Dave Price pitched another gem for the Tigers against the Rays last Thursday afternoon, but didn’t get any help with the bats on that day. David went eight against his old team, the Tampa Bay Rays, gave up just one hit, one run–in the first inning– with no walks and nine K’s. David threw 100 pitches, 73 for strikes with 27 balls. Unfortunately, the Tigers couldn’t score and lost 1-0. David now 12-9 with a 3.00 ERA. His ERA was around 5.00 in May. It’s just astounding how well he’s pitching right now. He’s given up 23 home runs, which has been his only blemish for the past three and a half months in which he’s been on a tear. But our old football coach, who’s now in another state where Pedro plays baseball, said in the Music City Bowl of N.C. State quarterback Mike Glennon, our opponent in that 2012 game, that Glennon was so accurate that we knew where the ball would be going and where it would be and we could pick him off. We had around four interceptions that day in an amazing defensive effort.

The same applies for David in a sense. David is so accurate– he’s given up 29 walks to 229 strikeouts a 7.9 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio, which is off the charts good– that hitters know they’re going to get a strike; and if David is off just a little bit with his location on  his fastball or breaking stuff, the hitter can guess what pitch it will be, know it’ll be over the plate, and hit it out. I’m not worried about it though. David is close to perfect in most of his outings. The Tigers didn’t play last night, but the Kansas City Royals lost to the Yankees, 8-1, and Tigers moved back to 1.5 back in the American League Central division. The Tigers host the Yanks for three starting  today @ Comerica Park in Detroit. The Tigers need to sweep or at least take two out of three. The Royals host the Minnesota Twins for three starting today, then host Cleveland over the weekend. The Tigers play at the White Sox this weekend. Dave is on the hill tomorrow night (Wednesday)  vs. Shane Greene of the Yankees. Greene is 3-1 with a 3.17 ERA. He beat the White Sox last Friday night going five, giving up nine hits, three earned with two walks and seven K’s. Should be an excellent matchup. First pitch is @ 7PM ET/6 CT on ESPN.

The Tigers have Rick Porcello on the hill tonight (14-8, 3.10) vs Brandon McCarthy of the Yankees. McCarthy is 8-12 with a 4.01 ERA. but his last start against the  Houston ‘Stros, he pitched a complete game shutout, giving up only four hits, no walks and eight K’s. He can be a stud. Porcello also pitched a complete game shutout against the Rays last Wednesday (8/20), giving up only three hits, with no walks and four K’s. Thursday, Hiroki Kuroda (9-8, 3.94 ERA)  goes for the Yankees against undecided for the Tigers.  The Tigers have had some injuries with their pitching. Starting pitcher Anibal Sanchez is out with a pectoral injury, and he’ll be on the DL till the second or third week in September, so they’re trying to figure Thursday out. Justin Verlander will throw Friday night @ the White Sox.  Hopefully, the Tigers win tonight and KC loses, and Dave will be in a huge game tomorrow night on a nationally televised game with the Tigers just a half game back of the Royals. If the Royals lose tonight and we win, we’ll be even in the loss column. We’ll be 71-59 and the Royals will be 72-59, so basically even as we’ve played one less game than them. Dave doin’ stellar work.v Tigers need him to be stellar tomorrow night.

Mike Minor also threw a gem on Friday Night @ the Cincy Reds. Mike went 7.2, gave up just one hit, one earned run, with four walks and five K’s. Mike had a no-hitter going through 7 and 2/3’s, but gave up a two out bloop single to Reds center fielder Billy Hamilton that drove in a run. Mike threw 107 pitches with 64 for strikes and 43 balls. Braves did win in 12 innings, 3-1, as Justin Upton blasted  a two run shot in the top of the 12th for the game winning runs. Braves are now 7.5 back of the Washington Nationals in the NL East and a 1/2 game back in the NL wild card behind San Francisco for the second wild card. They are three and a half back of the wild card leading St. Louis Cardinals. The Braves are 68-63. They play at the Mets for three starting tonight. Mike gets the call on Thursday night at 7:10 PM ET/6:10 CT against Jonathon Niese of the Mets. Niese is 7-9 with a 3.47 ERA. Mike is now 5-8 with a 4.90 ERA, but his last two starts against the Reds and the A’s have been encouraging. He was not involved in the decision against the Reds, but beat the A’s on Sunday, Aug. 17th, going seven, giving up four hits, with two earned runs on two walks and seven K’s. Mike has given up 20 homers this year, which has been a little bit of a problem for him, but he’s accurate too. He’s walked 36 while striking out 106. That’s a 2.94 strikeout to walk ratio. Anything over 2:1 is very good. Nationals @ the Phillies today through Thursday. The Cards, which won last night at Pittsburgh, play the Bucs today and tomorrow at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. The Giants lost last night to the Colorado Rockies and play them at home tonight and tomorrow afternoon. So the Braves need to Al Davis it and just win baby and get some help in the upcoming weeks.

Sonny pitched a nice game last Friday night for the Oakland A’s going 8.1 against the then AL West leading LA Angels, giving up six hits, three runs with two walks and five K’s, as the A’s defeated the Angels, 5-3. He gave up two home runs, one to the awesome Mike Trout and another to the usually awesome Josh Hamilton. The Angels have some hitters. Albert Pujols is another bopper in their lineup, so it’s a tough lineup to go through. Sonny did well moving to 13-7 on the season and now he has a 3.00 ERA. Sonny has 59 walks and 143 strikeouts on the season. That’s a 2.4 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio; another excellent number. The A’s have 26 more games against AL West teams and Sonny is 12-2 with a 1.80 ERA against the West, so the A’s need to make sure Sonny is on the hill against the AL West teams. The A’s took two of three from the Angels over the weekend, and won last night over the ‘Stros, 8-2. The A’s and Angels are tied for the lead in the American League West at 77-53. A’s have two more with the Astros tonight and tomorrow and then go to LA Angels for four starting Thursday. Sonny on the hill Thursday night against C.J. Wilson of the Angels. Wilson, who’s been really good in the past, is 10-8 this year with a 4.45 ERA. He did pitch well against the A’s last Saturday night in a 2-1 loss. Wilson went 6.1, gave up five hits, only one earned run with three walks and three K’s. So it’s a very important week for the A’s.

Pedro had a big night Saturday night against the Milwaukee Brewers blasting two long ones, his 16th and 17th on the season, in a 10-2 Bucs’ victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. He also hit his 18th last night in a 3-2 loss to the Cardinals. Pedro now playing first base for the Pirates. He just had so much trouble throwing from third to first that the Pirates just couldn’t keep him there any more; at least for this season. He’s now playing first, and seems to be doing well  there. His bat looks like it’s coming alive. He was two for four last night with a single and his 18th blast. He is now hitting .234 with 18 homers and 56 RBIs. Maybe this move to first takes the pressure off El Toro and he can just relax and start hitting the way he’s capable of and play some solid first base. The Bucs, which are now 67-64,  are six back of the Brewers in the NL Central, after  taking two of three from the Brewers in Milwaukee over the weekend,  and they are a game and a half back of the Giants for the second spot in the wild card and four and a half back of the Cards for the top spot in wild card. The Braves are a game ahead of the Bucs for the third spot in the wild card race. The Bucs play the Cardinals tonight @ 7:05 PM Et/6:05 CT and tomorrow afternoon in a matinee at 12:35 PM ET/11:35 CT at PNC. The Bucs are off Thursday then host Cincy over the weekend.

Jay and the Bears had a tough time at Seattle last Friday Night, losing 34-6. I watched the game though, and it wasn’t as bad as the score indicated. I don’t know how Seattle does it on offense. Russell Wilson to me is like a pinball. He’s not a pocket passer like Jay, ARodg, Breesy, Brady, Eli or Peyton. He just runs around there till he finds an open receiver. I give him credit though, he won the Super Bowl last year, but it’s just an erratic offense that relies on broken/big plays to score. It’s kind of puzzling  how it works, but it does. And they do have a very good defense. But Bears receiver Alshon Jeffery was making some grabs against Richard Sherman and Brandon Marshall had some good catches too.  Jay was 12 for 20 for 157 yards, he got sacked a couple of times, but he made some good throws. The Bears got down 28-0, but engineered a really nice drive at the end of the first half. Jay threw what looked like a two  yard touchdown pass to backup tight end Dante Rosario, after completing a beautiful 23 yarder to Martellus Bennett to get the Bears to the Seattle two, but the refs called pass interference on the touchdown on Marshall. It was a terrible call. Brandon ran an in route and was pushed by the Seattle defensive back. There was contact, but Brandon didn’t initiate it. Anyway, they called Brandon for offensive pass interference. I don’t know what these refs are up to. They are calling so many defensive holding penalties and offensive pass interference  calls that they are hurting the quality of the game. A broadcaster said the refs were going to tone it down in the regular season. They have to. I don’t want these refs to ruin the game for the players, coaches and fans. They need to stay out of the way and call the game right and not be involved with the overall quality of play on the field. When there are penalties, I understand. But they’re overdoing it and need to quit making all these nonsensical calls or they’re going to really get blasted by the fans, coaches and players this season. It’s outrageous really.

But  the Bears played OK on defense. Wilson is just so fast,  you can’t get him on the ground. The Bears got a good pass rush on him, but just couldn’t catch him and that’s when he’s most dangerous, running around and finding an open receiver. Still like this Bears team. Need to run the ball a little better and shore up the defense, but the personnel is there. If we can stay healthy, we’ve got a chance to go a long way. Of course, we’ve got to get over the Packers hump. We have really struggled with them. I do like the fact that former VU safety Sean Richardson is getting a lot of time on the field for the Pack and doing well. Sean looks like he’ll play a lot this season. And former VU corner Casey Hayward is making it back from his injury last year. Hopefully, Casey will be an integral part of the Packers secondary when the season kicks off.

I was telling a friend of mine how very much excited I am about our secondary this season. Derek is a master with the secondary, and we have about 10 guys in the defensive backfield who are outstanding players. The starting corners are Darrius Sims and Tre Bell, and they’ve looked terrific in practice. The safeties are Oren Burks and Andrew Williamson. There is tremendous athletic ability in this group. I’m excited to see them all play, but Oren is one guy I’m really looking forward to watching. He is a powerful hitter and a playmaker/game changer. He looks special. The whole group does. We have guys backing them up like Torren McGaster, Paris Head, T. Ferguson (corners) and Ryan White and  Jahmel McIntosh (safeties) who could start for many teams throughout the country. I’m probably leaving somebody out because this group might be younger in experience, but there is massive talent in this secondary.

Our defense is going to be special overall. If Patton can be the quarterback Derek and the staff thinks he can be, and our running backs and wide receivers can be highly productive players–and the talent is there–we’re going to be a very good football team. Our O line is awesome. Big, physical, tough, they really like to hit. Our d line and linebackers are extremely tough, too. I’m very pumped to see defensive end Adam Butler and linebacker Nigel Bowden play. Those two along with Caleb “Zu” Azubike, Stephen Weatherly, Kyle Woestmann, Darreon Herring, Jake Sealand, Vince Taylor and Barron Dixon will give us a stellar three-four front seven look. Derek said the beauty of the three-four defense is you can disguise your alignments and the quarterbacks and the offensive linemen for the other team can’t figure it out. Our outside linebackers can line up on the line of scrimmage at defensive ends and give us a five man front look and either rush the passer or drop back in coverage. It’s tricky for quarterbacks and offensive linemen. I can’t wait. Kickoff set for about 9:22 PM ET/8:22 CT on the SEC Network. Let’s Anchor Down and get victory number one against Temple Thursday night at home. We have a chance to win every game this season. Let’s get it started Thursday night.