Astros 5, Tigers 2: Another early lead squandered

New clothes, same issues. Bedecked, bedazzled, or bizarre looking, depending on your perspective, in their City Connect uniforms for the first time, the Tigers still played a very Tigers sort of game. They scratched out an early lead, got a good start to hold it, and did nothing more offensively while the bullpen leaked oil to lose the first of three on Friday night.

This shaped up as a pretty good pitching duel on paper, and so it played out. Casey Mize took on a tough lefty in Framber Valdez, and for most of the first six innings, they were in control of this one.

Mize got himself right into a jam, walking the first two hitters of the game, but worked through it without a run coming across. Alex Bregman led off the second with a double, but Mize retired the next three to send them back to the drawing board and he had them in check in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, keeping the ball on the ground quite a bit, though he’s still getting very few whiffs out there, albeit against a good hitting team in the Astros.

In the third, the lefty killers in the Tigers order got something started as Jake Rogers and Andy Ibáñez singled to start the inning. Matt Vierling doubled down the left field line into the corner, scoring both baserunners to make it 2-0. But even with no outs, the Tigers couldn’t sustain a rally. Nor would they build on their slim lead.

Valdez really slammed the door on them the rest of the way. It was pretty classic Valdez as he nailed the edges and kept the ball down to get ahead early in counts and collect some quick ground balls, and forcing the Tigers into defend mode despite a relative lack of whiffs. The Tigers did a lot of looking for a perfect pitch in the zone to swing at, and those pitches rarely arrive when Framber Valdez is in form.

The Astros finally struck back once they got to face Mize for the third time. Kyle Tucker got a first pitch slider and took it for a ball. The follow-up was a 92 mph fourseamer at the top of the zone and Tucker crushed it deep to right field to cut the Tigers lead in half.

Yordan Alvarez followed and he ripped a hot one-hopper right through Spencer Torkelson at first base. Things were starting to look a little shaky, but Mize again had an answer. He got Peña to chop one right back to him. Mize fielded it nicely, turned and fired a strike to Ibáñez at second and he turned it over with a little help from a Torkelson stretch. That snuffed any hopes of a rally for the Astros. Jon Singleton grounded out to second to end the inning.

Valdez started the bottom of the sixth just over 70 pitches and the Tigers badly wanted him out of there. Greene grounded out to start things off, but Torkelson got a breaking ball up and stayed inside it, smoking a double just fair down the right field line. Wenceel Perez flew out to center field off the end of the bat, and that left it up to Vilade. He swung at the first pitch he saw and pulled a grounder to third for the final out of the inning.

Instead of knocking Valdez out of the game, it was the Tigers who had to go to the bullpen first. Will Vest got the first assignment. Bregman lined out to right and Yainer Diaz popped out but Vest lost the plot and walked light-hitting catcher Victor Caratini. Vest got Jake Meyers to ground out, but the extra hitter meant the order would turn over with Altuve leading off the top of the eighth.

In the meantime, the Tigers needed to add on some runs but they couldn’t get Valdez out of the game in this inning either. Báez grounded out again, but Jake Rogers walked. An Andy Ibáñez hot shot to second was awkwardly played by Altuve, but he knocked it down and made a no-look backwards toss to Peña to get one out. Vierling worked a full count, but grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.

A.J. Hinch turned to Andrew Chafin to handle the eighth with Altuve leading off, and a pair of really tough left-handed hitters to follow him. It didn’t start off well as Altuve ripped the first pitch he saw into left field for a single. Chafin tried to keep the ball down to get a double play ball, and instead he fell behind 3-0, missing low each time. Pretty far from ideal start to the inning and Chafin missed again walking Tucker to bring up Alvarez with two on. Pretty terrible, in fact.

The terrifying slugger pulled a drive right off the chalk on the right field line, scoring Altuve and getting Tucker to third, though Vilade got to the ball quickly enough to hold Alvarez at first. Tie ballgame, but still no outs. Chafin, like much of the Tigers bullpen, has really struggled the last week after great starts in March and April. Jason Foley came on to handle the right-handers in a really dangerous situation, and Jeremy Peña immediately paddled a single right back through the box to give the Astros a 3-2 lead.

Now in damage control mode, trying to keep the Tigers in the game, Foley got a ground ball to first from Jon Singleton. Torkelson handled it and fired to second to get the much faster lead runner, Peña. Javy Báez got spiked in the process and never really had a chance to turn it over. The quick thinking kept the double play in order, and Alex Bregman pulled a routine grounder right to Vierling at third…and he let it go right through the wickets.

Alvarez scored, Singleton moved to third as Bregman cruised into second, and the Tigers were throwing this game away again. Diaz flew out to right, allowing Singleton to tag and score, and it was 5-2 Astros. Caratini grounded out, but no one felt good about it.

I trust Fetter to get these guys going again, but Andrew Chafin with poor command has been a relatively rare sight over the years. Foley looks like a diminished version of the guy we saw the first five weeks of the season and didn’t top 96 mph yet again. Of course, he did his job, collecting multiple ground balls that should’ve gotten them out of the inning and Vierling’s error was the crucial problem.

In the eighth, there was a glimpse of life as Riley Greene doubled into the right field corner with one out off the very tough Bryan Abreu. It didn’t go anywhere, as Spencer Torkelson took a perfect fastball on the bottom edge for strike three. Abreu got ahead 1-2 against Wenceel Perez, and nailed the outside edge with a 98 mph fastball for strike three.

On to the ninth. Alex Faedo did a nice job collecting three quick outs including a strikeout of Altuve, and so it was last call. And like Abreu, the Tigers would face another really high end reliever in closer Josh Hader. He quickly struck out Vilade and got Báez to fly out to center field. Jake Rogers put up a good battle and drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch down and that brought Andy Ibáñez to the dish looking to get something going but was easily carved up to put this one to bed.

Tarik Skubal will take on a very different starter from Valdez in RHP Cristian Javier and his riding fourseamer at 6:10 p.m. ET on Saturday night.

Organ grinder

Not sure this is going to be an ongoing thing, but kind of cool to hear the old school organist playing in the park again. It’s been a long time. Seems like this is just for the weekend. The Tigers will have him playing a dirge by Sunday afternoon if they don’t clean it up.