Tigers offense follows its leader into the ground against Rangers

The Tigers lost tonight 5-2 to the Texas Rangers in the opening game of this 3 game series. Thoughts on the game follow...

• In my pre game post, I should have made special note of the fact that we are an even worse offense on the road than we are at home. I correctly pointed out that Grandy should have a big night (a HR and two other singles) and he did. But, other stats are screaming at me right in the face and really cannot be ignored much longer. As a team, we have an OPS+ of 92 on the road (average is 100). At home, we have an OPS+ of 106. I guess I can take solace in the fact that we have more home games remaining than road games, but at some point our offense needs to kick it in high gear. Yes, even on the road.
• Perhaps the one player who most personifies our troubles on the road is Miguel Cabrera. At home, Miggy rakes to the tune of a 1.147 OPS. On the road, he has an OPS of .766. Now, Comerica Park has turned into a bit of a hitters park, but that should not explain such a dramatic drop off for him on the road. Tonight, with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the 5th inning, Cabrera had another chance to deliver on the road. Instead, he swung at ball 4 twice and eventually struck out on a high fastball that should have made the score 2-0. After that AB, the game changed, the Texas hitters started teeing off on Galaragga and that was all she wrote. Obviously, the usual caveats apply. One cannot expect a player to deliver in every situation and it is important to not make too much of one at bat. However, at some point, Cabrera needs to stop being cut slack. In addition to his poor numbers on the road, he bats worse with runners on and with runners in scoring position then he does in other situations. Lee at Tigers Tales also wrote a great post the other day that summed up Cabrera's "clutch" numbers. In short, they are the worst on the team with a "clutch" rating of -1.36. He needs to pick it up. Plain and simple.
• This will go down as one of our worst offensive performances of the year. Hunter came into the game with a lower K/9 ratio then the one Rick Porcello has posted this year. No matter. He still struck us out 6 times in 7 innings. His stuff was minimal at best and he even allowed Maggs to turn on a fastball for a double. Jim Leyland was not quick to salute him in the postgame show on FSN and this was not a game where one tips their cap to the opposing pitcher. Last night against Richard we were a little unlucky. I'm not sure what you call our performance tonight.
• Galaragga went 7 innings, allowed 7 baserunners and 4 ER. He threw 61 strikes on 100 pitches and threw first pitch strikes to half of the 28 batters he faced. I felt that the Rangers hitters bailed him out several times in the first couple innings when they should have been more patient at the plate. Then, once they settled down, Galaragga came unglued in the 6th inning. Basically, it comes down to this for Armando: he is a #5 starter and an average one at that. He is durable, eats innings and gives us a reasonable chance to win. There is value in that, but we might need more than that with Porcello's recent struggles.
• Ryan Perry was hit hard tonight for his first bad outing since he came back from Toledo. I won't read too much into that.. A couple more outings like that, though...
  
• White Sox lost so we are still up by 2 games. Twins are now just down by 3 games.
  

It it Vincente Padilla against Luke French tomorrow night. Padilla has the Swine Flu and Texas kills finesse pitchers like French. That should make for an entertaining game.