Rick Porcello (6-6, 5.06) gives up a lead-off double at Aaron Rowand but strikes out Pablo Sandoval and get Aubry Huff to bounce to second and he’s out of trouble and out of the first in a dozen pitches.  The Tigers need a solid outing by Porcello today.  The 22-year-old has an ERA of 14.29 in his last three starts, having allowed 18 runs on 28 hits in his last 11.1 innings pitched. Ryan Vogelsong, named to the National League All-Star team about an hour ago, is the Giants starter.  Vogelsong is 6-1, 2.09 this season.

It’s time for your Official Game Notes.

Detroit Tigers Game Information

San Francisco Giants Game Information

It is as perfect a day for baseball as you can have, partly cloudy at 79 at first pitch.

The Tigers go down 1-2-3 in their half of the first with two hitters striking out, and we are underway at Comerica Park.

1:29  Porcello is off to an excellent start.  He gives up a single in the second but strikes out two more and did not allow the Giants to move the runner into scoring position.  13 pitches were all the pitches Porcello needed to get them out.

The All-Star lineups were announced prior to this afternoon’s game and Alex Avila, closing hard, passed New York’s Russell Martin and won the vote for starting American League catcher.  Three other Tigers are on the AL All-Star team:  Justin Verlander (duh), Miguel Cabrera (duh, again) and Jose Valverde.  That’s not bad.  Four Detroit Tigers on the All-Star team.  It wasn’t that long ago that the Tigers would have one–and that only because of the rule that every team must have at least one representative on the team.

1:53 We are three innings in.  San Francisco has a single and a double, the Tigers have a walk.  And there is no score.

2:07 San Fran pushed across a run off Porcello in the 4th on a ground-out, but the Tigers got it right back.  Brennan Boesch clanged a fly ball to right, right off the foul pole for his 12th homer of the year, and his second in as many games.  In hockey when you clang it off the post it’s a bad thing.  In baseball when you clang it off the post, er, pole, it’s a great thing.  b-4: Detroit 1, SF 1.

2:33 Porcello is pitching much more effectively today than has been the case of late, but 3 hit batsmen and 3 wild pitches have cost him.  That, and a muffed double-play grounder to shortstop Ramon Santiago which looked like an error to me but which was scored a single. Either way, had the Tigs turned two, they would have been out of the 5th trailing 2-1, but because they didn’t, Detroit has fallen behind 3-1.  One of those wild pitches gave SF a 2-1 lead, and the man who scored, Emmanuel Burriss, reached when hit by a Porcello pitch. Pablo Sandoval, 4×13, .308 in this series with a homer and 3 RBI, doubled to put Burriss at third.  Sandoval came in to score when Santiago and the Tigers failed to turn the DP.   t-6:Detroit 1, SF 3.

2:46 Porcello still cruising along through six, but Vogelsong is shutting Detroit down, like, totally.  Consider this: if that HR by Boesch that hit the foul pole had been six inches to the right, Vogelsong would have a no-hitter going here in the bottom of the 6th. Good news out of Cincinnati, at least.  The Red are putting it to the Indians 7-2 in the 6th.  If that score holds up, Detroit will be no worse than a game and a half out of first at the end of the day today.

3:00 The Tigers used a double by Boesch, a single by Cabrera and an error by Giants leftfielder Cody Ross to get to within a run, but their rally died with runners at the corners when All-Star Avila grounded into a force at second.  Boesch went from second to third on the Cabrera hit and would have stopped there, but Ross bobbled it and Boesch lumbered home.  t-7: Detroit 2, SF 3.

3:23 After six-and-two-thirds, Vogelsong is out and the Tigers, with two out, have loaded the bases off Jeremy Affeldt on two walks and an error.  Santiago Casilla comes on to pitch to Magglio Ordonez.  Could be your ballgame, right here.  ORDONEZ SINGLES TO CENTER.  INGE SCORES FROM FIRST.  PERALTA (who pinch hit for Dirks and walked) SCORES FROM SECOND.  B-7: DETROIT 3, SF 2.  

3:28 Miguel Cabrera ropes a liner to center, but it is right at Aaron Rowand for the out that ends the inning.  But the Tigers score two runs (both unearned) on just one hit.  Joaquin Benoit comes on to start the 8th inning for Detroit. t-8: Detroit 3, SF 2.

3:42 Guess who saves the day?  Ryan Raburn, that’s who.  They aren’t booing him anymore after he makes a great–I mean a GREAT–diving catch in left to end the 8th with two Giants aboard.  The chances that both of those SF runners would have scored had Raburn not made the catch was, oh, I don’t know, about 100%!  I was watching through my binoculars and I had a really good view of it all and I didn’t think Raburn was going to get it.  I thought he had no chance at all, in fact, but running hard to his left Raburn laid out and made the inning-ending catch after Benoit made things interesting, too interesting, by giving up singles to two of the first three men he faced. Benoit fanned pinch-hitter Pat Burrell before Raburn made his amazing catch of the liner off the bat of Aaron Rowand.  So, the Tigers still lead, somehow.

3:54 Brandon Inge, talk about a guy who was due, drives a ball way over the head of SF centerfielder Rowand for a triple which scored two after Avila and Santiago had walked.  So, talk about making them pay.  Inge had been 3×29 (.103) during the homestand prior to hitting the big hit.  Breathing room for the Tigers, now.  b-8: Detroit 6, SF 3.

4:02 The bullpen door in the left field corner swings open and the crowd roars as All-Star Jose Valverde skips across the warning track and onto the field.  El Papa Grande is 19/19 in Save Opportunities this season and, yes, what we have here is a Save Situation. If Valverde can close it out, the Tigers will have, for all the trouble (those three losses in which they gave up 14, 15 and 16 runs) come out of the homestand 5-5.  And, they will be half a game out of first. Cincy beat Cleveland 7-5.

4:07 Valverde walks the leadoff man.  He does that more than you would like to see, but we suspect it’s because he likes to live on the edge.  He’s a closer, after all.  It does set the crowd to murmuring, though. Sandoval hits a rocket, but right at Inge and it’s 5-3 and one out.  (Burriss, the Giant who walked, had earlier taken second on a clear case of Defensive Indifference.)  Huff bloops a single to left and the tying run, Ross, comes to the plate.    He lines to right.  One out to go…

Now it’s Nate Schierholtz who represents the tying run with two on and two out.  Huff takes second, again on Defensive Indifference.  Two quick strikes by Valverde and the Giants are down to their final strike.  STRIKE THREE!  GAME OVER!  FINAL: DETROIT 6, SF 3.   To the locker room!