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Bless you boys! The 2006 Tigers are bringing joy back to Mudville. Nate Robertson becomes the last of the Tigers starters to break the four win barrier and Todd Jones earned his 10th save in 11 opportunities. Detroit continues to get solid starting pitching, great relief efforts and timely hitting. All of these things have been talked about, but not been on display in the D for about 20 years. The Tigers now have a five game winning streak, which is their fourth such streak on the young season. Detroit is tied with Chicago for the AL Central lead and best record in the Majors. Tiger hitters again enjoyed feasting off the weak pitching of Kyle Lohse for the Twins. Lohse has been battered around by Detroit in three starts during 2006. He lasted on 2.2 innings and now has a 13.14 ERA in his three outings against the Tigers. Five of Detroit’s seven runs came with two outs and without the benefit of the long ball. Willie Eyre came out of the pen for Minnesota and allowed two more runs in the fourth inning. The Twins bullpen settled things down, but by that time the damage has already been done. The big hit in the game was a three RBI double to right center clearing the bases by Chris Shelton. It was good to see him going to the opposite field again. He now has 25 RBI on the year. Ivan Rodriguez also had a nice offense game contributing two hits and two RBI. Pudge is now hitting .314 with 15 RBI out of the three hole. Polanco and Guillen also added RBI for the Tigers. For Guillen it was his 24th RBI of the season. The Tigers have five hitters with more than 20 RBI on the year with Ordonez, Monroe and Inge joining Shelton and Guillen. Detroit is receiving contributions up and down the line-up. What a bonus to have 21 RBI out of the ninth place in the batting order. Nate Robertson fell behind early in the game giving up a run in the second and two in the third. He allowed the three runs over only five innings allowing seven hits in the process. It wasn’t Nate’s best outing, but he did enough to earn the victory with some help from the bullpen. Roman Colon saw his first action since being called up from Toledo throwing a perfect sixth inning with one strikeout. Bobby Seay started the seventh face two batters and was unable to record an out. Joel Zumaya stormed out of the bullpen firing 100 mph fastballs and a nasty curve. He worked the seventh and the eighth without allowing a hit or a run despite two walks. The Twins did score one run in the seventh that was charged to Bobby Seay. Todd Jones came on for the save and did the job. The Tigers were helped out by the defense that recorded four double plays behind the pitchers. Inge did commit an error his seventh on the year, but it did not lead to any damage. This was an important game for the Tigers as they have a tough match-up tomorrow against Johan Santana. Detroit will counter with the rookie Justin Verlander going for his fifth victory of the season. *** OEs 3 Stars of the Game *** #3 Joel Zumaya – Hold (12), 2 IP, 0 Hs, 0 Rs, 2 BBs, 2.45 ERA
#2 Ivan Rodriguez – 2-4 with a run scored and 2 RBI
#1 Chris Shelton – 1-4 with a double and 3 RBI  On Tap – Game 39 (25-13) v. Minnesota Twins (17-21) May 17th, 7:05 ET
Justin Verlander (4-3, 3.77) v. Johan Santana (4-3, 3.38)
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Go Tigers!!!
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