Drew Smyly made his seventh start of the season and for the sixth time this season he didn’t get a decision.  He still sits at 1-0 and he has yet to “lose” his first major league start.  A more telling look is the fact that the Tigers are 4-3 in his starts but in two of those losses, the opposition scored two runs or less (in the game, not just against Smyly.  Still, last night’s go against the White Sox was his first yet and it breaks his streak of starts where he went at least six innings (in his case, exactly six innings) and gave up two runs or less.  He also has the distinction of being the first left hander to give up a home run to Adam Dunn since 2010.

I’ve harped about the Tigers lack of depth so here it is one more time.  Luke Putkonen could turn out to be a servicable major league pitcher but right now, he needs to be in the minor leagues.  The fact that he’s with the team just goes to show how thin we are.  Of course this could be a segue into how most major league managers don’t use the bullpen correctly and if they did, they wouldn’t have to carry so many pitchers but we’ll save that one for another day.  Putkonen has pitched four times and in three of those, he’s given up runs.  This is also completely unrelated, but he’s only pitched in losses and two of those times he picked up the “L.”

And then we get to Duane Below who has been better then I expected.  For a soft thrower, he struck out four yesterday and that was only in two innings.  The guys who don’t bring the heat tend to get exposed eventually so hopefully Below can adapt as the season goes on.  So far, he’s been one of the few bright spots in the pen.

Today’s game is at 2:10 and it’ll be Max Scherzer against Jake Peavy.  Peavy has been one of the hotter pitchers of this short season so this could be a good one.  If we lose, we’ll fall behind the White Sox into third place so hopefully they can get it done.

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