After splitting a doubleheader on Wednesday at home against Pittsburgh, the Tigers hit the road (with Jack; see below) for the first of four games in an extended weekend series in Boston against the Red Sox. Detroit was victorious in the first game with a 5-0 shutout win.
The aforementioned Jack Flaherty made his eleventh start of the season, and he’s been arguably the second-best starter on the team (after one Mr. Skubal, naturally). Reese Olson might beg to differ, but, despite Enzo Ferrari and Dale Earnhardt’s declaration, Flaherty’s second-place work is not that of a “loser”: in fact, Flaherty’s been downright delightful. His recent outings hadn’t been as lights-out as, for example, his 14-whiff revenge-outing against his former team, but he’ll usually give you six or seven innings and generally limit the damage to two or three runs with plenty of strikeouts and weak contact. He’d be better than that tonight, as you’ll see.
Nick Pivetta, a tall right-hander from Victoria, BC, took the hill for the Bostonians for his seventh start of the season. As Adam noted in the series preview, Pivetta’s spent some time on the shelf this season already with elbow issues, but when he’s been pitching he usually hasn’t had terribly good results. Most the peripheral numbers (low walk rate, limiting hard contact) look good, but he’s had a bit of a thing for giving up home runs so far this year. Will the Tigahhs find The Monstah with Pivetta on the mound, pally?
Well, early on, they sure didn’t — from the first through the third innings, Pivetta struck out 8 consecutive Tigers after a walk to the first batter he faced, tying a Red Sox team record now shared with Roger Clemens (you know, Kody’s dad). He set up his sweeper with a fastball and hitters even had trouble fouling anything off during that strikeout streak. Alas, Riley Greene led off the fourth with a groundout, meaning Pivetta would not tie former Tigers Tyler Alexander and Doug Fister for that American League consecutive-strikeout record.
Flaherty, of course, was no slouch himself: he had the knuckle-curve working well, kept hitters guessing, and through four innings had set down the first dozen batters in order with five strikeouts. He was really spotting his fastball well, and hitters were constantly kept off-balance. Several bats were sacrificed in the midst of the evening’s proceedings.
Akil Baddoo got the first hit of the night for either team, with a sizzler over said Monster with one out in the fifth, and the Tigers were on the board.
When asked for comment, Site Guy Brandon observed that Baddoo has been lowering his hands lately, and not letting his arms get away from his body during his swing. Re-watching that swing, it definitely looks like his hands are sitting lower than they used to, so maybe he’s on to something.
Carson Kelly led off the sixth with a stand-up triple to right that scooted underneath Wilyer Abreu’s glove. Matt Vierling hit a fly ball to right which wasn’t deep enough for Joey Cora to send Kelly (hmm, how about that), and Greene was intentionally walked to bring up Mark Canha, who got enough of his bat on a slider to send a single to centre and cash-in Kelly for a 2-0 lead.
Spencer Torkelson flashed the leather in the bottom of the sixth to take a sure hit away from Vaughn Grissom and preserve the, ahem, special thing Flaherty had going at that point.
That is one mighty fine play.
The magic finally ended with one out in the bottom of the seventh, as Rob Refsnyder poked a single to left to end the no-hit bid. Flaherty’s pitch count was getting pretty high, inflated by some long-at bats, and after a flyout to right his evening was done. Alex Faedo was brought in with two outs and a runner on first, and he induced a grounder to third to end the inning.
Flaherty’s sensational final line: 6 ⅔ innings, one single, no runs, one walk, 9 whiffs.
After a Vierling double with one out in the eighth, Greene lofted a fly ball over the aforementioned famous wall in left field for a 4-0 Tiger lead; Gio Urshela thought that looked like a pretty fun thing to do, so he followed suit with his first homer of the year and a 5-0 lead.
Faedo rolled on and got the first two outs of the eighth, and Tyler Holton was beckoned from the bullpen to get the third out, which he did. He continued on through the ninth without much incident and the victory was complete.
Box Score: Tigers 5, Red Sox 0
Numbers and Things
- From his four-hit game in Arizona through Wednesday’s doubleheader (12 games, 43 plate appearances), Colt Keith’s slash line (BA/OBP/SLG) is a delightful .410/.465/.564 for a 1.029 OPS. This includes three doubles, a home run and three walks… well, would you look at that, hard contact pays off!
- Coming into tonight’s game, the Tigers had both scored and given up 235 runs. Pythag!
- Nobody in your neighbourhood wants to hear your stupid car or truck’s engine revving. Trust me.
- Jerry Remy’s Boston accent in this classic clip of a “pizzer”-thrower? * chef’s kiss *
- WXYT bumper music watch: Adam Ant’s “Goody Two Shoes”.
- Today is Harry Enfield’s 63rd birthday. He’s a British actor and creator of Harry Enfield’s Television Programme (obviously). If you don’t find Mr Cholmondley-Warner, Tory Boy or The Yorkshireman funny… well then, I guess we just have different tastes in humour.