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The Tigers seven game winning streak came to an end last night.  It was one bad inning that did Jeremy Bonderman in when he gave up four runs in the third inning.  The four runs in the ninth didn’t help matters but they turned out to not be neccesary.  Bonderman was only tagged with two earned runs of the four he gave up because of his own throwing error (which probably caused everyone to have 2006 World Series flashbacks).  He did strike out a season high nine.

Eulogio De La Cruz had a tough time in the ninth but it looked more like he was frustrated because of a miscommunication with Ivan Rodriguez then it did him actually pitching poorly.  There was one instance where there was a wild pitch and a passed ball on the same batter and from then on it never looked like De La Cruz could get into a groove. 

The Tigers didn’t get much at the plate.  Only eight hits with two a piece by Curtis Granderson, Brandon Inge and Sean Casey.   Craig Monroe and Ivan Rodriguez both grounded into double plays though and that stopped a couple of rallies from developing.

Curtis Granderson hit his fourteenth triple.  The last Tiger to have fourteen triples in a season was Jake Wood way back in 1961.  The last Tiger to have as many as fifteen triples was Barney McCoskey (who finished with nineteen) way back in 1940 so each triple Granderson gets puts him into more and more exclusive company.

Mike Maroth had a nice Cardinals debut last night even though he didn’t pick up the win (nor did his team).  He gave up just one run on two hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings.  The Mets ended up beating the Cardinals 2-1 in eleven innings.

Jason Beck has a very cool profile on Tigers reliever Eulogio De La Cruz.   There’s some talk about his pitches other then his 100 mph fastball and his minor league season this year with Erie and Toledo.  If you want more on Eulogio, he was Mike Cassidy’s fifth best Tiger prospect over at Tigers Minors and he rolls through his minor league career.

Mike Maroth makes his debut for the Cardinals tonight against the Mets.  It’s nice having home out of the AL so I can still root for him (unless somehow we play the Cards in the World Series again).

One of the primary complaints about Justin Verlander’s 2006 season was, for a guy who touches 100 mph on the gun so much, he doesn’t strike out as many guys as you might think.  That perception is starting to change because in the month of June, Verlander has come into his own.  He got national recognition for his no-hitter but in that game he also struck out a career best 12 batters.  His previous career best was eight on July 26, 2006 in a start against the Indians.  Then he struck out eleven on Saturday (in only seven innings). So he went from never touching double figures to doing it twice within two weeks.

The end result is 85 strikeouts over just 97 innings with 35 of those coming in June alone.  And he’ll be able to add to that total because he has one more start this week.  So far this June though, Verlander has been simply phenomonal.  He’s 4-0 with a 1.24 ERA and a .160 batting average against and 35 strikeouts in 29 innings.  It’s the only month of his career where’s had more strikeouts then innings pitched (assuming he finishes that way, which he should).  Unless he totally bombs in his final start of June, you’re looking at the pitcher of the month.

And one interesting thing I found on his splits page is how good Verlander has been in his starts where he doesn’t get a decision.  Despite the Tigers being 2-2 in those four starts, Verlander did all he could to keep the Tigers in the game with only a 1.73 ERA and a unbelievable .135 batting average against.  And Verlander is death to the hitter when he goes up 0-2 in the count.  From that point on, hitters have just a .071 slugging percentage (two singles, no walks one hbp in 29 plate appearances).

And it’s definitely been a fun month to watch Verlander as well.  Especially Saturday when he was highlighted on the FOX game of the week.

These last two series kind of show why everyone thinks the Tigers are such a good team.  They have a top notch offense that can put 10 runs on the board in a hurry but then they also have the arms to shut down a team.  Andrew Miller was the latest to do a number on the Braves as the Tigers finished a three game sweep as interleague play wrapped up.  The lone run that the Braves scored came on a solo homerun by Chipper Jones in game two off of Justin Verlander (who also struck out eleven).

Last night, in front of another national audience, Andrew Miller shut down the Braves for six innings before handing the ball to Chad Durbin, who, in his first relief appearance of the season, threw three shutout innings to complete the combined effort shutout.  It also earned Durbin his first career save.

The Tigers scored most of their runs in a bunch when they put up four in the sixth inning.  Prior to that, Braves starter Chuck James had done a nice job of shutting down the Tigers but the inning started on a nice bunt single by Omar Infante.  The last batter that James faced was Carlos Guillen, who he ended up walking with the bases loaded.  Then Ivan Rodriguez capped of the inning with a two run single.

Sheffield went two for five and he’s now just five point shy of .300 with a .295 batting average.  Magglio Ordonez went two for five and he’s back up above .380. 

Next up is four games at home against the Rangers.  Jeremy Bonderman gets the start and he’ll face off against Kameron Loe.  The Tigers dismantled Loe in his start in Arlington earlier this month so hopefully the Tigers can do that again and make it eight straight wins.  The Indians lost again, so the Tigers now have a two game lead over them with the Twins hanging back with a 6 1/2 game deficit.

Cameron Maybin will be a Tigers representative for the U.S. team at the futures game and White Caps outfielder Gorkys Hernandez will play for the World team.  I always enjoy watching the Futures Game and it’s my second favorite part of the the weekend next to the actual All Star Game.

Kenny Rogers looked pretty sharp and while you can’t expect him to pitch like this every night, just having him in back in the rotation is pretty huge.  Anyway, Rogers didn’t give up his first hit until the fourth and when he left the game after six solid frames, he had given up just two hits with five strikeouts on 75 pitches.  There were only four fly ball outs against him, which is pretty darn good.

Carlos Guillen opened the game up with a two run double in the fifth.  In fact all five Tiger runs came in the sixth inning as they finally got to John Smoltz after being shut down in the first five frames.  There were a couple of good slides in this inning.  Placido Polanco slid under a tag going into third on Magglio Ordonez’ RBI single and then Magglio Ordonez slid under a tag on a play at the plate on Guillen’s double.

Magglio Ordonez was hit on the hand but the X-rays came up negative and it’s a contusion, not a fracture.  He finished one for three and his batting average stood pat at .383.

Chad Durbin has been relagated to the bullpen and with the Maroth trade, it looks like Andrew Miller has earned his spot in the rotation.  Not too bad for a guy who just got drafted about a year ago. 

The Indians were shut down by the Nationals so for the first time in a while, the Tigers have sole possession of first place.  Tomorrow afternoon, it’ll be Justin Verlander going up against Kyle Davies on FOX game of the week.

I’m still working on the details here but the Tigers have apparantly traded Mike Maroth to the Cardinals.  No word on who the Tigers received in the trade but I’m working on it.

***UPDATE***

Here’s the rumor Dan mentioned in the comments.  Although it looks like this was something that almost went down in the offseason.  Since then, Looper is a starter an Juan E. has had his share of injuries so I’m hoping this isn’t the deal.

Still nothing on the radio, which usually has the scoop the quickest so we’ll see.  It’s wishful thinking, but Anthony Reyes would be a nice swap but I doubt the Cards, despite Reyes’ troubles this year, would trade Maroth for Reyes straight up.

***UPDATE***

Not sure if this means anything, but the Tigers are denying the rumor.  This has at least made for an interesting afternoon.

***UPDATE***

Now the radio is saying that the Tigers will be receiving players (plural) to be named later for Mike Maroth.  This could mean a lot of things from a guy who’s been drafted recently to even possibly getting Mike Maroth back at some point.  It could also include anything in between.  Bottom line, the Tigers needed to clear out a roster spot today to help make room for Kenny Rogers (and eventually Nate Robertson) and that’s what they did.  We’ll just have to wait and see what we get in return.

***UPDATE***

It looks like they were wrong on the radio and it’s just a player (singular) to be named later.  I’ll have some commentary on the deal here later this weekend.

The Tigers front office has been busy the last few days and they now have signed 17 of their draft picks to contracts.  In addition, they’ve also signed two non-drafted free agents.  The Tigers still have yet to sign the top four guys they took in the draft.

Nate Robertons is making his rehab start this afternoon when Erie plays a doubleheader against Altoona Curve.  I think Robertson is throwing in the first ame at noon and you can listen on on MiLB Gameday Audio.

I’m curious if anyone paid up for MiLB.TV this year.  I didn’t because I’m usually working on the computer and I’d just end up listening anyway but I’d love to hear what people think.

***UPDATE***

Nate Robertson has a no hitter going through six innings.  With Erie playing a doubleheader, this game is only going to go seven innings so Nate is one inning away from a no-no.

***UPDATE***

Nate Robertson was pulled after six innnings. He reached his 75 pitches so he won’t get a chance at a short game no-hitter.  No sweat and it looks like Nate’s all set to go after going on the DL for a tired arm.

Jeremy Bonderman improved his record to a perfect 8-0 with another nice start last night.  He pitched only five innings because Jim Leyland wanted to hit Gary Sheffield with the bases loaded in the top of the sixth but he gave up three runs on five hits and one walk with four strikeouts.  There’s a little concern because it’s Bonderman’s third straight non-quality and he’s seen his ERA come up close to a half run but the offense has picked him up.

The Tigers big inning was the sixth where they scored five of their nine runs.  The best performance of that inning was an impressive 12 pitch at bat by Omar Infante.  He worked the count full and then fouled off pitch after pitch before punching an RBI single through the opposite side of the infield.  Curtis Granderson followed that up with a two run single and the rest is history.

Magglio Ordonez is now hitting .383 with a three for four game in which he scored twice and drove in a run.  Carlos Guillen golfed a two run homer in the fourth inning and he also scored two runs.

Fernando Rodney had another erratic inning. He walked one, hit a batter and a couple of times he crossed up Mike Rabello.  He ended up getting out of the inning but he left the tying run at the plate.

Kenny Rogers makes his season debut on Friday against the Braves in Atlanta.  The Tigers will face John Smoltz, who almost 20 years ago was traded by the Tigers in one of the most infamous trades in franchise history.  Smoltz has thrown very well this year so Kenny Rogers is getting thrown right into the fire.

The Tigers pulled the trigger on a deal with the Atlanta Braves that probably had more to do with Kenny Rogers coming back then anything.  With the nice pitching by Eulogio De La Cruz and the fact that guys like Chad Durbin and Wilfredo Ledezma were out of options, the Tigers had to make some kind of move and this is it.  Now they can send Macay McBride down to Toledo if needed and the Tigers can sit on the current complement of pitchers.

I’ve always been a Wil Ledezma fan although I recognize he’s never lived up to the hype.  He was pegged as the team’s fifth starter in 2005 before having a tough time and getting sent back down to the minors that year and since then he’s been used as a spot starter/long reliever.  He’s still only 26 so he has some time to put together a decent career and it wouldn’t surprise me if he wins 15 games in a season at some point in his career if he’s given a chance as a full time starter, especially in the National League.

The guy the Tigers got is Macay McBride, the Braves first round draft pick back in 2001.  Since then, he’s moved up the minor league ladder without much of a blip until he got to Double A in 2004.  There he finished 1-7 with a 4.44 ERA and it was enough for the Braves to have him repeat at Double A in 2005.  He pitched better, and after stints at both Double A and Triple A, he finally made his major league debut just after the All Star Break that year in 2005.  In 2006, the Braves used him mostly as a left handed relief option and he put together a pretty good season in which he held lefties to a .181 batting average.  This year was more of the same and he’s held lefties to a .160 batting average.   He gives up a lot of walks though and his track record against righties is pretty poor (major league career batting average against of .329)

And just as important, McBride still has an option which gives the Tigers some flexibility.  Not a bad deal here, but then again, at the end of the deal I’d hardly call this a huge deal.  McBride could turn into a very nice situational lefty similar to what Jamie Walker gave them although having a converted starter like Wil Ledezma coming out of the pen was always nice because he give you a start or a long relief outing when you needed it.  Six of one, half dozen of another and at the end of the day I think both teams will have gained something here.

I was thinking about Marcus Thames’ monster upper deck blast and I was wondering how it rated and how far it went.  Then I rememebered a cool site called HitTracker so I brought up the Tigers page.  That homerun went just over 410 feet and his homerun the night before went 385.  Both are impressive shots, but then I realized that it was actually Carlos Guillen’s homerun in the series opener that was actually the shot of the series.

That game one homer went 449 feet, which tied the longest homerun hit by a Tiger, which was also Carlos Guillen.  Not to undercut Thams, but he has the first and fifth hardest hit homeruns.  The hardest hit longball came off of his bat at 119.2 mph.  Gary Sheffield leads the team with five “no doubt” homeruns.

Fun stuff and an interesting website.

Sean Casey finally went yard and he helped lead the way for the Tigers in their 15-1 win over the Nationals.  He finished the game with two hits, four RBIs and two runs.  Marcus Thames hit a pinch hit two run homer and he’s now homered in both games in the series.  Magglio Ordonez racked up his 34th double of the season as he continues his terrific pace.  Anyway, I could go on because just about everyone had a nice boxscore.

Chad Durbin threw six solid innings and he improved to 6-3 on the season.  For his troubles, he could lose his spot in the rotation when Kenny Rogers comes back on Friday.  Jim Leyland isn’t going to reveal who the odd man out is until then but the odds are, it’ll be Durbin even though he’s thrown a bit better then Mike Maroth.

Eulogio De La Cruz threw a perfect ninth inning and he struck out two.  I’m normally a fan of Mario and Rod on FSN but Rod’s continous references to De La Cruz as Frankie because he couldn’t pronounce Eulogio was starting to get annoying.

The Indians lost so once again, the Tigers have moved into a tie for first place in the Central.  Jeremy Bonderman takes the mound tonight in the finale as he hopes to continue his winning streak and the Tiger hitters will face Mike Bacsik, who I don’t know too much about.

All Justin Verlander did last week was throw a no hitter and then he won again on Sunday as he had a hand in two of the Tigers three wins last week.  For his efforts, he won American League Player of the Week.

It was another scary one but at least the Tigers game against the Nationals tonight had a happy ending (9-8 win).  The Tigers jumped out to a 9-1 lead only to see the Nationals chip away at the least until they pulled to within one run (and a runner at third base) in the ninth inning.  Todd Jones buckled down after a very rough outing though and he gave the Tigers just enough to win it.  Just enough. 

Mike Maroth was tagged for five runs (two scored after he left the game) in five innings but he picked up the win.  Rod Allen hinted on the television broadcast that big changes might be in the works with Kenny Rogers coming back on Friday.  My guess is that Mike Maroth might be the odd man out.  It wouldn’t surprise me if the Tigers made some kind of move with Fernando Rodney either although he is out of options and that’s somewhat limiting.

Eulogio De La Cruz made his major league debut and he looked sharp in a shutout eighth inning.  He did give up a double but he got the other three batters out.  Jason Grilli also gave the Tigers some solid relief.  He got the team out of a jam in the sixth and then he threw a shutout eighth.

Carlos Guillen had a nice day at the plate.  He went three for four with a homerun, three RBIs and two runs.  Marcus Thames hit his fifth homerun and Gary Sheffield had two hits, two RBIs and a run.  Even Mike Maroth got in on the action and he doubled and scored a run to help out his own cause.

Chad Durbin will take on Jason Simontacchi tomorrow.  Durbin’s lost his last two but in one of those game he gave up just three runs in eight innings.  He very well could be pitching for a job so hopefully he’s up for the challenge.

SABR is putting out a book on the 1968 Tigers next year and I’ve been busy working two biographies on Wayne Comer and Les Cain. I’d be interested to hear if any readers have stories or comments on either guy so if you know of either guy, drop me a line of leave a comment.

Nate Robertson is going to throw on the side today and if that goes well, he could get a rehab start next week according to this Jason Beck story.  Robertson came out of the gate throwing well this year but then he looked like a different person in his last six starts.  He lost five of those six and in four of them he gave up at least four runs.  And then there was that disaster on June 5th where he was tagged for six runs without getting a single batter out.

Still, if he can get back to his April form where he held hitters to a .600 OPS in five starts, it’ll be a big boost to the team.  Keep in mind that Robertson led all starters in batting average against left handed hitters last year and earlier in the year he forced Rod Gardenhire to sit last year’s batting champion, Joe Mauer, because of his effectiveness against left handed hitters.  Plus, being left handed, I have a fondness for southpaws so I’m looking forward to seeing Robertson back in the rotation.

The Tigers have played four three game series in the month of June and with the win today over the Phillies, the Tigers locked up their third series of those four.  This afternoon’s game was won with the big inning as the Tigers picked up five of their seven runs in the 7-4 win in the seventh inning.  The inning was capped off by a two run double by Magglio Ordonez that gave him three RBIs on the day.

And staying on Ordonez, he picked up his 33rd double of the season.  My benchmark for a “good” season is 40 and he’s almost there at the half way point.  We ran through some of the doubles records in a previous post but even if he touches 50, which seems like a forgone conclusion, it’ll be the first time since George Kell had exactly 50 doubles way back in 1950.

Justin Verlander put together a nice outing and he improved to 8-2 on the season.  He gave up three runs on seven hits and two walks with six strikeouts.  It was a pretty hot day and he gave the Tigers seven innings and that’s worth something.  Leyland was also able to keep him under 100 pitches after the Tigers rallied for those five runs.

Fernando Rodney faltered again.  In 14 of his 25 games, he’s given up at least one run and that’s not the kind of number you want to see from a guy who’s probably the team’s best reliever with Joel Zumaya out.  It sure would be nice to see Rodney turn it around but whenever he comes into the game, I get the same feeling I get when Todd Jones comes in.

Next up is a pretty important series because it’s against onc of the worst team’s in baseball, the Washington Nationals.  Two of three should be a must and a sweep would be nice because this is a team that was bad before their rotation got hit by some injuries.  The opener tomorrow will have Mike Maroth going up against Matt Chico.

The offense bailed out Jeremy Bonderman yesterday, who had one of his worst starts of the season. He gave up five runs on four long balls in six innings but with another great day for the hitters, it was good enough to improve to 7-0 on the season. Tim Byrdak was also hit hard and he saw his ERA balloon from 1.72 to 3.12. That’s how it goes with relievers though. He’s had two poor relief appearances sandwiched between 12 pretty good ones but it’s those two poor ones that inflate his ERA.

Ivan Rodriguez was a man on a mission yesterday and that day off must have done him some good. He went three for five with his seventh homerun, five RBIs and three runs. The five RBIs falls one short of his career high of six RBIs and it’s the eleventh time he’s driven in five in a game. He did it three times last year.

Curtis Granderson scored three more runs to bring his season total up to 46. Based on Granderson’s first half, I thought he was a lock to score a hundred last year but he fell just short. Same thing this year. Unless he really struggles in the second half, he should get that 100th run.

Sean Casey had four hits and he’s right on the cusp of hitting .300 for the season. He still hasn’t hit that first homerun though but after hitting just .192 in April, he’s hitting over .350 since then.

Tonight, it’s Andrew Miller throwing against Jamie Moyer. I’ll be at a friend’s house and I’m sure he’ll have it on so I’m hoping to finally see Miller throw.

The Tigers lost their second straight game to the Brewers and there went a series that the Tigers probably could have picked up.  Chad Durbin was knocked around early and Wil Ledezma was hit hard as well.  The other relievers that the Tigers used pitched well enough but those first five runs that Durbin and Ledezma gave up turned out to be just enough.

The Tigers did put together a rally in the ninth that just fell short.  Down 6-3, the Tigers scored two runs and they had a runner on third with one out but they couldn’t push that tying run across the plate.  Craig Monroe went down on strikes as did Mike Rabello.  You wonder why Ivan Rodriguez wasn’t used in place of Robello (I haven’t heard if Leyland’s addresses this or not).

Which got me thinking, how valuable is it to get your key players a day off?  This was Ivan Rodriguez’s day off and had he come in and tied the game up with a single in the ninth, who knows how long the game might have gone.  And in the end, the Tigers still could have lost the game even with some ninth inning theatrics.  I’m not defending Leyland or anything, just trying to get into his head.  Maybe to him, the risk of tying the game up was offset by giving your Hall of Fame catcher a full dayoff and he choose to stick with Rabello in that final at bat.  I mean, best case scenario, he comes in and goes yard and ends it without having to put on his mask.  Worst case, he ties it up, has to catch 11 innings, and then the Tigers still end up losing in extra frames.  Anyway, it was a judgement call that Leyland will probably have to answer to.

Vance Wilson is out for the year so Rabello will continue his duties as the backup catcher.  And Kenny Rogers will could hopefully be his final rehab start for the White Caps tomorrow.

Next up is three against a hot Phillies team in Philadelphia.  We’ll see Jeremy Bonderman going up against Jon Lieber in the opener tomorrow night.

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