Tigers Routed by White Sox, Split Series

The Tigers suffered their worst rout of the season at the hands of the White Sox 10-0 today. There is not much good news to report from this one. Nate Robertson gave up 10 runs on 9 hits in 6 2/3 innings. Included in the assault were 2 home runs by Jermaine Dye and 1 by Juan Uribe.

On the offensive side, the Tigers could do little with Jon Garland who scattered 6 hits and pitched a complete game shutout. It got so bad that Sean Casey was thrown out at first base by left fielder Pablo Ozuna in the 5th inning. Casey hit a line drive over Joe Crede who almost made a leaping catch. Casey thought he had caught it and failed to run to first base. Ozuna picked up the ball and threw Casey out at first. That's the kind of game it was.

The lone bright spot for the Tigers was Curtis Granderson who went 2 for 4. Granderson had been slumping horribly in August coming into the game batting .121/.183/.182 for the month. July was not so good either as he hit .273/.337/.353 for the month. He is now batting .262/.343/.414 for the year. The Tigers really need him to get back to hitting the way he was in the first half down the stretch.

For some reason, the Tigers are having trouble in afternoon games this year. While they are 56-25 in night games, they are 25-22 during the day. Today's loss means that they ended up with a split of the 4 game series after playing so well in winning the first 2 games. Minnesota also inched closer to the Tigers with their 11-2 rout of the Orioles. Here are the standings:

AL Central Division Standings

	W	L	PCT	GB
Detroit	81	47	.633	-----
Chicago	75	52	.591	5 1/2
Minnesota	74	52	.587	6
Cleveland	57	68	.456	22 1/2
Kansas City	46	82	.359	35