Virgil Vasquez (0-1. 9.39) vs. Joe Blanton (11-9, 3.92), 10:05 p.m. EST

A day after essentially shutting one of their young pitchers down for the season, the Detroit Tigers look to another one to give them a decent start tonight in Oakland.  Virgil Vasquez returns to the Tigers' starting rotation for another one-shot, hoping to improve upon his previous two major league outings (the last of which I'd argue he should've won).  His last two starts for Triple-A Toledo were outstanding, as he allowed just one run over 16 innings.

Joe Blanton has been rocked and socked in his two starts against the Tigers this season.  The first time up, he gave up five runs and nine hits in 6 2/3 innings.  The second time around was even worse, as Blanton was massacred for nine runs in four innings.  Unfortunately, there wasn't too much enjoyment from that beating on the Detroit side, because that was the game that should never be spoken of again.  Except within the next two sentences.  The Tigers came back from a seven-run deficit to take the lead, only to allow another eight runs and fall behind by seven again.  Children cried, hopes were reduced to smouldering piles of rubble... I really shouldn't have brought it up again.

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Short Hops:

▪▪  Kenny Rogers pitched a three-inning simulated game today.  Jason Beck says Rogers seemed unhappy at times, but maybe that had to do with music blasting from the McAfee Coliseum sound system.

▪▪  Mack Avenue Tigers follows up on Lynn Henning's column about the Tigers' dilemma with Pudge Rodriguez yesterday, and carefully considers the question of whether or not to bring Pudge back next season.  I should really figure out where I stand on this some time soon.