It was only one stinkin’ game, and I’m probably obsessed with it this morning because nobody else in the AL Central played last night, but the Tigers’ 6-5 win at Baltimore seemed telling.

Magglio Ordonez returned from the DL. Brandon Inge hit his first home run on the road in more than a year. Joel Zumaya needed 14 pitches in a 1-2-3 eighth, lowering his ERA to 1.46. And Gary Sheffield looked … like Gary Sheffield.

John Lowe’s game story in the Detroit Free Press has terrific detail about Jim Leyland getting a tip for Sheffield from a Hall of Famer at a clothing store in New York, and Leyland passing it to hitting coach Lloyd McClendon, who passed it to Sheffield, who then hit his first home run in 14 games. Sheff would have had another homer if Jay Payton hadn’t reached over the wall to rob him. As Lowe writes:

It must be kept in mind that the Tigers have been a consistent offensive machine in the last two seasons only in that 2 1/2 -month span last season when Sheffield was healthy and productive.

One of the wisest old scouts in the business passed through the Metrodome shortly before the All-Star break and predicted the Tigers would win the division. He called them a second-half team, he noted that Justin Verlander was rolling and said Miguel Cabrera is getting more comfortable and will soon become the same force he was in the National League.

Here in the blogosphere, this would be a far more effective post if I rattled off 150 different statistical reasons to back up the old scout’s wisdom. I won’t. I’m just telling you it was in his gut, and he’s been right a lot over the years.

The biggest reason I doubted his theory was Sheffield, who entered the break batting .217/.323/.338. All I’m sayin’ is this: It’s a three-team race, and the Twins’ current 5-game lead over Detroit is every bit as important as their 1 1/2-game deficit to Chicago.

Note: Best thing I read off the Home Run Derby came here, of course. A Max Mercy byline, ghostwritten by some other Joe:

“I thought ze Derby was never to end,” Lajong said. “I mean, what was zat, eh, six hours? I fell asleep two times. Roy kept hitting zem out. I guess he, how you say, tuckered out.”

Hobbs knocked the cover off of 12 balls, smashed two light towers, knocked out three sportswriters (but continuously missed your humble correspondent — work on that aim, Roy!) and cracked 19 car windshields. He did unwittingly admit afterward that he was not entirely in command of the Home Run Derby rules.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 11:46 am and is filed under Around MLB, Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.