On Sunday afternoon the Tigers went for the home sweep of the Colorado Rockies in the finale of a three-game weekend series. They accomplished said feat in convincing fashion, on the back of some nice power hitting and excellent starting pitching, winning 8-1 to broom the visitors out of town. Come back anytime, Rockies.
Getting the start for the Tigers was Jackson Jobe, who looked sharper in his previous outing, a five-inning, two-run start in Cleveland. He struck out a then-season-high seven batters,
against a Guardians lineup that doesn’t strike out a whole lot.
Gabriel Hughes started for Colorado, and it’s been a rough go of it so far for him in his rookie year. But here’s a weird one: his ERA at that kooky altitude is 3.81, but is almost 8 away from Colorado. Maybe he really likes something in Denver? I think they sell a product in that state that people enjoy.
Both teams traded home runs in the first inning: Adael Amador hit a solo shot for Colorado, but Riley Greene countered with a two-run tater after Colt Keith had hit a ground-rule double to put the Tigers up 2-1:
With two out in the top of the second, Dillon Dingler back-picked Vimael Machín for the final out of the inning. It took a review, but the call was (eventually) out.
In the bottom of the inning Max Clark, who had three hits in Saturday’s game, singled and stole second; Zach McKinstry walked, and Clark scored on John Peck’s single. Both McKinstry and Peck then came around to score on Kevin McGonigle’s triple off the very top of the right-centrefield wall, just below the yellow line (which was confirmed on review); when the dust settled the Tigers were up 5-1.
Colt Keith walked with two out to put runners on the corners, but Greene grounded out and the inning was over.
That was going to be it for Hughes, with Zach Agnos taking over and retiring the Tigers in short order in the third. Jobe, on the other hand, was looking good: aside from the early home run, and a hit-by-pitch in the second, he was hitting 99 mph with his fastball, throwing plenty of strikes, and his breaking stuff was sharp.
In the bottom of the fourth, Agnos walked the first three batters of the inning; Hao-Yu Lee hit a shallow fly ball to right field and McKinstry aggressively scored on the play to make it 6-1. Greene followed with a single to plate McGonigle to make it 7-1, his third RBI of the game.
Spencer Torkelson made it 8-1 in the fifth with a solo home run to left-centre:
That fastball couldn’t be more middle-middle if you’d walked right up to the plate and placed it in the catcher’s mitt yourself. But hey, you gotta punish mistakes like that, right?
Jobe, on the other hand, didn’t make too many mistakes in his 6 1/3-inning outing: in the seventh he gave up a leadoff single but then struck out Mickey Moniak for his eighth whiff of the day, a career high. Jobe’s final line was 6 1/3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 8 K, and he threw 56 of his 87 pitches for strikes. Brant Hurter took over and got a flyout to right, but a blooper to centre put two runners on. A soft line drive to shortstop took care of the third out, though.
Hurter carried on into the eighth and got the first out, giving way to Yilber Díaz who got a pair of groundnuts to finish the frame. Since it wasn’t a particularly close game he finished it up, surrendering a double with two out in the ninth which was of no consequence, and punching out two with some good sliders. Hooray!
Final score: Tigers 8, Rockies 1
Notes and Injuries (non-baseball variety)
- Colt Keith has some interesting batting splits, based on where he is (or isn’t) in the field. As a third baseman (182 plate appearances), his OPS is a robust .824; as a DH (156 PA), it’s .677; as a first baseman (50 PA) it’s .602.
- Justin Verlander’s been working hard to make at least one more start before his season-ending retirement. You have to admire that: he could very easily just coast along until the end of the season, but he certainly hasn’t.
- Congratulations to Keider Montero and his family who just had a baby girl. He made it back to Venezuela just in time.
- On this day in 1848, a railroad worker in Vermont named Phineas Gage was involved in an accident in which a 1 1/4” (32 mm) steel rod went completely through his head, destroying a part of his brain. Gage somehow survived the accident, but the brain injury altered his personality in several ways, allowing doctors to study him in great detail. (If you’ve ever taken an introductory psychology course, you’ve definitely studied Gage’s case.)
