Okay, I took a few days off from this blog to give the Tigers a chance. To see if they could leave Boston, head into Chicago's south side and at least take two out of three from the first place White Sox. Friday night was amazing. Dontrelle Willis forced to leave in the first inning with a hyper-extended knee. The bullpen than thrust into a position where it had to hold the White Sox bats at bay the rest of the way. And by gosh, it did! An impressive win by Detroit. Even Todd Jones looked great in the 9th inning. Then came Saturday and Sunday. Sox pitcher, Gavin Floyd holds the Tigers hitless for seven and a third innings before Edgar Renteria singles to spoil the no-hit bid. Tigers lose, 7-0. Then Sunday happens. Kenny Rogers was grossly ineffective, allowing 5 earned runs in less than 5 innings of work. Rogers is 0-3 for the first time since 1991!
Sunday's 11-0 loss was lifeless. That's the only word I can find to describe it. After Joe Crede's 6th inning grand slam, which gave the Sox the 11-0 lead, the Tigers made the next nine outs on just 24 pitches. They simply quit. That's right, the Tigers quit Sunday.
Here's some numbers to chew over heading into this upcoming homestand..
- Magglio Ordonez is batting .234 with just 3 RBI. He was 1-for-10 against the White Sox
- The Tigers as a team are hitting .235 with a MLB worst 33 runs scored.
- The Tigers team ERA is a whopping 6.38 - also a MLB worst
Remember how excited we all were when the Tigers signed all those players to contract extensions? Well, let's take a moment and examine how those investments have paid off so far:
Dontrelle Willis, who signed for $29 million over three years, is on the disabled list with a 7.20 ERA. Nate Robertson, who signed for $21.25 million over three years, is 0-1 with a 7.84 ERA. Curtis Granderson, who signed for $29.8 million over five years, is on the DL and hasn't yet played. And Miguel Cabrera, who got the big $152.3 million, eight-year contract, is hitting .175 with two RBIs.
Jim Leyland finally blew up at his team Sunday. He's avoided doing that up to this point but Sunday was the last straw. He had a front row seat and saw his team flat out quit over the final three innings.
In my parting shot Sunday night on the Sports Ticket I said Lloyd McClendon needs to be fired. I still believe that needs to happen. He's the hitting coach and the hitting has been beyond brutal this season. Somebody needs to be the sacrificial lamb. The toxic culture needs to go, and something needs to rock this team's world before apathy truely starts to set in and nobody can find a reason to care anymore. Some may argue that happened Sunday. I'll bet Jim Leyland saw that and decided this was the time to lay into his underachieving team.
It's time to stop looking at this team on paper and saying they're not as bad as their record indicates. The fact is, they are that bad. The Detroit Tigers are the worst team in baseball and, until they can find a way to start playing better and winning, they will continue to be the worst team in baseball.
The Yankees try to buy a championship every year. Yet they haven't won the World Series since 2000. The Tigers are trying to tear a page out of the Yankee's playbook this season and so far it's backfired bigtime!