The last time the Tigers lost a postseason game by the score of 10-1, it also came in a Game 4 – of the 1968 World Series. The Tigers won Game 5 at Tiger Stadium, 5-3, behind Mickey Lolich.

They also won Games 6 and 7, in case you’d forgotten.

In Game 1 of the 1945 World Series, the Tigers were defeated, as they were Tuesday night, by nine runs. In Game 2, Virgil Trucks beat the Cubs 4-1.

Just sayin’.

Leading Off: The Tigers beat the Twins 2-1 yesterday for the club’s ninth straight win — their first of that length since May 1984. Doug Fister shutout the Twins over seven innings for the win, while Jose Valverde posted his club-record 43rd save of the season. Delmon Young led the Tigers with two hits and an RBI.

ESPN’s Steve Berthiaume says that if there were a catchers draft, Alex Avila should be the easy number-one selection:

Avila has been the best catcher in baseball this season. Among the game’s everyday catchers — let’s say those who have started more than 100 games behind the plate — Avila leads the majors with a .300 batting average, .391 on-base percentage, .522 slugging percentage and .913 OPS. He’s No. 1 across the board. Remember, this hypothetical applies to catching actual games, not your fantasy league team, so forget about Victor Martinez or Mike Napoli — the guy you draft has to actually crouch down and catch for you every day. Avila has done exactly that for the Tigers.

Austin Jackson enters tonight’s game having hit safely in each of his last 15 games against the White Sox. He is hitting .403 with four doubles, three triples, three home runs and nine RBI during the 15-game stretch.

Looking for some autographed Tigers memorabilia? You’re in luck. MGOAuction.com, an auction site of primarily University of Michigan sports memorabilia, has several Tigers items up for bid. The items include autographed baseballs signed by Justin Verlander, Jose Valverde, Victor Martinez, Andy Dirks, Brandon Inge and other items signed by Alex Avila, Al Kaline and Todd Jones. Proceeds benefit a series of undergraduate scholarships at UM including the Bernard “Pat” Maloy Cancer Scholarship, the Shelly Kovacs Scholarship. Check out MGoAuction.com.

The Tigers have finally leap-frogged the Diamondbacks in ESPN.com’s Power Rankings this week and earned a spot a number four. (Though they couldn’t crack John Kruk’s rankings.) And, the Tigers are this week’s U.S. Army Team of the Week.

Eighty years ago today at Fenway Park, Eddie Durham and the Tigers Arthur “Red” Herring faced off in a 13-inning pitching duel. Durham won, 1-0.

The funny thing about this nine-game winning streak and 10-1/2-game lead? The anti-Jim Leyland crowd sure has been quiet.

Birthdays! Happy 71st to Mickey Lolich, Happy 55th to Mark Thurmond, Happy 52nd to Scotti Madison, and Happy 43rd to Masao Kida.

Finally, music legend Johnny Cash died on this date in 2003 at the age of 71. Let’s remember him with one of his classic songs, “A Boy Named Sue.”

Leading Off: I’ve watched a lot of Tigers baseball in my time but I can’t recall a more exciting final out sequence as the one we saw on Sunday to preserve a 8-7 Tigers win. Austin Jackson’s flawless throw to Alex Avila. Rick Porcello seemed hell bent to surrender a seven-run cushion but thankfully the bullpen did enough to blow it entirely … The Tigers head to Tampa Bay for a four-game set … They also are looking for their first winning streak of more than three games since June 7 when they had a four-game winning streak snapped.

Around the Central: The White Sox crushed the Rangers 10-0 at U.S. Cellular Field; the Red Sox downed the Royals, 6-1, and the Yankees blanked the Twins, 3-0.

• The Tigers are #10 in ESPN’s Power Rankings, up from nine last week. They trail the D-backs (who have one more win) and this week’s opponent, the Rays (#7).

• Somehow I missed out on Dave Schoenfield’s reminiscing about Chet Lemon last week:
  

  If you’re too young to remember Chet Lemon, he was a superb ballplayer. He could them run down in center field — in fact, his 512 putouts with the White Sox in 1977 remains the American League record, not bad for a guy who had converted from third base as a rookie the year before. He hit .300 three times, had some power, drew some walks, got hit by 10 to 20 pitches a season. He did a lot to help his teams win.

  What Chet Lemon wasn’t very good at was stealing bases.

• This is a topic that deserves more thought than I have time for today but am I the only one who thinks Miguel Cabrera has a profound lack of hustle on the bases, particularly out of the batter’s box?

• SI‘s Joe Sheehan thinks the stars are aligning in the Tigers favor after sweeping the Indians:
  

  Jackson’s base-runner kill helped Jose Valverde escape a bases-loaded, no-out jam and convert his 37th consecutive save this season. The Tigers have fended off a series of challenges by the Indians, and after a trip to Tampa Bay get seven games against the Twins and Royals to stretch their lead before six more against the White Sox and Indians. That week may represent both teams’ last shot to keep the Tigers from making September a coronation.

• Are the Tigers winning with other clubs’ talent?

• Not a game goes by that I don’t wish the Tigers still had Placido Polanco batting second.

• It doesn’t matter if the Twins send Jim Thome to the Indians before Aug. 31. The Tigers are set to face both clubs six more times this season so, they’re hosed either way.

Finally, Happy 47th Birthday to tennis hall of famer Mats Wilander who, in 1988, won the Australian Open, French Open and U.S. Open.

80-75, 3rd Place; 12 GB

Today’s Game

Tigers 5 – Twins 1

• W: Rick Porcello (10-11)
• L: Brian Duensing (10-3)
• HR: Ramon Santiago (3), Miguel Cabrera (38)

Yesterday’s Results

Tigers 11 – Twins 10

• W: Daniel Schlereth (1-0)
• L: Pat Neshek (0-1)
• HR: Alex Avila (7), Don Kelly (7), Miguel Cabrera (37)

Tigers History Lesson

On this Date in Tigers History

• 1967 — Cleveland’s Luis Tiant beats the Red Sox 6-3 despite Carl Yastrzemski 43rd home run of the season. The Twins top the Angels 7-3 behind two monster home runs by Harmon Killebrew, his 42nd and 43rd of the season. Mickey Lolich blanks the Yanks, 1-0, for Detroit to tighten the pennant race. The Twins (91-68) lead with Chicago (89-68) and the idle Red Sox (90-69) a game back, and Detroit (89-69) a half-game back.

• 1971 — How times change for Denny McLain, now with the Senators. He loses his 22nd game of the season,
  dropping a 6-3 decision to the Red Sox.

• 1926 — In his final day in a Tigers uniform, Ty Cobb watches his replacement in centerfield gets six hits in a twin bill with the Red Sox to become the new batting champs as Heinie Manush edges Babe Ruth .378 to .372 for the title.

72-72, 3rd Place; 13.5 GB

Today’s Results

Tigers 6 – Orioles 2

• W: Justin Verlander
• L: Mike Gonzalez (0-3)
• HR: Brandon Inge (11)

Yesterday’s Results

Orioles 5 – Tigers 3

• W: Jeremy Guthrie (10-13)
• L: Max Scherzer (10-10)

Tigers History Lesson

Today’s Birthdays

• Masao Kida, 42

• Scotti Madison, 51

• Mark Thurmond, 54

• Mickey Lolich, 70

• Charlie Keller (1916-1990)

On this Date in Tigers History

• 1974 — John Hiller picks up his 17th win in relief, an American League record, as he beats the Brewers, 9-7.

Tigers’ Record:

45-37, 1st place; 1/2-game lead over Twins

Today’s Results

Tigers 7 – Orioles 5 (11 innings)

• W: Ryan Perry (2-4)
• L: David Hernandez (3-7)
• HR: Miguel Cabrera (21), Johnny Damon (5)

Yesterday’s Results

Tigers 12 – Orioles 9

• W: Eddie Bonine (4-0)
• L: Mark Hendrickson (1-4)
• HR: Jake Fox (4)

Tigers History Lesson

Today’s Birthdays

• Greg Norton, 38
• Omar Olivares, 43

• Jason Thompson, 56

On this Date in Tigers History

• 1997 — In Detroit, the Tigers top the Orioles, 14-9, their third straight win after 11 consecutive losses. Brian Johnson and Travis Fryman homer for the Tigers while teammate Bobby Higginson adds a two-run inside-the-park homer, his fifth this week. For Scott Erickson (11-4), it is the worst start of his career for Baltimore, allowing all 12 runs, 11 earned, and 10 hits in 4-1/3 innings. Willie Blair (6-4) takes the win in relief.
• 1997 — Former Tigers catcher Mickey Tettleton announces his retirement. He was on the Rangers’ disabled list for more than two months.
• 1971 — Norm Cash hits a pair of three-run homers to power the Tigers to a 12-7 win over the Yankees. Mickey Lolich goes the distance for the win.

• 1929 — After watching the Tigers belt eight home runs on July 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, the Browns
  use the off day to erect a screen in front of the rightfield pavilion. The screen stretches 156 feet from the foul pole
  toward centerfield, 310 feet down the line from home.

  In the next day’s game, Heinie Manush will hit three balls off the screen against the Yankees’ Waite Hoyt, while Babe Ruth will hit two off it in the series. This screen will remain in place
  into the 1940s, the only stadium with extended outfield seating where it is impossible to catch a home run ball.

• 1917 — Ty Cobb’s hitting streak ends at 35 games as White Sox pitchers Red Faber and Jim Scott hold him hitless. His streak began May 31. Cobb holds the American League mark of 40 straight games, set in 1912, but George Sisler will ring up 41 games in 1922.

38-30, 2nd place; 1.5 GB of Minnesota

Tomorrow’s Game

Tigers @ Mets | 7:10 p.m. ET – Citi Field | On the air: FSD/AM 1270 and 97.1 FM

Pitching Matchup

Justin Verlander (8-4, 3.54 ERA) vs. LHP Jonathon Niese (4-2, 3.64 ERA)

Yesterday’s Results

Tigers 3 – Diamondbacks 1 | Fungo Recap

• W: Max Scherzer (3-4)
• L: Ian Kennedy (3-5)
• Save: Jose Valverde (16)
• HR: Brennan Boesch (10), Carlos Guillen (5)

Tigers History Lesson

Today’s Birthdays

• Sean Runyan, 36

• Gene Pentz, 57

On this Date in Tigers History

• 1997 — The Tigers blast the Red Sox 15-4 at Tiger Stadium. Trailing by 12 runs, the Red Sox try outfielder Darren Bragg at third base, and put infielder Mike Benjamin on the mound for the ninth. Benjamin retires all three batters he faces, the only one of five Sox pitchers to do so.

• 1988 — With two outs in the ninth inning, Alan Trammell blasts a grand slam to give the Tigers a 7-6 win over the Yankees.

• 1970 — Cleveland wins the first game against the Tigers, 2-1, but Detroit’s Cesar Gutierrez then goes 7-for-7 with six singles and a double to tie a record set in 1892, in a 12-inning 9-8 nitecap win. Mickey Stanley’s home run wins it
  for the Tigers. Gutierrez, wearing #7, starts the game hitting .218, and was 0-for-18 before today. Gutierrez will collect just seven hits in all of 1971, and 128 hits for his career.

• 1969 — Willie Horton powers two homers, one a grand slam, and drives in six runs to lead the Tigers to a 9-5 win over the visiting Senators. Mickey Lolich (8-1) is the winner, allowing just four hits.

• 1958 — The Tigers’ Frank Lary pitches his third straight shutout, beating the Yankees’ Duke Maas, 1-0. Al Kaline
  throws out Maas at the plate and hits his seventh home run to extend his hitting streak to 18 games. Lary was known as the Yankee Killer thanks to his 28-13 career record against New York in 56 appearances.

• 1914 — Senators legend Walter Johnson connects for a fifth-inning grand slam off the Tigers’ George Boehler; Washington wins, 7-3. The Big Train hit two-dozen homers in his career — but only one grand slam.

Anyway, enjoy him, folks. He’ll be frustrating another team’s fans next year.

And now this:

• How well are things going for the Tigers? They at last moved into the top eight of The Sporting News‘ power poll (last week they were #10). Breaking through that barrier means the Tigers, at least for this week, aren’t a division-leader sitting behind better-rated, non-playoff teams. And maybe — maybe — Detroit is starting to gain some respect out there. TSN’s take:
  

  8. Tigers. The Tigers are finally starting to play like a team grabbing control of the division title instead of backing into the division title.

  Other polls: ESPN #7, last week #11; Fox Sports #9 (#10); SI #10 (#10); CBS SportsLine #11 (#13).

  On this morning’s ESPN Baseball Today podcast Peter Pascarelli gives the Tigers big props (he rates them #5 on his list) and he says he’d take Justin Verlander over Cliff Lee in a World Series matchup. On both points Eric Karabell disagrees — big time. Oh, and Karabell thinks the Rockies are a better club than Detroit. Pascarelli doesn’t buy that. Neither do I.

• Here are some notable Tigers historical nuggets from Baseball-Reference.com:
  • On this date in 1967, the Tigers moved into a first-place tie with the Twins. Eddie Mathews and Jim Northrup hit home runs and Mickey Lolich out dueled the White Sox’ Tommy John 4-1 at Chicago.

  • On Sept. 8, 1983, Yankees (and former Tigers) outfielder Steve Kemp was struck in the face by an Omar Moreno line drive during batting practice in Milwaukee; Kemp misses the rest of the season with a fractured cheekbone. Kemp hit just .242 with 12 home run and 49 RBI in the first year of his five-year, $5.45 million contract.

  • In 1995, the Tigers traded Juan Samuel to the Royals in exchange for a player to be named. A week later, the Royals sent Phil Hiatt to Detroit to complete the deal.

  • And on this date a year ago, Gary Sheffield hit a grand slam for the official 250,000th homer in MLB history. The blast is Sheffield’s second of the day and his 13th career grand slam. Magglio Ordonez, Miguel Cabrera and Mike Hessman also homer as the Tigers outslug the A’s 14-8. I was there for that game and, man, was it wet, cold and blustery.

If you’re a Twitter person, be sure to follow us and you’ll get Tigers birthdays, trivia and historical notes — all in a crisp 140 characters. Find us at @DailyFungo.

Before then-TV analyst Al Kaline reminded us at every turn that Tony LaRussa is also an attorney in Florida, Mr. Tiger liked to talk about Staub being an accomplished chef. More on that shortly.

Daniel Joseph Staub debuted in 1963 at the tender age of 19 with the Houston Colt .45s and spent six years in H-Town — two of those seasons were pre-Astrodome which means he played outdoors. In Houston. In the summer. If you’ve been there, you know.

In 1967, he hit .333 with 10 home runs and 77 RBI and made the All Star team for the first of five consecutive seasons. Two years later the Astros traded him to the expansion Expos where he spent three seasons. In 1972, the Expos sent him to the Mets for Ken Singleton, Mike Jorgensen and Tim Foli. All he did in New York was hit.

On Dec. 12, 1975, Staub was traded along with Bill Laxton to the Tigers for Mickey Lolich and Billy Baldwin. (Laxton appeared in only 26 games for the 1976 Tigers: 0-5, 4.96, 2 saves. He was selected by the Mariners in the expansion draft.)

In Detroit, Staub wore #10 and posted solid numbers during his first three seasons:

• 1976: .299 – 15 HR – 96 RBI (All Star)
• 1977: .278 – 22 HR – 101 RBI
• 1978: .273 – 24 HR – 121 RBI

Things got ugly in 1979 as Bill Anderson described in his excellent book The Detroit Tigers:

Staub had a disastrous season, holding out for weeks trying to renegotiate his contract and unsettling the team. He finally signed in May but was then peddled to Montreal and had a lost season.

You have to give Staub credit for having the guts to hold-out on former Tigers’ GM Jim Campbell. He had to know that wasn’t going to end well.

The Tigers didn’t get much for him in the July 20, 1979 trade: a player to be named later and cash. About five months later the Expos sent minor-leaguer Randy Schafer (December 3, 1979) to the Tigers to complete the trade.

In the offseason the Expos sent Staub to Texas where, in 1980 at age 36, he merely hit .300. He returned to the Mets for his final five seasons, retiring after the 1985 season at 41. Staub’s final numbers for a 23-year career: .279 – 292 HR – 1,466 RBI – .362 OBP.

Now, about the culinary side. Here’s a clip from a review of Staub’s second Manhattan restaurant, Rusty’s on 5th Avenue, which appeared in The New Yorker 20 years ago:

Staub has an extensive background in cooking. It started when he was in the Instructional League in Scotsdale, AZ when he agreed to do the cooking for his roommates if they would clean up. Then a few years later, when he was in the Majors, he did all the cooking for a large Christmas party & the response was tremendous.

In 1969-71 when he was with Montreal he dated the manager of a restaurant in the Old City. He worked with chefs there. When he came to NY in 1972 chefs were interested in atheletes who cooked. While rehabilitating from a hand operation in ’72, Staub put in 1500 hours working with chefs.

The original Rusty’s opened in 1977 when Staub was with the Tigers. Rusty Staub’s on 5th was first proposed by Fred Wilpon, co-owner of the Mets & chairman of the board of the company that manages the building, in the late summer of 1987.

According to this site, Staub appears to be out of the restaurant business for now. Back in the day, though, he performed awfully well in his day job.

Happy Birthday, Rusty.

1945 – The Detroit Tigers score five runs in the first inning of Game Seven of the World Series, and rout the Cubs 9-3 behind Hal Newhouser, who strikes out 10 to win the World Championship.

1968 – Mickey Lolich won the World Series for the Detroit Tigers by defeating Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 in Game Seven. It was Lolich’s third win and came after the Tigers had lost three of the first four games.

For more on the ’68 team, pickup a copy of the terrific book Sock It to ‘Em, Tigers.

(And in case you missed it, listen to my interview with the book’s editor Mark Pattison on the Detroit Tigers Podcast.)

Mickey Lolich? Padres pitcher?

I knew he played for the Mets and Padres but he looks odd wearing the mustard and brown, doesn’t he?

P.S. It’s not a crooked scan of the card, the card itself isn’t printed or aligned perfectly.

• Mickey Lolich, 68
• Mark Thurmond, 52
• Masao Kida, 40

The Lolich FileFull name: Michael Stephen LolichBorn: September 12, 1940 in Portland, OregonFirst Game: May 12, 1963 — Final Game: September 23, 1979Bat: Both Throw: LeftHeight: 6′ 1″ Weight: 170