Tigers need to get ahead of potential starting rotation problems before they balloon

Jack Flaherty and Reese Olson, the Tigers' starters for the first two games of the series against the Astros two weeks ago, had relatively new reputations to uphold. The Tigers' rotation has been one of the most dominant in baseball. Detroit, at the time, had four pitchers with sub-3.00 ERAs. Flaherty was one of them, and Olson had last pitched a great 7 1/3 inning start against the Padres.

However, the Tigers' splits so far indicated risk. Even though they're 13-3 at home, their best record since 1911, they were 5-7 on the road heading into Houston. They were just at the start of a three-series road trip against the Astros, Angels, and Rockies, and although the Angels and Rockies helped them fix how lopsided that split is, the Astros didn't.

Flaherty gave up four runs in his start, both two-run homers, which ballooned his ERA above 3.00. Olson followed and gave up three runs in 5 2/3 innings, two of which scored after he was pulled in the bottom of the sixth and Will Vest came in to take over. The issue with Olson's start was that he unraveled after five scoreless frames to surrender three runs and the lead.

The Tigers' rotation is by no means bad because of two rough games, but they were going to have to come down to earth at some point.

And it has continued. The Tigers might be 8-3 over their last 11 games since the series finale in Houston, but Flaherty has since gotten knocked around two more times against the Angels and Rangers. Jackson Jobe gave up eight runs in Colorado. Olson gave up three runs on seven hits and a walk in just four innings against the Rangers in Sunday's rubber match (a series loss).

The initial stumble looked a little worse because it came against the Astros, who had been dealing with a lot of offensive issues before the Tigers came to town. Jose Altuve sat out in Houston's last game against the Royals and was moved to second in the lineup for their first two games against Detroit. He hit a homer against Flaherty, which was his first in 19 games.

By no means is this a "it's time to panic" follow up from the series loss to the Texas Rangers over the weekend. The Tigers are still the best team in the American League. But they might need to start making adjustments because Flaherty (4.61 ERA) and Jobe (4.88 ERA) have seen their ERAs skyrocket in a matter of 2-3 starts. Olson has largely been good, but the "mixed bag" has continued to be a bit of a trend.

This is still a tremendous group, but teams might be catching on to Detroit's starting staff, so it's best to get ahead of some of the obvious issues that have surfaced in recent weeks.