Although it was a bad day for the Tigers today, they can hold their heads high after going 6-3 on a western swing. They took 2 of 3 from the Oakland Athletics, swept the Seattle Mariners in 3 games, and took 1 of 3 from the Angels. Here is a brief re-cap of the trip:
- They outscored their opponents 33-25 and did not give up more than 4 runs in any game.
- Their whole starting staff was superb: A 2.69 ERA in 60 1/3 inning pitched allowing just 39 hits and 21 walks.
- The bullpen continued to shine and is now a perfect 7 for 7 in save opportunities for the season.
- Offensively they struggled batting just .240/.319/.341 with 20 extra base hits in the 9 games.
- Magglio Ordonez heated up a little bit hitting .342 with 4 doubles and a home run. Getting him back anywhere close to his old productivity would be a huge boost.
- Curtis Granderson batted .290 with 7 walks for a .421 OBP. Curtis just may be the best all around player on the team right now.
- On the negative side, Chris Shelton fell back to earth batting just .138 with no extra base hits.
- The designated hitter trio of Alexis Gomez, Marcus Thames and Omar Infante batted .121 which actually made me long for Dmitri Young's return which should be soon - possibly this weekend.
- The 13-9 Tigers are now two games off the pace of 1993 team after the same number of games. The 1993 team was 15-7 and in first place after 22 games.
Despite it being a "bad day", Leyland had some good things to say about it. Got this off a story at DetroitTigers.com
ReplyDelete"The atmosphere on the bench today was tremendous," said Leyland. "[The players] were really into it. That is all you can ask for. There was no doubt in my mind that they wanted to win this game badly, but they just couldn't do it.
"We were into it, the effort was there, I'm proud of them, and they deserve a day off. They did a heckuva job. [Winning on Wednesday] would have been a tremendous bonus, but we just didn't get it. We just have to turn the page and get ready for Friday."
I'm also blown away how well the pitching, starters and bullpen, have performed this season.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely need some hitting! It is good to see Maggs coming around. Hope he can keep it up. Wonder how much Young will help once he gets back. It's not like he was doing much before he got hurt.