Eduardo Rodriguez. Riley Greene. Akil Baddoo. It’s nice to see those familiar names and faces back on a lineup card again. Rodriguez was looking tuned in. Baddoo hit a home run. It was a delight to behold in a pretty darned good game, in spite of how late it is.
Let’s take a quick look at how this late adventure went.
In the top of the first against Luis Castillo, with two outs we got a Spencer Torkelson single, and then a Kerry Carpenter home run put the Tigers up 2-0. Rodriguez was up in the bottom half and took the Mariners out in order. He had a little help from Matt Vierling with this absolutely incredible catch that made Shep sound pretty silly on the broadcast.
The Tigers likewise went 1-2-3 in the top of the second, and we saw a little more of the same in the bottom of the inning. The third inning, once again, went hitless. In fact it was not until the bottom of the fourth that Rodriguez gave up a single to, well, Rodriguez, but Julio Rodriguez. No runs scored, though.
The fifth inning saw Akil Baddoo hit a two-out home run. Jake Rogers followed it with a single but the Tigers would have to settle for just the one additional run, putting them up 3-0.
In the bottom of the inning Eugenio Suarez walked to start things off, Tom Murphy was “supposedly” hit by a pitch (it really looked to me like it bounced first and then hit him, but I don’t get to make those calls). AJ Pollock singled to load things up. A Dylan Moore double then scored two runs, and at the end of the inning we got to see Ty France throw a tantrum and get ejected from the game. That was also the end of the night for Rodriguez, whose final line was 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K on 88 pitches. Looking pretty good.
The sixth went 1-2-3 on both sides.
Top of the seventh saw Baez reach first on an error from the first baseman, and Baez then stole second. A Nick Maton home run brought them both home and gave the Tigers a little additional padding. Bottom of the seventh saw no significant effort from the Mariners.
As the Tigers headed into the eighth, Zach McKinstry singled and then stole second. Zack Short walked. No one scored. In the bottom of the inning Julio Rodriguez reached on an infield single that Rogers couldn’t quite get to first on time. Jarred Kelenic doubled and Rodriguez hustled to home but was tagged out by Rogers. I genuinely do not understand how Seattle was able to challenge this out call at home, the call was then even more bafflingly overturned, I no longer understand anything about rules. Anyway Seattle scored and Kelenic was up to third. No additional runs scored but Jason Foley did get tossed for arguing with the home plate umpire. CMo tried to suggest Foley was mad about a ball/strike call but, mmmm, I don’t think so.
Maton got a one-out walk in the top of the ninth. Baddoo then walked. No runs scored. Bottom of the inning Lange was out and gave up a one-out home run to Mike Ford. Moore walked. Lange did blessedly get the final out and the Tigers got away with a too-close-for-comfort finale.
Final: Tigers 5, Mariner 4