Game 17: White Sox at Tigers
Pitching: Jose Contreras vs. Nate Robertson

Pregame thoughts – None

Postgame thoughts (Tigers lose, 7-5, 10 inn.) – Detroit dropped a third game in a row — its longest winning streak of the season — when the White Sox rallied after trailing, 4-0, on a first inning grand slam by Carlos Guillen. Half the Tigers’ eight losses have come in extra innings. Half the Tigers losses have been tagged to Fernando Rodney after he allowed two Sox to score in the 10th.

Nate Robertson pitched well for the first three innings before stumbling in the fourth. Just like Chad Durbin, Robertson got into trouble when he walked a pair of runners after a hit to load the bases with no outs. The White Sox will make you pay every time, and they put three runs on the board. Of course, I had to step away from the TV for an instant and miss Brandon Inge’s error, but a gather a double play — possibly triple play — may have helped save some runs.

Errors were about the only new storyline, as Tigers made three after they committed four the rest of the season. One was Robertson fooling Sean Casey with a pickoff move that caught Casey gloveless. That helped account for a two-out RBI after the runner advanced from second to third on a sac fly. Carlos Guillen bobbled a ball in the 10th. So there was definitely some unexpected sloppiness.

Meanwhile, it was nice to see Magglio Ordonez look better. The top of the lineup is starting to get it together. Otherwise Gary Sheffield still can’t hit. Nor can Sean Casey. Nor can Brandon Inge. Nor can Craig Monroe. Nor can…

It gets repetetive. Fortunately you can’t win the World Series in April, only lose it, and Detroit is not remotely near the lose-it category. They’re still clustered at the top of the A.L. Central despite everything.

I’ll have more thoughts on several of the most annoying topics Sunday.

Game 16: Chicago (7-7) at Detroit (9-6)
TV: FSN
Pitchers: John Danks (0-2, 3.97) vs. Chad Durbin (0-1, 12.46)

Pregame thoughts: This might be the last time we see Chad Durbin in the Tigers rotation. It might not, even if he struggles. It’s hard to say. The Tigers may just leave him in the rotation for another start or two while allowing the minor leaguers to warm up during the rest of April. He may pitch with his back to the wall and totally shut Chicago down, too. Sure, it seems unlikely. But stranger things have happened. I keep hearing claims he has “stuff” and if he brings it, maybe he belongs in the rotation. Big if, but we can be hopefully. After all, pitching depth is continent on having pitchers who can, er, pitch.

Far as the White Sox go, John Danks is the guy they traded Brandon McArthy for. I didn’t get it at the time, as he was their big pitching prospect. So far, the trade has worked for neither Texas or Chicago, but Danks has been a bit better so far.

The STATS preview brings up this interesting fact:

Konerko hit .350 (14-for-40) with three homers and 11 RBIs in 10 games in Detroit last season, and is batting .579 (11-for-19) with two doubles and seven RBIs in his career against Friday starter Chad Durbin.

Konerko, however, is struggling right now, with 12 strikeouts in 14 games to go with a .188 average. Sounds downright Tigerlike.

Ian has more on the Sox at Bless You Boys.

Also: Jose Mesa was placed on the disabled list. Aquilino Lopez, Toledo’s closer, will take his place. In seven games, he’s allowed no runs and has a .47 WHIP.

Postgame (Tigers lose, 5-4): Chad Durbin seemed to have done okay. For awhile. First eight batters were up and down. Then a homer. Then he did fine again. Then his team got him a 4-2 lead — sure, you get Durbin run support, but not Bonderman? — and he thought he’d give it all back the next half-inning. Without seeing the game, I don’t quite know why or how. The single, okay, I get that. But two straight walks? Was he nibbling the corners unsuccessfully or what? In any case, he loaded the bases with no outs and Jason Grilli promptly allowed a single to tie the game and that was that. 5 innings, 4 runs for Mr. Durbin. An improvement. Probably enough to buy him another look. I wonder if maybe he’d be better off in the bullpen for an inning or two at the most, not high leverage situations, but starting off the seventh sometimes, say. I don’t know. Wouldn’t hurt to try.

The offense put some runs on the board, mostly helped by Juan Uribe and Darin Erstad (I think) failing to catch a popup by Magglio Ordonez, which led to a run and then two more when Carlos Guillen singled to left. John Danks really shouldn’t be pegged with earned runs, that was ugly. Otherwise, there was a Brandon Inge homer.

Gary Sheffield had the tying run on third base and two outs in the ninth inning — a chance to be hero to the fans changing “Ga-ry” — but he struck out looking. Sheffield fell to a .125 average. That’s pretty awful. But people still struggle to hit. I’m starting to think a guy above the Mendoza line is a guy with a good batting average.

Bright spot, the recently called up Lopez went two innings without giving up a run.

Honestly, I didn’t expect to win this anyway. It’s nice the game was close. This was the ninth one-run game the Tigers were a part of.

South Side Sox has more 

Around the Central:

Kansas City 11, Minnesota 7 (whoa) — Three KC batters hit homers. Sidney Ponson struggled for th Twins, allowing six runs over 4-1/3 innings.

Cleveland 4, Tampa 3 — Travis Haffner was 3-for-3 for the Indians, had a homer, and drove the game-winning run in, in the ninth.

The White Sox, sporting a team of who-knows-who, really, and behind a near complete game by Jon Garland, beat Minnesota, 6-3.

Detroit’s magic number is one with two games against the Royals to go. A Tigers win tonight OR tomorrow, and we can all buy new T-shirts!

Go get ‘em Tigers!

Lost in the passing last night on this blog was the elimination of the 2005 World Series champion Chicago White Sox. Minnesota whipped the Royals. Cleveland whipped the Sox. Why do I bring this up? Because of the postseason implications.

But first, let me write a bit on Chicago. Before the season started, I looked at pitching staffs in the American League, especially those of the Sox and the Indians, as I thought they’d be the two playoff teams. I suspected Chicago would have a dropoff. Several pitchers had career years for the Sox in 2005. These weren’t young guys coming into a third or fourth year, either. These were veteran pitchers where you don’t espect sudden vast improvement. Good defense could lift them. But I didn’t see how they could continu eit for two years. Turns out they couldn’t. Still, I thought the extra runs would make up for allowing a few more and Chicago would be in position to defend its title. I never could have predicted the Sox’ bats would leave them midseason, and they’d drop as many close games as they did. And all that Sox magic that carried them through 2005 and early 2006 was gone, too. Of course, there’s really no such thing as magic. Teams perform in the clutch because they’re good, and because of some luck. Chicago was good. The Indians were much like the Sox, but with an even worse pitching staff in my estimation. Both teams must correct those problems in the offseason, or I suspect we’ll see the same two AL Central teams in the playoffs again next season.

Now, on to the ramifications of Monday’s games. The Twins are now 1 game behind (2, actually, because they must finish ahead of Detroit, not in a tie) the Tigers. They play the Royals, who seem like they ran out of gas after the August surge. And then Twins play the White Sox, who have not only run out of gas, they’ve run out of starters. Jermain Dye was injured this weekend. He played Monday, but we’ll have to see if he plays the whole week. Paul Konerko’s still having back problems. Jose Contreres was shut down for the season. Mark Buehrle may be as well. In other words, don’t count on the old guard to give Detroit a boost when the Sox and Twins meet in the Metrodome. However, Ozzie will be starting some young players, who we hope are hungry and want to prove themselves to help their chances next season. This race for the AL Central title will most definitely require the Tigers to just keep winning. (link to compilation of Sox articles)

With the 6-2 victory over Chicago:

Finally, the White Sox and Tigers finish their series for the year. Chicago won it, 12-7. Detroit won four of the last seven games, but also four of the last 10. I dreaded every meeting with the world champions, and rightfully so. The White Sox had our number and we don’t have to see them again until next year. Chicago may miss the playoffs, but they were an incredible, magically team you simply did not want to face. They lost that in the past month. Fortunately, we won’t have to worry about them getting it back.

Finally, Detroit won a series in Chicago, a tough environment with a team fighting for its playoff life.

Finally, we won’t have to hear anymore about the Tigers fighting for their playoff lives. That’s what made this series imporant: the opportunity to pretty much clinch a playoff spot. Two wins took four off the clinch number and virtually assured Chicago’s elimination. We don’t officially have a playoff team yet, of course. Strange things could happen. But in all likelyhood, they won’t. All that panic was for nothing. Breathe a sweet sigh of relief and put your panic button away for the season. We’ll still hear about the Twins beating the door down, but that talk won’t matter nearly as much on the day the Tigers clinch the playoffs. And that day might be coming soon.

Some other finallies:

Finally, the Tigers look like they might be on track.

Finally, Jeremy Bonderman wins again.

Finally, Detroit has won two series in a row.

Finally, Detroit won on a getaway day.

Finally, Ordonez made a nice play in right field.

Finally, the hitters are looking good from top to bottom (more or less). Curtis Granderson is hitting, Ordonez is hitting, Pudge Rodriguez is hitting. Runs have come both manufactured and by the longball. It’s not all candy and roses, but it’s getting to the point where the hitting is good enough to back strong pitching.

(Words I’d like to hear:) Finally, the Twins lost a game again! Sadly, they took another win in Boston and remain a half-game behind.

Finally, well actually, all year really, it’s great to be a Tigers fan and all those years of suffering are paying off. I never knew if they would. But they have.

It would have been nice to see Detroit continue what it started on Monday by beating Chicago a second straight day, looking like a team primed for the playoffs. Didn’t happen. Freddy Garcia 1-hit the Tigers for eight innings, Bobby Jenks (in a 7-0 game!) 1-hit them for three more outs, and Justin Verlander got lit up for homer after homer. The end result: 7-0 Sox. This might have been a nice see-saw between the teams if not for two sweeps of Detroit Chicago owns. As it is, it’s just annoying. I’d really like to see some consistancy out of the Tigers. Good thing we won’t be seeing Chicago in the playoffs. Next year, I hope Detroit can shake this season’s total ownage by the White Sox. I’m really starting to hate them.

Don’t know what to read into it. Probably nothing. So that’s what I’m sticking with. The teams ace off again 8 p.m. on ESPN. Don’t forget, Peter Gammons will be on Baseball Tonight prior to the show. As with most baseball fans out there, I enjoy Peter Gammons. I’m glad he’s come back from his health scare with such vigor and can continue to do what he loves.

Ooooh-Eeeee-Ohhhhh, Magglio Ordonez homered twice against his former team in one of the biggest games of his Tiger career. Once to left field, once to right. And the Tigers walloped Chicago, 8-2, to pull closer to clinching a playoff berth.

Ordonez wouldn’t have had the opportunity to beat his team without such phenomenol pitching from Kenny Rogers, and Rogers wouldn’t have thrown six shutout innings without such great defense behind him in the infield. Neifi Perez played his shift to shallow right field nicely, Carlos Guillen and Brandon Inge made some key stops for double plays. It was just great baseball to watch. The Tigers played inspired. We needed to see that and, as fans, enjoyed every minute of it, minus possibly the ones there was a Sox runner on third. Of course, that made the douple plays all the better. Rogers, if you wonder, has now given up three earned runs in 33 innings against the Sox.

There were so many exciting places in this game, well, I scared my cat in the first inning alone on Craig Monroe’s home run. Good thing he wasn’t around for the triple play Carlos Guillen hit into. Just to throw my two-cents in, it wouldn’t have happened if the runners weren’t on hit-and-run. But it was such an unlikely event to occur, I don’t realy blame Jim Leyland for it. Some decisions work. Some decisions give the White Sox their lone highlight for the night. Brandon Inge hit a 3-run homer in the ninth, and the Tigers seem to be mashing the ball again. They have 80 runs for the month in 16 games for an average of 5 per game. It’s still not a consistent five, it’s either nice games or low games. But the bats have been coming around a lot more often again, and the homers have frequently flown.

With the win, Detroit’s playoff odds went up greatly, as you’ll see on the sidebar. All the Tigers really had to do in this series was avoid the sweep. They avoided the sweep beautifully and have a chance to win the series and actually add ground on the White Sox. Of course, we wouldn’t be happy with just one win. We want to take the next two as well, and frankly, Chicago doesn’t look like the same team as before. But they bounced back against us in Detroit in August, so I take nothing for granted.  Both teams have 12 games left. Detroit is six games ahead. That’s an awesome feeling after the roller coaster of the past few weeks. In fact, it looks like we all might be White Sox fans when they go into the Metrodome late next week.

I feel like I’m in the backseat of a car on a long trip across the country. Or, really, at that age, across the county would do. Every day I’m looking at the playoff race saying “Are we there, yet?” We’re a bit closer today than we were yesterday, because the White Sox lost. But the reason I keep asking if we’re there yet, is that the Tigers are making this less a pennant race and more a pennant stumble. They lost, 4-3, to Seattle. But you knew that.

Jeremy Bonderman blew a 3-0 lead, but only allowed three runs before the rain took him out of the game. (Actually, some might argue the rain should have taken him out of the game before he allowed three runs. I wasn’t there, I don’t know for sure). Andrew Miller pitched a beautiful fifth inning, and a pretty good sixth inning in which he gave up a hit and walk, but allowed a run to take the loss. The Tigers scored three runs in the first inning and then gave up the ghost. They scored too much Monday or something. I don’t know. Miller might have earned his first win, or any of the relievers behind him, but Detroit refuses to get on base for some inexplicable reasons. Well, read Jason Beck. Even he sounds sick of it.

Awhile back, Nate Robertson blogged that fans should enjoy the pennant race. And maybe we would if the Tigers were racing the Twins and White Sox to see which two of three good teams can make the playoffs. But unfortunately, the Tigers are backing their way into the playoffs. The White Sox stink. And the Twins are only servicably better. I still expect the Tigers to make the playoffs. And the season starts anew in October.

But the problem is Detroit plays such ugly games that I find it hard to enjoy them. I feel like I’m watching the Tigers of past years. With this winning percentage lately, who can blame me? I don’t want to be the chokers or the lovable loser team, either. I keep wondering what’s going to go wrong and if they’ll ever score a run when it’s needed. It’s amazing so much can change in a month. But maybe next week if Placido Polanco and Carlos Guillen are healthy, the team can catch on again. For now, I just keep hoping we can hold on each day until we clinch something. This month, the Comedy Central returned.

Detroit fell 10-0. In a word? Blech.

After Detroit won the first two games against Chicago by a combined 11-1, I was feeling pretty good. Now, after allowing 17 runs in the final two games, well, I’m not feeling as good. It was against two pitchers who are sometimes hard to predict in Nate Robertson most recently, and Zach Miner the day before. Both are capable of great pitching performances. Both were rewarded with losses in their previous starts. And now both were rewarded with losses for bad starts. I do think Chicago had something to do with it. Probably a lot to do with it. It’s an experienced team with a great offense that’s fighting for a playoff berth right now. Still, losing stinks.

Now the Tigers aren’t perfect by any means. The lineup is adequate, but not scary. It’s not in the White Sox/Yankees stratosphere. You don’t exactly need a scary lineup as long as the defense does its job, the pitchers do their job and the offense does enough. Those things haven’t aligned perfectly lately. But see “Good pitching beats good hitting” for more information. But with Detroit’s lineup, a pitcher who isn’t having a good day really decreases the chances of winning.

So yeah, two more losses. Don’t take them so personal. 95 wins probably makes the playoffs, and this is the exact same two that took the first two games of the series against Chicago. If you don’t think they can win 14 of the next 34 games, you’re really deceiving yourself. Hopefully Detroit can pick up two, maybe three of those this weekend in Cleveland. The only way both Chicago and Minnesota can gain ground on the Tigers this weekend is if the Tigers are swept.

I know I keep sounding like a psychologist on a broken record, but every time Detroit loses a game, people fly off the deep end. Maybe people have already penned the Tigers into the postseason and they fret about October. But at least only the top pitchers on the top staff will be showcased then. And, hey, let’s not really worry about that until Sept 23 or so, okay? See “White Sox, 2005.”

Chicago’s Sox might be pale, but they weren’t waving the white flag Wednesday. (Yeah, I know, that was a bit hokey.) The White Sox beat Detroit, 7-5, after knocking starter Zach Miner out of the game in the second inning. Detroit rallied to within 6-5 when Sean Casey drove in two runs in the sixth inning, but could get no closer.

With the quick exit, one of Detroit’s best young arms was put on display. No, I’m not talking about Joel Zumaya, Jeremy Bonderman, Justin Verlander or even the upcoming Andrew Miller. No, I mean 25-year-old Wil Ledezma. I remember the potential Ledezma had when he was coming up the system, and then he was a let down when he got to the majors. But he’s been amazing this season in his long relief role. In August alone, he’s pitched 16 innings without giving up a single run, including a spot start victory in place of Verlander. Since his call up in June, he’s had an ERA of 2.08 ands strikes out nearly 8 per 9 innings, both pretty nice numbers. He’s one of the unsung heroes that help keep this staff’s ERA down.

Neifi Perez really isn’t proving why he should start ahead of Omar Infante. But given he was just traded for and has a decent salary, I think the Tigers are going to give him the benefit of the doubt for longer. Hopefully he starts contributing sooner than later. It’s a small nitpick for a team with 81 wins in August. It would also be nice to see Curtis Granderson pull out of his slump. He went 0-4 Wednesday after going 0-5 Monday. Granderson is not looking like the leadoff hitter much any more. I’d rather see Pudge there. Detroit definitely lacks for a natural leadoff hitter when Grandy’s not contributing. But again, another small nitpick at a point I’m feeling pretty good about the season. Just remember to keep perspective.

I felt pretty good coming into the game with two victories. I did hope to take three-of-four. You can almost make an argument if the Tigers were going to lose a game — and they were — this is the one to lose. Now, Detroit has a chance to put Chicago on an airplane with a defeat. Of course, it works both ways. If Chicago does win and take the last 2 of the 4 game series, they didn’t gain any ground, but they have some momentum going into September’s series in Chicago.