John R. Tunis / Jack Hannahan

John R. Tunis wrote baseball books for pre-teen readers, set in baseball's Golden Age, the 1940s and 50s. His books have been praised as some of the best baseball fiction, regardless of the target age group.

Our junior high library had some Tunis paperbacks, and everyone who had even a casual interest in baseball read "The Kid From Tomkinsville."

In a Tunis story, a rookie pitcher, the twelfth guy on the staff who rarely got into a game, would make an emergency start and pitch his team to a decisive victory.

Royals pitcher Nate Adcock, the kid from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, got the call this afternoon, replacing Felipe Paulino who was scratched with back spasms. He gave up two runs in five-plus innings and left with a 4-2 lead, but would not become a real-life Tunis hero. 

The Tigers scored three in the eighth, on two out doubles by Victor Martinez and Wilson Betemit, and prevailed 5-4. 

Our friends the Ferrets also helped the cause, by beating the White Sox 7-6 in Chicago. The loss drops them back into third place, six games out.

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The Indians started tonight's game in August, and finished it in September.

First pitch, 7:05 PM on August 31. Last pitch, three minutes past midnight on the first. 

Jack Hannahan, who accounted for two Tribe runs with solo homers, singled in Cord Phelps in the bottom of the sixteenth for a 4-3 win (Indians five and a half out). 

Follow Hannahan's play lately, and you'd think you were looking at Brooks Robinson.

The Tigers drafted him, in 2001. Traded him to the A's in 2007 for first baseman Jason Perry, who never played for them at the major league level. 

And that's one reason why, as they stumble towards another September stretch run, they start a third baseman with a .254 slugging percentage.

RAMON SANTIAGO !!!

One-two the count, nobody on in the tenth, he hit a high fly into the stands! He won the game, he did, that brown-eyed handsome man. Final: Tigers 2, Royals 1.

They've won in walkoff mode several times this season, and one time Santiago drove in the winning run. This one, however, is the most important walkoff win of the season. Maybe the most important of all.

The Indians and White Sox were winning. The Tigers had the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, but couldn't push the winning run across (Wilson Betemit struck out). 

Doug Fister retired the first 18 Royals. Alex Gordon ended his bid for perfection with a leadoff double in the seventh.

Let this one get away and the Sox are four out, the Indians 4 1-2, and creeping panic could easily set in.

They're still starting Hinge, though (.179 after play tonight), and putting him in for defense (haha), and either, as the calendar reaches September with the Tigers fighting for a division title, should be cause for concern. Because, this year, we don't have Mickey Stanley to bring in from the outfield to replace him in post-season.

Not Acceptable

Seven runs and ten hits in three innings from Max Scherzer (final 9-5 Royals).

Sunday, the unacceptable totals were seven runs and eight hits in five innings off Brad Penny, and the four runs David Pauley allowed in two innings (final 11-4 Twins). 

Wins by the White Sox and Indians, in well-pitched, low-scoring games (Sox 3 Twins 0, Indians 2 Athletics 1) reduced the Tiger lead to five games over the Sox, who climbed over the Indians into second place on Sunday and hold it tonight by a half game over the Tribe.

The baseball fan remembers 2006 when, on August 29, the Tigers' ten game lead of three weeks earlier had been cut in half. And 2009; high-water mark seven games on September 6, lead gone by season's end, first place lost in the infamous Game 163 against the Twins.

And he thinks of The Miracle Worker and The Resident Managerial Genius, on whose watch another collapse may be brewing, and the contract extensions both received with first place far from clinched.

What a day August 25 was

Luke Hughes' Performance

What's my opinion of Luke Hughes' performance? He beat us with two bleepin' home runs today. He drove in eight bleepin' runs off our pitchers in two days, that's what I think of Luke Hughes' performance ... it's okay, the Indians lost, so we don't lose any ground in the standings, we're still six and a half games up, but come on? How can you ask me a bleepin' question like that? What do I think of Luke Hughes' performance? Bleep ... ! Curtis bleeping Granderson? Hit a bleepin' three run homer tonight, didn't he? The bleeper's got thirty-seven home runs, and he leads the bleeping American League in home runs, and bleepin' runs batted in, and bleepin' runs scored, and it looks like we bleepin' traded him away just in time, doesn't it?

JV Wins His 20th

Write their names down: Luke Hughes and Jason Repko.

They might be the last two guys to ever hit back-to-back homers off Justin Verlander. 

Hughes tacked on a two-run double that tied the score at four in the sixth.

Wilson Betemit and Miguel Cabrera each singled in a run in the seventh. The law firm of Schlereth, Benoit, and Valverde preserved the 6-4 win, Verlander's 20th of the season.

They're Not The Same Fighting Ferrets

The ones that would sniff out ways to beat the opposition, and then scratch and claw out a win. 

Tonight the Tigers did the ferreting, using fifteen singles and three sac flies, and some fine pitching from unlikely sources, to beat the Twins 8-1.

It was a game until the sixth inning, when the Tigers scored three. They plated three more in the seventh. 

Rick Porcello gave the Twins one run in six-plus innings. Phil Coke and Ryan Perry finished, and gave Ben-Wah and Papa Shut 'Em Down the night off.

Tonight's game is the sixth consecutive Twins loss in which they've scored one run, equaling a franchise record for futility that covers them and the original Washington Senators.

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The Indians' 2-1 win over KC keeps the lead at 6 1-2 games. 

Jim Thome went 0 for 4 and struck out twice.

The Indians estimate that, in the hours between last night's trade announcement and game time this evening, they sold over 10,000 tickets.

The Tribe fans' response reminds the old-timers of when the Indians brought Rocky Colavito back to Cleveland for the 1965 season, after a five year exile to Detroit and Kansas City. 

Things You've Seen, And Never Seen, Before

Four strikeouts in one inning isn't as common as you might think. Since 1900, it's happened only 59 times. Less than half the number of cycles, and no-hitters.  But I've seen it twice in person, and heard it twice this season. Justin Masterson for the Indians, and, this afternoon, the D-Rays' Jeremy Hellickson against the Tigers. 

Austin Jackson whiffed leading off the third, but reached on a wild pitch. Ramon Santiago, Delmon Young, and Victor Martinez then struck out the conventional way.

No harm done; Jackson had given the Tigers a 1-0 lead with his leadoff homer, and later plated Ryan Raburn with a sac fly. All the runs Doug Fister, Benoit, and Valverde needed to put away the opposition.

Fister allowed five hits in seven innings, and -- this is important -- zero walks. His second successive excellent game. 

Catching the third strike has its origins in the first playing rules compiled by Alexander Cartwright in 1845. The reasoning, even when Base Ball was played in cow pastures, was that the defensive team needs to catch the ball before an out can be recorded. Even if it means stepping in something. 

Three grand slams by one team in a game is something no one had ever seen until this afternoon. The Yankees -- naturally -- did it, with Robinson Cano ("Robby Cano! Don'tcha know!"), Russell Martin ("Russell shows muscle! Monsieur Martin est la!") and Curtis Granderson (The Grandy Man can!")  clearing the bases in New York's 22-9 win over Oakland. 

John Sterling probably means "Monsieur Martin, he's there!" 

I got in on the fun when the A's were up 7-6. Then, their pitchers forgot where the strike zone was. They walked seven Yanks in the six-run seventh. (It's hard to walk that many in an entire game.) Suzyn Waldman opined that the inning would never end. My sentiments exactly, as I waited for the commercial break so I could finish cutting the yard. Great minds really do think alike.

There is also good news from Cleveland. No, the Indians didn't lose -- they were off -- but did work out a deal with the Twins for Jim Thome, who had been waived two days ago.

The fan interest in having the most popular Indian in recent memory rejoin the team reminds me of when they brought Rocky Colavito back, for the 1965 season, from the KC Athletics in a three way trade that also involved the White Sox.

The Indians and Tigers have six games left. We will root for Thome, and wish for strikeouts and double plays when his teammates are up. By then, wishfully, our lead over the Tribe will be large enough to have the division virtually clinched.

Hinge, AGAIN (What Took So Long?)

The game-winning D-Rays tenth inning rally, Duane Below pitching:

Leadoff infield single (Evan Longoria). 

Fielder's choice that should have been a double play, but Hinge (in at third for defense) couldn't get the ball out of his glove, Ben Zobrist on first.

Matt Joyce struck out. Then, the ever-popular hit batter in the bottom half of extra innings (Casey Kotchman). 

If anything makes more fans jump for joy that a HBP or leadoff hit in x-innings on the road, it's a walk (Sean Rodriguez). But no one's warming up, and Below will have to pitch himself out of the mess.

Elliot Johnson grounds one to third. Even in Little League, they teach you to take the easy out at first with the bases loaded and two out.Your first baseman has that big mitt, and is just waiting for you to throw the ball to him.

Can someone with more baseball wisdom than me tell me why Hinge threw it to second?

Ramon Santiago, with the switch-hitting Johnson batting left-handed, was playing closer to first that usual. Zobrist safe, game over. 3-2 D-Rays. They never hit the ball out of the infield. But they hit it to third base twice.

Even Jim Leyland said he made the wrong play.

The honeymoon is over. It lasted four days.

I know I'm not the only Tigers fan who has become weary of hearing how wonderful Brandon Inge is. He's been a distraction ever since The Miracle Worker signed him to that two year deal this spring, at age 32 and on two bad knees. Waived in July, and NO ONE wanted him. (For all this, The Miracle Worker got a four year contract extension. All of us should be rewarded with that level of job security.)

It almost makes you hope they lose the division by one game (this one) so the point can be made.

They can consider themselves fortunate that the Indians lost and no ground in the standings will be lost as a result of our hero's error in judgement. And our hero should consider himself fortunate that they're playing in Minneapolis tomorrow night, and not in front of the home fans, this soon after. 

Mo Better Baseball

Our friend Wily Mo Pena, who won a game for the D-Backs in Comerica last June, jumped up again as a member of the Seattle Mariners.

He homered and doubled, and drove in three, as the M's defeated the Indians 9-2 this afternoon. 

In the four games against the Indians, they didn't look like the league's worst hitting team. They scored 29 runs in the four games. Only two players in today's starting lineup were hitting under .260. The roster includes twelve rookies. Brendan Ryan, the young man from LA with two Irish first names, went 2 for 5. Kyle Seager hit three doubles. Dustin Ackley, who sounds like he belongs among Holden Caulfield's dorm mates at Pencey, went 3 for 5. As the wily veteran, Mo Pena, led them to an easy win.

The Tigers' lead, pending the outcome of tonight's game in T-Bay, is 6 1-2 games. The Indians look tired. And, with each tired game, the walkoff win / play at the play game last Sunday, that gave the Tigers a sweep over them, looks like a season-turner.

Whole Lot Of Shaking Going On

Around quarter to 2 this afternoon, the day half of the Indians makeup doubleheader with the Mariners under way, and Tom Hamilton and Mike Hegan, on Indians' radio, felt the Progressive Field press level shake. For several minutes, they said.

I was outside and didn't feel a thing. Their descriptions, however, reminded of the Michigan earthquake I did feel, in the upper bleachers at Tiger Stadium one Sunday afternoon.

Only an earthquake and a Cecil Fielder home run can make a ball park shake, and Cecil's long retired. So it had to be a quake. And there was one today, centered in Virginia and felt all along the east coast.

A little old lady on the ninth floor of a local seniors' high-rise said her china rattled and pictures on the wall shook. I didn't see anything out of place, and returned my attention to where it belonged: the ball game.

The M's got two in their ninth to take a 5-4 lead. Then followed an Ezequiel Cabrera double, a Dustin Ackley error, and a three-run walkoff homer by Shin-Soo Choo. Which could send shock waves through your world, I'm sure, if you're among the handful who still cares about what happens to the Seattle Mariners.

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Your picture came off the wall, Maggie informed me on my return home.

The only framed pic that's "mine" is the one of baseball's Commissioner, that I tore out of a magazine and autographed to myself:"Dear Tom -- four wild card teams sounds just great -- affectionately, Allan H. 'Bud' Selig."

Now the glass is cracked. And none of the other pictures fell.

Hmmmm ...

I called the newspaper while you were gone, she added. In my scared little old lady voice. Told them that plates rattled, and the sky was falling.

Good for you, I said. Anarchist. What's for dinner?

Oh, no cooking .... can we go out tonight? I know it isn't Sunday. Pleeeeese? 

So dinner out it was,with just enough time to get back home for the Tigers game. My queen being all worn out from a day of mischief at home alone to take out the cook book.

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Tonight at Tropicana Field, Brad Penny allowed eight hits but only one run in six-plus innings. He stayed in long enough to benefit from two seventh inning Tiger runs, and posted his ninth win.

The D-Rays helped by stranding twelve runners.

Phil Coke pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth to earn his first save of 2011.

A Tigers win and Indians doubleheader split gives the Tigers a six game lead. Last Thursday it was 1 1-2 with the Tribe, who'd just taken two of three from the White Sox, on their way to Comerica.

If not for the Choo walkoff homer today, they'd have a six game losing streak.

Choo, Michael Brantley, Travis Hafner, and star rookie Jason Kipnis have joined Grady Sizemore on the DL. Minus key men for most of the season, the Indians have hung in there but now show signs of running down, like the pink bunny whose batteries have drained.

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Before the Indians were the other home team, there were the Blue Jays. Their games could be had on radio from day one in southeast Michigan, where Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth became our alternate Voices Of Summer. They won pennants in 1992 and 1993, and were in contention in many seasons when the Tigers were buried by June.

Two Blue Jays who've become old friends in the second floor baseball bunker via those games on radio, Aaron Hill and John MacDonald, were traded today, to the D-Backs for Kelly Johnson.

All three are middle infielders, and all become free agents after this season. So they could all end up back where they started after six weeks of rental status.

Johnny Mac played 31 games for the 2005 Tigers. He's never played more than 123 games in a season, but has always been one of those useful guys a winning team can't be without.

That the Tigers sent him back to Toronto might, in its own small way, explain why, after 2006, they had trouble becoming a winning team.

Reasons Why JV Is Great #2

He never has a bad game.

Ordinarily good pitchers get whacked every now and then. Not the great ones; Koufax, Gibson, Maddux, Weaver, Verlander.  

JV gave up four runs in one inning once this season, and that was a long time ago. 

Tonight, he shut down the D-Rays on three hits. One was a first inning homer by leadoff man and former Tiger Matt Joyce.He struck out eight and walked three. For all but a handful of starters, that game would be the subject of home town sports talk shows that night and into the next day.When JV does it, often enough, you come to expect it.

Benoit and Fernando Valverde finished, Papa Ninth Inning Homer giving one up, to Evan Longoria. No damage done, though. 

The Tigers' 5-2 win and Indians 3-2 loss to Seattle widen the Tiger lead to a season high 5 1-2 games.

AUSTIN JACKSON HE'S THE MAN !!!

Top ninth, Kosuke Fukudome on third, Jason Donald on second, score 8-7 Tigers, Matt LaPorta hit a fly to short center.

Fukudome tagged. (They're not gonna send him, are they?)

They did, and he was OWWWWWWWT at the plate! Austin Jackson getting the assist on a game-ending double play.

Forty-three thousand fans stood, as the home team exchanged high fives, and roared; a walkoff standing O for the young man from Denton, Texas who saved the game and gave the Tigers a sweep in Big Series 2. 

What an ending. Usually, the team at bat gets the big bang walkoff win.

Jackson's throw, and Alex Avila's tag, also kept some Tiger pitchers out of the cornfield. 

Rick Porcello couldn't hold a seven run lead. He gave up five in the fourth, right after the Tigers plated seven off Ubaldo Jiminez in a 46 pitch third inning. Duane Below gave up two hits and walked two, and allowed the sixth Tribe run. Daniel Schlereth allowed two hits and the seventh run.

Even Fernando Valverde wasn't exempt from Anthony's wrath. Papa Lead-Off Walk walked Fukudome to start the ninth, and hit Donald with an 0-2 pitch to put the go-ahead run on.

Everything worked out for the best, though; and all is well in Tigertown. The broom brigades --

-- got their sweep, the Tigers moved to a season high ten games over .500, and equaled their season high lead of 4 1-2 games over the Indians.

How Brandon Inge Went To Toledo And Got His Groove Back

With the Tigers facing more left handed than right handed starters over the rest of August, left handed hitting Andy Dirks was optioned to Toledo, and the team has been re-Hinged.

First at bat, off David Huff: solo homer to left. Double next time up. Then a sac fly. Two for three, two RBI's, and a standing O in the seventh inning.

After four quality starts, Huff didn't have it. One batter into the third, he was gone, having allowed five runs. Doug Fister turned in his best effort as a Tiger; one run, six hits in seven innings. 

The second strong game by a Tiger starter means JV can pitch Monday in Tampa Bay, and not start tomorrow's Big Series 2 wrap-up a day early with the Tigers needing a win. 

Alex Avila doubled and singled twice, and walked three times. His August has been amaze-ing. With V-Mart's knees still tender, he's been catching almost every day. He's brought his average back over .300 -- .302 after play today -- and his on base percentage for the month is over .500.

What a day for the Motor City! The Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise, Kenny Chesney playing next door at Ford Field, a soaking late afternoon downpour, Brandon Inge's triumphant return to the major leagues, and a Tigers win (10-1 over Cleveland, lead back to 3 1-2 games).

Scherzer Beats Indians

Max Scherzer allowed one run and five hits in seven innings. At no time this season has a well-pitched game been more needed. 

A loss would have moved the Indians to within a half game of the Tigers and brought Mo Mentum over to their side for the weekend. With the win, they're 2 1-2 out, and Mo wears the Olde English "D." 

Austin Jackson? He's still the man, only for a different reason. His two-run sixth inning homer broke a scoreless tie.

Avila and Peralta, the last two hitters Josh Tomlin faced, homered in the seventh.  Benoit blanked the Tribe in the eighth, Valverde in the ninth, the way they drew it up in Lakeland, and isn't it great when everything falls into place?

Forty four thousand and change squeezed into Comerica. Per the box score, 107 percent of capacity. 

Freedom Of Speech

On MLB.com, comments for the story on Mike Jacobs, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox third baseman who tested positive for HGH and was released by the Colorado Rockies, have been disabled. But the number 35 appears in parentheses after the story's abstract. So 35 comments did get posted before the censors went to work.

I never got to read the comments, but can guess at their content. 

How nice it must be, to grow up part of a generation that can send unpleasantness into the memory hole with the click of a mouse. 

"We were very disappointed to learn that Mike Jacobs had been suspended after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance," read a prepared statement issued by the Rockies.

Really? 

Bet they were delighted when Vinny Castilla was hitting home runs for them like he was playing backyard whiffleball. Three in 1994, then 40, 40, 46, 33 in the next four full seasons, I'm sure the air in Denver didn't all of a sudden get thinner, and you won't read that on MLB.com.

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Tribe wins 4-1 in Chicago, cutting the Pretenders' lead to 1 1-2 games heading into this weekend's Big Series 2 at Comerica. Both teams have 58 losses, but the Indians have three fewer wins; three games in hand that could become vital as the season nears its end.

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Casper the Friendly Outfielder homered in four straight games last week for the Mariners. Great news for those of us who knew he would do well as a regular. The M's play three in Cleveland next week, and it's the hope, here in the second floor baseball bunker, that the young man from Grand Rapids helps the Tigers with some lusty hitting against their closest pursuers.

Done In By Errors

The Pretenders, who all night had been knocking at the door, had just tied the score at four, with one inning left, no less, no more.

Papa Shut 'Em Down gave up a leadoff single. He threw a bunt away. The next Twins hitter tried to sacrifice, and Wilson Betemit, in for defense, threw his bunt away. Justin More Know singled both runners in to give the Twins a 6-4 lead.  

Cabrera singled in Boesch in the bottom on the ninth, but that was all, and it wasn't enough.

Jim Thome hit number 601 on the first pitch Brad Penny threw him, giving him three homers in his last three swings of the series.

And the Indians won, 4-1 in Chicago, cutting a full game off the Pretenders' lead, now two over the Tribe. 

Milo Hamilton

On this Wednesday afternoon, only two games are under way. The Cubs and Astros, headed nowhere, share this quiet corner of the baseball world. But the Stros are home, and Milo Hamilton is working the game.

When the Braves were new to Atlanta, I heard Milo on WSB, and WSM except Friday and Saturday nights when the Grand Ole Opry was on.

Milo Hamilton been broadcasting major league games for as long as I've been alive. When the Astros played in Toronto this year, the Rogers Centre became the 60th MLB ball park in which he's worked.

He's also shared a radio booth with Harry Caray and lived to tell the story.

I searched out the Astros' radio network affiliate list. They're on in hot, steamy parts of Louisiana where there's nothing else to do except work on your Cajun French, and hot, drought-parched places in Texas where there's nothing else to do, period.

In Lubbock, it would be possible to drive out to the city cemetery, with Milo calling the play-by-play on 1420 KJDL, and say hello to Buddy Holly. Then finish the game on the way to the Hi-De-Ho. Not the same place where Buddy hung out, and where the Legendary Stardust Cowboy played. In Lubbock Texas, on a furnace of a Wednesday afternoon in August, however, it will do as a tourist attraction.

A Tale Of Two Baseball Games

In tonight's third inning, Miguel Cabrera singled in Boesch and Young. Not many teams fall two runs down to Justin Verlander at Comerica and end the game victorious. The Twins wouldn't be among them.

Two-out singles by V-Mart, Avila, and Peralta in the fifth produced three more runs to wrap the game up, nice and neat with a ribbon on the package, 7-1 Tigers. 

At US Cellular, it seemed like the game would never end.  

The White Sox and Indians traded blows like two aging boxers fighting for their careers. After nine, they were tied at seven.

In the 14th, with Tribe starter David Huff on the mound, Juan P. Air singled in Gordon Beckham for the game-winner. The walkoff win was one of five in major league baseball tonight. It moved the Pale Hose one game over .500, and to within one half game of the Indians. More importantly for us Tigers fans: it increased our lead to 3 1-2 games.

Nineteen Indians, and eleven Sox, struck out. The Sox had the winning run in scoring position in the ninth, and in every extra inning. They had 22 hits and stranded 16 runners. 

And the fans ...  as the game was heard here on DX WTAM, the crowd noise became a persistent swirl, louder as the game crawled through extra innings. One wonders what the ball park experience at The Cell might be like, past midnight and in the company of several thousand White Sox fans who'd been drinking Old Style ("pure brewed in God's country") for five hours.

Thome's 600th / Young's First

The day began with the Tigers acquring Delmon Young for two minor leaguers. 

He rode the team bus to Comerica with his former Twins teammates, grabbed his equipment bags, and crossed over to the Tigers clubhouse.

In his first AB wearing the Olde English "D," he homered, his fifth of the season. And he a made a nice running catch of Trevor Plouffe's liner in the fifth, to give Tigers fans a second reason to like Young.

Magglio Ordonez, who never did get untracked after last season's ankle injury, is the odd man out. The 15 year veteran with 293 homers and a lifetime .308 average will sit more than he plays, in what is now very likely his last major league season.  

So Criswell was right, for a change. 

Austin Jackson threw out Ben Revere trying to stretch a triple into an inside-the-park homer. Alex Avila ended up a home run short of the cycle. Ryan Raburn homered, but dropped a double play grounder that cost the Tigers two unearned runs, and butchered a second chance at two that inning.

The night, however, belonged to another veteran slugger and future Hall Of Famer, Jim Thome.

In the sixth, he homered -- number 599 -- off Rick Porcello with Jason Kubel on. Next inning, with Plouffe and Justin Morneau on and Daniel Schlereth pitching, he lined number 600 into the Twins' bullpen.

Thirty-six thousand-plus Tigers fans stood and applauded, even though the homer gave the Twins a 9-5 lead.

How appropriate, that, after wearing out Tigers pitching in 17 full American League seasons, he should hit his 600th home run against them.

Throw out Barry Earring and Sammy Steroid's chemically-enhanced homer totals, and Jim Thome would be sixth on the all-time list 

With the Indians off, the Tigers' lead over them is now two games. 

Almost

Kevin Gregg came in to close and didn't get anyone out. 

Single, single, single, walk, walk, single; an 8-1 laugher became an 8-4 nail biter,and out he came.

Jeff Johnson gave up another run and got two outs. The sacks were still loaded and Brennan Boesch, who had been nursing a sore thumb, came off the bench to pinch hit.

He sliced one to left. With all three runners off at the crack of the bat, a hit would tie the game. 

Nolan Reimold sprinted towards the corner, and grabbed that ball about a foot off the turf. No baseball miracle this day. Unless the Indians-Twins rainout at Cleveland, which kept the Tigers from possibly losing a full game in the standings, is counted.

At the end of play this afternoon, they're 2.5 up on the Indians. 

Creeping up are the White Sox, who have won eight of their last ten, and won today (6-2 over KC) to get back to .500 at 60-60, 1.5 games in back of the Tribe.

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The Resident Managerial Genius admitted he may have managed the Tigers out of a win, by pinch-running Will Rhymes for Victor Martinez who, as the second hitter in the ninth, singled.

The Tigers batted around, and Rhymes came up in V-Mart's spot.


It was Twins manager Ron Gardenhire's easy decision to walk Miguel Cabrera and pitch to Rhymes, even though the intentional walk loaded the bases and put the tying run on.


With Martinez in the game, they pitch to Cabrera. And who knows what he might have done.

But Jim Leyland isn't Criswell and couldn't see into the future to know that the Tigers would bat around. V-Mart has a sore knee that kept him out of a couple games, and he doesn't need to be running the bases down seven.

The proper decision, but you can't help but think about what might have been in this game, especially if the Tigers finish the regular season tied for first.

"Greetings, my friends ... I predict that the Tigers will make a significant player move before tomorrow night's game ..."

More Milestones / The Berlin Wall

The last eight Tigers wins, including tonight's 6-5 win over the Orioles, have been by one run. First time that's ever happened. 

Max Scherzer struck out ten and walked none. That's happened only twenty times in Tigers history. Mickey Lolich did it five times. 

Miguel Cabrera homered, with two out in the sixth and Magglio on. That happens more often.

Martinez and Peralta then singled, Alex Avila plated V-Mart, and Ryan Raburn singled in Peralta and Avila. All of this excitement with two out and the bases empty, and the Tigers losing by four. 

Six straight two-out hits occurs every now and then, but never as often as it should. 

Good that it did, since the Indians won -- 3-1 over the Twins at The Prog -- to stay three games in back of the Tigers. 

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Construction of the Ber-lin WAAAAAAL began 50 years ago today.

Baseball never caught on in Germany. So no enterprising owner built a retro ballpark that incorporated The Wall into its design, as its right field border. Right field because the field, unlike Tiger Park at Comerica Yards, would be pointed in the correct direction, north-east. Germans liking order and logic, and following printed rules.

Home runs hit over The Wall would land in East Germany, in the Cold War equivalent of McCovey Cove, the land-mined Death Strip of bare earth maintained to discourage would-be escapees.

Only the bravest would scramble for those souvenirs. 

Austin Jackson, He's The Man! Again!

He took home runs away from Alex Gordon in KC, and Carlos Santana in Cleveland. The Tigers won each game by one run.

Tonight, 5-4 the score, Tigers over Baltimore, he went over the wall once in the eighth inning to rob Adam Jones.

Replays indicate he had it all the way. Just another day at the office for the fleet Texan who covers center field like the morning dew.

Papa Leadoff Walk issued a free pass to Matt Weiters leading off the ninth. Felix P-A ran for him and stole second. By now, the Indians 3-2 win over Minnesota had been posted on the Camden Yards scoreboard. Two strikeouts and a fly ball later, Valverde saved the game and preserved the Tigers' three game lead. 

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In the dog days of August, the fan may find reasons to become weary of baseball. 

It's hot, and been hot for a long time. Minus the three day All-Star break, there have been games to keep track of every night since March 31. The most faithful fan might seek a break, even from the Tigers, Patch And Pray 2.011 version.

Then, the August full moon rises, beckoning the fan to go out on the front porch, listen to the chirping crickets, the sooosh-sooosh of lawn sprinklers, and baseball as it should be heard: on an actual radio. 

The black walnuts on the lawn remind the fan that there won't be many more nights like this one. 

The sounds and visuals recharge the batteries, and make any hack blogger sound like Ken Burns.Which isn't necessarily bad. After all, it's baseball.

Verlander, Valverde Milestones

Every pitching staff needs a number one guy with a cast iron arm, who can go deep into a game and stop a losing streak, or win a key game. 

In the last game of this week's Big Series in Cleveland, after two Tiger losses, Justin Verlander went seven and gave up three runs to post his 17th win of 2011, and 100th of his career.

Fausto Carmona had one bad inning (three in the second) but was otherwise Verlander's equal on this night at Progressive Field.

Jose Valverde got the save, his 33rd of 2011 and a new Tiger single-season record, bettering Willie Hernandez' 32 in 1984.

The Tigers leave Progressive Field with a three game lead on the Tribe.

Thirty-six games remain, with one quarter of them against the Indians, including the last three at Comerica. Verlander against Carmona in the last game -- the season ends on Wednesday night this year -- with both teams tied for first. Would that be godhead, or what?

Ubaldo?

No, I've been using Rogaine for two years!

But the Indians' starting pitcher was, and, on the night after Indians manager Manny Acta used all seven of his reliever, he gave the Tribe what they needed: eight innings of six-hit, three run pitching.  

The Resident Managerial Genius wasn't so fortunate. Rick Porcello was getting whacked but had to stay in because there were no fresh arms available. Finally, after throwing three innings of BP (eight runs, eleven hits), even he had to come out. David Pauley -- Mr. Hit Batter With The Bases Loaded -- saved the pen but gave up the last two Tribe runs.

Jason Kipnis -- Igor's grand-nephew -- went five for five and showed the baseball world why the Indians went with him in place of Orlando Cabrera at second.

Two losses to the Indians, lead down to two games. 

The Weather Underground

You do need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. 

Not the guys in the Tigers radio booth. After two innings, they said this --

-- would quickly blow over, so "stay tuned" (don't tune away to another

game), and we'd be back to baseball before we knew it. 

One hour later, the situation was --

-- and I was still listening to Mark from Livonia and Derek from

Mount Clemens speculate re why The Resident Managerial Genius

wasn't starting his "A" lineup (Ordonez in RF, Betemit at 3B), and

why he was hitting Andy Dirks third.  If anyone needed resting, they

and others reasoned, yesterday was an off day. 

Rain clouds filled the air, from Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls. 

I did what anyone who heard that Chien-Ming Wang was no-hitting

the Cubs would do: switched to that game.The Curse worked. Right

away, someone got a hit.  

Two hours after the promised blow-over, play resumed. The relievers took over. Duane Below pitched four perfect innings. American League hitters, look out: Below!  


Chad Durbin gave up zero runs over three, and his bullpen mates were equally effective. 


The game went into extra innings with neither team eager to score. 


David Pauley came on to pitch the fourteenth. Walk, single, intentional walk, hit batter (Koskei Fukudome). Game over. 


A walkoff hit by pitch. Never seen that before, and may never see it again. Well worth staying up until almost two in the morning. 


Maggie is fast asleep under the covers. She doesn't know what happened. Will she be surprised in the morning! That is, the morning in which the sun comes up. 


But I'd better get back there. If she does wake up and find me gone, she might think I've got a girl friend.