Tigers Swept by Braves: AL Central Lead Down to 1 Game

Tigers Swept by Braves: AL Central Lead Down to 1 Game

I am dead inside. You are Locked on Tigers, your daily Detroit Tigers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What is up everybody? Welcome back to another edition of Locked On Tigers. I’m of course your host, Scott Bentley. Today is Monday, September 22nd, 2025. Thank you so much for making Lockdown Tigers your first listen every single day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every single day. Today’s episode is brought to you by 5Hour Energy. Enough with the boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5Hour Energy Shots. Go to www.5ourenergy.com or Amazon today. You know, the good news about today, Monday, as you listen to this, is that the Tigers can’t hurt you today. They can’t. Go enjoy your Monday. Go enjoy it. go, you know, crush that that 9:00 am Monday meeting. Nine is even like lucky for some of us out there. Okay, go go go in just crush your 6 a.m. on a Monday morning assignment. All right, have a great day and do not watch or think about a lick of Major League Baseball. Unfortunately for I I guess this situation um I’m talking about you at your jobs. My job is in fact to literally talk about and think about this team. So that’s what we’re going to do. Swept by the Braves at home to end home baseball games to end Coma Park baseball in the regular season, maybe the season period. They lose 10 to one on Friday, 6 to5 on Saturday, and six-2. Some garbage time runs there on Sunday. Tigers fall to 85 and 71 on the season. The Braves improved to 73 and 83 on the season. First thought, I’m I’m so glad you asked. These were must-win games. You got swept. You actually, it was your final home stand of the year. Six games and you lost all six actually. And the team was outscored by a whopping 22-8 in this series. And that is even that very lopsided number is even saved marginally by game two where you put up five runs. Game one and three you were outscored 16-3. Thank goodness the Minnesota Twins did anything and beat the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday to snap their 11game win streak. The Tigers are actively on a six-game losing streak and are now 1-9 in the team’s last 10 games. And now we enter this Monday off day with just a oneame lead in the American League Central with six games to play. And depending I’m recording this before the Sunday Night Baseball game. I mean depending on what Houston does um you may only have a oneame lead on the third and and final wildcard spot. you may only have a one game better record than the last team in the postseason picture. So there is a very real chance that you went from the best record in baseball, the first team to I think it was 30, 40, 50, and 60 wins on the season to Okay, well best record in the AL still the Brewers went on a run. Whatever it happens and there’s a chance you missed the postseason entirely and all of that dwindled in less than two months. [Music] You want to talk about this weekend specifically? Wow, you’re just full of great ideas. They struggled a lot. um you know Captain Obvious statement really struggled and I think the most demoralizing part is that every single facet of the game was really bad at some point this weekend. The starting pitching was absolutely atrocious in game one. the back end of your bullpen that has been rock solid, very trustworthy up to this point completely implodes in game two. And then the offense was just putrid in game three. To be fair, the offense was putrid really all weekend, game one included. Nothing is going right. Everything is falling apart and they have completely spiraled out of control. And now with six games remaining, you have a oneame lead in the Central with three games left against Cleveland at Cleveland. So what went wrong this weekend? Wow, just such an insightful question from you yet again. Give yourself a pat on the back. Let’s start with Risp, our our favorite stat here. I I believe they end three for 17 with Risp in this series. And that’s including like I I want to say it was like two for 12 on Sunday alone. There was a half inning on Sunday where the Detroit Tigers had two men on. Nobody out and had Carrie Carpenter, Riley Green, Spencer Torlson. Two men on, no out, and your three objectively three best hitters are do what? Carpenter out in front of just anything that wasn’t a fast ball the whole at bat. Got out in front of a change up led to nothing. Riley Green goes up 2-1 in the count. So now it’s two men on, one out, Riley Green up, and he’s ahead in the count. Sure enough, two pitches later, he’s walking back to the dugout with a strikeout after a curveball that bounces in the dirt. And then Torqulson has one of the worst at bats of the season in which he stares at two meatball sliders. 83 middle sliders that literally could not have been more down the middle. Both of them. That’s how the atbat starts. So he’s in an 02 count after spinning on two 83 mph pitches down the middle. And then on the third strike, swings out a slider low and outside. It might have been a strike anyway. Doesn’t matter. It was low and away. Three pitch strikeout. Just the most uncompetitive at bats you will see at the major league level with runners in scoring position in must-win games. There is we’re getting to a mindbogling point really with everything. Okay, obviously this is like a historic collapse if they finish the job, but there is a a nonzero chance that Tolson, Green, and Carpenter all end up with an OPS in the 700s. All of them, all of their OPS’s are like 805, 807, 803, which would give the Tigers zero even remotely qualified hitters with an OPS above 800. Jamai Jones is like in the 900s, but he’s not even going to be close to a qualified hitter. Riley Green had a strikeout against Joey Wentz on Saturday that honestly I I I know I just bashed Torqulson. This I I mean choose your fighter like he had a strikeout against Joey Wentz that was ended. Okay, he only had one strike against him. It ended with two consecutive backto back mid 90 mph fast balls. right down the middle. Both of them. I actually think if you measured like every side of the strikeout box, you could not have physically placed the ball any more right down the middle. Joey went fast balls just completely inside and under both of them. Swings through both. Strike three. Awesome stuff. Okay. Well, this is off to a roaring start. Uh, let’s keep talking. I I I have so much more that went wrong this weekend, as you could imagine. We’ll talk about that right after this. First, got to talk to you about our friends over at Zipix. This episode is brought to you by Zipix Toothpicks. 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That’s zipix toothpicks.com. Promo code locked on zip more. Smoke glass with Zipix toothpicks. Also got to talk to y’all again about our friends over at 5hour Energy. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade with 5-hour energy shots. They deliver tasty caffeine in 17 bold flavors. Each 2 oz shot packs the caffeine of a premium 12 oouncez cup of coffee plus Vite V Holy cow. Plus B vitamins and nutrients with zero sugar and zero crashes. What I love most is honestly just how portable they are. Convenient. It’s a big taste and a tiny shot and you can take it really anywhere to get that boost that you need. So many great flavors, so many great features. So enough with the boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time to get your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5hour energy shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in the store and online at www.5ourenergy.com or on Amazon today. All right, everybody. Welcome back here. Segment two, locked on Tigers. Appreciate you all for tuning in as always. Make us your first listen every single day. Shout out to the everydayers that do tune in every day. And we will of course be back tomorrow as we preview this final week of play. If you are still an everydayer at this point in the season, I love you. Okay? I I mean, even if you’ve ever clicked on my show once in, you know, the four years that I’ve been doing this now, I I I love and appreciate you greatly more than you’ll ever know. Even if you watch me every morning and can’t stand me and and hate the show and think I’m an idiot, just by showing up here after the nonsense that we have seen over the last month and and especially I mean today after this weekend, you are an absolute trooper and I appreciate you more than you’ll ever know. Okay, I will not appreciate this weekend of baseball very much and I’m glad it’s over. Wincil Perez, we we’re just hopping right back into things that went wrong apparently. Wio Perez uh continues to slide. He now has an OPS of about 745 on the season. And I think he only has like one hit in his last like 15 or 20 at bats. Like he’s just skidding very hard as well. Um the the offense is, as we’ve said a lot, like there there’s not too much else to say, like they’re they’re allergic to making, you know, big hits, big plays, big anything. It is it is truly mind-boggling how in the first half of the season, it felt like they just kept coming through time and time again, over and over and over. And now over the last month, month and a half, it’s the exact opposite. and they are just uh incapable of if I said it last week, if there is any men on base with two outs in the inning, that run is not scoring. I I would bet my life savings on it every single time at the present moment. All you know, $12 to my name. Pitching was not much better. Charlie Morton rocked. I don’t even want to break it down. He got absolutely rocked and it’s over. Um we’ll talk about that a little bit more. or the move itself at the end of the show, but Charlie Morton was cut for those who are unaware. Um, so yeah, that that’s really all I have to say about it. I I I don’t even want to like bother with breaking it down. His RA was over seven as a Tiger and he’s gone now. We we don’t have to worry about or or talk about, you know, what he could tweak or improve. It’s his he’s he’s not a part of the organization anymore. Casey Mice, three runs in five and two/3. Not the worst outing in the world. um certainly was the best non-schoolable start of recent memory uh for most of these guys. And then Monto, three runs in three innings. It was a bullpen day. You’re just kind of trying to limp to the finish line there. So I mean, yeah, like starting pitching wasn’t good. That that’s not a good erra. Starting pitching combined, Montto and Mai combined for six runs in seven and two3, eight and two/3 innings. not great and then Morton did what Morton did. It’s been a problem for months now. It’s not new. The production outside of Trick Scoo has been absolutely brutal across the board and that has that has not only affected the starting pitching or been a conversation point rather throughout the starting pitching. It’s also been a disaster in the bullpen. Chris Paddock continues to be a mess. Paul Seawald makes his Tigers debut this weekend a and just gets popped, dude. Like nothing is going right. Nothing. Nothing at all. Seawol gives up a home run. Two hits, two runs, one walk, and a strikeout in his first outing. Then comes in again on Sunday. technically no runs against to his name, but just gets laced like like just gets absolute ropes off the bat and gives up another run. Again, inherited, not him, but golly, just amazing additions to this team at at the trade deadline. Chris Paddock relegated to the bullpen, got popped. Paul Seawald, two outings at the end of September, finally got healthy. Neither of them good. Charlie Morton cut. Raphael Monto, lowle leverage reliever. Like, what are we doing? And then you had Will Vest and Kyle Finnegan collectively blow the game on Saturday. Finnegan is the one good acquisition you had at the deadline. Will vest continues a just brutal decline over the last I guess month is is fair to say but certainly over the last couple of weeks. And then Finnegan of course because nothing can go right. Finnegan, of course, gives up his first run allowed as a member of the Detroit Tigers. Sunday, you also had Rainey, who who is the replacement for Charlie Morton. I mean, literally could not throw a strike. He I think he had double the amount of balls thrown outside the strike zone than in the strike zone. And he threw like he faced like four batters, dude. Like I the the depth of this bullpen is is mindboggling. The lack thereof, I should say, is is truly mind-boggling. It was a three nothing ball game in a must-win three nothing ball game on Sunday and Rainey was pitching the ninth inning. It’s three runs. People are like, why the heck is Hinch that you would say that about anybody they brought in outside of Kyle Finnegan and and I guess Will Vest ish. Um, okay. That’s really all I want to talk about with what went wrong. Uh, what went right? Just so many things, you know, it was such a great weekend. Uh, the few things that did go right, Tommy Canley I thought looked a lot better. I think the change up looked a lot sharper than it has in recent memory. Um, got out of that inning in the pouring rain, no less. I thought he looked kind of sharp. So, that’s is that something? I don’t know. Tyler Holden, I think continues to look a lot better as of late as well. That’s going to be an important piece I if you want any chance of getting into the postseason. You had the Tolson homer. Um he he had four of just brutal at bats, completely uncompetitive at bats on Sunday. Almost like he was legitimately guessing or just sitting on one pitch and then not getting it. Um, but on Saturday, uh, you know, I guess to be fair, he had the big home run to give the Tigers the lead. You thought maybe hopefully this is like a a a a sign of life, uh, a turnaround, some great emotion from Torque as he hit it. That was awesome. And and so naturally, you know, the two best relievers on the team blow the game. I I what else? Glaver. Glaver had a great weekend at the plate. Um really the only guy that I think consistently from Friday through Sunday had good at bats all weekend. Was on base a lot. So tip of the cap to him. He’ll be gone in, you know, 3 weeks. Woof. I know this is super like positive and uplifting, but uh as I say all the time, I I am a fan first and foremost. And I’m very frustrated. Very frustrated and having a hard time I don’t know like dodging that emotion like like not letting that just kind of pour out. Okay, we have some more great news as Morton gets cut and so that’s one of your trade deadline acquisitions and then Colt Keith gets hurt and will be out for the rest of the regular season because of course um so we will talk about all those things and stuff right after this. First though got to talk to you about our friends over at Neutrifall. You’ve probably seen a million ads for hair growth products and thought, “Sure, like that actually works.” There are so many products out there, it’s hard to know which ones are actually going to do anything. That’s why you should give Neutrifall a closer look. Neutrifall is the number one dermatologist recommended growth supplement brand, trusted by over one and a half million people. And it’s not just hype. 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Um, stuff Colt Keith to the injured list because of course just what we needed. You know, Colt Keith has been one of the more stable at bats um at least relatively consistent at a minimum. I know he he has not been a world beater so far in his major league career. We’re still waiting on the power to come around. There’s plenty of flaws with Colt Keith’s game that we will highlight in the off season, but at a minimum, you knew what you were going to get every day. And he had above league average production for pretty much the entire season outside of the first six weeks of the year. That is now gone for the rest of the regular season. And Jace Young comes in to replace him. Um Jace Young has a career MLB OPS of 545 and this year it’s in the 300s and about 40 or 50 played appearances. Um former first round pick just hasn’t really clicked at the major league level. He he still has zero career home runs. Has been up for over a year now. So well not consistently but first got called up over a year ago I should say to be fair to him. Um, but that that’s a huge downgrade in terms of offensive production. So, we’ll see what happens. Brutal timing. And then, yeah, as we mentioned earlier, Charlie Morton designated for assignment. Uh, Tanner Rainey called up my, you know, I I see this this news break and people are like, “Oh, finally.” Or or like, “Oh my goodness.” You know, there uh a sliver of hope. Or like, “Thank goodness. Maybe, you know, they’ll they’ll God, I I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer here, okay? I’m really not. This does not change really anything. He had one more scheduled start. And and Tanner Rainey is like a depth arm at best. He has a hard time finding the strike zone. This doesn’t change too much. This was a massive failure of a second half, a massive failure of a trade deadline, and it was a massive failure of an individual trade bringing in Charlie Morton in the first place. He had NRA over seven with Detroit. And I think it’s fair to say probably did more harm for the team than good. Like probably actively contributed to losses more so over the course of his Tigers tenure than wins. and they’re just now cutting him after he’s already done all that damage. Like that. That doesn’t mean anything to me. We were talking about him being in the playoff rotation like three or four weeks ago. At the deadline, he he was what the the second best pit third maybe best player you acquired. Like what a joke, man. [Music] So yeah, like I I’m glad that they’re not going to send him out there in his last start of the year and and it’s going to probably be a bullpen game or some sort of patchwork situation and I think that gives you a better chance to win. So I’m glad that for that one game, you know, they’re not just going to keep banging their head against the wall, but they already did for already overstate is welcome. Like very little has changed with with this announcement. very little if anything. They they still have to actually win games and and Charlie Morton was going to play one more time. Okay. Um Terrick Scooel start moved up to it looks like Tuesday. That way they can get him two more starts the rest of the year. They desperately need it. Uh makes a ton of sense. They have an off day on Monday so he’d still be even though it’s only four games, five days. And yeah, now I mean we have an off day, so we’ll preview this series tomorrow, but uh you go to Cleveland for three games and then uh in the final three games you have at Boston while Cleveland uh plays the Rangers. Um so you had a oneame lead with six games left and three of them are against Cleveland and and and it like it just has to be at Cleveland. Of course, it has to be at at uh Progressive. Is it still Progressive? I don’t even know. Just going to start calling it Jacobs Field again. The Tigers have been terrible at Cleveland for the better part of a decade. Um, and now it’s it’s the most important series, regular season series they’ve played in in I don’t know, maybe 11 years. So, okay. I I I I don’t think I have too much else to say. Like I said, I I’m I’m want to be the reason you like listen to something on your way to work in the morning and then have a terrible day. Okay? So I I I I really do like not want to be just like the mopey grouch like oh you know everything is is rain and dark clouds and not but I I I don’t know how else to to like sugarcoat this. I I don’t know how to sugarcoat it period. I I don’t know how else to to like what angle to take here. This is a complete disaster and they are on the brink of history. This is not just like, oh, they blew a big lead. That happens all the time. We are legitimately talking about, if they miss the postseason entirely, one of the biggest postseason collapses in the history of Major League Baseball. There is no other way to go about this in my head than to just point out how brutally awful this has been. Hopefully it changes. Hopefully they make the playoffs. But even if they do, and I think this is the most demoralizing part to me is even if they do make the postseason, we are now as a fan base almost more rooting for just not having that like history attached to the team’s name than we even are the fact that they could do something in the postseason. Nobody has faith that this team it would get past the first round based on how they’ve played lately. Nobody. Nobody’s like, “Man, I hope the Tigers make the playoffs so we win the World Series.” No one thinks this team is World Series caliber. You’re literally just rooting to not be a part of history. And that’s embarrassing and pathetic given where the team was six weeks ago. Okay. Say something nice. Um, uh, I I Wow, this is way harder than I thought, apparently. Um, hope the weather’s maybe good. Uh, hope you all have a great day at work or if it maybe you don’t work Mondays, hope you have a great day doing whatever you do, students, you know, have a have a great day at school. I I don’t uh hopefully the Lions win tonight as you listen to this big game. Um Michigan football big win. Uh MSU I I mean the defense was frustrating but like I I think Giles at least proved like you know he he can be the guy there. So that’s at least encouraging as like a benchmarker. Go listen to Lockdown Spartans. Fantastic program. One of legitimately one of the best that this network has to offer. Um, okay. Thanks for making Lockdown Tigers your first listen every single day. Shout out to the everydayers that do tune in every day. Uh, I appreciate you all greatly. We’ll be back tomorrow. Peace and love. Going to therapy is dope. I’ll catch y’all then, baby. Go Tigers.

Today we discuss the Detroit Tigers series against the Atlanta Braves. We talk Casey Mize, Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, and more!

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