Chad Durbin (0-1, 10.54) vs. John Danks (0-2, 5.06)
Here's our first encounter with the White Sox sponsor sellout start time of 7:11 CST. I asked Hawk Harrelson if he thought the team had sold its soul to corporate interests, to which he said, "HE GONE."
Durbin staved off a probable demotion with his effort against the White Sox last week. It wasn't a stellar performance, but four runs in five innings at least gave the Tigers a chance to win, which wasn't the case in his two previous starts. That game, however, was in Detroit, which raises the question of whether or not Durbin could be a better pitcher in Comerica Park than in a hitter's paradise like U.S. Comiskey Park Cellular Field.
On the other side, Danks was knocked around pretty well by the Tigers, but was eventually bailed out by Durbin missing the strike zone, some timely hitting by Paul Konerko, and the White Sox bullpen shutting down the Detroit bats. And thus began the Tigers' recent frustrating trend of blowing early leads and losing games. However, Danks doesn't plan on changing his approach against Detroit unless he's forced to.
If you're interested, tonight's game will be telecast nationally on ESPN. I believe that means Dan Schulman, Orel Hershiser, and Steve Phillips will be the broadcast team. I'm just hoping Buck Martinez isn't involved, as something about the pitch of his voice tends to make a certain part of my forehead hurt. I was also hoping that Erin Andrews might be the field reporter, but I think she just works the Monday night games for ESPN. Drat.
Short Hops:
▪▪ If you're wondering what Chuck Hernandez said to Jeremy Bonderman when he visited him on the mound early in yesterday's game, today's Free Press has some insight. (Hernandez seemed to keep up the same emphatic tone in the dugout when sitting next to Bondo.)
▪▪ Carlos Guillen's back is bothering him, which likely factored into his poor defensive performance yesterday.
▪▪ Jim Thome sat out last night's game against the Royals, due to sore ribs. However, he expects to return to the lineup tonight.