Brad Ausmus after Tuesday's loss.
The optimists, the ones who still see great talent, are still waiting for the Tigers to turn it around and make a beeline for first place, or at least a wild card spot..
The Tigers are trying to figure out if they should start selling off the pieces or make a key acquisition or two before the July 31 trade deadline. Each game seems so crucial.
But Detroit News columnist Bob Wojnowski writes about Tuesday night's painful 11-9 loss against Seattle:
Detroit — In a season of crushing blows, this was merely the latest, and perhaps the loudest. In one fateful game, the Tigers bared all their ugly wares, just in case anyone had forgotten.
This might be the one that kills them, unless it was the crusher a couple weeks ago, or one of the crushers before that. The Tigers lost as they have way too often, with awful starting pitching and an awful bullpen. Slap this one on the evidence wall at trade deadline time.
The Tigers fell to the Mariners 11-9 Tuesday night when their latest grasp for relief hope blew it. This time it was Neftali Feliz, recently released by the Rangers, who surrendered five runs in the eighth inning, including a grand slam to pinch-hitter Franklin Gutierrez. The bullpen was on its standard comical merry-go-round because Shane Greene was brutal again, knocked out in the fifth inning.
Wojo doesn't express much hope:
It’s not fixable in the short term, and Dombrowski indeed probably will have to do something he almost never has done here — sell off parts. David Price and Yoenis Cespedes are the primary trade possibilities, and it would be a painful exodus for owner Mike Ilitch. A little hot streak could have altered plans, and it’s still advisable for the Tigers to wait it out before dealing. But they seem incapable of sustaining anything.
