TOWER GROVE — The St. Louis Cardinals inexplicably annual interleague series against the Detroit Tigers begins tonight at Busch Stadium. It will be the Tigers’ first visit to the Cardinals’ crib since Brandon Inge waved past an Adam Wainwright slider and good bye to the 2006 World Series.

But it’s not like the Cardinals haven’t seen the Motown Nine since then.

In a constant quirk of interleague play, the Cardinals continue to play Detroit every season. This will be the fourth consecutive season that the Cardinals have played the Tigers in interleague play. The previous three were all in Detroit. Last year, a Major League Baseball official told me that the Cardinals trip to Detroit was a “mistake”, that baseball painted itself into a corner by leaving the Cardinals on the East Coast and the only free team on their way back home from the trip was … bingo, Detroit. The Cardinals are 7-16 overall against the Tigers in interleague play. That includes a 4-11 record in Detroit and a 3-5 record here in St. Louis.

Here’s hoping these are the final three games against the Tigers for a few years, because the Cardinals have yet to visit Camden Yards during interleague play and it’s about time for, oh, Seattle to visit or something, right?

Manager Tony La Russa has enjoyed the matchups because it allows him to cross paths with good friend Jim Leyland. The two chums talk regularly, and the subject of one of their recent phone calls is where today’s 10@10 begins …

1. Leyland let La Russa know a few weeks ago how his pitching rotation stacked up against the Cardinals, and La Russa wouldn’t say if his friend listed the three starts with a sense of glee. This who gives Leyland’s Tigers their claws:

• Tuesday (weather permitting): JUSTIN VERLANDER, RHP … Who is 7-0 with a 1.10 ERA in his previous nine starts. Verlander has struck out 81 batters in those nine games, and 106 overall this season. And he hasn’t allowed a home run to a righthanded hitter this season.
• Wednesday: EDWIN JACKSON, RHP … Acquired from Tampa Bay this past winter, Jackson has six quality starts in his previous seven games. Though he’s 1-3 witha 6.80 ERA in 13 interleague games, Jackson has allowed three earned runs or fewer in seven consecutive starts.
• Thursday: RICK PORCELLO, RHP … A name everyone knows in these parts, the 20-year-old righthander, as mentioned in today’s paper, is one of the leading candidates for the AL Rookie of the Year. He’s coming off seven innings of one-run pitching, and he’s won six of his previous eight starts. He hasn’t allowed more than four runs in a game since April 29.

Asked if Leyland listed off his pitchers for this series as if to brag, La Russa offered no details. “Jim told me a long time ago,” he said. “Yeah, this is the big leagues, man. This is what you expect to get.”

2. Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan gave Chris Carpenter some of the highest praise the righthander has ever received in an article that was meant to discuss Duncan receiving the highest honor a baseball man can get. The anchor story of the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s sports section on Sunday was about Duncan and his Hall of Fame coaching career, which began as a bullpen catch for the Indians. As part of the article, Duncan gave a rundown of the ace pitchers he’s tutored. (See the video that accompanies the link above for some of the interview.) And in the context of describing each of the seven Cy Young Award winners he’s caught or coaches — like Vida Blue, Dave Stewart and Jim Palmer – Duncan said this about his current ace:

“Well, it would depend on who we were playing, number one. One guy might match up better against one club than the other. But I think, in their prime, it would be hard not to pick Carpenter. But you’re talking about the cream of the crop, you’re talking about the elite pitchers and anyone of them is a good choice.”

For a clubhouse that usually follows the tied-for-first rule, this was high praise indeed. Carpenter said he was struck by the comment and that after reading it he sought Duncan out to thank him. Said La Russa: “That’s some pretty good company.”

3. The thrust of the article, however, is one discussed in here over the past couple years and one also mentioned a few times in the Post-Dispatch. Duncan is the longest-serving pitching coach in major-league history. His reputation is well-known. But coaches aren’t inducted into Cooperstown, the way managers, players and, really, even writers and broadcasters are. No, coaches and scouts visit, they don’t get voted in. That’s the subject of today’s poll.

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4. The Cardinals’ franchise all-time leader in saves and Illinois native, Jason Isringhausen, is headed for season-ending surgery and it could mean the end of his career, still seven saves shy of 300. Now a reliever for Tampa Bay, Isringhausen has a torn ligament in his right elbow, and it will require Tommy John surgery and 10- to 12-months of rehab for him to pitch again. His agent tells the St. Petersburg Times that this is not a retirement announcement.

5. Two days after turning rookie lefthander David Huff into Cliff Lee, the Cardinals actually got to face Cliff Lee and nearly were no-hit by the Cleveland lefty and reigning AL Cy Young Award winner. Lee was so efficient in shutting out the Cardinals on Sunday night that he needed only 93 pitches to do so. It is the second-fewest pitches thrown in a complete-game shutout this season. The fewest? The 92 thrown by Cardinals righthander Joel Pineiro against the Chicago Cubs on May 19.

6. Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun hit his 85th career home run Monday at Progressive Field against Cleveland.  He did it in his 326th game, the fourth-fastest to that total in major-league history. The three sluggers ahead of Braun, according to ESPN and Elias Sports Bureau research, all have ties to the St. Louis Cardinals organization or St. Louis. The list:

• Ryan Howard … 85 homers in 283 games
• Bob Horner … 85 homers in 308 games
• Mark McGwire … 85 homers in 325 games
• Ryan Braun … 85 homers in 326 games
• Ralph Kiner … 85 homers in 331 games

7. Khalil Greene continued his work at third base Monday for Triple-A Memphis, and he also continued hitting on his rehab assignment. The Cardinals’ infielder went 2-for-4 with his first RBIs of the assignment in the Redbirds’ victory. So, he’s played two games at third base and he’s hit 6-for-15 overall, with two doubles and three runs scored. Memphis has two more home games before heading out on the road to play Iowa and offering the big league club a natural point to consider activating Greene. Greene was a shortstop at Clemson when he won the Golden Spikes Award as the nation’s top college player, but earlier in his career with the Tigers he had been the third baseman and his move to short was something of a major story for the team. Here is a Q & A that he did with Clemson fans, and most of the questions were about how well he moves to his left.

8. FARMNIK REPORT: Allen Craig had three hits and two RBIs in Memphis’ 6-3 victory against the Isotopes. Craig started in left field, and finished the game at first. Utility infielder Brian Barden, joining the Redbirds after being optioned out at the start of the Cleveland series, started in right field for Memphis. … Brett Wallace started at first base, and he went 1-for-3 with a walk. … Matt Pagnozzi, catcher, had two hits. … Jess Todd completed his 12th save of the season by working a scoreless ninth. … Outfielder Tyler Henley homered to provide Springfield’s its only runs in a 7-2 loss. Infielder Daniel Descalso got caught stealing and committed two errors in the field during the loss. … Starter Brad Furnish, who is moving from relief to the rotation, lasted just an inning and allowed three runs on two hits and three walks. … Palm Beach won, 8-4. Adron Chambers went 3-for-6 with a couple RBIs and the PB-Cards were 6-for-17 with runners in scoring position. Shane Peterson went 2-for-5 with a double, a triple and two RBIs. … Third baseman Jermaine Curtis scored two runs, walked twice and drove in two runs. … Quad Cities was swept in a doubleheader by Peoria. They were shutout 8-0 on a three-hitter in the first game. Travis Mitchell had two of the hits. Brett Zawacki allowed six runs on six hits and two walks in his one-inning start for QC. … Arquimedes Nieto allowed eight hits and four runs in his five innings of a start in the second game. He struck out five and walked three. Jose Garcia homered and tripled in the second game, going 2-for-2 with two runs scored and two RBIs.

9. This interleague series against the Tigers is a rematch of three World Series: The Gas House Gang’s coming out party in 1934, the 17-K loss to the Tigers in 1968, and then the shocking Tigers-in-3 series of 2006. In that 2006 series, Verlander went 0-2 with a 3.63 ERA and he lost Game 1 of the series, allowing that opposite field homer by Albert Pujols at Comerica Park. He’s fared much better against the Cardinals in the regular season. In two starts, Verlander is 2-0 with a 3.86 ERA. He’s struck out eight in 14 innings, which is actually off his current pace. Verlander has struck out at least five batters in 12 consecutive starts. That’s the third-longest such streak in the past 50 years for a Tigers’ pitcher, one behind Mickey Lolich’s 13 consecutive 5-K games in 1964 and two behind the club record, set by Verlander in 2007.

10. Wrote about Colby Rasmus in this morning’s paper and how his first major-league has followed the trend of his other pro seasons, and how his recent run of playing time and performance has put him suddenly in the lead pack of NL rookies. It’s early, with a little more than a 100 games to play, to pass out awards, but it’s striking how Rasmus has put himself in the conversation. Couldn’t cram everything he had to say into the article. He said when it comes to hitting he would much rather concern himself with “just grip it and rip it” than dissecting how he’s gripped it and ripped it so far this month. But he also acknowledged that he’s still getting to know how teams attack him, and how he should attack pitchers. He’s looking forward to when that feeling-out process is done.

“The more they get to see me, good, because that means the more I get to see them,” Rasmus said. “And then, at some point, it becomes whoever is better.”

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