DETROIT — The questions are coming more often now and they’re getting sharper.
What is going on with the Tigers, is what every Detroit fan wants to know, and is there a sense of urgency as the club plods along to the All-Star break.
“There definitely seems to be the sense that we need to start winning some games,” backup catcher Bryan Holaday said Thursday after Detroit lost, 8-4, to complete Pittsburgh’s sweep of the Tigers in their three-game inter-league series.
“I think I said (Wednesday),” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “We’re not combining things well.
“When we’re hitting, we’re not pitching, when we’re pitching, we’re not hitting. I think that’s another example. I don’t want to say we’re snake-bit because we gotta go out there and do it.
“To say you’re snake-bit is like you’re making an excuse. We gotta go out there and do it. I don’t want to have an excuse. I want to go out there and get it done. We have to do that.”
Detroit scored four runs in the last two innings Thursday and it seems a recent trend is for the club to dawdle along through the first half of the game and then try to turn on the jets in the last three innings.
The Tigers were down, 4-0, Thursday when a three-run home run by right fielder J.D. Martinez got them close. A four-run ninth by the Pirates put the game out of reach again.
Pittsburgh clubbed Detroit in the middle game of the series and Tuesday night rallied in the eighth (a two-run Martinez home run) and got the game to the 14th before falling.
Against the Chicago White Sox the previous game Detroit rallied to tie with four runs in the eighth and won on walk-off home run in the ninth.
“Oh, we’re definitely still in it,” Ausmus said. “To say that we’re out of it would be ludicrous.
“Quite frankly, the Pirates played much better than we did this series. We’ve been at .500 before.
“We’re middle of the season now. But we’re definitely still in this thing. Not for a second do I think we’re not in this thing.”
But playing losing baseball will ratchet up the number of questions and rile up the fans, whose expectations for the Tigers in recent seasons have been high.
“I think sometimes in my experience there’s something that sparks a team and sometimes for an unknown reason, a team turns around,” Ausmus said, “whether it’s a gradual turnaround or a spark that turns it around. you just don’t know.
“It’s possible, maybe a spark, maybe something helps, whether it’s — I don’t want to say a brawl but something, whether it’s a big hit or a big game. We hoped the White Sox game on Sunday would have maybe been a spark.
“Four days later we’re looking at a sweep at the hands of the Pirates. You just don’t know what it is. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes you don’t need it.
“We need to pitch better. We haven’t pitched well recently. There’s no question we need to pitch better. The backbone of a good baseball team is generally pitching, pitching and defense.”
