If the Detroit Tigers are going to advance out of the ALDS, they're going to have to find a way to create some offense.
The Tigers looked like they had broken out of their late-season offensive malaise with three quick runs in the first inning of Game 1.
Then, nothing. Just nothing.
Max Scherzer, Drew Smyly and Joaquin Benoit made those three runs stand up in a 3-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
Justin Verlander would have loved to have just one of those runs in Saturday's Game 2.
Verlander was more than good enough to win as he did not allow a run in seven innings. He gave up four hits, struck out 11 and walked one in a no-decision.
Verlander looked like the same Verlander who dominated the A's in last year's deciding Game 5 in the ALDS.
"Pretty good stuff," Verlander said in the post-game interview room. "I feel like that's kind of been a theme for me my last few starts and it's a good theme for me to have because I've been working really hard to find my stuff and find my location and everything.
"I feel like my last three in particular have been really good."
Unfortunately for Verlander, the offense only mustered four hits against 23-year-old rookie Sonny Gray and the A's scored a run in the bottom of the 9th on catcher Stephen Vogt's walk-off RBI single with the bases loaded and no out off Rick Porcello for a series-evening 1-0 win.
"I gotta give Gray a lot of credit," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said in the post-game interview room. "He was everything as advertised. Good, live fastball, 94-95, 93, 96 a couple with an electric curveball. He was terrific. I gotta give him a lot of credit.
"We're not swinging the bats nearly the way we're capable but you can't take anything away from that performance. He was tremendous. We'll go home and hopefully get the bats going a little bit."
Leadoff man Austin Jackson was a perfect example of someone who couldn't get anything going against Gray.
Jackson struck out four times.
"I was just looking for a fastball to hit and ended up expanding, chasing something off the plate," Jackson told Keating.
FOX Sports Detroit analyst Craig Monroe said Jackson wasn't alone.
"They expanded that strike zone, they took a lot of uncomfortable swings on balls down in the dirt," Monroe said on the post-game show. "Sonny Gray had a really good breaking ball working but I thought the Tigers needed to make him get that ball up and that's when you can do some damage on that good breaking ball."
Miguel Cabrera, still ailing from the abdominal/hip flexor strain that has plagued him since before the All-Star break, had one of the Tigers' four hits but he's only batting .250 and doesn't appear to be able to drive the mistake pitches he does see.
Meanwhile, Torii Hunter is batting .143, Prince Fielder is batting .125 and Victor Martinez is batting .250.
Hunter, who took offense when Gray pitched up and in and pointed at the kid, said he's not worried about the lack of offense.
"The guy was good," Hunter told FOX Sports Detroit's John Keating. "We had four days off, both teams did, and when you have a good pitcher out there, it's gonna happen. We're still trying to find our rhythm, they're trying to find their rhythm. We're trying to find ours and we're gonna get it.
"Four days off might have had something to do with it but still gotta grind and get it done."
The fact is the Tigers might have been grinding, but they have not gotten it done.
The Tigers don't look like the same team that lead the American League with a .283 batting average.
In the last six games, they have scored a total of seven runs.
"It's playoff baseball," Hunter said. "Good pitching's gonna beat good hitting any day. You saw that. Verlander went out there and gave it his all. We were giving it our all, it just didn't work out for us.
"It was vice versa. Verlander pitched a great game, he gave us a chance to win. We just didn't come through with it."
The Tigers had success against Game 3 starter Jarrod Parker in last year's ALDS, winning both games Parker started.
But if Cabrera isn't able to contribute more and his teammates can't pick him up offensively, the A's will be the ones celebrating.
