The Tigers finally won a series, some fans were wondering if it would happen again. Detroit also managed to avoid going below .500 for a little while longer. Every game against the Southsiders was a close game, and the Tigers got 3 more quality starts (5 in a row). Peralta was one pitch away from recording the final out on Friday night, but then thought it was a good time to launch his first homerun of the season resulting in a walkoff win. Baseball has a funny way of equalizing the amazing comebacks, so on Saturday Tigers fans got a taste of the opposite side. The twice baked potato walked onto the mound and began throwing his standard arrow straight 94 mph fastball, and after the leadoff guy got to 3rd base with 1 out Shrek hit one of the longest homeruns Comerica has ever seen (man I love a closer with a +6.00 ERA). Sunday, pretty Ricky came back with another gem against the Sox and the Tigers managed to win the rubber match. Now lets get to the awards.. drumroll please…
Verlander of the Series has to go the starting pitchers (Smyly, Scherzer, and Procello), and specifically Max. He rebounded extremely well from New York by allowing only 1 run and adding to his K’s per 9 IP lead amongst starting pitchers, but the most important part for me was the zero walks. The tv broadcasts focused a lot on Kid Rick and Maxi-pad’s alterations to their windup, and they seemed to have worked (if only for the weekend). I am just asking Max to become consistent. I don’t expect him to have this same stat line each start, but is 6-8 IP with 3 earned runs too much to ask for? It will be interesting to see how Max’s next start goes down when he gets to pitch against an inept offense (the last time he faced an offense in the bottom tier he made them look like All-stars).
Schlereth of the Series: Well the bats continued to sport a box score resembling the Pittsburgh Pirates offense, but I want to mix up the loser award this week. The rotten spud continues to struggle in every outing he stands on the mound. It is becoming inexcusable. Yes, he was not going to go 49/49 this season, but when your closer has more decisions (4) than your ace (3) something is seriously wrong. He is struggling to have any fastball control, which leaves him unable to throw the splitter as much as we would like. One good thing that happened over the weekend is Valverde stopped doing his ridiculous dances on the mound after saving Sunday’s game, maybe he is realizing you actually have to get results to act like an idiot.
Looking forward, the Tigers get to play their kryptonite in a 3 game series then head to Oakland where the Inge phenomenon is sweeping the bay. The Tigers have their 3 best pitchers scheduled to start against the worst offensive team in the AL. The series shapes up in Detroit’s favor, but after seeing the result from last night, on-paper matchups don’t seem to matter much in baseball.
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