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.

The Tigers might not have been able to get on base at a respectable pace, but defensively, the team looked pretty good.

The defensive highlight of the series was a catch by right-fielder Castellanos – who might be affectionately known as “Catchellanos” for the remainder of the series.

Critics have complained about Castellanos playing right field. Hopefully, after this acrobatic catch, those critics were quieted – at least for a few games.

Veteran shortstop Jordy Mercer may not have done anything at the plate (he had two walks), but he did prevent the Jays from winning in the 10th inning of the fourth game. After tipping a ball hit by Freddy Galvis, Mercer quickly crawled after it and threw a strike to Greiner at home plate who tagged out Richard Urena, saving the game.

Mikie Mahtook recorded an error on a play in the second game. With bases loaded, Galvis hit a single to centerfield.  Mahtook fumbled it, which allowed three runs instead of two runs to score. If In game three, Goodrum got the start in center field instead of Mahtook. By the end of the series, Mahtook did not get on base, not even with a walk.

I had my way, Daz Cameron would have been in center field instead of Mahtook.