As high and glorious as we felt last night after Miguel Cabrera's walk-off home run, Justin Morneau's 11th-inning blast to right off Freddy Dolsi this afternoon sent those emotions plummeting back to Earth, leaving Tigers fans gasping for air.  What a gut punch.

So much happened in this game that recapping everything could take a while.  But if you recall the roller coaster ups and downs that we experienced last night, much the same happened today, except with the opposite result.  The Twins took an early two-run lead in the third inning, but as he's done so many times this season, Kenny Rogers pulled himself together to keep his team in the game.  Highlighted by a titanic shot to deep right-center field from Matt Joyce, the Tigers came roaring back in the fourth with the kind of onslaught that usually puts a game away.

But Minnesota chipped away with runs in the seventh and eighth to cut the margin to two, and by the time the ninth came around, Todd Jones couldn't make that lead hold up.  Jonesy wasn't helped by an error from Joyce, who gave back the run he put on the board by letting the ball shoot past him (bad hop?) and roll to the right field wall.  Bobby Seay and Dolsi eventually closed out the inning.

The Tigers blew a great chance to win in the ninth, as Carlos Guillen made it to third base on a stolen base and wild pitch with only one out.  But Joe Nathan struck out both Jeff Larish (who had a pretty good day, going 3-for-5) and Pudge Rodriguez to end the threat.  Detroit had both the 10th and 11th innings to try and score a run, but never had a better opportunity than the one they squandered.

Hopefully, we're not saying the same thing about the AL Central race by the time this series is over and heading into the All-Star break.

Roll Call

With an excellent afternoon turnout, today's GameThread kind of felt like a party that was going really well until the beer ran out.  Or a terrible accident happened.

Sympathetic pats on the back to Grant E., cannonad03, explosivo2k2, ahtrap, TFerg1103, Wingz, MSU4LIF, PBURGTIGER, BigAl, spotstarters, Germantiger, JASON_V_N (Welcome!), Tigsfan, Juskimo, Warning Track Power, Tony K, EricV, tbliggins, tplants, ashmark, tricks318 (Welcome!), gf206, weso33, joffle, and bradm for having to keep this one down until tomorrow.

No need for a long recap tonight, is there?  This one was all about the long ball.  The Tigers' bats finally look like they're shaking off that early spring chill.  Initially, the only problem was that the home runs came with no one on base.  Gary Sheffield, Magglio Ordonez, and Carlos Guillen each hit solo shots to put Detroit on the scoreboard.  But Justin Morneau struck a big blow in the sixth with a two-run blast off Nate Robertson.  That seemed like it might be the decisive moment of the game, until the fans at Comerica Park finally got an idea of why Miguel Cabrera is expected to be Detroit's Next Top Baseball Superstar.

As you probably know (unless you tried to shield yourself from the ugly truth), Cabrera came into the game batting .205/.300/.318 with one home run and three RBIs.  But with three hits in his previous two games, maybe it was finally starting to heat up.  Tonight, it all came together when both Cabrera and his team probably needed it most.  With Ordonez on second base, Cabrera sent a 1-2 pitch from Jesse Crain into the Tigers bullpen.  And for the second straight night, Detroit called it a comeback. 

If there's a pun, I suppose it's intended, but isn't it a relief to see the other team's bullpen cough up two games in a row?  (Let's not talk about Todd Jones giving up that deep fly to Delmon Young which Ryan Raburn kept in the park, but couldn't quite keep in his glove...)

Two-game series or not, a sweep is a sweep.  And winning their first series of the season comes at a great time, with the Tigers heading to Cleveland for the next two games.  How might that AL Central race look by Friday?