Tigers' awful showing vs. Dbacks should have Scott Harris regretting his decisions

It took the Tigers just two series to suffer their first sweep of the season.

They dropped their last game against the Padres (and it was a shutout), but still walked away with the series win. They weren't so lucky when they rolled into Arizona to face the Diamondbacks before heading back home to Detroit.

The first two games were (sort of) hard-fought, at least. In the series opener, after going down 8-0, they staged a thrilling six-run rally in the seventh. The next day, they were up 5-0 before the bullpen blew up.

There were some things to worry about in those first two games, of course — does Justin Verlander really still have it? Were the bullpen improvements enough? — but the finale was basically unforgivable.

Tarik Skubal was back on the mound, and other than a solo, lefty-on-lefty homer for Corbin Carroll, he didn't allow a runner to score through seven innings. Kyle Finnegan pitched a scoreless inning behind him.

But the Tigers' offense? They looked hopeless.

Most of the lineup walked away with at least one hit, but they couldn't turn any of them into runs. In the third, Colt Keith got to second on a two-out double; Kevin McGonigle flew out to end the inning. In the six, McGonigle picked up his first major league triple with just one out; Gleyber Torres lined into a double play (nicely turned by Jose Fernandez) to end the inning. Riley Greene doubled in the top of the ninth with two outs to give Detroit some life; Dillon Dingler grounded out to end the game. The Tigers lost 1-0.

Scott Harris did not add a single bat to the Tigers' lineup this offseason.

Tigers suffer first series sweep at the hands of the Diamondbacks after agonizing series finale

This is not to say that a single veteran position player would definitely have salvaged any of these three games, but the lack of movement is uniquely frustrating when Harris was so adamant about promising improvements from the existing offense.

To be fair, there have been some improvements. Colt Keith has started the season hot for the first time. The Tigers as a whole are taking longer at-bats and slowing the game down. It's still very early, and maybe it's unfair to overreact about anything right now.

But, as Bob Nightengale pointed out while the Tigers were being shut out on Wednesday, Detroit "has scored in only four of their last 46 innings since the sixth inning on Opening Day." What we're seeing is inconsistency; far too many gaps in the lineup to keep rallies alive.

Kerry Carpenter struck out 10 times in the first four games of the season, a franchise record. Spencer Torkelson is a career 6-for-62 with the bases loaded or runners on second and third. Both were dropped down in the lineup by the end of their series against the Diamondbacks.

Something just hasn't clicked yet. We're only six games in, but we're already hoping that this isn't a tone-setter for the rest of the year.