4th Inning- At least it was better than the 3rd.
The Tigers played a truly terrible stretch of baseball over the last 2 months. After a decent start and an awe-inspiring 2nd Inning the 3rd was a disaster. The 4th was looking to be as bad as the 3rd but the Boys turned it around at the end and made it a .500 stretch of 9-9. Fortunately for Detroit the rest of the AL Central has struggled worse than they have and so, despite a strong run from KC, the Tigers were still in 1st Place by 2 ½ games when it was all said and done.
The inning started with Toronto on June 4 as the Blue Jays completed a sweep of Detroit in Detroit. In that series the Tigers were outscored 20-8 overall. Then the Red Sox came to town and things seemed a little better. The Tiges took 2 of 3, scoring 17 along the way, but that was the last taste of decent baseball for a while as the White Sox took 3 of 4 and the Royals took 3 of 4 with a series win over the Twins sandwiched in between. Finally the Tigers left town on a 9 game road trip, starting in Cleveland, and things started to look much better. Cleveland is where the Horrible Times started (May 19) and it appears that Cleveland is where the Horrible Times ended. The Tigers swept the Indians to finish out the 4th Inning and salvage a 9-9 record. But breaking down the numbers shows that it was still a rough patch of baseball.
The Lineup scored 85 runs, a big improvement over the previous 18 games. They actually had the highest team BA of the year so far in these 18 games, hitting at a .293 rate with a significant surge in power (5 triples and 23 homeruns) for an OPS (Onbase-Plus-Slugging) per centage of .883, by far the best of the season. Victor Martinez, JD Martinez and Cabrera continue to hit well and far. The new SS Suarez has brought some pop with him from Toledo. Others are still struggling (Hunter) but the runs are coming in.
The Starters improved a little. They lasted deeper into games during this inning (114 2/3 IP) and allowed fewer hits and fewer walks (WHIP dropped from 1.46 to 1.33). But their strikeout rate also dropped and their homerun rate basically stayed the same. This all combined into a record of 7-8 for the Inning. That took some pressure off of the Bullpen, but we frankly expect more out of a Rotation of Verlander, Scherzer, Sanchez, Porcello and Smyly. 2 Cy Young winners and a 3rd runner up to the CY should give us more than what we are seeing. In these 18 games Verlander pitched 25 2/3 innings. He allowed 33 hits, 21 earned runs and 11 walks. His ERA for that period was a whopping 7.36! He allowed 5 home runs while striking out only 20. Scherzer was not that much better. He pitched the same number of innings but allowed “only” 30 hits and 15 earned runs. During this time he threw his very first complete game (a shutout of the White Sox, which was great to see!) His ERA was only 5.26! Sanchez truly pitched well in his 19 1/3 innings allowing only 15 hits and 6 earned runs. Smyly was the Ace of the Inning- 19 IP with only 4 earned runs. The trend at the end of the Inning is solid though. All 4 pitchers had solid start of less than 2 runs allowed, a huge improvement.
The Bullpen had to step up again with the Starters still struggling. This did not happen. Although the BP was called upon for fewer IP during the 4th, they allowed more hits. This pushed their WHIP up to 1.72 and their collective ERA up to 5.47. On the positive side the K’s are coming (over 1 per inning) and the walk rate improved over the previous 18 games, but not by much. Joe Nathan continued to struggle, but with flashes of genius mixed in to keep everyone hopeful. Phil Coke was the same way. Hardy was brought up from Toledo and has done well so far. Smith has not done well. With this BP it is very hard to tell if any lead is safe, which is how we end up with improved Team batting numbers and only marginal improvements in the Win/Loss record.
Defense has not helped anyone (except opposing teams). In the 4th Inning the Tigers committed 16 errors. All that does is extend innings and allow rallies. Errors accounted for 7 runs over those 18 games and there is no sign of improvement. If there were improvement in this area then I believe the pitching would improve also (fewer pitches per inning, fewer base runners, fewer runs).
It appears that the Horrible Times are over. Although the record was only 9-9 for this Inning the team finished strong with a 4 game winning streak. During the last 5 games the Rotation was as solid as you can ask for and the BP only freaked us out times. When the 18th game was finished the Tigers were still in 1st Place and their lead was only ½ game shorter than when it started. The runs are coming (4.7/ game). If the pitching syncs up then there is much to be excited about. If JV and Max don’t figure out what is wrong then this could be a much more intense summer than many of us expected and no sure thing for winning the AL Central. I remain optimistic though, based on what the last week has shown us.
