Tigers hitting a rough patch

Not long ago, the Detroit Tigers had just won the first two games of a four-game set against the upstart Houston Astros to move to 26-17 on the season. Things were looking up for the Tigers, but what’s followed has been ugly.

Detroit lost the last two games of the series against Houston and the first game of a three-game set against the Oakland Athletics. The Tigers momentarily stopped the bleeding with two wins to close out the series against the A’s, but the road trip out on the West Coast turned disastrous with a four-game sweep at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels.

Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

With those four straight losses and seven losses in nine games, Detroit is now just 28-24 and 3½ games behind the first-place Minnesota Twins, who are threatening the Astros for best record in the AL. The Tigers also now have a negative run differential after getting outscored by 16 runs in the series against Los Angeles.

The ugliest game of the four-game sweep was the first one when the Angels stomped Detroit, 12-2. Los Angeles shelled Tigers starter Buck Farmer, who was making his first start of the season after being recalled from the minors. Farmer gave up seven runs in five-plus innings and the bullpen didn’t help the cause.

The next three games were all two-run defeats, and in two of those games Detroit couldn’t find enough offense, while the other featured a god-awful pitching performance from Shane Greene. Greene couldn’t even finish two innings and gave up seven runs.

This very well could just be a small blip on the radar in a long season. The Tigers have had a lot of recent success and still have one of the best hitters in the league in Miguel Cabrera and an ace in David Price. Anibal Sanchez should pitch better, and perhaps Justin Verlander provides a spark when he returns to the rotation from injury.

Detroit still has 5/1 odds to win the AL pennant, the second-best odds behind the Kansas City Royals, per Bovada. The Tigers’ odds to win the World Series are at 14/1. I’d expect a turnaround sometime soon.