MLB-best Tigers limping into All-Star Game break with season-high, 4-game losing streak after sweep
Seattle defeated Detroit
8-4 on Sunday, sealing a three-game sweep that gave the Major League-leading Tigers a season-high, four-game losing streak.
'We've stumbled a little going into the break,' Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty acknowledged. 'But I think if you told everyone in here and in Detroit what record we'd have in the first half, where we would be in the division, where we would be overall and that we would have six All-Stars, I think a lot of people would be happy with that.'
The Tigers are 59-38, giving them the best record going into the All-Star Game for the seventh time in team history and first since 2006.
Detroit has an 11 1/2-game lead over second-place Minnesota in the Central, giving it the largest lead in the division or league at the break in franchise history.
The Tigers will be represented by a team-record six All-Stars: pitchers Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize, outfielders Riley Greene and Javier Baez, second baseman Gleyber Torres and infielder Zach McKinstry.
Detroit even had its bat boy, Frankie Boyd, voted into the Midsummer Classic on Tuesday night in Atlanta.
'I want our guys to be proud and also hungry,' manager A.J. Hinch said.
The Tigers will definitely want to get a bad taste out of their mouths after giving up 35 runs over three games to the Mariners, who scored 15 runs in the ninth innings of the three games.
'We didn't finish the game, which isn't our norm,' Hinch said. 'We've been very good at playing the entire game.'
The Tigers will have 65 games left in the regular season to hold on for their first division title in 11 years and to secure home-field advantage in the playoffs, hoping to win a World Series for the first time since 1984.
Ahead of the July 31 trade deadline, general manager Scott Harris may make moves to bolster the bullpen and perhaps the lineup.
Detroit will have four days off before resuming play at Texas on Friday night and Hinch is thankful for the timing.
'There's been a lot going on around our team, and after this weekend, we could all use a break,' Hinch said. 'Six guys are going to get a little bit of energy from the big stage of the All-Star Game and the rest of us will get some rest.'
___
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