Well, today is May 3rd, and I am officially commencing panic mode.
The Tigers currently find themselves riding a pathetic 7-game losing streak, and 8 games behind the Indians in the AL Central. We aren't scoring runs, we aren't pitching well, we're blowing leads, and our manager has forgotten how to assemble a lineup. Austin Jackson leads the Majors in strikeouts, and there's only one player who's even close behind. Oh, that would be Ryan Raburn.
With CC Sabathia on the docket tonight in Yankee stadium, you can go ahead and pencil in an eight-game losing streak, and it might extend to double-digits by the time Detroit heads home. I know it's May, I know there are 133 games left to be played, and I know the Indians are not going to keep winning at a .704 pace. But nonetheless, I am pushing the panic button on the 2011 season.
Last night, we gave up two runs in the ninth to lose 5-3.
The previous game, gave up 3 in the 8th to lose 5-4.
Before that, we went scoreless from the 4th inning until the 13th inning before finally conceeded a run in a 3-2 loss.
Oh, and before that, a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth to lose 5-9.
Detroit is not only losing, but they are making it look extremely ugly.
Prior to those loses we endured a sweep to the lowly Mariners, at home no less, with a combined score of 24-6. During that sweep, Detroit scored a whopping two runs in innings 3 through 9. That means of the 27 innings we played against Seattle, (who, I repeat, is the worst team in Majors), we went scoreless in 23 of them.
The good news is, only one team in the MLB is playing worse than Detroit right now, and that's the Minnesota Twins. The other good news is that Victor Martinez will return from injury in a few weeks. And the best news is that Miguel Cabrera might be having his best season yet. He's playing like an MVP.
However, his team is playing like a bunch of losers. No wonder Cabrera leads the MLB in intentional walks. Why throw it to him if you know you can strike out the other 8 batters?
Baseball is a long, long, loooong season. So I'm not going to go overboard on all this. I'm not going to spend to much time even writing about this. But, I'm also not going to be naive enough to not panic.
The truth is: the Tigers just aren't very good. Playoffs are pretty much out of the question. Crap.
Go Lions.
They are a strange team, in a stranger division. After you wrote this, they took 3 straight from the Yankees.
ReplyDeletePre-season predicions had the division looking the exact opposite of what it looks at this moment. I still had the Tigers in 3rd, but the teams ahead are the White Sox and Twins.
I think the fact that they are still behind the tigers is good news. You say playoffs are out of the question, but does that mean the Indians or Royals are playoff teams? I don't think so. The Tigers are leading the teams capable of competing for the division.
(My pre-season rankings had the Indians and Royals sandwitching the Mariners as the worst teams in the A.L.)
yah, the Royals are cooling off but what is going on with Cleveland? they still have 6 games on the tigers, despite Detroit winning 5 of 6.
ReplyDeleteI definitely panicked too soon; wasn't expecting Verlander to suddenly turn into Nolan Ryan or Austin Jackson to suddenly start hitting. Guess we'll be okay, provided the white sox and twins don't wake up too.