Carmona Stymies Tigers

Back on July 9, Curtis Granderson was giving out mid-season awards on his blog and most of them seemed right on the money. However, his suggestion that Fausto Carmona was the Cy Young Award winner raised a few eyebrows. Maybe he knew something. I still don't know if Carmona is a Cy Young winner but he has pitched like one over the past month (1.73 ERA over his last 7 starts) and he pitched like one tonight. He allowed just one earned run on 4 hits and struck out 10 Tigers in 8 innings of work as the Indians topped the Tigers 5-2. The victory game the Indians a split of the two game series and left the two teams tied for first place.

Tigers starter Jair Jurrjens pitched a solid game for a 21 year old kid making his debut in the middle of a pennant race. He made it through 7 innings which is more than we've seen from most Tigers starts over the past month. He gave up 4 runs on 5 hits with much of the damage coming in the second inning when he gave up a 2 run homer to Franklin Gutierrez on a 3-2 pitch. He also gave up single runs in the 3rd and 6th innings. He looked pretty sharp though and seemed to get better as the game progressed. I think he probably earned himself another start.

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a walk, a Cleveland error and a single by Mike Rabelo. They scored one more run in the 8th and it looked like they would get more. Brandon Inge led off with a single and Granderson tripled him in to make it 4-2. It was Granderson's 19th triple of the year. However, Curtis was left on third when Cy Carmona retired Marcus Thames, Gary Sheffield and Magglio Ordonez in order.

The Tigers will now travel to New York to face the hard hitting Yankees in a four game series. The Yankees have been the hottest team in baseball since the all-star break but the hopeful news is that the Orioles cooled them off the last couple of nights. Game one tomorrow night will match up Justin Verlander and Mike Mussina.