The Tigers are Raburning Hot Right Now

It was country night at the ballpark tonight and Mario and Rod sported their finest Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar get ups.  Meanwhile, the Tigers kept rolling along as they picked up their fifth straight victory.  Tonight’s game had pretty much everything you could ask for in a baseball game minus a no hitter, which was broken up in the top of the 5th inning.

Justin Verlander was dominant again, throwing 6 innings and allowing just 3 hits and a run with 2 walks to earn his 4th victory of the season.  Tigers relievers gave up two runs, but had four more strikeouts and shut the door on a 5-3 victory.

There were a few big stories within this game, outside of Verlander’s outing (which has become common lately).  I’ll bring them up in order of ascending importance, in my opinion.  I will finish off by dabbing my chicken in the speculation sauce.  It should all make for a yummy meal.  Enjoy.

• In the fourth inning with two Tigers’ runners on and a hit-and-run in action, Gerald Laird hit a line drive to second baseman Ian Kinsler who caught Inge off the bag at second and then Andrus tagged Raburn to complete a 4-6 triple play.  Triple plays don’t happen often, although there have been two this year already.  The last triple play involving the Tigers was in 2006 against the Chicago White Sox.  Before that, you have to go back to 2001 to find the next one involving the Tigers.  Surprisingly, since 1901 there have been 58 triple plays turned in Detroit Tigers’ games, 33 for and 26 against.

• The second big story of tonight’s game was the debut of Wilkin Ramirez.  Wilkin’s major league debut came as the DH plugged into the 3-hole in front of Miguel Cabrera (probably the best spot in the order you can put a kid to help him see good pitches).  Wilkin is a 23-year old righty from the Dominican Republic who has been tabbed as one of Detroit’s best prospects.  This year in AAA for the Mud Hens, Wilkin was hitting .316 with 5 HR and 14 SB in 117 ABs.  Tonight, after a couple strikeouts, it was looking like he was going to have a very forgettable debut.  That was until his third at bat when he decided to man up on one in the 6th inning and send the ball 430+ feet over the left-centerfield wall for his first career home run.  Congratulations to Wilkin on making tonight an even more memorable one and let’s have a cheers that the ball didn’t wind up in the glove of the Happy Youngster.  I suppose Wilkin was able to retrieve his home run ball with reasonable ease.

• The biggest story, in my mind, is the recent hot play of Ryan Raburn.  Raburn, who is getting more playing time because of Magglio’s bereavement leave, has been simply en fuego.  I think if the Jonas Brothers were Tigers fans they’d make a new song called, “Raburnin’ Up.” In his last three games, he’s 5-11 with three homers (one in each game), 9 RBIs, and 5 runs.  In that time, his average has jumped 124 points (to a still Mendoza-ish .219) and he is making a loud claim for more playing time.

• That brings me to this question: What are the Tigers going to do with all of these OF?  I’ve speculated in the past that they could take the softball route and play with 4 outfielders.  Clearly, I was kidding, or was I?  But seriously, with Anderson, Granderson, Ordonez, Guillen, Raburn, Thomas, Larish, and even Ramirez the Tigers have eight viable options in the OF.  Clete Thomas and Jeff Larish are probably next to go as they always have been the two who keep getting called up and sent back down.  However, a lot might be said about getting rid of Magglio Ordonez.  He has a club option on his contract where if he has 270 starts or 1,080 PAs in 2008-09 combined, his $18 million are guaranteed for 2010.  That means in 89 more starts or 386 ABs, whichever comes first, his contract for next season becomes a guarantee.  This year he’s only hitting .256 with only 7 extra base hits, so he’s not exactly giving the Tigers much reason right now to allow that contract to kick in by keeping him around.  Other teams will presumably know this and use that as leverage in a trade, so we might not get much out of him, especially if he doesn’t start hitting better.  The only other solution would be letting him go.  Personally, I hope the Tigers can trade him because it would be a shame if we had to release this career .311 hitter and get nothing in return for him.  Then again, I think it would be more of a shame to have to owe him $18 million next year if he’s not going to produce like an $18 million hitter.  Either way, I think Magglio’s days in Detroit are numbered and I’m assuming he knows that.

Your first place Tigers complete their series with the Rangers tomorrow at 1:05 PM EST as Edwin Jackson (2nd best ERA in the A.L.) takes on Kevin Millwood.

GO TIGERS!