As you can see by the record, the Tigers finished up a 1-6 week. It is a week that included being swept by the worst team in the AL, Seattle Mariners. After today’s debacle, the Mariners are 8-2 in their last 10 games at Comerica Park. Hopefully when September rolls around we can see that this was the worst week of the season for the Tigers, but things will need to improve quickly if they are going to stop this drought as the Boys of Summer (that better be true because they definitely are not liking Spring) head to Yankee Stadium.
There is not much to be encouraged by the baseball team in Detroit over the past week. After today’s game, some people are saying “well at least that one was closer.” It is really hard to continue to say it is early and they will get things together. In my rational part of my brain I know that is the case. The baseball season is a marathon, and the past week was just trying to run with a cramp (or maybe a sprained ankle). The question now is how soon does this pothole in the season get corrected? The answer on Sunday was, at least the Mariners are coming to town, but maybe the bats will get going again in the softball field they call Yankee Stadium against a real MLB team and not a AAA one.
The Rangers are an extremely good team, and with Yu Darvish improving with each start, they are becoming one of the most balanced teams the league has seen in recent years. Yes, they came into Detroit on a major heater. Yes, they played the best baseball a team could play (regardless of month). Yes, Detroit countered by throwing 2 rookie starting pitchers at the best lineup in baseball. And yes, Detroit turned to another rookie to make his major league debut in the 11th inning of the series finale. Needless to say, the Rangers hardly saw even Detroit’s B game. The 4 games were still tough to take. It was a matchup of the number 1 and 2 teams in the Power Rankings. The Sunday game was nationally broadcast. People were watching to see an epic battle, but Detroit will make them wait a little while longer. Detroit’s bats continued to be silent, starting pitching was embarrassing for 2 starts, the bullpen wasn’t much better, and defensive mistakes finally starting catching up with the team. It did cost us the lead in the last game, and it almost cost us the lone win as well. Our one saving grace was Justin was on the mound for the one win, but because he threw 133 pitches in his last start he wasn’t nearly as sharp and only lasted 6 innings. The team was out of sync, but we all hoped it would turn around when the lowly Mariners came to town.
Boy were we wrong. To put it lightly, the Mariners came in and pummeled the Tigers. The worst offense in baseball had 39 hits in 3 games, they chased our starting pitchers early. Detroit finished with 5 errors and 3 more plays that could have been. I don’t know if Detroit could have played worse, and if they can I really want to be warned beforehand because this last series was painful enough. Max got lit up like the Michigan Stadium scoreboard, Wilk has become a BP pitcher, and Porcello throws beach balls in the first inning. But as bad as the pitching was, the hitting wasn’t far behind. The Tigers continue to fall short with runners in scoring position with less than 2 outs. This team has to be able to manufacture some runs because hitting homeruns all the time is not the answer. Miguel did get a little bit of a power surge over the weekend as he hit 3 home runs over the home stand.
The best part of the last week might have been the demotions. Daniel “I stink worse than my dad” Schlereth, Adam Wilk, and Brandon Inge have all been moved from the big league team. Brandon got released and will never wear the olde English D again. Us fans can finally move on.
Looking forward, the Tigers get to play in New York for a 3 game set and then back in Comerica against the Royals. It will be a very important week because Detroit really needs to stop this losing slide they are in. I am excited to see Justin’s performance against the Yankees tomorrow night. He has one of the best ERA’s in the league right now, but also one of the worst run supports. So far Detroit is scoring less than 3 runs a game for the ace. It will be nice if the Tigers can give him a low stress game at some point soon. It will be good to see the team win another series here, hopefully against the Yankees. Can JV continue his hot start, can Smyly continue his rookie of the year pace, can Max have a quality start? Another concerning note is Prince Fielder has gone the longest time between homeruns in his career. Nobody is taking notice of this since Albert Pujols has not launched one yet, but Biggy has gone 17 games without a bomb. Hopefully the joke of a short porch in right field will help him this weekend.
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