Detroit — The Tigers, like a lot of teams around baseball, have been treading water for most of this first month of the season.
Injuries in spring training to three key bullpen arms (Jose Cisnero, Kyle Funkhouser and Andrew Chafin) and their projected starting center fielder (Riley Greene) was the first blow. Then two-fifths of their starting rotation — Casey Mize and Matt Manning — went down. Starting shortstop Javy Baez just returned Sunday after missing nine games.
They’ve managed to hover around the .500 mark through the first 13 games, but after losing the series to the Colorado Rockies, getting beat 6-2 in the finale Sunday, and with an arduous stretch of games coming up, the water level seems to be rising.