It's not easy for a team to sweep all four games of a series. Yet that's what the Indians did two weeks ago ... and that's what the Rays did today. Detroit's free-fall continues. At least this time it was to a good team.
In case you're keeping track, the Tigers are now 3-12 since the All-Star Break. And please spare me the Jim Leyland stuff. And I don't want to hear about this being the fault of Leyland's lineups. Leyland's lineups are the fault of not having enough quality players. The team has lost three major contributors, two of them to fluke broken bones, this isn't the manager's fault. The organization didn't have the depth to overcome the losses, and we're seeing that. This is the team. Deal with it.
As always, the starting pitching is just fine. Rick Porcello struck out eight and sent 13 consecutive batters back to the dugout. Unfortunately he gave up a couple of fluky runs in the third when the ball went off Miguel Cabrera's foot and that was all Tampa needed. Because again, the hitters couldn't do the job. For the fifth time in the last seven games, they managed to put three runs or fewer on the board.
Again walking Cabrera intentionally for a third time this series proved to be a great decision, because again Brennan Boesch managed to flaccidly do nothing with the bases-loaded opportunity presented to him.
Oh well, they can't lose them all
... right?