The Tigers had only one more baserunner through five innings, then squandered opportunities in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth. In the end, it didn’t matter because Detroit couldn’t push across any runs of support. He didn’t get the win, but his efforts helped hold the Tigers down while the Twins dealt with Justin Verlander.
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And then came Wednesday’s ninth inning.
He expects perfection every time he takes the mound. Upton, who was stuck on 199 home runs since July 7, had two of Detroit’s three hits. Detroit’s hitting is hard to wager on right now, so look for the under to hit this afternoon. “There are a lot of hitters in the big leagues who can hit mistakes, so the biggest thing for him is to stay down in the zone, limit the mistakes, and that’s something he’s done since he got up here”. Victor Martinez and Nick Castellanos plated a run each in the ninth to break up the shutout for the Tigers. “It started before they arrived”.
Mike Trout’s three-run, seventh-inning home run led a four-run rally that gave the Los Angeles Angels a 9-5 victory over the Texas Rangers on Monday night at Angel Stadium. Dozier blasted a two-run homer on Tuesday. Detroit has won all seven meetings between the AL Central rivals this season, including a 1-0 triumph in the series opener on Monday.
“We hit the ball pretty good but just didn’t score any runs”, said Ausmus, whose team got four runs in three games against the less-than-intimidating Twins. 208 with no homers and two RBIs in July.
Top Tiger: Justin Verlander. He allowed one run in five innings against Toronto in his final outing before the All-Star break. Don’t blame Verlander at all for this one today.
Kepler, who is hitting.229, smashed a 3-2 changeup from Francisco Rodriguez (1-1) into the right-field stands. Considering how well Rodriguez has pitched this season, he was entitled to a stinker.
It’s a little unlucky, too, that the offense has gone south, just when the Tigers need to pile up some wins, in order to try to possibly convince the higher ups to make a deal. In fact, that was the only time they advanced a runner past first. With two runners on, it was do or die for the Tigers as it related to pushing across the lead run. Martinez made a bid with a hot shot, but it was snared in the glove of Rosario before it could do any damage. Instead, the catch took the wind out of their sails and put a frustrating cap on another frustrating day. In the midst of what’s been a hard hitting slump, it was nice to appreciate Cabrera’s whole game on this day with a defensive gem.
Rodriguez, affectionately known as “K-Rod” since early in his career, gave up two home runs in the ninth inning in the Detroit Tigers’ 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins at Comerica Park. That’s 26 innings of baseball without much of anything to show on the scoreboard.
“I know they’re a very aggressive team”, he said.
He Said It: “Anibal Sanchez is starting Sunday”. After the game, Ausmus confirmed that Sanchez’s good work from Tuesday would not go unrewarded. Detroit is still sporting an injury-depleted rotation with Jordan Zimmermann and Daniel Norris on the disabled list.
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Max DeMara is the editor of @tigers_101.
