122 games down and 40 games to go for the Tigers (65-57) as they close out the series tonight here against the (53-68) Minnesota Twins.  The Indians lost in 14 last night (the second Tuesday in a row in which they have played a 14-inning game) so the Tigers are three up on the Indians and three-and-a-half up on the White Sox.  Those two teams get underway in Chicago in about half an hour.  That was quite a game there last night.  Gavin Floyd of the White Sox struck out 7 of the first 9 hitters he faced, including 5 in a row, but he failed to survive the 6th as the Indians came back from a 5-2 deficit to tie.  The Indians were down again, 7-5, going to the 8th but single runs in the 8th and the 9th forced extras.  Chicago had 5 triples in the game, including one to lead off the 12th, but they failed to get the man home.  They finally won in the 14th, at 1:29am today, Detroit time.  The Indians used their entire bullpen last night, and unlike Detroit, they do not have Thursday off.  So, theirs could be a tired staff when they come to town Friday night.

I’m busy up here in the press box tonight doing the same thing I was doing last night, cutting up tape from Jim Leyland’s afternoon press gaggle and from Lions practice.  I’m trying to get all of this done tonight so I can feed my radio stations with material they can hold for release until Friday which will mean that I, like the Tigers, will have the day off tomorrow.

Detroit is down 1-0 after two tonight.  Jim Thome hit career homer 601 off Brad Penny with two out in the second, and that’s been it.  We’ll keep you posted, as usual.

1-1 in the 4th, now.  Brad Penny just escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the inning, racing to cover first and just barely beating Minnesota’s Tsuyoshi Nishioka to the bag to take the throw from Ramon Santiago for the somewhat rare 4-1 putout.  The Tigers tied the game in the 3rd on a Sac Fly by Delmon Young who would have had more than that but for a diving grab by Ben Revere in right-center.  Young should be 2-for-2 tonight but has twice been robbed by Revere who ran down a fly ball on the track in dead center to deny Young with a Willie Mays-like over-the-shoulder basket catch in the first.  It was about as nice a catch as we’ve seen in this yard this year, and the grab in the third was no slouch, either.  We’re headed to the 5th…still 1-1.

About ten minutes after Jhonny Peralta put the Tigers ahead 2-1 with a solo homer in the 6th, Rene (really?  Rene?  What is this, the NHL?) Tosoni hit Penny’s 100th (and last) pitch of the night into the seats in right with a mate aboard to put the Twins ahead 3-2.  Penny pitched a fine ballgame tonight, allowing only 5 hits in six innings (plus two hitters) of work.  Two of those hits went the distance though, and so the Tigers are down a run as they hit in the Detroit 7th.

Miguel Cabrera’s two-out single in the 7th tied the game 3-3, but Boesch was cut down at the plate to end the inning as he tried to score the go-ahead run.  In the Minny 8th,. Jim Thome hurt the Tigs, again, with an two-out RBI single of his own.  The Tigers, down 4-3, have two on with none out in the bottom of the 8th.  A good game.  A good pennant race game.  Now the bases are loaded with none out.  Cleveland has gone ahead of Chicago 2-1 and are batting in the 7th at US Cellular Field.

Wilson Betemit, pinch hitting, hits a Sac Fly to center to score pinch runner Austin Jackson and we’re tied 4-4 with the Tigers still hitting in the 8th.

The Twins loaded ‘em in the 9th off Jose Valverde on a single and two errors on bunts but Valverde fanned the next two hitters.  Justin Morneau singled in two with two out on a grounder right up the middle.  I happened to have looked it up prior to the game yesterday, and at that point, in the last 365 days, Morneau was hitting a hard-to-believe .222.  So much for that stat.  On to the bottom of the 9th: Twins 6, Tigers 4.  Cleveland is ahead of Chicago 4-1 and are threatening in the top of the 8th, again.  We may have to bolt for the locker room so, if so, we’ll see you here at Comerica Park Friday night when those Indians hit town…

We’re late getting to you tonight, but we’ve been pretty busy cutting up tape from Lions practice–#1 pick Nick Fairly (broken bone in foot) is out of his cast and is in a walking boot–and from Jim Leyland’s pre-game presser.  The big news that came out of that is that Al Alburquerque is expected back once his stay on the 7-day concussion Disabled List ends Saturday.  The key word is “expected”.  Leyland said he’s pretty sure, but not 100% sure.  Alburquerque did throw on the side today, which was good news.  After spending Friday night in a Baltimore hospital for a head injury sustained when he was clocked in the temple by a line drive as he stood in left field during batting practice, Alburquerque was driven back to Detroit Sunday.  He was unable to fly because doctors were concerned about the effects of pressurization.  But, as we say, he’s much better now. All in all though, it was pretty scary stuff.

I’ve also been sending texts to Dan Dickerson in the radio booth to keep him up to date on the Cleveland at Chicago game tonight at US Cellular Field where the White Sox lead 2-0 in the 4th, and where Chicago’s Gavin Floyd has 7 strikeouts through three innings.  Oh, and he’s perfect so far: 9 up and 9 down.

Here at Comerica Park, things are going as one would expect them to with Justin Verlander on the mound.  It’s men against boys, again.  The Tigers lead 7-0. We are in the top of the 7th.  Minnesota has played dreadful defense tonight, and look every bit the part of a ballclub which is 14 games under .500.  We’ll keep you up to date…

Verlander gets the standing “O” as he departs here in the top of the 8th.  The Twins put three singles together in the 8th to score their first run of the game–it’s 7-1 Tigers.  Verlander had retired 14 of the last 15 hitters he faced starting the 8th.  After three of the first six Twins he faced in the game reached, Verlander retired 18 of the next 20.  A pretty routing performance for a guy who, after starting the season 2-3, had gone 15-2 with an ERA of 2.00 since that game heading into his start tonight.  Phil Coke is in to mop up.  Over in Chicago, it’s 3-2 White Sox in the middle of the 5th.

Chicago’s up 5-2 now in the 5th and Ubaldo Jimenez is out after allowing 5 runs (4 earned) on 9 hits in 4.2 innings.  He responsible for a man on second.  We’ve got two out in the 9th here and things appear well in hand with Detroit up 7-1. So…off to the locker room!

It’s ninety-five at first pitch, and that is not a record high temperature for the start of a Tigers night game this season as a couple of weeks ago we had 97 at first pitch for a game here against the Giants.

The buzz in the press box tonight is all about the demise of Brandon Inge.  He’s still a Tiger–in fact, he could still be YOUR favorite Tiger–but he’s on the way out.  Most definitely, he is on the way out.  The Tigers this afternoon–with Inge hitting .177 for the year and  mired in a 2×42 (.048) slump in his last 15 games–traded a couple of minor leaguers to Kansas City for their third baseman Wilson Betemit.  All we can tell you about Betemit at the moment is that he doesn’t hit for power, 3 homers, but he’s hitting .281 which is over a hundred points higher than Inge, so there you go.  Betemit will join the Tigers in times for tomorrow’s game in Minnesota and the Tigers have not announced who on the current 25-man roster will have to go to make room for him.  Many automatically assume it will be Inge, which would be the end of the road for him here in Detroit, but one should keep in mind that the Tigers have 12 pitchers on the roster.  Most teams keep 11.  So we will see.  Duane Below (pr: BEE-lo)–called up from Triple A Toledo to start tonight, is off to a good start in his Major League career, retiring the first 6 hitters he’s faced.  There’s been a 5-6-3 putout (there was a 5-6-3 putout in Don Larsen’s 1956 World Series perfect game, just saying) and a running catch by Austin Jackson in center which rivaled the grab he made in the 9th inning of the Imperfect Game here a little more than a year ago.  Again, just sayin’.  b-2: DETROIT 0, A’s 0.

9:33  This has turned out to be, like, the worst home game of the season and it happens to coincide with the worst promotion of the season: Christmas in July.  It’s surreal.  We are listening to “Holly Jolly Christmas ” between innings and Santa Claus is sweating to death OUT there on a night where it’s still 89 degrees.  Meanwhile, the Tigers, having rallied to score 3 in the 6th to take a 5-3 lead, coughed it all up in the 6th when David Purcey walked the first three hitters he faced on 16 pitchers and Joaquin Benoit allowed all three to score, plus a fourth just for good measure.  The Tigers have two on with one out in their half of the 7th.  b-7: DETROIT 5, A’S 7.

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks, hasn’t it.  You’ll be pleased to know I sucked all the marrow out of my All Star break, including the fact that I didn’t watch the All Star game itself.  Pretty bad, eh?  I don’t know.  I just couldn’t get into it.  I mean, I’ll stay up to watch a Milwaukee Brewers at Arizona D’Backs showdown, but the games’ biggest names on a single stage: meh.  I can’t explain it, either.

We spent a couple of days over the weekend up in East Lansing and we were thrilled when the Director of Admissions told my daughter and the 500 or so other students who were at this event we’d been invited to that if they were in the room, they were accepted to Michigan State.  It was very exciting news, and especially gratifying for a Spartan like me to hear.

Ordonez just picked up a single in the first and if you haven’t noticed, he’s picked things up pretty nicely of late.  He know has hits in 19 of his last 21 games (20×61, .328).  He was left at first though when Cabrera took a called third.  You may not have heard of tonight’s starter for Oakland, Guillermo Moscoso, but the notes tell us that in spite of a 3-4 record, he has an ERA of 2.16.  He hasn’t pitched enough innings to qualify, but 2.16 would indeed be among not just the AL leaders, but among the MLB leaders.  It’s hard to figure a sub-.500 record with an ERA that low, and it’s hard to figure that the A’s are only 4-4 and in his starts, but they are.  Moscoso is making not just his 9th start of the season tonight, but the 9th of his career.

Rick Porcello, 22, is the Detroit starter tonight, and the Tigers could really use it if he were to step up.  He’s 8-6, 4.78 and it’s the 4.78 part that bothers you.  But he got ‘em out on ten pitches in the first so, so far, so good.

The Tigers are 50-45, one game out of first in the AL Central, and with Cleveland playing (asnd winning) a doubleheader yesterday, for the first time since April the Tigers and the Indians have played the same number of games.  Porcello retired the side in the second permitting only a two-out walk, so it’s off to the Detroit second on this hot night in Detroit–game time temp 88-degrees.  And it feels warmer than that.

7:37  Poor Ingy.  He just came up with two on and two out and struck out, again.  He missed that last pitch by a couple of feet, too.  His average falls below .180 and he was booed and booed heavily.  It’s got to be killing him.  He was a hero around here not all that long ago, and now he’s getting booed.  But in all honesty, the way he’s been going lately–longer than lately to be honest–when he’s in the lineup it’s like the Tigers are playing without a Designated Hitter, because Inge has been hitting like a pitcher.  Two left on for Detroit, and we go to the third, scoreless still.

7:41  A (sad) note on Brandon Inge.  In his last 15 games including tonight’s, he is 2×43, (.047).  Mercy…

8:12  How about young Porcello!  The A’s just loaded the bases with nobody out in the 4th and the kid worked out of it unscathed.  An around-the-horn double play (started by Inge who all of sudden was NOT being booed) ended the inning after Cabrera got the first out by throwing home for a force with the bases loaded and none out.  Miguel almost threw it away, but catcher Avila stretched and made the catch and kept his foot on the plate.  If the Tigers win, it’s the biggest inning of the ballgame.  If they don’t, none of it means a thing.  Former Tiger Scott Sizemore was hit in the throat or the jaw with a pitch after he squared to bunt and missed. He’s left the game.  A lot of the reporters wanted to interview him, but I’m not sure why.  Yes, he was to have been the Tigers second baseman of the future, but that never worked out so now he plays elsewhere.  That’s just baseball.  We are in the Detroit 4th with a man on and a man out.  Still 0-0.

8:24 The Tigers just scored perhaps the most unbelievable run they have scored this season and lead 1-0 after four.  Victor Martinez was trying to score from first on an error by Oakland first baseman Conor Jackson who booted Carlos Guillen’s grounder which then rolled along the stands down the right field line.  As the A’s pursued the ball, they waved Victor home and when I saw third base coach Gene Lamont infull windmill mode, I said, “He’s going to be out by ten feet.  And he was.  But Martinez spun away from the tag at home and then dove backward and got his hand on the dish before A’s catcher Kurt Suzuki got the tag on him (maybe).  Martinez was called safe, he might have been out, and on a wild and controversial play, the Tigers open the scoring tonight.  The run was unearned.  TOP 5: DETROIT 1, OAKLAND 0.

8:33 A two-out Ryan Sweeney scores Suzuki who opened the inning with a double–the first extra-base hit of the night for either team.  So, the Detroit lead is short-lived.  TOP 5: DETROIT 1, OAKLAND 1.

8:38 A’s still up in the 5th.  Matsui, hitting .217, singles in two and Porcello and the Tigers are having a tough time getting out of the inning. All 3 runs have come with two outs, the worst kinds of runs to give up.  Now, finally and too late, really, Detroit gets out of the inning on a bounce out.  BOTTOM 5: DETROIT 1, OAKLAND 3. 

It might be too hot to blog tonight.  We are twenty minutes or so from first pitch and it is 97.  I’ve got  buddy in the “Champions Club” and even though I am not a “Champion”, I may go over there to hang out for a few innings.

It was a great ballgame last night, even though the Giants won.  Tonight, Max Scherzer (9-3) goes up against Barry Zito (1-1).  It was a few seasons ago that Zito was one of the top two or three pitchers in baseball–a young fireballer for the Oakland A’s.  He was 23-5 in 2002–the most wins in the American League.  He never had a sub-.500 season with the A’s.  He signed a mege-bucks multiyear contract with the Giants five years ago.  He has never had a winning season for the Giants.  So, we shall see.  Here are your Official Game Notes for tonight:

Detroit Tigers Game Information

San Francisco Giants Game Information

(Actually, the Giants have not posted their Game Notes.  I am not surprised. They had mis-spellings in their Notes last night.  How can that even happen?)

7:15 The Kung-Fu Panda has struck again.  Pablo Sandoval has hit a two-run homer to left, so three batters in, Scherzer and the Tigers are down 2-0.  And the Giants may not be done.  Thanks to a Ryan Raburn error and single the Giants have two one and two out.  Brandon Crawford clears the bases with his second homer of the night, and two dozen pitches in, the Tigers trail 5-0. Crawford’s homer was of the “just barely variety, off the top of the wall and into the seats.  A foot less and maybe Casper Wells catches it and the inning is over.  But, you know.  The top of the first continues… t-1: Detroit (coming to bat) SF 5. (I told you I might not be blogging much tonight!)

7:59 The rain is coming,  SF has added a run there in the third and the wind and rain is upon is.  They ouught to clear the stands, the lightening is close and there is a lot of it.  With none out and  a runner on for the Giants, they call for the tarp at 8:00.  It is a big time storm moving in.  How long it will last, who’s to say.  Rain Deal  t-3; Detroit 0, SF 3.  

8:03 The situation here is serious.  The grounds crew is having a terrible time getting the tarp on the field, there is lightening directly overhear, and the fans have still not cleared the stands.  The rain is pelting down in sheets.  I can’t believe they didn’t call this thing sooner.  It’s been evident for some time that this was moving in and they waited too long to get the fans out of the stands and the tarp on the field.  The situation is this: SF batting in the third, one run in, a runner on first, and a 3-1 count on Brandon Crawford.  The rain is so heavy you can hardly see the upper deck, and fans are still scrambling for cover.  If a bolt of lightening hit right now…

8:12  It is dark as night.  We can see the lights of the parking deck in left-center.  We can barely see Ford Field.  Cannot see the RenCen.  Amazing.

8:32  Less rain but still dark as night.  Some are saying the storm stretches back to Battle Creek (about 100 miles) but everybody in the press box turns into an amateur meterologist when it rains.  I’ll tell you this much, they will wait for as long as it takes–even if it is two and a half hours or so–to re-start this thing.  They are not going to shaft SF out of a 6-0 lead and neither team wants a doubleheader tomorrow as both teams play in California on Monday. And it’s a day game for ‘Frisco, to boot.

9:00 The Rain Delay is now one hour old.  It had virtually stopped a few minutes ago, but it’s picked up again now.  It’s again very steady and very hard.  There are huge puddles on the warning track, especially near the dugouts.  And so, we wait on…

10:00 The rain is stopped and the tarp is off.  We are told the game will resume at 10:15.  It was a little dicey to say the least for a while, but we will play on.  We are, by the way, in the 3rd inning.  Cleveland won today…they will be a game and a half up on Detroit if the Tigers cannot come back.  Minnesota led the Brewers 7-0, but now trail 8-7 as they go to the bottom of the 9th in Minny.

10:10 The rain has started again, not much but enough that the tarps that cover the mound and the home plate area have been re-deployed.  I think they are going to put the main tarp back on…and they are.

10:11  This is interesting.  The have the main tarp halfway unrolled and they have stopped.  The grounds crew is just standing there, waiting.  The rain has stopped again.

10:21 The tarp is rolled up but we have just been advised that due to lightening, we will not resume until 10:40.  Did I mention we are in the third inning?

10:35 We resume.  Brayan Villarreal replaces Scherzer.  The rain delay, officially, lasted 2:36.  Didn’t feel a minute longer than 2:30.  SF, for those of you who have forgotten, have a run in, a man at second, and a 3-1 count on the hitter with none out.  They lead 6-0. Crawford walks and it is charged to Scherzer and it may, at 2:37, be the longest walk in baseball history.  On the next pitch, Miguel Tejada hits his 3rd homer of the year, a grand slam, and the fans who stayed are rewarded by seeing the Giants move into a 10-0 lead. Still nobody out, by the way.  This inning, the top of this inning, is about three hours old now. No kidding.  Three hours.  t-3: Detroit 0, SF 10.  

10:52  The top of the third is over.  If it began at 7:45–and it was right around there–it lasted for three hours at seven minutes.

12:10 (am) Whoever it was who said, “Those who stay will be champions,” almost certainly did not have this in mind.  We’ve made it to the 8th and the Giants lead 15-2, which means that in a span covering just their last 5 games, Detroit has allowed 14 runs in one game, 16 runs in a second, and 15 runs in a third.  San Fran scored two more in the 5th to make it 12-0 at that point and then added 3 more in the 6th for a 15-0 lead.  The Tigers got on the board in the 7th on back-to-back homers by Jhonny Peralta (14) and Brennan Boesch (11).  It has been a most awful night.  About all I can think to ask Jim Leyland after the game is, “Does this rise to the level of embarrassing?”  There are still 5 or 6 thousand fans here, which is somewhat remarkable.

12:37  Mercifully, it ends. Over five-and-a-half hours after it began, it ends.  It was 97 degrees when we began, it is 73 now. And, in spite of the run Detroit scored in the bottom of the 9th, it seems pennant hopes for this team have fallen about as dramatically.  Congrats to old friend Kurt Schneider here in the press box who, in the course of this game, managed to turn sixty.  I’ve known him since Day 1 of my sportscasting career, meaning we are both pretty old, now.  Rick Porcello will try and salvage the finale later today, and for those of us hoping to be at the manager’s press gaggle in the morning, well, we have to be back at the ballpark in about eight and a half hours.  FINAL:  Detroit 3, SF 15.

It’s a hot summer night, probably the first we’ve had this season, as the Tigers host the SF Giants. 84 degrees at first pitch and the next two days are supposed to be warmer than today.

Brad Penny–one win in his last 8 starts–is starting tonight for Detroit.  Madison Bumgarner, 21, toes the slab (as we say in the industry) for the Giants.  The key number for Bumgarner is 3. He has won his last 11 decisions in which San Francisco scored at least three runs for him.

And I know what you are saying.  ”Rich, where do you find this stuff?”  And, “How can I find this sort of information?”  Well, you could always read your Official Game Notes!

Detroit Tigers Game Information

San Francisco Giants Game Information

7:15  Now that was a quality top of the first inning!  Casper Wells battled an idiot a fan for a foul fly that nearly went into the stands down the third base line, won, and fired home to nail the Giants’ Aaron Rowand at the plate.  What a great throw!  From where I sit, he was throwing right at me.  It looked, at release, like it would be 15 feet up the first base line, but it sliced right to the plate and Alex Avila took it on a hop and put the tag on Rowand.  A great, great 7, 7-2 double play to keep the Giants off the board.

7:34 This hardly ever happens.  For a couple of minutes, we didn’t know who the hitter was for SF. The Giants changed their lineup after the pre-printed scoresheets had been distributed and we were all like, “That’s not Crawford batting.  He’s on first.  What the hey…?”  It has all been explained to us by the Official Scorer.  Pat Burrell isn’t playing tonight and so somebody else is batting 6th for the Giants.  A couple of other guys have moved up a position in the order.  Now that we know that, we can get on with our lives.  Penny stranded a couple of Giants in the top of the inning and we are now in the Detroit half of the second.

8:12 The scoreboard here at Comerica Park–only 12 years old yet antiquated by today’s MLB standards–is not functioning when the Giants are at bat, presumably because of the change in the Giants batting order.  The board was showing the same lineup we had received.  It was a simple matter of crossing out one name and penciling in another on the paper and pencil version, but they apparently have not been able to make the change on the electronic scoreboard.  So, when the Giants are up, the scoreboard says only, “Welcome to Comerica Park.” Thanks, I guess.

8:18 It took a couple of innings, but the scoreboard here has been repaired and now reflects the actual SF Giants batting order.

8:27  The Giants have said, “Well, as long as the scoreboard is working, we may as well put something on it.”  And they have.  It was an RBI double to the left-center gap by Pablo Sandoval with two out in the 5th that scored the run.  Have I mentioned this is the first time I’ve ever seen the Giants in person?  It is.  This is not hard to understand as this is the first game SF has played here since 2005.  One of the players I was looking forward to seeing was Sandoval, the third-year third baseman known as “The Kung-Fu Panda.”  He missed 40 games with a broken hand this season.  With his hit tonight, he has now hit safely in 16 of 17 games since returning from that injury.  Sandoval is very popular in SF where fans show up at ATT Park every time the Giants play dressed as Pandas.  At least we think it’s due to Sandoval’s popularity.  b-5  Detroit 0, SF 1.

9:10 I just want to know why Austin Jackson tried to steal 3rd in the 6th.  He was out, so instead of a man in scoring position at second with one out and Ordonez up and Cabrera due up after Ordonez, the Tigers wound up with nobody on and two out.  Did Jackson go on his own or did Leyland send him.  Either way, it was bad baseball as I see it.  And Ordonez struck out to end the inning.  Penny has given the Tigers seven innings on one-run ball tonight.  A solid outing, but Detroit can’t do a thing with Madison Bumgarner.  Detroit, with one out in the 7th, has five hits, all singles.  But, the youngster is fast approaching the 100-pitch mark, making this a grim race against time.  The Tigers need to extend their at-bats and get to the Giants pen.  Before the Giants can get to Brian Wilson, their closer, that is.

9:22 The Tigers had a runner at second with one out for the second straight inning but left him there when Jhonny Peralta and Ryan Raburn were each struck out by Bumgarner.  And oh, did the crowd boo Raburn.  Penny is out and Lester Oliveros makes his Tigers debut.  At least, I think it is his debut.  Penny goes seven and gives up a run on seven hits.  And Oliveros starts strong, fanning Aubrey Huff.

9:26 I checked The Notes (where else?) and it indeed is Oliveros’ debut.  And he is one strike away from striking out the side!  Nope, a two-out, two-strike single by Nate Schierholtz spoils it.

9:32 Oliveros does not strike out the side, but with two on he makes a barehand grab of a little roller by Bill Hall and first to first in the nick of time and the inning ends.  A fine debut.  Now, the bottom of the 8th.  Bumgarner, 115 pitches (but he’s young, 21, remember?) comes out to start the inning for the Giants.

9:39  Bumgarner walks a man and they come to get him after 124 pitches.  Seven and a third and five singles.  No runs.  That’s good pitching.  Bumgarner is 4-9, but his ERA is 3.84 which isn’t bad. The thing is, he’s second from the bottom of the NL in Run Support.  And that is how you go 4-9 with a decent ERA.  He got only one run tonight, so far, it’s been enough.  Sergio Romo–a pretty neat name, I think, is the new SF pitcher.  Andy Dirks comes on the pinch hit for Jackson.

9:43 Dirks got a lot of it, but not all of it, and flies to right.  The runner does not advance which surprises me a bit because he knew it would be caught and it was deep.  I thought he had a decent chance to make it.  Romo out and Javier Lopez–another neat name, no?–is in for Frisco. Brennan Boesch will pinch hit with a man on first and two out.  The crowd roars…

9:47 Boesch singles to center off Lopez (who throws underhanded which I am pretty sure is cheating!!) and Inge races around to third.  And here comes Brian Wilson: 24/27 in save/save opps.  The Beard.  Ordonez will hit with runners at first and third and two out.  The crowd roars some more.

9:52 On a 2-2 pitch, Wilson went off -speed and Ordonez whacked it to right for a single to score Inge from third and tie the game.  No win for Bumgarner.  This baseball is a tough game. Cabrera up.  b-8: Detroit 1, SF 1.

9:54 Cabrera hits a little hump-backed liner to first and it’s an easy out and that is that.  On to the 9th.  Tied.

10:00 Jose Valverde is in and El Papa Grande is in trouble.  A double (by #9 hitter Chris Stewart) and a single gives the Giants runners at the corner with nobody out.

10:01 Infield in all the way around and Valverde won’t let Emmanuel Burris put it in play.  He strikes him out.

10:04  Infield still in, one out.  Sandoval, that player I came to see? He’s up.  Baseball is full of Kizmet.  Whatever that is.

10:06  Valverde got two strikes then Sandoval hammered it to left center, one hop and over the wall for an RBI ground-rule double. The Kung-Fu Panda has two RBI tonight.  San Francisco has two runs tonight.  Coincidence???   t-9: Detroit 1, SF 2.

10:18  Valverde winds up walking two in a row which forces in a run and I think we are done here.  Brayan Villarreal replaces Valverde, whose night it turned out not to be.  t-9: Detroit 1, SF 3.

11:47  I’m home now and to get caught up just before I left, Villarreal walked in another run, make it 4-2, San Francisco.  So, I booked to beat the traffic.  As you no doubt know, a team trailing by 3 in their last at bat wins somewhere between 2 and 3% of the time.  It’s a known historical, baseball fact.  So I missed the rally wherein the Tigs scored two and had the bases loaded with one out, only to line into a game-ending double play.  But, I liked my odds and I’d been up since three this morning (I did a morning drive radio show in Lansing this morning) and so off I took.  I’ll watch the bottom of the 9th as s0on as the broadcast is made available on MLB.TV. if I’m still up, tomorrow morning if I am not.  It was a great baseball game, even if the locals lost.  I look forward to talking to Jim Leyland about it tomorrow afternoon when he holds his daily press gaggle in his office, three-and-a-half hours prior to first pitch.  It’s Barry Zito for the San Francisco’s and Max Scherzer for the Detroit’s on Saturday night.  Tonight’s loss means the Tigers will finish below .500 in Interleague (they are 6-10 with 2 games left) and it means they are no longer in first place.  Cleveland hammered Cincinnati 8-2 to go up by one half a game on the Tigers.  And that’s that.  Until Saturday night, goodnight, everybody!  FINAL: Detroit 3, SF 4.

And so we ring out the month of June and inaugurate the second half of the 2011 Tigers schedule on an 80-degree afternoon here at Comerica Park where it will be a moral victory if the Tigers can hold the Mets to, say, under ten runs.  NY has scored 30 on the Tigs in the first two games of this series, and have scored 52 in their last 4 games, which is amazing, sort of.  (And, after all they are the “Amzing Mets”, or if you prefer, simply “The Amazings.”)

Jose Reyes is on second base after his bloop was too far for Ramon Santiago to get to, and not deep enough for either Andy Dirks or Austin Jackson to catch.  He just never stopped at first and there was a little bobble in the outfield and Reyes picked up an extra base.  It is scored a double. So, no no-hitter and no perfect game today.

Game Notes on the fly, now:

Detroit Tigers Media Information.

New York Mets Game Notes.

Reyes just got doubled off second.  Santiago snared a Jason Pridie liner that looked like a hit for sure, which is what Reyes must have thought because he was almost halfway to third.  I give him credit for making the play at second close.  But it’s a 4, 4-6 double play and Verlander ends the inning by fanning Carlos Beltran for his first “K” of the day and the Mets are done in the first.  And, for the first time in the series, they are done in the first without scoring any runs.  Amazing.  b-1: Detroit (coming to bat), Mets 0.

1:28  The Tigers didn’t get a hit in the first but they did leave the bases loaded which has been an on-going problem of late, leaving runners–especially runners in scoring position–on base.  Andy Dirks came up with the bases full thanks to three walks and, first ball hitting, ended the inning with a towering foul popup to first.  t-2: Detroit 0, Mets 0.

1:33  Daniel Murphy has just homered (5) to right to open the scoring this afternoon.  It was a lazy fly ball to right that just barely made it out of here, but you have to give him credit, there are no cheap home runs at Comerica Park.  It is the 12th homer allowed this year by Verlander.  t-2: Detroit 0, Mets 1.

1:50  Tied at one as Austin Jackson singles in Jhonny Peralta from second.  We haven’t used that phrase, “Jackson drives in a run” very much of late.  The RBI today is his third in his last 18 games.  b-2: Detroit 1, Mets 1.

1:58  There was news at manager Jim Leyland’s morning press gaggle.  The Phil Coke Experiment is over.  Coke, brought out of the bullpen this year to be the Tigers fifth starter, is going back to the pen, due largely, er, due entirely to his 1-8 record.  Rookie Charlie Furbush will take his place in the rotation and will start against the Angels Monday night in California.  his leaves the Tigers with a bit of a gap to fill.  Who carries the bright pink backpack out to the bullpen every night?  It had been Furbies job because of him being a rookie and all, but he’s not in the pen, anymore.  Al Alburquerque is a rookie.  Perhaps he’ll get the job.

2:41 The Tigers got three in the 3rd and lead 4-1.  Alex Avila’s sac fly scored the first run and a single by Santiago plated the second.  When Angel Pagen threw wildly to third after the hit by Santiago, another run came across and there you have it.  b-4: Detroit 4, Mets 1.  

3:39 Andy Dirks homered, oh, an hour ago or so and it’s 5-1.  Brennan Boesch just threw out Lucas Duda at home and that’s about as exciting as it’s been here in a while.  So, here’s the thing.  I have to drive to Lansing tonight so I can be on the air at 5:30 tomorrow morning.  I think maybe I will sneak out of here now and beat the traffic.  I can use that Leyland interview about the change in the Tigers starting rotation on the show tomorrow.  So, the Giants come in tomorrow and we will be back with you then!  b-7 Detroit 5, Mets 1.

Another beautiful night for baseball here in Detroit.  The sky is as clear as can be and it is 76 degrees as we are a minute or two away from first pitch.  It’s a battle of 7 game losers this evening as Phil Coke (1-7) goes for Detroit against Chris Capuano (6-7) for the New Yorks.  The Tigers are 4-9 when Coke starts in 2011.

Jose Reyes, four hits for the Mets last night, hits Coke’s third pitch of the game right back up the middle for a single, and that is how we begin.  Are you ready for your Official Game Notes?

Detroit Tigers Media Information.

New York Mets Game Notes.

7:15 Mets 1, Tigers 0.  Right after Brennan Boesch made a fine running catch in the left field corner, Reyes stole third (he’d moved from first to second on a pick-off error by Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera) and scored on a Coke wild pitch, which negated pretty much the good play by Boesch which had given him the chance to escape the inning unscathed.  But, now he’s scathed.  There was talk over the press room dinner table tonight that if Coke doesn’t have a decent outing tonight that he might not be long for this Tigers rotation.  My question: Who’s going to replace him?  Scott Hairston is the seventh Mets hitter of the inning.  Somehow, it is still only 1-0.  Coke has given up two singles and a walk since Reyes scored and the bases are loaded with one out.  This could be your ballgame right here.  Coke gets out nicked for a run, or the Mets have a (make that, another) big inning.  It’s another big inning.  Hairston hits it over Austin Jackson’t head in center for a bases-clearing triple and it’s 4-0.  We may be taking another early break tonight.  Coke gets a strikeout to end the inning, but the damage, as they say, has been done.  b-1: Detroit (coming to bat), Mets 4.

7:54  I feel badly for Coke who seems like a really nice guy and who has treated me well in all of our locker room dealings, but it is now 5-0 in the third and it just doesn’t look like this is going to work out for him.  And I forgot to mention it, but Cleveland won this afternoon, 6-2 over Kirk Gibson’s Diamondbacks in Arizona, so the Tigers need a win tonight to stay a game ahead of the Indians.  The are (is?) a smattering of boo’s from the surprisingly small crowd as Angel Pagan steals second.  And so it goes.  b-3: Detroit 0, Mets 5.

7:58  I think we are in for it tonight.  I think Jim Leyland is going to be mad as Hell and won’t be taking it anymore after this one.  It has already been a very, very interesting week in terms of the media–of whom I am one–and relations with the Detroit manager.  On Monday after he got thrown out of the game, when we showed up at his office door he was sitting at his desk in street clothes and he screamed at us, “Don’t come in here!  Don’t you come in here!  Go talk to (Tigers Hitting Coach Lloyd) McClendon!”  So, we went to talk to McClendon only to find out he had made the smartest move of the night.  He was taking a shower.  A nice, long shower.  So, we all retraced our steps and went into the main locker room to interview players.  All the time I was keeping watch on the door to Leyland’s office out of the corner of my eye.  Sure enough, after ten minutes or so, the Tigers PR guy said he’d talk to us.  Because I’d been watching just in case Leyland relented, I was first man in so my microphone placement was perfect.  That’s half the battle in the post-game game.  You gotta get that mike in close.  The first thing Leyland says is, and actually he more yelled it than said it, is, “Don’t ask me about that (expletive deleted) play!”  So, we don’t and I manage to get some halfway decent material about how it had been a “character win” for the Tigers what with them rallying in the 8th and whatnot.  Reporters began heading for the door.  I dawdled, a bit.  Jason Beck of mlb.com, who as an aside does a great job covering the Tigers, told Leyland he a question about the rules and after some hemming and hawing, Leyland says to the three of us left in his office, “Okay, I’ll talk to you about it.  But, (expletive deleted) it’s off the record.”  He proceeds to give us his entire version of events.  We can’t use it, but the big thing to me was that he trusted me enough to let me in on the story.  And the next day he talked about it on the record.  But me and those other two reporters, we had it first.

In case you missed the play in question, here’s what I wrote on the blog as it happened here a couple of nights ago:

8:15  Let me see if I can explain what just happened.  Andy Dirks bunted and was called safe at first.  The umpire asked the home plate umpire for his thoughts on the play, and the home plate ump said Dirks was out.  Which he was.  The first base umpire kicked the call.  But once a man is declared safe, he’s safe.  That’s how this game works!  But they changed the call, Dirks was declared out and let’s just say Tigers manager Jim Leyland got his money’s worth arguing the reversal.  He was, of course, run (baseballese for when one is excused by the officiating staff from further participation in a game).  The only good news is that Raburn’s at second with one out.  It should be men on first and second with none out.  What a show.  b-7: Detroit 2, Toronto 2.

The paragraph above describes as stunning a thing has I have ever seen in a big league game, and as it says on the masthead, I’ve been going to big league games for 47 years–48 next month.  And what Leyland said–off the record the night of the game and on the record the following afternoon was, “In my 48 years in baseball, I’ve never seen that.  Once you make the call, you live with it.  He was telling me he’d missed the call.  I was telling him, ‘You should be saying that to the Toronto manager!’”

The thing I couldn’t stop thinking about was poor Armando Galarraga losing his perfect game a year ago this month with two out in the ninth on the exact same thing: a blown call at first base.  My most vivid memory of that night, of that moment, is the feeling of utter helplessness that washed over me when first base umpire Jim Joyce spread his arms palms down, calling Cleveland’s Jason Donald “safe”.  I knew the perfect game was over.  I knew there was no appeal. That’s how baseball works.  Once the call is made, it doesn’t matter if you have Edward Bennett Williams defending you, that call stands.  And now, on a play of relatively little importance when compared to that one, the umpire who kicked the call is asking another umpire for help, and for the first time I’ve ever seen, for the first time I’ve ever even heard of, they change the call.  As Leyland said, “In a thousand years of baseball, they’ve never done that.”  (He may have been exaggerating the “1,000 years part, I don’t know.)

Anyway, as I said, it’s been an interesting week.

Back at the ballgame, the Tigers are getting the tails kicked, again.  Coke is gone.  He lasted four innings plus three hitters in the 5th and gave up 8 runs (7 earned) on ten hits.  Which, and this is the stunning part, is actually better than Rick Porcello did last night when he allowed 11 hits and 7 Earned Runs in 3.2 IP.  It’s 8-2, Mets in the top of the fifth.  The Tigers runs have come on homers by Ryan Raburn (7) and Miguel Cabrera (16).  The homers are the only Detroit hits tonight.  The game is an hour and a half old and it feels like we’ve been here all night.  t-5: Detroit 2, Mets 8.

9:15  It would seem the Tigers are back in this thing, however improbable that might seem. Detroit scored four in the sixth on a pair of homers and have now hit four round-trippers tonight.  Cabrera hit a three-run shot which will test my ability as a writer to describe.  All I can say is I had it through the binoculars the whole way and it was ungodly.  It was more a liner than fly ball and I watched it sail just to the right of the flagpole in deepest left centerfield before it landed in the second row of the shrubbery out there.  It was his 17th homer of the season and it made the score 8-5, Mets.  One hitter later, Jhonny Peralta launched his 13th, a long fly that landed on the roof of the visitors bullpen in left.  8-6, Mets.  Cabrera hit his homer on the 88th and last pitch of the night by Capuano.  Peralta went yard off reliever Pedro Beato.  t-7: Detroit 6, Mets 8.

9:33 Daniel Murphy has just singled to right with the bases loaded to score two more for the Mets.  I think Raburn at second maybe should have had it.  It looked like it skipped under his glove.  If he makes the play, the inning is over and the Tigers are still only down two.  Now, they are behind by four.  One of the runs is charged to Ryan Perry, the other to Al Alburquerque who has not helped his cause by walking three of the first five hitters he’s faced.  Now he gets Jose Reyes to line out to center to end the inning but those two runs hurt.  b-7:  Detroit 6, Mets 10.

9:43 Worst. Pitching. Change. Ever.  The wrong guy just came out the NY pen.  Bobby Parnell started walking from the bullpen to the mound when he was informed that he was not the guy the Mets wanted to replace Beato.  Tim Byrdak was.  So he’s in there.  Beato’s last pitch would have resulted in a homer in any other ballpark in the world, but here, it was just a long flyout to center.  But!  Pinch-hitter Andy Dirks hits Brydak’s second pitch right down the line in right (you had to watch it all the way to be sure it was going to land on the fair side of the foul pole) for a homer and Raburn–who was booed lustily before doubling to start the inning–also scores as the ball sails outta here and Detroit is back to within two, again.  Now, the Mets get Parnell in there in relief.  One out in the Detroit 7th in what has become an entertaining game to say the least.  b-7: Detroit 8, Mets 10.

10:16  The Tigers are down six again and it looks like that’s going to do it.  The Mets have scored four in the 8th–all with two out–off relief pitchers Alburquerque and David Purcey.  The Mets have scored 50 runs, fifty, in their last four games and they have a man in scoring position as this inning goes on and on.  t-8: Detroit 8, Mets 14. (When, I wonder, was the last time the Tigers gave up 14 runs in consecutive games as they have here in the first two games of this series against the Mets?)

10:47 It has gotten so bad that Don Kelly, outfielder, has come on in relief of Purcey who could not seem to get the last out in this ninth inning.  He threw 47 pitches out of the pen and Jim Leyland decided enough was enough, and with the game out of hand–it’s 16-9 Mets–why waste another relief pitcher.  So Kelly is in to see if he can’t close this one out. He does.  Kelly gets Hairston to fly to center to end the inning.  The crowd roars.  b-9: Detroit 9, Mets 16.