Tigers Take Series from Yankees

It's been a roller coaster ride for the Tigers the last two weeks.  First, they dominated the White Sox in a three-game sweep.  Then they lost seven in a row, getting swept by the Mariners and Indians and losing the first game of this week's Yankee series.  When Justin Verlander lost that first game, fans feared another sweep.  It felt like the season was slipping away and the fans demanded action.

The Tigers faithful (or unfaithful after losing seven games) got some of the changes they wanted starting on Tuesday when second baseman Scott Sizemore was promoted from Toledo.  On Wednesday, Victor Martinez returned from the disabled list and Jim Leyland constructed a new batting order.  He moved left-handed hitting Brennan Boesch up to the third hole and Mslumping Magglio Ordonez down to number six. 

Coincidentally or not the Tigers took the last three games of the series after the changes took effect.  Sizemore has gone 4 for 12.  Boesch recovered from a brief swoon by getting four hits in to games after the batting order change.  Ordonez is hitting the ball better and even got his first homer Wednesday night.  All in all the offense looked much better this series. 

They key to the series though was the Tigers starters stopping the powerful New York offense.  First, Brad Penny did not allow an earned run in six shutout innings on Tuesday's 4-2 victory.  He has now allowed just four earned runs in his last three outings. 

Max Scherzer followed with eight innings of brilliant scoreless pitching on Wednesady. Reliever Al Alburquerque finished off the 4-0 shutout with a scoreless ninth.  He now has 18 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings. 

Finally Rick Porcello pitched the longest outing of his career today reaching 120 pitches in seven innings. He allowed just two runs and the Tigers held on to win 6-3.  He has surrendered two runs or fewer in each of his last four starts.

So, it was starting pitching that won this series and they'll probably go as far as their starters take them this year.  They won't win on hitting and fielding this year.  Starting pitching is the area where I think they may outshine the competition in the AL central and it appears to be heating up. 

Tigers Sweep White Sox

Tigers fans were frustrated after a mediocre first three weeks of the season.  They were down on an offense that was struggling to get on base and couldn't get the runners home when they did reach base.  Even on a four and three road trip in Oakland and Seattle, it seemed like half of their runs were due to sloppy defense.  And if felt like the other half came against relief pitchers who couldn't get the ball over the plate.

Fans were also down on the Tigers inconsistent pitching and unsatisfactory defense.  They were down on Jim Dombrowski for putting together what was starting to look like a shallow roster and on Jim Leyland for his puzzling line-ups.  It looked like a long season ahead. 

Three days later, the Tigers have finished a three-game sweep where they outscored the White Sox 21-3.  The Tigers received a solid performance by Justin Verlander and a 9-3 win on Friday night.  Yesterday, Brad Penny surprised us with a seven inning one hitter as the Tigers routed the Sox 9-0.  Impatient fans are now willing to let Penny get another start or two before his release.  Today, Max Scherzer shut out the Chicagoans for eight innings and the Tigers won 3-0.

The offense was encouraging this weekend as well.  A badly slumping Austin Jackson reached base six times on five hits and a walk.  The struggling Ryan Raburn played two more games at second base without incident and contributed five hits for seven RBIs in three games.  Brennan Boesch continued his strong hitting going four for nine and drawing his tenth walk.  Hot hitting Alex Avila clubbed six more hits, three for extra bases, to raise his OPS to .976.

The sweep leaves the Tigers just 1 1/2 games behind the first place Indians, 2 1/2 ahead of the Twins and 4 ahead of the White Sox.  All is well again for the Tigers fans and the summer looks bright.  A three-game sweep versus the hated White Sox changes things.  Doesn't it? 

Tigers Swept by Indians

The Indians beat the Tigers 7-2 today to complete a four game sweep of the Tigers.  Jeanmar Gomez held them to two unearned runs in seven innings in his first MLB start.  It shouldn't have come to a surprise to anyone given how the Tigers have played this series:  Here is my  summary of the Tigers play this series:

1. Poor pitching except for Rick Porcello
2. Poor fielding
3. Even worse hitting

My list of positives:

1. Porcello pitched a great game in the second game of yesterday's doubleheader.

There is really nothing else I can come up with.  It was just an awful series, the worst of the season for the Tigers.  They better get straightened out fast because the schedule is about to get really tough with 30 straight games versus teams which are currently above .500:

3 vs. Rangers
4 vs. Blue Jays
7 vs. Rays
3 vs. Red Sox
6 vs. White Sox
3 vs. Angels
4 vs. Yankees