Without Zack Greinke, the Tigers should have walked away with a series win but instead they were outpitched and dropped two of three to the Royals in Kansas City. Max Scherzer reverted back to his pre-demotion form with a rough outing on Friday and today, Jeremy Bonderman was roughed up for seven runs. Sandwiched between those two games was a nice outing by Justin Verlander but Verlander isn’t going to be able to do it by himself and as good as the pen has been, they can’t do it either if the Tigers are down by five runs when they get in the game.
Bonderman’s usual velocity was there but the Royals were just all over them. I didn’t get to watch the game so I’m not sure what the problem was but to all six batters in the first inning, he gave up a first pitch ball so he was working from behind most of the time.  Brad Thomas gave up four hits in two innings but he buckled down and didn’t allow a baserunner.
The Tigers only managed six hits and one of them was Brennan Boesch’s thirteenth double. Not too bad for a guy who didn’t even show up on most top 10 lists (or even top twenty lists).   You just have to wonder if he has the staying power. The Tigers 2006 draft was definitely a productive one. They took Andrew Miller in the first round and while he hasn’t lived up to the hype, he did help get us Miguel Cabrera. Ron Borquin was taken in the second round (nothing from him yet) but then you have Boesch (third), Ryan Strieby (fourth) and Scott Sizemore (fifth) to give the Tigers some firepower. Casey Fien was taken in the 20th round.
The Tigers have a day off before they head to Chicago for three with the White Sox. Armando Galarraga makes his first start since his infamous day and Gavin Floyd throws for the White Sox.