I don't see a lot of excuses for the Tigers right now. Carlos Guillen and Brandon Inge are back in the lineup. These aren't the Detroit Mud Hens like a couple weeks ago. They have added Jhonny Peralta, whose RBI production this season wasn't that far off the injured Magglio Ordonez's.
Tampa Bay is a really good team, but the Rays had been playing poorly coming to Comerica Park.
The White Sox have been hot, but those games were also in Detroit. The Tigers played tremendous baseball at home the first half of the season.
It's one thing to play bad baseball, it's another to be the worst in the major leagues. And that's exactly what the Tigers have been since the All Star break.
There were a couple wrong messages sent out. One was by general manager Dave Dombrowski when the Tigers were injury-plagued, but still very much in the race. He didn't move fast enough - and the season just went by while the Tigers were fielding the Detroit Mud Hens.
And secondly, when owner Mike Ilitch said Dombrowski and Leyland were going to be back. Now I really don't have any issue with that notion, but why say it when there is a third of the season remaining? Doesn't make for much accountability for the remainder of the season, does it?