Billfer note: Commenter Sam has been breaking the season down into 18 game chunks – because 18 games is 1/9th of the season. So each chunk is an inning of the season you see? He’s been leaving these in the comments, and really it deserves more. So without further ado: The 4th inning by Sam.

The 4th Inning is over.

Each 18 games represent 1 inning of a baseball season. The Tigers record so far in each Inning:

Inn	W-L	RS-RA	HR-SB-AVG/OBA/SLG	ST-W-L-IP-ERA	RE-W-L-S-ERA
1	10-8	86-79	17-9-235/313/380	5-2-110.2-3.66	5-6-8-4.68
2	13-5	112-97	23-10-308/377/518	9-3-102.1-4.84	4-2-8-5.03
3	7-11	110-96	26-7-310/364/517	7-7-110.2-3.99	0-4-3-7.80
4	13-5	136-75	20-5-324/390/508	13-4-103-4.37	0-1-2-3.47

I have added stats to each inning. ST is the starters, RE is relievers. I will talk more about the pitching later.

The offense averaged 7.6 runs/game. They hit double digits 5 times (15,15,12,11,10). Magglio hit 1-18-.476/.558/.635 (7 doubles). Sheff was 5-19-.385/.474/.708. Guillen was a quiet 5-15-.319/.373/.702. INGE was 3-18-.364/.446/.600 as he should thank God he broke his toe which kept him from over striding. Heck even Neifi was over .200 (.217/.280/.261). The only issue is the Monroe/Thames twins who were a combined 2-13-.230/.256/.356. Their AB’s were limited by a lot of games in NL parks.

I was surprised as anyone by the relievers having a better ERA than the starters. It is kind of funny how the pen had 0 wins (only 1 loss) and 2 saves. In the First inning the pen had 11 out of 18 decisions and 8 saves. The last reliever to get a win was Jose Mesa on May 5 against KC (43 games ago). Another interesting note is that after playing extra innings in 7 of their first 20 games, the Tigers haven’t played one since.

The starter’s ERA was negatively effected by Nate’s performance in Texas on June 5 (6er with no outs). Take away that performance and the starters had a 3.84 era. Verlander led the starters (3-0-1.23). Bonderman was 4-0 but had a 5.70 era. Durbin was 2-2-4.30. Maroth was 2-0 with a 4.24 era but had 32 runners in 17 innings (with 0 Hrs). Andrew Miller split his 2 starts with a 5.56 era.

Out of the pen the Tigers got perfect performances from unlikely sources as Seay, Miner, DLC, and Lopez combined for 12 scoreless innings. Grilli had a 2.08 era in 13 innings. The only relievers over 5 were Ledezma (5.14 in 7 innings) and Rodney (8.10 in 6.1 innings allowing 14 runners!!)

As you can see a 13-5 inning is an impressive performance. The run differential is staggering. The next inning will feature a 13 game homestand with tougher competition (but the Tigers have been better on the road). 10-12 wins in the 5th inning would make me happy.