Short and sweet for the win.

We’re not gonna get swept at home, by the Brewers, are we?

Baseball Reference game preview here.

1. Gose, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez J.D., RF
5. Cespedes, LF
6. Collins, DH
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. McCann, C
9. Iglesias, SS

(doesn’t he look injured in the pic above?)

Victor Martinez and his inability to hit left handed (against right handed pitching) has been the most popular Tiger topic as of late. He’s in a massive slump (let’s hope it’s a slump), and looked downright awful in two key late inning game-tying/go-ahead situations over the past two nights. He weakly grounded out to 3rd on Sunday night, despite an overshift where a normal speed runner would have likely made it to first, and then grounded into a 1st and 2nd no out double play last night which was upheld on replay, to the great dismay of Rod Allen. Had he not been “injured” he may have beaten the relay last night. Just moving the runners over last night would have put the Tigers in a great position to win the game.

Through 34 games this year he’s posting an OPS of .578, which ranks him 89 out of 92 qualifiers in the AL.

In 2013, his only season to finish with an OPS below .832 in his past 7 seasons, he had a .562 OPS through the first 34 games of the season. From game 35 on, he resumed his normal V Mart awesomeness, and posted a slashline of .326/.377/.469 for an OPS of .847 the rest of the season. I know he’s been downright awful this year, but let’s not forget this guy’s resume. He finished 2nd in MVP voting last year. He’s well established as a professional hitter. Guys like VMart don’t forget how to hit. It’s a bad slump, but he’ll be out of it soon.

Collins up for VMart. Collins has been a borderline average minor leaguer at every level above A, and he’s about to turn 25, so don’t hold out too much help that he’ll be anything more than a role player. But even if he hits league average for a bit (or even a little below it), it will be an upgrade over what injured VMart has been producing.

Here’s a take on how VMart’s DL stint will affect the lineup.

Baseball-Reference game preview here.

1. Gose, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez J.D., RF
5. Cespedes, LF
6. Collins, DH
7. Castellanos, DH
8. Holaday, C
9. Iglesias, SS

This one really snuck up on me…go Tigers.

(I loved that bunt that Kinsler laid down last night. He’s such a ballplayer.)

Baseball-Reference game preview here.

Davis in LF tonight, Cespedes with the night off.

1. Gose, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez V, DH
5. Martinez J.D., RF
6. Davis, LF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. McCann, C
9. Iglesias, SS

Another lackluster offensive performance coupled with a brilliant bullpen performance (which means that Lobstein got drilled) led to a 6-2 loss last night. The Tigers are now 13-14 since starting 7-0.

jud made the comment last night that the Tigers have now scored 2 runs or less in 9 out of their last 15 games. That is alarming. And he posted some scary low night game batting averages.

But honestly, I’m just not that worried right now. This is just baseball. It’s such a long season that you can find alarming trends in isolation which, over the course of the season, will be balanced out by  unsustainably good ones. They’ll go on another 5-0 or 8-1 run later this summer where they put up 6+ per night.

I was listening to an interview with Ned Yost yesterday on MLB radio. The host went on and on about how the AL is really just a two horse race – Det and KC. He’s probably right. This doesn’t mean that some other teams can’t get hot, or emerge, but based on talent and recent history, Detroit is one of the best, if not the best, in the AL. And we’re basically at .500 over the course of a month…

We just need to understand that the AL is extremely competitive (aka weak) and the Tigers are one of the best of a mediocre bunch. They seemingly have the talent to be better, and with some decent managing, perhaps they can be. But they’ll be in it until the end, with a lot of frustrating runs in-between, and we’ll have to hope that they can get hot at the right time. Baseball is a long season.

But it would be nice to take a series at home from the Twins…

I’m hitting the open road today – headed to Big Bend with some guys. Someone please post the lineups when available.

A few quick updates:

– Avila doesn’t need surgery, but no timetable for a return, yet.

– Verlander felt good after throwing 25 pitches yesterday, no news yet today, which is presumably good.

Ricky Nolasco v. Lobstein tonight.

1. Gose, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez V, DH
5. Martinez J.D., RF
6. Cespedes, LF
7. Castellanos, 2B
8. McCann, C
9. Iglesias, SS

Ausmus’ questionable managing decisions on Sunday night, when all the Baseball world was watching on ESPN, made him the target of a lot of stories on yesterday’s off day. Never where you want to be if you’re the manager.

Typically, the Detroit media didn’t really criticize Ausmus, but rather simply brought the issue to light. I only regularly read two sets of sportswriters, the ones in Dallas and the ones in Detroit, and I am constantly amazed at how reluctant the Detroit writers are to write anything negative about the Tigers. Dallas writers (and media pundits in general) have no problem taking management and ownership to task (in fact, Dale Hansen was fired by the Cowboys because of it a long time ago). I don’t listen to much Detroit sports radio, so hopefully there’s a little more objectivity there. But why isn’t anyone calling out Ausmus? Tony Paul started to – well at least his story title did, but if you read the story, he goes on to hedge, but he does end it by questioning Ausmus. He’ll probably get some evil looks around the clubhouse for even drafting such a title (“hey, did you read the rest of the story, it’s the players fault!!”)

Cabrera is the smartest baserunner on the team. Yes, he’s light years slower than Davis, and at some point in time the move will work. But I don’t see a reason why you would ever remove THE BEST HITTER IN BASEBALL. There is no way that Francona, or Maddon, (or Gardenhire…) make that move.

What really fires me up about this Davis for Cabrera insertion is this quote: “It didn’t work out this time. But to me, it’s a move you have to make at that point,” Ausmus said.

This “you have to make…” is the part of Ausmus that brings back frightening memories of Leyland, and scares the heck out of me. For the same reason that Ausmus left in Joba last week after giving up a 3 run bomb (and then three more hits), Ausmus has certain moves in his mind – if A then B, and he doesn’t waver from those. I seem to remember a game last year (end of the year) where the exact same scenario happened and we managed to squeeze out a win on a dribbler up the middle by Perez or an equally unaccomplished and unreliable hitter.

How about leaving your BEST PLAYER IN THE GAME. How’s that for strategy?

And we haven’t even discussed the Kinsler bunt attempts. A perennial All-Star, with Hernan Perez behind him. Goodness.

(un)Fortunately, we have 130 games left in this young 2015 season, so lots of room for Ausmus to redeem himself…right?

Baseball Reference game preview here.

Lineups coming later.

David Price responded in true ace form yesterday, with a 5 hit masterpiece that was 1 out from being a complete game shutout. KC fans went nuts after Cain hit a bomb to trim the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the 9th, but Price responded by striking out Hosmer in 4 pitches. It was a desperately need win b/c the prospects of being swept in a 4 game series against what looks to be our division rival were harrowing. I’m not surprised that Price came out for the 9th, since he was only at 91 pitches entering the 9th. I think it would have been Soria had he been at 101.

Anibal Sanchez climbs the hill today against Mark Guthrie. A win today and split in the series will feel like a series win to me.

J.D. Martinez back in the lineup today. Rajai Davis had a huge run in yesterday’s game. I like this Gose/Davis platoon.

Baseball Reference game preview here.

1. Gose, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez V, DH
5. Martinez J.D., RF
6. Cespedes, LF
7. Avila, C
8. Castellanos, 3B
9. Iglesias, SS

We’re gonna win one, right?

It’s time for David Price to step up and be the ace that he’s paid to be. The Tigers made the game interesting last night with a couple of baserunners in the 9th inning, but fell short again to the mighty Royals. After starting the season 7-0, the Tigers are now 8-9 in their last 17.

Incredibly, Price doesn’t have much history against the Royals, having only pitched against them 3 times in the last 6 years. He somehow went all of 2013 and 2014 without facing them.

Baseball Reference Game Preview here.

J.D. Martinez who is 0-8 with 6 Ks in the series sits tonight. Hope you’re enjoying your epic sports watching Saturday.

1. Gose, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez V, DH
5. Cespedes, LF
6. Avila, C
7. Casetellanos, 3B
8. Iglesias, SS
9. Davis, RF

The Royals sure did assert themselves early and often last night, as the back two of the Tigers rotation has now taken successive beatings for the first time all season. Key words there being first time. There is a reason why Greene and Simon are at the back of our rotation, so games like yesterday will happen from time to time.

I’m curious to see how the Tigers respond tonight after being pounded in the first big hype game of the year.

The Lobster gets the start tonight against fill-in Chris Young. Young has been a starter most of his career, but this will be his first start of the season for the Royals.

Baseball Reference game preview here.

1. Gose, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez V, DH
5. Martinez J.D., RF
6. Cespedes, LF
7. Avila, C
8. Castellanos, 3B
9. Igleseias, SS (he happens to lead the team in BA, by the way)

Breaking news, Shane Greene is not perfect. I repeat, he is not perfect.

But on some nights, Miguel Cabrera is. If you haven’t watched the Cabrera HRs from yesterday, you gotta see them on MLB videos here.  The first one was crushed to the second deck, and then he followed that up with a no-doubter to straightaway center. They were awesome to watch. While you’re on that video page, make sure you watch McCann’s inside the park HR. One of the coolest things about those MLB replays is that they play the TV replay, then follow it up with the radio call over the TV replay. Dan D is such an amazing broadcaster. We’re lucky to have him.

So Green turns in his second complete clunker in as many starts, and we’re left understanding how we got him for Robbie Ray. Whatever, as a #4, he’s still aces in my books.

Anyway, a big four game set at KC this weekend pitting the top two teams in the AL. Good benchmark for the Tigers early in this 2015 season.

Simon v. Duffy tonight

Lobstein v. (Dallas native) Chris Young tomorrow (7:10 PM central)

Price v. Volquez on Sat (6:10 PM central)

Sanches v. Vargas on Sun (1:10 PM central)

Fun fact: The Tigers are 7-2 on the road this year. The Royals are 7-2 at home.

Tonight’s Baseball-Reference game preview here and lineup below:

1. Davis, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez V, DH
5. Martinez J.D., LF
6. Cespedes RF
7. Casetellanos, 3B
8. McCann, C
9. Iglesias, SS

A last minute Trevor Bauer scratch worked out to the Tigers advantage as they jumped on a wild T.J. House for 3 runs, 4 hits and 4 walks in 3 innings, and then rode another outstanding performance from Alfredo Simon to a 4-1 win. Poor House, he’s now allowed 9 runs and 10 hits in 4 1/3 against the Tigers this year.

Simon allowed 8 baserunners in 6 2/3, and then turned the ball over to what is becoming a formidable bullpen, anchored by Joaquin Soria. Four starts into the season Simon is 4-0 with a minuscule .95 WHIP and .559 OPS against.

Lobstein takes the mound in the rubber match today; he’s in JV’s spot. Speaking of JV, is anyone else concerned about the lack of news? JV is still not pain free, but he’s still throwing and will go with the Tigers on their 10 game road trip, presumably so he can get some work in. If he’s not going to start I think I’d rather have him rehabbing with doctors at home. Once he does get to “pain free” it’s going to take a while to build up arm strength, so I really don’t see him pitching anytime in the next 2-3 weeks.

Baseball Reference Game Preview here.

1. Davis, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez V, DH
5. Martinez J.D. RF
6. Cespedes, LF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. McCann, C
9. Iglesias, SS

Well, you’re not going to win them all, but winning once every 5 days would be nice. After sprinting out of the gates to start the season with the best record in the Majors, the Tigers have slipped into the 4th best overall record, and 1.5 games behind KC in the Central. I would like to point out that the Tigers lost 4 or more games in a row 3 times last year and once in 2013, so remember that it happens. It’s a long season.

Alfredo Simon looks to right the ship this afternoon against Trevor Bauer. Bauer has been nearly flawless so far this year, allowing only 2 ER and 8 hits in 18 IP. He’s struck out 26 in that time for an eye-popping 13 K/9.

Baseball-Reference Game Preview here.

1. Davis, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez V, DH
5. Martinez J.D., RF
6. Cespedes, LF
7. Avila, C
8. Castellanos, 3B
9. Iglesias, SS