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Sweep of White Sox shows things starting to congeal for Tigers
- Updated: June 5, 2016
7:06 PM ET
It wasn’t so long ago that the Detroit Tigers were mired in an all-out freefall. Losses were piling up, frustration was mounting and questions — about manager Brad Ausmus’ job, some of the club’s underperforming stars, and the direction of the organization as a whole — persisted.
Every night seemed replete with its own calamity of errors, a unique little horror show offering up the sort of indignities that chip away relentlessly at a team’s psyche.
If that 10-losses-in-11-games stretch was the nadir of this still-young 2016 season, then the Detroit Tigers seem to be reaching a peak right now following the club’s weekend sweep of the Chicago White Sox.
The three-game series culminated in Sunday’s 5-2 finale, in which the Tigers clawed back to the .500 mark (28-28) and gained critical ground against one of their AL Central rivals.
Sunday’s win was a shining example of what the Tigers can look like when all is well — starting pitching was stellar, the offense provided timely and balanced production, defense was crisp and the bullpen was resolute. The White Sox managed to fortify their ranks with the acquisition of veteran pitcher James Shields on Saturday — bolstering an already strong rotation — but they ceded critical ground to a divisional foe and will head home knowing that the battle within the Central will likely not be a two-team race.
“This has been a high point, I’d say, from where we’ve been,” said catcher James McCann. “Pitching has been extremely good, starters and bullpen. Offense did a very good job of fighting, battling, stringing good at-bats together. There have been times this season that we’ve had the baserunners but haven’t had the base hit. This series we were able to put everything together. Hopefully, the momentum carries and we can continue to roll.”
Tigers starter Justin Verlander allowed two runs on five hits in seven innings in Sunday’s win over the White Sox. Rick Osentoski/USA TODAY Sports
A little more than one-third of the way into the season, it …
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