Happy Father’s Day Friends! I’m going to spend my day relaxing outside, reading, and cursing the Tigers.

This Tigers tailspin has been going on for nearly a month now. Miraculously, the Tigers have remained in first place during this 8-17 run, but the Royals are hot on our trail, only 1 1/2 games out after their sixth consecutive win yesterday. In fact, the entire division is in the hunt. The Tigers had a larger lead on the division a month ago (7 games) than they do on last place right now (4.5 games).

Like any fanatic, I work hard to make sure that I’m correctly placing my blame, as it somehow makes me feel a little better to be mad at the right people. So, using the incredible tools available at Baseball-Reference.com, I pulled some very basic team and player stats. You can click on the hyperlinked words below for more info.

Games 1-39: 27 wins, 12 losses.

Batting: .278 BA, .757 OPS, 4.8 runs per game

Pitching: Team ERA 3.13

Games 40-64: 8 wins, 17 losses.

Batting: .266 BA, .764 OPS, 4.0 runs per game

Pitching: Team ERA 5.39.

Hitting has been pretty consistent. We’re scoring a little less, which is probably due to some mixture of luck and situational hitting. The Tigers have slipped to middle of the pack with runners in scoring position. But I expect that number to come back up, and the runs per game to climb back towards 5.

Fielding is much harder to split-out like this, but I’ve heard Dan Dickerson say over and over what we’ve gone from top of the AL to bottom four over the past month, so that’s a part of the problem. I think we all see that on a daily basis.

But the pitching has been horrendous, and really, nearly the entire pitching staff is to blame. Take a look at this.

Of the regular guys on the staff, 8 of them have been awful over the past month. Maybe we can exclude Smyly from that label, but everyone else save Sanchez, Chamberlain, and Alburquerque should have to come and mow our lawns for what they’ve put us through. The Tigers pitching staff has been handing out hits and walks like they’re flyers on the Vegas Strip. Not surprisingly, the team ERA for June is worst in the AL, and the team WHIP is second worst.

I expect Scherzer and Verlander to be much better. We’ve already seen it from Scherzer. But Nathan, Reed, Krol, and Coke are legitimate issues, and I fear that no lead will be safe until a couple of moves are made. Hanrahan still isn’t pitching live BP, and Toledo isn’t much help. Dombrowski – work your magic.

Tigers have a shot at a rare series victory today, which is sorely needed for a dozen or so reasons.

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Martinez, LF
6. Jackson, CF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. Avila, C
9. Suarez, SS

These World Cup refs are not messing around.

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Martinez, LF
6. Jackson, CF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. Avila, C
9. Suarez, SS

34-28, 1st place, 2.5 games up, 3-7 last 10, 1-0 last 1.

Tigers return home from a quick rain shortened three game set in Chicago to face the Twinkies for three.

I’ll be honest. Last night’s Scherzer shutout wasn’t as enjoyable as it should have been, mostly because we still need 10 more of those in a row to get back to where we were mid-May. Couple that with my new Pavlovian response to “closer situation”, and I could barely listen to good ol’ Dan D. But the Tigers win as they are inclined to do every third day, and hope re-springs.

Smyly v. Kyle Gibson tonight

Sanchez v. Deduno tomorrow at 4:08

Porcello v. Nolasco Sunday at 1:08

Bryan Holaday has been doing everything right as of late – hitting, calling good games, not throwing the ball into left field, but unfortunately he bats right handed, so we may not see him until Monday. I know that it’s easy to point heavy blame at Ausmus right now, so I’ll go ahead and do it. Where is the creativity and reason? Where’s the fire? Where’s the rational thinking? Yes, we’re running more, but that’s b/c we have those assets now. I’m still seeing rather traditional managing – not what I was expecting.

Tonight’s [insert name here]’s Due Lineup:

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Jackson, CF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Martinez, RF
6. Kelly, LF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. Avila, C
9. Romine, SS

This series may be lost, but hey, the season series (so far) is still on the line, as the Detroit Tigers (33-28, 1st Central, 4th AL) yet again look to begin the uphill climb to the straight and narrow. The Chicago White Sox (33-33, 3rd Central, 9th AL) have made them look silly lately, but that can’t go on. Can it? Well, facing Chris Sale, maybe it can.

Tonight’s “Tigers Are People, Too” lineup:

LF Davis
2B Kinsler
3B Cabrera
1B V. Martinez
RF Hunter
LF J.D. Martinez
3B Castellanos
C “Bunt” Holaday
SS South Bound Suarez

P Scherzer

I suppose we can save the festival of pessimism and alarm for after the game. Or for during the game. Castellanos is hitting, Suarez is exciting, and Sanchez will pitch again eventually. Detroit still has Miggy and VMart, and sometimes that actually makes a difference. Go Tigers.

POSTGAME: Oh man does that zero to the far right look good. I think I’ll indulge in a bit of “You Said It” without the credit – you guys know who you are. The Tigers battery was fully charged tonight, eh?

Thank you Vmart aka professional hitter!

3-4 for Holaday, and he called a great game. See you again in 2 weeks Bryan (beat you to it, jud!)

6 shutout innings on 81 pitches. Ace-like.

That 7th inning was his best.

Boras is just counting the money.

Max at 98 pitches. He ABSOLUTELY comes back out for the 9th, right?

with that clutch two out single & RBI, Holaday is now 3 for 4 today… just sayin… Avila (Sr & Jr)

Tell me again who is our starting catcher and why?

Detroit at Chicago, Verlander vs. Danks, and they ought to get it in this time, ‘neath the color of October skies (in June).

Tonight’s “Tigers are better than the Sox” lineup:

LF Davis
2B Kinsler
DH Cabrera
1B Martinez
RF Hunter
CF Jackson
3B Castellanos
C Avila
SS Suarez

P Verlander

Not liking Miggy at DH, for defensive reasons. Verlander and Danks both come in with well-pitched wins versus the opponent earlier this season. The bats showed up for JV; versus Danks, it was that familiar story of plenty of runners and not plenty of runs (1, to be exact). Verlander has two good starts against the White Sox this year, in fact. The second one ended happily with the legendary RBI bunt from Bryan Holaday. A little more such daring might be called for in this game and hereafter, because the Tigers are having one heck of a time plating runners and cashing in. One more runner left standing at 3B and I am going to scream.

OK, Chicago. Game on. We are your overlords.

POSTGAME: OK, we’re no one’s overlords. Bottom of the 6th, game over. Not one our favorite team can be very proud of. This one’s beyond hat tipping, I should think.

Detroit (33-27) out to even it up against Chicago (32-33) tonight, with JV up against John Danks. Expect “The Justin Verlander Thread” after this one. To ponder the question of how Justin could have just no-hit the Sox at the Cell after tying us in knots all season, of course.

OK, let’s keep Victor in the lineup and off the field, please. More Eugenio Suarez! Unless we can reach an agreement on resigning ourselves to the Avila Deal, we may need “The Alex Avila Thread” as well. Less clown show! 33-27? Yeesh. That’s starting to look a little too AL Central for my tastes.

Gotta win this one. Rain could be a factor, so maybe I should say “gotta get this one in.” No more postponements! Tonight’s “Stave Off The Return of the Funk” lineup to follow…

Detroit (33-26, 1st Central, 3rd AL) visits Chicago (31-33, 4th Central, 11th AL) for a four-game set, all night games, getting things started with Rick Porcello facing Hector Noesi.

Despite one that slipped away in an all too familiar fashion last night, the Tigers won a series – how about that – and have perhaps turned a corner. Despite a 2-4 homestand and a home W-L that has to be considered rather insulting. Despite. Word of the day. Well, it beats words like “chronic” and “futility.”

Some good things happening lately (last couple weeks). Castellanos has been swinging a hot stick (1.124 OPS) – or has he? Well, yes, but get this: 1 RBI. Romine has more (and Kinsler has 6 “despite” a .581 OPS). The real hot stick for run production has belonged to Cabrera (left early last night with tight hamstring – we’ve seen this before and will again, though hopefully only once in a while). Eugenio “South Bound” Suarez is off to an eventful start. Leaving aside last night’s blowup, Chamberlain-Alburquerque-Krol had put up 13 IP with 1 ER, and Sanchez’s WHIP over his last 3 starts might be described as unreal (a word that would also describe the offensive support he’s received).

On the downside, there are numbers from Nathan’s last 6 games that lend support to the movement to run him out of town. Numbers so obscene as to be unprintable, though I’m not on the Fire Joe bandwagon as yet. Smyly, Scherzer, and Reed not sitting too pretty, either. Kinsler is in a mighty slump, Avila has regressed, and in back of Jackson’s .252 BA overall is a .477 OPS over his last 13 games. Essentially there is Miggy and Victor and not much else consistent or very productive. The OF defense has been drawing some outrage recently, also, and yes, the Tigers rank poorly there. Surprising and disappointing.

Victor Martinez, first 25 games of 2013: .542 OPS, -8.88 RE24, -0.967 WPA.
Joe Nathan, first 25 games of 2014: 1.565 WHIP, 7.04 ERA, -6.92 RE24, -0.647 WPA

VMart contributed more to losing. Believe it. And it went on well beyond 25 games.

Nathan’s stats from April 12 to May 27: 16 G, 16 IP, 17 K, 4 BB, .135 BA, 1.69 ERA.

I was wondering, oh, about a week ago, how long it would take the Tigers to get back to their high water mark of 15 games over. Right now it’s looking like Game 89 (52-37) would be an optimistic target. But you never know when it’s all going to start clicking for a while – those 6- and 8-game winning streaks were as much of a surprise as the Big Funk (behind us now, we hope, now that the the Curse of the Curse of the Zubaz has been lifted).

Chicago has troubles of their own that Detroit now has a chance to add to. Lately it’s their offense that has been fading. The Tigers have taken 4 of 6 from the White Sox so far, including the last 3. Chicago has been flirting with .500 and then falling back all season. It would be good to put them more firmly in their place and get the Central Division back into the shape we’ve become accustomed to. I say Detroit’s offense comes alive big time and the Tigers take at least three. At least.

Speaking of three consecutive three-hit games (Nick’s notable recent accomplishment), going back to 1984 there really isn’t such a streak to compare to Victor’s May 9-11 of 2011. 12 AB, 9 H, 2 HR, 10 RBI, 4 doubles, 3 walks. And, as you may have guessed, no strikeouts.

POSTGAME: Great, dramatic game. I was going to say that Porcello lost this one all by himself. In the end, that’s how it turned out. Aside from Porcello’s costly error, the MartMart Clown Show didn’t factor in too much, and couldn’t hold a candle to the White Sox corner outfielders in the 9th. Besides, J.D.’s bad day in LF ended with a very good play. A day of mixed reviews for him, with a couple hits but also a big choke (along with Castellanos) in the 8th. How big was Adam Eaton’s robbery of Victor? Not nearly as big as Kinsler’s sensational play to start an inning- and threat-ending DP. Exciting Tigers power on display from Cabrera, Suarez (again!), and especially VMart – and Avila came mighty close with his RBI double. Bad call on Kinsler in the 9th? Well, it wasn’t the first one of the game, and some of them went the Tigers’ way. Nonetheless, that was big. Even so… Porcello lost this one. All by himself.

Well, make that 2-0 since Torii’s pre-game Zubaz, which means that Detroit’s finally got themselves a series win. Could a sweep be possible? They might have the right guy on the mound for it. Although Anibal Sanchez has lost his past two starts, he has only given up 1 run in 15.1 innings, with a minuscule .3973 WHIP.  Of course all bets are off once the bullpen appears, but it’s worth noting Joe Nathan is probably unavailable tonight.

I named Nick Castellanos Player to Watch last night, which, shockingly, turned out to be a good call. Nick now has 3 consecutive games with 3 hits, making him the first Tiger rookie to achieve that since Rick Peters in 1980, if StorminNorman$ is to be believed. His rookie cohort Eugenio Suarez had an auspicious first start, hitting a home run for his first Major League hit. It was just one evening in June, but watching the two young infielders last night warmed the heart, at least its baseball chamber. Then again, the last Tiger to homer for his first hit was Wilkin Ramirez in 2009, and that was his last home run ever. That’s baseball!

As for the pitching, Max wasn’t great but he was good. My inner Laptop Manager pulled Max for Alburquerque to start the 7th, but even so, once he got to two outs with Ortiz coming up, I liked letting him pitch to Ortiz. First of all, the alternative was Phil Coke, and that would not have ended well. But also, you may remember the time last fall Scherzer was pulled (prematurely?) against Boston, and what Ortiz did. I like that Max wanted to handle things himself, and liked that Ausmus said OK (see previous point). Ortiz may have won the battle, but Max kept him in the park (and barely missed a called 3rd strike) by staying outside, which is another way of “shifting” against a pull hitter, by the way.

Harold Reynolds loved the Old School aspect of the Our Guy vs Your Guy face off (as opposed to Our Situational Left-Handed Relief Specialist etc), and that is more appealing from an entertainment aspect I suppose. There is a reason some things change though (they work). But for me, if you assume the primary goal is to keep the ball in the park, I’ll take a gassed Scherzer over a Phil Coke.

The real question is: why not just walk Ortiz there?

I don’t think there is much more to be said at the moment about Joe Nathan, other than that I’ve been vainly searching for a progress update on Hanrahan’s rehab.

Tonight’s Bryan Back On Holiday Lineup:

1. Davis LF
2. Kinsler 2B
3. Cabrera 1B
4. Martinez DH
5. Hunter RF
6. Castellanos 3B
7. Jackson CF
8. Avila C
9. Suarez SS

Well that was a relief.

Some of our commentators suggested that it was time for some veteran leadership. As if on cue, Torii Hunter emerged before the game decked out in the dreaded Zubaz, and proclaimed that despite all the Twitter flak, there was no Zubaz Curse. “I was in my Zubaz before the game, just to let them know that it had nothing to do with anything.”

And thus was the curse broken. Joba was relieved, since he started the whole Zubaz thing and was taking the brunt of the criticism. “Torii wore a full Zubaz uni [pregame]. So for everybody on Twitter, it’s not the Zubaz. Don’t knock the Zubaz.” (Quotes courtesy of Jason Beck tweets).

I suspect Torii was just having a teammate’s back here (isn’t that part of what leadership is about?), but the Tigers finally had a good start, good hitting, and good bullpen work, and Hunter himself went 3-4 with a home run.

The Tigers look to make it two in a row tonight, and clinch their first series win since they were in Boston. Eugenio Suarez will be making his first start at shortstop; Alex Avila will be given a cautionary rest (he passed the concussion test), and Bryan “Wheels” Holaday will get the start. Player to watch: Nick Castellanos, who has had two consecutive three-hit games.

Tonight’s Suarez Soiree Lineup:

1. Davis LF
2. Kinsler 2B
3. Cabrera 1B
4. Martinez DH
5. Hunter RF
6. Castellanos 3B
7. Jackson CF
8. Holaday C
9. Suarez SS

As my turn comes back around in the rotation I look back and see there has been all of one Tiger victory since I have last manned the DTW keyboard. In fact the Tigers haven’t won a series since the last time they played Boston, May 16-18, which seems so long ago now, before the Zubaz gear, before this awful 4-13 stretch. Maybe Boston will snap them out of it and remind them that they used to win baseball games.

Below are the days/times (in EST) and projected starters for the Boston Series:

Boston at Detroit

Friday     June 6 – 7:05   Drew Smyly vs Rubby De La Rosa

Saturday June 7 – 7:15   Max Scherzer vs Jon Lester (L)

Sunday   June 8 – 8:00   Anibal Sanchez vs John Lackey

As so often happens when Boston is involved, two of the games will be nationally televised: Saturday on Fox, and Sunday on ESPN, thus the different start times.

Last time the Tigers faced the Red Sox, they were a team on a roll. Sure, they had some bullpen troubles and were struggling to put a major league shortstop on the field, but that was more than made up for by great starting pitching (best in the league), and a lineup that was at the top of the league in hitting, and was also able to manufacture runs with base running and situational hitting.

Suddenly the pitching and hitting have simultaneously gone south: the bats are in the vicinity of Biloxi, MS: they have scored a league lowest 34 runs over the last 14 days, putting up an anemic BA of .233 (.649 OPS). The pitching is in Boca Raton, ranking 15th (because that’s as low as it goes) in OPS against (.836), and this time it’s the starters, with the exception of Anibal Sanchez, who has only given up one run in his last two starts.

What is to be done? Beats me. It can’t hurt to bring up Suarez and try him at short…except it did, his knee, on an awkward slide into second (there’s something for you to work on Mr. Vizquel). He is day-to-day. Is today the day? (Nope).

If the Tigers are going to get well today against the Sox, they are going to have to do it against the dreaded Young Unknown pitcher, Rubby “Cy” De La Rosa.

Best wishes from DTW to Red Sox hitting coach Greg Colbrunn, who has been hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage.

Today’s Avila’s Batting Where? Lineup:

1. Kinsler 2B
2. Hunter RF
3. Cabrera 1B
4. Martinez DH
5. Avila C
6. Jackson CF
7. Castellanos 3B
8. Romine SS
9. Davis LF