Call it the price you pay for not putting the AL Central away earlier.

But for that reason, the feeling to start this critical four game series against Minnesota is that the division is the Twins to Win and not the Tigers to Lose.

The Twins are the ones who came into today’s doubleheader 15-9 in the month of September, 9-2 in their last 11 games and 5-1 in their road trip.

As I predicted earlier, this has given Minnesota a tremendous amount of initiative and the momentum needed to make this pennant race the most interesting in the league.

So, with the Twins humming along at flank speed into the unknown, would the Tigers be the seawall or fall behind them as they cruise into port?

Game 1: Lyon Taming

You hate to put the blame of such a devestating loss squarely on the shoulders of one person, but in this case Brandon Lyon really screwed the pooch.

After turning a terrific bunt popup double play to end a one out scoring threat in the 9th, Lyon let the go ahead run get on in extra innings.  Back-to-back wild pitches moved Orlando Cabrera over from first to third with no outs and the Twins snuck two past the Tigers to win the game.

Curtis Granderson’s lead off home run in the bottom of the 10th off of Joe Nathan was certainly enough to re-energize the crowd.  But the Tigers bats, which were largely silent, failed to tie it up.

Game Two: Mr. Snappy

Justin Verlander was indeed the ace the Tigers needed him to be.  He went 8 strong innings, striking out as many batters and letting 4 earned runs score.  He mixed his pitches brilliantly and aside from his trademark one bad inning, managed to take the swing out of Minnesota’s bats.

The Tigers offense showed up as well, chasing the impressive rookie Brian Duensing after 4.2 innings and 5 earned runs.

Clutch hitting by Magglio Ordonez and Brandon Inge, plus a couple of long balls off of Cabrera and Granderson was just enough to allow Leyland and Fernando Rodney to shake hands following a surprisingly stressful 9th inning.

The Twins were petulant as always, but this time the Tigers were able to close the door.

A split of the double header means a strategic win for the Tigers in this war of attrition for the AL Central.  The Twins will have to take the next two games in order to stay in real contention moving into the last series of the season.

Two Tigers victories spells the end of the Twins effort.

If the Tigers win one, their two game lead would force Minnesota to win two of their remaining three games in order to even have a shot.

Get ready, baseball fans.  The next two games are the biggest of the year.  And the pitching matchups may not be the most favorable for Detroit.

Wednesday: Carl Pavano (13-11) vs. Eddie Bonine (0-1)

Thursday: Scott Baker (14-9) vs. Nate Robertson (2-2)

Tigers Magic Number: 4