Tigers are 2 games under at the 2/3 mark of the season.
This is a rematch of the May 2 matchup where JV arguably had his best outing of the year, allowing only 1 R on 3 hits over 8 1/3. Did you know that JV has had only one scoreless outing all year?
Weaver has been phenomenal all year with 162 Ks in 148 IPs and a 1.09 WHIP. Yeah, 1.09.
Detroit is under .500 again for only the second time this season (the other being the short stint between Tuesday’s DH). Scherzer took two tough losses last week, when he lost a no hitter in the 6th on Matt Joyce’s HR and ultimately took the loss opposite Garza’s no-no, and then he had a 6 1/3, 9 hit, 1 ER effort versus Boston that the Red Sox ultimately won in the 9th on Big Papi’s bases clearing double. Still, Scherzer has been very encouraging as of late with, with 7 quality starts in his last 10.
A win for Garcia would time him for the team lead at 11. In his career, he is 18-6 with a 3.74 ERA vs. the Tigers, with an 8-3 mark at Comerica. Are we ever going to find a pitcher whose splits against the Tigers are worse than his career averages?
Game time is 1:05p Eastern.
Tigers need a W against Edwin Jackson if they want an opportunity to take the series tomorrow.
Yeah, there’s another game tonight…
Full day of baseball today with a 1:05 ET opener, and then the second game at 7:05 tonight. Buehrle goes for the White Sox in the afternoon game, their starter is TBD for the evening game.
Tigers desperately need to win the series. Anything else simply won’t do. Beck puts a positive spin on things on MLB.com today.
(my apologies for the basic image, still learning that tool)
Friends – one of my favorite things about this site is the level of analysis that we get from billfer and the other members. No doubt in my mind that it is the best place for analysis and synthesis of Tigers data.
In that vein, I’d like to post a few observations about last week. I know that we recently went through pro-longed losing streak, but I would argue that last week’s 1-6 mark was worse because a) of the way that it happened, b) we were no-hit and c) it may have been the proverbial nail in the coffin.
I took a quick look at the box scores from last week and would like to post a few basic totals to encourage further discussion on what ails this team, and how we can fix it (if that’s even possible). Sorry that there is not more detail here, though I’m working on an a way to crowdsource the data collection so that we can work together to gather better info in less time in the future.
As a team, we batted a collective .234 with .315 OBP. The worst offenders were Boesch (2-27, .074/.107, the second # is OBP), Jackson (6-32, .188/.188) and Kelly (0-8, 0 BBs). Avila (2-9, .222/.364) and Laird (3-14, .214/.214) managed to raise their season batting averages, and Avila’s ability to draw a walk probably mandates more playing time (Avila walks 10% of the time, Laird does so 6.5% of the time). Cabrera was a monster (he hit .364/.517 with 7 of his 8 hits being of the extra base variety, not to mention four IBBs if I’m remembering correctly) and Peralta jumped off to a nice start at 5-11 (.455/.538).
Where we really were hurt was RISP. Tigers were 9-53, for a .170 BA (there was the Frazier bases loaded walk too). Conversely, opponents went 16-62 with RISP, for a .258 BA. Boesch was a huge culprit here, getting outs on Tues, Wed and Thurs with the bases full to end the 7th each night. Had the Tigers simply been as good as their opponents with RISP, that would have led to 4-5 more hits over the course of the week. Not including the no hitter we lost 5 games by a combined total of 8 runs. Those 4-5 hits and resulting RBIs could have turned the week. Tigers left 47 on base over the games, which is not a ton for 7 games, but more a function of failing to get on base than anything else. The Red Sox and Rays stranded a combined 52 runners.
Starting pitching was pretty good, the bullpen was pretty bad. The starters, though posting an 0-4 record, had a combined ERA of 4.25, but if you remove Bonine from the equation, our starters had a 3.46 ERA over 6 starts. Verlander gave up 3 runs in each start (8 IPs, 7 IPs), Scherzer looked good, and Porcello’s 4 ERs in his 7 1/3 could have been 2 without a few misplays from Cabrera. Starting pitching is not the problem in Motown.
The bullpen went 1-2, and we all remember how Weinhardt’s W barely stook up after Valverde’s 60 pitch marathon on Fri night. As a whole the pen had a 6.01 ERA in 14 2/3 innings. Besides Valverde’s implosion Perry gave up 3 ER in 2 2/3, and Coke gave up 2 in 2 2/3.
So, with that in mind, what are your observations, and what can we do moving forward to try and get back in the race?
Tigers in Fenway today at 1:35 EST, with an opportunity to take a series on the road. Coming into this weekend, we could not have asked for anything more. Who is your Tiger today?