Another day, another eight runs.

The Tigers continue to hit in lieu of getting quality starting pitching and it keeps giving them victories.  Today, it was Jeremy Bonderman’s turn to walk seven batters in under five innings, but the seven hitters he put down by strikeout kept the Texas Rangers from scoring more than two runs.

Bonderman almost got through five innings, but he walked in a run with the last hitter he faced to tie the game and Jim Leyland was forced to go to the bullpen.  In came Zach Miner, who coming into the game had allowed a small village to cross the plate, but he induced a ground out to end the threat.  He then proceeded to pitch three more scoreless innings to get his ERA under 9.99.

While Miner was mowing down Rangers, the Tigers bats once again took over the game.  Magglio Ordonez homered twice.  Brandon Inge and Ryan Raburn added their own blasts, and the Tigers broke open a 2-2 game and ended up winning by six runs.  Curtis Granderson was responsible for the first run with a leadoff homer, his first of the season.  Granderson looks like he is right on track from where he finished last season, and is 3 for 8 in two games with three runs scored and as many RBI’s.

But the starting pitching woes continued.  Bonderman was, for lack of a better term, effectively wild.  He allowed only two hits, but the seven walks made his pitch count too high to get him in line for a decision.  The seven strikouts were likely just attributed to the surprised batters when Bonderman’s pitches found the plate.

The good news is that the bullpen came to play once again.  You would have to go back over a dozen innings to find the last run a Tiger reliever surrendered–the only run the bullpen gave up the entire series.

So where do the question marks lie now?  Is it with the offense that struggled for the first two weeks of the season but has now rebounded to have the second most runs scored in baseball?  Is it with the bullpen that had a hugely inflated ERA for those two weeks, and is missing key pieces, but has now given up but a run in three outings averaging four innings?  Or is it the starting pitching that has a quality start in about one in eight of their games?

For some reason, it’s the starting pitching.

To be honest, Bonderman still had good stuff today, and he did as well in his last start, he has just lost a bit of control.  When he finds it, he’ll be fine.  He is still striking guys out.  Verlander’s velocity is up in his last start.  Kenny Rogers has looked pretty good until yesterday, and Armando Galarraga is a nice surprise.  Nate Robertson has some work to do, however.  He is supposed to be a battling, inning-eater, and hasn’t come close yet this season, and Dontrelle Willis has had the same control problems as Bonderman without the effectiveness on the other side to back it up of yet.  Hopefully the latter two can come around.

Luckily for the Tigers, they have started scoring runs in bunches.  If they can continue this feat, they should be fine until the pitching, which does show signs of life, comes around.  If the starting pitchers can start to get hitters out and go six or seven innings each for a week or two, the Tigers should be in first place, quite possibly by the end of this month.  If they can’t, when the bats die down, they are in line for another 0-7 stretch that could knock them right out of the race.

Hopefully the starters can come around and the Tigers can keep up their winning ways as they spend this weekend entertaining an always tough Angels team.  The sweep may have been against one of the worst teams in the American League, but hey, it’s a start…