Weekend Mess Salvaged

Two out of three would have been great against the Twins this past weekend, but the Tigers will have to settle for just one win.  On the line on Sunday was the Tigers either extending their AL Central lead to three games or having the pesky Twins grind it down to just a single game.

Since getting to a season-high 14 games over the .500 mark, the Tigers are only 4-9 and have seen the lead in the AL Central drop to only three games.  The Tigers and Twins will meet again in Detroit the last week of September for a four game set.  Hopefully the Tigers can do some serious work in the next week and make that serious a lot less important.

The Tigers are still clearly in the drivers seat for a playoff position.  There are only 13 games remaining and a three game lead should still be held onto by the Tigers if they can get a few things straightened out:

• Get the bullpen back in order.  The pen has struggled a bit recently after being good for almost the entire season.  This isn’t a reflection of a major weakness, the group just is having a down period at the wrong time.
• Get Granderson back on track.  Curtis Granderson is hitting only .188 since August 31st.  This guy has helped make the Tigers offense go for the past three year years.  If he continues to struggle into October and the postseason the Tigers will have a tough time doing much damage.
• The big one.  The Tigers offense is stagnant.  They are leaving way too many guys on base and squandering opportunities.  This isn’t a total slam on the club, it probably has just has much to do with luck as it does skill.  If the Tigers want to close out the Central and have a snowball’s chance in hell at beating the Yankees, they NEED to cash in runners on base when it matters the most and early in ballgames.

They’ll work on solving all of these problems on Tuesday when they start a three game series against the Cleveland Indians.  The Indians, like the Royals, are a team the Tigers shouldn’t have trouble getting past.  However, we all saw what happened against the Royals the past two weeks.

We have now moved into late-September.  The Tigers are in first place, this is a good thing.  Time to make that final push.