So, if we lost two of three in dispiriting fashion to a ~bad~ American League team, how do you expect that we'll fare against a good one? The Tigers may not be headed back to the World Series--they are in what might be the toughest division in baseball now--but they are still a solid club, with a 36-26 record to this point.
The pitching matchup is Jeff Suppan versus Justin Verlander. Verlander has been very good this year, with a 3.12 ERA in 12 starts. Suppan has been pretty good too, of course, but not that good, and he's gotten more starts against the weaklings of the NL Central. There certainly isn't an offense in our division with the likes of Sheffield-Ordonez-Guillen-Polanco-Rodriguez. As a point of reference, the Tigers are slugging .484 as a team, not only quite a bit higher than the Brewers team average, but higher than all but four individual Brewers. And one of those is Ryan Braun, who probably shouldn't count quite yet due to sample size issues.
In other news, Dan Kolb is back in the big leagues. The Pirates lost Salomon Torres to injury, and while Kolb is hardly about to take his place in the ninth inning, he will get a shot with the big boys again. He pitched well in Triple-A, managing a 3.15 ERA and .247 average against in 20 innings.
Go Brewers!