Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Don’t look now, but the Detroit Tigers have won four straight games. With their sweep of the Atlanta Braves and a game one victory over the Minnesota Twins, the Tigers have taken over first place in the American League Central.
For most of the last week, Detroit has been on fire, rolling off three straight wins to sweep the Braves and then one more in the series opener with the Twins.
What was the key to most of these wins? The great starting pitching.
The Tigers have had great pitching overall the last week, but the starters have been amazing. Anibal Sanchez struck out 17 on the way to club record. Also along for the ride has been Doug Fister and Rick Porcello, who have pitched a couple of great games themselves. Not to mention Max Scherzer, who seems to be a strikeout machine again this year.
The pitching has been unbelievable, but we can’t forget about the hitting. Over the last seven days, the Tigers have three players hitting over .400, them being Omar Infante, Miguel Cabrera, and Matt Tuiasosopo. On top of that, they have three more that are hitting over .300. Not too shabby if you ask me.
They will have to keep the hitting going if they want to continue on this winning streak. On Monday, the Tigers were able to squeak out a close one against the Twins thanks to a pair of home runs from Cabrera and Andy Dirks, but they will have to do better than that the next two days to take down Joe Mauer, Josh Willingham and the rest of the Twins.
If the Tigers manage to win one or two more games, I think it will be the longest winning streak I can remember. Last year, the Tigers had a hard time getting consecutive wins even though they did do a good job of not having long losing streaks either.
The way that Detroit is playing at the moment, I think they could sweep the series against the struggling pitching of the Twins. But at the same time, the hitting of Minnesota can get them a win on almost any day. Games two and three will be interesting to watch, without a doubt.
Eric Carlisle is a Detroit Tigers writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @EricCarlizle810, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
