The Tigers won the first of a four-game set against their closet AL Central rivals, the Minnesota Twins, last night. To say they needed to win the game is an understatement. The Twins have surged in the second half as the White Sox have started curling up. They have emerged as the Tigers’ biggest threat.
I wish I could say that the Tigers restored some of my confidence last night. After going 9-19 over the last month, it certainly was nice to see them on top again, and the 7-2 score makes it look as if they achieved the win in a masterful fashion. But as I look at the box score, I see some significant warning signs.
- Five of their seven runs came on home runs, three of which were solo shots. You simply can’t rely on multiple solo home runs for your offense. Remember Earl Weaver’s strategy: it’s the three-run home runs that do it!
- There were no Tiger walks. The Tigers need to put men on base and draw walks. They only had two walks in each of their two losses to the Mariners (the Mariners!!). They rank 12th in the AL in On-Base Percentage, just ahead of the Mariners and behind last-place Kansas City.
- The ninth inning was more of a nail-biter than it should have been. In the Minnesota half, there was an error, a walk, and a wild pitch before a run-scoring single. I could easily see the 7-2 lead shrinking more than that, but thankfully they got out of it. If you take away the home runs, though, the game would have been tied.
- Justin Verlander turned in a great performance, but overall the Tigers’ AL-leading starting pitching is going downhill. Nate Robinson is 3-5 in his last 8 starts, and Jeremy Bronderman is 0-3 in his last 8. True, Bronderman had a couple quality starts in there that the bullpen failed to preserve and that the offense failed to support. The aged Kenny Rogers and the young Verlander can’t be counted on to win post-season games alone.
Game time: 5:05 PT. Detroit’s Ledezma (2-2, 2.38 ERA) vs. Minnesota’s Garza (1-4, 5.88 ERA). Let’s get some men on base!!
