The Detroit Tigers blanked the Cleveland Guardians by a final of 5-0 on Wednesday afternoon.
After a horrible start in which almost everything went wrong, the squad seems to be on an upward trend.
The victory was their seventh in the last 10 games, and they are now 17-19.
That’s just two games out of first place in the AL Central if you are keeping score.
Could it be?
Could the Tigers, after many mediocre years, be competitive in 2023?
It will be fascinating to find out.
A big reason behind the team’s recent surge has been left-handed starter Eduardo Rodriguez.
He had yet another dominant outing on Wednesday, shutting out the Guards for seven innings.
He conceded four hits and two walks, striking out eight hitters in the process and dominating Cleveland in their home park.
E-Rod is currently pitching masterfully, with just one earned run in his last five turns.
One earned run in his last five starts.@eduardorod5 is on an UNREAL run. pic.twitter.com/0fwATLgAXs
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) May 10, 2023
It might just be the best stretch of his career.
He has a 1.17 ERA over his last seven starts, and has a 1.57 ERA in 57.2 frames in 2023.
With 47 strikeouts and a beautiful 0.79 WHIP, he might be a dark-horse Cy Young award candidate if the season ended today.
The rest of the Tigers staff is pretty inconsistent: Matt Boyd, Matt Manning, Joey Wentz, and Spencer Turnbull haven’t had the best results yet.
But E-Rod is doing the heavy lifting for them.
They won’t get too far if they don’t get healthier or find better pitchers, but it’s fun to see the Tigers actually competing and with a better record than the Guardians or the Chicago White Sox.
If only they could clone Rodriguez.
NEXT: MLB Analysts Discuss Tigers' Recent Surge
