Tonight marks the opening of a 3 game tilt against the tribe from across Lake Erie. While during the first week of August you never want to use the words "must win," with the teeter tottering the Tigers have done all year, its time to get hot and stay hot.
Inconsistency has plagued Detroit since the second week of the season, with a couple short hot streaks mixed in, the lacklustre streaks have lasted much longer. They need a consistent month of August to catch and put some distance between them and the division leading White Sox. Sitting just 2 and 1/2 games back now is the time to make a move.
In the pursuit of the pennant the Tigers did receive the good news today that Andy Dirks returns tonight from his achilles injury suffered back in May. As Leyland is know to do Dirks will start immediately and bat 6th tonight. When Dirks left on May 31st he was batting .328 with 4 long balls.
Justin Masterson will open the series for the tribe he has been shelled recently giving up 8 earned runs in 2 of his last 5 starts. Masterson dominated the Tigers giving up only 1 run in 7 innings back on May 24th.
Anibal Sanchez looks for his first win since he was acquired by Detroit, in a previous start he lost to the Tribe 2-0 earlier this season.
Cleveland comes in riding baseballs biggest losing streak, with Fister and Scherzer pitching the next 2 games Detroit has no excuse why the Trice isn't swept for a 3rd consecutive series.
Very True. They need to try to get both the bats and pitching to work together the rest of the way to get back into the grove. So far the 2 new players haven't paid off, but I think once the settle in they will show why we made the deal. When they have their team playing together they are a very tough team to face.
ReplyDeleteNicely written.
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