Detroit gets Swept by Cleveland: AL Central Lead now 3.5 Games

Detroit gets Swept by Cleveland: AL Central Lead now 3.5 Games

The Tigers get swept by the Guardians in what up to this point was the biggest series of the season. Let’s talk about it all today on Locked on Tigers. 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 am of course your host Scott Bentley. Today is Friday, September 19th, 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 5h hour energy shots. Go to www.5ourenergy.com or Amazon today. Detroit Tigers have been swept by the Cleveland Guardians at home. Second to last series at home of the season and the most important series up to this point of the 2025 season. And they completely laid an egg completely really in all three games. Like Kerry Carpenter saves the day obviously in game one, but total to I’m talking total in the first nine innings of all three games combined, the Tigers scored four runs. Three of those were in game one. Three to one loss in the finale. Another school start wasted as the Tigers fall to 85 and 68 on the season after the sweep while Cleveland improves to 81 and 71. three and a half game difference now separates these two teams that at one point in July was 14 and a half games. First thought, this is going to shock you. Uh but this was another infuriating loss. The Tigers scored one total run in the last 18 innings of this series. One total run scored in the biggest series of the season. In the final two games of the biggest series of the season, division league three and a half games. You have three games left against Cleveland alone still. And then the other two teams you play are at Boston, who currently is in a battle with guess who? Cleveland for a wild card spot. And then Atlanta in the final home game home series of the season this weekend. I think Scooble gave it all he had. Uh it wasn’t his best stuff certainly. We’ll talk about that a little bit later, but he grinded it out. Went six innings of one-run ball and put you in a position to win. This team has just become completely incapable of getting a big hit when it is needed most. They they are allergic to it that they literally start sneezing and like coughing. You just got smacked. Dude, this was not These last two games were not like, oh wow, you know, a great back andforth battle that just didn’t go in your favor. You got smacked around in games two and three, which means that in this series as a whole, you just got absolutely outclassed by a team that at one point you had again about a 15game lead on in the division at one point earlier this season. really frustrating baseball game as you can tell and I’m sure as you are feeling as well. What went wrong? We’re going to start with the offense which yet again was a disaster. They did at least score in this game so that’s nice. One run last 18 innings. I’ve already said that a few times. I I think it continues to be frustrating because they continue to work counts and do nothing with it. They had BBY on the ropes multiple times in this outing and did squat. You knew it was going to be bad. We’re going to take a time machine here. Close your eyes unless you’re driving or doing like anything important. You know what? Don’t even close your eyes. I’m I’m not going to be responsible for that. In the second inning, okay, just imagine with your eyes just so wide open. Imagine that you’re back on Thursday afternoon. It’s the second inning. You’re hoping for a win. Scooles on the mound and the Tigers have second and third with no outs after Colt Keith just got an RBI double. And you’re thinking, “Wow, this is finally it. We’re finally going to do it. We got Scooble on the mound. We got two in running position with no outs in the inning. This is it. The skid is going to stop. This is a twoame swing in terms of the division, right? You win this game. You’re back to a five and a halfame lead in the division with nine games left and three against Cleveland. Instead, it’s nine games left with three against Cleveland and a three and a half lead. So, you’re feeling great. Second and third, zero outs, neither run scores. The funny thing is I said neither run scores. Like, you can just say you don’t score a run there and you could be talking about the rest of the baseball game. They just did not even come close to scoring the rest the the rest of the day. Dylan Dingler ground ball to short. Aras throws home. He has a cannon. And then the next two are just completely uncompetitive at bats. Zack McKinstry has been one of the least productive hitters on the team since the middle of August. The bottom three since I I picked an arbitrary date. I actually think I picked a date that made it so it was uh Zack McKinstre’s game played games played were exactly 30 games. So, in his last 30 games, which I believe made my starting point August 10th, but it’s if if it’s not exactly that, it’s somewhere around there. The three worst hitters on your team, the three least productive hitters on your team statistically are Zack McKinstry, Jav Bayz, and Trey Sweeney. What do all of those gentlemen have in common? They are all your shortstop. your three least productive hitters on the team is just you’re revol you have an automatic out at shortstop at the moment and then you have injuries happen where Parker Meadows gets pinch hit for etc etc and now you find yourself with two or even all three of them playing sometimes Riley the green 0 for four with two strikeouts. He really I mean if you want to point at anyone and say you know who is the best example of working the counts this series and not getting any reward for it, not coming through rather in any capacity at the end of the at bats. It is him. This entire I guess last two games really, but that you know this entire series for the most part he was making pitchers work, grinding out at bats and then it ends in a strikeout or it ends in a popup. Carpenter and Green combined for 048 with three strikeouts in this ball game. Riley Green’s OPS on the season is now 8:15. There’s at one point in I want to say early June where was about 900. Carrie Carpenter down to 812. Torlson 795. We’re sub 800 now even with the two hits today. Okay. Got a few more things I want to talk about offensively. Then we’ll obviously talk about the pitching and uh yeah, I mean we’ll talk plenty of big picture stuff just where the team is at right now and preview the weekend. Okay, we’ll do all of that right after this. First though, got to talk to youall about our friends over at Zipix. One of my favorite friends of the program here, uh Zipix toothpicks. Whether you’re looking for nicotine satisfaction or an energy boost, Zipix has you covered with their nicotine and caffeine infused toothpicks. For nicotine users, Zipix provides a discrete way to satisfy cravings and the hand-to-mouth habit without vaping or smoking. Zipix can be a powerful tool and helpful tool as you work to reduce your dependence on vaping or nicotine. Available in six great flavors with 2 milligrams and 3 milligrams nicotine options. And if you need energy without the crash, their caffeine toothpicks are a gamecher. That’s what we got. Uh the hosts of the Lockdown Network all got sent a ton of caffeine infused flavored toothpicks. They are fantastic. Like seriously, my roommate and I are, you know, just put them in on our way to work, right? It’s just you you got a toothpick in your mouth. It’s whatever. Um but it gives you a small boost and they legitimately taste great. There’s a lot of different uh flavors they have and whatnot. A ton come in a pack as well. They are awesome. I absolutely love this. So, go to zipix.com. Sorry, zipix toothpicks.com and use code lockdown, all one word, for 10% off of your first order. You must be 21 or older to order. Warning, nicotine is an addictive chemical. That’s zipix toothpicks.com. Promo code lockdown. Zip more. Smoke less with Zipix Toothpicks. All right, everybody. Welcome back here. Segment two, Lockdown Tigers. Appreciate you all for tuning in as always, making 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 on Monday. We’ll be back. I I don’t know. I don’t know how I’m going to make it, but we’ll be back. And And we’ll be back either celebrating or or, you know, completely spiraling and crashing out together. Um but uh we we will be unified again on Monday talking about whatever happens this weekend. Started talking about the offense a little bit before the break there in terms of like individual performance. Um Dylan Dingler I thought had a pretty rough day. Uh had a couple of pass balls at the plate. That’s been a rarity for him this season. I don’t think it’s a like consistent thing that’ll continue. Um but in this game he did have one really costly one at least. And then yeah, at the plate, I mean, the the biggest uh criticism, I guess I’ll say, that you can have about Dingler’s offense, I mean, you see the 276 average. In today’s day and age of baseball, 276 average, you’d hope that the OPS would be higher than 750. Um, this is not like me slamming Dingler. He has been literally the most valuable non-pitcher on the entire team this year. I absolutely adore Dylan Dingler and he’s one of my favorite players in the entire organization. I think he’s done fantastic this year. Um, but in games like this, you go 0 for three with no strikeouts, you go, “Okay, well that’s a, you know, whatever. That happens to everybody.” It certainly does. The thing that frustrates me at times with Dingler is that he does not walk ever. And that really gives me kind of some pause about the sustainability of his offense. at some point people are just going to stop throwing him strikes consistently and the the numbers are going to fall off. And so I’m not saying that that has happened, but in this ball game specifically, you look at the contact he was making just really weak ground balls that were rally killers, two of them at least. And so that’s the type of thing that I would like to see him work on. You know, he he’s the starting catcher. And again, he’s literally one of the most valuable players in the entire team, okay? He he should be playing as much as possible, whether he walks ever again or not. But if he wants to take his game to the next level and be truly one of those premier catchers in all of the American League or in all of baseball, that is what you need to see next season. And I think this game was just highlighted that maybe struggle to an extent. Yeah, an unbelievably frustrating game. And I think that uh again the the biggest thing that continues to just be infuriating is the fact that they’re not just going up there and swinging, you know, three times no matter where the ball is and then going to sit down. They’re working counts. They’re making pitchers work and then ultimately still just striking out. And then when they do hit the ball, you know, Cleveland wiggles their fingers and, you know, it goes right at somebody and they get a double play. Like it it’s just it it is that was the most annoying series ever. Pitching was pretty solid. Only player that finds himself on the side of things that went wrong on the pitching side of things is Troy Melton. Obviously one and two/3, two hits, two runs, one walk, one strikeout. Those two runs coming via the home run to J Ram. His RA now 10. Not even close. His RA is now 288 on the season. You know, the I still my opinion of Troy Melon has not changed really at all this season and and that I I love what the future projects for him. I think he has fantastic stuff. He’s got to work on the command. He’s got to work on the slider specifically a little bit, you know, the secondary stuff. But I I think there is the foundation and the structure for just a fantastic pitcher in this league for a long time. And that does not change with this outing. That has not changed all season. In this game, he just left a slider up to J Ram and Coma. and he will learn that many have tried and and you know many have failed with that strategy. Many many many a long history of pitchers that have rocked the old English D have tried to throw sliders in the strike zone to JRM. I’m not sure a single one has uh lived to tell the tale, if you will. So yeah, one bad pitch to one of the best players in baseball. Did it really matter? Like again, the offense scored once in 18 innings. Did it really matter? They were going to crack at some point. It just happened to be in that moment today. Uh and the offense was doing absolutely a whole lot of nothing either way. What went right? Derek Scubble. Six innings, seven hits, one earned run, two walks, nine strikeouts, and a home run against. Just a a roller coaster of emotions reading that stat line. He’s got a 223 erra now on the season. This was still not even close to the best version of Terk Scuba that we have seen this season or seen in his career. However, it was six innings of one-run ball when the team needed it most. And and that’s why he’s a dog. This was the epitome of dog mentality. The change up just wasn’t good. Like plain and simple. It was not an effective pitch for him in this one. His best pitch, a pitch that has been one of the most valuable pitches in all of baseball since the start of last season. He just wasn’t getting people to swing and miss. He wasn’t hitting his spots. it didn’t have enough depth to it or as much depth to it as it usually does I should say. And the reason why TK Scubble is great is because he went, “Okay, the change up’s not working as well as I’d like it to. Guess what? Here comes 102 mph on your head.” Not literally, but here comes 102 mph. And that’s why the fast ball in his last three innings was the go-to pitch and worked wonderfully for him. And once he made that adjustment, he uh he he looked a lot better in the last three innings than I think he did in the first three innings. It’s really nice when you just can choose to throw 102 kind of whenever you feel like it and not have to rely on it. dug deep when the team really needed him to despite not having his best secondary stuff and was great. Tyler Holton I also thought was pretty solid. Uh one and a third, one hit, no runs, one walk, one strikeout. His RA is quietly down to 384. It was about four on the nose a couple of weeks ago. So, if there’s any silver lining of how the last couple of weeks have been, it’s that one of your best lefty relievers that was, you know, going into the season, you we’re planning on leaning on a lot has looked a lot better over the last couple of weeks than he did for most of the season. Um, I don’t know if that’s going to last. We’ve been fooled before. Plenty bullpen, you know, relievers in general are just so volatile. Like, who knows? Um, but, uh, yeah, if there’s anything you can kind of, you know, think, oh, is there a bright side? Well, not really, but Tyler Holton’s doing well. Anything else that went right? Spencer Tolson at the plate. Two for four with a run scored. He’s been swinging a nice bat over the last three or four games outside of game two, I guess, when he went 0 for four with three strikeouts. Unfortunately, it has been at the expense of his defense for whatever reason. But uh I I mean, yeah, man. Like in the first inning alone, I don’t know. I I It’s been a rough It’s It’s It’s It’s been rough. It’s been rough for everybody in the month of September. But Torlson’s been one of the only guys over the last again four or five games that has gotten decent results at the plate. Again, outside of Wednesday’s game, Cole Keith had a beautiful piece of hitting in this game. Got the only RBI. So, naturally, he gets hurt. And it actually looks like it might be serious. So, because of course, because of course. Why? Why not? That That’s obviously what has to happen. Duh. I’m going to cry. I’m going to start crying. Okay, let’s go to a break and we’ll talk stuff. We’ll talk injury updates, Paul Seawald to the majors, kind of where the team stands going into this weekend and more. We’ll do that right after this. Got to talk to you about our friends over at Prize Pick. This episode is brought to you by Prize Pix, the daily fantasy app where making the right call can actually pay off. 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What I love most is how portable they are, right? Big taste, tiny shot. You can take it anywhere and get that boost whenever you need it. Um there’s so many great flavors, uh honestly a plethora, if you will, of great flavors that do the job and it’s refreshing and gives you that little lift before a busy day. Enough with the boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5Hour Energy Shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in store and online at www.5hourenergy.com or Amazon today. All right, everybody. Welcome back. Your third and final segment of Locked on Tigers. Appreciate you all for tuning in as always, even as we’re all spiraling. Um, so Cole Keith’s hurt. AJ Hinch says it’s very concerning and he had to be removed from the game. He went straight into the clubhouse for imaging. Uh, I am recording this about an hour after the game and there’s been no update. So, if there is an update late Thursday night or early Friday morning and we don’t talk about it on this show, then you know why. But, uh, in my reality here on on Thursday afternoon, that is the latest that we’ve heard. Um, not good. Very concerning. And yeah, that’s a a 746 OPS. That’s an above league average hitter that you kind of desperately need in your lineup right now that’s sputtering and and and falling apart here. And now there’s a chance that you’re not going to have it. And that’s not great. I don’t have too much else to say. I’m not a doctor. I have no clue. It could be a a pulled muscle. It could be a cramp for all I know. Or he could have like snapped his spine in half. I I I really have no idea. I picked something ridiculously not true for that last one, but I think you get the sentiment. So, we’ll see. On the flip side of the injury situation, Paul Seawald is now a Detroit Tiger. He is a part of the Tigers bullpen. Jose Ariti sent to Triple A. Um there was some confusion over because he was DFAed, but he’s staying with the organization. Whatever the DFA is really all you have to know about it is it’s more of a paper move than anything. Like he is staying with the organization. He agreed to stay with the organization and he will go back to Triple A. uh the Tigers worked his contract in a way where at the end of this season they will have the choice of keeping him around for another year next year or not. Um so yeah, I I mean we’ll we’ll see. Basically that means he’s I would imagine done for the rest of the regular season at the major league level and then they’ll re-evaluate should the Tigers play October baseball um you know what the playoff roster is going to look like in that regard. All right. Um, yeah, AJ said after the game, we got our behinds kicked, but he didn’t say behind. He said a three-letter word that starts with an A. And he said they got kicked in pretty much every aspect and then got swept. The Tigers are now 26 and 30 in the second half of the season. That’s 56 games that they are comfortably below 500. They had a 14 and a half game lead in July that is now three and a half games. I remember talking about the division in at the deadline and saying you have to be aggressive at the deadline because your eyes should be on a first round buy. And that’s something I have clearly and obviously been a broken record about over the last two months. And I said, you your eyes should not be on winning the Central. You’re up 14, 15 games at the time of that conversation. You should obviously win the Central. And then I remember saying it would take a historic collapse for you to lose it. So your eyes and how you approach the deadline and how aggressive you are in the second half should be based on trying to clinch a first round buy. And now here we are where that’s barely even the case. You’re just trying to get to the postseason and win the AL Central still. You have the Braves this weekend in the final series of the final home series I should say of the season. Bryce Elder against Charlie Morton in game one today on Friday. Joey Wentz against Kater Montero. If you lose that game, I may I I I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m responsible for my actions if they lose to Joey Wentz in a must-win game late in the season. And then Spencer Strider against Casey Mai on Sunday. Strider not having a usual Strider year, first year back from a major injury. Uh and obviously Casey Mai, who also is relatively off of a major injury, but obviously not uh you know, he’s been back for for longer. So, Braves pitching has been awful this year. That’s why the team has struggled, but they are still a very talented team with a lot of really good players on offense, quite frankly, on both sides of the ball still. And uh, of course, because because of course, they’re on a five-game win streak as I record this. So, I don’t know if they play Thursday, but there’s a chance they’re on a W5 or W6 going into this series. Any other news? Clayton Kershaw hanging him up at the end of the season. One of the greatest of all time, man. One of the greatest pitchers to ever live. One of the I mean, probably the greatest pitcher of my generation. Um, if you want to just say of his generation. It’s either him or Verlander. You know, there you can kind of swap them either way. I know a lot of people on here will obviously lean Verlander and that makes sense and is pretty hard to disagree with because Verlander is Verlander. Um but those two guys really were head and shoulders above and Sherzer I guess kind of head and shoulders above really everybody else from their era uh in terms of you know longevity and and peak and etc. So he’ll make his last start at Dodger Stadium ever on Friday. That’s going to be an emotional scene. Big moment for baseball. See Clayton Kershaw go out. Meanwhile, Verlander’s like 45 and just said he wants to pitch again next year and has a sub one erra in his last like a month worth of starts or something. So, okay. I I mean I I really I am having trouble articulating how many different ways to word the same thing. You have to fix this thing. You have to get it right or else you’re going to be on the losing side of like one of the biggest collapses we’ve seen. Now, you’re still in the driver’s seat. I understand the dooming. Clearly, I’m doing it, too. I just spent 30 minutes just being miserable, right? I I am I am not saying this from like a pretentious, you know, ivory tower. I’m just saying like you you are still in the driver’s seat. You still have the advantage even after all of this nonsense. you still have the clear advantage. You just need to beat Cleveland in any capacity and then not like go 0 and6 against the other two teams you play and use like should still be fine. Oh my goodness, what a train wreck. Go win some freaking ball games. Okay, get this thing back on track. Thanks for making Lockdown Tigers your first listen every single day. Shouts to the Everydayers that do tune in every day and we will of course be back on Monday recapping this series against the Braves. Please win. Please, please, please win. I love you all greatly. Peace and love. Going to the dope. I’ll catch you on Monday, baby. Go Tigers.

Today we discuss the Detroit Tigers 3-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians. We talk about Tarik Skubal, Spencer Torkelson, Colt Keith, Riley Greene and more!

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