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The News' Tony Paul gives his quick takes on the Tigers' 9-4 loss to the Mets on Thursday:
Gage Workman isn't enough for the Tigers, but he's doing his part — at least, with the bat.
The former Tigers prospect, who returned to the organization last year after winding his way through the Rule 5 portal, has four hits for the team that drafted him in 2020. All of them are for extra-base hits:
Workman, 26, hit his first major-league home run Sunday to help the Tigers salvage one game in the series against the Kansas City Royals. His second home run came Thursday, staking the Tigers to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, as they tried to salvage one game in the series against the Mets. (No spoiler alert: That didn't work out.) Workman added a double in Thursday's game, and was 4-for-his-first-9 with the Tigers. Not too shabby for a player wearing No. 99 not named Aaron Judge.
Of course, as is the case with so many Tigers these days, it's been one step forward, one step back for Workman, who has two errors in his four games with Detroit, and also got the poor jump to third base in the fourth inning, leading to an out on Zach McKinstry's single in what was looking like a possible big inning for the Tigers. Instead, it went from runners on the corners with nobody out to a runner on first with one out. Yes, replays seemed to suggest Workman was safe (AJ Hinch was ejected when replay upheld the call), but Workman made it too close.
And right now, if you leave things up to chance, I don't like the Tigers' chances.
There are too many candidates to choose from, being so early in the season, but that had to be the worst series of the Tigers' season. Not only were they swept by a disaster of a Mets team, the Tigers actually led in all three games — 2-0 in the first two, and 3-0 on Thursday.
The offense scored in four innings, three of them early in the ballgame — mostly never to be heard from again. The pitching was meh at best, poor at worst (and mostly). The defense was absolutely pathetic (the exception being some fantastic play from shortstop Kevin McGonigle.) The energy level was dead, dead, dead, like an iPhone battery in negative-20 degrees. Yes, the umpiring was bad, too, but good teams overcome the unfortunate breaks, while bad teams tuck their tail, drop their head and quietly board the team jet back to Detroit.
And more and more, this is looking like a not-so-hot Tigers team, which now is 19-25, a season-worst six games under .500. The Tigers were swept for the fourth time this season, and second time in less than two weeks. They needed to stay afloat without Tarik Skubal. They're now 1-8 P.S. (Post Skubal.)
The sky's not falling. It's still early. But the thing about being early is, eventually, it won't be early anymore.
(Season total in parentheses)
▶ Riley Greene (12)
▶ Kevin McGonigle (12)
▶ Juan Soto
(Season total in parentheses)
▶ Gage Workman (2)
Traditional home whites: 11-4
Alternate home oranges: 1-1
Motor City Connect home blues: 0-1
Traditional road grays: 5-14
Alternate road blues: 2-5
▶ Game 45: Blue Jays at Tigers, 6:45 Friday, Detroit SportsNet, 97.1
ICYMI: Yesterday's Tigers recap
[email protected]
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit Tigers recap, Game 44: One thing I loved, one thing I didn't
Continue reading...
One thing I loved
Gage Workman isn't enough for the Tigers, but he's doing his part — at least, with the bat.
The former Tigers prospect, who returned to the organization last year after winding his way through the Rule 5 portal, has four hits for the team that drafted him in 2020. All of them are for extra-base hits:
- Hit No. 1: Home run
- Hit No. 2: Double
- Hit No. 3: Home run
- Hit No. 4: Double
Workman, 26, hit his first major-league home run Sunday to help the Tigers salvage one game in the series against the Kansas City Royals. His second home run came Thursday, staking the Tigers to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, as they tried to salvage one game in the series against the Mets. (No spoiler alert: That didn't work out.) Workman added a double in Thursday's game, and was 4-for-his-first-9 with the Tigers. Not too shabby for a player wearing No. 99 not named Aaron Judge.
Of course, as is the case with so many Tigers these days, it's been one step forward, one step back for Workman, who has two errors in his four games with Detroit, and also got the poor jump to third base in the fourth inning, leading to an out on Zach McKinstry's single in what was looking like a possible big inning for the Tigers. Instead, it went from runners on the corners with nobody out to a runner on first with one out. Yes, replays seemed to suggest Workman was safe (AJ Hinch was ejected when replay upheld the call), but Workman made it too close.
And right now, if you leave things up to chance, I don't like the Tigers' chances.
One thing I didn't
There are too many candidates to choose from, being so early in the season, but that had to be the worst series of the Tigers' season. Not only were they swept by a disaster of a Mets team, the Tigers actually led in all three games — 2-0 in the first two, and 3-0 on Thursday.
The offense scored in four innings, three of them early in the ballgame — mostly never to be heard from again. The pitching was meh at best, poor at worst (and mostly). The defense was absolutely pathetic (the exception being some fantastic play from shortstop Kevin McGonigle.) The energy level was dead, dead, dead, like an iPhone battery in negative-20 degrees. Yes, the umpiring was bad, too, but good teams overcome the unfortunate breaks, while bad teams tuck their tail, drop their head and quietly board the team jet back to Detroit.
And more and more, this is looking like a not-so-hot Tigers team, which now is 19-25, a season-worst six games under .500. The Tigers were swept for the fourth time this season, and second time in less than two weeks. They needed to stay afloat without Tarik Skubal. They're now 1-8 P.S. (Post Skubal.)
The sky's not falling. It's still early. But the thing about being early is, eventually, it won't be early anymore.
Three stars
(Season total in parentheses)
▶ Riley Greene (12)
▶ Kevin McGonigle (12)
▶ Juan Soto
Player of the game
(Season total in parentheses)
▶ Gage Workman (2)
Tigers' uniform tracker
Traditional home whites: 11-4
Alternate home oranges: 1-1
Motor City Connect home blues: 0-1
Traditional road grays: 5-14
Alternate road blues: 2-5
Next Tigers game
▶ Game 45: Blue Jays at Tigers, 6:45 Friday, Detroit SportsNet, 97.1
ICYMI: Yesterday's Tigers recap
[email protected]
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit Tigers recap, Game 44: One thing I loved, one thing I didn't
Continue reading...
