Monday, June 4, 2012

The Force is Not With Us

After watching the Tigers four times since my last post, I'm a lot more worried than I was then. Yes, they swept the lowly Minnesota Twins, but then went 2-5 against the Red Sox and Yankees, and the one victory I saw felt like a loss.

The Tigers are failing at almost all levels of the game. Only their number three and four hitters, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, are hot. Call-up Quintin Berry has proved a nice surprise as he replaces the injured Austin Jackson, and may have found himself a permanent part of the lineup, but otherwise the Tiger lineup is full of outs. They are getting little production from any other spot in the lineup.

Second base continues to be a bugaboo. Ryan Raburn, who after good years as a utility man, finally had a chance to establish a permanent starting position,  but hit beneath his weight and was sent down to AAA. Danny Worth has proved to be no better. The Tigers haven't had a reliable bat at the keystone position since Placido Polanco left.

The bullpen is dreadful. In Saturday night's game, the only win of the four games I watched, I had to endure Jose Valverde, who was 49 for 49, blow his third save of the year, and it was only the second of June. He came in after Octavio Dotel had blown a lead, only to be saved when Cabrera launched his second moon shot of the night into the centerfield ivy (the second one actually went into the camera well). Then Valverde came in and promptly hit two batters and walked two more, tying the game. Interestingly, with the bases loaded and the Tigers still ahead, Jim Leyland did not remove Valverde when he faced Robinson Cano. He could have gone to a warmed up lefty, Duane Below, but stuck with Valverde, who seemed to have no clue as to where the strike zone was. Amazingly, he sawed off Cano and got a pop out, but then walked Mark Texeira.

The Tigers won the game in the bottom of the ninth, finally getting some help from the bottom of the order. Brennan Boesch singled, Jhonny Peralta singled him to third, and Omir Santos, the third-string catcher who could not be pinch hit for because he was literally the only player on the team who was able to catch, and had already committed two errors in the game, managed to get good wood on a pitch from the Yankee reliever and hit a sacrifice fly to right. The Tigers were all smiles, and the little-played Santos will have that game to remember, but was one of the ugliest wins you're likely to see.

What may be most troubling is that I saw Justin Verlander pitch twice, and he was hittable both times. He got a bit roughed up by the Red Sox, with one key pitch being a 3-2, bases loaded fastball to Daniel Nava, who lined it down the left-field line to clear the bases. Verlander then lost his third straight start, which he hasn't done since 2008, to the Yankees on Sunday, giving up a home run to Derek Jeter on the first pitch and walking the next two batters. Verlander has historically had bad first innings, and complained about a delay from a ceremony honoring Magglio Ordonez, but that couldn't be used later in the game when Alex Rodriguez homered off the brick wall, just under Hank Greenberg's retired number. Verlander may be throwing hard, but a major league hitter can turn on a 100-mph fastball if it's in his wheelhouse. Verlander is not locating his pitches well, and hasn't won since his near-no-hitter against the Pirates.

The Tigers are in danger of falling out of this quickly. They are six out after a torrid recent stretch of games by the White Sox. They certainly have the talent to bounce back, but they just aren't gelling. Defense and fundamentals are a problem, and without a reliable closer this may all be for naught.

As to why Darth Vader was throwing out the first pitch on Saturday night, I know not. It isn't fitting to have a representative of the Empire on the field while the team in the opposing dugout is Major League Baseball's Evil Empire, the Yankees.