Welcome Back Carlos

The Tigers went into the first game of their doubleheader against the division rival White Sox in a battle for first place in the Central. The two teams couldn't have come into the series going in any more different directions. The ChiSox had won 5 of their last 7 and were fresh off Mark Buehrle throwing the 18th perfect game in MLB history against Tampa Bay, one of the top offenses in the league (3rd in the AL in runs scored with 501). The Tigers, on the other hand, are 1-5 since the All Star break and have only scored a single run in 4 of their last 5 games. Offensive struggles are nothing new for the Tigers this year - they have been maddeningly inconsistent, showing both excellence and frustrating droughts at various points in the year. This has manifested itself in the team scoring 4.67 runs per game, slightly below the league average of 4.78.

Enough of the bad though, because after this game there's a completely different buzz and I am looking forward to the Tigers wrecking that fatass Bartolo Colon (who some would be shocked to know was at one point traded for Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore and Brandon Philips) in the second game of the doubleheader later today. Umm, knock on wood... or something. The feeling around the city was that the Tigers were perhaps on the cusp of a free fall, but Verlander came in and did exactly what the team ace is supposed to do - he pitched an excellent complete game, surrendering only 1 run on 6 hits and 4 walks. JV wasn't totally dominant, wracking up only 4 strikeouts, and got into trouble at some points (including a bases loaded, no outs jam in the top of the 9th from which he escaped unscathed) but he was good enough to take sole possession of first place in the Central... for a few hours at least.

Verlander himself admitted in the post-game interview that he got out of rhythm in the early innings, before mostly cruising through the mid-to-late innings until the scary 9th. He was clearly amped up and I'm sure he could feel the pressure of pitching with first place on the line the day after a ChiSox pitcher threw a perfect game. Although it may have been a little bumpy at times, the finals numbers and, more importantly, the win, look pretty damn nice right now.

Oh yeah, and some dude named Carlos Guillen was activated today and went 1/4 while DHing. The one single came off a shattered bat and barely made it through the infield, his shoulder is still too sore to bat from the right side and at one point he appeared to misread the signs coming in from the dugout, so color me unimpressed. I hope he does well, but my hopes just aren't very high at the moment. Unfortunately, news has also hit the web that the biggest bat available on the market, Matt Holliday, has been officially dealt to the Cards for Brett Wallace and two other minor leaguers. Good for my fantasy team, I guess, but I wanted him on the Tigers. Dombrowski never really seemed to have the team in the Holliday hunt, so this is not unexpected however.