Homerdome Hell

I do not like the Metrodome. In fact, I hate the Metrodome. It's a) a dome b) dominated by the Twins c) a ground that seemingly brings out the worst in the Tigers.

And so, after a convincing sweep of the Yankees in Yankee Stadium, the Tigers choked away today's game to finish off getting swept by the Twins. I was at work today, wasn't able to watch the majority of the game, but I could watch the scores periodically. It kind of went like this:

Tigers- 6 Twins- 0: "Fuck yes guys! We need this bad, thank god."
Tigers- 6 Twins- 4: "Aw, c'mon seriously? Nothing's ever easy with this team, I guess. Eh, it'll be OK."
Tigers- 6 Twins- 6: "You gotta be fucking joking me! What the hell guys, don't do this today."
Tigers- 6 Twins- 7: "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. AH. AH. AH. AH. AH."

I am thoroughly convinced that the Tigers are going to keep us throughly frustrated until they "Pistons" us. "Pistoning" us would be when they all collectively decide "We're so much better than everyone else, maybe we should play a tad bit harder to prove it." The Pistons have made a almost-annoying habit out of this and it seems liek the Tigers may have that same mentality - "We have the ability to turn it on and blow away anyone we want, but we just don't feel like it tonight."

So, after getting within a game and a half of Chicago on Thursday, three nights later the Tigers slip back into last place in the Central. Four games under .500, three games back, and Boston and New York are rolling into Detroit this week. Fantastic. It's amazing how in just one weekend, the Tigers can go from "unbeatable machine" to "mental nutcases that can't keep it together." And I blame this drastic change on what? That fucking un-American Metrodome.

Dear Blogosphere

Sorry for the lack of posts this week - finals week tends to cause that sort of thing. However, I'm back home now and I'll be posting daily again starting before tonight's game against the Twins.

Is It Possible That The Bullpen Isn't Really That Bad?

I was just turning this possibility over in my mind - is the bullpen possibly not as bad as previously thought? Maybe it's just because the Tigers are putting up high run totals and hitting the shit out of the ball on a daily basis, but I haven't wanted to cry when Jim Leyland walks to the mound to pull the starter in quite a few games.

Without Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumaya, it was widely assumed that the pen would struggle until they returned. For the beginning of the year, they weren't exactly perfect but they didn't really get helped out by the starters at all either. The pitching was just all around awful. Of course, there were a few outings that were just absolutely abysmal (see: Grilli, Jason) but that is to be expected with a team that was playing the way the Tigers were playing a few weeks ago.

But, the emergence of Aquilino Lopez, Denny Bautista, and Clay Rapada has given the pen a new core of guys to rely on. Add that to the consistent performance of Bobby Seay and Todd Jones (consistently getting the job done in frightening fashion, in Jonesy's case) and that leaves five guys pulling their weight in the bullpen. That's a pretty solid number considering the last two guys are Jason Grilli and Zach Miner-Grilli, who have morphed into one massive gas can to incite massive explosions from small fires left by the starters.

But, even Miner had a good outing yesterday with three innings of hitless ball. And Jason Grilli pitched a perfect ninth on Tuesday, punctuated with a strike out. Is it possible that the momentum generated by the bats is contagious and is spreading competence among the most gassiest of gas cans?

If this team ever gets healthy (probably not) and keeps the bats going as hot as they are right now (probably will), the winning will keep coming. Four games in a row right now, blasting opposing pitchers out of the park and holding onto leads that are given - these are things that good ball teams do. It still isn't May yet and the Tigers are sitting just three games below .500. Crazy things are possibly with this team, and if they can put more stretches like this together, things just might be OK.

No Review Necessary.

19 runs. On 14 hits. What more is there to say?

Defensive Shakeups And Hot Bats

Well, the Tigers poured that glass of cold water all over Vicente Padilla, didn't they? For the first time this season, and probably not the last, Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera hit back-to-back
homers and Jacque Jones almost made it three when he tripled to deep centerfield. Hell, even Ramon Santiago hit a home run. Maybe it was fortune, maybe it was Padilla, but the worm is starting to turn for the Tigers - especially with the impending return of Curtis Granderson, which is like the wait for a newborn baby at this point.

Jones' big night was especially encouraging, adding a double in the fifth inning to his triple. The guy has been mired in a slump this whole month, but the way he was swinging the bat tonight has to make me believe that he's turning it around. Jim Leyland should be rewarded for his faith in the guy.

Justin Verlander pitched pretty well in his six innings of work, allowing just the one run on a homer by Frank Catalanotto in the first. Good to see JV get his first win of the year and also put some velocity back on his fastball - he was consistently in the mid-90s tonight and dialed it up a few times when he had to.

Now, on to some surprising news. Leyland announced after the game that Carlos Guillen will be moving to third base and Miguel Cabrera will take over at first. Cabrera's quote on the matter was "It's cool", which is just awesome, but I'm not sure how Guillen will take it. He's struggled with footwork at first base, but that's natural with a position switch like that. There's no real reason to doubt Jim on this one, but I just kind of find it odd - having Guillen be a mediocre defensive first baseman wasn't really causing that much of a problem, at least for me. Maybe Carlos had voiced some opinions about playing there to Leyland in the clubhouse, I don't know, but if it makes the Tigers a better team as Leyland says, I'm all for it.

Back to tonight's game. The old Gas Can, Jason Grilli pitched a perfect ninth - getting a strike out for the third out and pumping his fist for good measure - while the new Gas Can Zach Miner struggled. Again. Is it possible that Zach Miner has become the new Jason Grilli while the Tigers still have Jason Grilli? Can our hearts really take having two Jason Grillis in the bullpen? Doubtful. At best. Meanwhile, Bobby Seay looked pretty good, Denny Bautista did his job even though he looked less than fantastic in the process. In all honesty, outside of the Gas Cans, the rest of the Tigers pen looks (dare I say it?) adequate. That's frightening.

Also, the Potential Bullpen Savior, Francisco Cruceta pitched three hitless and scoreless innings for Toledo tonight. Looks like we might not have to deal with the multiple Jason Grillis problem for all that long. The question is, which Grilli leaves the team and when?

As Tom Gage points out, the Tigs haven't exactly fared well after blowing teams out this season. Just last week, there was the 13-2 hammering of Cleveland and then the 11-1 hammering by Cleveland. Can the bats stay hot for two nights in a row? Remains to be seen.

Back Home

Returning home against the Texas Rangers for a three game series, fresh off of a .500 road trip, Justin Verlander will be toeing the rubber for the Tigers tonight.

Interestingly enough, the Tigers have lost the last six Verlander starts, dating back to last season. J.V. hasn't necessarily pitched badly this year, but he has looked out of sorts a bit. He's not coming any where close to his upper-90s velocity of last year, but has been "pitching" more this year than he has been just "throwing". It's really strange to see someone who was favored to win the Cy Young at the beginning of the season sitting at 0-3 to being the year.

It's going to be a beautiful night in Detroit tonight, hopefully the ball will be carrying and the Tigs can light up Vicente Padilla. Padilla is 3-0 against the Tigs lifetime with a 2.08 ERA and has had a really hot start this season. It'd be nice for the Tigers to throw some cold water on the fireballer, huh?

Solid.

That's pretty much all that needs to be said about today's game - solid. Armando Galarraga pitched solidly, not quite as spectacularly as he did in his last game against Cleveland, and got his second win in as many starts with the Tigers. He had to pitch his way out of two bases-loaded jams in the fourth and fifth, but escaped without allowing a run.

The bullpen - also solid. Clay Rapada did half of his job in retiring one of the two lefties he faced, Aquilino Lopez continued his terrific start, and Denny Bautista pitched a scoreless eighth. And then Todd Jones gave up a home run to Greg Zaun to start off the ninth. After that, he was fine though. If these guys keep it up, they might actually be adequate this season.

And the bats actually took advantage of the walks allowed by Toronto's staff. Lots of baserunners got left on base this whole series, and it took until today for the Tigers to move them across home in their big second inning that essentially decided the game.

.500 for the road trip, you can't really ask for more than that, right?