I haven't been very good at doing this sort of thing before, but I managed to grab a still image from tonight's Yankees-Tigers telecast.  Here's Kei Igawa during the third inning:

Really, shouldn't the Tigers thank the Yankees for starting Igawa tonight?  Bringing him up from Scranton was the starting pitcher equivalent of an intentional walk.  In three innings, Detroit knocked 11 hits for six runs off Igawa in just three innings.

The quotes of the night might have come from The LoHud Yankees Blog's Peter Abraham: (via Pinstripe Alley)

UPDATE, 7:19 p.m.: Igawa is better than I thought he would be. It took two pitches before he gave up a hit.

UPDATE, 8:43 p.m.: Say this for Kei Igawa, he didn’t show up anybody by pumping his fist like that rotten Joba.

Maybe I shouldn't be too cocky about tonight's win, since Todd Jones came in for the ninth inning with gasoline apparently dripping from his jersey.  I guess coming in for a non-save situation wasn't going to cut it for Jonesy, so he had to make it interesting.  Does he ever pitch well when a save isn't on the line?  That bad feeling crept into all of our stomachs when Jones gave up a double to Wilson Betemit (???) to start the inning.

Check out this beauty of a stat line: Four hits, one walk, and three runs.  And he threw a couple of pitches in the dirt that moved runners along, too.  Even for Jones, this was a ridiculous outing.  Will we hear that it's because he hasn't gotten too much work lately?

Roll Call

Friday night's all right for commenting, right?

Thanks to miggy4mvp, pfuhrmeister (from Vegas!), Grant E., Zappatista, ThaWalrus9, rock n rye, spotstarters, and HavocRox for sticking it out through the unnecessarily nail-biting end.

Kei Igawa (0-0, -.--) vs. Kenny Rogers (2-3, 6.27)

Well, this doesn't quite have that same "Clash of American League Titans" feel to it that we may have imagined when the 2008 schedule was released, does it?  And would you have ever thought that you might be relieved to see the New York Yankees come to town?  Cue up Tim Kurkjian and his stand-by  "That's the beauty of baseball; you never know what's going to happen" explanation for everything.

Kenny Rogers has pitched pretty well in his last two starts, one of which was a win over these same Yankees in the Bronx.  And really, he should have won Sunday's start at the Metrodome (Carlos Guillen, I'm lookin' at you), a game that's still rather painful to think about.  So maybe he can play the role of stopper that the Tigers really need right now. 

I realize I have no business talking any kind of trash about any pitcher the Tigers face these days.  And I might even be risking some sort of jinx from what I'm about to say.  But Kei Igawa stinks, and the Tigers should really pound him into fertilizer tonight and use him to re-seed the Comerica Park infield.  Igawa was just called up from Triple-A Scranton to replace the demoted Ian Kennedy, and even Joe Girardi says he's just pitching "OK."

If Detroit isn't able to hang some runs on this guy, Jim Leyland should have his players run laps and do sit-ups on the field right after the game, in full view of the fans that stuck around to the very end.  And I might be filled with enough rage to overturn my car in the driveway.  (It's a Honda; it shouldn't be that heavy.)

Our friends at Pinstripe Alley have your SB Nation opposing view for this weekend's series.  Hopefully, I don't have to choke on my own bravado over there.