Detroit Tigers: The Tiger killers have been neutralized in 2021

Detroit Tigers “Tiger Killers”: Salvador Perez, Carlos Santana, and Whit Merrifield

Salvador Perez is having a monster season for the Royals, being among the leaders in home runs and RBI in the American League.  Lifetime against Detroit, he has hit 26 home runs with a lifetime batting average of .284.

In 2021, he has hit three home runs against the Tigers but none of them came at Comerica Park. Two of them came off of Tarik Skubal and the last one came off of Casey Mize. Speaking of Mize, lifetime against him so far he has hit .467 against him (7-for-15).

Overall in 2021, he did not hit one home run at Comerica Park for the first time since 2014 and finished the year batting .274 (20-for-73) against the Tigers, and at Comerica Park, batted just .190 with an OPS of .452.

Carlos Santana has been known to also as a “Tiger Killer”, whether it’s by walks or home runs.  He has 26 home runs lifetime against Detroit. However, until this season, Santana was held in check in the home run department at Comerica. The Tigers allowed his first one since the 2018 season at home.  On the season, he has batted just .229 with 15 strikeouts to 12 walks which marks the first time since 2014 that Santana struck out more than he walked against the Tigers.

Ah, Whit Merrifield, the one KC Royal that many fans dread seeing come to the plate.  This season, he has hit at Comerica Park, .250 (9-for-36) with no home runs, which marks the first time since 2016 (only had 14 at-bats) where he hit under .300 at Comerica in his career.  In back-to-back seasons, Merrifield had put up OPS over 1.000 but this season, just .636 in Detroit.

Lifetime at Comerica Park, he has batted .328 with 9 home runs but to see him be somewhat human this year is a welcomed sight.