The Detroit Tigers emerged victorious in 2 out of 3 games against the Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend, notably dominating with a 13-0 win on Friday night at Chase Field in Phoenix. Despite being the defending National League champions, the Diamondbacks have struggled this season, and the Tigers capitalized on their woes. Saturday’s game saw D-backs manager Torey Lovullo involved in a heated exchange with Tigers starter Jack Flaherty, though tensions simmered down without any major escalation. Nevertheless, the weekend series was marked by intense competition in the desert.
After Sunday’s game was over, Lovullo spoke to the media and was quite complimentary of the Tigers — perhaps even too complimentary.
Tigers news: D-backs manager makes wildly inaccurate comments after loss
Lovullo said, “The Tigers are a good team. I would not be surprised if they made a lot of noise inside of the AL Central. They’re finding their way.” That’s a fair assessment. The Tigers have shown that if everything comes together there’s a chance that Detroit will actually be in contention for the AL Central this season.
But then Lovullo’s comments went from pleasantries to outright fabrications. “They do a really good job with two outs,” Lovullo said, “You can’t put them away. You can’t finish them off.” Wait a minute, is there another team named the Tigers who also plays Major League Baseball? Because if Lovullo is talking about the team that resides in Detroit, he might want to so some fact checking.
Torey, you’re not quite hitting the mark here. The Tigers’ performance in clutch situations this season, particularly with two outs, has been far from stellar. Their batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage with two outs are all below par, ranking them 20th in OPS among all MLB teams.
According to Jason Beck of MLB.com, Maeda has returned to the Tigers at Kauffman Stadium for their upcoming series against the Kansas City Royals. Although the Tigers probably won’t activate him until just before his next start, it seems Maeda has demonstrated his readiness to rejoin the rotation. Expect the Tigers to reactivate Maeda later this week.
