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Most important team standing in Detroit Tigers path to AL Central Title (and it's not the White Sox)
At first glance, the Kansas City Royals don't appear to be a particularly ominous foe for the Detroit Tigers.
The Royals have the third-worst record in the American League (56-71).
But as we've seen before as the Royals relate to specifically to the Tigers, looks can be deceiving (2006 is the most glaring example, but there have other years and other times when the Royals have unpleasantly "surprised" the Tigers.)
The Tigers have 10 more games remaining with the Royals, beginning tonight in Kansas City - nearly 30 percent of their remaining 35 games. Seven of those games at Kansas City.
The Royals have lost five of their last seven games - all on the road - to Tampa Bay and Boston, but still have a 14-11 record in August. They have already had a strong bearing on the AL Central race, winning 5-of-6 games this month from the division-leading White Sox. They also won two of three during a home series with Oakland, and split a four-game road series with Baltimore - both AL wildcard contenders - this month.
The Royals have a bad home record on the surface - 26-33. It's misleading because the Royals lost their first 10 home games this season. Since then, they are 26-23 at home, including winning seven of their last eight home games against Texas, Oakland and the White Sox. Conversly, the Tigers have been a below .500 team on the road this season (30-32), the only below .500 road club among those looking at serious contention for the playoffs in the American League.
The Tigers have seven more games remaining with the White Sox. Those are important, but they must do what the White Sox couldn't against the seemingly lowly Royals earlier this month - pick up ground. That's especially true given the White Sox late-September schedule that includes with the Angels and the Rays, who both figure to still be fighting for their playoff lives at that point. The White Sox have six games remaining with the Royals.
The Royals have the third-worst record in the American League (56-71).
But as we've seen before as the Royals relate to specifically to the Tigers, looks can be deceiving (2006 is the most glaring example, but there have other years and other times when the Royals have unpleasantly "surprised" the Tigers.)The Tigers have 10 more games remaining with the Royals, beginning tonight in Kansas City - nearly 30 percent of their remaining 35 games. Seven of those games at Kansas City.
The Royals have lost five of their last seven games - all on the road - to Tampa Bay and Boston, but still have a 14-11 record in August. They have already had a strong bearing on the AL Central race, winning 5-of-6 games this month from the division-leading White Sox. They also won two of three during a home series with Oakland, and split a four-game road series with Baltimore - both AL wildcard contenders - this month.
The Royals have a bad home record on the surface - 26-33. It's misleading because the Royals lost their first 10 home games this season. Since then, they are 26-23 at home, including winning seven of their last eight home games against Texas, Oakland and the White Sox. Conversly, the Tigers have been a below .500 team on the road this season (30-32), the only below .500 road club among those looking at serious contention for the playoffs in the American League.
The Tigers have seven more games remaining with the White Sox. Those are important, but they must do what the White Sox couldn't against the seemingly lowly Royals earlier this month - pick up ground. That's especially true given the White Sox late-September schedule that includes with the Angels and the Rays, who both figure to still be fighting for their playoff lives at that point. The White Sox have six games remaining with the Royals.
posted by Pat Caputo at
1:30 PM
4 Comments:
I don't know but if the Tigers can't beat a 0.441 winning percentage' team then let's just clear the lockers and go golfing.
It's prime time and if the horses don't perform, good bye. See ya next year.
How are you going to beat the Yankees or Texas if you can't beat KC?
Anonymous, that's been the irony of the last 6 seasons. In 2006 KC swept the Tigers in the final series to let the Twinkies win the AL Central, but the boys went on anyway to beat the Yankers and the A's ... See chapter 2 of Tiger fan handbook entitled - We alwsys lose to weaker teams.
Chapter 3 is "Who are we gonna blame now".
Book - this Anonymous commentor at top - he's right. We should demand this team seal this deal long before we ever got to August. And to lose like that late in the season to KC - with as good a team as this - it's unprecdedented except for every year at least since 2006.
And that Verlander guy - Cy Young MVP my &^%&( - we need to trade him for a slew of left handed left fielders And Cabrera striking out in the 9th with Jackson on second - unacceptable - and then - then Young hitting that homerun so close to the foul post you couldn't tell if it was fair or not? A great hitter would have hit it fair - and that's what we demand here dammit!
I think it's Leyland's fault for letting Verlander pitch in the second inning - what a bum.
Fred is right ... one could say that we are monday morning QBs but Verlander was like throwing batting practice. Yeah, Verlander does rebound a lot but Leyland should have taken the ball and just said "hey this happens, go take a rest". We have our work cut out in pitching the rest of the way.
Pat, what gets me is that you are like Leyland. It's like "oh, this team is playing well. We just didn't get this or that". Let's be mamby pandys. I think Leyland is part of the problem, hey, that's just baseball.
Come on guys, you're getting paid big bucks to perform so by the way, we have just 35 games so do you want to kind of focus?
I don't buy these Detroit writers and coaches that just say that's just baseball, you win some and lose some. This opponent team is playing well.
Come on, crank it. Play like you're a legitimate playoff team.
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