Detroit ? I probably should not make too much of a single August baseball game, but goshdarnit, I’m the kind of guy who backs out of the driveway before his seatbelt is fully buckled, doesn’t care if these Contents May Be Hot, and used to down Pop Rocks with a Coke, so I’m going to be my usual bold self and say it:

Tonight is the biggest game of the Tigers’ season.

(So far, anyway.)

The Tigers begin a 13-game stretch against the Indians and the Yankees, their two biggest rivals for a playoff spot. Jeremy Bonderman will start against Cleveland ace C.C. Sabathia.

And here is what that means:

Bonderman has become the most important Tiger, simply because of the range of his possible performance. At his best, he is an All-Star-quality pitcher. At his worst, he gets knocked around in the first and doesn’t make it to the sixth. Lately, Bonderman has been at his worst.

If Bonderman gets shelled tonight, the Tigers likely are looking at a two-game Indians sweep because they are putting minor leaguer Jair Jurrjens up against Fausto Carmona in Wednesday’s Enunciation Special.

And if the Tigers get swept, they will have lost 15 of 20 heading into a four-game series at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees are merely the hottest team in baseball. Meanwhile, the Indians will visit Tampa Bay, the worst team in the majors.

If you haven’t followed the Tigers’ recent slide, their 7-2 loss to Oakland on Monday revealed a lot.

The Tigers’ main problem, Monday and for the past month, was poor starting pitching. Chad Durbin pitched to 13 batters before he recorded a groundout, and he allowed five earned runs. If Durbin keeps leaving balls up in the strike zone, we’ll have to call him Hanging Chad.

Reliever Jason Grilli was booed when he entered the game, then showed why, with a four-pitch bases-loaded walk. But the Tigers were too far behind for their relief pitching to matter.

Placido Polanco was smooth and error-free – tonight, he will try to extend his errorless streak at second base to a record 145 games. Carlos Guillen, the other half of the Tigers’ double-play combination, will try to extend his errorless streak to … uh … one.

Guillen booted a potential inning-ending double-play ball Monday – luckily for him, he booted it toward Polanco, who got a forceout at third base, saving Guillen from an error. Guillen also failed to get to a ground ball up the middle that, to put it bluntly, was in the range of most shortstops.

Guillen also had a throwing error. And this brings us to our stat of the day: Guillen has committed 38 errors since Placido Polanco last committed one.

So that was the night in a nutshell. Oh, I forgot one thing:

When the game ended, the Tigers still were in first place.

Manager Jim Leyland is tired of hearing that – “We’re fooling ourselves if we think we’re going to win pitching and playing the way we are,” he said – but it’s true. And at times like this, it is important to remember that other teams have problems, too.

The Indians just got swept by the Yankees. They are not hitting. Bonderman is capable of deflating them in the first two innings. Then again, given Bonderman’s first-inning troubles, he might be just what the Indians ordered.

We won’t know until it’s over, but this 13-game stretch could well determine the Tigers’ season. The Tigers have stumbled and tripped but somehow are still in the thick of the race. They can’t afford any more stumbling or tripping, especially in the next two weeks, and especially tonight.