup pretty well.

Anyway, in my game, uhm, recap?, I realize I got the score wrong after six innings. Forgive me a moment of forgetitude. I have fixed the mistake in my official recollection of the game so I don’t recite things incorrectly 20 years from now.

Before we get too far, just allow me to say: This is all Danny Knobler’s doing. Well, not really. But some sort of Booth Newspapers psychic, he wrote Tuesday morning about how untouchable Verlander is. Talk about timely!
And some fine writing from Lynn Henning. We may not always like his analysis of the future, but I like his writing. He had nice articles for the News here and here. His lede:

Baseball has become Detroit’s soulmate during the past year. It excites, it inspires, it occasionally irritates, and it ultimately fulfills something inherently desired by a community that has a long love affair with the Tigers.

One thing I noticed. Maybe I don’t read enough no-hitter stories when other teams do it. I don’t know. I keep reading Verlander’s first no-hitter. Like it naturally assumes more are to follow. And you know what? As hard as they are to throw, I have no doubt in my mind, it’s Verlander’s first no-hitter. Not last.

The worst part of living in the far northern reaches? My News and Freep sports sections today probably missed it due to being an early edition. I’ll have to check to make sure.

Blogville

I’d like to send you everywhere in Tigers bloggerland all at once.

• Bilfer grabbed a few of the key things I left out. Such as the fact Verlander hit 102 MPH on the radar in the 9th inning. I saw that on the replay and wow. Just wow. (DTW)
• Eric grabbed screencaps as the sports sites tracked JV’s progress. (DTown)
• I was lucky to have the night off so I could watch. Mickey Tettleton Memorial Overpass? Not so lucky. He had class.
• Jason Beck voiced what I’m sure so many of us thought early on. If a no hitter could be a no doubter, you could see this one coming a mile away.
• Suddenly JV sounds so junior varsity for a nickname for the best pitcher on the staff. (No offense Jeremy. Now it’s your turn!)
• Samara probably conveys excitement as good as anyone. (Roar of the Tigers)
• Typically calm and understated, Lee used ALL CAPS! for his headline even at Tiger Tales.
• I’m sure there’s many more I’m missing. My apologies. Feel free to leave your links in the comments.

And the Brewers side of things:

They’re not on the radio up here anymore, a real disappointment because Bob Uecker is one of my favorite announcers to listen to. I’d have listnened to him while watching on FSN if I could have. The Freep has the calls by the announcers, Mr. Baseball included.

• The Journal Sentinel thought Verlander was incredible.
• Brew Crew Ball thought it was pretty cool.

National Media

Give them a day to fully soak it in and go from AP stories to their own. But Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com wrote Verlander is on a path to greatness.

And oh yes … Grandy blogs

ESPN’s own Tigers correspondent posted his blog about Verlander’s game. (Link to a print only entry for now)

The crowd (35,000-plus) was so loud it was very similar to, if not more than, the playoffs and World Series in terms of the noise and electricity. The Detroit fans were on their feet from about the sixth inning on. They were standing as Verlander took the field and as he walked off the field.

The thing that I almost missed in all this? Grandy hit a triple. ANOTHER. Just his third at home and he’s on pace for the mid 30s. This Tigers team is so incredibly exciting for so many reasons.

So I leave you with this poster Samara made for my favorite All-Star write-in candidate

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I’d feared a loss today, due to this being the final game of a road trip that began in late June. You’re bound for some sort of dropoff after that long on the road. So a home run and a seeing-eye single sunk Detroit in a 3-2 game to close off the nine game trip with a 5-4 record. Add in that Marcus Thames drew the off day, along with Pudge Rodriguez — I’m not underplaying it, but Vance Wilson has hit so well that I don’t want to say that’s a big dropoff, either — and the bats just struggled all day. In fact, all four Tigers hits came in just one inning. Still, I dug the 1969 throwback uniforms with Seattle wearing the Pilots.

Nate Robertson pitched well, a complete game even, but he gave up a 2-run home run on one of his few bad pitches for the day. And in the seventh inning, the single, — and it was, though the TV announcers thought it should be ruled an error, but that play just isn’t automatic — quite possibly would have been fielded on any other day but today. Defense isn’t automatic.

“We just haven’t hit the ball the last couple of days,” manager Jim Leyland said [as quoted by Jason Beck]. “A lot of lazy fly balls, balls in the air. Usually when you’re a little tired, you hit some lazy fly balls like that. They’re ready for a well-deserved break.”

So Detroit closed out the first half of the baseball season with a loss, but a very respectable 59-29 record.

Magglio Ordonez, Pudge, and the likely American League starting pitcher, Kenny Rogers, head off to the All-Star game in Pittsburgh.

Oh, and lest I forget, Humberto Sanchez pitched well as a starter for the World team in the Futures Game. Two strikeouts in a very quick inning. Too quick for me, I totally missed it. They could have used him for more innings, however, as Cameron Maybin and the USA team won, 8-5. Maybin (or as Daily Fungo pointed out and I noticed, “Marbin”) had a pair of hits in three at bats.

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I caught bits and pieces of the game on the radio but missed most of it, unfortunately. Kenny Rogers remained as close to perfect as you can get in Oakland when Detroit unleashed its bats to give him the run support lacking lately. Rogers wasn’t stellar, but he was good enough to earn his 11th victory for the year in a 10-4 game. Detroit dropped the series to Oakland, 2-1, and is 3-3 against them for the year. The rest will be settled in Detroit.

After the game, word began to spread that Rogers was selected by AL All-Star manager Ozzie Guillen to be the starting pitcher for the contest. I even saw a link on Yahoo Sports. But the story might have been retracted, because all I have seen since this AP story saying Rogers is in contention for the honors.

“I’m going to talk to Jim Leyland in the next couple of days and see how [Rogers] feels,” Guillen said Wednesday. “I think Kenny has been throwing the ball really well and I think he’s a guy in the right place to start because he pitched a couple of days early.”

The media would have plenty of storylines. Think of the visual! Defense (Pudge) and pitching (Rogers) account for why Detroit leads the MLB with 57 wins right now. On a not-as-Tiger related storyline, Rogers threw his perfect game with Pudge behind the plate, and these two players — Rogers in his twilight, Pudge nearing his — being able to play together as starters on a stage celebrating the best players would be quite a nice reward.

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White Sox and American League All-Star manager Ozzie Guillen is good to his word.  Magglio Ordonez said he accepted an invitation to join the All-Star team Tuesday. That makes three Tigers, as he joins Pudge Rodriguez and Kenny Rogers. (Hmm, three free agents).  Justin Verlander trails in the race for the vote-in slot, MLB.com reported.

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