There is no other way to put this; this week was a disaster for the Detroit Tigers.
First off, they lost two out of three games at home to second-worst team in baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers, only scoring eight runs total during the three-game set.
Then, after taking the first two games against the best team in baseball, the Houston Astros, the Tigers lost the final two games of the series, blowing a 7-3 sixth inning lead on Sunday in the process. The starting pitching struck out 40 batters in 41 2/3 innings but still produced a 5.18 earned run average. The bullpen, which has been a strong suit lately, gave up three runs in the final three innings Sunday that proved to be the difference.
Weekly record: 3-4 (1-2 vs. Brewers, 2-2 vs. Astros)
Season record: 26-19 (Tied for second place in the American League Central division, three games back of the Kansas City Royals)
2015 division record: 18-10 (7-2 vs. Minnesota Twins, 5-1 vs. Cleveland Indians, 3-3 vs. Chicago White Sox, 3-4 vs. Royals)
Three up
Miguel Cabrera and J.D. Martinez
Miguel Cabrera and J.D. Martinez (Leon Halip/Getty Images North America)
It’s getting to the point where I might have to ban Cabrera permanently from this section and allow some other guys to earn some recognition. For the week, he hit .400 with one home run, two runs batted in, two doubles, one triple, a .680 slugging percentage and a 1.180 on-base plus slugging percentage. It’s the third time in four weeks and fourth time overall in 2015 that his weekly OPS has been over 1.000.
Cabrera’s hot bat will no doubt help the man that will now hit behind him with Victor Martinez on the disabled list, J.D. Martinez. He hit .370 for the week with two doubles, one home run, five RBI and a .956 OPS. Since that disastrous 0-for-25 slump in April, he’s hit .373 with three home runs and 1.037 OPS in the past 14 games.
With Victor Martinez currently out of the lineup, one of these two should start to receive much better pitches without an almost automatic out sandwiched between them.
At the start of the season, it was understood that McCann would mostly play in a platoon situation behind the plate, sharing time with Alex Avila and starting against left-handed pitchers. Since Avila went on the DL May 7 with a knee issue that offers no timetable of a return, McCann has stepped up and started 13 of the past 16 games and shown glimpses of a player that can be an everyday catcher.
His biggest moment of the week was his walk-off home run against the Astros Thursday, which was his second career home run but his first homer that actually cleared the fence. (His other home run was an inside-the-park home run against the Twins on April 29).
McCann hit .333 with a .924 OPS and five RBI this week and for the season is throwing out 44 percent of base stealers.
Albuquerque has for years been the Tigers’ most puzzling reliever. That is evidenced by his career averages of striking out 11.5 batters per nine innings, while also walking 5.1 batters per nine innings. He averages giving up just 6.49 hits per nine innings, so when the ball is in the strike zone, hitters are not making much contact. It’s just throwing strikes consistently that is his problem.
Entering this week, “Al-Al” had been having what might be just the worst season of his career. In 12 games, he had posted a 5.68 earned run average, 1.89 walks plus hits per innings average, was only striking out 4.97 batters per nine innings and walking 6.39 batters per nine innings. Those are the type of numbers that get you sent down to the minor leagues.
In three appearances this week spanning 4 2/3 scoreless innings, Al-Al has appeared to the right the ship. He have up just three hits and struck out six of the 14 batters he retired, which is on pace with his career strikeouts per nine innings numbers. More importantly, he did not walk a batter this week and has not walked a batter in six of his seven outings.
Three Down
Anibal Sanchez
Anibal Sanchez after giving up a game-tying 3-run homer Sunday (Leon Halip/Getty Images North America)
With Justin Verlander on the DL and Max Scherzer in the nation’s capitol, the Tigers need Sanchez to pitch like a No. 2 starter. Thus far in 2015, he is pitching like he couldn’t make the cut for the 2003 Tigers.
His start Sunday against the Astros will go down as one the most bizarre in recent memory. In innings two through five, Sanchez gave up just one hit and struck out eight. But in the first and sixth innings, he gave up a combined seven runs on seven hits. A start where you strike out 11 of the 17 batters you retired would be great, just as long as his bookend innings didn’t involve giving up seven runs.
In two starts this week, Sanchez posted a 13.50 ERA and 2.04 WHIP all while managing to strike out 13 in 9 1/3 innings. For the Tigers to accomplish anything in 2015, Sanchez cannot produce a 6.12 ERA and get shelled every other start.
The most basic concept of baseball is you want the most amount of runners on base with the least amount of outs for your best hitter. When the guy hitting in front of your best hitter is making outs and not getting on base, that’s a problem. This week Kinsler was the problem.
Not holding against him that he hit into a one in a million triple play on Saturday, he hit a putrid .115 this week, going just 3-for-26 with one double and two RBI. He did manage to draw four walks but a .233 on-base percentage is not what you batting in front of Miguel Cabrera. As stated above, Cabrera is dominating offensively but he cannot produce to the best of his ability when the guy hitting in front of him fails to reach base 77 percent of the time.
The only game he missed last year was on Memorial Day, in Oakland, to start a West Coast road swing. With his struggles this week, history might repeat itself Monday.
Brad Ausmus (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images North America)
A lot of Tigers fan love Ausmus and a lot hate him. I, myself, am rather ambivalent towards him. I fully believe that it is ultimately up to the players produce despite the situation. But it is Ausmus’ job to put the team in the best situation possible. A few weeks ago when he decided to pinch run for Cabrera with Rajai Davis in the bottom of the ninth inning in a tie game against the Kansas City Royals and then have Davis not steal and when they failed to win the game which resulted in Hernan Perez having to bat third; that is not putting the team in the best situation to win. Leaving Anibal Sanchez is the game to face Preston Tucker Sunday, who represented the tying run, with Sanchez having already surrendered one home run in the inning and was well over 100 pitches was another case of putting the team in a poor situation that easily could have been avoided.
The Week Ahead
Oakland Athletics (16-30, fifth place in the American League West 13 1/2 GB) May 25 – May 27; O.co Coliseum – Oakland, CA
Monday, 4:00 P.M. – Shane Greene (DET) (4-2, 4.05 ERA, 1.16 WHIP) vs. Jesse Hahn (OAK) (1-4, 4.43 ERA, 1.25 WHIP)
Tuesday, 10:05 P.M. – David Price (DET) (3-1, 3.32 ERA, 1.21 WHIP) vs. Jesse Chavez (OAK) (1-4, 2.89 ERA, 1.10 WHIP)
Wednesday, 3:35 P.M. – Alfredo Simon (DET) (5-2, 2.67 ERA, 1.20 WHIP) vs. Scott Kazmir (OAK) (2-3, 3.09 ERA, 1.25 WHIP)
These are not the A’s you might remember that had ferocious five-game playoff battles in 2012 and 2013 with the Tigers. In 2014, the A’s finally “went for it.” General Manager Billy Beane decided he was tired of being out-pitched in Game 5 at home by Justin Verlander, so he acquired two front-of-the-rotation pitchers in Jon Lester and Jeff Samardzjia, with the thought that Lester would be able to out duel either Verlander or Max Scherzer in a do-or-die playoff game.
To get Lester, they had to trade Yoenis Cespedes to the Boston Red Sox, which indirectly led to Cespedes being traded to the Tigers for Rick Porcello because the Red Sox needed to replace Lester.
The A’s were 66-41 and had a 2 1/2 game lead in the American League West when they acquired Lester on July 31. After the Tigers countered that move by acquiring David Price from the Tampa Bay Rays, many were anticipating another October meeting between the clubs
With two major deals today, the A's and Tigers could be on a collision course for a 3rd straight October meeting: http://t.co/ouYAbqfctd
— NYT Sports (@NYTSports) August 1, 2014
Can't wait to watch this ALCS chess match MT @SportsCenter: An arms race of starters between A's and Tigers pic.twitter.com/CMWe5YcjDR
— Hilly Bicks (@hillybicks) July 31, 2014
Can we just fast-forward to the A's-Tigers ALCS now? The Arms Race is over.
— Jason Smith (@howaboutafresca) July 31, 2014
Looking forward to October and watching the Tigers and A's in the ALCS! #EatEmUp #Tigers @ManninoPeter @Millsi14 @dhaydar20
— Andrew Ebbett (@aebbett) July 31, 2014
The A’s finished the season 22-33 and squeaked into the playoffs as the second wild card and lost that game to the Royals. Lester signed with the Chicago Cubs and Samardzjia was traded to the Chicago White Sox. They also traded outfielder Brandon Moss to the Cleveland Indians, the same Moss who put up an .844 OPS, 76 home runs and 220 RBI in three seasons in Oakland for a prospect that had played just 87 games above A ball coming into this season.
The A’s are in a horrible stretch, having lost 22 out of 29 games after an 8-7 start. All the more puzzling is that they are not last in every statistical category like you would expect from baseball’s 30th best team. They are fourth in the American League in average (.256), ninth in OPS (.708), fourth in total bases (616) and tied for third (with the Tigers are three other teams) in runs scored (192).
Their one big free agent acquisition was former Royal Billy Butler, who is a .324 lifetime hitter against the Tigers with 11 home runs, 79 RBI and an .829 OPS. He’s off to a slow start, hitting just .267 with four home runs and a .693 OPS in 44 games in 2015.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (22-22, second place in the American League West, 6 1/2 GB) May 28 – May 31; Angel Stadium of Anaheim – Anaheim, CA
Thursday, 10:05 P.M. – Buck Farmer (DET) (5-1, 2.98 ERA, 1.17 WHIP at AAA Toledo) vs. C.J. Wilson (LAA) (2-3, 3.36 ERA, 1.19 WHIP)
Friday, 10:05 P.M. – Anibal Sanchez (3-5, 6.12 ERA, 1.33 WHIP) vs. Hector Santiago (LAA) (3-3, 2.47 ERA, 1.23 WHIP)
Saturday, 10:05 P.M. – Shane Greene (DET) vs. Jered Weaver (LAA) (3-4, 4.37 ERA, 1.16 WHIP)
Sunday, 8:00 P.M. – David Price (DET) vs. Matt Shoemaker (LAA) (3-4, 6.29 ERA, 1.24 WHIP)
For the sake of all of our sanity can we both just declared that Cabrera and Mike Trout are both really, really good; so we don’t have to have this stupid debate until Cabrera retires?
Trout is the reigning American League MVP after finishing second to Cabrera in both 2o12 and 2013. He’s putting up numbers that suggest that he wants another MVP trophy, hitting .302 with 11 home runs, 24 RBI, eight stolen bases and a .948 OPS. But he can’t do it alone. Seven of his 11 home runs have been with the bases empty but only one of those have led-off an inning. Simply put, guys are not getting on base ahead of him. Other than Trout, nobody has an OPS over .800.
Albert Pujols has eight home runs but six of those have been solo shots, which is clearly not why the Angels gave him a bazillion dollar contract that expires when the sun burns out.
Offensively the Angels rank 14th in batting average (.233), 15th in OPS (.656), 14th in slugging percentage (.364) and 13th in runs scored (166).
It’s because of a pitching staff led by longtime Tigers (and Carlos Guile foe) Jered Weaver that the Angels are still playing .500 baseball. As a staff, they are fifth in ERA (3.67), third in opponents OPS (.670) and fourth in WHIP (1.19).
It’s also amazing the Angels have been able to not fall apart when the biggest story they have dealt with in 2015 is another Josh Hamilton drug relapse where they whined so much that they weren’t allowed to discipline him (and save some money from another horrendous contract) they basically gave him away to a divisional rival, while agreeing to pay most of his remaining salary.
NOTE: Monday’s game against Oakland will air on ESPN and Sunday’s game will air on ESPN2
You can follow Joe Martinez on Twitter and view his previous Tigers blogs here. You can e-mail him any questions, comments or concerns to joemartinezoutsidepitchmlb@gmail.com
The post Three Up, Three Down: Anibal Sanchez struggles as Tigers stumble appeared first on OutsidePitchMLB.
