Because of the three game sweep the Sox handed the Tigers just over a week ago, this series is now the all-important one for both teams to see what will happen in September.
If the Tigers can win even one game, then they will likely still have the division lead going into the two teams' last series together in September. If they can win two or three, they will likely have the lead coming out of that September series regardless of what happens in between. If they can sweep, making a guarantee that the Twins and the Red Sox do not pick up any ground, they have the wild card, if not the division, sewn up.
And who is pitching the all-important first game of this series for the Tigers? None other than Justin Verlander, the Tigers' ace for most of the season. Though he has seemed tired in his past two starts, and though he has never pitched this many innings in his career, and though Baseball Prospectus thinks he'll end up on the DL when Maroth comes back, look for this to be a breakout game for the rookie.
What knowledge do I have to back this up? Why am I about to tell you that Verlander will pitch the game of his life for Tiger faithful tonight? Well, I'd like to tell you that I did a bunch of Bill James/Baseball Prospectus research and I have found that one statistic that shows that Verlander will pitch the game of his life, and his White Sox counterpart will almost match him pitch for pitch but lose a close battle late in the game. I would love to have a stat that backs all this up.
But I don't...
All I have is Joe Namath on my side when I say "The Tigers will win tonight. I guarantee it."
There you have it. Luckily I don't have to worry because absolutely no one reads this blog (yet), so I don't have to worry about a media backlash that fires up the White Sox and Ozzie Guillen to the point where they completely shut down the Tigers and make a fool of me. Luckily, no one will know at all.
But I will. And I am saying that Verlander is going to pitch his heart out tonight. He will give up few hits and will walk no more than one. He will have a shutout going through at least four or five, and will give up no more than two runs. The Tigers will get a couple home runs with runners on and win 5-2. There. Now go play golf or something. You don't even have to watch the game.
The fact is (or the "feeling I am getting" is) that the Tigers are due to have good performances on both sides of the ball. They haven't been hitting, save for one inning in a while, and they haven't been pitching too well either. People say Verlander's shot, but I don't believe them. He's a rookie that has had two or three sub-par starts in a row. But they haven't been bad, just a bit off.
Verlander will put it back together tonight. Magglio Ordonez will hit a home run. Ivan Rodriguez will get a couple of hits and Marcus Thames will hit the game winner. They are all due too, if you ask me. Then, the Tigers will take the field tomorrow with their hot hitters coupled with their other hitters who have just come off of slumps and pound the Sox into submission tomorrow. On Wednesday, the Sox will be shellshocked, but will play well in another close loss, and they will play like the Tigers did on that get-away day in April on Thursday.
The Tigers will sweep the series and win the American League Central all this week.
Or, I could be entirely wrong and be watching football in September like I always do...
