It Feels Dead Around Here

There may have been a couple thousand fans left here at Comerica Park when today’s Tigers game ended, there certainly weren’t any more than that, and by “ended” I mean by the time the final out was recorded.  The game itself had ended, in a defacto sense, long before Detroit made their 27th offensive out. 

The final score was 12-2.  The game was probably over when Chicago, now 36-12 (.750!) since the Tigers beat ‘em in Chicago in June 8 to put the White Sox a season’s-worst 9 games under .500, scored four in the 3rd and another in the 4th for a 5-1 lead.  It was certainly over when the White Sox added two more in the 5th off Rick Porcello, the Detroit starter who on this day failed to survive the 5th, who fell to 4-10 on the year and who saw his ERA jump to an altogether unhealthy 5.91.

As a team, Detroit is now 11-19 (.367) since they were last in first place on June 28.  Since the All Star break, the Tigers are 4-15 (.211).  Play an entire season at a .211 clip, you are not just be bad, you are the worst team in Major League history since .211 ball means a 34-128 record.

The Tigers have fallen now from first place to 8 games out of first place in the span of 5 agonizing weeks and one ugly day. 

The White Sox and Tigers play again tonight and I’m going to go out on a limb here and call this one a must-win for Detroit.  Win and they will be where they were when the day began: 7 games out of first and in trouble big.  Lose and they are 9 off the pace and in a truly desperate fix.