The Tigers combated Altuve’s early home run with two runs on five hits against McHugh in the first inning before blowing the doors open in the second.
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Houston Astros catcher Jason Castro, left, watches Detroit Tigers’ Mike Aviles run home from third to score during the sixth inning Sunday, July 31, 2016, in Detroit. Verlander stayed in the game.
DETROIT (AP) – James McCann capped a six-run first inning with his first career grand slam as the Detroit Tigers completed a three-game sweep of the Houston Astros with an 11-0 rout Sunday.
With the win, the Tigers remain 4 1/2 games behind the Indians in the American League Central and pull within 1 1/2 of the league’s second wild card spot.
They got one, but it only lasted a few minutes.
Mike Fiers allowed one unearned run, walked two and struck out six in 6 1/3 innings.
“I should have found the bag and then caught the ball”, Harris said, “but I tried to catch the ball and then find the bag”. George Springer singled to start the ninth, Altuve singled to short with one out and Carlos Correa looped a single to center to tie the score at 1-1.Rasmus hit a ball that shortstop Iglesias snared as it rolled into left and turned into a forceout at second while Altuve scored the go-ahead run.
Verlander entered the ninth with a two-hit shutout plus a 1-0 lead, pitching hitless ball for 7 1/3 innings. “That wasn’t how I envisioned this game going”. That saved a run when Collins followed with a single, and Fiers got out of the inning. Rookie Alex Bregman got the first hit of his major league career in his 19th at-bat, a soft single to center in the third inning. The Tigers led 1-0. With two out and Cameron Maybin on first, Miguel Cabrera lifted a high pop fly behind second base. Jose Altuve takes charge on the field whenever he can, it backfired on him as he stumbled and dropped the ball. Maybin, who was running hard with two outs, slid just past a tag at home after starting at first.
“It was awesome to get that kind of offense”, Boyd said. But chalking this loss up to the baseball gods would be ignoring the fact that the two starters were stellar on Saturday at Comerica Park in the Tigers’ 3-2 walk-off win. Gonzalez, who got hurt Friday night, is scheduled to see a hand specialist on Monday. “It’s late July. I think a lot of teams are beat up a little bit.”.
The Tigers nearly added a run in the seventh, but Springer made a lunging catch of Iglesias’ sinking liner to right. Houston 1B Marwin Gonzalez has scored 12 runs during his career-high 12-game hitting streak.2.
Tigers: OF J.D. Martinez (elbow) went 2 for 5 for Triple-A Toledo on Saturday, and is now hitting.350 after four games of a rehab assignment. The Tigers are hoping to have both players back before the end of the current nine-game homestand. The pitchers combined to allow just eight base runners over the first six innings.
Houston plays the middle of a three-game weekend series in Detroit on Saturday night with Mike Fiers facing Justin Verlander in a matchup of right-handers.
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“But when you’re in our situation, down a couple runs, best thing you can do is score a couple runs, get back in it, tie it, or even score more, take the lead”.
