11-11, tied for 2nd with Chicago, 1 game behind Cleveland.

One of the things going right for the Tigers so far this season had been the starting pitching, which has kept the team in games even as it has been unable to produce runs.

Over the last 10 games, that has all changed, with the starters going 2-6 with a 6.65 ERA.  Bad Max Scherzer was the latest victim, giving up 3 runs and a damaging 7 walks in fewer than 5 innings.  In fact there was even some speculation a trip to Toledo could be in Scherzer’s future, but Leyland has apparently put the lid on that conversation.

Tonight Duane Below will get his first start of the season and try to get things back on track.  Below has pitched 12 innings of relief so far this season, is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA, and has yet to give up his first walk (0.58 WHIP), which could be a nice antidote to what we watched yesterday.

Meanwhile, sources say Delmon Young will be suspended by MLB, with an announcement coming as soon as tonight (duration unknown).  Andy Dirks has played capably in Young’s place so far, although the unaccustomed display of fielding prowess in left field that has come as a result has shocked Leyland into moving him back to the DH spot.

***

In other news, former Tiger Brandon Inge will be making his debut as an athletic Athletic tonight.  The Tigers will see him in Oakland May 10-13.  Meanwhile the first-place Indians are unveiling the newest member of the tribe, Johnny Damon.

***

Tonight’s player of the Pre-game:  Miguel Cabrera, who is 15-29 career against Royals starter Luke Hochevar

Today’s Best-Fielder-DHing Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Brennan Boesch RF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Andy Dirks DH
6. Alex Avila C
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Don Kelly LF
9. Ramon Santiago 2B

Well, here we go.  Rick Porcello–he of the 8-run first inning–is all that stands between the Tigers and a series sweep, at home, at the hands of the lowly Mariners.

Not to worry:  Rick, who no doubt reads DTW before starts, will be inspired by both the picture for today’s post, and his resplendent full name festooned across the banner.

The Tiger offense continues to struggle (but it was King Felix), although the Boesch HR is a hopeful sign that he has emerged from his funk.

So what is wrong with the offense so far?  Time to take a look, as promised.

Today’s category:  Runner at 3rd and less than 2 out.  The complaint is that the Tigers are awful at this, and waste rare scoring opportunities.  Verdict:  true, and it’s worse than it looks.

Detroit is dead last in the R3L2O category, only scoring 34% of its runners (AL average: 48%, Best team Toronto at 61%).  But if you look at RBIs with a R32LO instead of runs scored, the Tiger performance drops to just 28%–5 of the runs they have scored have been on errors and wild pitches.  Their OPS with R3L2O is .310, vs a league average of .820.

These are early season results and are based on small sample sizes, so some caution must be used in concluding anything about how the season will go.  The R3L2O failure has definitely been a part of the early season struggle to score runs though. We will revisit these things on a periodic basis.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Andy Dirks

This is the day the Dirks day-to-day ends, and it ends up with him in the leadoff spot.  Guy still can’t manage to take the field with a glove on though.

Today’s Where is Everyone? Lineup:

1. Andy Dirks DH
2. Brennan Boesch RF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young LF
6. Don Kelly CF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Ryan Raburn 2B
9. Gerald Laird C

Well, it’s not about Brandon Inge.

So, what is it about?

Is it about the lack of a mean streak?

Is there a mean SOB in the minor league system who could replace the friendly Inge?

Yes, there was another Bad Max sighting.  But the Tigers scored a relatively healthy 4 runs, with comforting contributions from the middle of the order.  Still, they were no match for the mild Mariners, and consternation brews.

Is it about epic failures with runners on 3rd and less than 2 out?  Are the Tiger hitters too impatient, letting starting pitchers off the hook? Too many strikeouts? Inability to advance runners? A big hole in the lineup with whoever is scribbled in as 2B?

I will look at all of these issues and more in tommorow’s post (this in the tradition of the Anglo-Saxon beot).

Tonight the Tigers try to get back on track with Rookie Adam Wilk facing King Felix Hernandez. Tiger-Killer Hernandez has won 8 consecutive decisions against Detroit, so…good luck with that, kid.

And what’s up with Andy Dirks? He has been out 8 days now with a day-to-day mild hamstring something.  If he could play, he would (Smokey is going full-bore lefty tonight)…if not, why not DL him, and bring up Clete? (oops).

***

Today’s random note:  Jeremy Bonderman is contemplating a comeback.

***

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Delmon Young

The Tigers need a mean streak. Delmon once threw his bat at an umpire.

Today’s Donkeiago Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Brennan Boesch RF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Alex Avila C
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Ramon Santiago 2B
9. Don Kelly LF

The Rangers head back to Texas to celebrate Pudge Rodriguez’ retirement, and the Seattle Mariners drop into the D for a 3-game set against the 10-6 Tigers.

The Rangers series may not have been as bad as it sometimes seemed: The Rangers bombed the Tigers in the first game of the series, but after a bad 1st inning in the second game, the Tigers played them even, only giving up 6 earned runs over the last 28 innings against the best hitting team in the majors, and were a couple of bad throws and maybe a blown call from splitting the series.

Still there is a nagging feeling left by the team’s inability to score runs, or even advance runners.  This vaunted Detroit offense has now dropped to 12th in the AL for team OPS (.695, above only Seattle and Oakland).  And it isn’t just the Raburn-Inge effect:  the Tiger 3-6 hitters are only 10th best in the AL.  Detroit may not need many runs to beat Seattle (see above), but if the offensive struggles continue, let the nail-biting commence.

Tonight we will see Max Scherzer (or is it Max Scherzer?) try to tame the tepid Mariner bats, while Jason Vargas does the same for the M’s.

***

Tonight’s random note:  The Braves have demoted Jair Jurrjens (0-2, 9.37) to the minors.

***

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Brennan Boesch

Boesch has been one of the real struggling bats so far this season, putting up Inge-like numbers (.212 BA, .538 OPS), including an OPS of .000 in 4 PA with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 out (2 Ks).  But Boesch hit his 1st HR of the year Sunday night, and has hit Vargas well over his career (6-9 with 2 2B).  Look for Boesch to continue to break out tonight.

Today’s Rabinging Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Brennan Boesch RF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Jhonny Peralta SS
7. Alex Avila C
8. Ryan Raburn LF
9. Brandon Inge 2B

Well, that was quick.  The Rangers put the game away with 8 runs in the first inning before a stunned Rick Porcello could even record a second out.  The Rangers rolled to their 8th straight, beating Detroit 10-4, and have now outscored them 20-7 so far this series.

If there was a bright spot for the Tigers, it was another great outing by Duane Below, who threw 6 scoreless innings against the red-hot Rangers, the longest relief outing by a Tiger pitcher since Steve Sparks in 2003 (take away the first inning, and Below had a quality start).  Below has now thrown 10 scoreless innings, with 7 hits and no walks in 2012.

After the game the Tigers used their last option on Daniel Schlereth and dispatched him to the Mud Hens, giving RHP Thad Weber his first call up to the bigs.

Can anyone stop the Rangers right now? Sounds like a challenge Justin Verlander would relish. Fresh off of a 131-pitch complete game victory, he has actually done well against the current Texas lineup, limiting them to a combined BA of .230 and an OPS of .655.  Mike Napoli has given him the most trouble (.300/.890), and he is not in the starting lineup.  Adrian Beltre will miss the rest of the series with an injured hamstring.

Neftali Feliz won the 2010 Rookie of the Year as a closer, and is now making a go of it as a starter.  Tonight will be his 3rd major league start, and so far opponents are just hitting .209 against him.  But then he has yet to face the likes of Santiago-Kelly-Inge.

***

Breaking news:  Phil Humber of the White Sox has just completed a perfect game against the Mariners

***

Today’s Double-Headed Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Brennan Boesch RF
3. Miguel Cabrera DH
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young LF
6. Alex Avila C
7. Ramon Santiago SS
8. Don Kelly 3B
9. Brandon Inge 2B

What would a Tigers-Rangers series be without a rainout?

Given an extra day to think about it, Leyland has decided to change the original lineup and go with the Raburn-Inge-Laird power lineup.

This probably has a little to do with what Laird does behind the plate:  Laird is turning into Rick Porcello’s personal catcher, having caught all of his starts in 2012.

Here is today’s revised lineup.  Andy Dirks is day-to-day, but has been ruled out for today.

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Brennan Boesch RF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Ryan Raburn LF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Brandon Inge 2B
9. Gerald Laird C

The Tigers are now 8-3, 2 games up on Cleveland (Cleveland?) in the AL Central.  The Tigers are also still undefeated in night games, and Ryan Raburn and Miguel Cabrera both have 1-game hitting streaks.

Drew Smyly was again effective, and it was needed–Royals starter Bruce Chen once again shut down the Tiger hitters. The only run Smyly gave up was in the 3rd, when he joined Adam Wilk as victim of the Tiger rookie pitcher curse, and took a line drive by Escobar right between the shoulder-blades and then bounced the ball by first base. Smyly was fine, but said his back was tightening up after the game.

Tonight is Max Scherzer’s private rubber game:  he has had one start as Bad Max, and one as Mad Max.  The Royals will send out ex-Giant Jonathan Sanchez, who is known for being effectively wild, which should be a good test of patience for Detroit hitters. The only Tiger Sanchez has a real history with is Prince Fielder, and the results are encouraging: 5-14 with 4 BB, for a .550 OBP.

Tonight marks the return of the Bottom Of the Order Bombers lineup, with Inge/Laird batting 8-9.  The Tigers are undefeated (2-0) when Inge starts, and undefeated (2-0) when Laird starts.

Today’s Player of the Pregame: Andy Dirk

Dirks will be a fascinating study as he sits in the dugout watching Ryan Raburn take over for Delmon Young in LF, wondering what he has to do before he gets to wear a glove.

Today’s Undefeated-at-Night Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Brennan Boesch RF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Ryan Raburn LF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Brandon Inge 2B
9. Gerald Laird C

Tigers are now 7-3, and have increased their Central lead to 1 1/2 games, thanks to a dramatic 9th inning performance by Justin Verlander.  (link via stephen).

Verlander looked headed for an oh-no-not-again outing, with 8 great innings and a shaky 9th, until he put away Alex Gordon in dramatic fashion.  In fact, after Leyland visited the mound and left JV in, he told the ace “you’re going to get me fired.”  

Meanwhile, the offense still struggles, and had to rely once again on unlikely heros. The best hitter in the league is in his worst slump since his rookie season: Cabrera is now 0-for-his-last-21, and has not looked good doing it.

The team is struggling in clutch situations.  They have failed in half of their attempts with a runner at 3rd and less than 2 out, and have trouble advancing runners (they have grounded into 11 DP, and have yet to successfully bunt).

Ryan Raburn is, literally, the worst hitter in the league right now, with a .065 BA (lowest) and a .212 OPS (not even close: next worse is Miguel Olivo at .274). He has the further distinction of being the only American League starter who has yet to record his first RBI.  And as early as it is, there is not a lot of reason to trust that it will improve dramatically any time soon–Raburn’s CAREER BA for the month of May is .169.  Then there is his fielding…Raburn’s career UZR at 2B is negative 14.0, which is a fancy way of saying he is the worst 2B in the league.  So Ryan Raburn may have the current distinction of being the worst hitter AND worst fielder in the league simultaneously. That is not easy to do.

Nonetheless, Jim Leyland has opted to give Babe Inge a much-needed day off against lefty Bruce Chen (but see below!), pointing out that while Raburn is only batting .065 overall, he hits lefties much better, posting an .083 so far for the season.

Yet the Tigers are 7-3.  So how are they winning? Starting pitching, and Austin Jackson.  The Tiger starters have only allowed an average of 3.60 runs per game, 2nd best after Texas (2.40).  And as far as leadoff hitters go, the Tigers have spent several seasons at the bottom of the league, including last year with Austin Jackson.  So far this year though, Jackson has gotten on base at an incredible league-leading rate of .511 (.600 leading off the game), and consequently leads the league in runs scored (11).

Today Drew Smyly , a fan following, and a and a well-rested bullpen will take on the dreaded Bruce Chen, who always seems to give the Tigers problems.  Well, not seems, he does:  especially Inge (.043), Peralta (.111), and Jackson (.133).  Tonight would be as good a time as any for Cabrera to get back on track–against Chen he is 9-18 with 3 HR.

***

MLB has reviewed Delmon Young’s Bigtop Twirl in LF against the White Sox, and decided it was an error after all.  In protest, Ol’ Smokey has pencilled Delmon Young in at LF tonight, leaving the less peripatetically inclined Andy Dirks to watch the upside of every inning from the DH seat. (Young, by the way, has crushed Bruce Chen, 6-11 lifetime).

***

Today’s Player of the Pregame: Don Kelly

The versatile Kelly will be entrusted with protecting Drew Smyly from shoulder-seeking dugout missiles off the bat of Prince Fielder.

Today’s Smokey-Going-All-Out-on-Matchups Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Brennan Boesch RF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young LF
6. Alex Avila C
7. Ryan Raburn 2B
8. Ramon Santiago SS
9. Andy Dirks DH

Some thunder from the bat of Air Laird, some cleverly induced wild pitches, and the 6-3 Tigers head to Kansas City to once again defend their perch atop the AL Central, in their 2012 night game debut.

Without the big bat of Laird in tonight’s lineup, the Tigers will have to depend on help from unlikely sources, perhaps even Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera is in the midst of an 0-18 slump, the longest since he went 0-23 as a wee tyke on the Marlins.

Justin Verlander will try for a third straight brilliant start, and hope this one ends better than the other two did. And if the Royals choke, he may even get the save. If anyone on the Royals is going to give him trouble, it is, unsurprisingly, the dreaded Bill Butler, who has hit Verlander at a career .359 pace.

2nd-year lefty Danny Duffy will take the mound for the Royals. Duffy was 0-2, 5.63 against Detroit last season, but is fresh off 6 shutout innings with 1 hit, 4 walks against Oakland.

Today’s Player of the Pregame: Delmon Young

Young’s bat started to heat up against the White Sox, and he should welcome the Kauffman stadium lights. Delmon is a career .304 hitter in night games, vs. .255 in day games. And as DH, he doesn’t have to dizzy himself in left.

Today’s Under-the-Lights Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Brennan Boesch RF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Ryan Raburn LF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Brandon Inge 2B

Well, it was fun while it lasted, but the perfect season is ruined. Now back to our regularly scheduled baseball season.

Not that there weren’t any positives to be found yesterday.  Justin Verlander pitched 8 innings of the best baseball seen in these parts for a while.  He also, and I quote Elias, was the 1st pitcher to do THIS in 23 years:

• -Enter the 9th inning with his team leading
• -Start and pitch at least 8 full innings
• -Allow 0 runs and either no hits or one hit through those 8 innings
• -Get the loss in the game.

So there’s that.

In retrospect, Verlander was done when he threw the wild pitch to Pena that let in the 1st TB run.  Radar gun says:  100.  Remember that Verlander? The one who tried to blast his way out of every tough spot? Leaving him in for the 9th was the no-brainer move, but he clearly lost his focus.

So we got that first loss out of the way.  And we also got the first “hey wait, Inge would have gotten to that one” out of the way.

Today it will be up to Drew Smyly to try to put the happy face back on Tiger Fan.  In his tune-up start in Toledo, Smyly couldn’t make it out of the 2nd inning, giving up 3 runs on 50 pitches in 1 2/3 innings.  Which means he could very well dominate Tampa today in his MLB debut, because that’s how baseball works.

Not that Drew Smyly is even his real name.  But Todd Andrew Smiley is hoping to join Charles Brandon Inge and Jose Miguel Cabrera, and not become a Michael Clete Thomas.

At any rate, expect him to be on a short leash in his MLB debut, so we are likely to see some Balester-Below action as well.

Jeff Niemann takes the mound for the Rays, and he has been a solid bottom-of-the-rotation pitcher for Tampa Bay, going 38-23 in his 4-year career.  And if nothing else, at 6-9, 285 he probably doesn’t have to worry about anyone charging the mound.

***

Brandon Inge will finish his rehab assignment on Thursday and will be back with the Tigers on Friday. Which means…? Well, it’s not Clete.  He has already got the DFA to make room for Smyly.  Clete has good speed, a good glove, a great arm, and is a lefty, so the odds of him getting claimed by another team are decent. If he is not, then he will be assigned to Toledo. Inge, meanwhile,  didn’t get a hit yesterday in Toledo, but did get hit by a pitch, and no doubt swung the bat well, so he seems game-ready.

***

Today’s Player of the Pregame: Ryan Raburn.

The Tigers are still undefeated when Raburn starts.

Today’s  Happy-faced Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Brennan Boesch RF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young LF
6. Alex Avila C
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Andy Dirks DH
9. Ryan Raburn 2B

The Tigers are still hot, even in the snow.

Porcello said cold weather be damned, and pitched a gem, marred only by 3rd inning control problems.  Austin Jackson continued to excel, provided power and patience, raising his SLG to 1.000 and his OBP to .650 in the process.

Non-obvious play of the game: with no outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, Jim Leyland replaces Delmon Young with pinch-runner Clete Thomas.  With an early jump, Thomas beat out a tailor made DP ball off the bat of Ryan Raburn, which meant that Peralta’s fly brought home a run and kept the inning alive for Gerald Laird, instead of ending the inning.  The two insurance runs made life easy for the bullpen. Gold star for Smokey.

The Tigers will load up with lefties to take on James Shields today, and vie with Kirk Gibson’s Diamondbacks to see who the last undefeated team standing will be.  Current Tigers actually have fared quite well against the Rays ace, compiling team numbers of .329/.366/.588/.954, with Jhonny Peralta leading the pack at 8-16 with 4 home runs.

Mr. CyVP himself takes the mound for Detroit, and looks to continue his early season dominance. He has done well historically against the Rays lineup (poor Ben Zobrist with a 2-23, and 7 Ks), with the exception of the Cat-Saver Matt Joyce.  Joyce is 6-11 against Verlander, with a 1.183 slugging percentage.

***

Can you imagine the Tigers this season with Victor Martinez in the lineup? You may not have to imagine: it is possible he could return in August.

***

Today’s Player of the Pregame: Austin Jackson.

Ajax continues to lead MLB with a .650 OBP.  On the other hand, he has yet to find first base in 4 career ABs against Shields. Which trend will continue today?

Today’s Debut of the Donkey lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Brennan Boesch RF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Jhonny Peralta SS
6. Alex Avila C
7. Andy Dirks DH
8. Ramon Santiago 2B
9. Don Kelly LF

With the first round of MLB series in the books, the two hottest teams in baseball meet in Detroit for a 3-game series.  The Tigers swept their opening series with the Red Sox and the Rays swept the Yankees, only the 2nd time the Yankees and Red Sox were simultaneously swept in their opening series. This will be the first time an opening series Soxsweeper meets an opening series Yanksweeper.

This series will also feature a matchup of the early edition two hottest hitters in baseball. Sorry Miguel, but that would be Evan Longoria and Austin Jackson. Longoria merely bashed the Yankee pitching for a 1.792 OPS, reaching base at a ridiculous .692 clip.  Jackson was almost as good, with a .625 OBP and 1.482 OPS.

One of the stories of spring training was Austin Jackson’s new swing, which was designed to cut down on strikeouts, but didn’t seem to be having a great effect.  But that was spring training, which doesn’t always predict future performance (see Raburn, Ryan).  Was kidding a bit about leaving Cabrera out of the hottest hitters discussion, but if Jackson can improve his OBP significantly from last season (a thin .317), it may end up being the story of the year in Detroit.

Rick Porcello takes the mound today to take his shot at Best Pitcher on the Team Not Named Verlander.  I won’t trot out the stats about how Porcello has fared with different game time temperatures again, since it’s cold and windy in Detroit, and…well, the Tigers score a lot of runs anyway.  The Rays counter with Matt Moore, who is younger than Porcello, and has never faced Detroit–in fact he has had a 9-inning pro career so far.  Look for a some heat (97) and a good curve.

And if it comes down to it, look for old crooked-hat himself to come in to close out the game:  ex-Tiger Fernando Rodney has replaced ex-Tiger Kyle Farnsworth as the TB closer.

***

Meanwhile Adam Wilk gets the surprise nod to take Doug Fister’s spot in  Saturday’s game against the White Sox. (Well, technically, Scherzer is moving up from Saturday to Friday to take Fister’s spot). And let the Inge watch begin: Inge is starting a rehab assignment in Toledo today, in the lineup as a…DH).

***

Today’s Player of the Pregame:  Ryan Raburn

As DH, Raburn will be ineligible to be anyone’s defensive replacement.  Sunday Raburn played 2B like a DH, and LF like a DH. Today he gets to DH.

Today’s totally sick lineup (Santiago was scratched with bug, Leyland has it also):

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Brennan Boesch RF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young LF
6. Ryan Raburn DH
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Gerald Laird C
9. Danny Worth 2B