For most of August and September, I think we were all thinking the same thing: Could we just get one more of those winning streaks like we used to get? The answer then? No. The answer now? Yes. Kenny Rogers pitched another gem, the Tigers won 3-0, Detroit won a sixth straight game in October, and we are one win away from hoisting an American League pennant.

How cool is that? This roller coaster wide is worth the price of admission.

Before I get too far, let me reverse from earlier this week and just say Mark Kotsay can hold his own with any center fielder in baseball. His throw earlier in the series was a bit off line, but the arm is there. His two catches today in center field were both awesome to watch, even if he was making them against Tigers. I hope gold glove voters paid a little attention to what he was able to do rather than just give their votes to the usual suspects.

Okay, now back to Tigers baseball. Rich Harden helped matters with his lack of command, but these Tigers actually did change their stripes in the playoffs. I saw mention of this. They saw how patient the Yankees were and thought they’d give it a shot, Jim Leyland said. Strange time to give it a shot, hey? But it worked. Tigers batters drew a lot of walks, took some close pitches and looked a lot more like the A’s (OBP team) than the hackers they were earlier this year. The Tigers drew seven walks — Curtis Granderson had three. Granderson really is growing as a player before our eyes, I think. I’m glad he’s going to be around for awhile.

The Tigers are doing the small things. That shouldnt’ surprise people too much. They’ve been doing these things for much of the year when needed, but never really made a religion out of it. Detroit wasn’t winning all those one-run games earlier by accident. It didn’t always work, of course, and at times, the guys failed miserably. But the experience paid off in October. That’s Leyland at work, I think. Maybe. Right now I’d elect him president, of course.

Now, I think we can say this series is over. I don’t really want to for fear of karma or hubris pissing off the baseball gods or something. But it’s close enough that Jeremy Bonderman can taste the chance to eject his former organization from the playoffs, no matter what he says. Eric Chavez seemed to be waving the white flag, a bit prematurely I’d say. And yes, the Boston Red Sox came back from an 0-3 deficit. But the Red Sox weren’t making that comeback on the road. They lost the first two games of the series at Yankee Stadium. So that’s really not the same situation. Detroit gets two chances to close it out at home first, and I think we’ve seen that having better pitching, defense and batting — and the execution to go along with it, and that’s been one of the most important factors — is too much.

Kenny Rogers dealt us one game closer to a World Series and a little tangible evidence of what a great season it’s been. Let’s get this closed out and enjoy the rest of the cold, snowy weekend.

The national media was asking Alexis Who? when Jim Leyland put the lefty in the DH spot. We Tigers fans who know Alexis Gomez is. So we were asking Alexis WHY? In Jim We Trust? Maybe. Gomez had a home run and four RBIs, Todd Jones gave us a heart attack, and the Tigers won, 8-5.

Ian Browne at the ALCS MLBlog sure didn’t know who Gomez is.

My first game-related thought of the day is this: Who the heck is Alexis Gomez? He is the Tigers DH tonight. I honestly had never heard of him until about 20 minutes ago, when I checked out the lineup. Does this make me a less informed baseball person than i try to think of myself as?

As a service: Gomez is that guy who was with the club for awhile earlier in the year, then his greatness was twice sent down to AAA to help the eventual International League champion Toledo Mud Hens. Get to know him quick, he’ll probably dip back to anonymity by Friday night. That’s just the way things work for the Tigers. Different night, different hero.

Of course, Gomez wasn’t alone in his heroics. Placido Polanco is making himself into a real October menace. If anyone wants to debate why Detroit slid to 19-31 in the final 50 games, I believe the argument starts and ends with Polanco’s injury. As key as Granderson is to this lineup, Polanco is, too. And of course, Craigdoneitagain! Monroe had a nice play in the outfield and did fine at the plate. All that, and Neifi Perez was starting and hitting in the 2-spot. Wow.

To note, Joel Zumaya did not pitch tonight. In his press conference, Leyland said Zumaya had tightness in his forearm, like earlier in the year. A few days rest is what Zumaya had then. I don’t think this is a big deal. Hope not anyway.

Justin Verlander… well, he got a lot of praise for his play against the Yankees even though he just didn’t look that good. Some people not familiar with him probably wonder what the big deal is the way he pitched tonight. He got out of it with four runs, but it wasn’t real pretty. Sure, at times, it was really great. I think he’s just wearing down. What really matters is that he’s pitched twice in the playoffs, and the Tigers have won both games.

As for the bullpen, the Tigers threw six strikeouts in a row, one by Jason Grilli, three by Fernando Rodney and one by Jones. Yes, Jones. Oakland showed a bit of power and some scrappiness in staying in the game after falling behind, 7-3. And that was with Frank Thomas laying a goose egg. In the ninth, the A’s loaded the bases with two outs on Todd Jones. I think everyone in the ballpark — and Leyland admitted this — kept envisioning a grand slam and a 1-1 split. But Thomas came up short. He’s yet to get a hit in the two playoff games against the Tigers. I think the A’s might have blown their best shot to stay in the series.

And so Detroit returns to the cold confines of Comerica Park with a 2-0 lead in the ALCS. That’s not insurmountable in its own right. But right about now, it looks like the Tigers are not going let this series even get back to the west coast. I’m starting to get that team-of-destiny feeling. I keep trying to push it away for fear of disappointment. But it’s there. This is getting pretty fun.

As a serious side note, it was nice to see all the Cory Lidle jersies being worn or hung on the walls of the Coliseum in honor of his life in this very sad situation. He played for the A’s in 2001 and 2002. As Fox pointed this out, there was a little bit of magic and the A’s batter at the time homered. As a Tigers fan, you don’t like to see them give up a run. But I thought it was still kind of a touching. It was a night when you’re pretty sure everyone in the nation is rooting for the A’s to win. But, no one asked to be in this situation. You gotta support your guys, even as your heart goes out to the team across the field.

The Tigers got on Barry Zito early for five runs and knocked him out in the fourth inning. Nate Robertson pitched five innings of shutout baseball. They weren’t the most uneventful of innings, but the runs column still read 0 when Fernando Rodney came into the game. The A’s scored before the night was over, but Detroit won, 5-1.

The worry is Sean Casey’s status. The first baseman pulled up lame after a hit and appears to have injured his calf. Initial reports were a spasm and it was iced, but I’ll update more when I know more. Carlos Guillen moved to first, and Ramon Santiago played shortstop. That’s what I expected to happen. We hope Casey is able to continue to contribute. He’s a good story, you hate to see anything bad happen.

–UPDATE: Jim Leyland said Casey won’t play Wednesday, but might be available Friday. So it’s not season-ending at least. Leyland added Casey probably won’t play if the weather is cold.

–UPDATE: Casey said on FSN it felt like he was hit with a bat. That’s not a good sign. He thinks he’ll have an MRI in the morning to find out more.

UPDATE– There’s some reading on the Freep’s blog,too.

Brandon Inge got out of his slump with a homer to put the Tigers on the board, but what really helped was working three walks off of Zito. The impatient Tigers took what Zito gave them. That probably surprises some people, but actually, they’re just continuing on what they did against New York. (Where was this in August in September, who knows!)

The big factor for the Tigers, especially with so many baserunners allowed, was defense. The Tigers forced Oakland to ground into four double plays, all inning enders. The A’s left eight on base. (Although actually, the Tigers left 11). I’ll have to find how many were in scoring position, but Oakland seems to have left more.

–UPDATE: FSN reports it’s 0-12 for the A’s with runners in scoring position, 3-10 for the Tigers

Robertson also helped his own cause in the fourth inning when the A’s put runners on second and third, but Robertson got a trio of strikeouts. In the field, Oakland seemed to struggle at times, not really A’s baseball from what I could tell. I really want both teams to play their best in this series. Of course, I”ll take a Tigers win any way I can take it.

And this was a big win, no doubt about it. To take a game from Zito, the ace, the game most people gave Oakland as automatic, is a big step toward the Tigers moving on to the World Series.

More updates later.

Final thought for the night: Seriously, don’t write Oakland off after one game. I’ve read some opinions, writers and normal folk alike, and it would be a mistake to see this as an easy series. Oakland is a team that can get very good, very quick. I don’t care what they did in the past. That doesn’t matter. There are exactly two players from the playoff failures: Zito and Chavez. (Strangely, or not, neither played real great). So those years mean nothing.

Now, what the Tigers did was a huge step. No doubt about it, it’s a positive start and it’s okay to start believing in the next round. Just don’t set yourself up that Oakland is going to roll over, because I expect them to be mad at the way they played and a lot better with their back against the wall–and it is. Should the Tigers survive that, then, yes, you can really start to get happy. It’s not the key game in the series for the Tigers, just for the A’s. But it’s going to be a nice indicator.

Here’s a breakdown position-by-position, the way I see things. You’ll notice it’s a bit different at times than other places.

Pudge Rodriguez vs. Jason Kendall

Better defensively? Pudge, of course. But Kendall’s no slouch. Better offensively? Right now, you gotta take Kendall. It’s nice to remember Pudge’s heroics in 2003 with the Marlins. But it would be nicer for him to create some heroics for the Tigers in 2006. He didn’t contribute a lot to the offensive success Detroit found against the Yankees, and that was inferior pitching. Until Pudge steps up, I’m calling this an approximate wash.

Sean Casey vs. Nick Swisher

My gut says Swisher. Maybe it’s for his hoedown celebrations with Milton Bradley and 35 homers in the regular season. But let’s not sell Sean Casey short here. He didn’t have a real great September, but you couldn’t ask for much more production than he gave against the Yankees: .882 OPS, three doubles, four RBIs. But across the field, Swisher had a .917 OPS. Gotta side with Swisher.

Placido Polanco vs. D’Angelo Jiminez

Mark Ellis might have been a better matchup. He still would have been the worse second baseman of the two, however. D’Angelo Jiminez might be closer comparable to Ramon Santiago than to Omar Infante, even if he’s batting more like Neifi Perez. Polly outclasses him on the field and at the plate. There’s some hoo-ha posted about Jiminez batting well against the Tigers, but against the pitchers he’ll be facing, Jones is the only one he’s seen before (that I can find) and he’s 0-2. Polly wins by a lap.

Carlos Guillen vs. Marco Scutaro

You gotta like Scutaro. You really do, even if he does something good against the Tigers. You want Scutaro hanging around. But he pales in comparison to Carlos Guillen, who is pretty much in Derek Jeter territory when you look at his numbers (.320/.400/.519) and the plays he can make on the field. Scooter’s probably not going to make the bungles Guillen does, but he’s not going to make the flash either. Carlos takes this one, but you will find yourself liking his counter part.

Brandon Inge vs. Eric Chavez

People are going to want to give this one to Chavvy. And no doubt, he is a great fielder and a big part of Oakland’s success. In the ALDS, Chavez had a home run for his only RBI, but he also struck out four times in 10 at-bats. Inge, well, was terrible in the ALDS at the plate and had six strikeouts in 15 at-bats. I’ll edge with Chavez, but Inge won’t be outclassed.

Craig (Hedonitagin!) Monroe vs. Jay Payton

Jay Payton really annoyed me during the regular season. I think he beat the Tigers two or three times. He’s a good contact guy, a pretty good hitter, a pretty good fielder. But Craig Monroe is clutch if anyone is (and there is such a thing). And as we’ve seen, he’s pretty adept with the glove. I’ve seen some people giving the edge here to Payton, and if you want to, I’m not going to stop you, but to me it is, at minimum, a tie. At best Monroe wins that matchup.

Curtis Granderson vs. Mark Kotsay

Curtis Granderson is the key to the Tigers’ success, I’ve said all along. When he has success, they do. He’s great in center field, makes some really nice plays, came up huge against the Yankees, and, apparently, gets no respect. Kotsay is pretty uknown, but a solid fielderi in his own rate, and the keystone of a fine defensive outfield. That’s all fine. But Granderson has the edge in VORP (23.4-8.9), errors (1-3), EQA (.258-.246), fielding runs above average (17 to (minus)-8). Baseball Prospectus adds: “Granderson has shown much better range than was initially expected of him from scouts, but if it ever comes up, he can be run on; in contrast, Kotsay has a reputation for sound play and a better arm.” To me, Granderson wins this matchup.

Magglio Ordonez vs. Milton Bradley

Bradley didn’t have a real hot ALDS. Still, he’s a good player. He’ll bounce back and give the A’s better production. Magglio Ordonez will have to continue to hit well for Detroit. Bradley is a better fielder, but Ordonez isn’t as bad as he could be. If you only get to pick one of these guys for your team, it’s Ordonez.

Marcus Thames vs. Frank Thomas

Frank Thomas is MVP calibre. Marcus Thames, while a lot of fun and pretty productive, is not. So I’m just gonna have to take Thomas on this one. Pretty easy pick there. You’d want him on the Tigers, that’s for sure.

Neither team really wants to write home about its bench. The A’s probably have a better one, if you’re asking.

I gave Thomas, Swisher and Chavez clear advantages over their Tigers counterparts. I gave the Kendall-Pudge matchup and Monroe-Payton matchups a push. I gave Guillen, Polanco and Ordonez and Granderson the advantages.

Baseball Prospectus writer Christina Kahrl has this as a close series, just as I and pretty much everyone else says. I disagree with a few points here and there, but in the end we agree.

So it’s a close series on the face of it, and in a close series, improbable and permanently depressing little things can come up and bite you. A’s fans have learned to fear unlikely heroes on other people’s teams, and I guess I look at the fact that Polanco’s gone 19-for-37 against the four A’s starters, and I just expect that he’ll be enough of a pest to become an honorary Hatcher, joining Billy and Mickey in the history of East Bay villains. I’ll make a guess that Polanco’s going to become a household name, and spray singles all series. Expect one A’s game-winning rally off of Jones and one blowout win, pitching gems from Zito and Bonderman.

Athletics Nation disagreed with me at times and agreed at others and came to the same conclusion: Who really knows.

This is once again a really tough call.  But if there is any differentiator, I think the A’s ability to work a pitcher and the Tigers lack of patience will pay dividends for the A’s in the end.  One thing is for sure, this should be a low scoring series with the quality of pitching on the mound.

The truth is that whoever winds up coming out of this series will be a big favorite against the Cards or Mets.  This series will likely decide the 2006 World Champion, so buckle up and hold on tight.

The Season Series

Bilfer at Detroit Tigers Weblog did a great job. I simply point you in his direction.

The Secret Sauce Says

As I did with the Yankees, a quick review of the secret sauce rankings shows that Detroit should win this. The Tigers have a more efficient defense, a better closer, and almost the exact strikeouts per nine as the A’s. While this formula worked fine in projecting the Tigers over the Yankees, it failed to project the A’s sweeping the Twins (who were ranked #2 in baseball in the formula). It also went 1-1 in the NL, picking the Mets correctly but Padres incorrectly.

The Rotation Matchups

Here are the projected matchups for the first swing through the series and likely for the if-necessary games. Jim Leyland announced he is keeping his same rotation. Oakland appears to be keeping its same rotation, too. Detroit has four of the top five pitchers in the series according to Baseball Prospectus’ stat, support nuetral value added.

Game 1/5: Nate Robertson vs. Barry Zito

Zito gets the edge here. The soft-throwing lefty with an amazing curve has been getting the job done pretty well all season. But Robertson has been pretty good himself. This has the makings of a pitcher’s duel, I must say. Well, they all do. Don’t let name recognition fool you. In the support nuetral stat from above, Verlander and Zito shared No. 1 ranking, while Robertson was No. 3.
Game 2/6: Justin Verlander vs. Esteban Loaiza

Loaiza has been pretty good for chunks of the season. He was pretty average in September and for some other large swaths. Will that mean anything? Wouldn’t really bet on it. But Verlander is clearly the better pitcher in this matchup so long as he remains rested.

Game 3/7: Kenny Rogers vs. Danny Haren

Danny is on my keeper fantasy team. I made a stupid trade to get him. He is, by all measures, the emerging ace of the A’s rotation, unless Harden can stay fully healthy. He can really shut a team down. There’s a reason he’s set for the game 7 matchup. Rogers has owned the A’s. We’d probably prefer to see him in games two and (if needed) 6 because both would be in Oakland, where he pitches better. I really like Danny, but Rogers has to get the edge.

Game 4: Jeremy Bonderman vs. Rich Harden

Did Bonderman take the next step? If he did, and he can put two good starts together, he gets the edge here. Harden is a wild card. He pitched really good in his first two starts coming off the elbow injury. In his last start (post clinch) he got hammered. He hasn’t pitched since.

Edge: Ever-so-slightly, Detroit. Almost a wash though. I like the Tigers in three of the four matchups, but two of them I could see going in Oakland’s direction. But I feel like Detroit controls its destiny as far as pitching goes.

Bullpen

Setup men: Joel Zumaya vs. Justin Duchscherer.

The Duke is very good. Zumaya is very good and a real bulldog. No edge here. I’d rather have Zumaya on my team, but it’s a matter of taste.

Closer: Todd Jones vs. Huston Street

Last year’s rookie of the year, known for his baby face — and he’s only 23 years old — blew 11 saves this year. But he only allowed four home runs in 69 games. He’s got better stuff than Jones, but Jones has better results. You’d be tempted to give the edge to Street because of Jones’ total lack of impressiveness, but Jones’ success should speak loudest. Slight edge Tigers.

The Rest

For the Tigers, you have to like Jamie Walker. You might not like Fernando Rodney. Jason Grilli will be fine. And I doubt we’ll see much of Zach Miner or Wil Ledezma.

For the A’s, Joe Blanton started and pitched well this year. Kiko Calero and Joe Kennedy are both pretty good in short relief.

Bottom line, both pens are pretty good. Maybe a slight edge in the overall pen of the A’s, but if the starters from both teams do their jobs, the guys we’ll see playing most often are evently matched.

The Lineups

While the actual lineups are yet to be revealed, you have to give the edge to Detroit. The Tigers do have a problem with hacking, but they really cut back on that during the Yankees series. I was a bit surprised. There are home runs available from top to bottom. There are good hitters from top to bottom. Curtis Granderson seems to have figured ito out. You can point to his huge amount of strikeouts this year if you want, but he seems better than that. And Placido Polanco is healthy. We have our starting lineup from April, more or less, and they all seem to be producing. But we know about us. What we wanna know about is them:

To start, they lost their second baseman, Mark Ellis, to a broken finger in the second game of the ALDS. D’Angelo Jiminez will have to step up. He’s not Neifi Perez. But he’s not exactly who I’d want in my lineup. Like the Tigers, the A’s don’t have a lot of speed. Don’t let Mark Kotsay’s in-the-park home run fool you, he’s not the fastest guy out there. In fact, the A’s are again like the Tigers. They have no speed. Jason Kendall, their catcher, is their lead-off batter. See what I mean? They get their money’s worth at the plate, but it doens’t translate into runs all that well. They’re not quite the pirannhas of the Twins. Take Nick Swisher, for instance. He would feel right at home in the Tigers’ lineup with his 152 strikeouts and 35 home runs. Eric Chavez had 108 strikeouts in 137 games.
What the A’s have going for them is Tiger-killer Jay Payton. And Frank Thomas, my pick for MVP, can really tar the ball. Kendall leads off for a reason. And as in my previous post, there’s also Super Marco Scutaro to worry about. The A’s lineup does not look like much, but they are pretty good at scoring one more than than they allow, and that’s all that counts in the end.

But if pressed, I say Detroit gets the edge here in my view. The Tigers have too much power, too many good hitters, and are too good at taking the extra base. Pudge Rodriguez will have to step up more than he did against the Yankees, but there’s just no one batter that has to be controlled.

Defense

A lot is made of the A’s defense. Eric Chavez, even when not healthy, which is never really seemed to be, is still a gold glove third baseman. Brandon Inge makes more impressive plays but too many errors still. Mark Kotsay is a very solid, if typically unheralded, center fielder. And Nick Swisher is an outfielder playing first base out of necessity. He does is really well. The national media is going to give Oakland a big edge, I can pretty much guarantee. Oakland has a high fielding percentage. Detroit? Not so much. But as I’ve preached, that’s a poor stat. Look to defensive efficiency — the number of outs for balls in play — rather than how many errors a team makes. And that swings greatly in Detroit’s favor. I’ll take Curtis Granderson in center field any day. I like Craig Monroe in left. I like Inge’s Brooks Robinson’ impersonations. And both Polanco and Carlos Guillen can make better plays than their counter parts. Even as good a catcher as Kendall is, Pudge is clearly the favorite. So defensive edge goes to Detroit.

Conclusion

I see Detroit as having a slightly better defense, a better lineup, and about equal pitching. This truly is a close series.
In part 3 of the preview, I’ll do a position-by-position look at the players. Probably later tonight.

Super Marco, they called him. Marco Scutaro is as scrappy and unknown a ballplayer as you’re ever going to find. He didn’t crack the A’s lineup to start the year. He wouldn’t crack the A’s lineup if everyone was healthy now. But all he did in the ALDS against the Twins was come through in the clutch and drive in six runs in three games — while batting in the bottom half of the order.

This is the type of team the Tigers are playing for the right to go to the World Series. Their guys are every bit as anonymous as our guys. If there wasn’t some sort of law stating you must write about a few select performers in October, they’d likely remain that way. Everyone knows gold-glove third baseman Eric Chavez. Everyone knows 2002 Cy Young Barry Zito. And we’ve quickly become re-acquainted with DH Frank Thomas. Past that, it drops off quick. And yet the Athletics won 93 regular season games and swept the Twins out of the playoffs, including two victories in the Metrodome. It was easy for the national “experts” to look them over in the wake of the Tigers dispatching the Yankees, but nobody else should. The A’s define scrappy, and Scutaro’s picture is in the dictionary.

Following the A’s this year left me with the conclusion it’s the Tigers changing jersies and flying west very quickly. They have the ability to get men on base with no outs, and leave them standing on base when the third out is recorded. I think if you asked an A’s fan about their offense, the reply would be “Frustrating.” Bases loaded, no outs, no freakin’ runs?! Are you kidding me? Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? Don’t let the OBP thing scare you. Their offense is, at times, pretty inept.

Their starting pitching, while very good, is not as consistent as they’d like. Sound familiar again? Of the four likely pitching matchups, they probably have the advantage in two, and the Tigers probably have the advantage in two. The bullpen? It has a great setup man in “The Duke” Justin Ducsherer. It has a closer who has pretty good stats but scares the fan base with his appearances as bit as often as Todd Jones. Still, he usually gets the job done. They’ve got some good role players in there, and a few guys who just fill out the numbers. You’re probably going to hear some debate about which team has the better pen. In reality, with how they’ll be used in this series, it is almost a dead-on tie. It is most certainly a wash.

And they even have a strange old man as a manager, who took some heat at times this year for his strange decisions, but who nonetheless warrents manager of the year consideration.

But just as they are frustrating, the A’s are fun. They have a lot of fun in the clubhouse, in the dugout, on the field. They gave their fans a lot of fun moments during the year. And they have a good, dedicated, but small, fan base. This series will allow the MLB — probably against its will, or the networks’ will, anyway — to showcase some of the best things about baseball. There’s going to be a very likable team playing in the World Series.
That said, I don’t really know what to expect of this series. I am familar with both teams, the Tigers moreso but I can name more A’s than I can Detroit Lions and Red Wings combined. It sounds cliche, but it’s going to come down to execution. The A’s beat the Twins because the A’s played their game perfectly and the Twins, well, didn’t. The Tigers beat the Yankees because the Tigers played their game perfectly. And if both of these teams are executing, it’s going to be every bit the fight some of those regular season games were. Even Baseball Prospectus computer puts this at nearly 50-50. (Oakland has a 0.2% edge).
As for me, I’d really like to see Barry Zito leave the A’s on top. And I, nickname: Chavez, have followed Eric Chavez since 2000. But I’m a Detroiter through-and-through. That’s where my loyalties lay. I just hope this series benefits both teams and fans. They deserve it.

First things first, Jason Beck’s report on Placido Polanco is good news.

He’s day-to-day with a bruised left jaw. X-rays were negative for any structural damage, and other tests indicated no concussion. Head trainer Kevin Rand said Polanco is eating and talking fine, which is a surprisingly good sign.

Let’s hope Placi feels well. That was a pretty close call.

Now on to the game. Polanco being beaned — coupled with this being a must-win for Jim Leyland after the team pissed away a 5-run, first-inning lead the afternoon before — spurred the team, and they put six runs on the board in the first inning before cruising to an 8-4 victory. Nate Robertson pitched well enough. Nothing eventful, but nothing artful. He didn’t need too many pitches to do it, either. Joel Zumaya looked like the Zoomer we know and love, getting out of a 1-out, 2-on situation with a pair of strikeouts in the eighth.

Dmitri Young drove in a run while going 0-for-3, and came out in the sixth inning for Chris Shelton. That alarmed Mario and Rod somewhat on FSN Detroit, but I remembred the Tony La Russa philosophy that we also see Leyland practice with Marcus Thames and Alexis Gomez: 3 at-bats from a hitter, then a defensive replacement. So it was nothing I worried about. Shelton is a superb first baseman (strange as that sounds), so he came into the game in the sixth.

Detroit finished the season series with Oakland with a 5-4 advantage, the first season victory since 2000.

Dmitri Young came up, Ramon Santiago went down and for the next nine days, the Tigers are conducting a live-action experiment to see if DY is the left-handed answer. The curtain opens, and we join …

Act 1: The Character of Dmitri

Struggling Tigers designated hitter Dmitri Young has a choking problem. He chokes at the plate to the tune of a .222 average, that when he’s not injured. He chokes in the hotel bedroom. He chokes on his court appearance. Things are looking down for DY. He needs help. He glances over his shoulder as he leaves, seeing the Tigers team he was a part of for so many years celebrating another big victory as he limps off.

Act 2: Rebirth in the Glass City

We see DY in a group meeting, talking about the problem of having big hands near small necks and long necks. We see his trip to Lakeland. His arrest warrent cleared up. His rehab stint begins in Toledo, and he hits a home run for the Mudhens Things are looking up for our guy, DY. And then he gets the call. Get’cho butt to Detroit, DY, you’re starting against Oakland. The act ends with DY singling to drive in two runs in a 7-4 victory against Oakland, then getting mobbed by his happy teammates.

Act 3: ?

How will the story end? Who’s to say. Dmitri’s a likable character despite his foibles, and you hope the best for him, but happy endings are made for TV. This is baseball. It could be happy, but it could be sad. But every guy has a story. There will likely be another struggle along the way. It’s too early to pretend we know the answer. I think time and tide stops for no man. But maybe DY’s got one good half-year left in him. We can’t judge from May. We can’t judge from Toledo. We can’t judge from one great night against the Oakland A’s, either.

It’s a 10-day experiment that began last night. Then, July 31, Act 3 opens.

I get back an hour into the game and it’s 5-5 by the start of the bottom half of the second inning?!

By the way, more U.P. trivia for you:

We have two FOX stations. One comes from Green Bay and shows the Packers. That one has the Cubs game. One comes from Marquette (sorta) and shows the Lions. That one has the Tigers. How many places in the country need two stations just to satisfy the warring factions of football fans?