One is the Loneliest Number: Mariners 3, Tigers 1

As awesome as Justin Verlander has been this season, he does need runs scored for him.  Maybe the Tigers' lineup presumed he'd throw another shutout, as he did in his last start, and figured they could take it easy with the bats tonight.

That didn't work out so well.

Verlander gave up three runs in eight innings, which is hardly a losing effort on most nights.  Especially when you factor in the 10 strikeouts he racked up tonight. 

But really, Verlander had just one bad inning, giving up three in the fifth.  You could actually argue he threw just one bad pitch, grooving a fastball down the middle to Ichiro Suzuki.  But that's okay, right?  Because Ichiro doesn't hit many home runs.

That didn't work out so well.

Ichiro turned on the pitch and swatted a rocket into the first row of the right-field seats, turning an "oh, well" kind of inning into an "oh, no" one.

Detroit had nothing for Ian Snell, however.  And that's kind of inexplicable, considering how he's pitched for most of this season.  The Tigers managed just four hits against Snell, with only Carlos Guillen's sixth-inning home run doing any damage.  That's not going to win too many games, folks.

What's the old saying about death and taxes being the only certainties in life?  Apparently, a Tigers win when Justin Verlander pitches against Ian Snell cannot be added to that list.

Whimper:

A popular topic in tonight's GameThread was how much Curtis Granderson has been struggling lately.  The evidence is pretty compelling.  Grandy is 0-for-12 with seven strikeouts in his past three games.  But if you look at his numbers for August, this is a pretty typical slump for him.

Comment of the Night:

Hey so once again

Ian wrote at length about how terrible the opposing pitcher has been as of late.

And we’re making him look like ’95 Greg Maddux.

by explosivo2k2

Yeah, sorry about that.  Hey, what else could I have written about Snell?

And your runner-up.  I don't think this game would be too popular.