The Tigers took their four game winning streak into a three game series at home against the Mariners and simply laid an egg.  Three games, three mediocre outings by the Tigers starters and a grand total of six runs over three games.  The Mariners offense is pretty bad and they managed to rack up 24 runs over the three game set.  That’s not good.

Most disconcerting was Justin Verlander’s start on Wednesday.  His April woes seem to continue and while his ERA is a solid 3.64, he’s given up at least three runs in his last three starts.  I know that’s not bad, but this is our ace and since his complete game on April 11, he’s seen his ERA go up by almost half a point.

Right now, the Tigers offense is middle of the pack.  They have a .250 batting average (probably before today’s game) with 104 runs.  Offense seems to be down across the board though.  The Indians have the best batting average but they sit at just .271.

Speaking of the Indians, they have the best record in the American League right now.  I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s not going to last but the Twins and White Sox are both six back with the Tigers just ahead of them four games behind first place.  In fact the Indians are the lone team with a winning record right now.

In fact things are downright odd.  In a league with 14 teams, only five have winning records.  The Royals are right at .500 and then eight teams have losing records.  The same goes in the National League.  There’s only five teams with winning records, four teams dead even at .500 and then seven teams below the .500 mark. It’s definitely a weird start to the season.

And next up are those Indians with a three game series beginning tomorrow night.  This harkens back to 2007 when these two teams duked it out for the division title most of the year.  The opener will have Max Scherzer going up against Jeanmar Gomez.  Gomez has had a tough time this year so I like our chances.  The Indians are 9-2 at home so they’ve had some success in their own ballpark.

Permalink | Posted in 2011 Tigers