The morning after: First post edition

Welcome to the inaugural post of Michigan and Trumbull!

OK, that was enough celebration, on to the news of the day. I mean, the Tigers are in a pennant race now.

Monday’s 11-7 loss to Tampa Bay wasn’t an ideal way to end the month of August or to build momentum following a terrific road series, but since when have the Tigers played ideally all season?

They might go down as one of the worst division winners in recent baseball history should they keep their lead in the central division. But the final month of the season is what everyone lives for and even if your team and its division are the epitome of suck, watching the final sprint for a playoff spot is much more exciting than being a Nationals or Orioles fan.

The Twins took advantage of Detroit’s slip up and are now just 3.5 games behind despite being just one game over .500. Aye caramba.

So as the Tigers prepare for the last month of the season, some familiar faces will return to the clubhouse. In case you didn’t know, teams can expand their rosters beginning today and Detroit will add six new players to the roster for Tuesday’s game against Cleveland.

You’ve seen most of them: Jeremy Bonderman, Eddie Bonine, Casey Fein, Wilkin Ramirez and Dusty Ryan. The one player coming to the big show without Major League experience is shortstop Brent Dlugach, who was batting .294 with nine home runs and 59 RBIs in 124 games at Triple-A. He also has a last name that always looks like it’s spelled wrong. In fact, when I tried to add his name to the Microsoft dictionary I got the response, “Really?”

The addition of the three pitchers gives Jim Leyland some more flexibility with the rotation and will possibly cut down the number of innings pitched for rookie Rick Porcello.

Ramirez is expected to be a late-game pinch runner and give Curtis Granderson the occasional days off against leftys because Grandy is just about as strong against south paws as President Obama is on political matters.

Finally, Dusty Ryan comes back to Detroit as the No. 3 man on the catcher depth chart, which is significant only to Mr. and Mrs. Ryan back home. OK, he allows Leyland to pinch hit for the starting catcher late in games, but still, pretty insignificant.

Later today a preview for the first game of a three game set against the Indians.