The Struggling Cleveland Indians

Winners of six of their last 40 games, but they don't look like a bad team when they play the Pretenders. They, in fact, play like the team that wants to advance to post-season. 

Justin Masterson (11-12, 4.84 ERA) allowed two runs in six innings.Four relievers finished off the P's. Their one-man offense (Miguel Cabrera, two-run homer) wasn't enough. 

Fortunately for the Pretenders, the White Sox don't want the division either. They lost to the Minnesota Vikings 18-9 at Soldier Field,  and keep their one game AL Central lead. But the Orioles beat the team they had to (12-0 over the Toronto Argos at CNE Stadium) and moved into a first place AL East tie with the Yankees; while playing like they're the ones who want that bridesmaid's dress.

Al Alburquerque, back after blowing his arm out throwing too many sliders, retired all four hitters he faced. His presence on the roster creates another amazing, incredible major league first: first ever team in the modern era with a battery whose initials are AA.

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Before the game, The Resident Managerial Genius suggested that the fans, if they didn't like his batting order (Fielder at DH, Jackson sitting, Delmon Young their hottest hitter sitting), submit their own. 

Okay, then: 

Jackson, CF, no more sitting, that's why you give him days off in July and August

Dewayne Wise, RF

Cabrera, 1B

Fielder, DH

Young, LF, no more sitting your hottest hitter, days off in Jul and Aug

Placido Polanco, 2B

Peralta, SS

Infante, 3B

Rob Brantly, C

It's Tribe Time Again

They let Corey Kluber off the hook in the first inning, and it cost them the game. 

Delmon Young had singled in a run, and the sacks were filled for Brennan Boesch. BB hit into a double play. Inning over. 

Kluber settled down, gave up one additional run in six innings, and got his first major league win. Final 3-2 Indians; yet another winnable game that the lack of a timely it or two turned into yet another one run loss. 

Alex Avila hit into a double play to end the game, the Pretenders' MLB leading 132nd DP of the season. He's too nice a guy to appear on a wanted poster, but he's getting there (.241 at day's end, and in a slump that started in April).

Allowing unearned runs is something else the P's lead MLB in, and baseball's 20th best defense let in two more today, the only two runs Anibal Sanchez allowed in six innings. Pitched Well Enough To Win But Didn't.

Put It On The Board, Yeeeesss !!!

Delmon Young's three run homer in the sixth, that is, that broke up the pitching battle between Verlander and Sale and gave the Tigers a 4-1 lead. 

Brennan Boesch, owner of the only homer Sale had allowed to a lefty this season, inserted in the lineup for that exact reason, hit another in the fifth to tie the score at one. 

Verlander and Scherzer have become a latter-day Koufax and Drysdale rotation pairing, insuring trouble for any opponent in a short series. JV's line tonight: eight innings, four hits, two walks, 11 strikeouts. Amazing, as always.

K and D had Ron Perranoski to close out the enemy. V and S have Jose Valverde splashing paint remover over their masterpieces. After retiring the first two Sox in the ninth, he allowed three singles and a run. ("It's ALWAYS this way ..." -- Iggy Pop, "Not Right."). If Austin Jackson hadn't been fast enough to chase down Orlando Hudson's liner, the game would have been tied, and JV's work of art in the trash can. 

A win by any other name is still a win,  and the three game sweep gets the Tigers back even with the Pale Hose, in first with identical 72-61 records.

 

Haha White Sox! Schadenfreude!

There exists the temptation to start every post for a Scherzer game with his pitching line, since each one lately has been so amazing. Stats often don't tell the story. His are the exception.

Tonight's: eight innings, four hits, no runs, one walk, nine strikeouts, win number 15. Tigers win 5-1, and cut the Pale Hose's lead in the AL Central to one game.

Delmon Young stayed hot, going 2 for 4 with a triple -- one of four Tiger three-base hits -- and a solo homer in the seventh that provided the always vital insurance run.

Right fielder Avisail Garcia, the first player in MLB history with that first name, went 1 for 3 with one RBI in his Show debut. 

Tomorrow, it's Sale vs. Verlander in the Sunday night ESPN game with first place on the line.

Least Valuable Player

The same kind of timely hit that would have won a game or three in Kansas City won one at Comerica. 

In tonight's seventh inning, with the score even at four, Delmon Young hit a bases-clearing double of White Sox starter Jake Peavey. 

Benoit and Valverde, both experiencing Terry McMillan Effect -- gotten their grooves back -- blanked the Sox to preserve a 7-4 win.

At the All Star break Jayson Stark, who comments about baseball for ESPN and who knows a lot more about baseball than I do despite being half my age, declared Delmon Young the America League's first-half Least Valuable Player. 

In August, the AL LVP hit .304 with three homers and 14 RBIs, not counting the homer and two RBIs he lost to the umperors in KC. If he hadn't done You Know What in New York, he might get a few votes for AL Player of the Month for August. 

Yet the sniping continues, because of You Know What, in sports section reader forums. 

So what's say y'all just back off him and let him play ball, okay? 

He can walk after this season, but I'd bring him back. 

Maggie Speaks

Good morning. This is Maggie, Tom's friend. He said I could write the blog post today, since the Tigers played like they were asleep (they lost 3-2) and couldn't wait to get on the plane and go back home. 

I didn't see the game. So I will give you our favorite recipe for fish and chips. 

We really don't have a recipe. We pour a little cooking oil in an aluminum pan, and coat the fish with McCormick's Fish And Chips batter mix straight from the box. We don't use water. We cook them at 350, about ten minutes each side. They taste great. They taste like fish, not like the ingredients. 

For chips, we use baking potatoes and cook them in bacon grease that we save from breakfast. Sprinkle on a little salt and pepper, serve them hot with fish, and you can't have a better dinner. 

Tom always helps cook dinner, and clean up afterwards. I think men who like to help out in the kitchen are extremely sexy. 

Thank you for reading my recipe, and I hope the Tigers play better tomorrow night.

Yig Tibbikim

Anibal Sanchez showed the baseball world why the Tigers traded for him. Seven innings, seven hits one run, zero walks. Good enough to win on any other night. 

But they should have also traded for some strapping lad, preferably one who hits right-handed, who could supply a timely hit or three, and knock one into the fountains now and then. 

Bruch Chen blanked the Pretenderso n four hits over eight innings.Greg Holland permitted two hits, but no runs, in the ninth when a timely hit would have meant the difference between triumph and embarrassment. 

You've got to be kidding me. 

YGTBKM has become Price and Dickerson's favorite phrase to drop into the radio description of yet another play, or series of events, that costs the Pretenders a winnable game.. They used it a few times during yesterday's 9-8 disaster, and got it out again tonight.You could make a word out of it. Better, two words. Yig tibbikim.

The game's only run scored on a soft grounder by Eric Hosmer, soft s bread fresh from the oven. Yig tibbikim.