Tigers 4, Indians 1

      Max Scherzer pitched like Verlander. No, he wasn't throwing 101 mph in the eighth inning, or flirting with a no-hitter, but he just had that distinct aura of power around him. It also helped that he had the Indians completely off balance.

Max Scherzer.

     For example, the one run the Indians scored was on a passed ball, a passed ball that was so nasty a change-up that the batter swung at it. So nasty that even All-star catcher Alex Avila couldn't catch it. That's a pretty nasty pitch.     Here's my one crazy prediction of the year : If Max continues to pitch like he did last night, the Tigers will win the World Series.
    In other news.... the Little League World Series has started (go Kentucky!) and the Kentucky/Pennsylvania game Friday drew a Little League World Series record crowd of 42,683 people.
     Thanks for reading and go Tigers!

How to Make History

     If you want to make history, hit 600 home runs. That's exactly what Jim Thome did last night at Comerica park: he made history.

     Thome became just the eighth player in the elite 600 home run club. He joins Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willy Mays, Ken Griffy Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa as the only players with 600 or more home runs. 

     At forty years, 353 days old, Thome also became the oldest player to hit his 600th homer. Sammy Sosa previously held that record at thirty- eight years, 220 days when he reached the mark in 2007. But although Thome was the oldest player to get to 600 he was also the second-fastest to reach the mark, hitting his 600th in at-bat  No. 8,137 which is second to Babe Ruth's 6,921 at-bats. 

     Thome deserves a lot more respect... I mean, in the weeks before A-rod hit his 600th home run everybody was saying how amazing he was after he hit No. 599 and then thirteen days later when he hit No. 600 everybody acted like he was some sort of hero.  Then Thome comes along and hits numbers 599 and 600 in the same day.  Unlike A-Rod, Bonds and Sosa, Thome has never had the word "steroids" mentioned as a possible cause of his high level of play.  

     The Brewers added even more excitement to yesterday's baseball news.  If the Brewers had stopped at a double play in the second inning of Monday's game against the Dodgers, it would have been highlight-worthy enough.  Instead, they turned three and made some history.  Four Brewers defenders combined for the sixth triple play in franchise history, an amazing play that bailed starter Randy Wolf out of a two-on, no-out jam and helped them win 3-0 over the Dodgers at Miller Park.  My thoughts on this play: the way they turned it was really cool because it looked like it was just a double play.  But when Matt Kemp tried to go home, Prince Fielder threw home and–ta da!—a 4-6-3-2 triple play.  

     Thanks for reading, and go Tigers! 

Bye bye, streak.

     Before this season started, if you had asked anyone which MLB player might come close to Joe Dimaggio's fifty-six game hitting streak, no one would have said "Dan Uggla."  A thirty-three game hit streak isn't actually that close, but with about forty-six games left in the season, it's probably the closest anyone is going to get for a while.  
      Let's look at Uggla's stats before the streak: he hit .202 in April, .160 in May, .179 in June and was voted Least Valuable Player by the Austin-American Statesman. During the streak, which began July 5th, he hit .442 and bumped his season average up to .345. Uggla's streak was finally broken yesterday in a 6-5 loss to the Cubs. Congratulations, Mr. Uggla, on a nice run.
      

Tigers 4, Indians 3

Verlander.

     What do you do when you need a win? Turn to your ace. That's exactly what the Tigers did. Jim Leyland gave Verlander the ball and he pitched seven shut-out innings, gave up three hits, struck out eleven and got his major league-leading seventeenth win (100th career.)
     You couldn't ask for more.        
     The Tigers' win last night put them up by 3.0 games in the AL Central. The two teams play each other ten more times this season, including a season-ending series on September 26-29.
      Closer Jose Valverde set a new Tigers record, notching his thirty-third save in thirty-three chances. The previous record was set by Guillermo Hernandez in 1984, the year the Tigers got off to a 35-5 start and beat the Padres in the World Series.
     Thanks for reading and go Tigers!!!

Closer Jose Valverde.

          

Indians 10, Tigers 3

Ubaldo Jimenez, recently traded to the Indians.

     I don't know that much about last night's game because I was watching the Little League World Series.  I'll give you the facts I know, though: 1. Ubaldo Jimenez pitched like an ace in his first start as an Indian, going eight innings and allowing three runs on six hits.  2. The Indians had a season-high six doubles.  And if the Indians win today, they will sweep the Tigers for the second time this year.  They'll have to beat Verlander, although unfortunately for the Tigers, Verlander is 11-11 with a 4.47 ERA in his career against the Indians, with most of those losses happening at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
     After the win last night, the Indians have closed the gap in the AL Central to two games.
     Thanks for reading, and go Tigers!

Tigers need a win from Verlander.

Indians 3, Tigers 2, 14 innings.

  
      Here's the perfect definition of a heartbreaker: after a two-hour rain delay your bullpen goes twelve scoreless innings, then you lose on a hit-by-pitch after you walked the bases loaded. Yep, that sounds a lot like the Tigers game last night.
     Here are the two things I think sunk the Tigers: 1. They left TEN guys on base and 2. They were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position.
     Also there was the fact that it was a four hour and forty-three minute game that ended at 1:52 a.m. ET. As Tigers reliever Daniel Schlereth said, "We're going to sleep on this and get rid of this game. We'll be back here ready to win tomorrow--er, I'm sorry, later today."      
      I was planning to give the starting pitchers' stats from the game but since  the bullpens' of both teams pitched twelve innings I'll give the bullpen stats: the Indians used six pitchers, who combined for twelve strikeouts in thirteen innings. The Tigers used eight pitchers in twelve innings, allowing only two hits until the 14th inning when David Pauly walked Asdruble Cabrera, gave up a hit to Travis Halfner, intentionally walked Carlos Santana then--on the 439th pitch of the game--hit Kosuke Fukudome to end the game.
     There you have it, a walk-off hit-by-pitch.
     Thanks for reading and go Tigers!!!

Kosuke Fukudome, now an Indian.

Tigers vs. Indians

     Over the next few days I'm going to be writing about the Tigers/Indians games and saying what I think about each game.
     Here's some of the key points in the series:
          1. The Tigers lead the division by four games so even if the Indians sweep the series they will still be one game out of first.
          2. The Tigers play the Indians again on the 19th, 20th and the 21st of August.
          3. Verlander is pitching the third game of the series. I wonder who will win that game.
     In other news around the big leagues, the Pirates have lost nine of their last ten, dropping them to 9.5 games out of the NL Central. Jim Thome is still at 598 homers and A-rod will meet with Major League Baseball to talk about his alleged involvement in high stakes poker...yawwn...
          Thanks for reading and go Tigers!!!
     P.S. I'll bet anyone a piece of bubble gum that Justin Verlander will throw a no-hitter on Thursday.