The Tigers-Mariners Series

The Tigers have won 7 of the last 9, and just took 3 of 4 from the Mariners. Why am I so worried?

Taking 3 out of 4 from anybody this time of year - even the dreadful [18 under .500 coming in] Mariners is not a bad outcome.

But dig a little deeper. Two wins barely eked out, and the middle one a nail-biter into the 8th inning.

And the loss - OMG: an 8-0 thrashing in a game where Verlander had a decent, but not outstanding, start.  I don't know what I feel worse about, the 2nd most powerful offense in MLB [5.02 runs per game] getting shut out for the 11th time, vs only twice last year, or giving up 8 runs to the 25th best offensive team in MLB, with an average of 3.8 runs per game.

Plus, today's win might have been due to a bad call at the plate. None of the replay views I saw was definitive, but Prince was probably out.

[As an aside, I don't feel bad about aggressively running Prince from first on a double down into the left field corner. It takes perfect execution by three defenders {and the umpire} to get even the slow-footed Prince out.]

In the series, the Mariners actually outscored the Tigers, 16-15.

Fifteen runs in 4 games is a paltry 3.75 per.

Looking for a bright spot, 7 of the Tigers 15 runs came after inning 6 in this series, and they're at 30% for the month in late inning run production.

On the downside, the Mariners also got 7 runs after inning 6 - though 5 of them were in the 8-0 blow out.

The Tigers were really lucky to get three wins in this series against a team that they should have been able to toy with.

And that is not encouraging.