Detroit Tigers trying to find ways to get rest, stay fresh during brutal road trip
Shawn Windsor
CHICAGO -- Alex Avila feels it in the dugout. When the team is batting. And he's sitting. And the lack of sleep starts to squeeze him like a vice-grip.
Brad Ausmus used to feel it behind the plate. Trying to keep up with calling the game and adjusting his strategy.
Sleep deprivation is devilish that way. It arrives, unannounced. Usually after you've run out of the adrenaline and the caffeine and that's propped you up after four-hours of sleep.
That's where the Detroit Tigers are this weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field. Fighting exhaustion.
The team arrived in Chicago at 4 a.m. today after playing Thursday night in Houston. Got to the hotel closer to 5 a.m.
Some fell asleep right away. Some didn't.
Avila was out immediately. A good thing, too, because he had to be up by 11 a.m. to get ready for a bus leaving for the ballpark.
"Sleep is critical," he said.
It's hard to focus without it, let alone hit a baseball. And, as Ausmus pointed out, the effects of going without sleep "can hit you at any time."
The Tigers are in the midst of a 10-day, 11-game road trip, the toughest of the season. They had to fly to Houston after a Sunday night game to start the trip. They arrived at 5 a.m.
From there, they've been trying to catch up. Getting in at 4 a.m. in Chicago this morning didn't help. Neither did arriving at the ballpark a few hours before for a scheduled doubleheader at 4 p.m. local time The first game was cancelled, but the team was stuck waiting around for the second at 7.
Now the Tigers will play twice Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m. local time. Ausmus said his team probably won't feel the worst of the sleep deprivation until Saturday night during the second game.
"And that could carry over to Sunday, quite frankly," he said.
He expects the team to regain its sleep rhythm – if not it's routine – when it gets to Kansas City Sunday night.
Until then, to survive the weekend – the Tigers will play four games in less than 48 hours – Ausmus plans on resting most of the regular starters at least one of the four games.
He held Ian Kinsler and Miguel Cabrera out of the starting lineup tonight.
He chose to sit them because they've both struggled against former Tigers pitcher, Mike Pelfrey, Chicago's scheduled starter.
Avila, meanwhile, was scheduled to catch; John Hicks, the catcher called up from Toledo, arrived today so that Avila won't have to catch every game this weekend. James McCann, the Tigers other regular catcher, needed stitches to repair a wound in his hand after he got hit by a pitch in Houston and was placed on the disabled list.
And so it goes for a team navigating its most brutal stretch of the season.
"Hopefully," said Ausmus, "we can get back on a regular schedule."
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor. Download our Tigers Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!