Ed Note: Reader Sam Hoff has been breaking the season down into 18 game “innings” and calculating the results. Here is the report for the 7th inning, which ended with Justin Verlander’s loss. Mike R has joined in the effort and is tracking a multitude of stats.

The 7th 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
7: 7-11   83 -110 20-10-266/315/436   4-10-101.0-6.50      3-1-4-5.12

The 7th inning was almost identical to the 6th. The Tigers will start the 8th inning by trying to get within ½ game of Cleveland and win a series for the 1st time in 5 weeks. The only reason the Tigers have hope is because Cleveland is also playing poorly (11-16 in their last 27).

The offense is still being lead by Mags 8-22-352/403/718 and Polanco who was 2-4-317/396/512 in only 11 games thanks to the flu. Guillen, Rayburn, and Thames were passable with a combined 6-23-279/304/491 in 165 abs. Maybin, Infante, and Santiago produced 1-4-400/455/633 in only 30abs (Infante was 7 for his last 14 when he was sent down?). The catching duo refuses to walk and were a combined 1-4-264/274/389. Casey 1-7-255/293/345, Granderson 0-3-203/311/297, Sheff 1-4-196/268/294, and Inge 0-8-208/232/302 represent 44% of the lineup that are not doing anything.

The starters continue to get bombed. Jurrgens was 1-1-3.29 providing a big boost out of AA ball. Durbin 0-3-7.71, Bonderman 0-3-6.23, Verlander 2-1-6.75, and Robertson 1-1-5.59 all were inept. Tata got Bombed his only start.

In back end of the bullpen appears to be hitting on all cylinders as Jones, Rodney, and Zumaya were 1-0-4-1.35 in 13.1 innings. Seay and Bazardo combined for 0-0-2.00 in 9.0 innings. The rest of the bullpen was 2-1-0-6.32 giving up 51 hits and 21 walks in only 35.2 innings.

This most recent inning was almost identical to the 6th inning performance. The team has now had 3 losing innings amongst the 7. In 2006, the team only had 1 losing inning. If this team is to make the postseason, both of the next 2 innings must be winning efforts.

Mike R also compiled a comprehensive spreadsheet detailing the inning with a plethora of stats including BABIP, FIP, and many more for each player.