Panic ! in The Motor City As The Tigers Drop Fourth Straight

If you're a Tigers fan, you may be in panic mode of late.

The Tigers are coming off a four game losing streak, three of those losses are to bottom dwelling division opponent, the Kansas City Royals. The fourth, coming Friday night, to the Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays have not been in playoff contention in months, and are currently an obsurd 27.5 games back of the hottest team in baseball, the New York Yankees.

You may be asking yourself, "how could this happen ?". Detroit's led the Central division for the majority of the season, but it's getting late in the year. Don't forget that they lost the Central to the Minnesota Twins on the LAST day of the regular season in 2006. Luckily, the Tigers' record was good enough to win the A.L. Wild Card. This will not be the case this year. If the Tigers don't win their division, they will not be playing in the post season. It's do or die.

The Tigers swept the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Indians in back-to-back series in the last week and a half... and then they went on the road to Kansas City.

The Royals starting pitching and bullpen was not extraordinary, but strong enough to hand a slumping Detroit Tigers three straight losses. It gets worse.

Billy Butler, a.k.a "The Tiger Killer", went 7 for 12, with 5 RBI's in the three game set. The Tigers put up an average of just over 5 runs per game that series, but gave up a little more than 6. Do the math. If you give up more runs than you score, you lose. It's as simple as that.

Verlander was handed his eight loss of the season, he now has dropped to 16-8, with an E.R.A. of 3.24. Justin still has Cy Young worthy numbers, but Tiger fans are counting on J.V. to produce in the month of September.

Nate Robertson came back from injury, but he more than likely will make a quick return to the disabled list. Nate has went 1-2 in his three appearances, and has been stuck with a 5.35 e.r.a. In his last start against Toronto on Friday night, Nate pitched 3.2 innings, gave up six hits, and two runs. Hardly a quality start. He also contributed to the Blue Jays cause with five walks.

The Tigers have a 5.5 game lead over the Minnesota Twins, with roughly 20 games left in the regular season. They also finish the year against the Twins. A winning streak is a must to regain their previous 7 game lead. Detroit has grit, however, ranking 4th in comeback wins. What does that say ? When the going gets tough, the tough get going. During a time like this, that's what Detroit fans are in need of, a little resilience.

Ten games over .500, at 75-65, the Tigers have the worst record of any division leader, which emphasises my previous point of how important winning the division is. Win the Central, they're in, don't win the Central, they're out. The Boston Red Sox have the A.L. Wild Card wrapped up. The Rays are struggling, and the Red Sox have somehow maintained their lead in the Wild Card race. The Sox rotation is struggling, but with Pena out for the rest of the year, it's safe to say Boston has the Wild Card in their back pocket.

Detroit is 6-4 in their last ten games. They're also on a streak, a bad one at that. Losing four games in a row this late in the year, with this tight of a race going on, is detrimental to their playoff hopes.

Here's a bright spot, however. The Tigers have just over half their remaining games at home, in the friendly confines of Comerica Park. With a 45-22 record at home, this may give Tiger fans a sigh of relief. Counterpoint: the Tigers are 30-42 on the road.

If the Tigers hope to win the Central, they must NOT lose close games. It's easier said than done, but they are just four games over .500 (24-20) in one run games. They have also scored the second lowest amount of runs in the Central, with 640. Only the Royals have scored less, with 572. That's probably why they have one of the worst records in the bigs, and are 20.5 games out of first in the division.

Edwin Jackson will take the mound against the Jays tomorrow night. Jackson is 12-6, with a 3.10 e.r.a. This is a must win for the Tigers, who seem to have lost their team moral over the last few days.

Detroit was down by five runs, late in the game Friday night. It was 6-1 in the 7th. They put up three more runs to make it 6-4, but it was too little, too late.

The Blue Jays are struggling themselves, just 4-6 in their last ten. With the exception of Roy Halladay, their starting rotation has taken a beating this season. Roy's had it rough, himself.

As I mentioned earlier, Edwin will take the mound at 7:05 p.m. against Toronto, in hopes of giving the Tigers a much needed win. Time's-a-tickin, and the Twins have their eye on the division. This is the time for bats to come alive, pitching to be nasty (in a good way), and smart base running is key. No mental mistakes, no needless errors. I believe that Detroit will still win the division, but late season drama is not necessary, at least for Tiger fans.