Tigers Sweep Minnesota.. and back on the road again.

The Tigers recovered from a 3-loss series against the Red Sox to win 4 straight games last week culminating with a sweep of the Minnesota Twins in Detroit.  Next they face some good hitting teams on the road in the Chicago White Sox and the Texas Rangers before coming home again to face the Seattle Mariners for a 4-game series spanning next weekend.

David Purcey posted good numbers with Oakland.

There have been big changes in the Tigers Roster since last week.  Struggling right-handed reliever Ryan Perry was sent down to Toledo when lefty starter Andy Oliver came up to take Phil Coke's rotation spot.  The new left-handed reliever David Purcey acquired in the trade with Oakland for Scott Sizemore started in the bullpen replacing Adam Wilk.  Wilk was sent back to AAA Toledo after making a really nice Major League debut with the Tigers.  A last minute illness to Brandon Inge sent him to the disabled list (DL) and catcher Omir Santos was recalled to hold a roster spot until Magglio Ordonez returns to the lineup next week. (See the hitters section of the Regular Season 2011 page.)  Fortunately Danny Worth who was brought up to fill in at 2nd base when Sizemore was traded also plays 3rd base and will cover 3rd along with Don Kelly while Inge is out.  Inge was struggling at the bottom of the hitter trends along with Ryan Raburn, and had just started to hit when illness cut his recovery short.

Inge sick with mononucleosis.

Struggling hitters on the team are Brandon Inge mentioned above (who will be out of the lineup for at least 2 weeks) and Ryan Raburn.  Raburn has only hit 4 for 30 (.133) in his last 10 games, but the good news is that 3 of those 4 hits have come in his last 3 games where Raburn is 3 for 12 (.250).  Raburn's batting average for the season bottomed out at .195 and is currently .199.  The other hitter to watch is Brennan Boesch.  Boesch started the season matching Cabrerra and Peralta in hitting, but has been on a long slide down for the entire month of May (See Hitter Trends).  The Tigers will really need Boesch's left handed power during the second half of the season.  We will have to watch and see if he turns it around.

The surprise of the season has got to be Jhonny Peralta however.  Peralta is the 2nd best hitter on the team at the moment behind Miguel Cabrerra.  Peralta is hitting .324 and has hit .471 in the last 10 games.  He is so hot he is giving Cabrerra a run for the money as the best hitter on the team.

Improvement in the bullpen has helped the Tigers with winning the last game against Boston, and sweeping the Twins.  The biggest improvement has been in the play of Joaquin Benoit (See Pitcher Trends).  Another surprise has been in the play of Charlie Furbush.  Furbush actually posted numbers that put him ahead of Justin Verlander for the best pitcher on the team as of the June 1st "ADJ OBA" rankings (See Trends page).  New pitcher David Purcey is also holding his own in his first few outings with the Tigers.  Other good news is that for the first time this season, besides a tough outing by Max Scherzer, NONE of the Tiger pitchers are trending down.   Scherzer will be the one to watch to see if he's recovered from some control problems during his last outing.  Max has gone 0-2 in his last 4 outings, and his ERA has gone up almost 2 full points in those last 4 games.  Max will have to improve.

That's the report for this week.  Watch for the Tigers to struggle a bit against Chicago and Texas particularly if the Tigers start left-handed pitching against these two good hitting teams.


GO TIGERS!   ---Rob


Photo Credits:
David Purcey, Brandon Inge by Robin Buckson - Detroit News
Jhonny Peralta by John T. Greilick - Detroit News