MIGGY!

Three strong outings by Tigers pitching results in three wins and a sweep of the Pale Hosers
from the Windy City.

The White Sox were arguably one of the hottest teams in baseball coming into Detroit, winning their last 7 games in convincing fashion and were securely atop the central division. The Tigers pitching staff cooled off the hot bats and the result was a sweep of the division leaders.

Robertson was strong in Tuesdays 6-4 win, Verlander threw a four hit, complete game gem in last night's 5-1 win, and The Gambler threw 8 innings of four hit, one run ball in today's victory.

The biggest story of this series, or namely the last two games is the hopeful resurgence of one Miguel Cabrera. Miggy went 5/12 for the series with 3 RBI and the walk off home run this afternoon. I know, these aren't mind blowing numbers but when you consider how God awful he was against the Tribe this weekend...those are numbers that are much better than a kick in the junk. You just have to keep in mind, the guy is 25 years old and has an entire baseball crazed town looking at him through the microscope every time he steps on the field with that 8 year $152 million deal he signed before the season started. You can't really blame the guy for trying to be Baseball Jesus out there every day. Once he realizes that he can't win a batting title with every at bat, he'll allow himself to get into a groove and be the player we all expected him to eventually be.

I wrote a post what seems to be about a month back after the Tigers swept the Yankees in New York saying "they're back, this is the team we thought they would be!" I am not even going to say that this time because it's not true. They swept a team that came into Detroit after winning seven in a row and something like 10 of their last 11. That's great. They gained three games in the division to move up to 8 games behind the Central leaders. Nice. But when you back up and look at it, after this three game win streak they're on...they are 5-5 in their last ten games and are still 8 games below .500. Is this a sign that the Tigers are playing well again? Sure, they're playing better than they were but there is still way too much work to go before anyone can get too excited. If/when they get back to .500, then I'll be excited and will start looking at playoff ticket packages. Until then, it is entirely too early to get too excited or even too pissed off about this Tigers team.

The road doesn't get much easier as the Dodgers come into town for a three game interleague set. The Dodgers have been playing mediocre baseball as of late, going 4-6 in their last ten and are trailing the West Division leaders Arizona by 3.5 games. After the series against LA, the Tigers travel to San Fran to play in the park that Juice built, and then to PetCo or whatever the hell it's called to play San Diego before returning home to play the Cardinals and Rockies.

I will go on record and say it right now...if ever the turn around was going to happen...it would be in these next two weeks during interleague play. The Tigers basically need to win 10-12 of their 15 interleague games coming up to have a shot at staying in the race. Anything less than 8 wins and I will be in full fledged disaster mode.
In other news...

REMEMBER THIS GUY??!!

Not only are the Tigers on a three game winner, they also have a couple of good arms almost ready to come back. Apparently Zumaya's rehab is going great and is due back with the team next week sometime. Zumaya had a rough rehab appearance last night in Toledo as he wasn't locating his stuff well. The good news is, he was topping 100 mph on the 5th/3rd field radar gun which is great news. I can't wait to hear "Voodoo Child," come on and see the fireballer jog out of the bullpen again. Oh and everyone's least favorite pitcher Fernando Rodney is due back as well. Say what you will about Fernando, when he's on his game, he is nearly unhittable, and you know it.

It will be interesting to watch here in the next couple weeks as the season essentially hangs in the balance.