One down, eight to go

Tigers disappointing ace Justin Verlander meets Yankees disappointing ace C.C. Sabathia tonight as Detroit begins a 3-game set vs. NY. It's the Tigs' only series against a non-AL Central team for a while.

On one of the other Tigers' blogs, there is a writer who breaks down the season into 9 "innings." That means each 18-game stretch is an "inning." Therefore, the Tigers are 10-8 after the first inning of the season --- and all alone in first place. I don't know that it has any value to break down the season in such fashion, but it's kind of neat thinking of the season as nine innings (which I think was the sole idea behind it).

Detroit was 6-12 last year after 18 games.

Last year the Tigers were batting .262/.343/.404 for .747 OPS. This season, Detroit is .276/.349/.432 for .781. Last year, the Tigers had 138 LOB; this year 120. Last year they had 15 HR; this year 21. Last year they averaged 4.1 runs per game; this year 5.7. The AL average for OPS is .773 and R/G is 5.1.

As for the pitching, the Tigers are allowing 4.7 runs per game compared to 6.2 last year. Their ERA is 4.39 compared to 5.70. They have 2 SHO compared to zero. They have a K/BB ratio of 2.09 compared to 1.14. And that's with Verlander pitching poorly and Jeremy Bonderman on the DL.