Well the Tigers tried their hardest to continue their losing streak against the Tribe this week, but eventually they were able to scratch out one win in the series. Cleveland improved their record at Comerica to 5-24 in their last 29 tries, they almost doubled their wins in one series. Anyways, since the Tigers ended on somewhat of a decent note (good enough that the majority of the media is back on the band wagon and expect yesterday to be the turnaround game), my awards will have a more positive outlook than usual.
The Verlander of the Series is a tough one again. There are a few guys that could be considered here, and heck, the offense even scored 13 runs in the last 2 games. Miguel continued his hot streak, and seriously looks like he could be a .400 hitter over the course of a season if he didn’t take at bats off. But, I am going to go with James “Marlbro Man” Leyland for his first positive review of the season. Over the past few weeks, most Tiger’s fans have called for Jim’s head because firing a manager mid-season will instantly make the bottom 5 hitters be able to hit a 95 mph fastball. Well, I thought I would give credit when Jim’s moves pay off. Yesterday, starting in the bottom of the 1st inning it was Leyland’s day in the decision-making department. After Berry got on base, he immediately put the hit and run on with Boesch. It caused Boesch to focus more to make contact, he shortened his swing a bit, and actually got a hit in the process which started the 4 run rally. Then to start the next big inning, Jim had Holaday lay down a sacrifice bunt to move Danny Worth to 2nd. Finally, with Brennan up again and the count 3-0, Jim gave him the green light to the slumping hitter. It was a very risky move, considering the 2 nights before Brennan “deep ball” consisted of pop ups to third base. Brennan came through again with a ground rule double to straight away center. Now, Jim cannot manage the same way every game because the risk outweighed the reward on most of those calls, but for some reason yesterday they paid off. Jim set himself up to take the blame if the Tigers lost the game, and put Brennan in the spotlight (even if just for an afternoon). Nice work skip.
The Schlereth of the Series will have to go to both Max Scherzer and the overall defense. Max was looking to string together another quality start and try to add some consistency to the rotation. Instead, he got abused on the mound. He got hit hard most of the night, and he struggled to strike anyone out for one of the first times this season. The defense could have helped him out in big ways in the game, but it was not meant to be. Folks, this defense was expected to be bad, but it is a train wreck right now. Prince is looking to cruise to victory in the most errors for a 1st baseman (he already has 7), and countless other balls that would have completed a double play, stopped an error from a teammate, or if he was just average at the position he would have stopped multiple hits that got into right field. People kept saying Miguel was just an average first baseman, but there is no comparison between the two. Then Brennan dropped a routine pop-up in game two that extended the first inning where Scherzer gave up a 3 run home run (all 3 unearned runs), and coincidentally the Tigers lost by 3. I know they are not good, but it would be nice to see a little bit of improvement in the field somehow. Maybe when AJ and Dirks come back the outfield will look like Dirks in left, AJ in center, and Berry in right. Also, Worth has been playing a very good 2nd base lately (but nobody cares because he is hitting .200).
Looking forward, the Tigers look to extend their amazing 72-39 interleague record under Jim Leyland, and they certainly have some teams to do it against. The Reds are first place in their division, but after that they get the Cubs, Rockies, Cardinals, and Pirates. If the team was playing well, there is no reason they wouldn’t be able to win all of these series… but the way its going they could get swept by the Cubs.
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