Game 71: Tigers hold on in a 5-3 victory.

The Tigers pulled it off again tonight and pushed their winning streak to 6, and pushed their division lead to 5 games now. We are 40-31 on the year and are going for the series sweep tomorrow afternoon with an Armando Galaragga vs. Ted Lilly pitching match-up. I imagine Ryan will play for Laird. Polanco and Ordonez might also be candidates to get days off tomorrow.

Post Game thoughts:

• Porcello has gone over 95 pitches for three games in a row now as he threw 97 tonight. He coaxed 11 ground ball outs tonight, and somehow managed to get out of the 5th inning when he had loaded the bases. Leyland's decision to send him back in for the 6th inning can certainly be questioned. The Cubs were starting to put some good hits on the ball in the 5th, he already had a high pitch count, we had just taken the lead, and we could have had some favorable match-ups by putting Miner in. At the start of that inning, Miner would have faced Bradley (LH), Fox (RH) and Fukudome (LH). Here are Miner's splits against left-handed and right-handed batters:

LH hit .222, .309 OBP, .292 .SLG, and a .600 OPS
RH hit .327, .393 OBP, .505 SLG, and a .898 OPS

Instead, Leyland sent Porcello out in the 6th inning and he promptly put both batters he faced on base. Then, Robertson came in and allowed his annual base hit. Miner, to his credit, did come in and only allowed 1 runner to cross home plate.

• In the bottom of that inning, though, the game changed toward the Tigers favor. Harden couldn't throw a strike, the bases were eventually loaded, Everett got an infield single and Heilman walked Granderson with the bases loaded. The most important play of the game, though, was the drop foul ball by Soto near the stands on the Thames pop up. That gave the Tigers an extra out, and Thames eventually walked and scored the 3rd run of the game for the Tigers. Soto catches that ball and we might not score a run in that inning. As they say, it is a game of inches.
  
• Zumaya looked very nice in the 8th inning. That was a big bounce back game for him, and huge for his confidence. His fastball and curveball are looking pretty sick once again.
• Rodney, on the other hand, struggled again with his command. 2 walks to start the inning when he was the only reliable arm left in the pen is not what Leyland wants to see from his closer. He again worked his way out of the jam for his 15th save of the season. I am going to do an in-depth blog post about his performances in these save opportunities at some point this weekend.

Player performances:
-Granderson- Solid in CF, as always. One hit tonight on a hard liner to RF. 1 BB with the bases loaded. He also had 2 K's though, and was schooled in his at-bat against the LH Marshall
-Polanco- Made a very heads up play to gun Soto down at 3rd base in an otherwise routine groundout by Fonteno in the 3rd inning. The next at bat, Soriano grounded into an inning-ending double play. He also got a hit and drew two walks.
-Cabrera- No standout defensive plays, but he hit another HR, drew a walk and got another hit and RBI.
-Thames-Not a good night for Thames. 0-4. He has struggled both games this series.
-Kelly- 0-4and he only drew 14 pitches. He was due for a game like this after his great start with us.
-Inge- Drew the most pitches tonight with 26, but went 0-3 and only reached base once. He again played a solid 3rd base, though, and nearly helped pull a rare triple play in the early stages of the game.
-Ordonez- Solid game. 2 hits in 4 at bats. One of which was a nice single to left. He has to start getting back to pulling the ball more.
-Anderson- Came in as a pinch runner for Ordonez and promptly made a baserunning blunder and was thrown out at 3rd base in the bottom of the 8th. I have to think that his days as a Tiger are coming to an end.
-Laird- 2 hits. 1 a big HR in the fifth. Called a pretty good game. Good game for Laird tonight.
-Everett- 2 hits, an RBI on an infield single and played a solid SS. Good night for him.

Porcello- Only threw a first pitch strike 12 times, and he faced 24 batters. But he battled, induced a lot of groundball outs and did a nice job against a pretty good line-up. If he ever develops a strikeout pitch, look out.
Robertson- Why is he still here? $$$$. Certainly not for his pitching. One batter faced. One single.
Miner- Did a nice job getting out of that potential disaster with the bases loaded in the 6th. He had to get yanked though when the first two batters got on in the 7th against him.
-Seay- He did his job getting Hoffpauir to line out.
-Lyon- He was put in a tough situation, but he got us out of the inning with the lead. Couldn't really expect much more out of him. He's been solid lately.
-Zumaya- Filthy fastball, again. He kept his changeup in the bullpen today. Eventually, he is going to need that pitch again, though.
-Rodney- He never seemed confident on the mound, and he tried to overthrow several times. But, he came through when we needed him. He came in with a 2 run lead. And, he kept that lead. All in all, you can't really ask for more.

-Let's get the sweep tomorrow.