The Tigers overcame some adversity in this one early on. The offense erupted in the middle innings and they survived another rough Kenta Maeda outing to win their eighth game out of the last ten and run their July record to 11-4. They are now one game below the .500 mark.
For a few innings, we had a pretty good pitching duel between Reese Olson and Yusei Kikuchi. The Tigers put together a chance in the top of the first on two-out singles from Matt Vierling and Mark Canha, but Wenceel Pérez flew out. The Blue Jays got a one-out walk to Spencer Horowitz and then Vladimir Guerrero Jr. dropped a single into right field. Olson got a double play ball from Justin Turner that ended the inning.
Olson’s command wasn’t very sharp, though the stuff looked good as usual, and this would play out in unfortunate fashion. He walked Daulton Varsho with one out in the second inning, but got another double play ball. Still two walks was odd for Olson, and as he came off the mound he shook out his right shoulder a little bit. He would not return to the mound, leaving the game with shoulder soreness. Not good.
The Tigers got a two-out walk drawn by Justyn-Henry Malloy —the lineup was stacked with the right-handed hitters against Kikuchi — in the third, but Vierling watched strike three.
Alex Faedo came on in the third and struck out a pair of hitters in a quick inning. The Tigers were having no luck against Kikuchi and went 1-2-3 in the top of the fourth. Faedo got the first out of the bottom half of the fourth, then allowed a Guerrero single. In a 3-2 count against Justin Turner, Faedo painted a beauty of a 95 mph fastball for strike three as the Blue Jays had the hit and run on, and Guerrero was cut down trying to steal second for the third double play of the game for the Tigers.
Kikuchi took the mound in the fifth and quickly blew away Javy Báez for his seventh strikeout. The lefty’s mid-90’s fastball has a lot of carry and the Tigers just could not square it up despite really aggressive strike throwing. Gio Urshela suffered the same fate on a high fastball. Kikuchi really hides the ball well and right-handers in particular can’t pick it up early. Ryan Vilade managed a solid line drive single back up the middle with two outs, As Dan Dickerson discussed the fact that Kikuchi tends to fade quickly the third time through the order, Andy Ibáñez pulled a hot ground ball into the left field corner. Varsho struggled to corral it and Vilade scored while Andy cruised into third with a triple. Malloy flew out to left field, but it was 1-0 Tigers.
In bulk reliever mode, A.J. Hinch turned to Kenta Maeda to hopefully get them from the fifth through the seventh, or close to it. After a heck of a showing in his first shorter outing last weekend, we were hoping to see Maeda keep it going. Danny Jansen was the first hitter and put up a nine pitch battle before getting called out on strikes. Daulton Varsho flew out, and while Davis Schneider put up a nine pitch battle, he hit a medium strength line drive to Báez for the final out.
You have to wonder if trying to be efficient was part of Maeda’s problem in a starting role. He’s still got pretty good secondary stuff and the fastball velocity is up to where that pitch is closer to average. So if he doesn’t feel compelled to just pound the strike zone to get quick outs, and can use his command to work all around the edges more, perhaps he can sustain some good performance this way. Or maybe he’s just done.
The sixth started with Matt Vierling pulling a single through the left side of the infield. Kikuchi was struggling by this point and walked Mark Canha as he topped 90 pitches, and yet the Blue Jays decided not to go to their bullpen until disaster was imminent, and it amused me. You knew you’d get a good bat from Wenceel Pérez, and he drew a walk as well.
Finally, John Schneider had seen enough. He brought in right-hander Trevor Richards. Jake Rogers worked into a 3-2 count, got a 95 mph heater on the inner edge and bombed it to left for a grand slam. Oh yes. Tigers 5-0.
It didn’t stop there.
Javy Báez and Gio Urshela followed with sharp line drive singles. Ryan Vilade flew out, but Andy Ibáñez was up again, and it didn’t matter that it wasn’t a lefty on the mound. Andy smoked a line drive single to left to score Báez and make it 6-0. Justyn-Henry Malloy put together a good AB and drew a walk to re-load the bases with Matt Vierling at the dish, still with only one out.
Brandon Little, a lefty, entered the game probably so that Hinch wouldn’t pinch hit Riley Greene in for Vierling. It worked, as Vierling grounded right to third base. Guerrero fired home and nearly threw it away, but catcher Danny Jansen corralled it to get the out at home. That brought up Canha with the bases still juiced.
Canha appeared to have failed to check his swing on a breaking ball, but the ump didn’t call it and the bouncer kicked off Jansen and got away as another run scored. Canha eventually grounded out but it was 7-0 Tigers now.
Maeda got the first out of the sixth. Then Kiermaier pulled a little bliner into left field. Vilade made a pretty good diving attempt but couldn’t quite haul it in. I say good because he got a bit of glove on the ball, and recovered quicklly to hold Kiermaier to a double. However, George Springer singled in Kiermaier to make it 7-1. A raucous Bronx cheer erupted from the Jays faithful as their team finally scored a run.
Spencer Horowitz grounded out, but a splitter hung up to Guerrero, and he launched it to straightaway center field for a two-run shot. 7-3 Tigers. Maeda? Not fixed. Turner grounded out to end the inning, but the Tigers lead was trimmed back to four runs with three innings to go.
Reliever Erik Swanson set the Tigers down in order in the seventh. Tyler Holton took over for Maeda, and struck out Jansen and Varsho to start the inning. Jake Rogers as usual was doing an excellent job calling the game and making sure to get his pitchers extra strikes. Schneider dumped a little single into center field, but Leo Jiménez lined out to Pérez to end the inning.
RHP Ryan Burr took over in the eighth and got Urshela and Vilade quicky, with A.J. Hinch declining to use Greene or Keith. Andy Ibáñez popped out to send it to the bottom of the eighth.
Ernie Clement pinch-hit for Kiermaier and Holton got a little swinging bunt back to the mound for the first out of the inning. Springer got carved by a cutter down and away, and Horowitz grounded out to Urshela at third to send it to the ninth.
Colt Keith pinch-hit for Malloy to start the ninth against RHP Yimi Garcia. He struck out, and Garcia went on to strike out the side swinging with some nasty curveballs and changeups in the mix.
Shelby Miller came on to close this one out. Guerrero lined out sharply, Turner flew out to center field, and Jansen flew out to left to end it.
The Tigers are rolling, and now hold a 49-50 record.
Anson Seibert, who would’ve been an enormous get, unsurprisingly has decided to go to college. Doesn’t sound like there was ever much question. This doesn’t cost the Tigers any pool money, nor save them any.
This day in history
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. 15 minutes later, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin joined him on the moon’s surface. Five more successful lunar landings would follow, with Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt the last two men to stand on the surface of the moon during the Apollo program in December of 1972.
On July 20, 1973, martial arts star Bruce Lee died at age 32 from a brain edema.
This is also the 80th anniversary of the German High Command’s plot to blow up Adolf Hitler in a staff meeting. The story of Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators attempt to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb, which was likely averted only because another officer moved the briefcase just before the blast, putting more of the heavy wooden staff table between the blast and Hitler, is told in the Tom Cruise film, Valkyrie, as well as the 2008 television movie Operation Valkyrie.