The middle game of a three-game weekend series against the Dodgers continued on a perfect-for-baseball Saturday afternoon in Detroit. Like Friday night’s game it was a low-scoring affair, but unlike the series opener the Tigers came out on top, 2-1… or was it? Keep reading for the exciting conclusion.
If patterns are to be believed, Keider Montero was due for a good outing on Saturday: his previous six starts saw him give up 1, 6, 0, 5, 0 and 3 runs. By that logic he was going to be pretty stingy
with the runs. He was also going on an extra day’s rest, so the Tigers probably weren’t going to let him throw a hundred pitches.
The Dodgers threw out their second consecutive multiple-Cy-Young-award-winning starting pitcher in a row, Blake Snell. He’s been around a bit: his first five years were with the Rays, then he left for three in San Diego, one in San Francisco, and this is his second year in Dodger Blue. He’s been hurt for most of the season with “loose bodies” in his left elbow, so this was only his fifth start of the year.
The game started with the pitchers very firmly in control: through his first three innings Montero only allowed a Shohei Ohtani single and a Kyle Tucker walk.
In the bottom of the third Javier Báez walked to lead off — surprising, no? — and Max Clark laid down a bunt that was probably going to be a sacrifice, but Max Muncy at third couldn’t handle it and two runners were on. Gleyber Torres hit a ground-rule double to score Báez and push Clark up to third.
Kevin McGonigle then walked on a full-count slider to load the bases with one out, but Dillon Dingler and Eduardo Valencia both struck out and a trio of Tigers remained stranded.
Montero was looking great early on, with oodles of first-pitch strikes: out of the first 17 batters he faced, he got a first-pitch strike (including the batter putting the ball in play) on 15 of them, and that is mighty, mighty fine. Through five innings he’d thrown 40 of his 60 pitches for strikes, too.
Clark led off the bottom of the fifth with a hustle-double to left, squeaking into second base just before the throw. But then Torres struck out and Hao-Yu Lee fouled-out to first for the third consecutive at-bat; McGonigle walked on a full count to put two runners on, but Dingler struck out for the third out, Snell’s tenth strikeout of the day.
Montero got shaky in the top of the sixth, though: Alek Thomas hit a leadoff double to left, advanced to third on an Ohtani groundout, and scored on a Freddie Freeman single to tie the game at 1-1. Mookie Betts hit a liner that ticked off Lee’s glove at third, and that was the end of Montero’s day. Tyler Holton came into the game and walked Max Muncy on four pitches to load the bases, and you had to wonder if things were about to become spectacularly unravelled at this point. But, lo! There be a perfect double-play ground ball to shortstop, and forsooth the inning hath hastily concludèd.
With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, pinch-hitter Zach McKinstry got clipped by a pitch and promptly stole second. Alas, Báez grounded out to shortstop and McKinstry was stranded.
Fast-working Andrew Sears came in to pitch the top of the seventh and Tucker poked a leadoff double to left. But then Teoscar Hernández flew out to left, Enrique “The Other” Hernández struck out, and Miguel Rojas flew out to right and the game remained tied. Also: Sears’ twenty-fourth birthday is on Sunday.
It remained tied after the bottom of said inning, too: with two outs Lee singled and stole second, but McGonigle grounded out and Lee became the eighth runner stranded on base. Let it not be said that the Tigers didn’t have a bunch of chances to score a boat-load of runs.
Sears continued on into the eighth to face the top of the Dodgers order: Ohtani softly lined out, Freeman grounded out to shortstop, and Betts flew out to right. Welcome to the Tall Buildings, bud!
Edgardo Henriquez came on to pitch for the Dodgers in the bottom of the eighth, and holy moly, can this kid throw fireballs: he was regularly hitting 102 mph (he averages 100.6 mph on his fastball). He froze Dingler on a third-strike on the outside corner with a 103.6 mph sinker for the first out. After Valencia popped out, Colt Keith got nicked on the foot but McKinstry fouled-out to left, stranding yet another runner.
Since Sears was rolling, and since some of the Tigers’ most-reliable bullpen arms were used on Friday night, he carried on into the ninth. He got Muncy to pop out to shortstop, allowed a single and got a forceout at second, and then left in favour of Kenley Jansen, facing his longtime teammates. Teoscar Hernández hit a fly ball to left field and Báez had to run a heck of a long way to make a fine running catch, probably saving a run and sending the game to the bottom of the ninth, tied.
A fired-up Báez then led off the bottom of the inning with a leadoff double to put the winning run in scoring position. Clark followed with his second sacrifice bunt — remember, kids, if you’re only going for one run, a bunt is fine — and Báez advanced to third. Torres was intentionally walked, and Lee fouled off a boatload of tough pitches before walking to load the bases. Finally, McGonigle sent a deep fly ball to left field which easily scored Báez for the win.
Doesn’t that look like a ground-rule double? Which would score two runs, not one, making it a 3-1 final score? Did Torres not cross the plate? Curious.
Final score: Tigers 2, Dodgers 1
Numbers and Notes
- Blake Snell wears a single-digit number on the mound. Jack Flaherty does it too. I don’t like it.
- It’s been a Tale Of Two Augusts for Spencer Torkelson. From August 1 through 14 (12 games, 53 plate appearances), he was 17-for-47 for a .362 batting average and a .859 OPS. From the 15th through the 28th (12 G, 39 PA), though: 3-for-34, .088 BA, .352 OPS. Ouch.
- When our family was in Japan last year, we made it a bit of a game to try to spot as many ads for products or services with Shohei Ohtani in them as we could. The conclusion: he’s in a heck of a lot of ‘em.
- Whenever I hear Dodgers catcher Hunder Feduccia’s last name, I think of the word “feduciary.” There’s nothing else to that.
- On this day in 1831, English physicist Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction: if you change the magnetic field passing through a conductor, an electric current will flow in that conductor. Without this, neither electric motors or generators would work, and we’d still be living in our own filth in a muddy field somewhere.
