After seeing their pitching staff annihilated by the Mets and Giants, the Tigers decided to fire pitching coach Rick Knapp after today's finale with San Francisco.
Knapp watched his starter Rick Porcello pitch a solid seven innings in a 6-3 win over the Giants on Sunday before being told by manager Jim Leyland and general manager Dave Dombrowski that he was out of a job. His replacement will be bullpen coach Jeff Jones. Leyland and Dombrowski agreed a change was needed, but that Knapp shouldn't shoulder all of the blame:
Tigers manager Jim Leyland says Knapp is the first coach that's been fired from his staff during a season. Leyland says he and team president Dave Dombrowski made the mutual decision because something needed to be done.
Dombrowski says the Tigers have not pitched as well as they're capable of this season, insisting Knapp doesn't deserve all of the blame.
The move comes on the heels of a 15-3 loss on Saturday to the Giants, a game that featured a five-run first inning dud by starter Max Scherzer and yet another grand slam in the third inning that blew the game wide open. In the previous series against the Mets, Detroit gave up 30 runs in the first two games, including two grand slams in the opener on June 28. Detroit gave up a total of 54 runs in six games to the Mets and Giants.