BRANDON INGE !!!

One out, bottom ninth, score tied at two, 0-0 the count nobody on, he hit a high fly into the stands! Rounded third and headed for home; he won the game, he did, that brown-eyed handsome man!

Walk-off wins in successive days sends the Tigers west -- to Oakland and then Seattle -- on a positive note. After the stumbling start, they have to be delirious with joy right now.

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Add "Wee Wee Hours" -- the B side of "Maybellene" -- to the list of songs that want to be baseball songs. 

Lately, some interesting things have happened after midnight. 

Padres open in the rain, Angels 14 inning walkoff win, Indians start 8-2, most of it out west. Dan Haren blanks the Tribe on one hit -- one quiet little single by Shin-Soo Choo -- last night/ early this morning.

Very nice, and way cool. But, when you're up listening to baseball past 12:01 AM, that's the time you miss her most of all.

A Must-Win Situation

Ten games in, and it's already that time. 

They're five games out, with a 3-7 record whose foul odor can't be ignored any longer. Five behind the 8-2 Indians, who've been out west making it look easy.

The ten game verdict: pitching not bad, hitting terrible, defense awful. JV has been great, but yesterday's four errors only highlight the careless play seen since opening day. The hitters, minus Cabrera and Peralta, have forgotten what baseball bats are for. Bruce Chen, of all people, and two rookies shut them down on Saturday. 

All this makes achieving the objective of today's game -- to score more runs than the opposition -- moderately urgent. Do that often enough, as Jim Price has been heard to say, and you'll be all right.

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Ryan Raburn -- he of the steel glove, expansive strike zone, and .227 batting average -- made it all happen. 

In the third, he took a three run homer away from Michael Young.

Bottom ninth, with two on and the score tied, he displayed remarkable restraint at the dish, walking on five pitches. Miguel Cabrera came up with the bases loaded, when you know something good has to happen.

He lined one past third, and proved Price's Hypothesis correct; that all you need to win is one more run than the other guys after nine innings.

4-7 isn't great, but is better than 3-8 and allows the fan to sample tonight's Gameday offerings wrapped in the warm, smug satisfaction of a home team victory.

Jose Cuerbrera

He must have forgotten how many outs there were. That's the only reason I can think of for taking off from second with your head down on a popup to short. 

Of course, he was easily doubled up. 

Second and third, two out; even with the bottom of the order due up, who knows what might have happened, in the sixth inning of a scoreless game. 

Now, each time Miguel Cabrera pulls a rock that helps cost the Tigers a game, the fan may wonder if was he playing with a clear head.

 JV went the distance, held the homer-happy Rangers to two homer-less runs, took the loss, and deserved way better. 

The Angry Baseball Fan

By the time the Bad News Bears were done throwing the ball around the yard, the Royals had nine runs. 

None of them were unearned. But four errors helped set up more than a couple. 

Rick Porcello got whacked, again, and is proving that 2009  (14-9, 3.96 ERA)  was indeed an aberration.

Have The Playing Rules Changed?

After games like today's, the Tiger approach at the plate makes one think a new playing rule is in force. 

That, late in the game when your team is losing and a new pitcher comes in, you must swing at the first pitch. Don't take a couple, to get a feel for what he's got. Don't make him work. Go up there hacking.  

Royals rookie Aaron Crow replaced Bruce Chen to start the seventh. The middle of the order -- Cabrera, Martinez, and Ryan Strikezone -- went down in order on six pitches. 

Johnny Peralta violated the rule by looking at eight Crow pitches before singling in the eighth. (See how it's done?) Another Royals rookie, Tim Collins, came in. He walked a couple. (See?) Two walks and a single, the best they've done at the plate all day. Bases loaded, game on the line, Magglio up. He swings at Robinson Tejada's first offering and pops up to second.

Sigh ... 

Ryan Scatterarm homered in the ninth for the Tigers' only run. That makes up for the one he allowed, in the first with a bad throw that allowed two runners to take extra bases. Am I counting? Yes, I am.

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More baseball played in the wee small hours of the morning. Blue Jays at Anaheim; the Halos prevailing 5-4 in 14. Winning run touches home plate at 2:10 AM my time. 

The Jays, with two extra Canadian time zones, have the advantage over US teams. For their fans up late in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, it was ten past three in the morning. For any listening on Gameday in Newfoundland-Labrador (1 1-2 hours ahead of EST), it was 3:40. In NL, Friday night's Padres-Dodgers mess ended at 5:33 on Saturday morning.

The Home Opener

In his first AB at his new home park, Victor Martinez doubled with the bases loaded. That was all the Tigers needed, as they defeated KC 5-2 in the 2011 home opener. 

MLB.com, a gathering place for young, hip baseball fans, has taken to calling the Tigers' new DH-catcher "V-Mart." 

Each generation of fans puts its own stamp on the game. The Tweet And Text (Twext?) Generation has done so by giving players nicknames that consist of a first initial and a shortened surname.  

In Tweetspeak, then, M-Scher allowed one run and seven hits through six innings, J-Ben pitched a scoreless eighth, and J-Val retired the Royals in order for his second save. J-Per singled and doubled, and drive in the other two runs. 

Now doesn't that look and sound stupid?

Royals rookie Nate Adcock, who hasn't been around long enough to have a Twext name, pitched three and one third scoreless innings in his major league debut.

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In the middle of today's Tiger game, I head that M-Ram had decided to retire. 

I made that up. He's already got a Tweet name. All you need to type, for everyone to know who you mean, is "Manny."

He hung them up rather than face a second suspension for testing positive, in spring training. Penalty for a second offense is one hundred games. Serving that would bring him back in mid-August, in time to lead the D-Rays' late-season push to get out of last place.

Ted Williams homered in his last at bat. Yaz took a victory lap. Manny Ramirez, who also patrolled the Fenway outer garden, flied out as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning of the D-Rays' 5-1 home loss to the Angels two nights ago. He asked out of yesterday's game, and quietly vanished. No ceremony. Just gone. Casey Kotchman gets another shot, and how did he end up in the minor leagues in the first place?

Cooperstown for arguably the best right-handed hitter of the pre-Twext generation is doubtful. All, however, is not lost. If he got nailed taking female hormones again, the women's baseball HOF remains a possibility.

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Al Gore insists the earth is getting warmer. A long time ago, Albert Hammond said it never rains in southern California.

Both would be confounded by tonight's Padres home opener.

Game time temp in paradise was 53 degrees. Players and coaches not on the field wore hooded sweatshirts. Rain halted play four times. In the pics, it looked like snow. Common sense finally prevailed after the fourth stoppage of play, at 1:13 AM in San Diego, and play was suspended, to resume this afternoon. Gameday Audio and determined umpires giving fans in the eastern time zone that rare opportunity to hear live play-by-play after four in the morning.

Love These Goon Shows

The Tigers led tonight's game three times, and each time the Orioles tied the score.

They did so and took the lead in a five-run bat-around seventh that seemed like it would never end. Punctuating the frame were a Mike Reynolds two-run double, and a wild throw home by right fielder Don Kelly that allowed two runners to take extra bases.  

Opportunity nonetheless presented itself in the Tigers' eighth. Cabrera walked, and Kelly doubled him to third. A hit would make the score 9-7, and really make things interesting. Ryan Raburn, however, expanded his cap bill-shoelaces strike zone to a foot in front of the plate, and waved at a pitch that bounced in the dirt  for strike three.

They went down one-two-three in the ninth, and will stumble home for tomorrow's opener with a not-impressive 2-4 record.