The Tigers begin a 5-game series (doubleheader Saturday) tonight at home against the wild card leading Minnesota Twins. Detroit trails the Twins by 5 in the wild card chase, so, obviously, this is a huge series. This series will determine whether the Tigers will be contenders or pretenders the rest of the way. They must take at least 3 and, really, need to win 4 to make up significant ground.
Detroit is 10-8 since Maggs came off the DL, and 9-4 in its last 13. The Tigers are coming off winning 2 of 3 at Chicago, and should have swept. They need to keep the winning going and make up ground on the Twins this weekend because if they don't, I think they're pretty much out of luck. There are just too many teams in contention for the wild card that they would have to fight over.
Maggs is hitting .365-3-14 with an OPS of 1.016 since coming off the DL. A lot of people around him have been hitting, too. Chris Shelton is batting .373-5-16 with a 1.047 OPS during that span while Ro White is at .345-1-7 and Pudge is .316-3-7. Dmitri Young is batting just .208 but has 4 homers and 9 RBI in 12 games.
The Tigers have been playing without Placido Polanco (hamstring) since the All-Star break, but he is supposed to return to the lineup for this series. That should really solidify the lineup, which has been at full strength for only about 10 games this season.
Of course, the bullpen is in trouble after hearing Troy Percival might be done for the year. With the trade of Urbina, that leaves Kyle Farnsworth in the closers role. The Tigers went from being loaded for the 7-9 innings to having little depth. Jamie Walker, Fernando Rodney and Franklyn German have pitched well (although German's last 3 outings have been disappointing) and will need to step it up. Chris Spurling also had done the job, until his 3 HR implosion in Chicago this week.
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