Hot hitting

The Tigers over the last 6 games are slugging .545 (best in AL during span) while batting .318 (2nd) with 42 runs (2nd) and 9 HR (2nd). Playing the Royals, who looked nothing like the team that showed some spark in early April, is a help. But so, too, it seems was Daniel Cabrera throwing at Gary Sheffield.

As soon as I started worrying about Sean Casey, he goes 7-for-13 with two doubles. Craig Monroe says he stopped thinking, which led to a .348 BA the past six games. Those are two key bats in the bottom part of the order. Even Brandon Inge hit .227 over the last six (yes, not great, but double what he’d been hitting).

Now Detroit must overcome the loss of Joel Zumaya. Hard to imagine dislocating your finger (or whatever he really did) by throwing a ball. He will be the third key Tiger pitcher from last year that will either miss the entire year or part of it, joining Jamie Walker (gone to Baltimore) and Kenny Rogers (surgery).

In 2006, Rogers was 17-8 with a 3.84 ERA, Zumaya was 6-3 with a 1.94 ERA and Walker was 0-1 with a 2.81 ERA. Tough to lose those types of numbers.