Athletics 9, Tigers 0: Wentz struggles in debut, Tiger bats struggle again

Sigh...

...It’s getting harder and harder to find the motivation to type up detailed recaps these days. Here’s the recap, the Detroit Tigers lost, again. It wasn’t even a close game, again.

The offense got shutout by a pitcher recently called up from AAA where they were struggling, again. Meanwhile the Tigers’ third rookie starter used in recent weeks just did not have it all. Final score Athletics 9, Tigers 0.

Seriously, this is getting old. Here, this is the lone highlight of the day for the Tigers and Joey Wentz’s debut, and it had nothing to do with his pitching.

Wentz came up boasting a 34% strikeout rate in the minors this year. There was legitimate excitement surrounding his debut despite known issues with command, but it was quickly shown why he is third on the starting pitcher callup depth chart. He’s just not ready. He barely had control let alone command, and his stuff wasn’t tempting to major league hitters who quickly realized he wasn’t going to consistently spot anything.

The first batter of the game, Tony Kemp, worked Wentz for a twelve pitch walk. Of the 72 pitches he threw in his outing, only 15% of them were called strikes or got a swing and miss. The A’s were patient, fouled off pitch after pitch and waited for offerings to their liking and hit them hard. It only got worse as the night progressed as Wentz lost velocity and started steering his pitches. His final line, not great.

Meanwhile, the slumping Tigers offense could do little with Zach Logue, who was in his second major league start for the Athletics since being recalled from the PCL, sporting a 5.63 ERA and 17.3% K rate. Instead of being a good matchup to get their hitters out of a slump, they sunk further into it, flailing at a heavy dose of four-seam fastballs up in the zone, and sliders in and out of the zone. Through the first three innings, they had an embarrassing 54% combined swing and miss and called strike rate, posing about as much threat to the Athletics as a basket of puppies...

Ahhh... puppies are nice...so cute and loveable. Much more fun that the Tigers right now. So, here’s just a random collection of tweets with puppies.

“What, me in a game recap?”

He knows he’s a good boy!

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww....

Tigers offense has us like...

And this...

Have a good night everyone

Notes:

• Miguel Cabrera moved past Wade Boggs on the all time hit list tonight.

• Here’s a picture of our fur-baby, Tigger, from when she was a puppy.