Detroit Tigers: Three takeaways from Blue Jays series

The Detroit Tigers enter their second series of the season with a .500 record after splitting the opening series with the Toronto Blue Jays.

While most Detroit Tigers fans would love to see their team finish the season with a .500 record, the first series of the season didn’t go quite as expected.

The ups and downs of the rebuild were evident against the Blue Jays, who are in a rebuild of their own. But, as the Tigers face the New York Yankees in their next three games, the weaknesses could become more pronounced.

The Tigers finished their Spring Training series with a .500 record, with a 15-15 record. They tied with the Atlanta Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Philadelphia Phillies. The Yankees won the Grapefruit League with a 17-10 record.

There were plenty of highlights to the Tigers Spring Training games, including Miguel Cabrera‘s five home runs, defeating the Blue Jays 18-6, and Daz Cameron‘s performance at the plate and in the field. Unfortunately, these highlights did not transfer in the move north.

Now that every team has completed at least one series, the Tigers are in the same place they were in the Grapefruit League – in the middle of the AL Central. As they travel to New York, they’ll face a Yankees team that has a record of 1-2, losing two games to the Baltimore Orioles – which is pretty much a Triple-A team at this point. (Can you name any of the current Orioles players?)

Of the three teams that the Tigers tied with in Spring Training, their first series results were mixed. The Braves are 0-3, the Pirates are 1-1, and the Phillies have yet to lose a regular-season game – after routing the Braves.

As we move into the second series, what were three big takeaways from the regular season Tigers?

The Detroit Tigers are leading the league in one stat, but not a stat that anyone wants to lead.

After four games, the Tigers have the most strikeouts in the MLB. (Technically, the Seattle Mariners have the most, but they’ve played six games and have 80 more at-bats). In 135 at-bats, the Tigers have 50 strikeouts.

The Tigers are sitting in 29th place in batting slash: .156/.250/.230. Only the Indians are in worse shape after their three-game series with the Minnesota Twins. The Tigers struggled even putting the ball into play.

In the first nine innings of game one, the Tigers didn’t get a hit until the 6th inning. Nicholas Castellanos recorded the first official hit of the season after three other Tigers landed on base with walks. Jeimer Candelario had the second hit of the game in the 7th. The most action happened in the 10th with Niko Goodrum hitting a double and Christin Stewart hitting a two-run home run. That was enough for the Tigers to get the win.

The second game saw even less Tigers offense. In the second game, no one landed on base until the 4th when Castellanos hit a double followed by Miguel Cabrera earning a walk. Stewart led off the 5th with a walk, the Castellanos hit his first triple of the season, but could not cross home plate. That was it. Two hits from Castellanos. The Jays won 6-0.

The third game wasn’t any better. Castellanos and Cabrera hit singles in the 1st inning. Cabrera hit a second single in the third, before being hit by a pitch in the sixth and being taken out of the game. Josh Harrison and Grayson Greiner also hit their way on base. Five hits and another shutout loss.

The lack of offense continued into the fourth game. If it weren’t for Candelario’s five-hit day, the Tigers would have lost the game. Goodrum also had a good day at the plate with five bases of his own. Greiner and Castellanos also recorded a hit each. Despite the plethora of K’s, the Tigers won this one in extra innings by a score of 4-3.

Tigers pitching was pretty darn good. And, it stayed that way through all four games, despite the lack of offensive support.

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Jordan Zimmermann put on a clinic in game one. He pitched seven innings and gave up one hit – of course after color announcer Jack Morris announced to the world that he had a no-hitter going. By the time he was pulled, Zimmermann recorded a WHIP of 0.14 that looks quite nice next to his 0.00 ERA.

This start brought back memories of Zimmermann’s debut with the Tigers. Remember April 2016, when he finished April with an ERA of 0.55? Let’s hope he can keep it up and the injuries can stay away.

Spencer Turnbull got the start in game two. After five innings, he gave up four hits that recorded three earned runs. He also gave up one home run. For his first start, his performance wasn’t bad. With only five innings under his belt, his ERA of 5.40 doesn’t look great, but his 1.200 WHIP and .222 average against isn’t bad.

The game three starter – Matt Boyd – also pitched five innings, recording an ERA of 5.40. His ERA doesn’t tell the story of his start as he recorded 10 strikeouts.

Matt Moore got the start in game four, and he didn’t disappoint. Like Zimmermann, he had a no-hitter going until the 6th inning when Urena hit a single. In what seemed like a bad case of deja vu, the single was hit after Morris announced the no-hitter on the Tigers TV broadcast. Maybe Morris should remember the old rule and stay quiet when a no-hitter is happening in Tigerland. Like Zimmermann, Moore pitched seven innings and finished the game with a 0.00 ERA and WHIP of 0.43.

The starters weren’t the only pitchers who saw success. Daniel Norris pitched two innings out of the pen and Shane Greene earned his first two saves. Rookie Reed Garrett, who was picked up in the Rule-5 draft from the Texas Rangers, threw his first Major League pitch in the second game of the series. He faced three batters in the eighth, earned his first strikeout, and an ERA and WHIP of 0.000.

Only two relievers struggled out of the pen. Joe Jimenez and Blaine Hardy gave up too many hits that were converted into runs. But, their unusually high ERAs will drop as they see more time on the mound in the next few games.

Hopefully, the pitching keeps up and the hitting improves as the Tigers face the Yankees in New York as we enter April The first two games start at 6:35 EDT. You can catch your Tigers on Fox Sports Detroit and on locally affiliated radio stations. #MotorOn