Twins 7
Tigers 6

me: *angry face*

Recap:

• The Tigers led 6-0 after a first inning where nothing went right for the Twins.
• The Tigers led 6-0 after the second inning, and the third inning. Hard to lose, right? But the game slowly went to hell, then picked up steam.
• The Tigers lost 7-6, giving Minnesota a 3-game sweep.
• Yes, the Tigers were swept after sweeping the Yankees. (Curiously, the Yankees swept the Mariners after being swept. So that’s a lot of brooming going on.)
• Something obviously went way wrong in the middle there.
• The whole 5 baserunners after the first inning thing probably didn’t help.
• Zach Miner coming into a tough situation in the seventh inning definitely didn’t help, as he threw gas on the fire
• So did Bobby Seay.
• But oh yeah, this should not have been in their hands, because the Tigers probably should have gotten out of the inning 1-2-4. Carlos Guillen’s throwing fielding error set it all up.
• And while I’m at it, Jacque Jones didn’t get an error, but his throw that sailed over everyone’s head but a diving Kenny Rogers earlier in the game was bad defense, too.

Analysis

• Don’t blog mad. Don’t blog mad. Don’t blog mad. I think I’ve heard that on a radio show somewhere.
• That say, THEY WERE AWFUL! HOW DO YOU LOSE THIS GAME?!!?
• Why can’t the offense concentrate for nine innings?
• SIGH!
• OK.
• Jim Leyland’s ill-defined bullpen roles contributed to the loss. But so did the Tigers ill-defined version of defense. Only the first is Leylan’ds fault. The second is the fault of the players given to him and his desire to, you know, actually play them since you’re only allowed one designated hitter.
• On the other hand, Jacque Jones, I don’t know. Check his ID. He’s playing like he’s Neifi Perez in the outfield.
• No, check that. Even Neifi made a spectacular, no-hit saving play.
• This weekend was a real kick in the pants after sweeping the Yankees. Everything I would have said in a recap of that series pretty much was erased in this series. Detroit looked more like the Tigers of 0-7 than the Tigers of the second half of April.
• But Curtis Granderson, as always, did awesome. So there’s always that.

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Detroit 9, Twins 4 (6 5 innings)

The Tigers and Jair Jurrjens bounced back from a bad first inning in which the Twins scored all four runs. But nine Tigers runs, two rain delays, a called game and 87th victory llater, the Yankees had already brought their playoff magic number to 0. Detroit was eliminated from postseason contention.

Mike Hessman had a home run and two RBIs. Ryan Raburn hit a triple. And that was all in the same inning! Mike Rabelo hit a double.

Maggs watch: 1-2 in the shortened game, .359 average.

Ichiro watch: 1-2, .349 average, through four innings.

Bunt Singles:

• Detroit won 12 of 18 games against the Twins, including 9 of the last 10.
• Jim Leyland will discuss a contract extension with GM Dave Dombrowski Monday. He’s signed through 2008 but would like to add a year. I fully expect this to happen.
• Detroit News columnist Rob Parker is nuts. Ian tells us why at BYB.

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Detroit 8, Twins 0

Yorman Bazardo made the best of his opportunity to start for the Tigers Tuesday, shutting out Minnesota for seven innings while allowing six hits. The Yankees lost, so the Tigers playoff hopes are still (.0000000001%) alive.  Stranger things have happened, I guess… just not in baseball.

Maggs watch: He  hit another double went went 2-for-4. He’s batting .359.

Ichiro watch: He went 1-for-4. He’s batting .350

Curtis Granderson hit his 23rd triple of the season. That’s exciting. There’s still a chance he could get 25 or 26. You just never know when a triple will be hit. It could just as easily be his last of the season. 23 is just an incredible number.

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Twins 2, Tigers 0

Well, Nate Robertson pitches a good game and doesn’t get any run support. That sounds like a familiar story, doesn’t it? Nate, king of the quality start tough loss, wasn’t getting a lot of good starts this season, but his seven-inning, one-run performance went to waste when the Tigers failed to score.

Maggs watch: Ordonez went 1-for-3, slightly decreasing his average. But he hit his 51st double.

Ichiro watch: Seattle was off.

Bunt Singles:

• Jeremy Bonderman was due to pitch Tuesday, but was shut down for the season when he didn’t respond well to his side session. It’s for the better, as Ian says at BYB.
• The Yankees lost but their magic number is 1.

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Tigers 4, Twins 3 Saturday; Tigers 6, Twins 4 Sunday

(AP Photo/Paul Battaglia)

We have a pennant race! So many things to mention from Sunday.

1. Sweeping. With the victory for the sweep Sunday, the Tigers won seven straight games against the Twins and six straight in the Metrodome.
2. Todd Jones is Mr. 300. The save Sunday — his third in three days — seemingly was a microcosm of Jones’ time in Detroit. It was interesting, as Jones came into a three-run game and gave up a leadoff triple. It was ugly, as eight batters came to the plate. It made you more nervous than you should be, as the bases were loaded. But ultimately, it was a save. ESPN.com says Jones is the 21st pitcher to reach 300 saves.
3. Jair Jurrjens was (nearly) unhittable. Jurrjens took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He only got one out and allowed a run, but throwing mostly fast balls and with still concern over his shoulder, he sent 11 Twins back to the plate unsuccessfully.
4. Grandy was grand. Minnesota’s Torii Hunter picked Granderson as the center fielder he’d want on his team. Grandy didn’t let that assessment down, as he hit a leadoff homer than flew way above the “baggy” fence, whumping the wall. He scored his 115th run for the year.
5. The Indians lost. I don’t know if they can be caught. Odds say no. But the Indians are 4-1/2 games ahead of Detroit with a 3-game series starting Monday. Should Detroit sweep, it’s 1-1/2 games with about 10 days to go. This makes for some pretty compelling baseball.
6. Yanks aren’t perfect. New York may not have lost Friday, but it did Saturday, and it’s trailing Sunday. That’s definitely a playoff race. (Yanks won)

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Detroit 4, Twins 2

A few interesting points about a fine victory at the HHH Dome.

1. Pudge walked.
2. Pudge walked.
3. Pudge walked.

OK. He only walked once. But you can forgive me for mentioning it three times, because it’s not like a) it happens often, or b) you could have expected him to do it.

At work, I glanced at the TV, saw three yellow squares on the bases, and then saw Pudge. And worse, two outs. Well, one does not expect that to turn out well very often. So I went back to what I was doing and before you know it, Pudge is standing on first base. He didn’t get a hit. He took a walk. A WALK. PUDGE! He has, let me count, 1…2…3… … 9 walks this year. Didn’t even take me two hands. But this walk tied a (presumably) important game 2-2. Timo Perez added a pair more with a single, and suddenly it’s 4-2 Tigers. The bullpen held on.

Unfortunately for Detroit, the putrid Red Sox’ bullpen did not. Our choking friends from the east gave up six runs in the eighth and eventually the victory. So the Tigers — 8-2 in the last 10 games — did not gain a single game on the Yanks during that time period when the Red Sox blew a five-run lead.

Thanks, Boston. You’ll still make the playoffs as a wild card even if you choke. But everyone will remember the hack job you did as the Evil Empire ran up on you from what, 14-1/2 game back?  So, you’d better take the next two games from them and put them away, OK?  Glad we agree.

The Indians, too, came from behind to win.

Detroit clinched a .500 season.

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Tigers 4, Twins 3 (10 innings)

Wow. Who’da thunk it? Certainly not me. If you tell me one team sweeps the other with three one-run games, I would guess the Tigers were swept. This is terrific to win another close game.

In the matinee tilt with the bottom four in the batting order being, shall we charitably say, not so good, Detroit battled through a good back-and-forth game and managed to pull off a one-run victory in 10 innings. Todd Jones closed out his third straight one-run game. The bullpen allowed just one run the entire series, and that was Jason Grilli.

Timo Perez got the start today after being called up from Toledo. The FSN crew said he got to the ballpark at 11:45 (central) for a 12:10 game. I don’t necessarily know if starting him in that position was a good idea, but it tends to be what Jim Leyland does.

Turns out, his decision worked out fine. Perez singled in the 10th off Twins closer Joe Nathan, moved to second on a Mike Rabelo bunt, and scored on a Brandon Inge double. Inge had two RBIs in the game. So take that into mind. The bottom half of the lineup propelled the Tigers to the victory. Earlier in the game, Mike Rabelo had a triple and scored the then-game-tying run.

Bonderman made it through the first nine Twins batters before giving up a hit. I don’t know that he pitched great, but he did pretty well, also giving up a pair of runs in the seventh. Zach Miner picked up the victory in relief.

Also, Placido Polanco hurt his knee, it appeared, on a double-play-breaking slide by Justin Morneau earlier in the game, but he continued to play. Just something to keep an eye on.

So, on this brief post-All-Star Game road trip against two wild card contenders, the Tigers went 5-2. Combine that with their victories over the Indians and Red Sox before the break, and things are going pretty well against Detroit’s top competition in the American League. Detroit leads the majors with 32 road victories.

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Tigers 3, Twins 2

Hard not to think of a Detroit Tiger who came up big today.

• Magglio Ordonez drove in all three runs — all three of Johan Santana, at that — with a double and a home run to center field.
• Rookie Andrew Miller may not have been the best lefty pitcher on the field, but he was the one who came out of the game with the victory.
• Ryan Raburn got the start against Santana, doubled and scored.
• Two words: Marcus. Thames.
• Five more: Did you see that catch?
• Most parts of the bullpen. Jason Grilli… eh, I don’t know. Bobby Seay. Chad Durbin really came up huge. But Macay McBride got a big out. Todd Jones picked up another save.

I’m sure there’s more. But here’s a few notes that popped up along the way. Andrew Miller forced 9 ground ball outs and 1 fly ball out. He threw strikes about 2/3 of the time. Minnesota did a good job of forming a gravity that drew baseballs into their arms. Half their runs came on an HBP.

I wonder sometimes if this is a big series. Last year, just about every series was described as a big series. I didn’t really buy it. This year kinda proves why. It was big because the Tigers being a powerhouse team was so new, they had to prove it anew every game. Now it’s like, yeah, this is good series. Both are strong teams. Tigers have to keep them from closing the gap. But it just doesn’t feel like a big series yet.

In any case, Minnesota is pesky and annoying to play and Detroit has won two one-run games in a row. So, it’s a pretty decent series!

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Bunt Singles:

• Sheffield was fined for criticizing umpires.
• President Bush picks the Tigers. (Hat tip Ian)
  
• Zumaya + “Samela” = Zumala?
• Getting Joel Zumaya back is important (duh) EPSN.com writes. How important? #2 addition.
• The Tigers make the playoffs 89% of the time according to Baseball Prospectus’ computer simulation.
• Finally, Detroit leads the MLB by 1 game for the best record.

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Tigers 1, Twins 0

It doesn’t get much closer than a 1-0 game when the run is unearned, does it? Nate Robertson and Matt Garza went toe-to-toe for seven inning, each dominating for periods and each getting into a bit of trouble.

Jason Bartlett’s fielding error on a ball of Brandon Inge’s bat led to the difference maker when Curtis Granderson walked and Magglio Ordonez drove Inge in with two outs. The run was unearned.

I don’t know if Robertson truly had a ‘tired’ arm or what, but this is his best performance since coming off the disabled list. In seven innings, he gave up two walks, three hits and had five strikeouts. Macay McBride — still proving me wrong — walked the first batter he saw in the 8th inning, but got out of it when he induced a shallow fly out, then a double play. Todd Jones worked an easy ninth, which was fortunate, because in a 1-0 game like that, my heart could neither have taken the intensity of baserunners nor the heartbreak of blowing said 1-0 game.

Brandon Inge played some nice defense.

Grandy did great at at the plate, adding another extra-base hit (a double) and going 3-for-3 with a walk. He leads the American League in extra-base hits, but he trails Chase Utley by two for the MLB lead.

Still, a discussion at Motown Sports points out Granderson has a shot at getting 20 steals, 20 doubles, 20 triples and 20 home runs, a feat done just twice in history, once by Willy Mays. He’s also on pace for 100 extra-base hits. That may not be an MLB all-time record, but Hank Greenberg leads the Tigers with 103 in 1937.

With a .604 winning percentage, the Tigers now lead the MLB (.02 over Boston).

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Tigers 1, Twins 0

As we know, bad things happen when the Tigers score less than six. Like, they lose. A lot. So while Jeremy Bonderman was busy pitching a gem on ESPN, I was thinking “oh god, the bats better get going! Bondo better pitch a shutout! ahhh!” Well, you know the drill.

When Curtis Granderson led off with a triple in the fourth, only to see Placido Polanco strike out, Sean Casey foul out on the first pitch and Magglio Ordonez get robbed by a good defensive play, well, that felt like the best chance the Tigers would have.

Well, you know what happened. Twins starter Scott Baker only gave up three hits all day, and one was a two-out home run by Thames in the eighth inning. Baker only threw 79 pitches in eight innings, if that tells you how dominate he was. 57 were for strikes, if that didn’t.

Meanwhile, Bonderman pitched terrific and made it through 8 innings. For awhile, he looked like an inning or two go too long, but the best way to keep the bullpen from blowing it was to avoid the bullpen as much as possible. You know Bonderman has these types of games in him. He can simply take a game over. He can be a shutdown pitcher. He gives the Tigers as a good a shot at a Cy Young award in the future as Justin Verlander does. But we don’t see enough of these games from Bondo. So, it was nice to watch what he can do.

Along the way, there was a great diving catch by Granderson that showed off his wheels and his glove.

Todd Jones made it through the ninth fine. The Twins went 1-2-3 and, quite literally, kept hitting it right at people in the infield. But Jones, for all the crap he takes, is seldom the guy I worry about in the pen even as I worry about him. … Well, you know what I mean by that.

The Tigers survived the weekend while Sheffield served his suspension by splitting and salvaging at crappy series with the Twins. Cleveland comes to town now. Hopefully the Tigers can take advantage.

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Bunt Singles:

Eulogio De La Cruz was sent to Toledo to make the roster spot for the new bullpen help.

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