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On Thursday afternoon, the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins played the final contest of a three-game set. Behind an offense that awoke from a prolonged slumber and a stellar outing from 2013 AL ERA champion Anibal Sanchez, the Tigers were able to outscore the Twins by a score of 13-1, taking the series two games to one.
Sanchez, who entered the contest with a record of 2-4 to go along with a 5.44 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP, twirled eight innings, allowing only five hits, one earned run and one walk. He also recorded nine strikeouts in what was quite arguably his best overall outing of the season. Sanchez is now 3-4 with a 4.76 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP on the year.
Since joining the Tigers in July of 2012, Sanchez has been hampered by the injury bug at times, but he has typically been absolutely terrific when available. Over the offseason, many Tigers fans believed that getting a full season out of Sanchez would go a long way in making up for the losses of Rick Porcello and Max Scherzer.
Although Sanchez has been able to stay healthy up to this point, he hasn’t necessarily pitched the way that he is capable of. In eight starts this year, Sanchez has given up five or more earned runs on three separate occasions. Furthermore, although he only gave up four home runs over 126 innings of work all of last season, he has already given up six so far in 2015.
Going forward, the Tigers are going to need Sanchez to stay sharp and be a stabilizing force in what has been a rather up-and-down starting staff. Detroit still has a legitimate ace in David Price, who is currently dealing with a mild hamstring strain which hopefully isn’t too serious, but there are plenty of question marks after him.
Sure, Alfredo Simon has been quite good up to this point, but he will need to avoid having another second-half swoon like the one he had last year while pitching for the Cincinnati Reds. When it comes to Shane Greene, it would suffice to say that the 26-year-old sinkerballer has experienced some extreme highs and lows over his first seven starts as a member of the Tigers.
While Kyle Lobstein has certainly done a nice job for the most part, he had a rough start on Wednesday, giving up seven hits and six earned runs over 2.1 innings of work against the Twins, so there may be a question as to how much longer he will be able to patch the Justin Verlander-sized hole in the Tigers’ rotation. Plus, the issue of what to expect from Verlander upon his return may be one of the biggest mysteries of all.
To put it simply, it doesn’t look like things are going to get any easier in the AL Central, and getting good starting pitching is going to be essential to the Tigers’ hopes of winning their fifth consecutive division crown. Detroit is going to need Sanchez to be at his best.
Brad Faber is a Senior Writer and Sabermetrics Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Brad_Faber, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on LinkedIn or Google.
