The Detroit Tigers entered their weekend set against the Kansas City Royals with the biggest division lead in Major League Baseball, and they had an opportunity to extend it even further.
While the alarm regarding the AL Central crown being up for grabs based on how poorly the Tigers played coming out of the All-Star break has subsided, having a good showing against the Royals would have gone a long way to create a gap that was borderline impossible to overcome.
Detroit did just that, winning two out of three on their home field that has now put their lead at 10.5 games with roughly 30 contests remaining in the regular season, all but assuring they will win their first division title since 2014.
But having success at this stage of the campaign isn’t the only thing the Tigers are aiming for, with everything from here on out geared towards making a deep run in the playoffs. With that in mind, there was some good and some bad on display during this set.
Here are three takeaways about what transpired.
It was not the best showing on the mound for Detroit this past weekend, with Jack Flaherty getting lit up for eight earned runs in the finale that prevented them from sweeping Kansas City. There are real questions about his consistency going forward, but he wasn’t the only one who wasn’t sharp.
While Casey Mize’s final stat line shows just three runs allowed, he also gave up nine hits and didn’t strike anyone out across 5 2/3 innings, which is a major concern at this point in the season regarding his stuff. Chris Paddack had a one-run outing across five innings pitched during his start, but he too could not strike anyone out, with just one K to his name.
The good news is the Tigers still have Tarik Skubal leading their rotation, but when it comes to who is going to slot behind him in a playoff series to give this team a real chance to win, it’s hard to have an answer beyond Charlie Morton right now.
It’s always great to see the lefty slugger blast balls over the fence, but coming into this series, it had been a bit of a struggle for Riley Greene in the home run department, with the three he had hit in August putting him on pace to finish with the lowest total in a single month when excluding March.
But Greene figured something out at the plate, hitting two moonshots in three games that now gives him 31 on the year as he reached the notable 30-homer milestone in a single season. Easily in the midst of his best and most productive offensive campaign, Detroit has to hope he starts heating back up at the plate.
In the second half of the year, he is slashing .205/.279/.418 compared to the .284/.335/.544 slash line he had before the All-Star break. Hopefully these two home runs get him going again and he gains momentum before the playoffs begin.
The Tigers’ bullpen has been dominant since the trade deadline, with the acquisition of Kyle Finnegan from the Washington Nationals proving to be one of the best deals that was made by a contender this year.
His addition upgraded a unit that had been a bit below average this season, and since the deadline, they have performed like the unit that was on display last year during the playoffs when they got big out after big out.
Detroit’s relief staff wasn’t necessarily poor over the weekend, but they were a bit leakier than they have been by giving up five earned runs across 11 1/3 innings, including two by Will Vest in the first game of the set.
That happens from time to time, so this isn’t something to be worried about as of now. But if it continues to close out the month, there could be some worries about what the ceiling of that unit is for the remainder of the year.
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