Tigers pitching made MLB history in the worst of ways

The Tigers pitching staff has seemingly lost all control to start the 2021 MLB season.

The Detroit Tigers are a young team filled with plenty of promise. That was seen earlier this week when they went down to Houston and swept the Astros.

But the current 6-7 record illustrates the up-and-down nature of this team that will likely stick around throughout the entire season. One problem so far has been inconsistency from the pitching staff. In fact, the Tigers staff has made some unwanted MLB history early in April.

Tigers pitchers can’t find the strike zone

The Tigers took on the Oakland Athletics Thursday night and allowed 12 walks in only eight innings. The A’s were at home so they did not need to bat in the ninth in the 8-4 victory.

Starting pitcher Tarik Skubal walked four in his four innings of work. That is bad enough, but the bullpen came in to hopefully save the day. Instead, all four relievers allowed at least one walk and three allowed two or more.

To go even deeper, two of those relievers combined for five walks in 0.1 innings of work. It is tough to win any game when the other team is getting so many free runners on base. The other instance of this unwanted stat came back on April 5 when the Tigers walked 11 Minnesota Twins in a blowout 15-6 loss.

The Tigers remain in a rebuilding process in 2021. The team has not finished with a record above the .400 mark since 2016 and A.J. Hinch has been brought in to lead this team into a new era.

Fans in Detroit are witnessing special starts for players like Akil Baddoo and Casey Mize. But if the club is going to bump up the organizational timeline in 2021, the pitching staff must find its collective command. Otherwise, games are literally being given away.