DETROIT -- It does, in many ways, feel inexplicable.
The Detroit Tigers boast a lineup with some of the game’s most dangerous hitters. The team leads in almost every offensive statistical category. Individuals such as Miguel Cabrera and Ian Kinsler are having excellent seasons.
And yet, there continue to be games where the club cannot find that timely hit, that big bat when it is needed most.
“When teams struggle, they either don’t get hits or you scatter hits and when you do get the opportunity to have a big inning, you don't get the big hit,” manager Brad Ausmus said. “Today was a kind of a case where we got some hits, but we don’t really get the big hit ... or keep any sustained rally. The hits have been kind of scattered.”
The Tigers finished with nine hits Sunday. Cabrera recorded his 35th multi-hit game of the season with a pair of singles -- he is batting a dazzling .548 in the last eight games -- and Kinsler’s torrid pace continues, as he added a single to extend his hitting streak to six games. Rookie catcher James McCann displayed his power with a fourth-inning triple to deep center, but the Tigers could not pool their production to get results. Instead, they surrendered the series to the Texas Rangers with a 4-2 loss to fall to five games under .500 (59-64).
No doubt it is becoming a frustrating phenomenon for everyone involved.
Cabrera sat at his locker, visibly agitated as Kinsler fielded questions about the team’s current situation. He snapped at a reporter in a nearby scrum for being too negative and stewed at his stall. Clearly upset, he declined to answer questions and asked to be left alone.
He wasn’t alone in feeling perturbed.
“We’re supposed to produce six runs a game? Is that how baseball works?” Kinsler asked.
The 33-year-old veteran explained that it’s not that easy.
“You can’t just be an offensive team,” Kinsler said. “You have to be able to perform all aspects of the game.”
Kinsler is right, and it is only fair to point the obvious -- that the Tigers are dealing with an injury-ravaged pitching staff that sent two more members of its starting rotation to the 15-day disabled list this week. The team ranks 27th in the league with a 4.45 ERA. Defensively, though, they have done well, with the 7th-ranked fielding percentage (.986) and some of the most sure-handed players in the American League such as Kinsler (save for a few recent errors) and outfielder J.D. Martinez, who leads the American League with 14 outfield assists. McCann, too, has shown promise -- he made a superb throw from his knees to catch Ryan Strausborger attempting to steal second during Sunday's game.
If there is a positive to take from this bristling, it is that the Tigers have not grown complacent. Regardless of their place in the standings, they have no interest in caving just because their postseason chances appear bleak. They are not here to have fun and enjoy the August weather.
“It’s part of the game, regardless of what position you’re in,” said Kinsler, who has excelled in recent weeks, and again this past series against his former club. “You still have to keep playing, you still have to compete and continue to put good at-bats together and hopefully, we can put some runs on the board.”
Blaine Hardy, a consistent and valuable member of the team’s bullpen, saw his streak of 84 2/3 innings without surrendering a home run snapped when Mike Napoli took him deep in the eighth inning. It just seems that’s the way things are going right now for the Tigers, currently mired in a three-game losing streak.
“It feels like the stars aren’t aligning,” Hardy said.
Ausmus admitted that there’s not much to do when the team is in such a predicament besides having faith that things will take a turn.
“You can’t say ‘Hey, go get a hit’,” Ausmus said, “That’s not how baseball works. You give them the information -- [hitting coaches] Wally Joyner and David Newhan -- give them the information as far as what to be prepared for when they go to the plate. They work on their swings, they go to batting practice, they take their soft tosses or tee work. They’re obviously good hitters. They have good numbers. But right now, we’re not getting the big hit to drive in the big runs.”