The Tigers beat the Indians tonight in Jacobs Field, beating the Tribe 5-4. It took 10 innings to complete the victory due to a Joe Nathan failure to complete the save in the 9th. Justin Verlander lander started for the Tigers tonight. He was coming off two disastrous outings and a miserable month of June which saw his ERA for the month balloon to 9.16. In his last 2 starts combined Verlander only struck out 8. He matched that total tonight in 7 innings. In fact Verlander continued the trend of quality starts turned in by Tiger starters going 7 innings. He gave up 4 hits, 2 runs only 1 of which was earned and 1 walk. He struck out the aforementioned 8. He was getting the old swing and misses tonight and looked like a different pitcher. Maybe the adjustment he made has had an effect. He would have been in line for the win had Nathan been able to get the save. However although Nathan failed in the attempt it still looked like different Nathan then the one we have seen for the first third of the season. The Tigers scored first in this one as Victor Martinez led off the 2nd inning with a home run. The Tigers threatened to get more as J.D Martinez and Nick Castellanos followed the home run with singles. Alex Avila then flew out to deep center, allowing Martinez to go to 3rd. However Eugenio Suarez struck out and Rajai Davis flew out to end the threat. The Indians countered in their half of the 2nd inning, tying the game up. With 2 out Lonnie Chisenhall doubled to left. Nick Swisher then hit a hard one hopper that Ian Kinsler could not come up with. Ian was charged with an error and Chisenhall scored and Swisher got to 2nd base. David Murphy was retired on a ground out making the run un-earned but the game was still tied. The Indians then took the lead in the 4th when Carlos Santana hit a home run just out of the reach of J.D Martinez. This put the Tribe up 2-1. The Tigers then tied it up in the 6th. Miguel Cabrera led off with a double and came home on a Victor Martinez single. J.D. Martinez then flew out to center. Nick Castellanos then made a bid to un-tie the game when he hit one over the head of Murphy in right, however Murphy made a real nice over the should catch to rob Castellanos of extra bases. The Tigers would un-tie the game in the 7th. Suarez started the 7th off by striking out. Then Rajai Davis on a 1-2 pitch hit one out in left. When Davis hit the ball you could see Trevor Bauer, the Cleveland starter put his head down so you knew it was going to be good for Detroit. It got even better when Ian Kinsler, the next hitter hit one out to left center. Cleveland asked that the home run be reviewed and it was automatically and it did not take long for the call to be confirmed as it clearly hit a fan’s hand above the yellow line. The Tiger were now up 4-2. Verlander retired the Indians in order in the 7th but his night was done. He had retired the last 8 batters in a row that he faced. Even though his pitch count was manageable, I think Ausmus just wanted to make sure that he left the game on a good note. Al Alburquerque started the bottom of the 8th for the Tigers. He was perfect last night but not so tonight. He hit the first batter he faced, Michael Bourn. Asdrubal Cabrera then followed that up with a double. Bourn was running on the play so he scored easily. The Tigers then brought in Blaine Hardy, making his 3rd appearance and he was good. The first hitter he faced Michael Brantley grounded out to shortstop, but Cabrera was able to advance to 3rd. However Hardy was able to strand him there by retiring Jason Kipnis on a ground out to Castellanos and then retiring Santana on a ground out to Castellanos as well to end the inning with Detroit still up 4-3. Nathan then came in the bottom of the 9th to try to close it out. He again looked good striking out the 1st two Indian hitters he faced, Chisenhall and Swisher. However the Indians 3 straight hits off the bats of Murphy, Yan Gomes and Bourn that tied the game at 4 all. Murphy and Gomes were on 3-2 pitches. Murphy’s hit was an emergency hack which he seemed to throw his bat at the ball and was rewarded with a bloop a single to center. Nathan was able to retire Cabrera on a ground out to send the game to extra frames. Cleveland was 6-1 in extra innings while Detroit was 2-3. The last extra-inning game the Tigers had in Cleveland ended on the balk call so Detroit did not have fond memories of extra innings in Cleveland. However that would change tonight. In the 10th Kinsler sent a single up the middle off of Cleveland closer Cody Allen. Austin Jackson then sacrificed him to 2nd base on a perfectly executed bunt. Miguel Cabrera then followed that with a double off the wall in left center to score Kinsler. The Indians then walked Victor Martinez, just as they did the night before to get to J.D. Martinez. It did not pay off the previous night, however it did tonight as J.D. bounced into an inning ending double play. The Tigers went to the bottom of the 10th, having already used their closer and with Joba not available. Detroit brought in Phil Coke to face Brantley, Kipnis and Santana. Coke looked like he did in the playoffs in 2012. His fastball was electric tonight as was his location. He touched 98 on the gun and was also on the black. The results mirrored the pitching as he struck out Brantley, who is having an All-Star year. He then struck out Kipnis. While he gave up a single to Santana, he followed that up by striking out Chisenhall, who would be leading the AL in hitting if he had enough plate appearances. This gave the win to Nathan who is now 4-2 and Coke got his 1st save of the year. The Tigers improved to 39-32 on the year. The Tigers who re-claimed 1st place the night before increased their lead over the 2nd place Royals to 1 ½ games with the Royals loss this afternoon. Max Scherzer will take the mound for Detroit tomorrow in the series finale. The Tigers have already assured themselves of a series win and will be looking for revenge against the Tribe who swept Detroit a little over a month ago and sent them into the tail spin. A quality Max start would also mean that we went through the entire starting staff with everyone having a quality start. The good was the return of Justin Verlander. Let’s hope the adjustment that he made continues to show results. He is not going to be the 100 mph pitcher he was before, but he does not have to be successful. He has enough other quality pitches to get by. He does need movement and he needs to locate just like any other pitcher. The result was not good for Nathan tonight but it still looked like the Nathan we had seen recently. He was getting the swings and misses, as evidence by the 2 strikeouts to start the inning. Murphy was just able to get his bat on the ball and find green. Sometimes those things happen so I am not going to be depressed by the result. I am not going to declare the slump over simply because we have now won 3 in a row. However I do like the results and where the team is headed. It all starts and stops with pitching and lately we have been getting it. It was also good to see the Tigers having fun. During the National telecast for anyone who did not see it, they were interviewing Max Scherzer. The whole time he was being interviewed he was being showered with sun flower seeds by Anibal Sanchez. Through a 162 game season you have to have fun. Tomorrow is another day.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 04:13:42 +0000