Feasting

The Tigers took care of the Royals, winning the opening series 2 games to 1 and began their series against the Indians with a win this afternoon to move into a tie for first in the AL Central (pending the Indians/ChiSox game tonight). It is going to be very key for the Tigers to eat up the lower-tier teams in the division now because in a week they begin a tough road trip through the West with 3 games in Seattle, 4 in Anaheim (or is it Los Angeles?) and a final 4 in Arlington. All 3 of these AL West teams have struggled so far this year with a combined 3-8 record, but the Angels are the reigning division champs and still have Mike Scioscia, the Mariners have fantastic pitching and the Rangers can absolutely rake even if Josh Hamilton isn't right. Rough starts or not, this is going to be a tough road trip early in the year.

The pitching has been a real strength for the team so far this year. The starters have posted a combined 3.27 ERA... and that's with Verlander having the roughest outing of the year among the starters which, obviously, is unlikely to continue so we can expect even more improvement there. Scherzer in particular carved up the Royals to the tune of a 6.0 IP 0 ER 1 H 2 BB 3 K gem. Unfortunately he didn't get the win due to an equally excellent outing from Luke Hochevar. The Tigers eventually lost when a Sizemore error on a relay throw from the outfield allowed the winning run to score in the 11th after Miggy tied the game with 2 outs in the 9th and then we took the lead in the top of the 11th. Exciting game, but all for nothing, unfortunately. The Tigers then bounced back behind an inspired performance by Dontrelle Willis the next day to pound the Royals and take the series. When Dontrelle walked the first batter he faced on four not-even-close balls, then immediately allowed a single I began to fear that this was going to be an ugly outing. To his credit though, Dontrelle kept the damage to a minimum and ended up with a respectable 6.0 IP 2 ER 6 H 2 BB 4 K line. Although control will seemingly always be an issue, Dontrelle had a few very efficient innings and was helped by 3 double plays that the Tigers managed to turn (including 2 hit into by Alberto Callaspo). Although it's easy to doubt Dontrelle's skills, his optimism cannot be doubted and even though he is terrible I find myself rooting for the guy to succeed. Kudos on a solid game, sir.

Speaking of the double play, the Tigers have been really feeling their groove defensively - they have turned 8 of them in the last 3 games. Offensively, a pair of Tigers in Maggz and Miggy have been feeling their groove as well. Miggy looks like he is poised to challenge for MVP this year (even though he went 0/3 with a BB today) and Maggz is carrying over his success at the end of last season and looking more like the 2006 version by hitting .500 with 1 HR and 2 RBI. If Ordonez remains productive for the entire season it will really, really help to jump start this offense that isn't projected to be that great.

Rookie Austin Jackson is showing glimpses of the special things he can do. He has been electric; hitting .333 with 4 of his 6 hits going for extra bases (3 2B, 1 3B) and also easily swiped his first bag of the year today. If he continues to bring speed and extra bases to the top of the order for Damon, Maggz and Miggy then he is going to score a lot of runs and have a great year. Ooooh it's exciting. The strikeouts are definitely troublesome (6 K to only 1 BB in 18 AB) and he needs to work on cutting back on those, but that is a problem a lot of young players have and continuing to put up a .368 OBP will make people forget about striking out a lot. The strikeouts have been Granderson-esque but the OBP certainly hasn't been.

Analyzing statistics after only 4 games in a game like baseball where sample size is extremely important may seem silly, but the Tigers are on pace for 121 wins so who fucking cares wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!