Sam continues his look at each 18 game stretch of the season…

The 6th Inning is over.

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

                                                Starters:         Bullpen:

   W-L   RS-RA   HR-SB-AVG/OBA/SLG    W-L-IP-   ERA       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   13-4-103.0-4.37      0-1-2-3.47

5: 11-7   91 -79  23-20-272/357/443   10-5-112.0-3.46      1-2-7-3.33 

6: 7-11   84 -113 17-8 -276/325/415    3-8- 99.2-6.59      4-3-6-4.31 

Wow the 6th inning was ugly! They started with a sweep in Minnesota and then lost 4 straight series since (3 to losing teams). Unlike the 3rd inning when we had an identical record but were killed by a shaky bullpen, they were outplayed in every facet of the game. The Tigers are a mere 84-78 over their last 162 regular season games.

The offense had great contributions from some unexpected places as Rabelo and Rayburn combined for 3-10-410/421/732 in 56 ABs. Granderson 3-8-328/394/547, Ordonez 2-16-324/387/471 and Polanco 2-8-382/408/559 all continue to swing well. Sheff 1-5-175/273/263 is hurt and you figure he may hit the DL at some point. Guillen 0-2-283/317/350 appears to be hurt as he is hitting with no power. The trilogy of Monroe 2-9-240/250/380, Inge 1-6-238/269/349 and Casey 0-4-245/298/283 combined to have a 241/280/337!! Pudge continues to run hot and cold as he was awful 1-4-184/180/265.

I am not sure what has happened to the starting pitching, but they have all collectively seemed to hit a wall. They are averaging 5.5 innings per start and actually had an ERA of 7.08 without the single starts Vasquez and Tata who were 1-0-3.00. Verlander 0-1-5.00, Robertson 1-3-5.47 and Miller 1-1-6.75 were mediocre while Rogers 0-1-10.45 and Bonderman 0-2-10.12 were horrible. Rogers has an excuse in his elbow. I am not sure of Bonderman’s issue, he did have 14 strikeouts in 16 innings?

In the bullpen Capellan and Durbin struggled as they had identical 6.75 eras in 13.1 combined innings. The lefty trio of McBride, Seay, and Byrdak had a respectable 3.86 era but gave up 30 base runners in 16.1 innings. Miner and Grilli were pretty good as they scarped up 3 wins and had a 3.38 era. Jones had 5 saves and a 3.38 era giving up 7 base runners in 8 innings.

This most recent inning was the worst performance since the 5-13 8th inning in 2006. A couple of key guys are dealing with injuries on offense and the starting pitching has hit a wall. A good trade deadline move will often pick up a team emotionally (like Texeria for Atlanta). The Tigers set silently and now must find a way to get their ship righted or they will be watching the playoffs on TV this year.