Tigers on verge of historic collapse as Guardians series looms

Tigers on verge of historic collapse as Guardians series looms

with a story that has captivated the city of Detroit all summer long. That’s a good word. It’s left a lot of fans shaking in their shoes, feeling sick. Tigers, who once upon a time had a 12 and a half game lead in the Central and a chance to clinch the division at home this week as they began the final home stand of the season. All of that now feels like a distant memory as they lost a sixth straight game Sunday today. Pick it up. Highlights. Fourth inning. Atlanta already on top one zip when Hassan Kim takes Casey Mai deep to left and gone. That solo shot made it two zip Atlanta. And the Braves weren’t finished. Move to the fifth. Rookie Daniel Baldwin continued to swing a hot bat in this series. Driving one to left. Riley Green can’t get to it. That would score another one to make it three zip. Tigers had plenty of chances to make it a game, but they just couldn’t deliver. Bottom five, Spencer Tolson with runners on the corners. Whit on a curveball for strike three. To the eighth, two on for pinch hitter Trey Sweeney. He Sweeny and he swings at the first pitch. Pop foul out. Ends the threat. Just nothing going Detroit’s way these days. They had two runners on base in six of the first eight innings and came up empty. The Braves meanwhile blew the game open in the ninth, scoring three more runs. Detroit manages to avoid the shut out. Woo! But it was a little too little too late as the Tigers are swept by the Braves, losing six in a row on their final home stand of the year. six-2 the end result. I feel like we’re trying our best to to find solutions and not just complain about what is going on. And today um we gave ourselves so many chances to break through and and then couldn’t quite hold the strike zone when we needed it the most and and they chipped away and and came up with some big swings. So, it’s rough going, but you know, we we have the most important road trip of the season staring us right in the face. Keep showing up to the yard every single day and uh finding ways to to win the day. I mean, um yeah, that’s really it. I mean, there’s no secret sauce. It’s switch your batting gloves up, you know, switch your cleats, but uh change of scenery is good, but um no, we’re going to have to, you know, lock it in. Oh, speaking of secret sauce, the Guardians have found it. They could have pulled even with the Tigers in the Central today if they beat the Twins. Cleveland up 2-1 in the six. Not for long. Brooks Lee, man on. There it goes. Way out and gone. 3-2 Twins after that. And then they add some insurance in the seventh. Two on this time for Royce Lewis. And this baseball ain’t coming back either. Three-run blast. Minnesota helps Detroit out a bit by taking down Cleveland 6-2. The final. All right, time now. Minnesota. Yeah, the formal introduction. Oh, yeah. How are you there, Hammer? Hi, Robert. Sounded very poor voting. Formal introduction. Oh, introduce me again. Robert Wowski, playing third for your Detroit Tigers cuz no one else apparently can. You said it, not me. And uh my friend Will Birfield. All right, guys. This is really scary. They had a 10ame cushion 17 days ago. They were once 24 games over 500. Um, they’ve led the division since April 23rd and now they have just a oneame lead. Where do we go with what we’ve seen this week from this team? Well, it’s very easy and it feels the right thing to do is to be in full out panic. They’re completely collapsing. It’s historic. It’s awful. It’s terrible. And that’s the initial reaction because that’s what we’ve seen. And then you have to take a deep breath. and the Twins did win and you go well they are headed to Cleveland and they are in first place and they are going to pitch TK school on Tuesday night in Cleveland so yeah you can be annoyed and disgusted by the way they played but somehow they’re not out of it and you got hope well AJ Hinch said it yesterday and I believe you drove a lot of the questioning excellent reporting and questioning in that postgame press conference room a and never mind you’re talking for Um, AJ Hinch said it best. We control our own destiny. Guess what a team down in Cleveland thinks? They control their own destiny, too. Will. Yeah. When AJ said the truth is only one team controls our destiny, I thought he was going to say Cleveland does because that’s the way it feels right now. And and they say history has a way of repeating itself. Well, last year on August 10th, the Tigers had a 0.2% chance of making the playoffs. and they defied all odds and got there. This year on August 30th, they had a 0.2% chance of missing the playoffs and are now threatening to defy the odds again. It feels like they made a deal with the Devil last year and they have to pay it back a year later. It is staggering how quickly, how suddenly, and how dramatically they have fallen from one of the best teams in baseball to now one that can’t get out of its own way. And a damn good story, too, man. They were so much fun. Allstar game. Let me give you some numbers. Riley Green before the break. 292 212 cents. Zack McKinstry 285 before the break. 203 cents. Glabber 277 227 since. And then Jav Bayas uh 208 since the all-star break. He was batting 289 going into that stretch. A lot of people want to point fingers a lot of different places and there’s a lot of blame to go around. Oh yeah. Where do you start, Bob? Well, obviously it starts at the very top and if you want to go back to the trade deadline, we’re going to have to at some point when the Tigers didn’t really add anybody of any consequence other than Fitigan, but but I don’t even think think you have to go back that far because the players are accountable for their own numbers and they have fallen off horrifically. But we’re even worse in those averages. They’re not hitting in the clutch at all. Two for 13 with runners in scoring position today. And I I feel like that’s the thing they can’t Their pitching actually in the last week or so has been okay. It’s been fine. The starts have been okay. Bullpin blew up a couple of times. The hitting has fallen off the off the cliff. And and that’s what’s going to haunt them more so than giving up an elite prospect. What’s going to haunt them, I’m afraid, is their feeble lineup. When you leave 42 runners on base in a home stand, the final home stand of the season, when you can actually make some noise towards winning the division for the first time since 2014, will how is a team like that even going to survive if they get to the wild card or to the postseason, which now feels a little like maybe it they don’t even get there. Yeah, I mean, you hope that they decompress and and take a breath tomorrow with the off day and try and find the fortitude they need Tuesday in Cleveland, but I thought AJ Hinch said it well today after the game and said it honestly that it’s easy to say this team is pressing and trying to do too much when you watch their at bats in big spots. That’s when they expand the zone. And Spencer Strider has great stuff, but he didn’t have great command today. And it seemed like every time the Tigers came up with runners on base and he was spraying the ball, they were spraying the zone. And all of a sudden, when they should have been in two counts or 3-1 counts, they were in one two counts and then striking out. And that is the sign of a team that in those clutch got to have a situations is feeling the weight, feeling the strain of what is and a collapse right now. And the inclination and I totally get it. FA fans very we listened to them on the radio, talked to them on the radio, every very angry although a lot of people still you go to these games they’re still cheering there in the ninth inning when they scored two runs today to make it six to2. So the inclination though is to say they’re done but baseball when the when the second season starts in B strange things happen. We’ve seen it happen against the in favor of the Tigers in ‘ 06 and then against the Tigers when the Cardinals with not a very good team beat them in the World Series. So, um, get the angst out of your system and then watch what should be three tight tense games in Cleveland. Yeah, I was in M. Go ahead. Well, I was going to say and most likely three tight tense games in Boston. I mean, that might be for something do or die series at Fenway Park between two teams that could be fighting for one of, if not the final AL wild card spot if the Tigers don’t take care of business in Cleveland. So when AJ Hint says the biggest road trip of the season, it is in every possible way and every possible game. We will see what this team is made of over the next six. All right.

The Tigers once had a 14.5 game lead and looked to coast to the end of the season. With six games to play they hold a single game advantage over the Guardians, who the face in their next three games.