“I think the rest did him good”.
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JONES PLAYS CENTER WELL: Adam Jones made two excellent plays in the third inning.
“At the end of the day, we would have loved to win this series and it would have been a nice one to win, but we can’t fold in the tent now”, Upton said.
WASHINGTON – Trea Turner hit his second home run of the game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, a solo shot that gave Washington the win. “If we had lost, it wouldn’t have mattered”. He instead will throw a simulated game on Wednesday, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said after Detroit’s 3-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday.
The Orioles improved to 77-64, pulling to within two games of the Boston Red Sox for first place in the AL East. Had Baltimore lost Saturday’s game to Detroit, the Tigers (76-65) would have slid into the fifth seed, leaving the O’s on the outside looking in on the playoff picture.The Orioles actually lost to the Tigers the previous night, 4-3, on September 9. Michael Fulmer tossed seven innings of two-run ball, and Alex Wilson earned the win. “More than anything, we’d just like him to be healthy because even if he has a little rusty start, each one of them (afterward) will get better”. Tillman has been on the disabled list since August 21 because of right shoulder bursitis. He threw 66 pitches, 46 for strikes, while allowing two runs and five hits in three innings. “I felt fine physically, but I couldn’t locate any of my pitches”.
Tigers starter Jordan Zimmermann, who returned Saturday after a month on the disabled list with a neck injury, was yanked before he recorded an out in the second inning. “We can’t afford to lose games right now”. The rookie right-hander’s 2.76 ERA would lead the American League if he had enough innings to qualify.
J.D. Martinez hit a two-run single in the fifth to give Detroit a 3-0 lead, but Jonathan Schoop hit a two-run homer the following inning to start Baltimore’s comeback.
“That’s a really good lineup to beat on a good day, and when all you have is a fastball, it gets exponentially more hard”, he said. “He just kept calling for all the right pitches and I just had to throw them”.
The Baltimore Orioles ace will be activated from the 15-day disabled list and start the finale of a three-game series on Sunday in Detroit.
Ausmus responded by making eight lineup changes for the seventh, changing every position but catcher.
NOTES: By virtue of their 11-3 win on Saturday, the Orioles clinched the season series with the Tigers, which could prove to be an important achievement.
“He didn’t look very rusty”, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.
He is up to 143 2/3 innings for the Tigers this year. Clark, who stands closer to the plate than most third-base coaches, laughed off the incident.
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“This time of year, I hope that guys don’t get out of sync too much”, Showalter said. And if that surprises you, hey, welcome to Tigers baseball!
