We are a little over an hour away from first pitch in the 9th and final game of this long Tigers’ homestand as the boys look to sweep the Twins and make it 4 wins in a row overall.

Detroit’s 8-7 win here last night may have been the most entertaining game we’ve seen this season.  For one thing, it marked the first time all year the Tigers won a game in which they trailed at any point in the game by more than 2 runs.  And the Tigers had to come from behind twice to win: after erasing a 0-3 deficit with a 6-run 5th, Detroit fell behind in the 7th 6-7 but scored the game tying run in the 7th on a sacrifice fly and the go-ahead run in the 8th, also via the sac fly.

Major credit to Jim Leyland in the all-important postgame interview.  He’d left his starter, Max Scherzer, in to face Justin Morneau in the 7th and Morneau rocked his second homer of the game to put the Twins, briefly as it turned out, back on top.  I wondered in this space whether any of us here on Press Row would have the courage to ask Leyland why he’d left Scherzer in.  I thought I might, but it turned out to be a test I didn’t have to take.  Leyland brought it up himself and took the heat, calling it a “dumb move on my part.”  I respect that.  How can you not?  Would I have been brave enough to ask the manager the question?  You can’t say we will never know because there is sure to be a “second-guess’ question looming in my future.  This is baseball, after all.

It’s Rick Porcello for the Tigers and Scott Baker for the Twins.  We have to remind ourselves from time to time that Porcello is still only 22 years old.  He’s in his 3rd year in The Majors, but he’s still just a baby.

Tonight’s game means the difference between a 6-3 Tigers homestand or a 5-4 slate, which makes it a big deal.  The Tigers remain second in the American League Central, 5 games back of Cleveland, 3 ahead of third-place Chicago.  The White Sox were winners this afternoon in Boston, sweeping a 3-game series at Fenway park 7-4 in a game Boston led early 3-0, while the Indians are in Toronto again tonight.  We will be keeping an eye on that one and, along with this one, will keep you posted.  First pitch at 7:05 and we will see you then.  It is a beautiful night for baseball in Motown–the best of the season so far, in fact.

7:12p: First pitch came at 7:16 and 15 pitches later, Porcello had ‘em out 1-2-3 with a K.  Morneau popped weakly to left, a far cry from the way he blasted a couple out of here last night.   BOTTOM 1ST: DETROIT COMING TO BAT, MINNESOTA 0.

7:18p:  The Tigers go down 1-2-3 themselves in the face of the slants from Scott Baker.  Over in Toronto meanwhile, the Indians have a run in and the bases loaded with one out in the top of the first.  TOP 2ND:  DETROIT 0, MINNESOTA 0.

7:25p: Porcello got ‘em 1-2-(w)-3 in the second.  Still has the no-hitter going here, but the perfect game died on a two-out walk.  Grady Sizemore has hit a bases-loaded, bases-clearing double in Toronto and the Indians are up 4-0 over the Jays and they are still batting in the top of the first.  Kyle Drabek has been asked to leave and the game is delayed as Toronto plots strategy for bringing in a replacement, or “relief” pitcher.  BOTTOM 2: DETROIT 0, MINNESOTA 0.

7:30p:  Correction.  Drabek may still be in there for the Blue Jays.  The shot of him trudging off the field was apparently him making his way to the dugout after getting the final out of what had to have been an extraordinarily long first inning on the hill.  Victor Martinez has just singled here to end the no-hit dream of Twins pitcher Baker.  A great leaping catch by Jason Repko against the wall in right retires Andy Dirks.  martinez may have been able to score all the way from first if Repko don’t make that catch.  You’ll see it on Web Gems later tonight.  B-2: DETROIT 0, MINNESOTA 0.

7:38  Alex Avila just waited real nice on a curve ball and took it to the opposite field–left–to score Martinez from second.  Martinez had advanced on a Jhonny Peralta single.  So, it’s a nice two-out hit for Avila and the Tigers take the lead and have a chance for more with Brandon Inge up.  B-2: DETROIT 1, MINNESOTA 0.

7:49  Correction of the correction.  That was Drabek leaving the game in Toronto in the first with two out.  He got rocked and did not survive the inning.  Cleveland is still up 4-0, now heading to the 3rd.  Brennan (not Brendan, Brennan) Boesch just made a nice catch with his back to the infield to end the Minny 3rd.  B-3: DETROIT 1, MINNESOTA 0.

7:56 Miguel Cabrera has just hit a 3-run homer and it got out in a hurry.  a low line drive into the Detroit bullpen.  The Tigers have now hit all of two 3-run homers this season, both during this homestand, both by Miggy.  And talk about making them pay.  The two hitters before Cabrera, Don Kelly and Boesch, each walked.  So Baker had to pitch to the Detroit slugger and the Tiger slugger exacted the maximum penalty.  B-3: DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 0.

8:07  The Tigers “settle” for four in the 3rd.  Over in Toronto, the Indians have followed up their 4-run first with a 4-run third and are off to the races with an 8-0 lead.  The Indians gave up 11 in the first game at Toronto Monday–their 5th loss in 6 games–but they are going to wind up winning that series.  Porcello is looking good here and the game settles into a cruise control mode.  T-4: DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 0.

8:26 I can’t believe it, but I forgot about that little hockey game tonight, Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, duh.  I found it somewhere on the net so they are just underway in the first and the Canucks and Boston Bruins are scoreless in the first.  We are going to the bottom of the 5th here, still 4-0 Detroit.  B-5 DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 0.

8:44 Something interesting here a moment ago.  The Twins had two on and Jim Thome due up and they pinch hit for him.  Thome must be hurt.  You’re down 4 and you really, really need a 3-run homer and the guy with the 591 career homers is pinch-hit for?  Something’s up.  Porcello and the Tigers got out of it unscathed, so the Tigers are 9 outs away from their 9th straight win over the Twins–something no Detroit team has done since 1949-50, when the Twins were the Washington Senators and Detroit beat them nine straight.  B-6 DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 0.

9:14  The Tigers are now 6 outs from a win, but the lead has been cut in half on a Drew Butera homer in the 7th.  He’s the Twins #9 hitter and deservedly so.  His average was .124 when he went deep for his first homer of the year with a man aboard.  Then things got interesting.  With two out, Porcello dove and just missed catching a bunt in mid-air which instead went for an infield single.  Daniel Schlereth relieved and had as short an outing as it is possible to have, hitting Morneau with his first pitch–a curveball that never curved–and he was promptly replaced by Al Alburquerque who walked the first man he faced.  So the Twins, putting only one ball in play, and putting it in play by only 40 feet or so, had the bases loaded.  But Alburquerque fanned Plouffe (the guy who replaced Thome, remember?) getting him on a called 3rd.  Joaquin Benoit has come on to start the 8th for Detroit.  T-8: DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 2.

9:33 No problems for Benoit and the Tigers are 3 outs away.  We’ll see Jose Valverde in the 9th.  He pitched in both ends of the doubleheader here Sunday, pitched on Monday, and is coming on for more tonight.  B-8 DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 0.

9:38 Here he comes: El Papa Grande.  Jose Valverde is the guy and he’s  pretty much the Latin version of Al Hrabosky, a guy who has an act and a good one to put on every time he comes into a ballgame.  And a guy who makes good on his act because if you don’t deliver the goods in this game, they don’t let you dance onto the field the way Valverde does every time he leaves the bullpen.  Trouble tonight though, and sometimes you get that fromm Jose, too.  He walks the first hitter he faces…

9:47 Valverde goes to a full count on the second hitter he faces–so close to walking the tying runs on base–before getting a groundout.  A man on and a man out here in the 9th.  Alexi Calilla is the hitter.  He looks overmatched against Valverde who is, simplyh put, huge.  He may have the broadest back I have ever seen on a human, but I can’t be sure.  Smart play by Casilla.  He tries a bunt but misses and it’s strike three and now it is man-on-man for sure as Morneau–their best hitter–steps in to face Valverde, Detroit’s best pitcher.

9:50 First base was oen so the Tigers walk Morneau and there goes that classic matchup.  Of course, now Detroit has walked the tying run on.  They will pitch to Michael Cuddyer.

9:52  One pitch, a grounder to Inge at third, ballgame. Goodnight, Mr. Cuddyer.  Goodnight, all.  Off to the dressing room for the react.   FINAL DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 2.