After losing another series against a team with a winning record, the Tigers continue to dig themselves into a deeper hole in the division race. They are currently finished with a third of the season, and are 6 games back of the surging White Sox. I still do not think it is time to hit the panic button yet, but the team needs to start turning things around quickly.
The Verlander of the Series will go to Miguel Cabrera by default. The Tigers continue to only score runs by solo homeruns, and if it weren’t for Miggy knocking the cover off the baseball in game 2 we would be looking at another home sweep. While Nelson Cruz just hit the longest homerun of the season last night (484 feet), Miguel might have the longest average of homeruns (2 or more in a game). The big fella took Yankees pitching deep to straight away center field on Saturday night, and he did it twice. The total home run distance was 910 feet. The Tigers were playing in Comerica Park. In case you are not aware, straight away center field is one of the deepest parts of any park in MLB. Miguel hit one in batting practice range for his first bomb, it hit the ivy in front of the centerfield walkway. The second moon shot landed in the camera booth. Just in case that wasn’t enough, Miggy hit his patented laser double to left center. Saturday night made Miguel look like one of the best hitters in the game today.
The Schlereth of the Series has a couple different candidates this time around. Crosby showed why he is absolutely not ready for the majors by walking 4 people in one inning and then giving up a grand slam, but it is hard to come down on a kid making his MLB debut against the Yanks. The Tigers might have been better off using a boulder behind the plate on Saturday night in place of Omir Santos, I am not sure if he was nervous or if he really is just that bad of a defensive catcher, but yikes. But he hit the walk off sacrifice fly to win the lone game of the series, so I will continue my search. Then we go to Justin Verlander, who for the first time is actually a decent candidate for this award. He came out and didn’t have his normal dominant start, which you could see from the very first pitch. Then he wasn’t in good position to back up Miggy on a throw to third which resulted in the 5th run to score when the ball went into the dugout. But the worst part is after the game JV actually mentioned the 5 minute delay because of the Magglio ceremony might have thrown him out of his rhythm. Really? I know you have a routine, but you are the best pitcher in baseball and you just didn’t have your stuff today. I cannot believe JV is 5-4 at this point of the season. But he is still JV and even one of his worst games of the season still should have been enough for the Tigers to get the win with Phil “I have a WHIP of a slow pitch softball pitcher” Hughes but JV is on the mound so they managed to scrape across 1 run. Watch out now, we are heating up! But the real Schlereth of the weekend has to go to the bleach blonde spud. Yes, that is right, Jose Valverde (Papa Grande) has bleached his hair and his weird looking goatee. Gross. But on top of looking like a complete moron, he had one of the worst save opportunities I have ever seen. With a one run lead in the top of the 9th inning, Valverde came in and hit the leadoff batter with one pitch (9th batter on top of it). Then he walked Derek Jeter. After getting Granderson to pop out, he gave up a double steal. Then he really focused on ARod by throwing the ball at his heavily protected elbow. The bases were now loaded for Cano, who for some reason swung at the 1-0 pitch and popped out to short. The twice baked spud might actually get out of this fiasco. Nope, he then walked Texiera on a full count pitch that wasn’t even close. There goes the lead and another save. He didn’t even give up 1 hit in the inning, yet gave up the lead and left the bases loaded. But we ended up winning the game, and Valverde improved his record to 3-1. Maybe he is going for the most wins ever by a closer.
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