Kind of messed up that they don't play on Labor Day (travel day).


Series at a Glance

Detroit at Oakland
Fri, Aug 31 - 10:05 pm EDT
V. Vasquez vs. J. Blanton

Detroit at Oakland
Sat, Sep 1 - 3:55 pm EDT
J. Verlander vs. D. Haren

Detroit at Oakland
Sun, Sep 2 - 4:05 pm EDT
N. Robertson vs. C. Gaudin


Detroit (72-62) at Oakland (66-69)

By JEFF MEZYDLO, STATS Writer

After avoiding a sweep in their most recent series, the Detroit Tigers look to build off their latest win and remain in the mix for the AL Central lead as they open a weekend road series against the Oakland Athletics on Friday.

Detroit (72-62) beat Kansas City 6-2 on Thursday to salvage a win after dropping the first two games of its six-game homestand to the Royals.

Magglio Ordonez and Curtis Granderson each homered and had three hits Thursday for the Tigers, who are just 11-17 in August and trying to close in on the first-place Cleveland Indians.

"I think we have a great chance to make the playoffs," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "I think we've got a shot. Why not? There are a lot of games to be played yet. You've got to go out there and do something about it."

The Tigers are 3-4 against Oakland (66-69) and lost two of three to the A's on the road from July 30-Aug. 1.

Thursday, Ordonez bounced back after going 0-for-4 on Wednesday and added three RBIs while raising his AL-leading average to .359.

"I don't check the batting race. I'm just going to go up there and do my job," said Ordonez who is batting .423 (11-for-26) with three homers and 12 RBIs in seven games against the A's this season and .429 (6-for-14) all-time against Oakland's Friday starter Joe Blanton.

Granderson has also enjoyed facing Blanton. The center fielder, who is hitting .450 (9-for-20) in his last five games, is batting .471 (8-for-17) lifetime against the right-hander.

Blanton (11-9, 3.92 ERA) will try to bounce back for his most recent defeat after he allowed four runs and seven hits in five innings of a 14-3 loss at Tampa Bay on Saturday for his first setback in five starts.

Blanton, who is 3-1 in four August starts, is 2-2 with a 9.67 ERA in five starts against the Tigers. He is 0-1 with an 11.81 ERA after allowing nine runs in four innings of Oakland's 16-10 win over the Tigers on Aug. 10 in his second start against them in 2007.

Virgil Vasquez (0-1, 9.39) was recalled Thursday from Triple-A Toledo and will start for the Tigers.

The right-hander allowed two runs and four hits in five innings of an 8-7 loss to the Chicago White Sox on July 24 in the most recent of his two starts this season. Friday will be his first appearance against Oakland.

The A's will try to win their second game in a row after a 5-4, 11-inning home victory over Toronto on Wednesday snapped a five-game losing streak. Oakland was outscored 44-15 during the skid.

Rookie Jack Hannahan singled home the winning run with two outs and Marco Scutaro went 3-for-5 for Oakland, which is 14 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Angels in the AL West.

"When you're 14 games out of it with a month to play you're just showing up every day like its a new day," reliever Huston Street said. "You're not really worried about winning streaks or losing streaks. You're just worried about getting better and coming together as a team. We're building for next year."

Scutaro could be a player counted on next season. The versatile, veteran infielder is 4-for-8 in his last two games after going 0-for-6 in a 6-2 loss to the Blue Jays on Monday. He is batting .333 (9-for-27) with a homer and nine RBIs against Detroit this season.

Interesting stats on Blanton. The last game I went to was Blanton pitching. Unfortunately Tata got lit up (like 8 runs in 2-3 innings), we came back and took a 9-8 lead off a Thames grand slam, then Grilli and someone else gave up 6 runs the next inning to ruin our comeback.

Anyway, Blanton was not impressive at all.

They need to sweep this series. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Vasquez has given up three dingers, we're in the bottom of the 4th.

4-2 A's [smilie=banghead.gi:

Polanco hits a triple with 1 out and Thames, in Craig Monroe fashion, swings at the first pitch and pops it up. Horrible. At least Maggs is up next though.

Yeah, and Thames, in Monroe fashion, rammed his bat to the ground after popping it up. Too bad Maggs couldn't pull through, but to be fair, we can't expect him to do everything.

Inge up with runners on the corner with nobody out. Please for the love of God someone tell him to not pull a Brandon Inge this AB.

Good God. Inge gets ahead 2-0, and swings at 2 balls.

Damnit.

He proceeds to suck and pop up. What a choadmonster.

And Leyland pinch hits Perez for Maybin. wtf... oh well, we'll see how it goes.

Come on Clutch Casey!

Perez grounds out. I would have taken my chances with Maybin.

Casey, miiighty Casey, pinch hitting in the possibly final AB.

CASEY BABY!!!!

4-4

MIIGHTY CASEY TIES IT!

I guess the rest of WTF are asleep.

Of course we can't take the lead. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers.

Let's steal this bitch.

Glenn isn't asleep, he's too busy watching reruns of Dancing with the Stars.

I knew it.

The bullpen has been great since Rodney came back, so I trust they won't give up any runs and will give us the opportunity to steal this one. hopefully

#4 for Swisher, let's give him a round of applause!

Way to go, Fernando.

Marcus is struggaling.

Ahh fuck, Zumaya gives up a lead off double to Piazza.

Gay's win. Fuck.

Tigers up 4-1 with nobody out here in the 7th.

Vee vin!

White Sox-Indians is on WGN for anyone who wants to watch. It's sorta important.

Thames delivers in the first inning on a 2-2 count with 2 out and drives in 2 runs to make it 2-0 Tigers. Bottom 1st now with Nate on the verge of a 1-2-3 inning.

Just looked at the gamecast and I see Granderson in the game as a defensive replacement for Thames. Is he really playing LF with Maybin in CF?

Why wouldn't they keep Maybin in LF and Grandy in CF?

^yes he is

I think they wanted to give maybin some time out there, unfortionately he screwed up.

FUCK the Tigers.

What a gem of a fucking game

At least with the Lions we know they're going to lose.

Win or lose there is no excuse for blowing a 7-0 lead against the fucking A's.

Who won and how? I was busy playing Madden.

teacups

jones and rodney are always good for a nice 1-2 punch to the nuts.

jones and rodney are always good for a nice 1-2 punch to the nuts.

I'd say that pretty much sums it up.

Fuck it, season's dead...who's going to speak at the funeral?

Kind of messed up that they don't play on Labor Day (travel day).

The way they've been playing, its a blessing.

Worst loss of the season on Sunday, IMO.

Fitting that Jones' implosion capped it off.