Detroit Tigers: Reflecting On Seeing Michael Fulmer Vs. Chris Archer

The marquee pitching matchup of the weekend for the Detroit Tigers took place on Saturday afternoon, but it didn’t pan out the way the team wanted.

Detroit Tigers ace Michael Fulmer took the mound against Tampa Bay Rays ace Chris Archer.  It ended with a 3-2 loss for Motown.

This was my first chance to see Fulmer live, and to see the Tigers lineup against a top level arm such as Archer.

Needless to say it was a great game to watch.

Lineup

The team mustered up six hits off of Archer while striking out eight times. He gave up both the runs scored by the Detroit Tigers.

It is tough to score runs off of better pitchers, that is how they get to be called “better pitchers”.  So whenever they got runners in scoring position, it was difficult to bring them around to score.

Miguel Cabrera made solid contact off of Archer to the opposite field blasting a homerun. Ian Kinsler pulled a double as well.

There was also a questionable double given to Justin Upton.

Overall, I was very impressed with the lineup facing the level of arm of Archer. He is one of the best pitchers in the league and this lineup has not been all too consistent this year.

Baseball is a game of inches and the inches were not in the Detroit Tigers favor tonight, but that happens.

If the lineup can take this approach and carry it to other games they will be very successful.

Fulmer

The part that excited me most, the pitching.  Fulmer vs. Archer.  It did not disappoint either.

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The final line from Fulmer was 6.2 innings, six hits, three runs, three strikeouts. The number that killed him was his four walks.

Despite that, he looked good. It is not unlikely for good pitchers to have an off day.  Although it is a stretch to call this an off day. It was more like a few off batters.

What was really impressive is how much better Fulmer got as the game went on.  Especially his changeup.

That off speed pitch started as a tool to keep guys off balance that would get hit, whether that be foul or fair.  But towards the end of the game it was a pitch that could legitimately cause swing and misses.

Conclusion

This team can be good.  The Detroit Tigers showed signs of being a team that will contend for first in the American League Central.

It is going to be interesting to see how they handle the trade deadline.  There are a lot of moving parts.

In the Detroit Tigers lineup there are places that can use improvement, but for the right price can handle a trade.

Next: An update on Anthony Gose

The point is this team is good enough to make a push here soon.  All they have to do is play like they did today.