Detroit got 2 more series wins over the week as Tiger's fans flooded into the Great American Ballpark and Wrigley Field respectively. The fans got to see some pretty decent baseball from the Boys of Summer, and it has caused the local media to believe Detroit has turned a corner of their season and will begin to assume their throne of the class of the AL Central.
Detroit played 3 one run games against the Reds. They lost the first from a suicide squeeze play. In reality, the Reds outplayed the Tigers on the night and probably shouldn't have needed the gimmick play to win the game. Verlander did his best to get a win on Saturday, but Delmon Young and the offense didn't want to give him any support again. Luckily we managed to scrape a run across late in the game to win the 2nd game. Finally, on the ESPN game of the week Sunday night, Drew Smyly did his best to make every viewer vomit a little in their mouth when a giant blood blister broke on his throwing hand. The rookie had to leave the game early, and Detroit again had to rely on the bullpen. When all hope seemed lost, and the Tigers were laying an egg on national tv, the bats woke up against the bullpen again. This time scoring 5 runs off of relievers, Aroldis Chapman being one of them. Detroit got their first series win since the 3 game sweep of the little league Twins in May.
Heading into the series with the Cubs, most fans thought the Tigers needed a sweep to really make us believe they are a different team. Well, those dreams were squashed in the first game of the series when Peralta make a mockery of the shortstop position. He somehow had back to back routine ground balls turn into 2 errors turn into 1 game winning run for Chicago. Boo. Then the Tigers realized, hey the Cubs might be worse than the Twins and there are more Tiger fans here than lame Cubs fans... maybe we should play baseball. The bats woke up for an 8-4 win in the 2nd game of the series. Scherzer started and pitched his normal game, but luckily for him the offense bailed him out. Boesch went off in the game, collecting 4 hits, including a home run. The rubber match also happened to fall on Justin Verlander Day, and he did not disappoint. The offense was slow to give him much help, but in the end JV got his 6th win of the season and Austin led the offense to a second straight series victory.
Looking forward, the Tigers welcome the Rockies and the Cardinals to Comerica Park as interleague play continues. Folks, these teams are average at best. The Rockies are 0-9 in games against the AL this season. Their pitching might be worse than the Mudhens, and their hitting is close to useless outside of Coors Field. Of course this combination will likely mean a 10 run outburst for the Rockies. Detroit should win the next two series to continue to move closer to .500 and catching the White Sox for first place in the division. One thing that interleague shows is how miserable the NL is compared to the AL. The Tigers are an average baseball team, let me be honest. Yet, they are head and shoulders better than the majority of NL teams. It is kind of a joke. I finally get to go back to Comerica this Sunday as well for a Father's Day celebration with my dad and grandpa. It should be a blast.
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