Double header draw: Tigers call it a draw with the Pirates as they split the series 1-1

A good day to play two, indeed.

Thanks to the rain out on Tuesday, the Tigers played a double-header against the Pirates on Wednesday and the teams actually managed to split the series evenly with a game apiece.

As fun as a Paul Skenes/Tarik Skubal matchup would have been to watch, the first outing was Skubal vs. Jared Jones.

The most vital thing to know about this outing is that the Pirates did not score a single run, which is a lot more fun to watch when it’s not happening to your team. Skubal went 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K on 93 pitches, which isn’t going to quiet down Cy Young chatter any time soon. Just a really nice outing from Skubal and that was beautifully supported by a whopping eight Tigers runs.

The Tigers wasted little time getting on the board as Wenceel Perez doubled in the first, then got brought home by a Matt Vierling single to put the Tigers on the board. Mark Canha then hit a sac fly to score Vierling. Colt Keith grounded into a force out, but scored Riley Greene, so at the end of the first inning the Tigers were up 3-0.

They waited until the fifth to score again but did it in majestic fashion as Matt Vierling homered with two runners aboard to bring the score up to 6-0.

Still in the fifth Gio Urshela singled, scoring Riley Greene.

Onto the sixth and it was Jake Rogers with a single to score Javier Baez, the final run of the game, and bringing the final score of the first game to 8-0.

Game two unfortunately didn’t go as well. We got to see Pirates’ wunderkind Paul Skenes go up against newbie Keider Montero, and while Skenes might have barely left the minors himself, he certainly felt like the dominant force on the pitchers’ mound for the later afternoon game, which the Tigers lost (but were not shut out of).

Skenes went six innings, allowing three hits and two runs, while collecting nine strikeouts. Montero struggled in his first outing, going 4.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR on 87 pitches. But hey, kid got his first five MLB strikeouts and none of us could do that. We got to see the full bullpen at work today, and it didn’t do very much to stop the bleeding in the second game.

Since we’re going through a double-header here we’ll just look at scoring plays, but with a 10 run win that’s still going to take some work to get through.

The Tigers were the first to score in the game as Akil Baddoo hit a sac fly in the second to score Mark Canha.

Top of the third Andrew McCutchen hit a three-run homer scoring himself, Jared Triolo, and Ji Hwan Bae. Pirates lead 3-1.

Top of the fourth saw Nick Gonzales hit a solo home run. Then it was quiet unitl the sixth, when Jared Triolo hit a sac fly to score Gonzales again. In the bottom of the sixth the Tigers got one back off the bat of Matt Vierling, homering for the second game in a row of the same day. Score after six 5-2 Pirates.

In the top of the seventh Bryan Reynolds hit a sac fly to score Grant Koch, then Connor Joe reached on a fielder’s choice that allowed Andrew McCutchen to score.

As they headed to the eighth, McCutchen singled to score Ji Hwan Bae, putting the Pirates up 8-2.

They weren’t done yet, though. Top of the ninth Oneil Cruz tripled, scoring Connor Joe, and then Nick Gonzales singled to score Cruz. Pirates ended the game with a 10-2 victory.

Final Scores:
Game One: Tigers 8, Pirates 0
Game Two: Pirates 10, Tigers 2