The Tigers scored two runs…

… In the first inning.

The Tigers scored four runs…

… In the third inning.

The Tigers scored six runs…

… In the fourth inning.

The Tigers scored seven runs…

… In the fifth inning.

…and then they took the night off.

Hard to be upset in this game, but the Tigers had more scoring chances in innings six through nine and they looked like the team that would get up early 5-0 and then sit down just to lose 6-5.  Luckily, they had more to work with and they got better pitching.

Nate Robertson had a quality start and Aquilino Lopez bounced back brilliantly, striking out four in two and two-thirds innings of relief.  The only real down note, other than a boring last four innings, was Robertson’s inability to put up zeroes after the Tigers scored the big runs.

But he battled out of those innings, and he only gave up the three runs.  The Tigers one through four spots in the batting order combined for eleven hits, and the game was over before it started.  But the Tigers haven’t scored in four innings, and it seems like every time they do this, they lie down for a while.  They can’t afford to keep doing that.  The White Sox keep winning, and though Cleveland looks like they are coming back to the Tigers, the White Sox stay about six games ahead.  It is starting to look like Chicago’s division to lose.

But the Tigers still have about a dozen games against every team in the division, so there is noise to be made.  What they can’t do is lose a bunch in a row again.  They have to win more than they lose in every five game stretch from here on out to have a shot.  There are 113 games left, and 63-50 likely won’t cut it, they will have to win close to 70 games.

But sit back and enjoy the day, they deserve it, but they have work to be done later.  They can’t have another performance where they don’t show up after a big win.

Gary Sheffield looked good again.  He has hits in his last four or five games, and he had three RBI and two runs scored in this one–all without an extra base hit.  If the Tigers keep taking what the pitchers give them, they have a good chance to score double-digit runs every night.

But usually what happens in a situation like this is that they score a bunch of runs, think they are Mike Tyson facing Buster Douglas the next day and try to get the knockout with each punch.  They need to look at the linescore.  They had only five extra base hits to score the 19 runs, and if you take Magglio Ordonez out of it, they only had two.  This ability to manufacture most of their runs is the reason they scored so many.

So they go for a series win today.  It would be nice to follow a sweep of a bad team with a series win against a good team…