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.

The Game That Got Away

What a night for Delmon Young! Two home runs, five RBIs including a two-run shot that gave the Tigers an 11-9 lead in the ninth.

But the final was 9-8 Royals, you say, having either watched the game or checked MLB for updates. 

That's because the umperors, after reviewing video, called the ball foul. Umperors 1, Pretenders 0. 

The phantom homer wouldn't have mattered, of course, had the P's been able to take care of business earlier.

Ten of the first sixteen Royals hit safely off Justin Verlander. The eight runs he allowed, in 5.2 innings, equal the most he's ever given up in one game.

But the P's peckitty-pecked their way back to an 8-8 tie.

In the eighth, Phil Coke, brought in to get a left-handed hitter (Mike Moustakis) out, gave up a double that put KC up by one. 

3.72 doesn't look bad, but 65 hits in 48 innings is not acceptable for a situational lefty. And 48 innings means he's had the opportunities.In the last twelve, he's given up at least one hit.

The White Sox? They lost, 6-0 in Baltimore. 

Come Sunday September 30, once the Orioles and Athletics have clinched the wild cards, and the Sox the Central, this one will be The Game That Got Away.

Help From Our Friends, I Think

Orioles 4, White Sox 3 at Camden Yards. So we gain a half game on the Pale Hose, but lose a half game in the Bridesmaid standings to Los Birdos. 

Attendance for this game between the first place Sox and the serious post-season talking Orioles, on their way to their first winning season since 1997: 10, 995. 

Baltimore used to be a great baseball town. 

When the Tigers play there, it's hard to tell via the radio who's the home team, since so many people from Michigan show up to cheer for the enemy.

Bleepin Day Baseball !!!

Eighty five percent of the world's workin! The other fifteen's out at the bleepin beach listenin to the game on the radio! It's a playground for the bleep-bleepers -- 

Uhh . . . but it's Sunday . . . ? 

Well . . . that's no excuse. It's still a tough American League Central. (It's a tough American League, period.) 

Indeed it is, and that makes having Scherzer and Verlander atop the rotation reassuring. 

Scherzer starts have become Verlander-like. You'd better watch, because amazing things usually happen. 

And amazing Max was this hot Sunday at Comerica, allowing one run and four hits through seven, while striking out nine Seraphim. The outing dropped his ERA to 4.13, and a few more like it will keep him from the dubious distinction of striking out eleven per nine innings with an ERA over four.

The win was his 14th. Nine strikeouts give him 195 -- three more than Verlander -- and first place among all starting pitchers.

Prince Fielder and Delmon Young homered back-to-back in the sixth off Johan Santana, into the same wind that kept kites aloft at the beach. Final: Tigers 5, Seraphs 1; and this portion of the make-hay-while-the-wind-blows home stand thus ends with six wins and three losses. Enormously better than expected, after it began with two of three dropped to the Orioles.

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Seraph, plural seraphim, noun, a type of celestial creature first mentioned in the Old Testament. In Christianity, they are the highest order of angels.

When Your Blogger was a lad and the Los Angeles Angels were a new expansion team, sports writers routinely called them "Seraphs." Like they do "Halos" now. I thought Seraph was a word for people from California. Like "Yankee" for New Englanders, or"Yooper"  for anyone who lived north of the Mackinac Bridge.

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And, after venturing into theology and the etymology of English, one naturally starts to wonder what Lee Elia is doing. 

Google search him and most of what you find is about The Rant. A baseball lifer, and what he's most known for happened off the field. Little is mentioned about, at age 73 in 2011, his appointment as a spring hitting coach with the Braves, and a special assistant to GM Frank Wren. 

Ungrateful For Small Miracles

The Pretenders committed three errors in the first five innings, that led to two unearned runs and an early 3-0 Angel lead. 

Baseball's 20th best defense has allowed 61 unearned runs. By comparison, the two worst fielding teams, the Rockies and Orioles, have allowed  53 and 54, respectively. Saving them so far has been the pitchers' knack for piling up strikeouts (they're fifth out of 30 teams). The fewer chances the fielders get to touch the ball, the better. 

It is thus with small satisfaction that Your Baseball Blogger mentions the fifth inning RBI knocks, a Young double and Dirks single, the eighth inning three-run miracle highlighted by Peralta's two-run double, and Drew Smyly's nice effort (six innings, four hits, one earned run) in place of the tweaked Doug Fister.

Small satisfaction also for all five gifts from Heaven coming with two out. 

Because kicking it around is going to cost them, in some game they'll really need to have a shot at that one game play-in.

 

GRINK-eee

Once Zack Grienke got the lead, there was nothing to do but ... well, uh ... leave. Just turn the dial. Check on the other games. (Change it, now, please?) 

That we did, and all we missed was Miguel Cabrera's 32nd homer, hit naturally with no one on, in the eighth to make it 2-1 and give the 39K sheeple in attendance hope that the others might remember what baseball bats are for and score some runs. 

Releivers Scott Downs and Garrett Richards finished off the Pretenders who, like  properly constructed electrical circuit, offered no resistance. 

Again, a starter's only mistake cost him the game. YBB has fallen back on that baseball cliche because it's happened often lately. Howie Kendrick hit a Porcello fastball for a two-out double in the sixth, plating Meicir Isturis and Mike Trumbo. Torii Hunter having extended the frame with a take-out slide that prevented an inning ending double play. 

Those other games? Down the dial where the White Sox play, where hitters know what baseball bats are for, the Pale Hose got two in the ninth for a 9-8 walkoff win over the Mariners, ending the M's eight game win streak. The win and Pretenders' loss -- of a game one or two well-placed hits would have won -- moves the P's back to 2.5 out in the division, and 2.5 out in the bridesmaid race.

How Fortunate?

The tying run scored in the eighth on a wild pitch. 

Austin Jackson kept the score tied at two with a highlight lay-out catch in the 10th. 

The winning run scored in the 11th on a two-out Alex Avila liner that Jays' right fielder Anthony Gose played into a single, going for the play at the plate and not the diving third out catch. 

If not either, the game might still be under way, with Jeff Baker pitching the 22nd inning. 

Justin Verlander went nine and got eight of the last twelve outs on strikeouts. His only mistake was the pitch Edwin Encarnacion hit out in the fourth with Colby Rasmus on. When you're pitching for the Pretenders, your only mistake could easily cost you the game. Fortunately for JV, it didn't. For yet another excellent outing, he gets yet another no decision. 

The P's showed no interest in scoring off J.A. Happ, who blanked them for 7 1-3 innings. (The Astros traded this guy away? That's the sort of player move that explains why they're on the way to a 110 loss season.) 

But they win 3-2, and go to ten over OM. At day's end, the W is all that's really important. 

The season-long offensive drought, and thus the P's season-long hang-on by their fingernails in either the Central or Bridesmaid race, can be boiled down to one AB in today's seventh inning. 

With Peralta on second and the score 2-0 Jays, and a hit desperately needed from some seasoned slugger to wake up the offense, right fielder Jeff Baker strode plateward.

Baker, acquired on August 5 from the Cubs for two (yes, two) players to be named later, started the day at .167 and had done nothing worth a mention in this blog. 

He struck out swinging, his third whiff of the afternoon, and the rally died. 

Fortunately for everyone wearing the Olde English "D," the game's outcome didn't -- if you'll pardon the reference -- HINGE on that at bat. 

Bartolo / Very Extremely Fortunate

Tested positive for Test Tosterone, suspended for the season. "He was having a remarkably good year ..." (10 wins at age 39,  4-1 / 1.57 in his last five starts). Now we know why! Haha A's! Schadenfreude! His apology, ghostwritten by an underling in the PR department, will be issued later this afternoon.  

He's the only major league player whose last name is a punctuation symbol.  Assuming  he's half the player he would have been without supplements, shouldn't his name be Bartolo Semi-Colon?

Just thinking out loud ... 

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Anibel Sanchez didn't exactly shut down the Blue Jays, but did earn his second win as a Tiger by limiting the Jays' makeshift lineup, missing four regulars, to five hits and two runs in 6.2 innings. 

His own error in the sixth -- a wild pickoff throw -- allowed Rajai Davis to take third. Davis scored on a single by Edwin Encarnacion who moved to second on an error charged to Andy Dirks, whose throw from right Alex Avila couldn't handle. Fortunately for the Pretenders, once they were done throwing the ball around, they still had a 2-1 lead. 

A second Dirks error, on a Moises Sierra single, put the tying and go-ahead runs on third and second, respectively. Fortunately for the P's, Austin Jackson ran down Yorvit Torrealba's deep drive for the third out. 

Fortunately for the slugging P's, they manufactured a third run in the sixth, on an error (Jackson reaching first), sacrifice (Infante), intentional walk (Cabrera) and single (Fielder).

Like the previous game, this one had a curious ending. Last night, Encarnacion was ruled out on strikes, on appeal to first base ump Tom Hallion (good call!) for the last out. Tonight, with two down in the ninth, Omar Vizquel, who had pinch-hit a single and represented the tying run, took off for second. Fortunately for the P's, Avila threw out the 45 year old Vizquel to put this one in the W column. 

Unfortunately for the P's, the White Sox keep winning. Their 2-1 win over the Yankees at Cellphone Provider Field completed a three-game sweep of the New Yorkers and kept them 2 1-2 games ahead of the men from Motown. 

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Bartolo says he's sorry but, as with everyone who gets caught, they're only sorry because they got caught. Career over; another name permanently removed from the list of active former Montreal Expos players.

Extremely Fortunate / 420 Friendly Indians

If the opposing pitcher walks six in the first two innings, you'd better score more than three runs. You'd better, in fact, send him to the showers before he has a chance to regroup and start getting people out.

Ricky Romero was extremely fortunate to leave the second inning down only 3-0. 

He posted zeroes in the third, fourth, and fifth. Walks got him into trouble again in the sixth, and he came out having issued eight free passes on the night. The Blue Jays through six were fortunate to be losing only 5-1.

They scored two in the eighth, off Dotel and the new Public Enemy #1 out of the pen, Phil Coke. Missed scoring chances in the early innings, and ten runners left on base, loomed larger with each Jays run. 

Mr. Ripley would find it hard to believe that Ben Wah and Val Verde came in to restore order, but they did; Ben getting a hold and Val the save. The only blemish being a liner that Quentin Berry misplayed into a leadoff double in the ninth.

The Pretenders should consider themselves extremely fortunate to win this one 5-3. 

But 39K sheeple left Comerica wrapped in smug assurance, that our guys really showed their guys how the game of baseball is played.

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In the wee hours of tomorrow morning back east, the Tribe lost at Seattle -- King Felix dispatching them with ease -- and are now 4-20 since the two homers off Verlander "what happened in the seventh inning?" game played July 26, when they were still in both the division and bridesmaid races.

More Reasons Why

How can you walk the ninth place hitter who's hitting .097? With two out?

Taylor Teagarden, the Tiger crusher, was the guy, in this afternoon's second inning. With the inning thus extended and the lineup turned over, Nick Markakia and J.J. Hardy followed with two-run doubles, erasing 80 percent of Doug Fister's 5-0 lead.

In the fourth, Nate McLouth tripled in Markakis and Hardy, who had reached base via -- yes, that's right -- walks, and the very beatable lately Pretenders were as good as beaten. (Final: Them 7, Us 5.)

It was Fister's worst outing as a Tiger (Pretender): 3.2 innings, eight hits, seven runs. Also the second game in a row in which he's allowed four runs in one inning.

Why It's Not Going To Happen

Orioles starter Zach Britton has an ERA over eight, and the O's are the league's worst fielding team.

Three hours later, his ERA is down to six, his teammates have turned three snappy rally-killing double plays, and the O's have a 3-2 win. 

The only mistake Rick Porcello made cost him the game. Chris Davis hit it out with two on in the seventh. 

Meanwhile, the Pretenders played Beavis-And-Butthead ball. It looked like they would never score. Peralta singled in two in the eighth, but Jim Johnson was waiting, and he shut the P's down on two dribblers and one soft fly ball. 

If Prince Fielder is up with no one on, he'll get pitched around because five through nine have been so ineffective. Delmon Young, hitting behind Prince and Cabrera and Jackson/Berry all season, should have a lot more than 65 RBIs in mid-August. Alex Avila (.253) is a mystery. Watching the player formerly known as Bash hit makes you cry, and not from hay fever. Jhonny Groundout proved last year that he can do better than .261

So ineffective, in fact, that one through four won't (can't) carry them to post-season.

Things You May Never See Again

Justin Verlander issuing three walks in one inning (the third, in which the O's tied the score at 1-1.) 

Anyone hitting a ball where Prince Fielder did in the sixth, over the center field shrubbery (Nee! Nee!) and retired numbers wall, and into the standing room fans (measured at 462 feet, the first of two two-run shots by the Prince of Bop.) 

A baserunner (Jhonny Peralta) called out at first on a close play, and then ruled safe after the umps conferred and changed their minds. (Too bad they didn't do that for Armando Galarraga, but there have been enough perfect games lately). And a first baseman (Mark Reynolds) getting tossed for throwing his glove to the turf. You can't blame him, because replays indicated Peralta was out by plenty. Umperors 1, Orioles 0. 

The win (5-3) and White Sox loss at KC move the Tigers to 1.5 games out in the AL Central, and into a tie with the O's and D-Rays in the AL Bridesmaid standings. 

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The infield fly rule also applies re the throwing-of-the bouquet ritual at weddings (tomorrow being Saturday). The bride is out and all bridesmaids may tag up and advance at their own risk. But the one who brought a catcher's mitt, she's the one who's really tired of being single.

When White Moths Are On The Wing

Traveling photographer Robert Kincaid discovers that farm-bound housewife Francesca Johnson fills her afternoons not with soap operas, or real operas, but with with Chicago Cubs games, at a time (1965) when the Cubs still play 81 home day games a season. So, instead of building a fire and curling up in a blanket, on the night of an oppressively hot mid-August Iowa day, they sit on the porch are read Yeats, and listen to the Cubs game (they're out west and on late). All this takes place in the movie "The Baseball Games Of Madison County." Which is why that movie has never been made, and why Your Cynical Baseball Blogger would never make it as a writer of screenplays.

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The Tigers play 15 of their next 18 at home, where they're 11 over .500. Only a weekend road trip to KC breaks the string of home games. 

Three of the next ten calendar days are off days. and that's good news for the pitching staff, and especially the battered bullpen, in the dog days of summer. 

Now, then, is the time for the Tigers to put some distance between themselves and the AL Cantral pack, or at least the other would-be bridesmaids.

The mystery remains, though: Why a team with three of the league's top starters (Verlander, Scherzer, and Fister), and Jackson, Cabrera, and Fielder in its lineup doesn't already have its division pretty much wrapped up.

Max, The King, The Melkman, And Fausto

What a work of art, this afternoon's effort by Max Scherzer. You could frame it and hang it in the Louvre. Not in the same room with the Mona Lisa, but in there somewhere. 

He walked Morneau and Doumit to lead off the second, but then fanned the side. He got seven more Twins while allowing only four hits and -- we always like to point this out, because it's important -- zero walks.

The ten Ks give Scherzer 178 for the season, best in baseball, three more than R.A. Dickey and four more than Felix Hernandez and Justin Verlander by day's end. 

Miguel Cabrera entered the Tiger record book with his first inning homer, his 30th, making him the first Tiger to have 30 in five straight years. (Final: 5-1 Tigers.) 

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King Felix pitched a perfect game today, in the obscurity of Wednesday afternoon out west, at Safeco Field, that I got home in time to hear the last half inning of. He whiffed twelve D-Rays and didn't allow as much as a hot line drive. Another perfect game ... that's nice, third this season, second at Safeco, and second against the otherwise very good D-Rays in the last three years (Mark Buehrle perfected them in July 2009). 

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One less Cabrera in the major leagues for the rest of the season.  While Scherzer and The King were authoring their masterpieces, news broke that Melky Cabrera had tested positive for testosterone supplements and had been suspended for 50 games. That's five games into post-season, but the Giants won't make it now. No more Melkman. Hahaha Giants! Schadenfreude! 

Cabrera had a breakout season last year with the Royals (now we know why), was mysteriously traded to the Giants (now we know why) and was having an out of nowhere season this year (.346 average, All-Star Game MVP, now we know why, cheating done the Melky way.) 

But the MLB story didn't mention supplements. All it said was that he had "tested positive for testosterone." Something every man's body produces. So does that mean, I wondered, that they're all guilty? Season over, let's all go home? 

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You can go for two weeks and not see anything interesting, and that it all happpens on the same day. The Pitcher Formerly Known As Fausto Carmona started his first game in two years, for the Indians at Anaheim tonight.  Renamed Roberto Hernandez, he got through the first but gave up three dinkers in the second. The Tribe defense then betrayed him, committing three errors and what should have been a fourth. Only five runs scored, but the Indians absorbed yet another ugly loss, 8-0).

Maggie asked me why he didn't change his name to a symbol, like Prince did. Maybe a punctuation mark?  I told her that punctuation marks aren't allowed in box scores, and that I thought I smelled food burning downstairs. What ever happened to the sweet, uncomplicated girl I used to know?

That Was Nice

No sluggers hitting the softest grounders ever hit, with the bases loaded and one out. No relief pitchers coming in to pour gas on the fire. The hitters remembered what baseball bats are for, even though the fielders forgot what gloves are for, and the bullpen's role (praise the Lord) was limited to one inning.

Peralta singled in two first inning runs. In the second, Laird tripled in Dirks, and Austin Jackson, still The Man, doubled in Laird. I couldn't remember the last time they had a lead of more than one run after the second inning.

Doug Fister gave up a three run homer to Josh Willingham in the third, the last three of four plated by the Twins in the third. Errors by Fielder and Infante (Bless You, Boys) made none of the runs earned. 

But Fister settled down (even when he's shaky, he's better than anyone else they can bring in), and his mates tacked on four more runs. Papa Shut 'Em Down did so this time, without drama, and saved an 8-4 win.

Criswell Was Right

The butt-kicking everyone in the second floor baseball bunker knew was coming did, indeed, happen. A good old-fashioned peckitty-pecking is more like it. Nine runs on 18 hits, fifteen singles, most of them by players only the most rabid Twins fans and the fantasy league geeks know about. Ryan Doumit (three-run homer), Darin Mastroianni ( 3 for 5, 3 RBIs), Jamey Carroll (3 for 4 hitting eighth). And Mauer and Willingham, them we've at least heard of; a combined 5 for 7 hitting third and fourth. Final: 9-3 Twins. (Sigh ...)

Anibal Sanchez allowed twelve of the 18 hits in his fourth whacking since being acquired to prop up the starting rotation (7.97 ERA, 35 hits in 20 innings, .380 batting average against).

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Skipper Leyland says the bullpen -- with four gas men (Ben Wah, Coke, Villareal, Val Verde) and only the veteran Dotel and rookie Downs reliable lately -- is fine. Actually, it's better than that. It's Howard, and Fine, AND Howard. (Get the tools ... ! WHAT tools?) With the same results.

The Gasman Cometh

The Pretenders were down 6-3 as Texas came to bat in the seventh. Only a three run deficit, two ABs left, and anything can happen in the hitter-friendly Ballpark At Arlington.

Anything did happen, only not what we had in mind. 

Villareal retired the first batter. Then: single, walk, double steal / wild pitch / throwing error (by Alex Avila) all on the same play, another wild pitch, single. Two runs in, game pretty much over.

After the game, Villareal revealed to the world that his elbow hurt. That's nice. He must have known this before the game. Maybe he knew it yesterday, when he walked the first two hitters he faced on eight pitches.

But now he tells us. 

I thought any excuse these days was good enough for going on the DL. 

How I have misjudged the modern ballplayer. 

At this rate of indifference, they're going to get their butts kicked in Minnesota tomorrow night. Even Criswell would get that one right. 

They Shoulda Won It

Ninety percent of pitching is mental. The other half is mechanics.

The mental half proved to be Brayan Villareal's undoing tonight. He came in to pitch the ninth, and to keep the score tied at one each, and walked the first two Rangers hitters on eight pitches, none of them close.

Yes, the first guy -- Nelson Cruz -- scored the winning run, singled in by rookie Mike Ott off Phil Coke, the night's second ineffective Pretenders reliever.

The P's had their chance, but -- yes, again -- filled the bases with one out in a ninth inning and failed to score.Mike Adams the Texas Ranger got a fielder's choice at home (Cabrera forced) and Peralta on a fly to center.

Wasted was an excellent effort by Justin Verlander (seven innings, seven hits, one run, eight whiffs, zero walks).

Not wasted was an equally find outing by Rangers starter Derek Holland (7.2, three hits, one run, nine whiffs), who matched JV pitch for pitch in baseball's most hitter-friendly yard.

Another winnable game thus goes into the loss column.

However -- the baseball blogger knew that, sooner or later this season, the P's and Hinge's paths would cross; and they did, 800 miles away in Chicago.

The most reviled ex-Tiger in recent memory singled in the go-ahead run in a 9-7 Athletics' win over the White Sox. 

The Sox loss keeps the P's one game out, with the same number of wins (61) as the Sox, but two (53) more losses.

Schadenfreude

A handy German word for taking pleasure in someone else's misfortune.(English doesn't have a single word for all that.) 

Nelson Cruz his six homers off Tiger pitching in last season's six game ALCS, and threw out a runner at the plate to snuff out a Tiger rally. 

Tonight, he dived  five feet too soon for an Austin Jackson liner. The ball skipped past him and, by the time it was retrieved and thrown in, Jackson had circled the bases for an inside the park homer. 

You never have too many runs in Arlington, and Jackson's add-on homer gave the Tigers a four lead. Only a grand slam ahead, but a lead nonetheless. 

Dotel and Val Verde made it stand up, and the Tigers 6-2 winners.

Max Scherzer survived another start. Six innings, only two runs but eight hits and 112 pitches -- and, per the script of his unusual statistical season, nine strikeouts. 

Prince Fielder got him the lead in the sixth, with a three run homer into the Arlington yard's Tiger Stadium seats. Each time the blogger sees them, he wonders: why don't we have Tiger Stadium seats? They could have done that for Comerica ... but no; a nice photo-op view, of the empty buildings in downtown Detroit, was more important.

Eighth Inning BP

The Tigers had just taken a 3-2 lead, in the rain on getaway Thursday at Comerica, and needed six outs for a win over the Yankees, and a series win three games to one.  

In came Ben Wah, and lately, when he does, the blogger and every fan in the ball park has to wonder who will hit the home runs. 

One batter in, Mark Teixeira delivered a Tex message to the right field seats. Next batter, next pitch, Eric Chavez, same result, only to left.

The Tigers put the tying run on second in their eighth, and on third in the ninth, but left him there. 

A winnable game thus became a 4-3 loss, giving the Tigers a series split.

Since June 30, in 15 2-3 innings, Joaquin Benoit has given up twelve hits. That sounds okay, until you find out that ten were homers. Since it's baseball, and not some office job with an employee handbook, nothing can be done but go get 'em next time.

No one had to be there to know that silence prevailed on the flight to Texas, where the Pretenders open a series with the Rangers tomorrow night. 

If they finish the regular season needing one win for first place, or a playoff spot, or home-field advantage, this game will be the one that cost them, and everyone knows that as well.

Miracles

CC Sabathia got an early 7-1 lead, and when that happens, it's okay to slip away and tune up and down the dial, to check on the other games. Not okay to stay gone too long, since anything can happen, even against the Yankees.

Upon returning to the Tigers, the score was 7-3. It became 8-3. Then 8-7, after a four run seventh, most of the damage coming off reliever David Robertson.Would the baseball godz enforce the one miracle per home stand limit?

Phil Coke, who rarely pitches well against his former teammates, gave up two runs in the eighth. Omar Infante homered in the Tigers' eighth and, with Cabrera and Fielder due up, the partisans readied for divine intervention. 

Both  made easy outs, and, in she ninth, the usually effective Brayan Villareal allowed two runs on three hits after retiring the first two batters.  Rafael Soriano easily retired the last three Tiger hitters, and this one goes on the game log as an ugly 12-8 loss.

Boesch The Patient

Boesch looked at nine Phil Hughes deliveries before singling in tonight's second inning

In a laborious fourth, Hughes threw 41 pitches, 12 to Boesch who singled on the last one.

The second inning single scored no one, and Cabrera had already homered in the fourth. The ABs did run up Hughes' pitch count, and every pitch on a hot night means less fuel in the tank. 

Peralta doubled in Boesch to tie the game. In the fifth, Cabrera The Mighty doubled in two more off the depleted Hughes, and out he came. 

The add-on single runs runs added on by the Tigers in the sixth and eighth proved to be absolutely vital. Valverde the Unpredictablecame in to pitch the ninth and, with him lurking in the pen, the Tigers need all the add-on runs they can get.

The fans should know by now: don't stand up when Papa Shut 'Em Down is one out from a save. You might be standing for a while. Walk, single, double, 6-3 becomes 6-5 with the tying and go-ahead runs on third and second, respectively, and Curtis Granderson up. What is it with this guy? It's like watching Fernando Rodney pitch. 

The Grandy Man popped out to first, and all was right with the world. At least until tomorrow night. 

The 6-5 win, and the White Sox' loss in Chicago, draw the Tigers to within a half-game of Wonderfulness. 

Striking Out The Yankees / Vikings 14, Browns 3

Things looked bad for the Mudville nine (ten, actually, with the DH) when Justin Verlander dropped a throw at first that led to two unearned fifth inning Yankee runs, and a tie score. 

The Tigers then whacky-tacked Ivan Nova for three runs on five hits, no cheapies, all early in counts. Nova allowed three more shots and one run in the sixth, and was gone. Joba Chamberlain, off the DL where he was expected to spend the entire season, gave up one run on two hits. 

JV, meanwhile, was striking out Yankees in bunches. He whiffed fourteen, the most by a Tiger against the Yankees since Jim Bunning got the same number in 1958. 

Prince Fielder homered in the second, as did Miguel Cabrera in the fourth; a shot that was high, and far, and really gone, measured at 454 feet into the shrubbery (The shrubbery! Nee! Nee!) in straightway center. The Big Man, just a loveable teddy bear, hasn't been hitting them out down the lines, or even to the gaps with the exception of yesterday's triumphant game winner. They've been going to almost dead center; long, deep blasts that enemy outfielders can only watch.

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Speaking of the Cleveland Browns: the Vikings handled them 14-3 tonight at Progressive Yards, scoring a touchdown and a field goal in the second inning. Eight of the points were unearned, the result of a throwing error by the usually reliable Jason Kipnis. So the Tribe got whacked, again; ten in a row now and it's good that they're not giving the Tigers any trouble, but bad because, when the Blue Jays were struggling and the Tigers were awful, the Indians were winners and they became the home team here in the second floor baseball bunker. There remains in the blogger's soft heart, when the Indians get thrashed day after day, a wish that they turn it around. Often enough to become respectable, but not so often that they become an object in the Tigers' rear view mirror, closer than they actually appear.

What A Game !!!

If you turned it off after the Tigers put the winning run on third in the ninth and left him there, or when Boom-Boom Ben-Wah gave up two homers in the tenth, or when the Tigers were down by three and down to their last out with the bases empty, then hang your head, Ye Of Little Faith. For, as Dr. Lawrence P. Berra, Professor Emeritus of Baseball, says: c'est n'est pas fini until c'est fini. 

Austin Jackson did triple leading off the ninth, with the score even at five. Josh Tomlin struck out Omar Infante, and issued intentional walks to Cabrera and Fielder. Quentin Berry, the last guy you'd think would ground into a double play, did so, first to home and back.

Boom-Boom did throw the gopher balls, his seventh and eighth in fifteen innings, about one every other appearance (yikes) to Travis Hafner and Ezequiel Carrera in the Tribe tenth. Jack Hanahan then singled, and Lou Marson doubled him in. Messers Price and Dickerson, with the Tigers down by three, had this one already in the loss column. If only Jackson had scored, they lamented ... this game, if they look back at the season for one game they really needed to win ... 

Chris Perez retired the first two Tigers in the bottom tenth. Then, he lost the strike zone. He walked the eight hitter, Alex Avila. Andy Dirks hit for Danny Worth and walked. Jackson doubled in Avila. Infante hit a flare that scored Dirks and Jackson. Tie game, Cabrera up, but Perez was the guy; he's the closer, it's up to him to get out of messes like this.

Cabrera hit one to deep left center ... awaaaaaaaaaaaay back ... GAWN !!!

Simply amazing, Dickerson said. The most improbable, un-bee-leevable ... Beyond Godhead, observed Your Blogger. The kind of game they remember years later, like the Buckner game, the Sandberg game, The Impossible Return (played twelve years ago today).        

If you wrote this game as a screenplay and submitted it, they'd throw it away and not even use your               SASE to send a form rejection. Things just don't happen like this. Not believable.

The Indians, one out away from avoiding some negative history, instead made it. The loss was their ninth of the road trip, and marked the first time in 112 years of Tribe baseball that they lost every game on a trip of at least nine games.

Jackson Absolved

Austin Jackson may have been the only person in Comerica wishing the Indians would get another hit. 

With two out in the sixth, he broke in on Ezequiel Carrera's drive, froze, and ended up chasing the ball to the deepest part of center field. Scored a triple, the hit ended Doug Fister's shot at a perfect game. 

Fister set them down in order in the seventh, and Jackson's misplay became more glaring.

Michael Brantley led off the eighth with a single, and all became well. In the ninth, the punchless Indians managed a run on two hits, one of them Carrera's second triple of the game;enough to avoid a shutout but not a 6-1 loss.

It's Tribe Time Again / They Designated WHO?

And just in time arrive the Indians, on the last leg of an awful road trip, their starters' ERA resembilng an AM radio frequency (12.40).

The Tigers pounded Justin Masterson for seven runs in four innings. Prince Fielder homered and doubled and drove in four, and Andy Dirks went 2 for 4 in his first game since late May. Final: 10-2 Tigers.

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With Dirks back, someone had to go, and it was Don Kelly, designated for assignment.

Maggie is now sure that Rugburn has pics of certain people in compromising poses, their otherwise nude bodies covered with Jello. I think it's because he hits right-handed, that Kelly and not he was cut.

But sheeeesh  ... Kelly has played every position including pitcher and catcher, and in post-season in the NL ball park -- assuming they get that far -- those guys are invaluable for double switches. Rugburn serves one purpose, providing right-handed punch (hitting .172 at this writing) from left field against left handed pitchers. And he didn't get booed every time he poked his head out of the dugout.

Lemon Jello, Maggie says, in honor of former Tigers pitcher Mark Lemongello.

She might be on to something.

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Also designated today, by the Indians, 231 hits shy of 3000, was Johnny Damon.

He was hitting .222, only .130 since July 1, and saw it coming.  The Tribe, sinking quickly in the standings, had already designated the ineffective Derek Lowe.

Both will re-appear on a big league roster this season. After September 1, when the rosters expand, but somewhere, where one pinch hit at the right time, or one enemy rally snuffed, means the difference between post season and no season.

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The Late Late Scene: three west coast baseball games on the radio after 10 PM; Mets at Padres (and did you know "Tigger" was the name of the Brady Bunch's dog?) Cubs at Dodgers with Keith Moreland's non-sequiters a constant reminder of how missed Ron Santo is (Santo was at least funny), and the Jays at Oakland.

The White Elephants were one strike from victory when Jeff Mathis homered with two on to tie the game at four each.  Then no one wanted to win. The game ended with a Coco Crisp sac fly at four minutes before
the weebitching hour in Oakland, that many short of the rarest of games:: one that's still going past three AM Eastern time. Two baseball addicts were up when it ended, possibly the only two not in Canada not listening on the Internet. We have given each other gold stars for the accomplishment.

Full Moon Fever, Five Run Fifth

Austin Jackson singled in Alex Avila, and Miguel Cabrera homered with two on, ahead of a Fielder solo shot.

Rick Porcello pitched barely well enough to win, allowing the Red Sox eight hits and four runs in five and two-thirds innings.

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The midsummer pagan festival of Lammas is celebrated on August 1, and there was also a full moon tonight.

Whenever a baseball announcer mentions the full moon, visible at his or her (Suzyn Waldman, a Jew) ball park, I always go to the window and look for it. Are they seeing the same moon?  The chances are good that they are. 

Josh Lewin, also a Jew, mentioned the moon, peeking over the right field wall at Telephone Company Park in San Francisco, during tonight's Mets-Giants game. The same one that was already overhead two thousand miles to the east. The same Josh Lewin who was on Tigers' TV with Kirk Gibson in the 90s and early 00s, whose voice on Mets radio still reminds Your Blogger of years and years of losing Tiger baseball. And he still feels it necessary to drop things like the name of the Partridge Family band's manager (Reuben Kincaid) into the play by play. Only it isn't funny anymore.

Dave Madden was born in Sarnia. Same home town as Yankee base coach Robby Thompson. I'll bet he doesn't know that.

Good Fortune Smiles On THEIR Team Again

This game, in its early stages of development, became a sort of foot race, between the Pretenders' fragile 1-0 lead, the rain, (hurry up!), the tarp, and the fifth inning.

The 1-0 lead was first to go.The Red Sox peckitty-pecked four off JV in the fourth inning. Now that the Pretenders have adopted a revised approach that de-emphasizes the scoring of runs, this wasn't a good sign.

The fifth inning won. Actually, it rained cats and dogs for about three innings, but in the sixth, with the P's up and the bases loaded, THEN they pull the plug on the game. (And NO official protest.) Out came the TARP (Troubled Athleticevent Recovery Program). When it rains, it pours; truer words were never spoken and they applied again tonight. In the record book, it goes as a rain-shortened 4-1 loss. 

The loss leaves the Pretenders 2.5 out in the Central, and 2.5 back in the Bridesmaid standings, where the A's and Orioles are tied. There exists another baseball state of being, called Look Out Below, for teams who are sliding backwards from Wonderfulness and out of Bridesmaid, headed back downhill to Official Mediocrity.

From Bad To Verse

The Tigers, in Boston becoss

It's time to show the Red Sox who's boss

Austin Jackson went deep

His mates went to sleep

Which got them a seven-three loss

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The Pretenders' effort was as bad as that bit of poetry. They did take a 1-0 lead on Jackson's homer leading off the game, but the Sox peckitty-pecked their way back in the game (peckitty-pecking being an effective way to overcome an early deficit) and put it away via Will Middlebrooks' two run homer in the eighth.

Max Scherzer wasn't sharp (seven hits, five runs in six-plus), but added to his already baffling season totals by striking out nine.

Peralta And Fister, And You Know Who

Jhonny Peralta, 0 for his last 17, homered twice to drive in all four Tiger runs.  Doug Fister quieted the major leagues' top offense, holding the Jays to one run on seven hits over eight. Another fine start by the tall right-hander, and exactly when the Tigers needed it; to end a three game losing streak and send them to Boss Town on a positive note. 

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Speaking of the Red Stockings, and Monday the 30th: unless Rugburn goes 4 for 4 tomorrow night, I LOSE Maggie's R Off The Interstate pool. A double for four today leaves him on I-73, and the promised and much anticipated Raburn late-season outburst now resembles a mirage shimmering in the summer heat. 

 

Sanchez's Debut (Boom! Boom! Boom!)

Those booms are the sounds made by this afternoon's three Blue Jay home runs, struck by Edwin Encarnacion, Yuniel Escobar, Colby Rasmus.

Two were solo shots, and that's not necessarily bad. There are pitchers in the Hall of Fame who gave up loads of solo home runs. Your guys have to score, and the Tigers, in the past 72 hours, have gone from Wonderfulness to playing a tepid brand of ball in which touching home plate is considered an afterthought. 

They dented the dish once today, on a Boesch double, the only extra base hit of five Henderson Alvarez allowed.

The three losses leave the Pretenders two games out, pending the outcome of tonight's White Sox game in Arlington.

 

Triples

Omar Vizquel isn't the oldest major league player to hit a triple. 

That guy is Nick Altrock (Alt Rock for the younger fans), born September 24 1876,  who, in 1924 for the Senators at age 48, on the season's last day, tripled in his only AB of the year. He thus finished with a batting average of 1.000, slugging percentage of 3.000, and OPS of 4.000.

Vizquel, whose triple was the second hit by the Jays in tonight's seventh inning, was born March 24 1967, making him two years and six months younger than Alt Rock.

He tripled in Brett Lawrie, born January 18 1990, during the winter following Vizquel's first major league season.

The damage had already been done, however, off Rick Porcello in a mess of a 36 pitch fourth inning punctuated by Jeff Mathis' bases-clearing double. 

Porcello's line -- five runs on six hits in six innings -- spoke for his entire season. Great one day, awful the next.

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Nick Alt Rock died on the same day as Alan Freed, January 20 1965, which is also the day Lyndon Johnson was sworn in for his only full term as president. Back when I still cared about things like presidents taking the oath of office.

What Happened In The Seventh Inning?

With the Tigers up 3-1 and Verlander cruising, Miguel Cabrera ended the top half by grounding into a double play. 

Carlos Santana and Travis Hafner led off the bottom halfwith solo homers. JV, who usually gets better deeper into games, allowed two more runs before retiring the Tribe.

The P Boys, Pestano and Perez, posted zeroes in the eighth, and ninth, to respectively record their 29th hold and save.

With the White Sox idle, the Tigers fall a half game out of first, having the same number of wins (53) but one more loss (46) than the Pale Hose.

Scherzer Prevails

After a 30 pitch third inning in which he allowed two runs, Max Scherzer righted himself and pitched the Tigers to a 5-3 win in Cleveland. 

Tiger hitters built an early three run lead, together, off Derek Lowe. It should have been more. Lowe walked the first three in the third, but escaped with only one run scored.

Travis Hafner homered in the ninth? That's how the last Tribe run scored? Fernando Shut 'Em Down must have re-assumed the closer's role. A check of the box score confirmed that it was, indeed, him.

It's Tribe Time Now

Your blogger knew the final score wasn't going to be 2-0 Indians, and in the seventh, Miguel Cabrera proved him right. With QB on, Miggy hit one deep into straightaway center at Progressive Yards, awaaaaaaaaay back, GAWN! Tie game! 

In the bottom seventh, Travis Hafner hit one in the same general direction, and choogled all the way to third. Aaron Cunningham squeezed him in to give the Tribe a 3-2 lead. 

Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez, among the best in baseball at shutting teams down in the eighth, and ninth, innings, did so again. Hold number 28 for Pestano, save number 28 for Perez. 

Doug Fister pitched well enough to win, but Ubaldo Jiminez was better. The Indians ace, lately rocked, blanked the Tigers for six innings and got his ERA under five, to 4.97. 

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This is the era of specialization, and the acquisition of Omar Infante means Rugburn has at last found his niche: playing left field against left-handed pitchers. And, when Andy Dirks comes back (get well soon, Andy!), that limited role will be gone. 

I have July 30, next Monday at Boston, in Maggie's Rugburn Off The Interstate pool and, with the limited playing time Infante's acquisition also signals, I ain't gonna win it. The contest may in fact have no winner, and my queen would then have to give everyone their money back. 

And guess what else? Speaking of reviled Tigers ... Oakland swept the Yankees and beat Toronto tonight, are at this moment tied for the AL wild card (depending on what the Angels do), Hinge could end up in post-season playing against us, and wouldn't that be a kick in the head?

Anibal The Cannibal / Ichiro Traded

On this Monday off-day, the Tigers acquired starting pitcher Anibal Sanchez, and re-acquired second baseman Omar Infante, from the Miami Marlins in exchange for Jacob Turner, catching prospect Rob Brantly, and pitcher Brian Flynn. 

Sanchez fills the need for a fifth starter, and is a free agent after this season. 

Infante fills an even bigger need, for a regular second baseman. He used to play for us. Was sent to the Cubs for the unreliable Jacque Jones after 2007, and almost won a batting title with the Braves. They never shoulda traded him, but Your Baseball Blogger will walk au naturel down the beach at high noon next Sunday if anyone with the Tigers admits the deal was a mistake. His arrival puts an end to the mix and match at second base, and (yes ... please?) sends Rugburn to at least the bench.

Flynn is a lefty who had pitched for Lakeland before a recent promotion to AA Erie. He's the hardest kind of unproven prospect to evaluate: a young pitcher. 

The Tigers are well-stocked behind the dish, with Brian Holaday, last year's number one draft pick James McCann, and Skipper Leyland's son Patrick in the minors. They must all be good, because catcher is the hardest position to fill, and Brantly was expected to make the big club someday.

Jacob Turner will be a good major league starter for someone other than the Tigers, with whom he played at the wrong (or maybe right, for his career) time. The future is now. The Tigers almost made it to the big October dance last year, and knew that a couple tweaks would give them another shot. Tweak they did, getting everything they need in one trade. 

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Ichiro Suzuki, whose first name in Japanese means "first-born son,"  was also traded today, from the Mariners to the Yankees for two minor league pitchers. Whenever a non-pitcher joins the Yankees, the suspense begins to grow: how will John Sterling call his home runs? Your BB Blogger already has the answer: Ichi geechee ya ya da da! But not by Pink OR Mesdames Kardashian. 

The deal means the M's are no longer the only major league team with two players whose last names are brand names of motorcycles (shortstop Munenori Kawasaki being the one still a Mariner).

It's ALL Happening

Today was Jacob Turner's start, and Your Baseball Blogger wondered if Turner could bounce back after being shelled in Baltimore last week. The Tigers are hot, though, and when a team is, Good Things often happen to pitchers who experienced Bad Things their last time out.

Turner gave up seven hits in five and 1-3 innings but kept the Sox from running up the score, and earned his first major league win.

Three of the seven hits came in the first inning, producing a single run. Alex Rios, the last batter Turner faced, homered with one on in the sixth. 

Quentin Berry, Bash, and Cabrera (twice) homered. Cabrera's second shot -- like the other, hit to straightaway center field -- was the 300th of his career. 

Phil Humber allowed all four homers and all six Tiger runs, and was gone after three innings. 

Villareal, Coke, Dotel, and Benoit limited the Pale Hose to one add-on run, a solo homer by Kevin Youkilis (a Jew). Dotel, following  the homer, struck four of the five batters he faced.

Wonderfulness, With Two Out

Rick Porcello stood the Pale Hose on their heads, scattering three singles over eight. He allowed one run, in the fifth,  plated via a single, two groundouts, and a dinker off the bat of Dayan Viciedo.

Austin Jackson, who's still The Man, doubled in two -- yes, with two out -- in the bottom of that inning. Bash's three-run homer -- yes, with two out -- in the sixth extended the Tigers' lead. Jackson -- that man again -- singled in two in the eighth; yes, with two out. 

Porcello came out for the ninth, and forty-two thousand Tiger partisans roared. The first two hitters singled, and Skipper Leyland came out to get him. He was greeted with a Serenade In Boo, that became a standing O for the young man from Morristown, New Jersey, who pitched the best game of his major league career. Five hits, one run, four whiffs, and no walks in eight-plus innings; Verlander-like numbers.

Wonderfulness -- the baseball state of being defined by having sole possession of first place -- comes in game number 95, with the Tigers playing their best ball since opening week, winning eleven of their last thirteen games.

The Season's First Big Series

The first place White Sox, 1 1-2 games up on the second place Tigers, are in town for a three game Big Series. 

Tonight, 44,572 squeezed into Tiger Park at Comerica Yards to see Justin Verlander battle Jake Peavey in the opener.

J-V threw one bad pitch, that Alex DeAza hit for a two-run homer in the third inning.

With two out and Peralta on third in the Tigers' half, Pea-V hit Quentin Berry. Cabrera and Fielder singled, and Delmon Young doubled, producing three runs. 

The villified, suddenly productive Young has 15 RBIs in his last 18 games.

In the seventh, Austin Jackson singled in Peralta -- yes, with two out -- for an important add-on run. Including tonight's four, 28 of the Tigers' last 41 runs have scored with two out. 

Verlander allowed four hits in eight innings while walking two and whiffing six.

The win moves the Tigers to within a half game of the AL Central lead, and Wonderfulness if they can beat the Pale Hose and take sole possession of first.