“The doctor told me I wouldn’t get nose bleeds if I just kept my finger out of there” –Ralphie from The Simpsons
Okay, so Ervin Santana didn’t have boogies falling from his nose. In fact, during warm ups his pitching coach told him to start pitching better, called him an ugly woman, and punched him in the nose, causing a massive nosebleed. He put this form of tampon in his nostril and said, “eff it, let’s pitch.”
Stopping blood from dripping out of his nose like a bloody Niagra Falls wasn’t the only thing Ervin Santana prevented on Friday night. He held the Tigers to six scattered hits and one run through 8.2 innings pitched, begging many to question whether the Tigers are using big league wood bats or yellow whiffle ball bats to hit lately.
The Tigers offense has been silent during their current four game losing streak, averaging just 2.5 runs per game (10 runs in 4 games). For the first eight innings of Friday night’s game, I swear I heard cricket noises resonating from the objects the Tigers were swinging while standing at the plate.
As if matters couldn’t get worse, Miguel Cabrera, the best hitter on the team by far, left Thursday’s game with a pulled left hamstring. He came in to pinch hit in the 9th inning on Friday, attempting to provide his best Kirk Gibson impersonation, but was seen clutching his hammy after two different swings. There are reports that he may play this weekend, but a hamstring injury becomes a constant nag if it’s not allowed proper time to heal, so I’d be surprised to see him in the lineup. As long as Miguel is not in the lineup though, this Tigers lineup becomes ten times less intimidating. Clete Thomas or Jeff Larish just don’t have the same ring (hitting .240 and .214 respectively).
In the meantime, the Tigers pitching continues to keep us in games. If it weren’t for great pitching, the Tigers losing streak might be five (or more) and we certainly wouldn’t be clinging to a 1.5 game lead in the AL Central Division. The Tigers currently rank sixth in the MLB with a 4.04 ERA and fifth in runs allowed. The Tigers hitting is 10th in the MLB in runs, so obviously the sticks have not been a problem all year.
As Futureman pointed out in his post, Fernando Rodney blew Justin Verlander’s 8 shutout innings by giving up the first runs Rodney’s allowed (two) since May 10th in the 9th. (It was indeed a non-save situation, which is nice for his save percentage for those keeping tabs at home, but no denying he sucked). I must say, Friday night’s game had that defeated feeling long before two Angels were plated in the 9th, though. When a guy, who has given up 15 runs in his last 6.1 innings (and has a cotton ball hanging from his nose all game) is shutting you out, you tend not to have a very good feeling about the outcome of a game. Call me negative Nancy, but it’s the darned truth. The Tigers hitters cannot possibly expect the pitchers to bail them out. I’m as big of a fan of 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, or 4-3 games as anyone, but the Tigers will need to start putting up some more runs in order to assure outings like Verlander’s on Friday wind up in wins and not 2-1 losses. This is especially important now with the tail end of our rotation shaky, at best (cough, Willis and Galarraga, cough).
You probably can’t tell from the number of words I spent on this post, but I assure you that I’m not freaking out about the Tigers recent lack of offensive production. I will admit I’m a little nervous as our star hitter nurses a tweaked hammy, Inge comes back down to Earth, Polanco continues to struggle, and our catcher makes a run at the Mendoza line, but ruts like this happen throughout the course of a very long season so it’s important to stay level headed. I just think it’s important to mention that the offense we’ve seen in the past five games or so, will not get the Tigers in the playoffs. In order to be relevant in the playoff picture, the Tigers hitters will need to stop picking their noses and hit the baseball.
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