I’ll save the eulogy for when the Tigers are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, but it’s safe to say that the chances of Detroit making the postseason this year are very, very slim.  They’re five losses back with ten to play for the Wild Card and the Indians don’t even have to play .500 ball to win the division regardless of whether the Tigers win out or not.

The Tigers had a three game lead in this one but it last for just a half inning.  Justin Verlander was tagged for four homeruns and while I missed the Ryan Garko one, the homers by Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez and Franklin Gutierrez were pretty much no doubt about its as soon as they went off the hitters bat.  Verlander dropped to 17-6 and it didn’t matter that Jason Grilli threw 2 1/3 innings of shutout relief the rest of the way.

The Tigers scored three of their four runs in the second inning and two of those runs came off of a two run single by Ramon Santiago.  Placido Polanco and Gary Sheffield both had two hits and Magglio Ordonez picked up one hit and he now leads the batting race .356 to .352 over Ichiro.  I forgot to mention this yesterday, but Ordonez topped 200 hits and he became the first Tiger since Alan Trammell in 1987 to do it.  Placido Polanco needs just ten hits to join Ordonez.

The Tigers wrap things up with the Indians this afternoon.  It’s an odd 12:05 game time.  Nate Robertson squared up against C.C. Sabathia.

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