The Tigers Sink To A New Low Against Cleveland

The Tarik Skubal injury is undeniably devastating. It’s brutal to lose your ace at any point during a season, and I would argue from a morale standpoint. It’s affected this team even more. Tarik is a guy who’s always going to bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm, which are two things that we haven’t seen from this team in weeks. I wish the issues that existed with this team right now were as simple as Skubal being out. They are not. This is a rotation that could be made up of five Tarik Skubal, and unless you’re going to twirl a gem every time out, you’re going to need to score more than a few runs if you want to win ball games. What we saw in September from this offense last year has carried over into 2026. It is a nightmare.

This is a horribly unlikable team to watch right now. Part of it doesn’t even feel real. The vibes of the Ballpark feel like they did back in the day, when Brandon Dixon was leading the team in home runs. I’m more than willing to give a team opportunities to get right, but what I said they couldn’t do is what they’re doing right now. They’re finding themselves too many games under .500 and too many games out of first. Let’s say things get relatively right over the next few weeks, and you’re still talking about a ball club that needs to put together a few months of great baseball just to get comfortably about .500 again. Right now, I’m not entirely sure that they can win a single game, let alone a series.

Tomorrow’s torture porn against the Cleveland Guardians continues. Keider Montero will be on the mountain trying to save the Tigers, going up against Parker Messick, a Lefty, who has been brilliant for the Guardians so far this season. You can look forward to some tremendous at-bats from guys like Matt Vierling and Jahmai Jones at the top of the order.