This is starting to remind me of the late 80s, with the Tigers and the Blue Jays both in contention and playing great ball out there. I almost expect to see Jorge Bell trot out to the outfield. Too bad the AL East of old is no more.

The Tigers head to visit our not-so-friendly neighbors to the North in Toronto this weekend to close out what has been a somewhat disappointing stretch of tough games. Still, as bad as things have been the last week or so, if we can somehow sweep the Blue Jays, we'll end up at 8-8 for the spell. which is right where we were hoping to be. Even 7-9 or 6-10 wouldn't be the end of the world. A whole lot of pennants have been won by teams beating up on the dregs of the league and playing only mediocre against the good squads, and methinks this team is going to learn from it's mistakes and win some games against the Yankees and White Sox down the stretch.

Toronto has been playing pretty well all year and are coming off a split in a four game set against the Orioles. Alot of people mocked some of their extensive moves this offseason as being extravagant, but so far so good, as they seem to be working. The Jays are sitting at 33-26 and are right in the heart of this playoff race.

Their offense is anchored by Vernon Wells and Troy Glaus, both of whom are off to flying starts this year. Wells is hitting .330 with decent power and Glaus already has 17 homers on the year. The surprising alex Rios has possibly been their best hitter of all so far, hitting .349/.388/.609 with 11 homers and 44 rbis, while Reed Johnson (.362 avg in limited time), Shea Hillenbrand (.337 avg) and Lyle Overbay (.286/.365/.461) help fill in the gaps of a pretty fearsome lineup. Even former Tiger Frank Catalanatto has been getting into the act, hitting .316/.424/.500 in somewhat of a platoon role with Johnson. Needless to say, our pitching is going to have to be sharp.

I say we rebound a bit this series and take 2 of 3.. It helps that we miss ace Roy Halladay's turn in the rotation.

Things get rolling at 7:07 ET Friday (Damn Canadians, 7:07??? always gotta be different, don't you...). Game one features Jeremy Bonderman vs Gustavo Chacin.

Bonderman seems to have gotten his mojo back of late, and none of the Blue Jays have faced him much or hit him all that hard in the past, so good things could be in the offing.
Chacin, on the other hand, has been getting knocked around a bit, so it could be a good time for the Tigers bats to keep rolling.

I'm going with 7-4 Tigers.

Hopefully last nights 4 run inning carrys over to tonight.

^^Yes, it will. The Tigers will open up the game with a 4-0 lead in the top of the first when Granderson steps in.

Not bad, e-ray, not bad at all.

Now if you could just improve those haikus...

I think these games will be slugfests. I'm expecting an average of 20 runs a game.

I like the pitching matchups of this series. We should be able take 2 of 3.

Listening to the broadcast the other night, one of the announcers said that Leyland went out to the mound two starts ago after Bonderman had just been rocked for a homerun and said something to the effect of "Boy, its time to graduate. Either you are or you aren't." They said Bonderman has been much better since. That sounds like some sort of odd and a bit blown up but if its true Leyland is a badass.

It's true....according to Bonderman and Leyland.

What can be said about Leyland? The man makes Mickey from the Rocky movies look like a Care Bear.

"Gustavo Chacin" is fun to say.

Gustavo Chacin.

It's true....according to Bonderman and Leyland.

What can be said about Leyland? The man makes Mickey from the Rocky movies look like a Care Bear.

http://images.tsn.ca/images/stories/20051004/leyland_73043.jpg

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http://i.1asphost.com/RockyFan/meredith.jpg

Leyland's even telling him to kiss the ring.

BTW Andrew Miller is on ESPN right now.

RBI single for Granderson.

1-1 game.

Attaway, gotta love those 2-out rbis. 2-1 Tigers on a Maggs single.

Anyone else stuck witht the Blue Jays feed? It's the dumbest thing I've ever seen, they don't put the score overlay up there during the inning, and the announcers are always talking about other crap, so you never know the count, the number of outs, etc. Annoying as hell.

POLANCO!!!!!!!!!!

4-2 Tigers.

He's really been driving the ball lately. It's good to see.

The Blue Jays announcers just made an interesting comment about the Tigers chemistry. He was saing that usually, when he goes through the visitors clubhouse in the afternoon, most visiting teams will jsut be hanging out, watching a DVD in the lounge area or playing cards or listening to music or whatever. The Tigers, today, he said were all huddled together watching game tape of Jays starter Chacin. Now all teams watch game tape, but usually in set sessions, not during their free time, on their own. Good to hear.

Meanwhile, the Jays just made another pitching change. This is their 4th pitcher tonight (and it's only the 7th), and they used 4 yesterday and 5 the night before. Could bode well for tommorrow.

Our bullpen's just garbage right now. Todd Jones must go.

Rodney and Jones really sucked tonight. Goddamn.

todd jones does suck he has always been a loser. I was pissed we he came back and I still am. I wish Percival would have worked out.

Zoom, Rodney and Jones all sucked tonight. And Leyland pulled the only good reliever (Walker) we had tonight after just one batter.

Yeah, we need someone else... He's not working out very well.

Miner is going to get destroyed.

INGE with a 3 Run HR.

Tigers lead 3-0 in the 2nd.

Three run homer for Inge! Fuck the haters, Inge is the man.

THAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dude's got unbelievable power.

Man must be juicing.

Lilly has settled down quite nicely. They should give him the CG.

Let's hope Colon can get another scoreless inning here in the 8th.

Uh oh.

Jones is warming up in the pen.

Game over!

I need a drink now.

TIGERS WIN! YES!

Miner got a quality start and a W. I'm a little shocked.

Miner's got some nice sink on that ball.

Thames is unreal.

did you guys see Miner get a pie in the face from his teammates during the post game interview? LOL

Thank God for Zumaya.

PUDGE!!!!!!!!

Zumaya is really something else. Also, it's nice to see us win the series.

Great win for the Tigers tonight.

Gomez, Santiago and Infante came up big in place of Maggs and Polanco. Pudge and Guillen both had a big nights offensively.

And First Career Save for Zumaya.[smilie=clap.gif]

LOL@Pudge's one-armed homer

Great win by the Tigers tonight. We only needed one homer today to produce 10 runs......solid. The bench was awesome as shit. They know when to step up.

MVP of the game was Joel Zumaya. He shut the door on them bums.

Hopefully he gets two or three more save opportunities within the next 10 games.