Detroit Tigers Weekly Recap: Bad Weather, Worse Baseball

CLEVELAND, OH – APRIL 12: Dixon Machado #49 of the Detroit Tigers commits an error on a ball hit by Tyler Naquin #30 of the Cleveland Indians during the fourth inning at Progressive Field on April 12, 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Indians defeated the Tigers 9-3. (Photo by Ron Schwane/Getty Images)

The Detroit Tigers got worked by the Indians this week, going 0-4 and getting outscored 18-5. It was one of those weeks that painfully reminds fans how far the Tigers have to go.

Detroit Tigers fans may recall a quote by the infamous Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke’ Laloosh from the 1988 movie Bull Durham: ‘Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains’. Unfortunately, last week only included two of those outcomes for the Tigers: losses and rainouts.

The Tigers headed across Lake Erie to play a four-game set against the Indians. And boy did that series go poorly. The Indians dynamic pitching rotation completely shut down Detroit’s hitters, with the Tigers only managing two runs in the first three games of the series.

While Detroit’s offense has been anemic to say the least, Cleveland does boast an elite rotation. Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer all faced Detroit. Each of them could contend for a Cy Young this year, and they showed it last week. Josh Tomlin has not had the same big league success, but is still a solid big league starter who held the Tigers scoreless through five innings.

Still, it goes without saying that Detroit will need to dramatically improve their hitting as the season goes on. Here’s a state of the union, covering the offense, rotation and bullpen as the Tigers start another week of baseball:

The Detroit Tigers got worked by the Indians this week, going 0-4 and getting outscored 18-5. It was one of those weeks that painfully reminds fans how far the Tigers have to go.

Schedule