It’s not often that a team can only muster 10 runs in a 3 game series, and still double the production of your opponent. Fortunately the Tigers had the 10 runs, and it was good enough for a road sweep of the Mariners

Of course the story for the Tigers was the starting pitching, which is good because the offense didn’t give them a lot to work with. In 20 innings of work they gave up one lone run. That’s giving even the 2003 Tigers a chance to win. A manufuctured run, anda late inning cushion via the homer were all that the pitching staff needed.

Stuff of note:

• The starters didn’t really overwhelm with their peripheral stats. In fact the M’s staff had better walk and K rates. Even more surprising is that the bullpen matched the starters strikeout production with 5 each.
• Nonetheless, holding the oppostion to only two extrabase hits over 3 games is very impressive.
• There were actually 3 stolen base attempts by the Mariners in the series, including the first of the season against Pudge Rodriguez. One attempt was deemed successful. That attempt was by Adrian Beltre in the 8th inning and the defense sure seemed indifferent. That stolen base was only the second of the season against the Tigers.
• Meanwhile the Tigers added 4 stolen bases. Coming into the series they had 5.
• Finally, I don’t think that Ernie Harwell was looking at a graph when he nicknamed Todd Jones the rollercoaster. However, thanks to Brian A at Tiger WPA we can see the win expectancy ride that Jones took Tiger fans on during his debut Friday night.

Series Studs

• As already mentioned, the entire pitching staff deserves recognition. Actually, both pitching staffs deserve recognition. There were only 13 earned runs in the series. The only Tiger pitcher to struggle was Joel Zumaya on Sunday, but his aggregate performance was buoyed by a 2 inning outing on Friday night.
• Pudge Rodriguez bounced back after struggling in Oakland and went 5 for 9.
• Vance Wilson had a very solid series. He had a big 10 pitch at-bat that resulted in a groundout to second advancing Inge to third on Friday. On Sunday he reached base 3 times and made an excellent play tagging out Ichiro Suzuki at the plate.
• Craig Monroe only had two hits, but both were 8th inning home runs that proved to be huge. He also started the play that nailed Ichiro at the plate with a jump throw from the corner.

And those who struggled

• Chris Shelton had a hitless series. He did however draw a couple walks. He’s played every game, under a ton of scrutiny and could be fatiguing a little.
• Placido Polanco only mustered two singles in 12 at-bats. He did however pick up a sacrifice fly in game one.