Tigers Hold Off Mets

The Tigers evened the weekend series versus the Mets with an 8-7 victory seen on the Fox Game of the Week today. After yesterday's shutout, the Bengals brought their bats today and built up an 8-3 lead after 6 innings. Carlos Guillen, who had been scuffling since his return from a groin injury, hit a three run homer in the first and then doubled as part of a 2 run 5th. The Tigers scored 3 more runs in the 6th when Curtis Granderson and Magglio Ordonez sandwiched doubles around singles by Placido Polanco (4 hits on the day) and Gary Sheffield.

This was not going to be an easy win though. Jeremy Bonderman looked good for the most part allowing just 2 earned runs on 5 hits through 6. However, he left in the 7th after surrendering 3 straight hits to start the inning. Reliever Wil Ledezma then let two of Bonderman's runners score and loaded the bases on two hits and a walk before getting Carlos Delgado on a grounder to end the inning. That made it 8-6. Fernando Rodney gave up a solo homer to David Wright to lead off the 8th to make it a one run game. Fortunately, Todd Jones was sharp today and had a fairly easy 9th despite a bloop single due to some miscommunication between Ordonez and and Polanco.

The rubber game of the series will be at 1:00 tomorrow afternoon. It will be 22 year old Andrew Miller versus 41 year old Tommy Glavine. It will not be on MLB Extra Innings which means I'll be following the game online. In another game of interest tomorrow, Kenny Rogers will make a rehab start for Toledo. If all goes well in his rehab starts, Rogers could be back pitching for the Tigers by the end of the month.