OAKLAND -- The Tigers are in first place, winners of eight of their last 11 games, but manager Jim Leyland isn't satisfied."Our offense is going to have to step it up in the second half if we are going to stay in contention," Leyland said before Tuesday night's game in Oakland. "There is no question about that."
A day after the Tigers were held to one run by the A's young pitching staff, including 21-year-old lefty Brett Anderson, Leyland was still steamed at the pattern he's detected.
"That's a lineup that to me looks like no matter who's pitching should be able to get more than one run," Leyland said as he looked at his lineup card. "I tip my hat to the kid who pitched last night. He's got one of the best arms I've seen, a 21-year-old left-handed power pitcher. Very impressive. But he was still wild enough to give us opportunities to get something, and we didn't get it."
The Tigers are 10th in the league in batting average, ninth in slugging percentage and ninth in on-base percentage. They are eighth in runs.
Miguel Cabrera (.331, 16 homers) and Brandon Inge (.276, 18 homers) have produced nicely, and Curtis Granderson's 18 homers are nearly a career high. The rest of the lineup has been a little short, though.
Although the performance against a lefty on Monday was what irked Leyland on this night, the Tigers have been worse against righties this season. They rank 10th in the league in hitting against right-handers.
"I've been really kind of disappointed in our offense the whole first half," Leyland said. "I think it's a better offense than we've shown on a consistent basis. We've let some pitchers off the hook ... I think this is a good-looking right-handed hitting lineup and we didn't do [squat] last night."
Leyland said he doesn't have any great strategy for improving the lineup, other than simply running the players out there and waiting for them to reach what he believes is their potential.
"They give you everything they've got, I have no complaints about that," Leyland said, "but in my opinion we are a more talented hitting club than we've shown."
