With their lead in the American League Central now reduced to three games over the Twins after dropping four out of six to the Astros and Athletics on this so far alarming road trip, the last place the offensively-challenged Tigers want to be this weekend is in Minneapolis and the lame duck Metrodome.
     Since 2001, the Tigers are 58-96 against the Twins -- and 25-53 in the Metrodome, including an 0-3 mark there so far this year.   
     Suffice to say, the Metrodome is not the Tigers' favorite place to play.
     It has been the scene of too many nightmares.
     Only in 2007, when the Tigers went a surprising 8-1 in the Metrodome, have they enjoyed their trips to Minneapolis.
     As first base coach Andy Van Slyke noted in the book we wrote together last summer, Tigers Confidential: "Aesthetically, it's certainly the ugliest (place to play). The ballpark just has a murkiness to it. There is no cleaness, no crispness to the Metrodome.
     "It smells -- believe me, it smells terrible in the visitors' dugout. That may be from all of the teams that have gotten their brains beaten in there over the years and all of the carnage that has been left in the visitors' dugout."
     The Tigers know that better than anybody.
     Despite their decided homefield advantage, the Twins will abandon the Metrodome at the end of this season and move into a new open air stadium about a mile away.