Detroit 8,
Rangers 2

Recap:

• The Tigers swept a second team in a week. They beat the Twins in two games last week.
• Magglio Ordonez homered in the third and fifth inning, accounting for four runs for the game.
• Curtis Granderson had a lead off home run. Ol’ Grandy’s back all right.
• Brandon Inge and Ryan Raburn homered back-to-back.
• It’s hard to believe the Rangers only scored two runs because it felt like Jeremy Bonderman had a rough game. He gave up just a solo homer in the first and a walked in run in the fifth.
• The Tigers’ bullpen again came through, however.
• Zach Miner pitched out of the bases loaded jam left by Bonderman in the fifth. He earned the win for it.
• He went on to pitch for 3 1/3 scoreless, hitless innings.
• Bobby Seay pitched a Todd Jones’ian ninth, giving up two hits but no runs.
• Carlos Guillen sat out the game due to the ball he fouled off his knee Tuesday.
• Jacque Jones rammed himself into the wall and flipped into the crowd in an attempt to make a catch. He didn’t make the catch and injured himself.

Analysis:

• I didn’t get to see anything after the fifth inning so I can’t really comment how Miner or Seay looked but I continue being pleased with the turnaround by the bullpen.
• The Tigers held the Rangers to two-runs twice this series. Not too shabby.
• Bonderman struggled to find the strike zone, even walking a No. 9 hitter. But like Justin Verlander earlier this week, it didn’t bite him. Except that one run.
• I think a fair question to ask is why the Tigers starters walk so many batters. The team is second in the MLB in walks issued (behind Texas). It gets frustrating to watch.
• But in any case, the Tigers saw a struggling Rangers team this week and took advantage of the situation. That’s what they needed to do, and it was pretty fun to watch.

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Tigers 19
Texas 6

Recap:

• CURTIS GRANDERSON IS BACK!!!!
• Well, I could list everyone who did good, but that’s the batting order 1 through 9, so I’ll make these notes.
• The Tigers’s 19 runs were helped by an 11 run sixth inning.
• The scoring output helped Detroit jump past the 5 runs per game mark for the season. They now have 111 in 22 games. Second most runs in the A.L. (behind Boston, another team that faced Texas … no coincidence? Plus Boston cheated, they got to face the Tigers’ pitching, too!)
• The  outburst also helped the Tigers pitching staff  no longer be the worst in the American League. That would, of course, be Texas now, by eight runs (134-126…eew).
• The A.L. Central is starting to tighten up as well. Having played two more games than Cleveland, the Tigers are tied in standings terms, 3 games behind the first-place White Sox, 1.5 behind the second-place Twins and 1 behind the third-place Royals.
• Detroit has won 7 of 10 games since the Leyland outburst.
• OK, so now some stats and stuff.
• The Tigers took 10 walks and were hit twice.
• They rapped out 14 hits.
• Grandy had three runs, two RBIs, two hits (including a double).
• Jacque Jones had his first homer as a Tiger; Miguel Cabrera  his fifth.
• Carlos Guillen broke out of his slump to go 3-for-4.
• Pudge had a pair of hits too. So the top three of the lineup had 7 hits and 9 RBIs if you’re counting.
• Oh, and I forgot to mention, the Tigers rallied from a 5-0 deficit due to Kenny Rogers’ inability to keep the Rangers from hitting the ball. He gave up 9 hits and three walks in 21 batters faced.
• Plus a couple runs scored when defenders couldn’t curtail Rogers’ throws. Guillen missed a pickoff and Pudge a wild pitch in the first inning.
• The Tigers’ bullpen again slammed the door.
• Clay Rapada came in for Rogers, pitched out of Rogers’ jam and picked up the win for the assist. His second in the majors.
• Aquilino Lopez allowed two innocuous hits in three innings.
• Even Jason Grilli pitched a perfect ninth inning.

Analysis:

• HOLY MOLY that was awesome.
• GRANDY IS BACK!  Hmm. Granderson makes his first appearance of the season and the Tigers score 19 the same day?
• I don’t believe in coincidence.
• Being on the wrong end of a couple drubbings already this season, I found myself feeling a bit sorry for Texas. But I really enjoyed seeing the Tigers play so well, so I didn’t feel tooo sorry for Texas.
• I like the Tigers’ bullpen. I think it’s settled in and has proven to be reliable against the good hitting clubs it has seen recently. The moves helped.
• Funny how after the bad start to the season, the Tigers are starting to balance things out. The runs are pretty close to what you’d expect to be scored. (And I might say, probably a bit higher than should be expected when you consider the strength of the pitching the Tigers have faced).
• The standings, well, you’d have expected the Tigers in first, not tied for fourth, I’m sure. But the important factor is, they’re positioned fine. The A.L. Central is a tight race, it’s April, there’s really nothing to worry about. Well, not nothing.
• The starting pitching still sucks, and yeah, that’s kind of something to worry about. But otherwise.
• Can we expect all 5 starters to continue to suck? Probably not. But am I worried about Rogers? Maybe a bit.
• I’m also worried about Jeremy Bonderman, who starts Wednesday as the Tigers hope to sweep the Rangers. Hopefully he can assuage those worries.

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Tigers 5, Rangers 1

Did you see the ninth inning? Did you pass out in shock? No? Good.

Todd Jones struck out the side. It was another relaxing game in Tigertown. With 7 wins in the past 10 games, this team seems to be back to the easy-to-watch, fun team it was for much of the season.

Gary Sheffield, who finally broke his hitless streak yesterday, added a home run to his total with a left field shot that landed just over the bullpen.

Importantly, a) Justin Verlander added win No. 17. That’s nice for him. I’ve heard some rumblings about Cy Young, but I don’t think he’ll get it. With the seasons by CC Sabathia, Johan Santana (don’t look at W-L, look at the rest) and Dan Haren (ditto), even with a no hitter, it’s hard to make a good argument for Justin. But win No. 17! It’s good for Cy Young of the Tigers anyway.

Good news, the Indians lost. Bad news, the Yankees didn’t. So the Tigers have been 7-3 in the last 10, but the Indians are 7-3 and the Yankees are 8-2. Hard to make the playoffs in September when your opponents are doing that. But nonetheless, we had another good baseball game to watch, so I’m happy for that.

Update: Jason Beck blogged about the rare feat of back-to-back 17-win seasons by Verlander. Without quoting his whole post, the last Tiger was Jack Morris and the last rookie-sophomore was Doc Gooden. So we’re talking 80s!

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Texas 13, Tigers 6
Tigers  4, Texas 1

Too little, too late? This seems to be the case for the Tigers both Tuesday, and in September.  They rallied against the Rangers in the opening game of the day-night double header after trailing, 11-0. The Rangers brought their power bats for the game, hit seven(!) home runs, multiple triples and doubles, and blazed against Chad Durbin, Jose Capellan and Yorman Bazardo. Detroit scored five runs in the eighth inning, but Clay Rapada gave a pair back. To be honest, Detroit probably wasn’t going to rally back that late. Most starters were already resting for the night game.

Jair Jurrjens stopped Texas cold in the night game, got some help from his bullpen and won 4-1. Jurrjens is always a pleasure to watch. Hopefully our blogging friends enjoyed their game.  He seemed to break a bat an inning, something the FSN guys latched on to and enjoyed.

Three runs came in the first inning, giving Jurrjens all the runs he’d need to earn his second win as a major leaguer.  Curtis Granderson helped in this, as he put up two more stolen bases. Pudge had three hits.

But, as I said, it was a case of too little, too late. The Tigers rallied too late in the opener and lost. The Tigers won the second game, only to go .500 on the day and see both opponents ahead of them (Cleveland and New York) for playoff spots win. So the Tigers actually lost ground — 1/2 game.  And Detroit has won 6 out of the last 8 (which also makes 6 of the last 9). But both New York and Cleveland has won 7 of 9. The Tigers really needed to pick up more wins in August so the stretch run in September isn’t so uphill. Unfortunately, a split just wasn’t good enough for the standings.

Detroit’s two wins from clinching .500 for the season. That used to be the goal. Now, it’s empty. So, that’s improvement in our baseball lives, for whatever it’s worth.

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Tigers 5, Rangers 2

These five things we Tigers fans know.

1. Justin Verlander doesn’t give up a lot of hits to the Milwaukee Brewers.
2. Or runs to anyone else.
3. Todd Jones is teh devil in Prada.
4. Whatever that means
5. Kenny Rogers needs to be multiplied by five.

I’m not sure what I’d do with the extra Kennys. Maybe one or two in the starting rotation, possibly one to play short stop when Carlos Guillen needs a day off, and probably one as a closer, even if he’s a soft tosser.

The point is, Kenny Rogers is awesome. He pitched six innings, allowing his first run since Oct. 2. I’m not sure if we can credit Rogers for stopping the skid. Maybe we should just credit the bullpen for not blowing it. Whateve, the Tigers couldn’t afford to lose a third game to Texas, and Rogers and the rest of the team came through.

Even the bullpen. Jones even pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the ninth. Chad Durbin stumbled a bit bridging the gap between Rogers and Jones, but did good enough and gave the rest of the aching, tired, ineffective pen the day off. Now he has a hold to go with his save in two appearances this year.

On the offensive end of things, Craig Monroe is struggling so bad Sean Casey was intentionally walked twice to get to him. I’m pretty sure that’s twice more than the Rangers would have done if Mike Maroth was pitching… And Carlos Guillen drove in another two runs and Gary Sheffield hit another home run.

The Tigers play the Twins today…

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… with Sheffield. But Saturday and Sunday he will serve his suspension.

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Rangers 9, Tigers 6

Sometimes it’s easy to a blogger and write about games. And actually, it’s easier to write about losses than wins because sometimes, you just have more to say. And then you get a day like this when you just look at the bullpen and keep reciting, “Out, damned spot!”

Well, OK, I guess I can write something now. Not that I went around seething and venting. I just shrugged and went “Oh, Todd Jones, you silly boy!” and went on with work commitments. But now, I guess I have to write about it.

So here:

Jones happened. Not that it was entirely his fault. Or Jason Grilli’s. Or Tim Byrdak’s. But those three together with a putrid defense resulted in multiple extended innings with two outs, multiple unearned runs, and multiple Tigers’ fans mouths agape as the bullpen exploded, imploded, deploded.

There was the initial downfall when Grilli couldn’t get an out in the seventh and Byrdak gave up a three-run homer to give Texas a 4-3 lead. It was awful. Two defensive errors by Brandon Inge and Craig Monroe later and it was 6-3. It was awfulawfulawful.

Then the Tigers came back in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 6-all. Monroe, Sean Casey, a bunch of others, they all contributed.

Only to see Jones get two outs and give up a walk, a single, a triple and a single. It was so bad even Jim Leyland didn’t let Jones finish the inning.

Oh, and Nate Robertson, the little I was able to see of him tonight, came off the tired arm fine, I’d say. He gave up a run. Actually, he put two on base in the sixth inning and Grilli let one of those in.

Yuck. I wash my hands of it.You should too. The Tigers won’t keep looking awful for long, they never do. I recommend you listen to the Apples in Stereo, they even put all the songs free streaming on their web site for lord-knows-why. You can’t stay mad for long with that on!

And if that doesn’t work, I don’t know what to tell ya!

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Rangers 8, Tigers 3

I don’t know which meltdown was better:

• Jeremy Bonderman’s in the third inning when he gave up four straight runs on six straight batters who reached first base with two outs, including two who scored when Bondo took a liner to the mound and threw it way out of Sean Casey’s reach at first base.
• Or how Eulogio De La Cruz and Pudge Rodriguez teamed up to send the baserunner first first to third on a pair of wild pitch/passed balls before the point was later made moot when the Rangers tacked on three more runs with two outs.
• That made seven runs scored by the Rangers with two outs. Now that’s spectacular!

The Tigers offense, which has slowed to just 15 runs in its past four games, just couldn’t get much going. Kameron Loe threw strikes and kept the Tigers offense pretty passive after the first inning. When he wasn’t doing it, his defense seemed to step it up a notch. Tonight was a game Detroit needed its defense to step up when its offense was having a rare off night, but it just didn’t happen.

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Tigers 11, Rangers 4

It could have been more. Detroit could really have tacked the runs on against the Rangers. With already 11 on the board, the bases were loaded with one out for Carlos Guillen. But he hit into a double play for about the only time the Tigers didn’t capitalize on the day. Just about everyone else in the lineup had a great day in the hot Texas heat.

Gary Sheffield rapped another home run — this one almost to center, so we’ll say he hit all three fields in two games — Curtis Granderson had two(!) triples, and almost everyone else followed suit. Even Mike Rabelo, giving Pudge Rodriguez a day off, had a pair of hits. Man, I have nothing against Vance Wilson, but I hate to see Rabelo go back down. The kid has really come around well after an awful start to his career. He’s almost hitting .300 now. Getting back to Granderson, props to Bilfer for this stat: His 12 triples this year are the most since the 13 in 1982 hit by Larry Herndon. And it’s June! He’s four ahead of Jose Reyes of the Mets, the second-most in baseball.

Anyway, I could go on longer, but what I really want to bring up is the bullpen continues to be strong. It gave up two runs in 16 innings of work in Texas. Aqualino Lopez didn’t look real great or anything at first, but he pitched two scoreless innings. Yorman Bazardo — who came to the organization as a steal in a trade with the Mariners — did excellent, despite giving up a home run. He struck out three in six outs and blew away Sammy Sosa. He really did look good. Maybe I’m getting too excited over one good outing, but I think this kid has some potential to stick around awhile. He definitely threw strikes (19 of 26 pitches). I still want to see more outings, though. But if he can keep this up? Oh, man, that’s some good bullpen help.

In all, Detroit went 5-5 on the 10 game road trip. Shoulda won 6 or 7, by my estimation, but 5-5 will do.

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Tigers 10, Texas 0

What can I really say about this? It was a pleasure to watch, from a Tigers fan standpoint anyway. Homers, hits, dominating pitching, Detroit pretty much got it all today in a laughter.

Gary Sheffield hit a home run to right field, followed it up with a homer to left field, and all around, had yet another good day. We’re spoiled by having this guy on the Tigers. It’s just amazing to watch him hit.

And yet? Well it’s pretty good to watch most Tigers hit. Curtis Granderson had another triple. Placido Polanco hits anything that gets near him. Carlos Guillen and Pudge Rodriguez both homered.  Well, the list goes on, I’m sure. It’s important to note Brandon Inge looked healthy and fine, too.

But let’s not forget Mr. Verlander. He had five strikeouts through 10 outs. He ended up with six strikeouts in seven innings, but only allowed two walks and five hits, so that was a pretty good day. Bobby Seay and Todd Jones pitched uneventful innings out of the pen to preserve just the second shutout by Tigers pitchers this year.

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Rangers 7, Tigers 4

There’s good news and bad news for anyone who didn’t watch the game or look at a box score before coming to this blog. The good news is: Those 7 runs weren’t the fault of the bullpen. Well, one was Fernando Rodney’s. But otherwise…

The bad news is, all six runs were allowed by Nate Robertson, who did not even get an out in the first inning while doing it.  He gave up a grand slam, some walks, some hits, whatever. It was his second awful start in a row, but he hasn’t been good for pretty much the past month.

What’s the cause for this? Is he hurt? Are his mechanics off? I wish we knew. It’s not like he’s been “figured out.” In 2005 and 2006, he was a tough luck case, a guy with a lot of quality starts but not a lot of wins to show for it. His ERA in April was 2.48, sparkling even by his standard, but certainly not that far out of line for a guy who will give you better than a 4.00 ERA.

Well, something has to be figured out soon, anyway

But at least the bullpen stepped up. Jason Grilli, Zach Miner, Tim Byrdak, they all pitched well. So that’s nice to see.

The offense? It certainly clicked after the first inning. Brandon Inge homered in his first game back from a broken toe.  The Tigers got nine hits.

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