As Friday night’s opener of a three-game weekend series began in Baltimore, the Detroit Tigers were tied with the Minnesota Twins for the third Wild Card spot (but the Twins hold the tiebreaker). Could they hold their ground against a tough starter that owned them a week ago?
Well, no, as they lost a laugher, 7-1. At press time the Twins were tied with the Red Sox 1-1 in the eighth in Boston.
Tyler Holton was the opener for the Tigers, with Keider Montero slated to take most of the innings. I mean, at this point, what else can I say about Holton in terms of superlatives? He… uh… solves Rubik’s Cubes in under ten seconds, he can ride a unicycle, he calls his mother just the right number of times in a week? Probably all of those.
Corbin Burnes and his outstanding cutter faced the Tigers six days ago and held them scoreless and to two hits over seven innings… but his previous few starts before that showed Burns to be rather hittable. Which Mr. Burnes would the Tigers see tonight?
The Orioles got on the board against Holton in the bottom of the first: Gunnar Henderson led off with a high fly ball that really should’ve been easily caught by Parker Meadows in centre, but he and Kerry Carpenter in right didn’t communicate and it fell in between them. That was huge because, with two outs and Henderson still on second, Anthony Santander blasted a long two-run home run to make it 2-0.
Holton left after a single inning, Keider Montero came in for the second, and rookie Colton Cowser turned Montero’s first pitch around for a solo home run and a 3-0 Baltimore lead.
The Tigers had a big opportunity in the third with two runners on and two out, but Carpenter grounded out to second on the first pitch to end the threat. Burnes looked very good right from the beginning, with great stuff and a nasty curveball to lefties to add to his cutter. He would end up going another seven shutout innings, striking out eight.
In the bottom of the fourth Old Friend James McCann hit another Orioles home run, a two-run shot to put Baltimore up 5-0, as the hole the Tigers dug for themselves got a little deeper. McCann struck again in the sixth with another home run, a solo shot, after Cowser hit a second of his own. When the dust settled Montero was gone in a puff of hanging breaking balls, the O’s were up 7-0, and it was time for Kenta Maeda, who settled things down for a little while. He also touched 94 mph on his fastball at times and struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth. Look at you, Kenta!
Since there are basically no Tiger highlights, here’s a squeaky door that sounds like ‘70s fusion-era Miles Davis on trumpet.
The Tigers finally got on the board with a Spencer Torkelson walk, the ol’ “defensive indifference” allowing him to move up to second, and he scored on a Trey Sweeney single. But that would be it for the scoring. Oh well.
Reese Olson will look to get things back on track against lefty Cade Povich at 4:10 p.m. ET on Saturday. Povich gave up a pair of runs in five pretty good innings of work against the Tigers back on September 15 in Detroit.
Box Score: Orioles 7, Tigers 1
Welcome to the Shohei Show
- I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Shohei Ohtani joining the 50-50 club with a 6-for-6, 3 home run, 10 RBI, 2 stolen base game. What a way to become the inaugural member of that exclusive club. I’ve heard some people calling this the best individual performance in baseball history.
- Most steals for Ohtani in any of his Japanese League seasons? Seven.
- Oh, and I saw that a couple of weeks ago he threw his first bullpen session since his surgery. What a beast.
- Today would have been Anne Meara’s 96th birthday. She was one half of the comedy team Stiller and Meara with Jerry Stiller, and was also Ben Stiller’s mom. That’s a lot of comedy in one family.