Detroit Tigers: Rick Porcello Looks to Be Turning the Corner

Amid all the trade rumors surrounding the Tigers need for more consistent pitching, Rick Porcello has quietly put together a nice string of starts lately.

Thanks to his big win in Minnesota on Sunday, Porcello has racked up four consecutive wins, going at least into the sixth inning in each start and not giving up more than three earned runs in either contest. He has lowered his ERA from 5.06 to a more respectable 4.67 and his K:BB ratio over those four games is 18:5.

While I do still think that the Tigers need to add a middle of the rotation type player at the deadline if they want to feel comfortable about their chances at the postseason, Detroit sorely needs Porcello to continue this upward swing if they want to hold off the Indians and White Sox.

And lets not forget about the always dangerous Twins who thankfully have struggled mightily against Detroit this year but have still managed to go from 20 games under .500 to only seven games under.  With the Wild Card likely out of the question a strong divisional outing like Porcello had Sunday is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Should Dave Dombrowski decide to stand pat at the deadline (which seems to be highly unlikely) at least Tigers fans can take solace in the fact that Porcello looks to be picking up some of the slack.  And who knows, maybe 2010 and not 2009 was the fluke season.

Porcello is still only 22 years old after all and learning from an ace like Justin Verlander has to be a help.

Regardless of what happens at the deadline or for the rest of this season for that matter, when you look ahead to a rotation that includes Verlander, Max Scherzer, Rick Porcello and Jacob Turner, the Tigers are set up for success for years to come.

The rest of the AL Central had better start hitting the cages.