Tigers lose series to Pittsburgh, "Sweep" Rays, get washed out by Boston.

OK.. so "sweep" is a strong term for winning two games and having the third rained out, but the Tigers DID put together a minor winning streak winning the last game against Pittsburgh and the next two against a good Tampa Bay team.  After a rainout last week against Toronto, the Tigers went into Fenway Park and lost two to Boston.  This week Boston came into town and picked up where last week ended starting with their 3rd straight win against the Tigers in a rain shortened game to start a four-game Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun series at Comerica Park.

Charlie Furbush shut down Rays.

Lots of changes on the Pitching staff this week.  Phil Coke went down with a turned ankle during the first game against the Rays, and fortunately Detroit had just brought Charlie Furbush up from AAA Toledo to replace long-relief lefty Brad Thomas who went on the DL May 21st with an elbow issue.  Furbush excelled filling in the middle innings of Coke's start striking out three batters, and scattering two hits in the three and 2/3 innings he worked.  The Tigers also brought up fellow lefty Adam Wilk after putting Coke on the DL.  In addition they sent Brayan Villarreal back to Toledo and brought back Enrique Gonzalez.  Gonzalez hadn't pitched with the Tigers since the disastrous relief appearance against Seattle April 19th where he gave up four walks and two hits in less than two innings leading to a 13-3 Detroit loss.  Andy Oliver will also be coming up from Toledo to pitch one of the games against Boston this weekend while Phil Coke is out.

Good news/bad news from the "sweep" of Tampa Bay?  The good news is Detroit didn't have to face the Rays top two pitchers since they had just pitched the previous two games.  The other good news is they only had to face American League leading hitter Matt Joyce once, since he does not play games against left-handed starting pitchers (hitting only .150-ish against lefties) and sat out the Phil Coke pitched game.  The bad news is they had to face him in the next game against Justin Verlander and he went 3 for 4 with 2 RBIs, and nearly 4 for 4 if it hadn't been for a spectacular catch by rookie Tiger outfielder Andy Dirks in left field.

Sizemore gone...Danny Worth comes in.

Who's hot and who's not?  Who's not?  Fielders Sizemore, Raburn and Inge and pitchers Ryan Perry and Enrique Gonzalez are definitely NOT hot. (See regular season numbers.)  Raburn and Inge are striking out and not hitting against right-handed pitching, while Perry and Gonzalez recently combined to give Boston 5 more runs on top of the 7 they took from starter Max Scherzer during the rain-shortened game, and Sizemore's lack of hitting has finally caught up with him.  After two separate chances in the Majors with the Tigers last year and this year, the Tigers have traded him to Oakland for a lefty reliever finally giving up on his lack of hitting.  The Tigers bring up Danny Worth to replace him.  Worth out-hit both Sizemore and Rhymes in Spring Training this year.

Adam Wilk held Boston in check.

Who's hot?  ALL of the starters (possibly with the exception of Scherzer) and all the NEW relievers... Al Alburquerque, Adam Wilk, and Charlie Furbush.  Lefties Furbush and Wilk both filled in for struggling starters Coke and Scherzer and posted great numbers in their Major League debuts.  Somewhat reminiscent of their final Spring Training game together where each of them pitched 3 of 6 innings giving up only 3 hits.

Hot bats?  Not many, but Alex Avila served notice with 2 home runs to win the second game against the Rays.  Andy Dirks also got his first Major League home run.  Jhonny Peralta is keeping pace with Avila and although #5 hitter Victor Martinez is on a slight downward trend (see hitter trends), Miguel Cabrerra has picked him up and started hitting with a 3-run shot against the Rays as well.  While still struggling with strikeouts, Austin Jackson has started hitting again.  Now that there will be another new #2 hitter (perhaps Dirks?) the table-setters ahead of Cabrerra, Martinez and Peralta should give them some runs to drive in.  We will see.

The Tigers are due for some wins again, and with Verlander taking the mound against Boston along with a good lefty in Andy Oliver for the weekend, and then with 3 games against a struggling Minnesota team next week they could be positioned to win a few games and take advantage of any let-down by 1st-place Cleveland.  Boston is a good team and will be hard to beat.

That's it for this week.  Be sure to watch the Regular Season numbers to see how the new guys (Wilk, Furbush, Oliver, Worth) are doing, and pay attention to the Pitcher and Hitter trends.  May numbers will be wrapping up soon, and June promises to be a turning point for the team.

GO TIGERS!     ---Rob




Photo Credits:
Charlie Furbush by Robin Buckson - Detroit News
Danny Worth by John T. Greilick - Detroit News
Adam Wilk by Derick E Hingle - US Presswire