For those of you who flamed me for my last column, I can answer all of your emails with one simple statement:
No, I don’t do drugs.
But with that out the way, the Twins now have pretty much locked things up in the Central. They’re 4.5 games up, and Johann Santana threw a decent game yesterday (that’s all he needed) to beat the Tigers yesterday. Their magic number is five, and they have five more games against us, so things are looking pretty secure.
And not that the Tigers have played well all season, but it looks like they’re having one of their late season melt downs. Since their 3 game winning streak against the Indians earlier this month, the Tigers have now lost 14 out of 15, and are now 4 losses away from tying the 1962 Mets loss record.
Nate Robertson, another starting rotation hopeful, has really struggled. His first three starts were solid, but since then, he’s been shaky, giving up four or more runs in five or less innings in three of his last four starts.
The hitting continues to struggle as well. Take out Dmitri Young’s .880 OPS, and the next best hitter is Carlos Pena who has a .780 OPS. Just to compare this to another team, the Giants have five players at or above that number, with three or four just behind. And the Tigers jump above the Dodgers as the lowest scoing team in baseball was a short one, as the Dodgers have scored 10 more times, getting across the plate 545 times versus the Tigers 535.
The Tigers have 8 games left, and need to win 5 to get their name completely out of the record books. If I were a betting man, I’d say they’d go 2-6 the rest of the way, and finish 40-122.