Tigers Today: May 5, 2010

Tigers’ Record: 16-12, 2nd place; 2.5 GB Minnesota

Today’s Game

Tigers @ Twins | 1:10 p.m. ET – Target Field | On the air: FSD/1270 AM& 97.1 FM

Pitching Matchup

Rick Porcello (2-2, 8.03) vs. Kevin Slowey (3-2, 3.77)

Yesterday’s Results

Twins 4 – Tigers 3

• W: Nick Blackburn (2-1)
• L: Ryan Perry (1-2)
• HR: Brennan Boesch (2)

Tigers History Lesson

Today’s Birthdays

• Juan Acevedo, 40

• Dave Gumpert, 52

On this Date in Tigers History

• 1987 — The Tigers acquired RHP Balvino Galvez from the Dodgers for C Orlando Mercado.

• 1969 — Eddie Cicotte, who made his major-league debut at 21 alongside Ty Cobb on the 1905 Tigers — but is best known for his role in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal — dies in Detroit at 85.

• 1967 — The Tigers acquired cash considerations from the Indians for RHP Orlando Pena.

• 1949 — Charlie Gehringer is elected to the Hall of Fame. Here’s a nice piece on The Mechanical Man on the Hall’s website.

• 1925 — Ty Cobb hits three homers, a double and two singles in a 14-8 win over the Browns in St. Louis.

• 1922 — Ty Cobb, then the Tigers’ player-manager, removes himself from the lineup for a pinch hitter, Bob Fothergill — the only time in his career he’s pinch hit for (Fothergill struck out). Cobb sends five consecutive pinch hitters to the plate in an effort to break up a no-hitter by the Browns’ Bill Bayne. The strategy works, though, as the first pinch hitter gets a hit off Bayne. The Tigers win 6-1.