State of the Tilde

Friends, as the past two weeks have unraveled before our eyes, one thing has become perfectly clear – the state of the Tilde right now is straight up turrrrible. The starters have been shelled, the relievers have been shelled, and the hitters couldn’t hit water standing in the ocean. We’ve watched our boys get swept by the Royals, drop 5 of 6 to the White Sox (which really isn’t anything new) and drop 2 of 3 to the Red Sox. Our hopes were raised when it appeared the Tigers bats were starting to wake up, scoring 5 or more runs this past Wednesday through Friday – then we watched the same lineup make the White Sox pitchers look unhittable with nearly 20 scoreless innings and only a handful of hits over the weekend. The Tigers were outscored 18-0 this past weekend! A team that most figured would be scoring in bunches has managed less than 35 runs in 12 games. They have already been shut out four times – that’s a shut out for the opposition every three games. Excuse me while I go vomit for a few minutes. The Fightin’ Tildes are 2-10!! However, in spite of all of this dispair, there may be reason to keep hope alive…

In spite of that horrendous record, the Tigers remain only 5.5 out of first behind the 7-4 White Sox (who are 2-3 when not playing Detroit). Detroit returns home, where they remain winless, to play a 2 game set against the Twins. Thankfully, the Twins haven’t exactly been burning up the bases with a ton of runs either – averaging around 3 runs a game. The Tigers then go to Cleveland for a pair before heading to Toronto for four. Both the Indians and Jays are averaging a little more than 4 runs and giving up a little more than 4 runs. If the Tigers can manage to simply split these next eight and go 4-4, they will be staring at 6-14, which is still awful, but at least they’ll have a taste of winning again. go 5-3 or 6-2 and you’re potentially 8-12. That’s requiring a big leap of faith at this point, however. But, if they get through this stretch without incurring any more damage to their record, they have the reward of knowing that Granderson’s return should come shortly thereafter. They’ll need him, because after 3 against the Rangers and 3 against the Angels, the schedule brings 10 of the following 13 games against the Red Sox and Yankees.

This coming week will set the tone for the rest of the season. Continue stinking against the Twins, Indians, and Jays, and you are looking at falling more than 10 games under .500 with a long set of games coming up against the presumptive favorites in the AL East. Find a way to win and you don’t have to give up on everything just yet.