After dropping Thursday night’s contest against the Royals, the Tigers had a close one for a while, but things got out of hand in a hurry: a 3-2 game was a 9-2 game in the blink of an eye.
The man who needs no introduction, Tarik Skubal, started for the Tigers. Since, as mentioned, he needs no introduction, I’ll just skip it. You’re welcome.
Cole Ragans, on the other hand, probably needs one. His rookie season in Texas was 2022, and he was alright, I suppose, but came back with them in 2023 strictly from the bullpen and did even worse. The Rangers dealt him to the Royals get Aroldis Chapman, and I’d say it worked out well for both teams: Texas won the World Series with Chapman holding down the back end of the bullpen, and Ragans became a starter again with KC and has been sensational since. His walks went way down, his strikeouts went way up, he has elite swing-and-miss numbers, and he was an All-Star last month. Not bad at all.
Justyn-Henry Malloy got the Tigers on the board in the bottom of the first against Ragans, with a no-doubter two-run home run to left. As it turned out, that was pretty much the entirety of the Tigers’ offense this evening.
Salvador Perez got one of those runs back with a first-pitch solo home run to lead off the second inning, making it 2-1.
The top of the fourth saw the Royals tie the score with a Perez single and a Hunter Renfroe double. With one out they had runners on the corners, Paul DeJong hit a sacrifice fly to left to push the visitors ahead 3-2.
Skubal stuck around to get the first out of the seventh inning… and that’s when the train hopped off the rails. A pair of hits left runners on first and second for Shelby Miller, and an infield single by Bobby Witt Jr. loaded the bases. Vinnie Pasquantino’s single to left scored two to make it a 5-2 lead; a wild pitch scored Witt, and a Perez double made it 7-2. Renfroe singled, Miller left (having given up four hits to four batters), and it was Beau Brieske’s turn to surrender some hits, which he did. A single re-loaded the bases, and DeJong followed by singling for the ninth consecutive hit and a 9-2 lead. Dairon Blanco struck out, a Bronx Cheer came up from the crowd, and Maikel Garcia mercifully ended the inning by lining out to first.
And that’s about all that was notable about this game, frankly. Joey Wentz pitched an uneventful ninth inning, for what it’s worth.
Numbers and Notes
- I don’t often highlight minor-league numbers here, but for those of you who are interested, Spencer Torkelson’s OPS at Triple-A Toledo is now up to .827 coming into tonight’s game in Indianapolis. He also mashed a first-inning double tonight at 109 mph (175 km/h), which is nice.
- Speaking of Toledo, and on a sadder note, the Mud Hens’ longtime play-by-play announcer, Jim Weber, passed away suddenly today. He started in April of 1975 and had not missed a single game since, running his total to over 6000 consecutive games. I’ve caught a few Mud Hens games over the years and always appreciated his style and humour, and goodness knows he’s seen a hot prospect or two come through Toledo on their way to the bigs.
- The Declaration of Independence was signed by thirteen British colonies in North America on this day in 1776. Look, fellas, if you’d just nicely asked the Crown for some independence like your neighbours to the north did about a century later, I’m sure they’d have been cool with it.