It seems that things have gotten so bad for the Detroit Tigers during their late-season collapse that one of their best players didn’t even realize his team struck out 19 times in their loss on Tuesday night.
If not for the New York Mets‘ late-season struggles, there would be even greater attention on the Tigers blowing a 15.5-game lead in the AL Central over the last couple of months. On Tuesday, things continued to go in a bad direction as they lost to the team right behind them in the standings, the Cleveland Guardians, by a score of 5-2.
They are now tied for the AL Central lead with the Guardians, and if the playoffs started today, they would be a Wild Card team, as their rivals own this year’s tiebreaker. They have now lost seven straight and 10 of their last 11. It is becoming one of the worst late-season collapses in team history, and it seems to have gotten into the heads of some of their best players.
Riley Greene didn’t know the Tigers struck out 19 times on Tuesday?
Following last night’s loss, Tigers players, of course, spoke with the Detroit media. As the team’s best hitter, reporters wanted to get thoughts from All-Star Riley Greene. During his locker room scrum, one media member mentioned how “19 Ks” is not going to get it done in an MLB game. To which Greene responded, “19 Ks for what?”
It seems that the star outfielder had no idea he and his teammates struck out a ridiculous 19 times against Guardians pitchers on Tuesday night. Ace Gavin Williams, in particular, was dominant as he posted 12 of those Ks over six innings.
It’s not surprising that the Tigers struck out a lot in Tuesday’s loss. They are fifth in the league for most team strikeouts at 1,403 this season. However, one of the team’s very best players, not realizing how absurd it got in their latest loss, is alarming.
