2025 Detroit Tigers: We sure do love bargain bin pitchers!

[CONN CHRIS]

That was rough. Would not have expected to see Vest get rocked that hard.

[Hrycaj]

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

That was rough. Would not have expected to see Vest get rocked that hard.

From elation with Carpenter to utter disbelief separated by a commercial break.

[CONN CHRIS]

This team is in reverse.

[CONN CHRIS]

This team is beating the optimism out of me.

[Hrycaj]

Definitely concerning and very frustrating.

[CONN CHRIS]

Cleveland is red hot and has 4 against the Twins. If Detroit doesn't get right against the Braves, they may be going to Cleveland with a 1 game lead or in a flat tie.

14 games up in the division feels like a decade ago.

[CONN CHRIS]

Paul Sewald activated today.

[CONN CHRIS]

Sewald had an ERA+ of 90 before the injury in May. I am reading that he will be a 'high leverage' reliever.

Color me skeptical.

[CONN CHRIS]

Dear Lord, make it stop.

[Hrycaj]

Free falling

[Westheim]

Fret not! I'm bringing my .800 Tigers win% when I'm watching their games today!

Unless you choose to get rained out again like the last time the Tigers and Mets were scheduled to play back-to-back Saturday day games.

[CONN CHRIS]

Keep watching Raccoon.

Joey Wentz is on the mound for Atlanta today. A loss this afternoon would be particularly galling.

[CONN CHRIS]

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

Sewald had an ERA+ of 90 before the injury in May. I am reading that he will be a 'high leverage' reliever.

Color me skeptical.

His line last night:

0.2 2 2 2 1 1 1

Perfect

[Westheim]

Tigers ordered three servings of Nacho and really dipped them in defeat.

Ugh!

[CONN CHRIS]

Brutal

[Amazin69]

Er, lads?

You do know that the "largest lead ever blown to lose a divisional or league pennant race" record is only 15 games, right? (1914 NY Giants were 15 ahead of Boston on July 4th, before the Braves went a ridiculous 68-19 from thereon in, and swept the Athletics in 4 straight to win the Series.)

I periodically post this chart, which I created after the 2022 Mets blew a 10.5 game lead on the Braves, in the Mets or other appropriate threads.

You really don't want to be on this chart, much less surpassing the squad that got clipped by the "Miracle" Braves. I know, "go big or go home", but even so.

[CONN CHRIS]

Well, We are a game and a half away from being in that top tier.

[low]

What an epic collapse going on right now. Sorry.

[Hrycaj]

Originally Posted by low

What an epic collapse going on right now. Sorry.

The patience this team had earlier in the year at the plate has been an issue the second half of the season. People have pointed at the all-star break but I think it happened much sooner. Reese Olson got hurt in Mid May and then Jackson Jobe went down on May 30th. At the time, the Tigers were well above .500 with a 6 game lead in the division. That lead would grow but over time the loss of those two pitchers would loom large. Since May 30 the club is now 47-48. My argument here is that Scott Harris did not do enough to address the needs at the deadline. I don’t know what his mindset was. Did he think the team would coat to the finish line? Was he concerned about giving up prospects? Did he think he could never be victim to baseball magic that got the team into the playoffs last year, but could never work against him? So many questions and the one thing Harris does well is use a lot of words to say absolutely nothing. I don’t even know what type of dressing he likes to go with his word salad. At this point nothing short of an ALCS appearance will get the bad taste out of fan’s mouths but that will be really hard to do as they are on a run to miss the dance entirely. But hey, what’s it matter? We have shiny prospects in the minors that will help us in the future as we waste the best years of Skubal in the present. Is that about right Mr. Harris?

[Amazin69]

Jim Bouton, Ball Four, page 360, entry for September 9th. (With thanks to Open Library):

The Mets is beautiful.

Here they are virtually tied with the Cubs and the panic is on in Chicago. Leo Durocher is not talking to the press, and I don’t have to be there to know that their clubhouse is like a morgue. And here’s the funny thing. The Mets have virtually the same record and they’re going crazy with joy. The players are happy, the manager is happy, the fans are happy. Now what’s the difference? It’s that the Mets won their games at a different stage of the season. The point is that right now they both have an equal chance to win the pennant, yet the Mets are up and the Cubs are down. And the Cubs are down because they think they should be down. Why? If they were as happy as the Mets they'd win more games.

Stay happy, Tigres. You're still in front. It's just eight days to go. And after today, those guys are all out of Twins games. Two out of three by the Lake and you should be good.