The Tigers come in on fire after demolishing the Royals in a two game series to start the year. The Rangers should prove a bit tougher of a test, though they didn't fare too well against the Red Sox, taking only one of three to open their season at home. The Rangers' Ameriquest Park is a hitter's paradise often referred to as "Coors Lite" because of the abundance of Home Runs that are hit there on an annual basis. Much of the reason for those prodiguous home run totals is the Rangers' powerful lineup featuring such young studs as Mark Teixeira, Hank Blalock, Michael Young and Kevin Mench.

The Tigers start things off in game one with the Lefty Nate Robertson. Nate has put together back to back seasons of about league average starting pitching, which is a much more valuable commodity than some people realize. He's actually pitched pretty well against the Rangers in his career, going 2-2 in 6 starts with a 2.95 ERA and holding them to a .231 batting average. He's been surprisingly dominant at the Rangers home Ameriquest Field, a notorious hitter's park, allowing only one earned run and nine hits in 15.2 innings of work there. The only Ranger who's hit him particularly well is the catcher, Rod Barajas, who's 4-8 lifetime against big Nate.

The Rangers fire back with righty R.A. Dickey, a 31 year old who's 2-0 against them in his career. Dickey features a special pitch known simply as "the thing" which has been known to baffle hitters. Watch for it during tonight's game. Craig Monroe's the only Tiger with much luck against Dickey going 4-9 with a double in his career.

It should be a tough game but let's hope the Tigers can keep their early season winning ways flowing with a victory tonight. I'll take the Tigers, 9-6.

http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/sp/v/mlb/players/5/7014.jpgvshttp://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/sp/v/mlb/players/5/6708.jpg

So the Tigers move up from freshman to JV competition.

This game will be a home run derby.

Hopefully we can see some of the same results.

Why does it not surpise me that a pitcher named R.A. Dickey has a pitch called "the thing" and that the Rangers picked him up. I can see the Tigers going 2-2 in this series. 4-2 coming home would not be bad.

Lineups are up. The Rangers benched Blalock as he's not at his best against lefties. Granderson got benched, too. Monroe's starting in center with Thames in left and Inge is leading off. Leyland also moved Guillen up to 7th, a solid move. DY really needs to move down to 7th with Shelton and Guillen pushed up another spot, in my opinion.

Detroit
AB R H RBI BB K LOB Season Avg
B. Inge 3b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .444
P. Polanco 2b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .500
I. Rodriguez c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .625
M. Ordonez rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
D. Young dh 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .143
C. Shelton 1b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .667
C. Guillen ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .375
C. Monroe cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .125
M. Thames lf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000
Totals 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Texas
AB R H RBI BB K LOB Season Avg
B. Wilkerson lf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .286
M. Young ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250
M. Teixeira 1b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .273
P. Nevin dh 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .273
M. DeRosa 3b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
K. Mench rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .385
A. Brown cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
R. Barajas c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333
I. Kinsler 2b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .167
Totals 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Inge plays Rickey Henderson, leads off the game with a Home Run.

Maggs just T'd off too. We're going to chase this guy by the 4th. 2-0 Tigers.

The barrage continues....Shelton GONE!!! 3-0 Tigers in the 2nd on 3 solo shots.

Nice double play to end a Ranger threat in the first, btw....

Shelton gone again!!! That's 4 for the season now.

(I love DVR, i'm watching both the Pistons and the Tigers games simultaneously during down times for each...)

Tigers have 6 home runs with one out in the fourth. This is officially ridiculous. It's batting practice out there. 2 for Shelton, 1 each for Maggs, Thames, Inge, and Craig Monroe. 7-0 Tigs.

Yeah, that shit was nice. I got pretty pumped when Thames bombed one into left-center.

12 HR's in 2 games is a franchise record for the Tigers.

Yep, Maggs picked up his second in the ninth to give it to them.

Tata made his ML debut and looked alright out there. He pitched well his first 2 innings before loading them up in the ninth. He left with the bases loaded and Rodney gave up a double to score all three, but for a kid who's never pitched above A ball, he looked like he could be a good one. He'll be sent back down when Jones comes back I'm sure.

Watched at a bar so I could see both games at the same time (no DVR for me). Didn't Tata come in in the 6th? He seemed to do fine with the lead till the 9th when it looked like Leyland was just seeing if he could finish (4 innings is a lot for a relief pitcher isn't it?). Hopefully the hitting last longer than it did last season. Good to see Robertson get out of a couple spots without giving up a run but the huge lead prolly helped that a lot.

Tata came in the fifth and left the ninth. That's WAY too long for a relief pitcher, especially in a debut.

We slugged, drew walks, and hit line drives. Great win.

Maggs needs to cut his hair.

Shelton is my daddy.

Pitchers need to realize that the knuckle ball is one of the worst pitches in baseball.

Yeah, but he's a starter. He's just filling in in relief up here till Jones comes back. He did seem to tire but I'm guessing it was more the jitters of potentially getting a major league save. He'll be fine.

And yeah, maggs's got like a jeri curl mullet going there.

I love the way Leyland worked him in, by the way. Get his debut in there in a can't lose situation, let him get a few solid innings in so he can see a lot of situations. Solid. Tram would have left him on the bench for three weeks and then threw him in with the bases loaded and nobody out.

It's a relief seeing Maggs do well. After seeing him in the WBC, I wasn't so sure if he was completely healthy.

I'm pretty sure Tata came in in the 6th as I specifically recall thinking that Leyland was letting Robertson work through the 5th (when he got into a bit of trouble and let up a couple runs) to be eligible for the win. (I think that's right with the pitching W/L rules. I only pretend to be a MLB fan and some of these stat keeping rules seem ridiculously complex.) Didn't know that Tata is starter, good to know.

Yeah, he left him in to face Blalock for one out in the sixth. Blalock has a lot of trouble with Lefties.

Dude, tigers fucking rock
They busted out the whoopin sticks early this year.

Doubt they can keep up the home run pace like this, but wow. Fun to watch.

Tigers extend undefeated streak
Detroit goes deep seven times in win over Rangers

The Tigers haven't played a home game yet, and still every day has been fireworks night.

The combination of a warm Texas evening and a knuckleballer whose knuckler wasn't knuckling brought out the power portion of Detroit's offense again Thursday night. Five different Tigers combined for seven home runs, including two each from Chris Shelton and Magglio Ordonez, allowing the Tigers to hold on late for a 10-6 win at Texas.

The Tigers are the only unbeaten team left in the American League, and one of three left in all of Major League Baseball. Yet the speed of their start is almost forgotten in their other statistics. Detroit's 12 home runs over its last two games and 15 homers in three games this series both eclipsed team records for any two- or three-game stretch in franchise history. The 15-homer total for the season more than doubles any other club in the American League in this young season, and tops NL leader Atlanta by six. Shelton already has two multihomer efforts in three games this season.

One of Tigers manager Jim Leyland's raves about his lineup ever since the early part of Spring Training is that it's balanced enough to strike at any time. So far, it's striking all the time.

"I think one through nine, we're pretty good," Leyland said. "We may not be as potent as some teams two through four, or three through five, but I like our balance."

Every spot in the lineup but the second, third and fifth scored on Thursday for the Tigers, whose sixth through ninth hitters have combined for eight home runs in three games. The only slot in the lineup that hadn't been producing up to Thursday was the cleanup position, and Ordonez took care of that with two swings.

"Anybody can hit in this lineup," Ordonez said. "We don't strike out that much, which is pretty good. We hit the ball everywhere. We're going to hit for average, but we have guys that can hit a long way."

Brandon Inge started the display on the second pitch of the game, taking a hanging knuckler from R.A. Dickey (0-1) deep to left for his second home run of the year. After Placido Polanco and Ivan Rodriguez flied out to right, Ordonez ended his 0-for-8 start to the season with another solo shot to left.

"Obviously, we centered some of those knuckleballs," Leyland said. "If you can center those knuckleballs, they can travel far."

Shelton homered leading off the second inning, then after a third-inning respite, resumed the home run derby with another solo shot with one out in the fourth to pass Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols for the Major League lead with his fourth home run this season.

Carlos Guillen walked before Craig Monroe and Marcus Thames hit back-to-back blasts. Ordonez's solo homer off the left-field foul pole leading off the ninth inning against Brian Shouse gave the former White Sox slugger his first multihomer game since 2003.

It's the best he has felt, in his view, since 2002. "I haven't felt like this in a long time," Ordonez said. "Two home runs, win a ballgame, it's nice."

The Tigers have a history of putting motion on flat knuckleballs. They hit six home runs off Boston's Tim Wakefield on Aug. 8, 2004, at Comerica Park, tying a Major League record for a pitcher in one game. Detroit spread out that power display over five innings. Tigers hitters needed just four innings to do it on Thursday.

That 2004 team was the first in Major League history to have 10 players with double-digit home runs in the same season.

It's appreciated when it comes behind the pitcher with the third-lowest run support among AL starters last year. Nate Robertson averaged 3.66 runs per nine innings last season en route to a 7-16 record despite a rotation-best 4.48 ERA. He had double that average by the time he took the mound for the bottom of the fourth.

"Today is a new beginning," Robertson said. "We don't need to be talking about run support anymore. I just need to do my job."

That job is rarely easy here. Though Robertson has pitched well at Ameriquest Field, it's the same park where the Tigers scored eight runs in the top of the fifth inning of a game two years and gave up 10 in the bottom half to tie it.

Phil Nevin's fourth-inning double put Texas on the scoreboard before Ian Kinsler homered and Mark Teixeira doubled in Michael Young. Teixeira had three hits off Robertson on Thursday, after striking out seven times in his previous 18 at-bats against him.

Robertson (1-0) allowed three runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. Jordan Tata entered in the sixth for his Major League debut and came within two batters of finishing out the game. Young's bases-clearing double in the ninth created a little bit of trouble before Fernando Rodney retired Teixeira to end it.

Before the game, Leyland openly worried that his hitters might focus too much on home runs and try to hit them. He doesn't think that's happening now, but he wants his club to be able to win ballgames in different ways.

This way seems to have everybody excited, including Leyland's family. His young daughter called him after the game to congratulate him, even though she was up past her bedtime. Dad suggested she go to bed. He might have a harder time calming down fans that aren't family.

"I think they should be just like I am," Leyland said. "I think they should enjoy it and get ready for tomorrow's game. I hope they're happy. I hope they're excited, but don't get crazy."
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20060406&content_id=1387286&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=det

Great game so far. Shelton is a beast he just hit his 5th homer of the season.

Damn, and he aint on Roids.

Pudge finally gets a hit today! Good to see everyone contributing.

Is this on the Radio? The wings are on 1270

Yeah, it was on radio. They put it on 950 tonight. 95% of the time it's on 1270.

Oh ok. Thanks. I'll remember for next time.

Maroth, Shelton keep Tigers rolling
Lefty earns first career win against Texas

Jim Leyland wants to see the Tigers win a game without big home runs before getting excited about his team's fast start. Chris Shelton keeps messing with the program.

Shelton's fifth home run of the season broke open what had been a one-run game, allowing the Tigers to move to 4-0 on the year with a 5-2 win Friday night at Texas.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, Shelton became the first player since Lou Brock in 1967 to hit five home runs in the first four games of the season. After his wind-blown fly ball floated beyond right fielder Kevin Mench for a double to set up a two-run second inning, he took a hanging pitch from Jon Koronka 409 feet to left field in the fourth, scoring Marcus Thames for a 4-1 lead.

Two innings later, reliever Rick Bauer's 1-2 pitch hit Shelton on his right leg, loading the bases with no one out. Bauer induced a double-play grounder from Carlos Guillen, but Magglio Ordonez trotted home on the play to stretch the lead to four.

It didn't approach the double-digit scoring the Tigers had in their previous two games, but it helped Tigers starter Mike Maroth beat the Rangers for the first time in his career. The lefty gave up eight hits in 5 1/3 innings, yet limited the damage to Michael Young's first-inning solo homer.

Maroth (1-0) stranded two runners on base in the first, second and fifth innings, the last coming on a ground-ball double play off the bat of Mark Teixeira. Maroth left in the sixth following Hank Blalock's infield single.

Jason Grilli finished out the inning, then left in the seventh following a Brad Wilkerson single and a walk to Young. Hard-throwing 21-year-old Joel Zumaya entered to face Teixeira, who hit a hanging changeup for an RBI single to cut the lead to three. Zumaya recovered to strike out Phil Nevin on three pitches to end the threat.

Zumaya hit Kevin Mench with an 80 mph changeup in the eighth inning but escaped with an inning-ending double play. Fernando Rodney worked the ninth for his second save.

Shelton finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs. He has reached base 13 times in 18 plate appearances so far this season. Marcus Thames went 3-for-4 with two runs scored.
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20060407&content_id=1388742&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=det

Pudge finally gets a hit today!

...he went 5 for 5 the other day as well...

Shelton is a beast.

That boy can hit.

Verlander looking to keep Tigers perfect
Detroit (4-0) at Texas (1-4), 8:05 p.m. ET

Justin Verlander isn't making his Major League debut Saturday. It only feels like he is.

"It's definitely exciting," Verlander said. "I've been looking to do this for a long time."

The difference between Verlander's two starts last summer and his start Saturday night against the Rangers is that he knows there'll be another one after this. He went back to Double-A Erie after each of his outings last year. The only place he's headed back to after this one will be Detroit.

Though Tigers fans caught a glimpse of Verlander last summer, they should get a better idea of what the second overall pick of the 2004 First-Year Player Draft can bring to the Majors in a more regular role. Not only does he have the job security to go after hitters and not be afraid of making mistakes, he's had two weeks to prepare himself for the role since manager Jim Leyland named him the fifth starter with a week to go in Spring Training.

That came after a spring performance that ranked among the best on the club. Though Verlander struggled at times with his control, walking 10 batters over 18 2/3 innings, he put together efficient, sometimes dominant outings when he knew he was being evaluated. More than a pitcher armed with tools like a 99-mph fastball, Verlander showed polish beyond his age of 23.

He'll need a lot of that polish to maintain the winning ways of Detroit's starting pitchers, who have recorded victories in all four Tigers games this season. Neither Mike Maroth nor Nate Robertson survived the sixth inning in the first two games of this series. However, both limited thier damage and left with the lead.

Pitching matchup

DET: RHP Justin Verlander (0-2, 7.15 ERA in 2005)
He's been a spot starter before, but his first outing as the fifth starter comes in a place where the ball can fly.

TEX: RHP Kevin Millwood (0-1, 9.00 ERA)
The Tigers didn't have much of a chance at Millwood when he became a free agent last winter. They went after Kenny Rogers instead, and the Rangers replaced Rogers with Millwood.

Player to watch
Not only does Chris Shelton have five home runs in four games so far this season, he has reached base safely 13 times in 18 plate appearances.
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060407&content_id=1388743&vkey=news_det&fext=.jsp&c_id=det

INGE BATTING THIRD! YAY!

GO ORDONEZ

1-0

MEATHOOK WITH A BLOOPER!

2-0

Shelton with a triple.

4-0.

SHELTON TRIPLE!

4-0!

Dmitri Young probably had a heart attack running all them bases.

4-0 lead for Verlander.

Don't fuck this up or your ass is mine, rookie.

So it looks like Pudge is off.

GO GET EM VANCE!

Not only did the Tigers continue there winning ways and improve to a perfect 5-0, but Verlander was near perfect himself...

7 ip 2 h 0 r 7 k 2 bb

The two hits he gave up were back to back, not very hard hit, and he got the next 2 batters to strikeout to get out of the jam. He was brilliant. From the pitches I saw on the highlights, his stuff was filthy. Oh yeah, and Chris Shelton went 3-4, 2 triples , a single and 3 rbi...

God, I wish I could have seen him pitch tonight.

He looked GOOOOD. I'm a little drunk, both with liquor and Tigers Homerism, but wow I'm excited. Verlander's stuff is REAL good. He was locating GREAT and his curve was filthy, just carving through the zone. I only saw like 4 and a half innings to be honest but I'm pumped.

What a game. Man that was fucking awesome.

Someone needs to hook me up with a "Big Red" Chris Shelton sig.

What a game. Man that was fucking awesome.

Someone needs to hook me up with a "Big Red" Chris Shelton sig.

I've got a "Red Pop" Avatar and a Verlander Avatar

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/3461/sheltonavatar7io.png
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/9152/verlanderav6jl.png

There's not alot of Chris Shelton pictures out there...good ones at least, and it is a little rough around the edges, but here is a Shelton Sig for ya,

http://adm6.udmercy.edu/~mitchejr/sheltonsig.png

Verlander, Shelton help Tigers roll
Righty tosses seven scoreless innings; slugger drives in three

Chris Shelton's now batting .700. The Tigers are still perfect.

Well, almost. In a perfect scenario, Shelton would've been trotting around the bases instead of chugging his way to third base. Then he wouldn't have been gasping for breath as he stood on the bag.

"I'm thinking, 'This stinks. Hit it out of the ballpark, or just stop at second,'" Shelton recalled after hitting a pair of triples in Saturday's 7-0 win at Texas that pushed Detroit to 5-0. "Running that far is no fun."

He was only kidding. Both times, he couldn't help but laugh as he caught his breath on third base. The man who put himself in the category with Barry Bonds and Lou Brock thanks to five home runs in the season's first four games didn't leave the yard Saturday. Instead, he tripled twice, added a seeing-eye single and driving in three runs anyway.

This should've been the best test yet for the Tigers this season. After beating the Royals twice, followed by two wins here against the back end of the Rangers' rotation, Detroit matched its offense against Texas ace Kevin Millwood, while a rookie fifth starter took the mound on the Tigers' side for his third Major League outing. But the rookie happened to be Justin Verlander, and the Tigers happen to be hitting everybody they face.

After giving up four earned runs in six innings, Millwood said Detroit "is probably the best offensive team in the world right now."

He has a pretty good argument for that, but the depth of Detroit's pitching arguably stole the spotlight for one night.

Verlander didn't have nearly the jitters he showed in his two spot starts for Detroit last summer. Still, after each of Detroit's other starters took their openers, he didn't want to be the first starter to lose. At this point, even a no-decision would be a first for the Tigers' rotation.

Instead, Verlander turned in the best performance from a Tigers starter so far. The 23-year-old right-hander started off his second professional season with seven scoreless innings and seven strikeouts. His first Major League win was the kind of outing that attracted attention on his express route through the Tigers' farm system last year.

"Outstanding," Shelton said. "He went out there with a lot of confidence."

It helped having a four-run lead before he took the mound. Curtis Granderson led off the game with a single and scored on a Hank Blalock error. Dmitri Young's bloop single drove in Brandon Inge, then Shelton lashed a line-drive triple to the right-center-field wall. Young and Magglio Ordonez scored.

Millwood put Shelton in an 0-2 count his next time up in the third inning, but Shelton showed more of the opposite-field swing he was known for before his recent home run barrage. He poked a 1-2 pitch down the right-field line and past a sliding Kevin Mench for another three-bagger to score Ordonez.

By then, Verlander (1-0) was settling in to make the support stand. He started the game with a three-pitch strikeout of Brad Wilkerson and went from there. The only batters to reach base in the first three innings came on a Mark Teixeira walk and an Ian Kinsler hit-by-pitch.

"I felt like I was in a groove," Verlander said. "Obviously, the four runs did help. It gave me a cushion there. But I really feel that having those innings in Spring Training helped me, and I feel a little bit more at ease this year."

The ease showed in his arsenal. Both times Verlander took the mound for the Tigers last year, he was so nervous that he couldn't locate much aside from his fastball. Once he started locating his offspeed pitches for strikes on Saturday, catcher Vance Wilson said he knew Rangers hitters were in trouble.

"If you look at the way he was continually getting strike one down in the zone ... if he does that, he can do whatever he wants," Wilson said.

Back-to-back singles from Phil Nevin and Blalock with one out in the fourth inning were the only hits Verlander gave up, and they produced the only runner the Rangers put in scoring position all night. Verlander stranded them by striking out Mench on a fastball that registered 100 mph on the Ameriquest Field radar gun, then fanning Laynce Nix on an 83 mph breaking ball in the dirt after a 99 mph heater.

"I was really trying to get a ground-ball double play," Verlander said. "But once I got to two strikes, my mentality changed over to try to punch these guys out."

Verlander struck out Wilkerson three times in three plate appearances. He didn't allow Michael Young to hit a ball out of the infield. Same with Mench. The youngster that should've been nervous worked fast enough that he never let the hitters catch their breath.

"He pitched really well," manager Jim Leyland said. "He had good stuff, and Vance did a tremendous job. I thought they were a pretty good combination."

Granderson's two-run homer in the seventh inning capped the scoring. It was the only home run of the night, yet that still didn't slow the Tigers' pace enough to avoid a Major League record. They now have the most home runs in Major League history through the first three, four and five games of the season.

Shelton still has the Major League home run lead. He's 14-for-20 on the season, and only because he struck out in his final at-bat in the eighth.

"It's a Nintendo-type number," Granderson said. "You get on there, you make one of the top hitters on the game and you just seem to not get out. That's what going on right now."

But it's very real, even if it seems odd happening on this team. The only reason Verlander didn't have a ball from the game was that he had to hand it over for an official to authenticate.

The more the Tigers keep winning, the more authentic this start feels. Their batting average went down after this game to .319, they have a 2.40 ERA and they have yet to commit an error.

"I think you can use the word lucky," Leyland said. "I think you can use it in the sentence. But I don't think it's totally lucky. We've done a lot of good things. We've played very well. We've pitched very well. And we've gotten some lucky breaks.

"We're caught every break and we've made a lot of breaks ourselves. That's the way it goes. That's just the way things happen in a game sometimes. For the most part, you make your own breaks."
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20060408&content_id=1391037&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=det

Detroit (5-0) at Texas (1-5) Game 4 @ 2.05 PM ET

LHP Kenny Rogers (1-0, 1.50 ERA) vs RHP Vicente Padilla (1-0, 1.50 ERA)

There's not alot of Chris Shelton pictures out there...good ones at least, and it is a little rough around the edges, but here is a Shelton Sig for ya,

http://adm6.udmercy.edu/~mitchejr/sheltonsig.png

That is sweet man. [smilie=applause.gi: I might have to steal that one down the road.

First Tigers error of the season, comes in the 6th inning of the 6th game.

Texas up 5-3.

The Gambler is done for the night. Tata will replace him.

Eh, cant win em all.

We will be back tomorrow. Bank on it.

But for some weird reason I feel a slump coming.

Sucks to lose, but we still put up a fight at least, and Tata looked ok again, giving up only 2 walks, one of which was intentional, and Granderson had another big game.

Day off for Ordonez: Leyland had Placido Polanco's day off planned well in advance. Resting Magglio Ordonez on Sunday, though, was more of an improvised decision made after Saturday's game.

"He's had that injury with his knee [in the past]," Leyland said, "so I'm giving him a day off to rest him, keep him fresh."

With Polanco off Sunday, Inge batted second, his fourth different spot in the lineup over the four-game series.

"I can put him anywhere," Leyland said. "Even if I can't, I am."
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060409&content_id=1391749&vkey=news_det&fext=.jsp&c_id=det