Saturday, July 29, 2006

Tigers Hang On to Beat Twins

The Twins made this one interesting late but the Tigers held on to win the second game of the weekend series 8-6. The Tigers scored 6 runs on 9 hits in the first 4 innings off Brad Radke and Kyle Lohse to take a 6-0 lead after 3 1/2. One of the hits was a two run homer by Curtis Granderson, his first of the month.

In the 4th inning, Justin Morneau (.358/.395/.673 in his last 68 games) drilled a two run shot off Nate Robertson to make it 6-2. I acquired Morneau rather cheaply for both of my fantasy teams so I've been enjoying his season but I was still hoping the Tigers would shut him down for the series. In the seventh, Robertson allowed another two run homer to rookie Josh Rabe. It was Rabe's first career home run. After allowing one more hit , he was relieved by Joel Zumaya with nobody out. The runner Jason Tyner scored on two wild pitches and a sacrifice fly to make it 6-5. Zumaya then settled down to pitch two scoreless innings.

Dmitri Young led off the 8th with a home run to make it 7-5. Young is now 10 for 26 with 3 homers since coming off the disabled list. I was very skeptical that Young could come back at all but this past week has been promising. The Tigers added another run in the 9th to make it 8-5. It turned out that Todd Jones needed the extra breathing room tonight. He struck out the side in the 9th but gave up three singles and a run in the process. It was the first time in 13 games that Jones allowed a run. Thankfully, Morneau was left on deck when Cuddyer struck out to end the game. I was not looking forward to Morneau providing me with any more fantasy points tonight.

The 8-6 victory gives the Tigers 70 wins for the season and July is not over yet. Last year , they won only 71 all year. The amazing season just keeps getting better.

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