The Tigers but a beating on Nationals, southpaw, Gio Gonzalez, this afternoon at Comerica Park. They touched Gio, who may be joining Jhonny Peralta in the detention room, up for 10 earned runs on 11 hits.
Justin Verlander got the win improving his record to 11-8 and lowering his era to 3.88. JV pitched 6 innings, gave up 4 hits, and one earned run. The lone Nationals run came in the 1st inning. I wish I could say that after a rough first inning, JV was lights out the rest of the way, but I’d be lying. Sometimes a pitcher’s final line looks worse than it actually was. Today, IMHO, JV’s line looks better than it was. He seemed to be in trouble all game and had a hard time finding the strike zone as evidenced by his 5 walks to go along with his 5 strikeouts. Velander’s velocity looks ok but he doesn’t seem to be able to command any pitch, including the fast ball. He was behind the Nationals hitters all day and threw 103 pitches in his 6 innings of work.
I don’t pretend to know what happened to JV but I’m not optimistic about him getting right before the end of the season. I think the best the Tigers can hope for is what we saw this afternoon, 6 decent innings, making him the 4th or 5th man in the rotation. Hopefully, he can get fixed in the off-season and return to form next year. It is hard for me to believe that he’s on the downside of his career. I really hope I’m correct.
Alex Avila, has raised his batting average to .200 courtesy of a 2 for 3 day. He hit a 2 run homer in the 2nd off of Gonzalez, walked and struck out in the 4th, and singled in the 7th. Slowly, but seemingly surely, Alex seems to be coming out of his 1.5 year slump. Again, I hope I’m right, I’ve always liked A Squared Money and hate to see him struggle so terribly.
Torii Hunter has a great day and was a triple short of the cycle.
Prince Fielder and Austin Jackson need to pick things up. Both are hitting in the .260s. Right now, it isn’t hurting too badly because everybody else is hitting, but the Tigers are going to need them if they hope to end this 29 year World Series drought.
Miguel Cabrera was not in the lineup and I’m worried he might be more hurt than the Tigers are letting on.
The White Sox are in town this weekend.
“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Flashin' Leather 
We’re stuck with this JV the rest of the year. He just can’t get the ball over the plate consistently enough. I agree his line looked way better than how he actually pitched. Plus, the NL offenses are extremely weak this year as the Tigers pitchers have owned them, even in defeat against Pitt.
The season definitely has the ebbs and flows, and sometimes when you play a team is as important as anything. Case-in-point this week where Cleveland totally misses Sale (schedule) and Peavy (traded), and this weekend we’ll see Sale for the third time already, with 3 more possible. Good break for Indians, not so good for Tigers. But I still expect a sweep this weekend, making it 8-0 for the home stand.
Sark, I hate to quote Jim Price but he always says, it’s not who you play it’s when you play them. I initially had great hopes for JVs second half. He took a not hitter into the 7th right before the break, I though, ‘ok he’s on his way’, but his three starts since the break have not been great.
In the post game interview with Tui, he said JV didn’t have his good stuff but he battled. That seems to be a familiar refrain, unfortunately.
I just don’t get what is with him.