Make It or Break It

So. That was a fun series, right guys?

Tigers vs. Twins. 1st place vs. 4th place. In Detroit. Tigers acquired a very good player from the Twins in Delmon Young. The Tigers should have been completely dominant for the whole series. They certainly were when Verlander was on the mound. As per usual, Justin was amazing. But this fairly dramatic blog post isn't going to be dwelling on the shiny happy points of the series so much.

No, this post is going to be focused on the fact that, after tonight's soul-crushing, heartbreaking loss with the Cleveland Idiots breathing down our necks once again, it is now officially time for our boys to show up or go home.

What exactly do we mean by this? Well, we'll tell you AFTER THE JUMP...

We've had a lot of problems with this series. A lot.
We understand that we might be sounding like the average bitchy, whiney fan who frequents Tigers message boards, but hear us out. This was a bad, demoralizing series. Our pitchers (except Verlander, ohhhhbviously) pitched in a not-so-great fashion. Jose Valverde, Rick Porcello, and Daniel Schlereth? Yeah, we're looking especially at you. Although Schlereth has been punished enough. He will go down in history as the poor fool who gave up No. 600 to Jim Thome. Ouch.

We were also under the impression that Jim Leyland knew the right times to use his players. All of Tiger Nation lost their minds tonight when they saw Valverde on the mound in the ninth in a non-save situation. Leyland, no. So even though it looked like our hitters were going to claw their way to victory, even though it seemed Joaquin Benoit could totally go another inning, Leyland felt inclined to stick Valverde in a situation that never really works out well for us.

Another Leyland move that has been bugging us lately is the use of Don "Double Play" Kelly over Wilson Betemit, and it would seem that a lot of people would agree with us. We do think its a good decision to put DK in as a defensive replacement at the end of games, and have Wilson's big bat at the beginning of games. So this way we won't have Don popping out weakly to second with runners in scoring position and Wilson making costly errors in the top of the ninth. Doesn't this seem like the obvious solution?!

And Sweet Jesus, do not get us started on Gene Lamont. It's crossing our minds that he may or may not be legally blind.

And as powerful as the Twins hitters are, we should have enough skill to at least win the series. It really bothers us to see our pitchers pitching the way they are now, with six weeks to go until the postseason.

Speaking of the postseason, unless Verlander is on the mound, we don't play like a playoff contending team, especially in the pitching and fielding department. With a day off and a pivotal series against Cleveland coming up, we will see if our team can come together, step up, and (WITHOUT JUSTIN VERLANDER) take the series from the ever-annoying Indians.

We know. You may be sitting at home, or work, or whatever, reading this, and thinking, "Man these girls are dramatic. We have so many games left! And we're still two games up! What's their problem?"

Well, yes. We do have many games left. And we are still in the lead (yay!) But as the Tigers (and the FSD Girls, barf) keep telling us on TV, "Every Game Counts." We know this to be absolutely, 100% true. Just look at 2009. We're all still haunted by that ending.

And as for the overreaction on our part? Yeah, we're dramatic so you don't have to be. You're welcome. Now, be a little bit more level-headed then us and support our boys to victory against those dumb Indians. The Tigers can win this division. They just have to play (and be managed) a little smarter.