Like I have stated before that one of my friends is doing a series by series recap of the Tigers season, I have decided to do a weekly look back. But sitting here at work on a Monday morning is making me want to blog about our own Boys of Summer.
I will keep to my weekly report, but will add a post that has my choice of MVP and Schlereth of each series and try not to get too in depth with each game recap. In case you are not aware of the current state of the Tigers, Daniel Schlereth has been on the team for a couple of years now. He made the Opening Day roster out of Spring Training, and then continued to work on his reputation as the worst MLB pitcher on any roster. So, the Schlereth of the Series will be for the player/ coach who struggled the most.
The Texas series got off to a pretty rough start with the Tigers getting outscored 20-7 in two games, but then finished reasonably strong. A blown call by an ump plated the winning run in extra’s in the series finale, which kept Detroit from splitting the 4 gamer.
The MVP of the weekend series will be a split one. 1A has to be Drew Smyly. The 22 year old kid has faced 3 of baseball’s toughest offenses in his first 3 career major league starts, and has given up a whopping 2 earned runs in 16 innings. In those 16 innings he also has 15 strikeouts, including 7 yesterday. The 2 earned runs have been on 2 solo home runs. I expected Smyly to be more polished than Jacob Turner or Andy Oliver, but I didn’t expect him to start his career with 2 quality starts out of 3 (and his first start only lasted 4 innings because of pitch count, not because he was hit hard). It will be interesting to see how he can continue to keep MLB hitters off balance, and if this start has more to do with the cold weather or if Smyly will be a fixture in the rotation for years to come. I would like to see him continue to work on his pitch count, and possibly get to the 7th inning at some point this season. But for now, we cannot ask for of this youngster. Drew gets little to no break for his next start, as he is slotted to start the Fox National Game of the Day on Saturday afternoon in Yankee Stadium… good luck.
1B.. I will go with Duane Below. The reason he is 1B and not a clean tie for MVP is that his 7 scoreless innings over the weekend series came when the game was already out of reach. Below kept the best lineup in baseball off balance during his time on the mound. He is turning into one of the best relievers out of the bullpen for this Tiger team.
Verlander would have been a decent choice here, but since he threw 2,000 pitches against the Royals.. he was only able to get through 6 innings against the Rangers on Saturday night. But the win stopped the Rangers winning streak and cooled off their bats. It was as close to a must win game as one in April can get, and JV was his normal self, looking unhittable.
The Schlereth of the Series goes to….. Well there are so many to choose from in this 4 game set. Schlereth finally did enough to be sent down to AAA with a 5 run inning, followed up by giving up a homerun on Saturday. Porcello could barely record an out in his start. Brandon Inge looked terrible at 2nd on Saturday (at times in both games). Avila had 2 errors in the game yesterday, with one of them moving the tying run to 3rd with less than 2 outs. He was brought home with a sac fly from the next hitter. But, with all of those bad performances I have to crown myself this weekend. I have been to 3 Tigers games on the year, and Detroit is 0-3 in these matchups. They have lost just 4 games in Comerica all season. What is the worst part of these losses is 2 of the 3 have been lost on the opponents last at bat. I was lucky enough to see Verlander’s melt down, and then yesterday’s extra-inning game. I am hoping that the trend is the home team losing games that I attend, and that it can continue for at least another 2 months. I am headed to Wrigley for a random Cubs game and then Fenway, Great America Ballpark, and possibly PNC to watch road Tigers games. If the jinx is just me with the Tigers, maybe I should reconsider getting season tickets next year.
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