Twins pound Valdez as Tigers' losing skid reaches four games

Minneapolis – April baseball is a dance between the daily result and perspective. You can’t help reacting to what’s happening on the field, especially after the Tigers’ maddeningly erratic 8-6 loss to the Minnesota Twins Wednesday at Target Field. Nor can you intelligently affix any binding judgment on the overall quality and content of the team.

“It’s a tricky time,” manager AJ Hinch said before his team endured its second four-game losing streak in 12 games. The Tigers have played mediocre to bad baseball so far. Hard to dispute that.

But to say this is a mediocre to bad team based on that small sample would be foolishly premature. And yet, that’s the line Hinch and the coaching staff must navigate – can’t ignore the slow start, can’t completely freak out about it. “I think team-wise, you are always pushing to play winning baseball,” he said.

“And right now, we haven’t done that. We’re trying to find a way to get back to our brand of baseball that produces winning without overreacting to a lot of things as the competition gets stronger. “You can also underreact, just chalk it up to, ‘Well, it’s just April.