The tigers are in big trouble with the injuries to Shef & others, and the team now not the scoring machine they were earlier. The starting pitching has been very erratic and the bullpen is as bad as the worst in the league, Tampa bay. I’m affraid that the recent struggles are far from over and the tigers are going to take the big tumble this August.

key is to use the right players and in pitching challenge the hitters don’t get behind the count

i think Nate was doing that yesterday and that’d be why A’s come out swinging early in the count

looks to me like the Tigs are making the right correction

this is one of the most frustrating type of comments to hear people say. did you keep telling yourself that up until the very last game of the regular season last year???

don’t look now, but the yankees are 2 games out of the wild card, and they aren’t slowing down. you better hope we stay in first place…. otherwise its an early offseason for the tigers.

just think, if the tigers won half of their losses in the last few weeks we would not only have a huge lead on cleveland, but that wild card race would mean little at this point.

the fact is, the tigers are finding new ways to lose almost every day. the bullpen blows games, the fielding blows games, the hitters fall asleep, etc… they are really in trouble. we won’t be in first place for long at this rate.

The Tigers scored 2 against not great pitching.

I beg to differ. You have your axiom reversed. When I see Craig Monroe bat in a 1-2 count, HE projects his nervousness onto ME. I get the vibe, eyes closed, in the other room, over 1000 miles away…

But don’t crucify the messenger; Stephen is still 100% correct.

Apparently, they have to do more than lose 4 out of 14.

Texas beats Cleveland 9-6 in 10 innings. Tigs still up by a game.

The alternative interpretation is that if Rob Parker and the Devil Rays’ GM agree on something, it’s probably wrong.

There’s a tendency among fans to project their own nervousness while watching a baseball game onto the players. Guys don’t become big leaguers if they’re nervous nellies, and there’s too little time between the release of a pitch and its arrival at home plate to get nervous anyway.

Whether it’s trickle down from the struggling pen or not, we’re all in agreement that this team looks like garbage at the moment. And the distracted, defeated attitude of the players is really disconcerting. Bad fielding, too many walks given up, too many bad at bats, no late-inning magic. Basically the exact opposite of last year’s squad (other than the bad ABs).

My feeling is we absolutely need an shut-em down performance from this heralded, “best rotation” in baseball. Blame the pen all you want, but top line starters step up when their team is down, and we’ve seen none of that during this slide. Earlier in the season it seemed either Bonderman or Justin would put an end to a streak of losses, but now nobody seems capable of going 7 strong. Bonderman has been particularly troubling.

That being said, I still feel we’ll pull out of this.

What do the Tigers have to do relinquish 1st place? What is this, the national league?