Last night: The Tigers haven’t roughed up too many starters this season. Add Joe Saunders to the short list, and he was spared from getting rocked completely only by his own lack of command and good positioning + Rougned Odor. Detroit jumped off to a “comfortable” lead very quickly. I can’t believe Miggy scored the 5th run on Hunter’s shallow single to LF. Neither can Dave Clark (who said STOP!) or Shin-Soo Choo. Choo must have come up looking at Clark rather than Cabrera – chalk up another “he wouldn’t dare” run for Miggy. (Big run, looking back. No 1-run lead jitters. Only 2- and 3-run lead jitters.) Sanchez was just dealing… until the middle of the second Leonys Martin PA (0-2 to BB). After that, he wasn’t the same. The 4th inning clown show featuring the defensive liability stylings of Holaday and Castellanos was no help. Fortunately, Martinez & Martinez struck right back again to pad the lead back to 7-3. Victor now has more HR than the Kansas City Royals, and J.D. now has more HR than… Cabrera over his last 41 games. It was kind of lousy of Victor to rob J.D. of an RBI, though. Then came the 5th and 6th. HBP, HR, HBP. Sanchez was adrift. Hardy to the rescue, but there were indications that the Tigers offense might be over. 7-4 is a nervous lead in Arlington. (As are 7-5, 8-5, and 8-6.) Hardy lost potential Golden Boy status in the 7th with a leadoff walk and a strikeout of Choo that wasn’t really. The lead shrunk in that too-eventful 7th, but again Detroit came back with a run of their own thanks to a clutch double from Suarez. Coulda been more, but things went wrong. I’m actually a bit more peeved with the 3rd out from Davis than I am with Holaday’s inexplicable try for home. Haven’t seen Joba in a while besides lineup card duty. Here he was in the 8th, and he got by on defense (Suarez, Davis in CF). The Tigers 9th, well, I’d say we expected more from the meaty part of the lineup, but I guess they were exhausted from earlier. In comes Nathan, and he both maintained his +6 ERA and got the save in one swell foop. All in all, the bullpen bent but did not break. Not a real good day for the pitchers. Chalk this one up to the bats. And speaking of defense, I’ve decided I’d like to see less of Holaday. It was really bad.

Tip of the cap: I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but Adrian Beltre is unstoppable. 2B Rougned Odor made the play that kept the Rangers in the game, and made an uncomfortable (for us) something out of nothing later (triple out of a strikeout, only in America). How many Tigers outs is C Robinson Chirinos responsible for now? He needs a day off.

For the sweep, for the season series, for the winning streak that can’t end just yet, we pin most of our hopes on Rick Porcello, who faces Nick Martinez in the finale. Going back to 2011, including a beauty last season, 3 of Porcello’s last 4 starts at Texas have been quite good indeed.

POSTGAME: Shin-Soo Choo battled the sun and lost. Rangers have communication difficulties in the OF. Hunter has depth perception difficulties in RF, and if you had been told that Porcello had thrown 20% of his total pitches in the 1st, would you have guessed the outcome? Hunter’s restraint in walking with the bases loaded deserves some recognition, even if an entirely different Nick Martinez was already pitching himself out of the game. The failure to really cash in on bases-loaded situations does not go unnoticed even when the team is on a roll. Jackson (2-run single) should swing at first pitches much more often. Blowout stifled courtesy of Elvis Andrus and the 3rd-inning-ending DP he starts on Hunter’s hard grounder. Sparkling 4-6-3 double play Tigers. It is good news if J.D. can keep hanging back on breaking balls and hitting them as deep as the sac fly that made it 5-0. Sparkling 4-6-3 double play Tigers. Carlos Pena thought that 3-6-1 DP on Victor was funnier than I did. Sparkling 4-6-3 double play Tigers. Is there an echo in here? Jackson forgets he plays CF for the Tigers and covers a mile to retire Beltre. The inscrutable Mr. Choo’s bad day continues as he gets a glove and no more on Cabrera’s home run disguised as a double, and Kinsler (isn’t it always Kinsler?) scores to make it 6-0. Golden Boy finishes 0 for 5 but doesn’t strike out. Hardy warms up a few times but doesn’t pitch. The only drama in the bottom 9th is the drama of your team running out the clock when the opponent has used up all their time outs.

Porcello turned in a gem, a keeper, best of the season by a Tiger. A COMPLETE GAME SHUTOUT featuring 13 groundball outs (not counting the 3 bonus ones on double plays) and 6 strikeouts. It wasn’t wasted; aside from one miscue, it was fully supported.

Tip of the cap: Scott Baker did a pretty decent job in the underappreciated role of “long (really long) man,” a.k.a. second-chance starter. SS Andrus made a snazzy play that made a difference, even in a losing cause.

43-32, 7 in a row, on to Houston.

Last night: You know it was a good game when there is something positive to say about every Tiger who played in it. But, after the great start with Kinsler’s solo shot (sly wave to Rangers dugout), it settled into the feeling of one of those should have won but didn’t games, where you start to take mental notes on all the little things that might have cost ‘em the game. An uncharacteristic bad send call by Dave Clark with VMart DOA; Smyly hurrying his throw on a sure DP and contributing to Suarez’s muff; SB attempts which were good ideas that didn’t work and were no less costly for being worth trying in a 1-1 game. The Tigers again were not solving Colby Lewis; it took Mr. Cabrera three tries, and then Daniel Robertson robbed him of his just reward (we see this from opposing CF’s quite regularly). Smyly frustrated me a bit, getting knocked off his game too easily early and requiring what seemed like an unusual amount of babysitting from Avila, and also making a couple bad plays that cost a DP each time (the aforementioned hurry and throw, odd failure to get over and find 1B bag later). Ultimately, Drew was quite good without being very efficient about it, until he retired 9 of his last 10. When the Tigers did start to get to Lewis, they kept it up against submariner Ben Rowen, who was throwing submarine BP. 11 Tigers came to the plate in the 7th, and it would take a long paragraph to go over everything that went so right. The catalyst, the game-winner, was presented right away by Martinez Bros., Inc.. When J.D. came to bat for the 2nd time in the inning, we all hungered for another grand slam and a blowout, but alas, Golden Boy would strike out his last two times up. The Tigers bullpen emerged unscathed through 3 but for a consolation run off Smith, who is having difficulties getting that 3rd out. 16-hit attack for Detroit despite an 0 for 9 from Miggy and Castellanos. Avila was stroking it, and implausibly, considering the first 2 PA, so was Davis. 3-RBI Kinsler got some instant karma with a bad strikeout and a rare error, but hey. They should have won and did. Convincingly.

Tip of the cap: Elvis Andrus is fun to watch even when he goofs. Good play by Smyly & Co. to pick him off, but the best part was Andrus lunging at Cabrera in the rundown in an attempt at drawing “interference.” Comical. Adrian Beltre is unstoppable. Colby Lewis has the Tigers’ number to some degree, I’d say.

Now it’s Anibal Sanchez, our true ace, against Joe Saunders. Torii is back, and with a vengeance, we hope.

Tonight’s Hint Taken Lineup:

CF Davis
2B Kinsler
3B Cabrera
DH V. Martinez
LF J.D. Martinez
RF Hunter
3B Castellanos
C Holaday
SS Suarez

P Sanchez

Coming off of a road sweep of a division rival (nice), a revenge sweep (nicer), and a weekend sweep followed by a day off (nicest of all) (sorry, that was only one sweep total, but check back in a week), Detroit (40-32, 1st Central, 2nd AL) is in Tejas for a three-game series with the Rangers (35-40, 4th West, 11th AL). All night games. There is a chance for some revenge here as well: Last time out against Texas, the Tigers should have been arrested for pitching while blind. What a demoralizing home series that was, surely one of the two lowest points of the season to date (lucky me, I drew both).

Here are your handy quick reference guides for the upcoming series:

Tigers on BBREF
Tigers on MLB
Rangers on BBREF
Rangers on MLB
The all-important RE24/WPA rundown
Fascinating team comparison
What have you done for me/them lately?

Detroit hasn’t won a season series with Texas since 2011. They later lost the series that mattered that postseason, and have gone 7-14 vs. the Rangers since. The Tigers are clearly the better team these days. So what’s it gonna be?

Fun fact: Since 2006, the Tigers have losing records against only 5 of 29 opponents.

Even as things were going downhill for the Tigers there for one tough month, I found it hard to jump on the pessimist bandwagon wholeheartedly. It’s not that I was going out of my way to look on the bright side, but only that I wasn’t seeing lack of effort, poor managing, the need for an overhaul, or the end of anyone’s careers. The only extraordinary thing about 9-20 was the number of pitching collapses (I count 11). 8 games where the starter put the team in a very deep hole! (Check my facts. I still find 8 hard to believe, but I’m tired of looking.) You might say that the team record was 9-12 without those 8 forfeits. Underachieving, yes. Catastrophe by W-L, certainly. Crisis of confidence? Only to a fan. Do you really want the team to dwell on the losses and hang their heads, be “ashamed”? Of course not. Brush it off, look ahead. They do it. We can do it, too.

Tough month in the rear view mirror, up ladders and down chutes, Detroit finds themselves exactly where they were about a year ago. 40-32, with a refreshingly different team overall. Smokey Jr.? Come on, people.

Now, even aside from the 4-game win streak, good news abounds. Evan Reed is DFA, and Ian Krol is resting his crappy pitching. Blaine Hardy’s left arm has started off on the right foot, and Phil Coke had an outing that didn’t need to be qualified in any way. We’re going to get looks at McCoy and Smith as we did with Knebel – interesting for a fan, no? (The next best thing to having a good bullpen is making an effort to get one together.) The hitting is starting to click on enough cylinders, I think.

The Avila Thing: Is the general feeling that Holaday could actually replace Avila as the starting catcher? I’m afraid the overall gain could be slighter than you think. More Holaday, sure, I’m down with that.

The Outfield Thing: Is J.D. MarTinez the latest incarnation of Marcus Thames and Matt Tuiasosopo?

No one’s replacing Torii Hunter in RF, but could more frequent rest be a perfect fit for a more flexible plan?

Aside from effort, there’s not a whole bunch of anything coming from Austin Jackson. Would they trade him? There are other options in CF.

Rajai Davis in CF more often? In the choice between a lineup featuring either Jackson-J.D., Jackson-Davis, or J.D.-Rajai, is it still mix and match or more one or the other? There seems to be a bit more to like in one of them, doesn’t there?

What’s on the Andy Dirks horizon, and might that not crowd things in a good way? Odd man out? Jackson. Kelly, Dirks himself?

Anyway… Drew Smyly vs. Colby Lewis in the first game. Smyly has been superb lately. Things are lookin’ good for a good ballgame. Lineups to follow… I think.

Tonight’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Lineup:

LF Rajai “Heartbreaker” Davis
2B Ian “Pan Am Highway Blues” Kinsler
1B Miguel “Ten Dollar Man” Cabrera
DH Victor “El Diablo” Martinez
RF J.D. “Enjoy And Get It On” Martinez
3B Nick “Avalon Hideway” Castellanos
CF Austin “Asleep In The Desert” Jackson
C Alex “It’s Only Glove” Avila
SS Eugenio “Snappy Kakkie” Suarez

P Drew “There Ain’t No Cause For Alarm” Smyly

This series may be lost, but hey, the season series (so far) is still on the line, as the Detroit Tigers (33-28, 1st Central, 4th AL) yet again look to begin the uphill climb to the straight and narrow. The Chicago White Sox (33-33, 3rd Central, 9th AL) have made them look silly lately, but that can’t go on. Can it? Well, facing Chris Sale, maybe it can.

Tonight’s “Tigers Are People, Too” lineup:

LF Davis
2B Kinsler
3B Cabrera
1B V. Martinez
RF Hunter
LF J.D. Martinez
3B Castellanos
C “Bunt” Holaday
SS South Bound Suarez

P Scherzer

I suppose we can save the festival of pessimism and alarm for after the game. Or for during the game. Castellanos is hitting, Suarez is exciting, and Sanchez will pitch again eventually. Detroit still has Miggy and VMart, and sometimes that actually makes a difference. Go Tigers.

POSTGAME: Oh man does that zero to the far right look good. I think I’ll indulge in a bit of “You Said It” without the credit – you guys know who you are. The Tigers battery was fully charged tonight, eh?

Thank you Vmart aka professional hitter!

3-4 for Holaday, and he called a great game. See you again in 2 weeks Bryan (beat you to it, jud!)

6 shutout innings on 81 pitches. Ace-like.

That 7th inning was his best.

Boras is just counting the money.

Max at 98 pitches. He ABSOLUTELY comes back out for the 9th, right?

with that clutch two out single & RBI, Holaday is now 3 for 4 today… just sayin… Avila (Sr & Jr)

Tell me again who is our starting catcher and why?

Detroit at Chicago, Verlander vs. Danks, and they ought to get it in this time, ‘neath the color of October skies (in June).

Tonight’s “Tigers are better than the Sox” lineup:

LF Davis
2B Kinsler
DH Cabrera
1B Martinez
RF Hunter
CF Jackson
3B Castellanos
C Avila
SS Suarez

P Verlander

Not liking Miggy at DH, for defensive reasons. Verlander and Danks both come in with well-pitched wins versus the opponent earlier this season. The bats showed up for JV; versus Danks, it was that familiar story of plenty of runners and not plenty of runs (1, to be exact). Verlander has two good starts against the White Sox this year, in fact. The second one ended happily with the legendary RBI bunt from Bryan Holaday. A little more such daring might be called for in this game and hereafter, because the Tigers are having one heck of a time plating runners and cashing in. One more runner left standing at 3B and I am going to scream.

OK, Chicago. Game on. We are your overlords.

POSTGAME: OK, we’re no one’s overlords. Bottom of the 6th, game over. Not one our favorite team can be very proud of. This one’s beyond hat tipping, I should think.

Detroit (33-27) out to even it up against Chicago (32-33) tonight, with JV up against John Danks. Expect “The Justin Verlander Thread” after this one. To ponder the question of how Justin could have just no-hit the Sox at the Cell after tying us in knots all season, of course.

OK, let’s keep Victor in the lineup and off the field, please. More Eugenio Suarez! Unless we can reach an agreement on resigning ourselves to the Avila Deal, we may need “The Alex Avila Thread” as well. Less clown show! 33-27? Yeesh. That’s starting to look a little too AL Central for my tastes.

Gotta win this one. Rain could be a factor, so maybe I should say “gotta get this one in.” No more postponements! Tonight’s “Stave Off The Return of the Funk” lineup to follow…

Detroit (33-26, 1st Central, 3rd AL) visits Chicago (31-33, 4th Central, 11th AL) for a four-game set, all night games, getting things started with Rick Porcello facing Hector Noesi.

Despite one that slipped away in an all too familiar fashion last night, the Tigers won a series – how about that – and have perhaps turned a corner. Despite a 2-4 homestand and a home W-L that has to be considered rather insulting. Despite. Word of the day. Well, it beats words like “chronic” and “futility.”

Some good things happening lately (last couple weeks). Castellanos has been swinging a hot stick (1.124 OPS) – or has he? Well, yes, but get this: 1 RBI. Romine has more (and Kinsler has 6 “despite” a .581 OPS). The real hot stick for run production has belonged to Cabrera (left early last night with tight hamstring – we’ve seen this before and will again, though hopefully only once in a while). Eugenio “South Bound” Suarez is off to an eventful start. Leaving aside last night’s blowup, Chamberlain-Alburquerque-Krol had put up 13 IP with 1 ER, and Sanchez’s WHIP over his last 3 starts might be described as unreal (a word that would also describe the offensive support he’s received).

On the downside, there are numbers from Nathan’s last 6 games that lend support to the movement to run him out of town. Numbers so obscene as to be unprintable, though I’m not on the Fire Joe bandwagon as yet. Smyly, Scherzer, and Reed not sitting too pretty, either. Kinsler is in a mighty slump, Avila has regressed, and in back of Jackson’s .252 BA overall is a .477 OPS over his last 13 games. Essentially there is Miggy and Victor and not much else consistent or very productive. The OF defense has been drawing some outrage recently, also, and yes, the Tigers rank poorly there. Surprising and disappointing.

Victor Martinez, first 25 games of 2013: .542 OPS, -8.88 RE24, -0.967 WPA.
Joe Nathan, first 25 games of 2014: 1.565 WHIP, 7.04 ERA, -6.92 RE24, -0.647 WPA

VMart contributed more to losing. Believe it. And it went on well beyond 25 games.

Nathan’s stats from April 12 to May 27: 16 G, 16 IP, 17 K, 4 BB, .135 BA, 1.69 ERA.

I was wondering, oh, about a week ago, how long it would take the Tigers to get back to their high water mark of 15 games over. Right now it’s looking like Game 89 (52-37) would be an optimistic target. But you never know when it’s all going to start clicking for a while – those 6- and 8-game winning streaks were as much of a surprise as the Big Funk (behind us now, we hope, now that the the Curse of the Curse of the Zubaz has been lifted).

Chicago has troubles of their own that Detroit now has a chance to add to. Lately it’s their offense that has been fading. The Tigers have taken 4 of 6 from the White Sox so far, including the last 3. Chicago has been flirting with .500 and then falling back all season. It would be good to put them more firmly in their place and get the Central Division back into the shape we’ve become accustomed to. I say Detroit’s offense comes alive big time and the Tigers take at least three. At least.

Speaking of three consecutive three-hit games (Nick’s notable recent accomplishment), going back to 1984 there really isn’t such a streak to compare to Victor’s May 9-11 of 2011. 12 AB, 9 H, 2 HR, 10 RBI, 4 doubles, 3 walks. And, as you may have guessed, no strikeouts.

POSTGAME: Great, dramatic game. I was going to say that Porcello lost this one all by himself. In the end, that’s how it turned out. Aside from Porcello’s costly error, the MartMart Clown Show didn’t factor in too much, and couldn’t hold a candle to the White Sox corner outfielders in the 9th. Besides, J.D.’s bad day in LF ended with a very good play. A day of mixed reviews for him, with a couple hits but also a big choke (along with Castellanos) in the 8th. How big was Adam Eaton’s robbery of Victor? Not nearly as big as Kinsler’s sensational play to start an inning- and threat-ending DP. Exciting Tigers power on display from Cabrera, Suarez (again!), and especially VMart – and Avila came mighty close with his RBI double. Bad call on Kinsler in the 9th? Well, it wasn’t the first one of the game, and some of them went the Tigers’ way. Nonetheless, that was big. Even so… Porcello lost this one. All by himself.

The offense was truly offensive last night, and doomed to another series loss, the Tigers continue to fade. It’s lefty J.A. Happ against Justin Verlander in the day game finale, Detroit (31-24, 1st Central, 3rd AL) vs. Toronto (36-24, 1st East, 2nd AL).

I was going to link to good games for all of the 25 Tigers, and report on what I liked about each player with only a light sprinkling of stats, but the Tigers have worn me down with how they are finding ways to lose. Makes me even more tired than I already am. It’ll have to wait.

Welcome, Eugenio Suarez – MLB debut last night as late-inning replacement. The DFA of Danny Worth the infielder was predictable, but I’m not sure the DFA of Danny Worth the knuckleballer was warranted. That was more fun to watch than some other bullpen performances we won’t mention or name names about, wasn’t it?

Big funk going on. It tempts me to make some kind of dire prediction. “Heads are gonna roll,” that sort of thing. But honestly, what is there to do for them but get it together? We know they can.