Detroit Tigers: AL Central Woes Continue

The Detroit Tigers after today’s loss, have tied a record for most losses in a row against their AL Central rivals.

The Detroit Tigers continue to struggle. After the 9-0 loss to Chicago this afternoon, they have tied a record for most AL Central division losses in a row since the Wild-Card era began in 1995 with 9.  The worst streak was twelve when they were in the AL East in 1996 when the lost to Baltimore, the Yankees, and the Boston Red Sox.

The 2005 squad lost 9 in a row to the eventual World Series champion White Sox as they were swept in four games in Chicago. In that series, they were outscored 29-6 followed by getting swept at home to Cleveland, and finally, the losing streak ended against the Royals.

During this current losing streak, we have seen the future arrive with Casey Mize, Tarik Skubul, and Issac Paredes making their debut in Chicago. But their new pitchers could not help the offense which has hit .220/.272./.350 the past week and they been outscored 67-29.

Against right-handed pitchers this season, the Tigers have hit just .208 with 175 strikeouts, which does not bode well as they take on the Indians this weekend, who do not feature a left-handed pitcher in their starting rotation. They will face Adam Plutko on Friday and Triston McKenzie, who will be making his major league debut on Saturday.

During this losing streak, they have given up 23 home runs and no starting pitcher has gone more than 4.2 innings each outing. Since C.J Cron has gone out for the year, the Tigers are now 0-8. (Thanks to Miggy’s Bat on Twitter for that stat) and for the year from the cleanup spot, they are batting now .211.

Look, all these stats I am throwing at you aside, today’s loss just was brutal to watch. Chicago was making hard contact, getting deep in counts and drawing walks. The approach today at the plate was just…flat. This season, that started with so much promise, has soured. At this point, Detroit has to decide how to approach the rest of the schedule. Hard to come back from this in a 60-game season.