You may not realize it, but Max Scherzer had not had a win against the American League Central heading into today. In fact, the team had just one win against a division foe with Scherzer on the mound, out of nine tries. That one came back in April. Otherwise he entered the game 0-6 with a 6.89 ERA in decisions against teams he simply has to beat.
Glad we've got that little problem out of the way. He gave up two runs on four hits and two walks across seven innings. He struck out eight, and some of the hits allowed weren't exactly the hardest you'll ever see. The defense wasn't exactly giving the best of help, either. So it looked like a pretty good showing to me. During the post game, he credited the work he's been doing on his changeup.
Meanwhile Ryan Raburn continued a streak of doing pretty important things. He hit a double and scored on a wild pitch to give Detroit a 2-1 lead in the first. Don Kelly continued a good weekend by hitting a home run in the fifth. And Brennan Boesch continued to give hopes of coming out of his slump. He had two hits -- including a double -- today.
So the Tigers have a chance to get out the brooms of their own when they take the field on Sunday. What a strange series. Detroit swept in April. Cleveland swept in July. Detroit can sweep in August. Uh-oh. Watch out in September.
Finally: Don't look now, but the Tigers are 6-4 in their last 10. I think we can say the worst is behind them and close out the season on a positive note.