3 encouraging signs from the Detroit Tigers’ sweep of the Orioles

1. E-rod and Tarik Skubal shoved

Eduardo Rodriguez has had an up-and-down start to his Detroit Tigers’ career. But his last two starts have been more what we were expecting when he signed that five-year, $77 million deal in the offseason. After 6.2 innings of one-run ball against the Houston Astros in last outing, E-rod one-upped that with 6.2 innings of scoreless baseball Friday night.

He’s starting to command his fastball better and hasn’t been nibbling as much. His ERA is down to 3.72. Hopefully he can keep this up.

Tarik Skubal on the other hand, continued his dominance this season with six scoreless innings on Sunday, tying a career high with 11 strikeouts. Skubal had wanted to go deeper into games as far as pitch count, and he got to the century mark on Sunday.

He’s been going right after guys and mixing his pitches effectively. It’s safe to say that he is blossoming into an ace.

2. The bullpen is still (mostly) good

The Detroit Tigers’ bullpen continues to be a bright spot on this team. As previously mentioned, they pitched 7.2 innings of scoreless ball in relief of an injured Michael Pineda. Wily Peralta, Jason Foley, Joe Jimenez, Andrew Chafin, and Gregory Soto all pitched well in the effort.

It wasn’t always pretty, however. Jacob Barnes’ lack of swing-and-miss stuff finally caught to him Friday night, as he gave up back-to-back home runs on back-to-back pitches. He did bounce back with a scoreless inning on Sunday, though.

Gregory Soto’s struggles continued Friday night as well, walking one and plunking two to load the bases. Will Vest came in and bailed him out with two strikeouts to secure the win. Thankfully, he went right back out there on Saturday and pitched a scoreless ninth for the save.

In a season full of negatives, the bullpen continues to be a surprising positive.

3. The offense finally showed signs of life

What a welcome sight this weekend was for the bats. Coming into the series, they had just 12 homers as a team this season. They hit four in this series, hitting at least one in every game.

The team started to drive the ball more. Miguel Cabrera had a monster series, going 6-for-9 with four extra-base hits, including two home runs. The other homers belonged to Eric Haase and Willi Castro, respectively. Castro has had a nice stretch as of late, although his .359 BABIP suggests he is getting very lucky.

The hits were timely as well, with the team going 5-for-18 with RISP in the series.

There is still work to be done. Spencer Torkelson is still struggling mightily, and Javier Baez continues to roll the ball over at an alarming rate.

But this offense has been undeniably awful to start the season. This series was the first time all season where these hitters actually looked like they knew what they were doing up there.

This team still has their issues. The infield defense is still a problem, and the injuries have started to pile up even more with Victor Reyes and Austin Meadows both leaving Sunday’s game. Reyes had just come off the IL from a left quad strain, only to strain his right quad.

This team needed something to feel good about, and with a tough nine-game road trip coming up, hopefully this sweep gets them in a groove.