Going into yesterday’s game against the Cleveland Indians, the Tigers had won 10 straight against their Central Division rivals from Ohio. The Indians snapped that streak yesterday behind a 5-for-10 effort from the bottom third of their lineup. The 7-8-9 trio of Mark Grudzielanek (yeah, I copied/pasted that), Andy Marte, and Lou Marson drove in 6 of the 7 Cleveland runs. To make matters worse, Grudzielanek is the only one of those three hitting above .210.
Magglio Ordonez had a strong game for the Tigers, driving in two runs on two doubles. Like I illustrated in my one-month recap, Austin Jackson and Johnny Damon continued to spark the Tigers’ offense. They scored all four (two each) of Detroit’s runs. Damon went 0-for-3 but he walked twice, giving him 5 BB in the two-game series.
YOU’RE SCARING ME, MAXWELL
Unfortunately, Max Scherzer’s recent troubles don’t seem to be just against the Minnesota Twins. Scherzer gave up 5 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings of work, taking his third loss on the year. He struck out 4 Indians batters. His ERA has climbed to 6.81 after posting a 2.63 ERA in his first four starts. The only silver lining in this outing is that he didn’t give up a home run, something he had done in his previous five starts.
HOW BAD IS THE BOTTOM OF THE LINEUP?
At Bless You Boys, Kurt wrote a great piece illustrating where the Tigers’ offense has come from this year. He uses a sabermetric measure for calculating what you already knew: the vast majority of the offense is coming from the top of the lineup, while the 6-9 hitters struggle mightily with runners on base.
LOOKS AT THE ROOKS
Austin Jackson continues to rake, going 2-for-5 yesterday with 2 runs scored. He jumped ahead of Miguel Cabrera (1-for-3) for the AL lead in batting average. Jackson is sitting at .371 with Cabrera just behind him at .370.
Scott Sizemore went 1-for-4 a day after knocking in 3 runs. He’s sitting at .241 but seems to be getting more comfortable as an everyday big leaguer.
Brennan Boesch went 0-for-2 with a sacrifice fly before Jim Leyland decided to pinch hit Ryan Raburn for him (against a lefty pitcher) in the 8th inning. Raburn then proceeded to strike out on 4 pitches. Regardless of the righty-lefty matchup, I didn’t agree with Leyland’s decision during the game (and obviously don’t agree now). Boesch is hitting over 100 points higher than Raburn right now and isn’t anywhere near the defensive liability. He won’t ever learn to hit lefties if you don’t give him the chance.
TODAY’S LINEUP
Once again, I’m late enough on the recap that today’s lineups have been released. Brad Thomas will start for the Tigers in place of Dontrelle Willis, who has been scratched due to the flu.
I don’t like how Thomas matches up against the Yankees. Hopefully the offense can come to life tonight to keep pace.
AROUND THE CENTRAL
This division is a two-team race. Period. Chicago is 8 games out of first, Cleveland is 8.5 back, and the Royals are bringing up the rear at 10 games behind the Twins.
The Tigers are keeping pace with Minnesota, if only momentarily. They’re just 3.5 games out, but the giant difference in run differential (+48 for Minnesota, +3 for Detroit) has me worried for the long run.
Tonight’s game starts at 7:05 ET and can be seen on ESPN.
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