So I see now many Tigers fans are now piling on Rick Porcello, calling him worthless, citing his now near 5 ERA is terrible, etc, etc.
Well, give up 8 ER in any given start and you'll probably see a jump in that ERA. But chalk it up to 1 bad game, the first he has had in his last six. People have already forgotten that he went 5-0 in July, with a 3.06 for the month. My brain tells me those are very good numbers.
A bigger issue to me other than a bad night or two, is the timing. I'm going to assume that no pitcher (not even Verlander) is going to pitch a perfect game every night out. Porcello left a lot of his pitches up, the sinker fastball just wasn't sinking, and a lot of balls got his very hard, and all over the place. Fine. But, in the end, it was a ballgame vs. your closest division competitor, a long time rival, your hated neighbor.
After Porcello's loss last night, the Tigers have dropped 13 straight games at Progressive Field, a futile mark that dates back to last May. It's ugly, and we all needed Rick to put out that fire, not make it bigger. It's never a good idea to give up on a talented, very young pitcher (still only 22), but at some point he needs to be a bigger, better pitcher in the clutch when his team needs him. The present (and future) rotation needs that presence now, especially in the middle of a pennant run. It can't just be Justin Verlander every 5th day, or even Max Scherzer, who in my opinion could also benefit the team from pitching in clutch situations. If Rick Porcello wants to move up to that next level, he'll need to figure out what made him so bad last night for the first time in over a month.
The Tigers have a chance to be really great with that rotation, but Porcello will need to remove the kid gloves first. I believe he can do it, but he needs to figure it out soon. Because this year, there are no points for second place.
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