Well, we had a screaming at the TV episode tonight. I got through the blown six-run lead Tuesday night in Chicago and I got through the throwing of the ballgame away yesterday in Chicago and I got through the losing the three out of five there when I thought they had a great chance to go to Chicago and kick ‘em when they were down and win all five, or at least four out of five.  You know…

So, they hit LA tonight and right away in the first Detroit has two runs in with the bases loaded and two out and Craig Monroe hits a bomb and you know it’s way back there because Jared Weaver, the Los Angeles pitcher, throws his hands up when it’s hit and so you think maybe it’s gone, maybe it’s the Grandiose Salami but it’s not because the LA center fielder runs it down and makes the inning ending catch so it stays 2-0, Detroit. What you want to do if you are Detroit starter Nate Robertson then, is to hold them off the board in the bottom of the first so your team can keep its’ enthusiasm and the other team can’t get any to begin with. So Robertson walks the first guy which drives you nuts and sure enough, not only does Robertson fail to hold them off the board, LA has tied the game before he can get even a single man out and they wind up scoring six in the bottom of the first inning and, like I said, I am screaming at the TV because I care too much…

It felt good last night to come home and se the Indians down 9-1 to Boston. We did not have the same sensation tonight.  When we got home, Cleveland was ahead 10-1 against Minnesota. They won, of course, and now the Tigers need to win tonight (they’re down 8-5, now) or their lead over the second-place Indians will be down to .5 game.

The Tigers hit the 100 games played mark tonight with a 13-9 win in Chicago and Detroit’s record is easy to remember: 60-40.  The Tigs thus have the second-best 100-game record in the majors this season trailing only Boston and only by one game as the Red Sox record after 100 games was 61-39.

In spite of Cleveland’s 1-0 win over Boston tonight at Jacob’s Field, Detroit remains 1.5 games ahead of the second-place Indians in the Central.

The Tigers are now 19-6 in their last 25 road games.

The series against the White Sox is tied at two wins apiece, the rubber game is tomorrow.

Seattle had been pretty close to both the AL West lead and the Wild Card lead but are fading a bit right now, losers of five in a row.  Might be six, too.  JJ Putz just gave up a two run homer to Vazquez in the 8th as Texas took a 7-6 lead.  Putz has not blown a save all year (29/29) and took a streak of 31 straight saves into the game tonight. 

And it goes final, Seattle gets swept in a four game series in Texas, losing all four by one run.  So they are now four back of Cleveland in the Wild Card, and lest you don’t see ‘em coming, the Yankees are now 4.5 out in the Wild Card standings.

The Tigers have scored ten and you have to wonder if ten is going to be enough.  Detroit’s been behind most of the night.  The Tigers have trailed in this one 3-0, 5-2, and 7-5.  A five-run fifth has put them ahead.

Here are three “Tales of Two Pitchers”:

Kenny Rogers (DET)…2-0 record with an ERA of 1.04 (17.1 IP/2 ER) in his first three starts…is 0-2 with an ERA of 10.00 (15.3 IP/17 ER) in his last three starts (including tonight in Chicago.)

Jose Contreras (CWS)…allowed career high 10 runs in last outing prior to tonight’s…followed that up by allowing 9 to the Tigers tonight…his ERA in his last two starts is 14.25 (12 IP/19 ER)…one year ago this month was the toast of baseball as he took a 17-game winning streak into mid-July, tied for the longest win streak by a major league pitcher in the last 40 years.

Fausto Carmona (CLE) 1-10 for Cleveland last year, is 13-4 this year following 1-0 decision tonight over Boston…some might suggest that the reason the Indians are challenging for the division title is not that CC Sabathia is 13-4, it’s that Carmona is 13-4, too. 

Man, I hate blowing a six run lead like happened last night.  Is there a worse feeling in baseball?  There can’t be many.  It doesn’t happen often.  I don’t know the last time Detroit coughed up as big a lead as six runs but the Chicago game notes say the White Sox hadn’t come back to win a game in which they trailed at any point by six runs since April 28, 2004. 

Losing such a large lead against a bad team like Chicago makes it even worse.  I’m still mad about it and here is is almost dinnertime the day after.

I blame myself, I’ll tell you that.  I was a bad fan. 

You see, I let myself think about sweeping the White Sox; I thought about what it would be like, winning all five games in Chicago this week.  It would have been great.  It would have been a heck of a story.  But I’ve told you, repeatedly, that you can’t think like that and yet there I go, letting my Inner Fan take charge and there’s your proof of why you can’t do that right there in your pudding:  Two losses in one day.  That’s why, when it comes to rooting for a Big League team, you have to show discipline.  You have to worry not about winning all five, but losing them.

I thought the Sox were ripe for the thrashing though, I really did:  

• After Chicago beat Boston in the opener of their four game series last week at Fenway Park, the Red Sox kicked their butts but good, outscoring them 29-10 in the next three games, which came just a week or so after the White Sox gave up thirty-six runs or whatever it was in that doubleheader against the Twins.  They were looking awful and the Tigs had no trouble with them in the opener, winning 9-6 Monday night.
• Chicago is in a no-holds-barred beatdown  the Royals for last in the division the Tigers lead.

So, like I said, I thought the Tigers would smack them around with some dispatch this week.  Here’s what I forgot:

• There are two teams and only two teams with a winning record v. Detroit this season: Cleveland (6-4) and Chicago (4-3).
• In those seven games Detroit’s played against the White Sox this season Chicago has scored at least five runs in six of them.

So, here’s to another tough battle tonight in Chicago. 

Jose Contreras (5-12), who is 1-8 with a 7.57 ERA (51 ER/60.2 IP) in his last 10 starts, will take the mound for Chicago…his 12 losses are the second-most in the major leagues behind St. Louis’ Kip Wells…Lost his fifth straight start on 7/20 (last Friday) at Boston … allowed a career-high 10 runs and a season-high tying 10 hits over 7.1 IP … gave up four runs in the fifth inning, including a bases-loaded triple by Coco Crisp … surrendered a grand slam to Julio Lugo in the Red Sox five-run eighth.Struck out two and walked three … departed trailing, 10-3, after throwing 103 pitches (67 strikes).  (From White Sox notes)

Kenny Rogers (3-2) starts for the Tigers tonight. He’s lost his last two starts after winning his first three. 

Since going on that 10-2 tear, Detroit has now dropped four of their last six. 

When you lead by six runs at any point in a ballgame you expect to win.  When you lead by six runs in the bottom of the 6th, you’d better win.  In game two tonight in Chicago, the Tigers did (lead by six runs in the bottom of the 6th) but they didn’t (win).

The Tigers, who lost game one 5-3 in the afternoon, were ahead 7-1 when the White Sox came to bat in the home half of the 6th.  Virgil Vasquez, in only his second big league start, had been effective and  impressive to that point but he gave up 2 runs in the 6th and had to leave the game as the Tigers lead was trimmed to 7-3.  Three runs off the Detroit bullpen in the 7th for Chicago and a pair more in the eighth completed the game two comeback for Chicago, giving them a sweep of the two games played by the two teams today. 

Bullet Points:

• (Remember, as we posted a bit earlier, it was not a legal doubleheader, so you can’t use the usual doubleheader terms; “nightcap”, et. al.)
• The Tigers are now 3-4  v. Chicago in 2007.  In the seven games against Chicago this season, Detroit has held the White Sox under five runs only once.
• In other news, Cleveland lost to Boston 1-0.  That Dice K fellow outdueled CC Sabatha.  The Indians only had three hits. 
• When the day began first-place Detroit led second-place Cleveland by 2.0 games in the Central standings and everyone was hoping for a Tigers sweep and a Cleveland loss and a 3.5 games division lead at evenings end.  The worst-case, the thing you always think about, the thing you never let get far from your mind:  a Chicago sweep and a Cleveland win.  Sure, you’re still in first place if that happens, but by the thinnest possible margin, .5 game.
• Here’s what actually did happen:  When Bonderman and the Tigers lost the afternoon game 5-3, Cleveland pulled half a game closer to the Tigs, moving to 1.5 games behind. 
• When the Indians lost 1-0 to Boston, they gave that half game back and trailed by two, just as they had when the day began.
• When they were leading game two 7-1, it looked like the Tigers would pick up another.5 game on the Indians and take a 2.5 game lead–which would have matched their largest lead of the season.  Instead they blew the largest lead we can remember them blowing of late and lost 8-7, giving that same pesky half game back to Cleveland which moved right back to within 1.5 games of the first-place Tigers.  And that’s where we are right now
• Another game in Chicago tomorrow.

This Hessman, Mike Hessman, the guy who I’d never heard of before I looked up and there he was on the screen in the batters box last night in Chicago winning the ballgame with his wrong-field barely-fair bloop double, just went deep–really, really deep–for his first Big League Tater.  It was 20 rows back, easy.   

Kid’s off to a good start here in The Show.  Tiger Notes says he was tearing up the I’ntl League before he got here:  At the time of his promotion to Detroit, he was leading the International League with 27 home runs, 86 RBI and 50 extra-base hits, while he was second with 62 runs scored and a .551 slugging percentage.  

That homer he just hit makes it 2-0 Detroit in the second inning of the second of the two games there today. 

Two games, yes, but a doubleheader, no.  This from the White Sox Notes: According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the two Sox-Tigers games today at U.S. Cellular Field do not constitute an official doubleheader due to each game having separate gate receipts.

In the opener today, Chicago beat Detroit’s best pitcher, Jeremy Bonderman, just like last night Detroit beat Chicago’s best pitcher, Mark Buehrle.  Gave him a spanking, too.  Remember right before the break when Detroit beat up Cleveland’s CC Sabathia like he hadn’t been whipped all year?  That’s what they did to Mark Buehrle last night:  Buehrle allowed a season-high seven runs on a career-high tying 14 hits over 6.1 IP.

Bonderman, whose .909 winning percentage heading in led the AL, sustained the loss in the first game.

We wrote last night about the 10.00 ERA posted by Chicago’s starting pitchers during the four game losing streak they snapped in the afternoon game today.  The ERA of the Tigers’ game two starter Vasquez (we’ll look up his first name if he makes it through five, if he qualifies for a win)  is 20.25.  Oh, yes it is.  Here’s his season log:

DATE OPP. RESULT S/R DEC.    ERA   IP   H  R ER   BB SO  PC
5/13 @MIN  L, 16-4      S     L-1  20.25 2.2  9  6   6  2   1     73

So, the winner of the first game was Vasquez.  If the Tigers starter can get himself a win in game two, it too will have been won by Vasquez.  That’ll get ‘em to work over there at the Sports Bureau.  When was the last time the same name won both ends of a double header, different teams, no relation? 

One slight rarity tonight.  Neither pitcher in game two has ever seen a single one of the other teams hitters:

BATTER-PITCHER MATCH-UPS:
VASQUEZ vs. WHITE SOX – CAREER (AVG-AB-H-HR): Has yet to face a White Sox batter.
FLOYD vs. TIGERS – CAREER (AVG-AB-H-HR): Has yet to face a Tigers batter.

I heard some announcers talking about how bad the Chicago bullpen is on Saturday and I was reading up on how bad the Chicago bullpen is in tonight’s Chicago game notes and the score was Chicago 6, Detroit 5 when the Chicago bullpen entered the game tonight and the Tigers did win 9-6, but it turns out the bullpen isn’t the only villian in Chicago, at least not lately.

Including the seven earned runs charged to Mark Buehrle tonight, the most he’s allowed in a start this season, in the last four games Chicago starters have allowed 27 earned runs in 24.1 innings pitched for an era of 10.00.

The White Sox have been outscored 40-20 in their last five games and have lost their last four in a row.

I’ve been down on Chicago for quite a while now.  Can you believe this is the outfit which won the third Worlds Championship in Sox history only the year before last?  Ozzie Guillen was a baseball genius then.  This game can make you stupid in a hurry.

While the Tigers saw their lead in the Central go back up to 2.0 games over Cleveland, 6-2 losers at home to Boston, only a pummeling of the Royals by the Yankees in KC kept the White Sox out of last place in the division.

With both teams wearing replica uniforms from the Negro League, the Tigers (or “Detroit Stars”) got back on track last night on Brandon Inge’s two-run, game-ending home run in the tenth to beat the Royals (or “KC Monarchs”) 10-8. 

You will note the use of the phrase, “game-ending” instead of the now-in-vogue “walkoff”.  I hate the term “walkoff”.  Firstly, the word is misspelled.  It’s should be “walk-off, not “walkoff”.  Secondly, the guy who gets the walk-off hit isn’t the one who is walking off.  He’s too busy running out his hit to be ”walking-off.”  It’s the other team that’s doing the walking.  So the phrase, as you can plainly see, makes no sense.  No sense at all. 

Anyway, it was just  Friday that I said on Ron Cameron’s sports talk show on WPON that there was “no way Inge should be a power hitter.”  It’s true.  He doesn’t have the build.  You look at him and the last thing you think is that he can take you deep.  But he does.   And he did last night.  The gamer was his 12th homer of the year.  I was thinking it had been a while since he it a long fly so I checked it out.  It had been.   29 games and 107 at bats, in fact.  Ingy’s last homer was the GWRBI (Game Winning Run Batted In) in Justin Verlander’s June 12 no-hitter.  That Inge homer, a solo shot, came in the third inning and was the first hit by either side.  With Verlander throwing the no-hitter, Ingy’s HR provided him with all the offense he would need in what turned out to be a 4-0 final.

Verlander was on the hill last night as well, but he was long gone by the time Ingy’s liner to left was long gone in the 10th.  The Tigers had a 7-3 lead after five innings but it was down to 7-5 after the Royals knocked Verlander out of the box in the sixth.

Todd Jones came on to protect an 8-6 lead in the ninth but couldn’t do it, suffering his first blown save since June 1 (11 straight save opportunities converted in between) as the Royals tied the score and sent the game into extra innings.  Jones is now 26/31 in saves/save opportunities this season.  It was the first blown save by any Tigers pitcher since June 26 (Tim Byrdak) and the first by a pitcher on the current 25-man roster since May 26 (Bobby Seay). 

Ingy’s homer was the fourth of the game for Detroit, which scored seven of its eight runs via the long ball.

Meanwhile…Cleveland fell behind 5-0 early last night in Texas and couldn’t come back, losing to the Rangers 8-5, putting the Tigers ahead by two games in the AL Central chase.

It looks like the Tigers little run here is going to come to an end tonight with the guys down four to KC in the 8th and all, but this ten wins in the last 12 games was certainly nice while it lasted.  Not to mention unexpected.

After a 5-4 eleven inning loss to Cleveland on July 3, the Tigers had lost five of seven and were 3.0 games back of the Indians in the Central Division standings.

On the 4th of July (and they always say the team that’s in first place on the 4th of July is the team that will win the pennant, don’t they?) there had been only four days all season that Detroit was farther out of first than they were entering play that day.

All the callers to all the talk shows were saying the Tigers were done for.  That the Detroit bullpen was weak.  Too weak, (one guy I heard on the radio called the relief pitchers "garbage") to win. 

We haven’t heard much talk like that recently.

The Tigers came back to win the next two against Cleveland, including the series finale in which they sent all-star CC Sabathia to the showers with more runs allowed and fewer innings pitched than had been the case in any other start he’d made all year, to pull to within a game of the Indians. 

Boston came in the next night,  bringing with them most wins in baseball, and all the Tigers did was sweep them in a three game weekend set to take over first place at the break.  Curtis Granderson’s over-the-wall, homer-robbing grab in Detroit’s 6-5 win in the last game before the break, the greatest catch in the history of the Tigers new home field, is the memory that lingers.

I was delighted with the split in the four game series right after the break in Seattle. The Mariners had, after all, gone 10-2 in their last homestand prior to the Tigers visit.  They are, as I blog, only 2.0 games out of first in the West;  only 1.5 games behind Cleveland for the Wild Card.

Then, the three game sweep in Minnesota, all by one run.  A 10-2 record for Detroit since July 3, the most wins (57) in baseball, the only .600 winning percentage in the game, etc.

So they are losing tonight.  Like I said, it’s been a pretty nice run.  They’ll just have to start another one tomorrow night.  That’s all.

4:42 EDT:  It’s over.  Tigers 4, Twins 3 in ten.  The Tigers improve to 4-6 in extra inning games.

If the Twins had swept the Tigers they would be three games out right now.  But the Tigers swept the Twins and so  they are nine games behind first-place Detroit.

Detroit is 2.5 games ahead of the second place Indians in the AL Central, pending the outcome of Cleveland’s game at Texas tonight. 

CC Sabathia (12-4) gets the start for the Indians. Remember, he’s been rocked his last two times out.  The Tigers knocked him out early and then the Royals smacked him around.  In fact, over his past 11 innings, the big lefty has given up 13 runs.

The Tigers come home now for three over the weekend against Kansas City.

4:29 The Tigers score quickly in the 10th.   “My Tiger” Ingy comes through with another RBI, this time doubling home Timo Perez who had opened the inning with a walk. 

This is the third extra-inning game for the Tigers in their last 13 games since July 3.  Prior to that game, Detroit had gone 61 games, dating back to that April 24 game in Anaheim where they came back from way down against the Angels only to lose 9-8 in ten, without playing an extra inning game. Odd for a team which began the year playing six extra-inning games in the first twenty games of the season. 

Going now to the bottom of the tenth with the the lead and with Todd Jones on the hill. 

4:16 EDT:  The key play right now is Gary Sheffield getting picked off second by the Twins relief pitcher after his double had given the Tigers a 3-1 lead in the seventh.  That play probably cost Detroit a run and the game is 3-3 as we head to the bottom of the ninth.  Nick Punto made a nice falling catch to retire Sean Casey on a foul-pop well down the line towards left to end the Detroit ninth.  That means new Tiger Timo Perez will lead off if the Tigers get to bat again in this game.  Zach Miner is on the hill for Detroit, hoping to make that happen.

4:11 EDT:  Couldn’t post for a while there.  Just as bad, after Baker couldn’t hold a one-run lead in the top of the seventh, Bonderman couldn’t hold a two-run lead in the bottom of the seventh.  That is where we are right now.  Tied up with two out in the top of the ninth.

3:03 EDT:  Baker couldn’t retire a hitter before the Tigers tied it in the 7th.  Mike Rabelo, in the lineup for Ivan Rodriguez, opened the inning with a triple to right-center that missed being a homer by about a yard when it hit the baggie near where the baggie ends and thus remained in play.  “My Tiger,” Ingy, singled him home. One out later, Placido Polanco befuddled Nick Punto with a just-fair bouncer down the third base to score Curtis Granderson who beat out a potential double play grounder when first baseman Justin Morneau, fielding the ground ball only a couple of feet from the bag, threw to second before stepping on first.  Granderson beat the return throw and came around on the Polanco double.  Sheffield doubled in Polanco to make it 3-1, Detroit still batting in the 7th.

2:53 EDT:  Again with the notes.  It was in last night’s Twins notes that Johan Santana, he of the hard-luck 3-2 loss last in the game those notes were previewing, was 41-4 since 2003 after the All-Star break.  So, of course, he fell to 41-5 in that statistic when the Tigers beat him last night.  What we learned from today’s notes is that Santana:

…suffered his first loss after the All-Star break at home since August 1, 2005…he had gone 16 starts between losses..

THE TWINS SCORE.  1-0 Minnesota in the 6th.

2:40 EDT:  Still no score in the 6th. So it goes without saying we have another pitchers duel going. It’s been this way the whole series.

Here we have the Tigers winning the series opener 1-0 and in the finale today we get a pitching rematch of the game before that one between the Tigers and Twins.  Prior to Monday, the last time the Tigers and Twins played was on July 1 and Detroit won, 1-0.  So Tuesday’s 1-0 win, in case you didn’t notice or had forgotten or something, gave Detroit 1-0 wins over the Twins back-to-back. 

The  July 1 starters were the same as today’s:

Scot Baker (R, 4-3, 5.43) vs. Jeremy Bonderman (R, 10-1, 3.50)

I didn’t realize it was the same two pitchers today who had hooked up in that duel on the 1st.  Just like I didn’t realize that the Scott who pitches for the Twins just might be the only Scot in MLB, if not in the entire world who spells Scot with only one “t”.

2:06 EDT:  Still no score in the 4th.  Here’s an unsettling item for today’s Tigers game notes:

Bonderman is making his eighth start at the Metrodome during his career this afternoon. In his previous seven starts, he is 1-5 with a 6.86 ERA (40.2IP/31ER) and 34 strikeouts.

The first thing we’ve come across is an error in the Twins Game Notes.  Sort of a glaring one.  The thing is, it’s the HEADLINE:

Minnesota Twins 49-45 vs. Detroit Tigers 55-37

Detroit, for the record, enters today’s contest with a record of 56-36.

We hate to be picky, but these are, after all, Major League game notes and it is, after all, the headline in a big font and all.