Baseball is a funny sport. We have all kinds of statistics to look at how things have gone in the past, and what to expect in the future. And then you have a series like this one between the Tigers and the A’s. The Tigers are notorious for not walking, and at least this year for hitting home runs. Meanwhile the A’s have had books (or at least a book) that looks at their plate discipline. The Tigers have been labeled this year as a team that can’t score without a home run, and they are typically solo shots. In fact, coming into the series, the last Tiger runs (over two games) had all come on solo shots. So what happens when the Tigers go to Oakland to face a team they have typically struggled with?

Detroit takes two of three without slugging the ball at all. They post a .377 team on base percentage that was largely fueled by walks and 3 hit-by-pitches. They score 18 runs in the series while only slugging .384 and not hitting a home run.

On the pitching side, the Tigers pretty much kept the A’s off balance and off base. While it should be noted that the A’s had been struggling coming into the series, mustered only a .599 OPS.

I’ve talked a little bit about Win Probability and Win Expectancy here in the past. Fangraphs has charts available for each game. Yesterday’s certainly proved to be a little more interesting then the ones I did early in the season:

Other items of note:

• The two teams combined for a single stolen base attempt.
• Justin Verlander accounted for over half of the Tigers strikeouts in the series. Verlander had 7, everybody else had 6.
• Detroit came into the series with only 3 errors this season. Oakland came into the series with only 4 errors. In the second game, Detroit committed 3 errors, and Oakland committed 4. After the series, the two teams error totals are: Detroit -8, Oakland – 9.

Series Studs

• Curtis Granderson sported a .533 OBA. If you’re leadoff guy is getting on half of the time, good things will happen.
• Alexis Gomez, who has been much maligned, not so much for his actions but for Leyland’s use of him, had 6 very productive at-bats. He scored 4 runs and added two doubles, including one of the pinch hit variety in yesterday’s win.
• The starting pitching. Kenny Rogers, Justin Verlander, and Jeremy Bonderman all pitched 7 or more innings while allowing 3 or fewer earned runs. While not overwhelming, each performance kept Detroit in the game, and the bullpen rested.
• Brandon Inge drew 4 walks in the series, and the biggest of course was the 15 pitch free pass in the 9th inning yesterday. It was one of those defining type at-bats. Let’s hope everyone can build off of it.

And those who struggled

• Pudge Rodriguez only had one hit and one walk in the 3 games. Although the hit was an RBI double in the first game, the subsequent games were and 0 for 6 and 0 for 5. He did hit a number of balls hard, and he was using the whole field. He just didn’t have much to show for it.
• Marcus Thames failed to reach base in his 7 at-bats.
• Chris Shelton struggled, relatively speaking. He failed to get an extra base hit in the series. Even still, he managed a .385 on base average and was a key part of yesterday’s rally.