After a convincing victory over the Washington Nationals on Monday night, the Tigers looked to win their penultimate series of the season on Tuesday night. They’d have to wait another day to try for that, though, as they went down to defeat by a 3-1 score.
Drew Anderson made the start for the Tigers, and he’s been fairly solid recently as a member of the rotation. He’ll usually give you five innings and won’t let things get out of hand; his previous start in Toronto saw him complete five innings and give up a scant pair of hits with nary a run surrendered. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of him next year: rotation, bullpen, why not both?
Making the start for the Nationals was Riley Cornelio, a rookie righty who’s mostly pitched out of the bullpen but has made some starts lasting a handful of innings; he probably wasn’t going to go the distance (not that anyone does these days), as he was going to open for lefty, and fellow rookie, Jackson Kent. Cornelio’s been up-and-down between Triple-A Rochester and Washington a lot, and he was recalled for the fourth time on September 2.
Cornelio’s first inning was very up-and-down: he started off by walking Gleyber Torres on four four-seam fastballs that were nowhere close to the plate, then got two strikeouts. Eduardo Valencia then battled Cornelio for eleven pitches before hitting a 415-foot fly ball to the warning track in right-centrefield for the third out. Remember: Comerica 5/3 giveth, and Comerica 5/3 taketh away.
Washington got on the board in the second with a CJ Abrams leadoff home run just a bit farther than Valencia’s flyout, making it 1-0. (Narrator: he wasn’t done.)
In the bottom of the second, Max Clark singled with one out, and was picked off — he was initially called safe, but after an insanely long replay, that call was overturned.
Cornelio lasted until two outs in the third, giving way to Kent with Hao-Yu Lee on first after a walk. Kevin McGonigle hit a ground-rule double which forced Lee to stop at third; Valencia followed that, sadly, by swinging at strike three in the dirt for the final out, stranding the duo.
In the top of the fourth with one out, Clark made a heck of a nice running catch.
The Tigers got a pair on in the bottom of the fourth as well, via a leadoff double by Ben Malgeri and a one-out Spencer Torkelson walk. Alas, Javier Báez hit a grounder to second to start an inning-ending double play, and Detroit stayed off the scoreboard.
Meanwhile, aside from the solo home run, Anderson was absolutely rolling: after Abrams’ home run and a single following that, he shut the Nationals down very effectively, with a stingy pitch count. He had great command of a whole boatload of pitches, retiring thirteen in a row before James Wood singled with two outs in the sixth. Also, the sixth ended on another nice catch by Clark.
McGonigle led off the bottom of the sixth by striking out, but he reached first on the ol’ third-strike passed ball. He was erased on a fielder’s choice grounder by Valencia to third (which would’ve been a double play if the throw to first hadn’t sailed a mile wide). Valencia himself was erased at second on a Malgeri bouncer to first, but Malgeri scooted all the way to third when Clark singled to right. He came home on a wild pitch to tie the game 1-1, with Clark moving up to second.
Torkelson walked again, but Báez flew out to centre and the score remained knotted at ones.
Abrams struck again in the top of the seventh, though: with Dylan Crews on second, he mashed another long home run on a meatball of a changeup to make it 3-1. That was the end of Anderson’s day, and his final line slightly belied how well he pitched for most of it: 6+ innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, no walks, 5 strikeouts. Heck, if you take out those two home runs by Abrams, that’s a heck of a start… but the last time I checked, that sort of thing is not allowed. Tyler Kinley came on and got the next three outs in fairly quick order.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh the Tigers got another pair of runners on via singles by Lee and McGonigle. That wast the end of Kent’s outing, and righty Jack Sinclair was brought in to face Valencia; he hit a soft grounder to second and that was the end of the inning.
Brant Hurter came on for the eighth and gave up a single and a stolen base but that was all. Beau Brieske was brought in for the ninth and he did exactly the same. The Nationals stole three bases on the evening, and no, Dillon Dingler was not behind the plate, thanks for asking.
Erik Tolman, the visitors’ fourth rookie pitcher of the evening, pitched the ninth. He had some trouble with either his cleats or the pitching rubber, slipping a couple of times. Lee walked with two out; during the at-bat he swung awkwardly and may have strained something in his leg, so Zach McKinstry pinch-ran for him. McGonigle very nearly hit a double right down the left-field line, but he ended up striking out to end the game and Tolman earned his fourth save of the year.
Final score: Nationals 3, Tigers 1
Notes and Numbers
- Hao-Yu Lee (who would probably refer to himself as Lee Hao-Yu, using their naming convention), has had one heck of a nice rookie season: 340 plate appearances, .268 batting average, 10 home runs, .757 OPS (110 OPS+), coming into tonight.
- Interesting lineup construction tonight: Gleyber Torres led off, and was followed by five rookies. You don’t see that every day.
- I can’t be the only one who thought about Beavis and Butt-Head when reading Riley Cornelio’s name. I get it, Riley: you’ve heard it before. Sorry, pal.
- Happy 137th birthday to former Tigers pitcher George “Hooks” Dauss. I’ll give you one guess as to which of his pitches was really good. Also, happy much-less-than-that birthday to my dad; no idea if he ever had a curveball of note.
