ARLINGTON -- Everybody in baseball needs a break by the time the All-Star festivities arrive in the middle of July every year, but the Tigers were especially due for a breather. Despite boasting the AL’s best record and an MLB-best six players on the All-Star squad, the Tigers staggered into the break with a taxed bullpen and a four-game losing streak. Four days’ rest would no doubt do the club good.
Too bad they didn’t get one more day off. In Friday’s return to action, against the Rangers at Globe Life Field, the Tigers dropped a pitching duel, 2-0, in which offensive opportunities were scant and the margin for error for the Detroit bullpen was zero.
The Tigers have now lost five games in a row for the first time this season, although they still have the best record through 98 games than any Tigers club since 2007.
“I don't really think our guys think about streaks either way,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “We will bounce back and we're going to be fine. We've got to play a little bit better and make the right pitches and make the plays and put up a little bit of offense and what we’ve done for 90-plus games.”
On Friday, Detroit fought Texas to a scoreless tie through seven innings, but Tigers reliever Tommy Kahnle earned the loss when he allowed a two-run double to Corey Seager in the eighth. The Tigers couldn’t break through against Rangers starting pitcher Patrick Corbin, with only three hits and two walks in his 5 2/3 innings.
“We had a hard time putting quality at-bats together,” Hinch said.
Detroit has been vying to become the first MLB team to reach 60 wins this season for five games in a row, but it's fallen short each time. Still, even with the losing skid, no club has surpassed the Tigers' 59 wins yet. What’s more, five-game losing streaks are not uncommon even among elite teams -- three of the six division leaders right now have had a losing skid at least that long this season. The Dodgers recently dropped seven in a row and both the Blue Jays and Phillies have amassed five-game losing streaks.
“It’s part of the season,” Tigers second baseman Gleyber Torres said. “I don’t think it’s going to be forever ... it sounds weird, but I’d prefer it happen right now to happening in September. We’re still in a good position in our division. We don’t take anything for granted, but it’s just the way it’s happening right now.”
Indeed, the Tigers’ 11-game lead in the American League Central is far and away the largest cushion any division leader has right now. No one else is up more than five games. That fact, along with a promising performance from starting pitcher Reese Olson in his third outing since returning from nearly two months on the injured list, represented about all the solace the Tigers could take from Friday’s loss.
Olson departed after giving up a double to lead off the sixth inning -- only the second hit off Olson all night. He walked one and struck out six. Olson’s strikeout rate had dipped since coming off the IL; he had fanned only four opposing hitters over 9 1/3 innings in two starts. But he induced 13 swings and misses Friday, much better than the five whiffs he had against the Rays on July 9. All six of his strikeouts Friday were swinging.
“I felt a little bit more normal than I had my first two starts back,” said Olson, who landed on the IL on May 18 with right ring finger inflammation and returned to the Tigers on July 4.