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It’s funny how a game can define, or at least help define, a pitcher’s career.  A guy that comes to mind is Josh Beckett.  For the longest time he never quite lived up to expectations and then all at once, he was catapulted into stardom in the 2003 World Series, particularly game six where he won impressively on short rest.  In a lot of ways, the same thing is happening to Justin Verlander.  Yeah, he won Rookie of the Year but a lot of people thought he was the default pick because Francisco Liriano went down.  And his 2007 season was off to a nice start but it was lost in the new Tiger’s offensive machine.  Now he’s front page news and it’ll be interesting to see what happens from here on out.

The Tigers lost tonight but Mike Maroth did everything he could to keep the Tigers in their 3-2 loss.  With his spot in the rotation potentially on the line, Maroth threw seven solid frames in what was probably his best start since May 11 when he gave up just one run in 6 2/3 innings.  Yeah, he tempted fate by giving up thirteen base runners (nine hits and four walks) in his seven innings but he only let one of those cross the plate.  He was helped out by three double plays including an odd one on a flyout to Magglio Ordonez.

Anyway, Maroth left the game with the lead but then Fernando Rodney came in and lost it by giving up two runs in the eighth.  This time, walks weren’t a problem.  He just let one go over the fence with a runner on. 

The offense didn’t product much either.  Curtis Granderson and Magglio Ordonez each had two hits and an RBI while Brandon Inge was two for four with a run.  The hit by Granderson extended his hitting streak to thirteen innings and one of Granderson’s hits was his twentieth double of the season to go along with his 20 triples.  There’s a chance Granderson could finish with 20 homeruns, 20 triples and 40 doubles and the last person to do that was George Brett, who did it as a 23 year old back in 1979.  The only other player to do it was Jim Bottomley in 1928.  Bottomley is one of those players you don’t hear too much about it but he was pivotal piece of the Gas House Gang where he played on a Cardinals team that won two World Series and four pennants in a six year span from 1926 through 1931.

That’s it.  Just two guys on that list.  I was susprised Lou Gehrig’s name didn’t show up on the list but the one year he had 20 triples (1926), he only had 16 homeruns.  Then in 1927 (his first MVP), he had 47 homeruns, but just missed with 18 triples.  Gehrig is another one of those guys who misses the top 5 best of all time lists but was a stud in his own right.  He had seven different seasons where he drove in at least 150 runs and his .632 slugging is behind just Babe Ruth and Ted Williams.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson.  The Indians are up by four in the seventh so it looks like once again, the Tigers will drop a game behind the Indians.  Chad Durbin throws tomorrow in the rubber game and he’ll take on Ben Sheets.

I’m still a little annoyed (okay, a lot) that I missed the no hitter yesterday but what can you do.  The fact that he struck out twelve while doing it yet still keeping his pitch count manageable (112 with 73 being strikes) is a testament to how great of an outing he had.

Brandon Inge pushed his batting average up to .250 with a nice day at the plate.  He went two for two with a walk, a homerun, two RBIs and two runs.  It was homerun number eleven and he’s well on his way to another 20 homer season.  And despite the batting average, he’s drawing walks and hitting for some power.  This shows in his .805 OPS, which would be a career high for the third baseman if it finishes there.  His .347 OBP would also be a career high.

And lost in all of the no-hit talk is the fact that the Tigers tied the Indians for first place in the division.  A three game winning streak will do that.  And just as important, the Twins and White Sox are falling further behind so this could turn into a two team race pretty quickly.

Mike Maroth takes on Chris Capuano tonight and Maroth has had a tough stretch here lately although his last start against the Rangers was “fair.”  The big problem has been the long ball. In four of his last six starts he’s given up at least two and in three of those six he’s given up three.  Hopefully he can get the job done tonight and the Tigers can pick up first place all by themselves.

I’m having problems with my internet connection so I’m hoping to squeak this in.  Justin Verlander threw a no hitter tonight over the Brewers and it’s the first no hitter by a Tiger since Jack Morris did it back in the 1984.

Of course I was stuck in a car somewhere that I couldn’t even listen to the game so I missed a small slice of history.

Kenny Rogers got in his first rehab start yesterday for the Mud Hens.  You can’t argue with the results so now it’s just a matter of getting to the point where he can be depended on to give the team six innings in a start.   The question will be, who will he replace in the rotation.  Andrew Miller is one for two so far this year but both Nate Robertson and Mike Maroth have been roughed up lately.

Anytime a high caliber team like the Mets roll into town, it’s hard to expect anything.  Fortunately, the Tigers got some more great hitting in the final two games to walk away with a series win against one of the best teams in the National League.

Today’s game saw the most offense and once again, it was Gary Sheffield providing some of the fireworks.  He finished the game four for five with his seventeenth homerun, two RBIs and two runs.  Omar Infante, Ivan Rodriguez and Placido Polanco all scored three runs while five Tigers had at least three hits in the beatdown.  Brandon Inge hit homerun number ten and he drove in a career high five RBIs in a fantastic day at the plate.

One downer was that Carlos Guillen left the game with a hamstring injury.  Guillen has been nursing what seems like a variety of injuries all year and you almost hope he doesn’t get scooped up for the All Star game.  I’m not sure how much those three days matters, but Guillen needs a break.

Andrew Miller improved to 2-0 although it was more because of all the offense then it was a great start.  He gave up four runs on five hits three walks with five strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings.  Like his last major league start, his phenomonal 3/1 groundball to flyball ratio didn’t carry over and he gave up six ground ball outs to five fly ball outs.

The Indians lost today so the Tigers sit just a game and a half back in the Central and while I hate to talk about it already, they’re a game and a half ahead of the surprising Mariners for the Wild Card.  The Tigers have the night off tomorrow and then it’s three against the first place Brewers.  It wasn’t that long ago (it just feels like it) that the Brewers were one of the Tigers division rivals.  Now they only play them every few years in interleague play.

….is a guy by the name of Richard Zumaya.  I’m assuming this is Joel’s brother because he also came out of California and it’s not a terribly common name. 

Bryan Smith at BP likes the Tigers sixth round pick and tenth round pick and has a brief discussion on both guys in his Unfiltered column.

This marks the third straight draft where the Tigers ended up with a top five caliber regardless of where they picked.  Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin could have easily gone first overall and Rick Porcello was projected as high as second and in most peoples rankings, was a top five pick.

Ian at Bless You Boys has a brief chat with Chris from Amazin’ Avenue about the Mets and the Tigers’ upcoming series.  Good stuff.  I had given up Damian Easley for dead but like Tony Clark, he’s hung around and put together a solid season.

The fat lady has sung as far as Tiger Stadium goes.  The good news is, there’s some people working very hard to try to save a portion of the stadium, which doesn’t happen too often so there should be something to at least visit.  And I commend the people who tried to save the stadium in it’s entirety.  They just had way too steep of an uphill battle in this one. 

Day one is in the books and here’s who the hopeful Tigers of the future are that were picked up in the first five rounds yesterday.

Round 1, pick 27 – Rick Porcello – I already talked about him.

Round 1s, pick 60 – This was the supplemental pick the Tigers picked up when the Orioles signed Jamie Walker.  The Tigers chose Brandon Hamilton, a high schooler from Alabama.  This kid has some great stuff but he needs to work on his control.  He’s another typical Dave Dombrowski pick, and that’s a kid who needs some work but who can tough 95 on the gun.

Round 2, pick 91 – The Tigers took Danny Worth, a short stop from Pepperdine University with their third pick.  He’s a solid defender and his bat is coming along but he doesn’t have a lot of pop.

Round 3, pick 121 – Luke Putkoen is a right handed pitcher from North Carolina.  I don’t know a lot about him.

Round 4, pick 151 – Charlie Furbush is a lefty from LSU.  The guy sounds like Mike Maroth with his delivery but he’s someone who can touch the low 90s on the gun.

Round 5, pick 181 – Casey Crosby is a lefty from Kaneland High School in Illinois.  His biggest knock is that he’s a high school football star as well but like Furbash, he throws in the low 90s and even has the foundations for a slider and curveball.

So six picks, five pitchers.  This has been the Tigers MO.  Load up on arms, and worry about position players via free agency.  I’m really excited to see Porcello is they can sign him in time to play short season ball.

The Tigers put on another offensive display last night against one of the worst pitching teams in baseball.  All seven Tigers who had hits had at least two and three Tigers had three hit games.  Sean Casey went three for five and he’s now pulled his batting average up to a season high .283 (okay, he was one for three in the very first game of the season but since then, it’s been an uphill climb for him).  His OPS is also right on the edge of crossing .700 and just a couple of weeks ago he was in the .500s so it’s nice to see Casey turrning things around.

Magglio Ordonez also had three hits and he’s now hitting .368.  No doubles, but his next one will be number thirty.  Curtis Granderson also had three hits and and two of those were triples to bring his season total up to a league leading twelve.  He has six triples in his last eight games.  What’s probably most strange is he only has two triples at home.  Comerica Park has seen more triples then any other ballpark in the last few years. 

Mike Maroth just pitched his five innings and he improved to 4-2 on the season.  He gave up three runs on eight hits and three walks with a single strikeout.  Aquilino Lopez and Yorman Barzardo, the two pitchers the Tigers called up to replace Nate Robertson and Zach Miner, each threw two shutout frames.  One of those two guys will be sent back down to Toledo when Andrew Miller gets called up for his start on Sunday.

The Mets are in town for a tough three game series.  You’re looking at two of the top offenses in baseball going at it and the Mets have the second best record in the National League.  Chad Durbin gets the start tonight and he’ll go up against Jorge Sosa.

It’s only the third inning but Curtis Granderson has tripled two more times to bring his season total up to twelve.  Maybe 25 isn’t out of reach.  Then again, he could hit five the rest of the season and still probably lead the league.

Sheffield hit homerun number 16 and it’s his fourth in four games.  They still have six more innnings in this one.

The Tigers took right handed pitcher Rick Porcello with their first round draft pick this afternoon.  This is a little big of a change because he’s the first high school pitcher the Tigers have taken in the first round in a while although he looks like a good one.  He was rated as the top high school pitcher in the draft and, just like Dave Dombrowski likes them, he’s a hard thrower and pitches in the mid-90s and he has four pitches.  He’s tall at 6’5″ but he’s pretty thin for his height (188 lbs.).  This could definitely be a guy who, once he fills out, is a stud on the mound.  They’re saying he’s potentially the best high school pitcher to come out of the draft since Josh Beckett, who was another player Dave Dombrowski drafted when he was with the Marlins.

Then again, you always have some risks with high school pitchers because you never know how they’re going to turn out.  It’s a high risk, high reward pick and once again, Dave Dombrowski has shown that he’s ready to take the best player available when his number is called in the draft.  Also, it’s another Scott Boras pick, and so far, Dombrowski has been able to get the job done with the top agent in baseball.

Nate Robertson hit the DL with a tired arm.  Will Carroll didn’t mention anything about this so I’m not sure if it’s just that he’s been pitching like he’s hurt so they’re giving him some time off or that something is wrong and they’re checking it out.  Anyway, we should call Andrew Miller Mr Friday because he’s making his second career start tomorrow.  He’s been doing very well at Erie and he had that nice game for the Tigers a few weeks ago.  I’m going to get to watch most of this game too, unlike his last start, which I missed.

Chris brought up an interesting point in a comment to my last post.  Magglio Ordonez is on a wicked double pace (29) and even if he falls short of the record, 60 is well within his reach based on his start.  The last player to hit 60 doubles was Charlie Gehringer and Joe Medwick way back in 1936.  The Tiger team record is 63, which was set by Hank Greenberg in 1934.  The 1930s were the year of the double.  There have been six instances where a player has hit 60 doubles and five of those happened in the 1930s, including Earl Webb’s record 67 in 1931.

***UPDATE***

Scratch the Mr. Friday thing.  It looks like Miller is pitching on Sunday.

A lot of people asked me whether the Tigers made a good trade when they picked up Gary Sheffield and from the get go, I’d always given an emphatic yes.  Yeah, he had the rough April but Sheffield has always been able to rake and I knew it was just a matter of time before he got going.  In May, he picked things up and now in June, he’s looking like one of a few MVP candidates on the Tigers team.

Sheffield finished the day three for four with a two homeruns and five RBIs.  He’s raised his batting average up to .272 and OPS is now above .900 for the first time this year.  Hopefully it’s there to stay.

Curtis Granderson hit his tenth triple of the season last night.  He’d need nine more to just get into the top ten Tiger seasons (and it’s a list dominated by Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford), but that’s definitely within reach.  Only five hitters in the last 50 years have hit 20 triples in a season (Christian Guzman was the last back in 2000) and nobody has hit more then 21 (Lance Johnson in 1996 and Willie Wilson in 1985).  Kiki Cuyler was the last hitter to rack up 25 triples and that was way back in 1925 so Granderson has a chance to really do something special this year.

Lost in all of the offense was a great start by Justin Verlander.  He gave the Tigers seven innings and after some of the work the relievers got yesterday, this is just what the Tigers needed.  He gave up five hits and two walks with six strikeouts in seven innings and he improved to 5-2 on the season.

Tonight’s the rubber game and it’ll be Mike Maroth against Kameron Loe.  Loe’s had a tough time this season and he’s dropped his last five starts so hopefully this is another guy the Tigers can jump all over.

Nate Robertson had the worst start of his career last night in a tough loss.  He gave up five runs and he left a guy at third before getting pulled without getting a single batter out.  A sac. fly later with Jason Grilli on the mound and Robertson was tagged with six runs on six hits.  He saw his ERA balloon from 4.25 to 5.07 and he’s now falled to 4-6 on the season after a pretty nice April.

Give the bullpen some credit in this one because they at least gave the Tigers the chance to come back.  Grilli threw four shutout innings and Zach Miner pitched two.  Tim Byrdak threw a shutout seventh and it wasn’t until the eighth inning when the Rangers finally scored another run off of Fernando Rodney.

What was most disappointing was that this was a game the Tigers should have won because they were essentially going up against a Triple A pitcher.  And while they did knock John Rheinecker out early, it wasn’t enough to come back from that rough first inning.

Brandon Inge had a nice day at the plate. He went two for four with a homerun, two RBIs and two runs.  Gary Sheffield drew three walks, one of which was with the bases loaded and Omar Infante continued to hit the ball well by going two for four with a walk.  He’s now hitting .325 on the season and he gave Curtis Granderson a night off against the leftie starter.

Tonight, it’ll be Justin Verlander going up against Kevin Millwood and his 6.69 ERA.  I like our chances although Millwood has been pretty good against the Tigers in the past (45 2/3 inning, 3.15 ERA, 1.14 WHIP).

Tomorrow is the baseball draft and the first few rounds are going to be on ESPN2.  It’s the first time a portion of the draft has been televised and I’m interested in seeing what kind of analysis they’ll have.

And it took some work, but the 1967 AL Pennant Race site is up to date.  Tigers are in first, at least for the time being.  Although the Al Kaline injury is coming up later in the month and that puts a damper on things.

It looks like Tiger fans have been hitting the All Star ballot box.  Ivan Rodriguez leads all catchers, which isn’t a huge surprise but Placido Polanco has made some gains on Robinson Cano.  Probably the most surprising was Sean Casey, who’s in fifth place for first basemen.  He’s well back of the lead but just 23,000 votes behind fourth place Travis Hafner.  For all the details, be sure to check out the All Star Game Blog.

Jose Mesa was released today.  It says a lot because the Tigers pen had been doing pretty poorly so for them to but bait on him now goes a long way towards showing how poorly he pitched.  It’s also nice for Dombrowski to realize his mistake and cut bait.  Mesa shouldn’t have been signed but at least now he won’t be a poor option coming out of the pen.

In his place, Fernando Rodney was pulled off of the DL.  Hopefully Rodney can get back into his 2006 form, sans the walks.

The Tigers bounced back nicely after the rough ending to their game on Friday, and after winning their last two, they salvaged a split with the Indians.  They got it all this afternoon with a ton of hitting and some great pitching by Jeremy Bonderman.  Bondo gave up a two run homer in the first inning to the red hot Victor Martinez but then he didn’t give up his next hit until the seventh inning in the 9-2 win.  The win improves Bonderman’s record to a still perfect 5-0 and Bonderman is off to his best start to a season in his young career.

Gary Sheffield put the Tigers on the board in the first inning with a two run homer, his thirteenth long ball of the season.  He finished the game with two hits and a walk with three runs.  Ivan Rodriguez had another solid game with two singles and two runs while Craig Monroe doubled twice.  Even Sean Casey, who’s been red hot himself, went one for two with two RBIs.  Casey now has a ten game hitting streak that’s pushed his batting average from .248 to .282.  Of course he still hasn’t picked up that first homerun yet.

The Twins lost so the Tigers sit 2 1/2 games back of the Indians and three ahead of the Twins.  The Tigers have a day off tomorrow and they play in Texas against the Rangers on Tuesday.  The Rangers have the worst record in all of baseball so this is a series we have to take.  The Indians also play a last place team with a three game series against the Royals.  Nate Robertson gets the starter in the opener on Tuesday and he’ll face Vincente Padilla.

I bought a Tivo about a month ago and while it was more so we could tape my wife’s shows, I used it to tape this afternoon’s game.  I was able to cram all 3 1/2 hours of game (excluding that rain delay) into about an hour and a half of actual viewing time.  The only downer was, I had to be constantly on the remote and couldn’t do anything else.  Still, I’ll probably do this for the west coast games when I don’t stay up to watch the games.

Last year, from May 30 through June 14, Todd Jones had about as tough of a stretch as I’ve ever seen a closer have.  From that point on, he threw fairly well but during that stretch, four Tigers’ losses fell on his shoulders.  It looks like Todd Jones is going through a similar stretch beginning with May 28th’s game against the Rays.  I’m not quite sure why Jones was left in there other then that Leyland must have thought Jones was still his best option.  There’s not a lot of argument that the pen is in rough shape and until Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney come back, things will be dicey.  The best way to get back on track is to pick up a win tonight.

The Twins are getting hot and they now trail the Tigers by just one game in the loss column with the White Sox right on their heels.  If the Indians start rolling, those three teams could all be in the middle of the Wild Card race so like we all thought, it’s going ot be an interesting season in the Central.

Congratulations to freqent commenter Ryan Cassidy for winning the trivia challenge.  He chose Beck’s Blog as his favorite site and Jason Beck was nice enough to donate his winnings to charity.  Ryan won the contest by answering four of the ten questions correctly.

It’s Chad Durbin going up against Cliff Lee tonight.  They’ll be competing with the Pistons/Cavs game.

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