Coming to Texas...Not what our Tigers need...

It's been great to see our boys stumbling back to life somewhat lately, but....

Coming to Arlington to meet one of the hottest clubs in baseball is just not what they need.

Ironically, the Rangers mirror the Tigers in some ways. Their hitting game has been way off of late. Josh Hamilton, after being the AL Player of the Month for April and May, has pretty much gone 0-fer-June. Their pitching rotation has been torn up by injuries.

But there's one key difference-the Rangers just keep winning. The guy the Tigers will face tonight, Grimm, was a Hail Mary call-up from AA Frisco. Prayers are answered, and he turned in a stunning masterpiece last week. Excellent control, good fastball and a sharp curve. Tigers better pray he gets the sophomore jinks tonight.

Picking up Roy Oswalt (as this commentator suggested the Tigers do a month ago) seems to have been another genius move. He turned in a performance last week that recalled his glory days.

And while Yu Darvish has been getting used to the amount of work we expect of major leaguers, he has mostly done an outstanding job, and figures to compete for rookie of the year if he continues apace.

Last night they showed another reason their pitching looks so good: crisp fielding by the middle infield. They turned three sharp double plays that got them out of jams.

Finding the pitching where they can, and getting cracker jack fielding; two solutions for sleepy bats that the Tigers wish they had.

Don't get me wrong, I still love our boys and will root for them this week, but there's a lot to learn from the Rangers.