Detroit Tigers Weekly Recap: Bad Weather, Worse 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.

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:

Starting Pitching

One of the few positives for the Tigers last week was the starting pitching. Particularly the pitching from veteran left-hander Francisco Liriano, who tossed six innings while giving up two runs on just three hits. He walked three and struck out four. Liriano now has a 2.13 ERA and a 0.95 WHIP through his first two starts of the year. While this won’t last, it has been good to see the veteran bounce back from a tough 2017 and look like a solid starting pitcher once again in Detroit.

Another positive this season has been fellow left-hander Matthew Boyd, who tossed seven innings of one-run ball, with that one run courtesy of a first inning homer by Jose Ramirez. Boyd settled in after that, only giving up three hits and one walk while striking out four. Boyd has a chance to break through as a solid mid-rotation starter this season, which would be a nice boost for a rebuilding Tigers team.

Jordan Zimmermann only threw seven pitches before a line drive off the bat of Jason Kipnis hit him square in the jaw, causing him to exit the game. He says he is fine and expects to make his next start. In his stead, Daniel Norris threw two solid innings of relief before running into trouble in the fourth, giving up four runs on six hits and getting relieved by Drew VerHagen.

It was bizarro world for the Detroit Tigers, as Liriano and Boyd looked lights out while All-Star starter Michael Fulmer got lit up by the Indians. He only lasted three innings, giving up nine runs (six earned) on eight hits, including two home runs. He only struck out two. Outings like this will be rare for Fulmer, but it was a very unfortunate time for him to implode. Chad Bell, who had recently been recalled, threw four scoreless innings in relief – although he did give up six hits and one walk.

After an excellent debut, Mike Fiers went backward in his second game. He threw 5.2 innings, giving up six runs (five earned) on eight hits and one walk. He struck out four. Fiers had a bad spring, but seems to have a solid grasp on a rotation spot.

Overall it was a good week for the starters. Cleveland’s hitting has been as cold as the weather, so outside of Fulmer’s blow-up it was nice to see Detroit keep them in check. Once the hitting comes around, Detroit should be able to hang around with most teams.

Whoo boy. This was not a pretty week for the sticks. Here we go.

The Good

Leonys Martin. That’s about it honestly. He was a triple short of the cycle against Carlos Carrasco and the Indians on April 11, and went 3-for-5 with two runs the next day. He’s up to .271/.352/.396 on the year and has actually looked like a true leadoff hitter so far.

Ummm Victor Martinez hit two doubles? James McCann and Jeimer Candelario each homered last week? The next highest batting average over the last seven days (behind Martin)  is Victor Reyes, who went 1-for-4 for a .250 average. Like I said, it was not a pretty week for the hitters.

The Bad

Everyone else. Over the last week, here are some numbers for the Detroit Tigers regulars:

Jeimer Candelario: .167 (4-for-24)

Miguel Cabrera: .174 (4-for-23)

Nicholas Castellanos .217 (5-for-23)

Victor Martinez .235 (4-for-17)

James McCann .154 (2-for-13)

Jose Iglesias .125 (2-for-16)

Dixon Machado .118 (2-for-17)

The bench was not any better, with Niko Goodrum (.091) JaCoby Jones (.000) and John Hicks (.143) not doing themselves any favors to earn more playing time.

The few things to pull out of this: John Hicks appears to slowly be creeping into McCann’s playing time. It’s tough to read too far into it, as catchers get more days off than regular position players, but if McCann can’t get it together it wouldn’t be surprising to see Hicks get more time as the year goes on.

Jones and Reyes seem to be competing to not start in left field following Mikie Mahtook‘s demotion to Triple-A. If neither of them can find a way to contribute offensively, expect Mahtook to be up shortly after he is eligible to return. Between the three of them, one of them will need to stand out to earn a full-time role. Otherwise, expect either Christin Stewart or Mike Gerber to make their big league debut sooner rather than later.