April Showering Pitching Wins on Tigers

After a slow start the Tigers have won 4 in a row taking the last 2 of 3 from the 2010 World Series Texas Rangers and the first 2 of 4 from the best pitching team in the American League in the Oakland A's.

Brayan Villareal

How?  Pitching.  Brad Penny started it against Texas going deep into the 7th inning, Max Scherzer followed it up with a solid 6 in the series clincher with Texas.  He had help.  The Tigers have filled in for the ailing Ryan Perry in the pen with two excellent young arms in Brayan Villarreal and for the West Coast trip to Oakland, bringing up hard-throwing Al Alburquerque from Toledo.  Villarreal bridged the gap for Scherzer between the 7th and 8th innings shutting Texas down for 2 innings while striking out 2.  Against Oakland Phil Coke pitched a gem in a pitching duel with Oakland's Gio Gonzalez who still holds a phenomenal 0.49 Earned Run Average.  Coke went toe-to-toe with Gonzalez outlasting him and pitching a full 7 innings scattering 3 hits to lead the Tigers to their 3rd straight win.

Al Alburquerque

Next up came Rick Porcello trying to regain some of his 2010 late-season form against Oakland.  Porcello had to compete with a very good outing by Oakland's Brandon McCarthy who outlasted Porcello while striking out 7 Tigers, but Porcello held Oakland to only one run.  Then he got some help too.  Alburquerque stepped in and bridged the gap between the 7th and 8th innings for Porcello just as Villarreal did for Scherzer, striking out 3 in the process showing why the Tigers have such high hopes for the young hard-throwing right-hander from the Dominican Republic.  Alburquerque kept Oakland off the scoreboard setting up a 9th inning game-tying home run by Miguel Cabrerra which took the game into the 10th inning where the Tiger bats finally came alive to win the 4th straight game for the Tigers and Jim Leeland's 1500th win of his career!

Speaking of bats.. one part of the Tigers' game that could become a problem is the late arrival of the hitting.  There have been 13 innings over the first 2 games with Oakland where the Tigers scored no runs at all and had very few hits.  Only a late 10th inning onslaught of 8 runs in the 2nd game has broken the drought.  We will hope it continues because as it stands the Tiger hitting is trending in the wrong direction (see: Season Stats, and Hitter Trends). While the pitching is trending up (Pitcher Trends), hitting is trending down.  More than half on the team.. 7 of 13 Tiger hitters.. are hitting .240 or below.  Not going to win many games with those averages.  Pitching will win some games, but without hitting like they showed in the 10th inning against Oakland the team will not be able to take advantage of the great pitching they've been getting lately.

On the hitter "concern" list is still Austin Jackson who sat out the 2nd game against Oakland after going 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts in the 1st game.  Another concern is the up-and-down-again nature of Ryan Raburn's hitting.  Although trending slightly up Raburn has been prone to bouts of hit-lessness going 0 for 4 in the 2nd game against Oakland with 3 strikeouts.  The Tigers could really benefit from a healthy Magglio Ordonez back in the lineup.

Brennan Boesch

There IS a bright side.  Victor Martinez is showing signs of turning his April-slide around with a big hit in the 2nd game against Oakland.  Brennan Boesch also seems to have recovered from his latest batting mini-slump in grand fashion against Oakland.  Boesch came up to bat in the 2nd game with the score still tied at 1-1 in the top if the 10th and the bases-loaded.  He faced a good left-handed pitcher against his own left-handed bat which is normally advantage pitcher, but Brennan picked a low strike almost out of the turf to blast a 2-run double down the right field line missing a home run by only a few feet.  It was the hit that opened the flood gates for the Tiger hitters who added 5 more runs before it was over.  Boesch ended up 3 for 5 on the night.  Another Tiger hitter who is slowly digging out of the sub-.240 group is Will Rhymes.  Watch him in the next 2 games against Oakland.  He could be the guy that gets the key hit against the good Oakland pitching.

The Tigers continue this weekend with 2 more against Oakland before they move on to Seattle for 3 games to play a Mariners team that is struggling to hit with an American League worst .214 team batting average.  

Justin Verlander will try to keep the Tigers showered with "April Pitching Wins" as they face Oakland in the next match-up and Brad Penny should be poised to do the same in the final game this Sunday afternoon.  The Tigers are closing in on the White Sox in the division and poised to break .500 on the season as well.

That's it for now.  Look for another update after the Seattle series where we should see the Tigers above .500 for the first time this season if the bats come alive.


GO TIGERS!    ---Rob


Photo Credits:
Brayan Villarreal and Al Alburquerque by Robin Buckson - Detroit News
Brennan Boesch by Kathy Willens - Associated Press