Grandy back in Center, Tigers win 19-6

The much discussed Miguel Cabrera/Carlos Guillen position switch was delayed at least one night as Guillen played first and Cabrera was the designated hitter. Meanwhile, Brandon Inge played third and Gary Sheffield remained on the bench with two bad bad shoulders. I'm not sure why Cabrera was not at first and Guillen at DH but Inge was the obvious choice for third with Sheffield out of the line-up. With Sheffield's shoulder problems and Guillen's frequent injuries, I suspect we will see the Inge at third with either Cabrera or Guillen at designated hitter alignment fairly often. Everything worked just great tonight as Guillen, Cabrera and Inge combined for 9 RBI. Who cares about defense when you do that?

The big move that actually did happen tonight was Curtis Granderson's return from the disabled list. Clete Thomas, who batted .295 in Grandy's absence, was sent to Toedo where he will try to continue his development with regular at bats. He wasn't going to get that in Detroit with Curtis back in center field. Granderson had a good 2008 debut tonight with two hits, two walks, two RBI and three runs scored. It's great to see him back in the line-up.

As for the rest of the team tonight, here are the highlights:

• 19 runs, 14 hits, 10 walks
  

• Guillen - 3 hits, 5 RBI
  

• Jacque Jones - 2 hits including his first homer (3 extra base hits in two nights)
  

• Edgar Renteria - 2 hits giving him 6 for 8 in the series so far.
  

• The bullpen continued their very solid work as of late and some of their work happened before the game got out of hand. Clay Rapada, Aquilino Lopez and Jason Grilli combined for 5 2/3 scoreless innings allowing just 2 hits and no walks and striking out 6.

The 11 run 6th deserves its own highlight list:

• 7 hits, 3 walks, 2 hit batsmen and a sacrifice fly
  

• A one armed opposite field 3 run homer by Cabrera
  

• 2 hits, 2 runs and 2 RBI for Granderson.
  

The only negative tonight was Kenny Rogers who allowed six runs on nine hits and three walks and saw his ERA climb to 7.66. There were some cheap hits and poor defense (including a botched double play ball by Ramon Santiago that led to three runs) but Rogers didn't look good.

they will go for a sweep tomorrow afternoon with Jeremy Bonderman on the mound against Scott Feldman. After 29 runs in two nights, here's hoping they saved something for the always tough for them get away day game.