A Desperate Plea for Normalcy

Okay.  What is going on with the Tigers?  Why is it that whenever things start going well for us, things somehow fall apart?  This year, there have been a few magical periods of time when the team has had everything going for them.  Our pitchers' stuff was nasty.  Our hitters were not only hitting bombs to left-center, but also manufacturing clutch runs when we really needed them to.  However, whenever we start to play really well, either the pitchers stop pitching, or the hitters stop hitting, which is just what happened in yesterday's game and today's game.  We need to get dis ish on track.

Follow us after the break...

Yesterday was Max Scherzer's birthday, and he pitched like he wanted to win. Sure, he allowed two early runs, but that was it. In addition to that, he ended the day with eight strikeouts.  After pitching six innings, he handed the ball over to the relief, who did a marvelous job and allowed no runs to score. And what did our batters do for him?  Our phenomenal lineup with the fourth best batting average in the MLB gave poor Mad Max one, lonely, solitary run, from arguably the worst-hitting everyday man we have, Austin Jackson.  Latino Lane (Ordonez, Cabrera, Martinez, PHeralta, Guillen) gave him absolutely nothing, which is absolutely inexcusable.

Today was exactly the opposite.  Brad Penny started things off atrociously, allowing seven runs, and our hitters showed up to play by getting the team back in the game. Of course, then Lloyd McClendon (after an ejection from Leyland) thought it would be a fantastic idea to put in David Friggin Purcey on the mound with the game so close. David Friggin Purcey did what he does best, which was EFF UP. This is the second time in a row he has betrayed us like this. He definitely took the heat off of Penny's shitty performance though, so we're sure Brad's happy about that. But whatever. We don't care about Brad's happiness. All we want is consistency!!!

Look. We're not saying it's all over. We're not heralding the disintegration of the 2011 Detroit Tigers. That's ridiculous.  We don't always fall apart in the second half, and what some people don't seem to realize is that we have a phenomenal team with fantastic pitchers, star batters, and a great team chemistry to boot.  We have the fourth highest team OPS in the AL with .746.  We have the best team batting average in the central, but the problem is consistency, especially consistency in pitching.  Our team has the 11th best ERA in the AL, out of 14 if you've forgotten.  This isn't to say that our pitchers are terrible, but Justin Verlander can't toe the mound everyday.

The pitchers we have must step up, and our hitters must be able to support them if we want to have a hope of winning the Central.  We here at April in the D believe this team has all the ingredients to win not just the AL Central, but to go even further.  Crazier things definitely have happened.  All this crazy team needs to do is work together for once!!