Kuzul

Is the baseball season really a marathon? Or, can injuries, poor play, and bad luck end your season in just a couple of weeks? The Detroit Tigers will be able to answer that question rather quickly.

After a mediocre first two months of the season, the Detroit Tigers scratched and clawed their way to the division lead on June 28. As the Minnesota Twins spun their wheels in first place, objects in their mirror were closer than they appeared. 

The Detroit Tigers were sparked by an 8-1 stretch during interleague play against Pittsburgh, Washington, and Arizona. The Twins were swept by the last-place Milwaukee Brewers and had given back what was a five-game cushion in the AL Central. With Justin Morneau going down with a concussion just before the All-Star break, the Minnesota Twins looked like they could be the odd team out in a division that was thought to be there for the taking.

An awful start by Tigers pitcher Andrew Oliver allowed Minnesota to avoid a sweep at home to the Tigers in their final game before the break, so instead of being five games behind the Tigers, the Twins were only three-and-a-half games behind the streaking Chicago White Sox. Not only did the Tigers let the Twins inch closer, but the White Sox, behind a 25-5 record in June, took over the division lead by a half-game.

Out of the break the Tigers couldn’t have played any worse. They were swept by the last-place Cleveland Indians in a four-game set at Progressive Field. They followed that up by losing the first two to the Texas Rangers by a combined score of 16-6. The Tigers offense scored only 12 runs in the first six games out of the break, and the pitching staff allowed seven or more runs, four times.

Then the a freight train of injuries stormed through the Tigers clubhouse, pretty much ending any chance they had of contending this season. First, Joel Zumaya went down before the break with a fractured olecranon in his throwing arm. After the break, a series of injuries began on July 22 when Brandon Inge was hit by a pitch and broke his hand. He went to the DL and is expected to miss six to eight weeks. Following that up, on July 24 Magglio Ordonez broke his ankle sliding into home plate and was immediately placed on the DL and will miss six to eight weeks as well.

With the Twins and Sox playing well over the past week or so, the Tigers have fallen five-and-a-half games behind the White Sox and four-and-a-half behind the Twins. The White Sox are reportedly favored to acquire perennial power hitter Adam Dunn.

The Twins are in search of pitching help and with the continued absence of Justin Morneau, they could be in search of a right-handed bat to balance out their left-handed dominant lineup.

The Tigers acquisition of Jhonny Peralta from the Indians can’t hurt the team, but it’s likely too little too late. Losing three top-tier athletes in less than a month looks to be too much to overcome for manager Jim Leyland. The Tigers might be better off selling off assets this season to build towards next year. By the time Ordonez and Inge put on their cleats again, the division should be all but sewn up.

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The burning question among Twins fans is whether or not their ball club needs to make a deadline move to bolster an inconsistent pitching staff.

A starting rotation led by the unlikeliest of aces, Carl Pavano, had their best week in over a month. The Twins are one game behind the Chicago White Sox and have jumped the suddenly reeling Detroit Tigers.

General Manager Bill Smith will have to weigh whether the recent success is smoke in mirrors against poor opponents or whether it is actual signs of improvement. His decision will ultimately determine if the Twins will be challenging for a World Series title in October or will be struggling to win their division in late September.

The starting staff of Carl Pavano, Francisco Liriano, Scott Baker, Brian Duensing, and Kevin Slowey combined for a 4-0 record, 34 innings pitched, 21 hits allowed, a 1.06 ERA, and 23 strikeouts in their most recent run through the rotation. The superb numbers can be contributed to a number of factors. Most importantly, playing the worst team in baseball, the Baltimore Orioles (31-68).

Or, is it possible the Twins have solved all of their pitching problems up front when they dipped into the bullpen for Brian Duensing last Friday? Nick Blackburn had won only one start since June 1st. Opponents were batting .378 with 11 home runs and an on-base percentage of .427. Blackburn, a sinker-ball pitcher, had been working with pitching coach, Rick Anderson extensively on keeping his fastball down in the zone.

After the Twins came back to win in Blackburn’s last start on July 18, Blackburn said, “I don’t know how much longer they’re going to keep putting up with this stuff.” He was shipped out to the pen prior to his next scheduled outting. In his only relief appearance, he gave up three runs, on five hits, in two innings.

Duensing picked up the start this past Friday against Baltimore. He pitched five innings and gave up one earned-run over five solid innings of work. He was limited due to a strict pitch count enforced by pitching coach, Rick Anderson.

“We wanted to keep his pitch count around 65, we will add about 15 pitches each start, and work forward from there,” stated Anderson. Duensing didn’t factor in the decision, but gave the Twins a chance exiting the game with the Twins up 2-1. The lead he earned was lost when Luke Scott hit a two-run home run off rookie Anthony Slama the very next inning.

Duensing will start Wednesday against the Kansas City Royals on the road. He has a career ERA of 4.84 against the Royals. He has had a bit of trouble controlling the right-handed hitters from Kansas City. It will be a good start to measure his progress as a pitcher thus far through his career.

The tools he has learned as a reliever should translate over into his mechanics as a starting pitcher. His ability to get right-handed batters out will be the deciding factor in his effectiveness as a starting pitcher in the MLB.

You can bet on both Gardenhire and Smith keeping a close eye on what goes on through the end of the month. If Duensing has trouble on Wednesday, I would bet on the Twins making a move to add a piece to the front-end of their rotation. If things go smoothly, odds are they will wait for the waiver and non-waiver deadlines.

The bullpen is definitely in need of some live arms. The front office doesn’t have a choice in waiting for bullpen help. The make-shift pen of waiver claims from last year have not met the hopes of management. Jon Rauch, Ron Mahay, Jose Mijares, and Alex Burnett are all expendable.

With the only effective left-hander now in the starting rotation, the Twins are in dire need of some help to close out games.

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