Box Score

Summary

Break out the brooms once again! Verlander and the Tigers held off the defending champs (though they aren’t living up to the ‘defending’ part) once again to pick up the sweep. Detroit’s offense showed their power once again and scored six runs on nine hits including 3 doubles, a triple and a home run.

Lineup was a bit unusual today with Neifi Perez hitting in the two-spot, Mike Rabelo behind the dish and Gary Sheffield in right field. Gary made a few spectacular plays in outfield; plays that Magglio wouldn’t have made namely a catch in foul territory that took some real speed to make it there. Mike Rabelo also did a good job catching Albert Pujols in a rundown.

Tigers get a day off tomorrow then have a series with the Angels then their first meeting of co-division leaders Cleveland Indians next weekend.

Pitching

Justin Verlander had another strong outing and picked up another win. This outing wasn’t as dominant as his last , which saw him gather up 7 strikeouts, but got the job done. He had a single walk to So Taguchi who he had in a 1-2 count and lost him. Just as important, Verlander lasted 8 innings requiring little work from the bullpen.

Rodney/Seay split the 9th inning that saw Rodney give up a couple of hits and a run before Bobby Seay was brought in to get the last out. He did that with some force and struck out Chris Duncan to end the game.

Hitting

Granderson is fitting very nicly in the lead off role and lead off today’s game with a triple and was batted in by Neifi to promptly put the Tigers ahead. Granderson ended the day 1-for-3 with a walk and no strikeouts as he keeps on improving.

Sean Casey continued his dominance of the National League getting a 2-RBI double eventually touching the plate on a Mike Rabelo single. He also made a few good scoops over at first and does a good job normalizing some really bad throws from Carlos Guillen.

Brandon Inge picked up his 8th homerun of the year; a two-run shot to left field. He had worked into a full count and got the pitch he wanted down the middle and a little up. This ties him with Gary Sheffield for second on the team (Ordonez has the most homeruns with 9.)

Tigers didn’t come up with a lot of hits but their power pulled them through once again!