Verlander & Schlereth of the Series (White Sox)

This was a quick 2 game series, so the awards will basically go to the bum from losing game 1 and the hero from winning game 2.  I was listening to the game on the radio yesterday and thought Scherzer had wrapped up the Schlereth, but luckily for him the bats picked him up. 

Verlander of the Series: Prince Fielder.  Biggy just jumped from worst to first in 2 games, and it continues the streak of people competing for the Schlereth of one series and turning it around to win the Verlander the next.  All Biggy did was go 6-9 with 3 doubles in two games against the Sox.  The Tigers offense started to pick things up a bit in the Windy City, and you don’t have to look past the top 4 in the batting order.  Prince continued hitting near .400 following a Miggy hit, which is a stat that will be fun to watch through the summer, especially with Miggy going 14 for his last 28.  Prince’s home run totals have still been down to start the season, but I think he will have a big weekend in Comerica. 

Schlereth of the Series:  this is a tough one because Max is just so inconsistent.  You can tell within his first few batters if he has his good stuff or not.   Yesterday was not his best start.  Hopefully he can turn things around against the worst offense in the NL on Sunday. But I think this series belongs to Luke Putkonen.  Leyland went to the youngster to hold onto a 5-4 lead on Monday night, and he couldn’t do it.  One encouraging aspect was all of the hits were grounders that found a hole, but it still frustrating to see the bullpen continually come in and give up as many runs as the starters (in half of the time).

Looking forward the Tigers have a great chance to win back to back games for the first time in a month.  They have a great chance of going on a little winning streak here to be over .500 at the all important 40 game mark.  Except the way this season has been going, it seems like a good time for the Twins to come in and win 10-1 somehow.  Detroit should be able to go 4-1 in their homestand, and probably catch Cleveland by the time they have to face the Tribe for the first time this season.