3 up, 3 down for the Detroit Tigers, Month Ends Well

May 3, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; Detroit Tigers players Yoenis Cespedes (52), Victor Martinez (41), J.D. Martinez (28), and NIck Castellanos (9) celebrate after a bases clearing double from catcher Alex Avila (not pictured) against the Kansas City Royals during the fourth inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

Well the first month of baseball is officially over and the Detroit Tigers found themselves on at the top of the American League Central. They are also still missing a big named pitcher and some injury news is a little troublesome to the team and fans.

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3 ups

Sanchez is looking a lot better

Anibal Sanchez had a much better start Sunday against the Kansas City Royals. After four straight losses it was nice to see Sanchez go out against a big contender in the AL Central and pitch a good game. Well 6 strong innings, where he was also throwing a no-hitter would suggest things could get better for him. Sanchez ended up giving up 3 runs but the offense helped him out scoring 6 runs.

Sanchez goes to 2-3 on the season and again looked much better than he had in his last four starts which all ended in losses for him and the Tigers.

Joakim Soria is the hero Detroit needs

Detroit Tigers

Sticking with the pitching theme, many are starting to think that Joakim Soria may be the closer Detroit always needed. Soria earned his 10th save in the series finally with the Royals and in this past week picked up three save altogether.

With the season ending injury to Joe Nathan, Soria will be in the closing role and will more than likely stay there for a long time. He is the closer that the Tigers have always seemed to need but could never find. He is a closer who will come in and 9 times out of 10 will close the game out and get you a win. Major up of the week is watching this guy get saves.

Back to first in the AL Central

Hey hey! We are back into first place in the AL Central after our four game series with the Royals. Splitting this series was the second best thing the Tigers could have done. Winning it would have been nice, but it was either split or lose it. Losing would have put us a game behind them and while it is also still early, you want to get out-of-town on top. Take the split because it is as good as it is going to get for now.

3 downs

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Justin Verlander still isn’t back

I don’t know how much longer we will have to wait for Justin Verlander to come back. At this point Kyle Lobstein is just getting a good amount of major league innings under his belt filling in for the former Cy Young winner. It is frustrating because while Lobstein is a reasonable fill in guy, it would be nice to Verlander out there. Here is to hoping he gets healthy.

Jose Iglesias is day-to-day

Tigers fans second worst fear happened in the final game in the series with the Royals; Jose Iglesias was injured. However, good news, it wasn’t his shins and has nothing to do with his shins. Iglesias was taken out of Sunday’s rubber match against the Royals and was later reported as being day-to-day. The source of the injury was tightness in his left groin.

It probably isn’t much, but it sure worried many Tigers fans.

They split with the Royals, but a win would have been nice

This is another stretch for a final down. I like that this team is looking a lot better than last week. They are still playing reasonably well against teams in their own division and those are some of the most important games teams play. Yes, winning the series would have been nice but, at the same time it could have been worse.

The Tiger have an off day Monday, they open a three game series against the Chicago White Sox. Then the team heads back home to go another round with the Kansas City Royals to wrap up the week. Hopefully no boxing matches break out in those series.

What were your ups and downs for the Tigers this week? Tell us below and don’t forget to stay connected to Detroit Jock City for all your Detroit Tigers news.