After splitting the double header on Tuesday, the Tigers were looking to walk away with a series win against the St. Louis Cardinals on a gorgeous Wednesday afternoon at Comerica Park.
Kenta Maed, who has struggled mightily in the first month of the season, was looking to start a redemption arc in May, going up against Miles Mikolas for the Cardinals.
The Cardinals went 1-2-3 to start the first, something Maeda certainly appreciated. Riley Greene kicked off the bottom of the inning with a double, but the Tigers went down in order to follow him, leaving him stranded in scoring position.
Maeda continued his strong start by going three-up three-down in the top of the second. Matt Vierling singled to start the bottom of the inning, then one out later, Colt Keith doubled to score Vierling and put the Tigers on the board first. Carson Kelly reached on a hit-by-pitch, but they’d need to settle for just the one run.
In the third, Masyn Winn struck out and probably collected a pretty incredible bruise on his… inner thigh? Not sure where that ball hit rebounded but it looked awfully painful. Michael Siani singled with two outs, but Maeda got the next out to keep the damage limited to a single baserunner. With two outs in home half of the third, Kerry Carpenter singled, then a Matt Vierling home run brought them both home, extending the lead to 3-0. Spencer Torkelson singled, but was left stranded.
Too kick off the fourth, Wilson Contreras hit a solo home run to put the Cardinals on the board. Three outs followed, so Maeda was still working hard to keep his damages limited. In the bottom half the Tigers went down in order.
Alec Burleson singled to start the fifth, but a pop-out and double play followed. The Tigers continued to do very little in the bottom half, going 1-2-3.
In the sixth, Michael Siani singled, then in a pretty perfect copy and then a lineout, a strikeout, and a caught stealing ended the inning. The Tigers were once again three-up, three-down, making this a pretty speedy game overall.
Kent Maeda was done after six, and it was a good outing for him, going 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 1 HR on 79 pitches. A very nice outing compared to how his April shaped up. Will Vest was next out of the pen. Lars Nootbar and Nolan Arenado hit back-to-back singles, A double play worked for two quick outs, then Vest was pulled for Joey Wentz, who came in and got the final out of the inning. Mikolas was likewise done for the day, giving way to Matthew Liberatore. The Tigers went 1-2-3 against the new reliever.
In the eighth, pinch-hitter Jose Fermin hit a two-out single, then Brendan Donovan walked, which was the end of the game for Wentz, who was replaced by Alex Lange. Lange struck out Contreras to end the inning. With one out in the bottom, Wenceel Perez singled, then a pinch-hitting Andy Ibanez singled. Ibanez was quickly swapped out for pinch-runner Parker Meadows. A Matt Vierling sac fly scored Perez. Meadows was then caught stealing to end the inning, but the Tigers were up 4-1 at the end of eight.
Lange came back out in the ninth and got two outs before walking Paul Goldschmidt. Burelson then saw roughly 700 pitches and hit 699 fouls before finally striking out to end the game with a win.
Final: Tigers 4, Cardinals 1