The Tigers are still in first place. As of right NOW they are 2.5 games ahead of the White Sox and 6 games over the Twins (but both of those teams are playing (and losing) as I write this, so stay tuned).
It is awesome that Detroit is leading the AL Central. Mainly because in either other division this year they would be lost in the pack. The Yankees are starting to walk away with the AL East and the Angels are 5 games ahead in the West. The Tigers have a .530 winning per centage and that would put them at 4th place in the East and 3rd in the West.
But, the reality is that they are in the Central. Maybe this is something like "reigning in hell", but it beats trying to catch the Yankees or Boston. So far this year Detroit has played well against everyone but the AL East. They are 17 and 10 against the West (thank you Texas!) and, even more importantly, they are 27 and 20 when facing the AL Central.
The glaring reason they are in 1st place is the same reason they weren't last year- pitching.
- Justin Verlander is an absolute stud. He has had two bad outings in the last couple of weeks, but his ERA is still only 3.28 and he has 194 strike outs in his 13 wins. He was the only pitcher who could shut down the Red Sox last week.
- Edwin Jackson has not been as totally dominant as he was earlier in the summer, but he is still coming in with a 2.94 ERA. Both Verlander and Jackson face an average of only 4.1 batters per inning. That shows that they are keeping men off the basepaths (and as a result, it is hard to score off of them).
- The Kid (Porcello) has also been having a Rookie of the Year season (IMHO). He has 10 wins and a 4.34 ERA. His WHIP is only 1.39. And let's not forget that he flipped Kevin Youkilis to the ground during the only fight of the year- pretty good for a 20 year old!
The bullpen hasn't been slouching either.
- Bobby Seay has slipped a bit in the past few weeks, but he still allows only 1.06 batters to reach per inning. He just gave up his first 2 homeruns of the year.
- Brandon Lyon was slow to start but he has established himself as a firewall to any rally the other team might consider putting together. In 44 appearances he has allowed only 17 earned runs. His WHIP is only 1.05.
- Then there is Ni. He can barely speak any English, but he has struck out 17 batter in only 21 innings pitched while only walking 7. There is just a metric ton of confidence in these guys taking the ball right now.
- Rodney is no longer perfect in saves, but as scary as he is- he gets the job done.
If the bats coud keep up with the pitchers the race for the AL Central would be over. But the bats are anemic so the Tigers win on pitching. Detroit has played 23 games where the opposing team scored 1 run or less. That is almost 1/3 of their 62 wins so far. The down side is that they have played in 21 games where they have scored 1 run or less. They have won only 2 of those games. That ties the number of games like that from last season (although last year there were many more shutouts against Detroit).
Today the Tigers traded for Aubrey Huff from the Orioles. I don't know much about him yet. He has 72 RBI so far this year, so maybe can help the area the Tigers are worst at - hitting with men in scoring position. In the past 3 weeks the Tigers have left 332 men on base, 332! Huff is a left handed batter who, until this year, was a power hitter. All I remember is reading that he threw dirt in Brandon Inge's face during a game a couple of weeks ago- apparently they are friends.
Ordonez is hitting again. Guillen is hitting. Cabrera never really stopped hitting. Maybe Huff is the guy they need.
But I don't think the Twins can catch them. The White Sox can (and might) but I think Detroit can and should win the division. And with their pitching the playoffs could be sweet.
It's time for bed.
Week 19
Place - 1st
Tigers -
W. Sox 2.5
Twins 6
Indians 11
Royals 16
only 46 games in regular season.
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