All is right with the world (for now) ... Tigers 6, Twins 2

The Tigers avoided an embarrassing sweep in Minnesota and who, of all people, helped save the bleeding?

Nate Robertson.

Yes, that Nate Robertson, the one who has been battling against injuries and being a good pitcher most of the year. He threw five strong innings, allowed just two runs and struck out six batters in the Tigers’ 6-2 win Sunday afternoon.

He also stranded six runners, so his performance wasn’t easy on the heart, but he gave Detroit a mini-jumpstart, something the team needed desperately.

If you read my last post I made things seem really dire and it felt like it. But the Twins gained just one game on Detroit over the weekend which doesn’t sound as bad as saying “they lost two out of three games.” A three-game lead still isn’t comfortable, but it sounds a lot better than two games.

The Tigers still have to start hitting the ball better as they stare down their final two road series of the season but at least they have a good taste in their mouth going into Cleveland. And it helps to have a day off today this late in the year.

Placido Polanco is doing his part, hitting .371 during in September and Miguel Cabrera has been a picture of consistency all year. It’s time other players start showing some life right about now.

All Detroit needs is for a different guy to step up on each night. The Tigers don’t need Curtis Granderson so go on a tear or Carlos Guillen and Brandon Inge to start hitting better. But if any three of them can step up and have a big night at least once or twice over the last two weeks of the season, the Tigers will seal the deal on this pennant.

This is it folks. This is the point of the year where we all take a deep breathe and plunge into the deep abyss that is the end of the regular season.

Thirteen games.

Thirteen games until triumphant victory or soul-crushing defeat.

This post can also be viewed at the blog The Sports Bank.

Look out!: Tiger 8, Indians 5

Pitching is unquestionably the key to the Tigers’ success the rest of the season, even more so than your general “pitching wins championships” mantra.

Thanks to a wildly inconsistent offense that relies more on the home run than on good hitting. Detroit needs its pitching staff, particularly Nos. 1-3 in the starting rotation, to carry a little extra burden.

That’s why last did more to make me nervous than to calm me. Usually an eight-run output from the offense is something to cheer about. But I still can’t shake off Edwin Jackson’s five inning, four-run performance. Over the entire season his numbers are fine and he probably could have three to four more wins of the offense hadn’t let him down so many times.

But since the month of August, including last night’s game, Jackson is a mediocre 6-5 with an ERA at 4.76. That’s more like the Jackson I was expecting at the beginning of the season. Seeing bad Edwin Jackson emerge late in the year isn’t comforting. Neither was his performance a day after the Tampa Bay Rays smoked Jarrod Washburn.

On the bright side the bullpen has been stellar as of late and with the exception of one bad pitch from Zach Minor, all four relief pitchers looked great.

But now isn’t the time for the top three pitcher in the rotation to have five inning outings. Porcello’s innings will already be limited and whoever fills the No. 5 spot won’t be expected to go beyond six innings very often. That leaves Jackson, Washburn and Justin Verlander to eat up innings while giving the team a chance to win.

With the bullpen looking this good, the last thing Jim Leyland wants is for those arms to be taxed heading into the playoffs.

So for every game will have a player of the game, a goat of the game and the “I knew it was over when …” moment of the game. Here are the candidates for Detroit’s 8-5 win over Cleveland.

Player of the game: Aubrey Huff (2-2, 3 RBI, 2 BB)—This acquisition may not have made the biggest splash but it could turn out to be the best move the Tigers made for their offense.

Goat of the Game: Carlos Carrasco (3 IP, 9 H, 6ER, 3 BB, 3 SO, 3 HR)—Welcome to the big leagues kid. You may have a bright future ahead of you but until your next start you’re a dud.

“I knew it was over when …”: Fernando Rodney struck out Jamey Carrol with a nasty back door change up. You knew there was no way the Indians were hitting him.

Tigers v. Indians: Now it's a sprint

This series begins what will be a particularly brutal month for us Tigers fans. Detroit is a pedestrian 27-20 against division opponents, one game worse than Minnesota. Twenty five of the remaining 32 games this season are against divisional foes.

The good news is that the Tigers finish the year with seven games at home against the Twins and White Sox. The bad news is that they must play nine straight roads games before the last week of the season.

But none of the really matters unless you’re a blogger working on expository writing. What matters is tonight’s series opener against the Indians. Why? It’s the first of September and there is always something special about the first of any month, a chance for a team to shake off anything bad that happened the previous month or to build momentum from a particularly good run.

August was a blah moth for Detroit (16-13), much like the entire regular season, but they played better than .500 ball. So tonight is a chance to build on that little momentum and seal the deal in the central division.

Edwin Jackson (10-6, 2.96) squares off against rookie Carlos Carrasco (acquired in the Cliff Lee deal), who makes his Major League debut tonight. The chance of teeing off against a pitcher making his Major League debut sounds great on paper for the Tigers but then you think about it more: Detroit has struggled against pitchers the team has already seen. What happens when they face a solid prospect they’ve never faced?

I’ll see the glass half full and say it’ll be a long evening for the Indians. Jackson should be solid, especially within the friendly confines of Comerica Park.

As a team, the Tigers pitchers have a 3.69 ERA and have held opposing batters to a .240 batting average at home. Both numbers are tops among American League pitching staffs.

So get ready for the final sprint to the finish line.

Well, since this is the American League Central and we’re talking about the Tigers, it’ll probably be more of a limp.