Another solid outing from Kenny Rogers…

Gets wasted…

Rogers held the first-place Angels in check with seven shut out innings.  The bullpen threw in four more, but the Tigers offense, the same that scored 54 runs in its previous two series, could not muster even a single crossing of the plate.

If Kenny Rogers was good, John Garland was lights out.  Though Garland walked three, he never really got into even a bit of trouble.  Rogers gave up five hits and walked just the one batter, but Garland, who actually gave up more baserunners than Rogers, struck out five Tigers to help keep them at bay.

The Tiger hitters still continue to be befuddled by good pitching.  Either they make good pitchers look great, or all these pitchers are stepping it up and blanking the Tigers with their best stuff of the year.  One thing is for sure, the hitting can’t take the full blame, some of the brunt of it has to go to the pitching keeping them off balance.

But there it is.  The Tigers were shut out for the eighth time in less than one third of a season last night.  On this pace, they will be shut out 25 times this season.  For a team that fields a .300 lifetime batting average on a given night, it is inexplicable.

The fact of the matter is that the Tigers went the first sixth of the season with the inability to get into a pitcher’s duel.  In the second sixth, they have gained the ability to get into one, but they have barely shown the ability to win one.  A month ago, Armando Galarraga was the only one showing the stuff to give the team a better than average chance to win.  A month later, pretty much every start has been good, but the hitting is hot and cold in a snap of the fingers.

Gary Sheffield came up lame running out a ground ball, and though he was 0 for 2 in this one, he had started to show some signs of life after being cold for April and most of May.  It’s unfortunate that it looked like he was starting to get healthy, but it may be the best thing for him.  If he goes on the disabled list, hopefully he will be humble enough to take a week-long rehab stint and try to get some of his power back.  If he could gain some confidence at the plate, look out.  If he, on the other hand, is okay after a couple of days, maybe he has learned to take what the pitchers give him.

The biggest news in last night’s game was the Tigers inability to get a hit after Garland left.  Okay, they had one hit.  Yes, one hit in the last five innings against three relievers.  For a team that should score 900 runs, they sure didn’t look like one last night.

Bobby Seay was the other headline.  In his last few appearances, he has not looked good.  Basically, it has been since Clay Rapada went on the DL.  If Seay can’t step it up as the team’s left-handed specialist with Rapada out, it could end up spelling doom for the Tigers, if they aren’t doomed already.

So there they are, nine games under .500 and 7 1/2 games out of first place.  They have two more against the Angels as well.  Hopefully, they can get some runs in the series.  With pitching going the way it is, they shouldn’t need many, but they’ll need at least one…