This past week the Tigers ran into two men who seem to defy the laws of statistics: Matt Grienke pitching for the Royals and Luke Scott hitting for the Orioles. Other than that they played well. Here comes the science....
Detroit played a 3 game series against Kansas City early in the week. Verlander and Porcello dominated the Royals, Justin pitched a shutout through 7 and Porcello allowed only 2 through 6. Jackson ran into the amazing Matt Grienke pitching for the Royals. Grienke allowed 1 run and pitched an entire game. His ERA after that outing was 0.84! Detroit did nothing to damage his reputation.
Then Detroit went to Baltimore a.k.a. the Land of Luke Scott. Here is some perspective on Luke Scott- he was traded to Baltimore last year from Houston and since then has absolutely destroyed Tiger pitching. He has played in 13 games against Detriot and homered in 12 of them. It just seems that his purpose on earth is to keep the Orioles in games against the Tigers. Some of the best times of my week were spent reading the comments posted about Mr. Scott. Here are some of the best.
From Bless You Boys
i hate that guy
http://www.fromthecopa.blogspot.com
by rock n rye on May 29, 2009 8:18 PM EDT 
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All of this attention to Scott was deserved by the Tigers blogosphere. He hit the game winning home runs on Thursday, Friday and the game tying homerun on Saturday until Clete Thomas unloaded for his 2nd HR of the day to put Detroit ahead for good.
So, all in all the Tigers did well. They won more games than they lost on this road trip. In fact, they have not "lost" a week yet this year, playing at least .500 ball every week this year. Pitching and defense are keeping the team in the game until the batters put something together. The slugging percentage for the week was .407 and continues a 3 week slide in that category. Leyland keeps playing with the batting order to see what works the best. In fact today Granderson batted cleanup for the first time in his MLB career (and hit his 2nd HR in 2 days).
At the end of the week:
28 - 21
First place in the AL Central.
Team Place GB
Det 1 -
Chi 2 4
Min 3 4 1/2
KC 4 5 1/2
Cle 5 7 1/2
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