20th
April
2008
Games 17-18-19: YAY BOO MEH!
posted in 2008 season |Game 17:
Tigers 8
Blue Jays 4
Game 18
Blue Jays 3
Tigers 2
Game 19:
Blue Jays 5
Tigers 3
Recap:
- Please excuse the dust, as they say. The Tigers have fit in three days’ worth of games while I fit in two days worth of work and some naps.
- In all three of the games, the Tigers were able to get baseruners. In the first game, they eventually took advantage of that fact. The next two, not-so-much.
- Tigers pitching has been mixed. Kenny Rogers did barely enough to get the win Friday, but his batters gave him a boost. Jeremy Bonderman didn’t allow many runs but didn’t pitch all that great Saturday. And Nate Robertson did fine today, except for the inning that cost his team the game.
- Bonderman walked six and was only able to pitch five innings.
- But the bullpen did not give up a single run in any of the three games.
Analysis:
- The Tigers are somewhat… frustrating, maybe? to watch or listen to because their lack of pitching just gives me a feeling of dread.
- Case in point: today. The team leads 2-1 after finally getting something going with the bases loaded. Nate Robertson goes right out to the mound and gives up four runs. All with two outs.
- Unfortunately, not closing the door with two outs has grown fairly typical.
- Per ESPN.com’s most recent stats: The Tigers have allowed 112 runs. They have allowed 60 of those runs with runners in scoring position and two outs.
- And as good as the Tigers’ lineup was touted as being, they just haven’t done that to opposing teams. They’ve only scored 23 of the same runs while taking just two fewer at-bats.
- So I don’t know what’s worse to watch as a fan: A team that can’t score with runners in scoring position, or a team that can’t prevent the other team from scoring when there’s two outs, or a team that can’t shut the door on its opponents the half-inning after it scores.
- The Tigers just aren’t fun right now. I do expect those trends will start to balance out in the long run. No team’s pitching is bad enough to continue giving up 6 runs per game for the whole season. And we know the Tigers offense can score.
- But right now, it’s kinda annoying.
Interesting stats. I’d say it’s a reason for guarded optimism: hitting with runners in scoring position is a pretty random phenomenon. The numbers on both sides of the equation have to revert to the mean at some point.
But it does make for angst-ridden baseball viewing . . .
I fear the sad truth is that the Tigers are really fielding a subpar team. They have nice mashing stats if everyone is healthy (they’re not), they can catch the ball slightly better than average if everyone is healthy (they’re not), and the can patch together enough decent innings if the karma is breaking right (it’s not).
The problem is that they’re not hovering around .500. They’d really have to throw together a nice streak or two just go get even. And for some ungodly reason, the Sox seem to have put together a nice team. A pox on Nick Swisher. If they haven’t pulled back up to .500 by the end of May, the season is probably a loss.
Friday aside, they looked awful this weekend. It’s really time to get the ball rolling here. 6-13 is unacceptable. 6-6 over their last 12 isn’t all that great either.
Kyle –
Guarded optimism indeed. The Tigers should begin to get their fair share of 2-out runs just by hitting normally. Right now, their OPS and their two-out OPS is nearly the same, but I expect in the long run, both should be above .737.
Flying J –
I have been considering just that myself. It is possible they are both an average and a good team. Average with injuries, good without. Whether or not you can expect them to be without injuries due to their ages and playing histories may be the question, and I fear the answer is no. They have been hovering around .500 since going 0-7. They split with CLE and took two from Minny. I mean, there’s still decent signs there. But overall I’d just have to say, you gotta be cautious reading too much into April either way.
Blake– Agreed.
Good analysis. Detroit’s play has become annoying and they simply ae not fun to follow because on paper they should be playing so much better.