Zimmermann’s struggles continue, Detroit Tigers swept by Phillies

The Detroit Tigers welcomed the Philadelphia Phillies to Comerica Park for a quick two-game series and were promptly swept, falling 4-0 in Wednesday’s series finale.

One might hesitate to call it a quick series between the Phillies and the Detroit Tigers considering Tuesday night/Wednesday morning’s 15-inning marathon, but Philadelphia managed to come out of the Motor City with a two-game sweep after a shutout win on Wednesday. Tigers starter Jordan Zimmermann struggled on the mound yet again and failed to receive much support from the offense, a trend all too common for Detroit this season.

With a loss on Sunday, Zimmermann now falls to 0-8 in his 13 starts for the Detroit Tigers this year. Taking the mound on Wednesday afternoon, the righty lasted just over four innings surrendering four earned runs on eight hits including two solo home runs to Philly’s J.T. Realmuto and Nick Williams.

Along with his 0-8 record, another subpar performance on Wednesday pushed Zimmermann’s ERA on the season up to 7.57. In 2013, Zimmermann tied with Adam Wainwright for most wins in the National League but has consistently disappointed in Detroit. In fact, the right-hander’s only season with a winning record for the Tigers was in 2016, his first year with the team.

Not all the blame for Wednesday’s loss should be placed on Zimmermann, however, as the Tigers offense was yet again unable to produce much of anything in the batter’s box. Detroit tallied just five hits, four of which coming from Brandon Dixon and Niko Goodrum, and stranded nine runners on base in the shutout loss.

As the Tigers get ready to finish out July and begin August with a ten-game road trip to the west coast, Wednesday could have very well been Nick Castellanos’ last game as a Tiger at Comerica Park. With several teams rumored to be interested in acquiring the right fielder before next week’s trade deadline, Castellanos went 0-4 with three strikeouts on Wednesday.

The two-game sweep in Detroit certainly helps out the Phillies, who are battling to stay in the postseason race and now find themselves tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for the NL’s final Wild Card spot. Meanwhile, the Detroit Tigers head out for a ten-game road trip against the AL West beginning with a four-game series in Seattle against the Mariners starting on Thursday.