Robinson Cano hit another home run, his ninth, but Ian Kinsler went deep twice, including hitting a two-run, go-ahead homer in the eighth inning, as Detroit beat Seattle 5-4 at Comerica Park in Detroit.
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So how, then, do the Tigers convince owner Mike Ilitch and GM Dave Dombrowski that this 2015 team still is a good team to bet on, that it actually is capable of winning at least 40 of the 70 remaining games when it’s playing.
This was stunning, though, because Lowe (0-1) has been in lockdown form since arriving May 4 from Triple-A Tacoma. I could have gone either way. “I was getting behind everyone and throwing fastballs in hitters’ counts”. “But I didn’t get it up, and it tailed right back into his swing path”.
The Mariners returned last Friday from the break with a 4-3 loss at New York when Joe Beimel gave up a homer in the seventh inning to Alex Rodriguez on a “sinker that didn’t sink”.
Zunino, who entered the game hitting.
“He’s starting to come around, driving the ball, it’s good to see”, manager Lloyd McClendon said. “It just didn’t work out”.
Kinsler, who came in with three homers this season, hit one off Seattle starter J.A. Happ in the first, and then drove a fastball from Mark Lowe over the Tigers’ bullpen with two out in the eighth.
Al Alburquerque (1-0) pitched an inning of scoreless relief to get the win, and Joakim Soria collected his 21st save.
Now the Tigers have taken the first game against the Mariners, and they know they can’t do in the next two what they’ve done in wrapping up recent series. 500 on Sunday for the first time since the third game of the 2013 season. Those guys are fighting, also, every team in the league is fighting every night and it’s not easy.
“We have to at least have the option to score three runs on that play”, McClendon said. “By the long ball late in the ballgame”. “That makes it even tougher”. Happ has only one victory in his last 11 appearances, holding Oakland to three runs in six innings on July 3 to snap a four-start losing streak. He threw 87 pitches in an efficient performance beyond a two-walk hiccup in the second. “I thought I was making a few pitches, but I must have been just missing in the second inning”. But after Jose Iglesias reached on a double against Mark Lowe in the 8th, Kinsler’s second homer of the evening erased Happ’s quality start. Before Monday, Lowe had permitted two earned runs in 29 innings. With Alfredo Simon and Shane Greene projected starters the next two nights, Detroit might need that kind of run production again in order to win.
As stated by oddsmakers from online sports book GT Bets, the Tigers are -115 money line favorites over the Mariners, who are currently -105 on the money line. Nick Castellanos, Marc Krauss and Alex Avila all homered as the right-hander allowed five runs in six innings of Seattle’s 7-6, 11-inning victory.
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Zunino’s two-out RBI single in the sixth put the Mariners on top and finished Simon. 158 for Seattle, put the Mariners in front with a two-run double to the center field wall in the 2nd.
