Andrew Miller is about one more horrible start away from “reassignment”. He lasted an entire 2/3 of an inning. He gave up 5 runs in the process. I believe that equates to a 67.5 ERA, not quite good enough to be the ace on a whiffleball team. I think the most runs I’ve ever put up against my son was 37. Of course, he’s only 9.

Basically, the Tigers starting pitching has been their achilles heel for a couple of months now. This, coming from one of the most vaunted young pitching staffs in all of baseball last year. It’s a shame, really – especially when you look at how amazing the bullpen has been. After all, for the next 8 1/3 innings of bullpen work, The Royals didn’t score, and only scattered a couple of hits.

But of course, none of this matters when you can’t score a run. I’ve never seen a team not score, and still win. Pitching is so important, but when you don’t score it doesn’t matter if Cy Young and Walter “Big Train” Johnson were out there. The Tigers still wouldn’t win.

The Indians don’t show any signs of cooling off. There is still a month left, but The Tigers just can’t seem to put it all together.