Craig Monroe Is Cold Blooded

For the second night in a row, Craig Monroe provided the go-ahead home run that led to another Tigers victory, this time ensuring a sweep of the Orioles. Gary Sheffield also played a huge role in today's win, hitting a homer to put the Tigs up 1-0 and ending the day 4-4.

Nate Robertson took the win for the Tigers, pitching extremely well even while battling control issues. It's very rare to see Nate walk three, like he did today, however he still battled and left the game with the lead. Robertson leads all Tigers starters now with a record at 3-1.

In yet another confidence booster for the Tigs, the bullpen woes seem to be easing a little bit. After Bobby Seay and Joel Zumaya held down the game last night for Todd Jones to come in and nearly screw it up, but magically avoiding trouble, Jason Grilli and Fernando Rodney iced the game in the seventh and eighth. Though Grilli faced just one batter, he got Jay Payton to go down on strikes with the tying run at second. Rodney has looked great in his last four appearances, walking one and getting out of the eighth with no real trouble at all.

The turnaround Gary Sheffield is undergoing is incredible, and downright scary for the rest of the American League. He had a monster series against the Orioles, knocking two out of the park and having something like six hits in the three games, which is outstanding. In just about a week, his batting average has gone from the .120s to around .220 now, which is just great.

Sorry for the lack of a preview post for this game, I overslept and woke up just about 20 minutes before game time. Last night's experience at Comerica deserves its own post, since there have been some obvious changes at the ballpark that I'll talk about.