Tiger Bats Come Alive

Three good pitching games and three good hitting games equals a sweep of the Chicago White Sox.  Next Seattle comes to town for a rematch within a week of the West Coast trip series won by the Tigers.

Rick Porcello - most improved.

Pitching wins games when you hit at home.  The Tigers had both in the recent series against the White Sox.  Verlander, Scherzer, and Penny all had good games to match a recent good outing by Rick Porcello.  Porcello improved the most (See: Pitching Trends), but Scherzer and Penny matched each other pitch-for-pitch in their own improvement trends.  Now lets see if Phil Coke can get on the bandwagon against Seattle.  Coke has a tough opponent going up against Seattle's best pitcher, so it won't be as easy for the Tigers to start the second Seattle series with a win.  One pitcher to keep an eye on is the young Al Alburquerque.  He has shown some control problems and is trending in the wrong direction.  He'll have to throw strikes his next time out if he wants to extend his stay in the big leagues.

Austin Jackson - Hitting again.

The good news on the hitting front is that Austin Jackson has found his bat hitting in the spacious Comerica Park.  If he continues to heat it up he'll be back in his .300 average form in no time. (See: Hitting Trends)  Another hitter who keeps on keepin on is Alex Avila.  Avila was 6 for 11 (.545) in the White Sox series with 4 RBIs.  Ryan Raburn has been on a hitting streak as well, and he and "A.Jax" have matching upward trends over the last 5 games. (See: Hitting Trends)

Wells strikes out 3 times against Chicago.

In the "concern" department is Outfielder Casper Wells.  Casper has been struggling going 3 for 14 (.214) over his last 4 games.  During that period he's struck out 4 times, 3 of which were in the last game against left-handed Chicago pitching.  Not a good sign.  He's hitting .233 for the season now after starting strong. (See: Player Stats)  It won't be surprising if Casper doesn't play in the Seattle series. 

Be sure to keep an eye on the trends and regular season numbers to keep up on how everyone is doing.  That's it for this week.

GO TIGERS!   ---Rob



Photo Credits:
Rick Porcello by Mark Harrison - Seattle Times/MCT
Austin Jackson and Casper Wells by Robin Buckson - Detroit News