And five days after his third start with the Mud Hens, Zimmermann threw worse than he did in his previous start, on August 4, when he allowed six runs on six hits in 1 2/3 innings after rushing himself back to the mound.
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With Wilson on in relief, he gave up a bloop double to Hyon Kim with one in the top of the eighth inning on a ball outfielder Justin Upton took a step back on before racing in and having it glance off his glove.
“Victor’s been doing that to a lot of good pitchers through the years”, Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said.
“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.
The Tigers now trail the second wild card by two games, but host the Minnesota Twins for a four-game series beginning Monday. They will see the Boston Red Sox, the team now atop the AL East, for seven games in the next two weeks. If the two teams finish with the same record and a tie for a wild-card berth, the game will be held in Baltimore. The New York Yankees are also two back of the Orioles and Blue Jays. Jones added two singles and a walk. That’s veteran leadership, and the type of big hit the Tigers are going to need to see plenty more of down the stretch if they want to keep playing into October. You get kind of bored and frustrated sitting on the bench that long and not being able to help the team.
Unfortunately, Tillman and a trio of three Orioles relievers were too much to overcome. He is tied with Baltimore’s Zach Britton for the AL lead in saves.
It ended a streak of 11 straight quality starts for Verlander, dating back to July 7 – which was the last time he didn’t work at least six innings.
The Orioles hit two home runs against Verlander, bringing his season total to 28, a career-high.
The first two Orioles reached in the fifth inning, but they were unable to score another run as Verlander retired Davis, Machado, and Mark Trumbo to get out of trouble.
Bourn is 14 for 37 (.378) in his career off Verlander, but this was the first time he’d gone deep against the Detroit right-hander. That thought was especially prevelant when J.D. Martinez cut the lead to 3-1 on an RBI-single in the last of the first. Slugger Miguel Cabrera went hitless in the series and grounded into an inning-ending double play in the eighth with the tying runs on base. Upton was credited with a base hit, and it put runners on first and second with none out.
CUBS 2, ASTROS 0: Kris Bryant hit a two-run homer, Jon Lester threw seven scoreless innings and Hector Rondon and Aroldis Chapman completed the shutout to give Chicago a win at Houston.
“If I knew what that felt like”. “I’ve pitched twice in two or three months, and had two short outings, so it has been really, really frustrating for me”.
“I’ll just see how I feel”, Tillman said.
“The back end of bullpens are usually some of the best arms in the game”, manager Brad Ausmus said.
“I definitely understand the reasoning”, Zimmermann said. “If it were earlier in the season, they’d probably let me try to pitch through this, but we can’t afford that right now”. After losing four of their last five games, the Tigers are now seven games behind the Cleveland Indians with 20 games left.
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Orioles: RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (6-11) takes the mound Saturday night against the Tigers.
