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The good news? Detroit is in first: Tigers 7, Twins 5

By Kurt Mensching
Jeremy Bonderman picked up his fifth win, going 5 1/3 innings and allowing four runs to the Twins.
Jeremy Bonderman picked up his fifth win, going 5 1/3 innings and allowing four runs to the Twins.

Final - 6.28.2010 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Detroit Tigers 4 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 7 13 0
Minnesota Twins 1 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 5 11 1
WP: Jeremy Bonderman (4 - 5)
SV: Jose Valverde (18)
LP: Francisco Liriano (6 - 6)

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You already know the bad news: Reliever Joel Zumaya left the game in the eighth inning with an extremely painful arm injury. An MRI will be done in the morning. The results are likely to be quite bad for Zumaya and the Tigers, but we can't say for sure until we know them. (Full story on Zumaya here.)

So let's try to think of something good. The standings, preserved for posterity:

AL Central Standings

W L PCT GB STRK
Detroit 41 34 .546 0 Won 2
Minnesota 41 35 .539 0.5 Lost 2
Chicago 39 36 .520 2 Lost 2
Kansas City 33 44 .428 9 Won 2
Cleveland 28 47 .373 13 Won 2

(updated 6.28.2010 at 11:57 PM EDT)

If you're keeping track at home, the last time the Tigers were in first place by themselves was the sixth game of the season (April 11) and the last time they were in it (tied) was after Game 41 on May 20. After falling 4.5 games out, they're back in first. Definitely something to savor.

The top of the lineup -- sans Magglio Ordonez, who was suffering from an oblique injury again -- got things done right from the start tonight. The first six batters reached base in the first inning, with Miguel Cabrera and Brennan Boesch each picking up a pair of RBI to give Detroit a 4-0 lead. Then, of course, Brandon Inge and Gerald Laird ended that. (Laird later made up for it with a home run, just his second of the year).

Of course, anyone who has seen the Tigers play in Minnesota ... basically ever ... knows how meaningless a big lead by Detroit is there. So a potential laughter became a nail biter when the Twins cut it to 6-5 in the seventh inning. That's when Zumaya came into the game to end the rally. And that's why Phil Coke was blaming himself for Zumaya's injury in the clubhouse after the game. Zumaya's body was going to give out on him eventually, whether or not Coke failed to get a batter out, so hopefully he doesn't beat himself up too long.

Laird gave the Tigers a bit of cushion with his homer in the eighth, and Jose Valverde came in to shut the door in the Twins after Zumaya's injury in the eight. So Valverde picked up a five-out save (his 18th save of the season) and Detroit's in first. However he won't be available Tuesday night.

So the Tigers are in first place for at least 24 hours. Enjoy it.

Lord knows how many more bad experiences we may have to suffer through when the Tigers are in Minnesota.

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