17 starts ago the Tigers sent Max Scherzer to Triple-A to reprogram him so he could come back up to the bigs and be the Tigers protector. Since Scherzer’s return on May 30, he’s thrown 110+ innings and has a sthuper sthexy 2.20 ERA with a 9-5 record. Hasta la vista, baby!
Scherzer’s start in Toronto on Thursday night (8 IP, 1 ER, 8 K) was his sixth straight quality start and third straight win. He’s only allowed more than three earned runs in just two of his last 17 starts and is averaging over one strikeout per inning during that time. Compare Scherzer to Verlander since May 31 (9-5, 3.59 ERA, 101 K in 105+ IP) and you’ll see that it’s Max Scherzer who has been the Tigers ace the past three months.
The Tigers have now won six of their last seven and that’s mainly due to stellar pitching (1.5 ERA in the last seven games). Of course, it doesn’t hurt to score seven runs per game and hit .328 as a team, which is what the Tigers are doing in the last seven games from the plate.
All in all, the Tigers have a pretty favorable schedule and it’s definitely the right time to start clicking. Nine games back won’t seem like much to me until we get past September 6 and the Tigers have 10 games to play before then.
Don’t lose hope, and play the Rod Allen drinking game.
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