Detroit Tigers in Inter League play

The injury depleted Detroit Tigers defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-4 in the first game of a short five game home stand.   The Tigers who had lost 4 straight games and have been 10-16 since the All-Star break finally saw their bats come alive.

Playing in front of another sell out crowd the Tigers quickly fell behind 4-1 behind rookie starter Buck Farmer making his MLB debut.  Farmer called up from the AA Erie Seawolves pitched 5 innings and left the game with the score tied at 4-4.   He had started the season at the West Michigan Whitecaps who play in the Midwest League and then moved up to Erie where he had only made two starts.

The Tigers who had lead the Central Division for most of the season now trail the Kansas City Royals by a half game.  The Tigers who have seen three of their pitchers go down with injuries in the past week are now calling people up from AAA Toledo Mudhens on a regular basis. 

Justin Verlander, Anibal Sanchez and Joakim Soria all are on the IR for the time being.  Henceforth this needed the Tigers to call up Buck Farmer from AA Erie for a spot start.   For all of the local fans this means that Farmer started twice at Dow Diamond this season for the West Michigan Whitecaps against the Great Lakes Loons and lost both games.  He did start once in Grand Rapids against the Loons and got the victory there. 

Nick Castellanos got things going for the Tigers with a triple and home run.   Victor Martinez had three hits on the night along with 3 rbi's and Alex Avila hit another home run.   The sold out crowd of 41.043 fans (18th sell out) got to see some good relief pitching from Blaine Hardy and Joba Chamberlain before getting a scare again from closer Joe Nathan in the 9th inning.  

The Tigers improve to 64-54 on the season but still trail the Royals by a 1/2 game in the standings.  Maybe the bats have started to come alive by getting 12 hits on the night.   The Tigers will have to get healthy in order to get back on track and win a fourth straight Central Division title.  Their goal is to get into the MLB playoffs whether they win the Central Division by 1/2 game or 10 games.