State of The Tilde – Oh, Hi There. It’s Been A Little While

So, things are generally going well right now, no?

When we last spoke, right before the Yankees series, things were looking up as well. Then a couple of unspeakable seventh innings occured and things looked meh once again. However, over the last ten games, the Tigers are 6-4 and are currently sitting in first place at 17-13.  For twenty-six innings against the Indians, the Tigers allowed only ONE solitary run to score. And only three altogether after Fernando’s rough ninth inning.  Also, Friday night, this happened:

Curtis Makes Me Need To Change My Pants - Chuck Crow/AP

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Game The First – Blue Jays: A Lot, Tigers: Too Little

Did you think it was possible that the Tigers could score five runs off of Roy Halladay and still manage to get their ass kicked? Of course you did! It helps when this guy is your starting pitcher:

Rogers Centre crowd watches Justin Verlander warm-up before the game

The Big Tilde went 2/4 with a run scored, the Son of Grander went yard and so did Brandon Inge. The bats weren’t bad tonight at all considering they were facing one of the best starters in the league. Team Venezuela had a strong regular season debut in the middle of the lineup, and the Tiggers need that kind of production this year if they’re going to have a shot at winning the Central. Really, all that’s inexcusable is giving up 12 runs to the Blue Jays.

Edwin Jackson makes his regular season debut for the Tigers tomorrow. Here’s to a better result this time tomorrow.

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Friends of the Big Tilde – Starting Pitching and other Ailments

74-88.

Yes. You know exactly what that number means. Heck, reversing that number would have still been a disappointment heading into the 2008 season. Sure, the Tigers didn’t have the 1000 run offense that was predicted, but the 824 they did score wasn’t awful and was good for fourth in the AL. It was the 857 runs allowed, good for 3rd worst in the AL, that ultimately undid the 2008 Pre-Season Paper World Series Champion Detroit Tigers. Granted, we can look to the disastrous bullpen for a lot of the responsibility, but the terrible seasons endured by all but one of the starting pitchers can not be ignored. Can we expect things to change? I think we’re all expecting improvement, but how much improvement will likely depend on the works of this gentleman…

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WE GET IT.

Who’s Hot, Who’s Not tonight at Chase Field:

Hot: Cliff Lee
Not: Justin Verlander

I vote we discontinue this feature until further notice.

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