Keider Montero and the bullpen were solid, while Riley Greene went deep.
The Detroit Tigers continued to roll in April on Saturday. They secured yet another series victory over the Baltimore Orioles by sweeping the doubleheader with a 6-2 victory in Game 2. Keider Montero threw a pretty good spot start, Riley Greene homered, and Spencer Torkelson and Zach McKinstry refuse to stop raking.
Game 2 got underway with a bit of role reversals from the two clubs. While Keider Montero was called up as the 27th man, we didn’t know if he’d be in the bullpen as part of an A.J. Hinch, “pitching chaos” spectacular or not. Instead, Hinch went traditional, starting Montero, while the Orioles decided to mix things up and start lefty Keegan Akin instead of the listed Charlie Morton, but only to get the top of the Tigers lineup as an opener before going to Morton in the second inning.
Guess what Brandon Hyde? You have merely adopted pitching chaos. A.J. Hinch was born in it, molded by its dark embrace!
Anyway, back to baseball.
Montero avoided his troubles with the early innings in this one. He retired the first six hitters he faced with efficiency, needing just 21 pitches. Akin walked Justyn-Henry Malloy in the first but got Spencer Torkelson on a lineout. Colt Keith got the start at second in this one after sitting through Game 1, but he grounded out to open the second inning. Gleyber Torres served as the DH with Kerry Carpenter on the bench.
Zach McKinstry was up next, and in a 2-2 count, Akin fired a fastball up and in. McKinstry swung and fouled it off but got jammed so badly the ball pinched his fingers against the bat. Because he offered they didn’t call a hit by pitch, but Baltimore decided to challenge whether it was a foul ball or not, saying he swung and missed as the ball never touched the bat. You never know with baseball. It’s amazing how often you see something new, because I can’t think of a time where a guy fouled a ball off his hand and potentially got called out on a swing and miss. The challenge worked, and so the replay ruled it a swing and miss and a strikeout. Wild.
That was it for Akin as Charlie Morton entered the game. Tomas Nido struck out, and we were on to the third.
Ryan Mountcastle grounded out to Keith on a hard bit ball to open the third. Montero continued to pound the zone in a tough matchup against a lineup stacked with lefties. Jackson Holliday saw five straight strikes, fouling off several tough pitches. Montero finally missed inside with a sinker, and then a slider down in the zone was lined just over Keith’s glove for a single and the O’s had their first baserunner.
Montero got ahead of Ramon Urias, but nibbled a bit to let him back in the count. Urias fouled off another fastball but a changeup got a little fly ball to left center field for the second out. Mullins lined a single to center on a high fourseamer to extend the inning, That brought up the dangerous if scuffling Henderson, and he eventually fought off a heater in on his hands and it just stayed fair down the third base line. Holliday scored, but McKinstry fired a strike to Nido to cut down Mullins. 1-0 Orioles.
Jace Jung got things started in the bottom half by drawing a walk as Morton sprayed his pitches. Trey Sweeney smoked a line drive single to right, but Jung didn’t read it well and had to stop at second base. Morton was struggling to locate his curveball at all and fell behind 3-1 to Gleyber Torres. He got a heater in and took a rip, but fouled it off for a full count. Two more fastballs at the top of the zone were fouled off, and then a curveball was grounded back up the middle. Henderson was able to get to it and flip to second to force Sweeney, but it was first and third with one out. Riley Greene got a fastball and absolutely smashed it into the right field seats. 3-1 Tigers, oh yes. Somewhere Earl Weaver nodded with approval.
Malloy followed with a walk. Torkelson got a hanger and his eyes got real big, but he popped it up. Morton was still spraying it, and Colt Keith got ahead 3-0 as Dan Dickerson and Andy Dirks talked about Keith working with force plates and batspeed training to get his swing sorted out. Morton wouldn’t let him swing and put him on base as well. That brought Drew French, Orioles pitching coach, out for a chat as McKinstry and his battered paw stepped into the batter’s box. Morton found the handle on the curveball after the mound visit and got ahead 1-2. McKinstry lay off a curveball down to even the count, but he missed a fastball up to strike out. 3-1 Tigers. On to the fourth.
After throwing nothing but strikes early on, now it was Montero spraying it a little. He got robbed on a 2-1 fastball that was a strike and walked Adley Rutschman to start the inning. Ryan O’Hearn ripped a drive up the left center field gap, but Riley Greene got a good jump and made a leaping catch before it got past his outstretched glove. Rutschman had to retreat to first base. Montero was still feeling for it and missing, and Jordan Westburg took advantage to line a single to center field. Brant Hurter was warming in case the inning got to Holliday, but Montero got Kjerstad to lift a routine fly out to left and Mountcastle got jammed with a slider and lifted a broken bat bloop out to McKinstry as well. Pretty nifty escape from Montero, but it did run his pitch count well up a bit.
The Tigers went quickly in the bottom half. Nido grounded out and Jace Jung again fouled off everything hittable and eventually struck out swinging. Sweeney popped out, and Morton looked to have settled down.
Montero, having escaped his own jam, stayed out there in the fifth but he continued to work between misses and getting too much of the middle of the strike zone. Holliday worked a full count and drew a walk on a changeup away. That’s the cardinal error at work, but Montero blew away Urias with a good fastball for the first out and turned the game over to Hurter.
The big lefty, with Dirks speculating on the nickname “Big Money” popped up Mullins for the second out of the inning. Henderson tried to bunt first pitch but fouled it off. Hurter slid a sweeper right in through the front door for a called strike two, and then tried to bait him with another one down and away to no avail. A heater up was fouled tipped into the glove, but Nido couldn’t hang on. Another front door sweeper was fouled off, and Hurter missed away with the fastball. Nido called for the heater again and again it was fouled off right down the middle. Finally another heater got a routine fly ball and we were on to the bottom half.
Gleyber Torres drew a leadoff walk from Morton, and the veteran right-hander tried not to give Riley Greene anything to hit. He fouled off a 3-2 curveball right over the middle, and Morton fired high to walk him. Unfortunately, Malloy flew out to right, and Spencer Torkelson grounded into an inning ending double play.
Hurter quickly dug himself a hole in the top of the sixth and while he was squeezed a bit, it was mostly of his own doing. Rutschman led off with a single, and O’Hearn drew a walk. That brought Westburg to the dish and a 1-0 pitch was fouled off down the right field line. Malloy and Torkelson got a little tangled and neither could make the play. The 1-1 drew a soft grounder to Keith, who rightly didn’t try to turn the double play but got the out at first. Ramon Laureano pinch hit for Kjerstad, and Hurter was struggling to find the zone against him too. He fell behind 3-0 and then grooved a sinker right down the middle. Laureano lifted a fly ball deep into the left field corner for a sacrifice fly as McKinstry made a fine play to run it down and get the ball back in quickly. McKinstry gave a fan a high five on his way back and Hurter looked to hold what was now a 3-2 lead.
Ryan Mountcastle fouled off a first pitch changeup and then Hurter missed way wide to his arm side, and continuing to struggle to get the ball on the gloveside of the plate. The next pitch was a sinker, and this one did get in on the right-hander. He tapped one back to Hurter who turned and fired a rocket to first for the final out of the frame.
Keith popped out for the first out of the bottom of the sixth, but Zach McKinstry striped a single the opposite way and that was the end of Morton’s day. Seranthony Dominguez took over as Tomas Nido batted. A wild pitch from Dominguez went to the backstop and McKinstry came roaring around second to take third as well without a throw. The crowd roared its approval, but Nido couldn’t handle Dominguez’s fastball, partly perhaps due to fear for his life as the hard-throwing veteran right-hander appeared to have zero command. That left it up to Jace Jung, who got ahead 2-1 in the count, but he grounded out to third to end the inning.
Hurter plunked Jackson Holliday to open the seventh, but quickly erased him with a double play ball off the bat of Ramon Urias that went Sweeney-Keith-Torkelson, or the ‘ol 6-4-3 classic. Hurter suddenly couldn’t find the strike zone against Mullins and walked him. That ended his day as recently recalled lefty Sean Guenther took over.
Gunner Henderson greeted Guenther with a sharp single, but Guenther got ahead of Rutschman and spotted a perfect breaking ball on the outer edge to snuff the attempted rally. Excellent work.
How good is the Tigers coaching and development of pitchers? Just seems like they can turn anyone into a good reliever at a minimum. Who holds the best team ERA going back to the beginning of the 2024 season? I think you can guess, although the Seattle Mariners have a share of that two-team lead as well.
Trey Sweeney drew a walk as Dominguez continued to spray it to open the bottom of the seventh. Gleyber Torres singled him to second base. Riley Greene got a good pitch and smoked a line drive, but Holliday made a nice play to snare it. Kerry Carpenter grounded out to Holliday, and that left it up to Torkelson with two in scoring position. The big fella cannot be stopped. He lined a double down the left field line, and it was 5-2 Tigers.
TORK!TORK!TORK!
That’s 24 freaking RBI and 8 homers in 27 games, if you’re keeping track.
Lefty Grant Wolfham, a Michigan native, known as G-Tungsten outside of Germany, took over from Dominguez at that point to make his major league debut. Hinch inserted Andy Ibáñez for Colt Keith. The lefty killer drew a walk and that brought McKinstry back to the dish. The utilityman remains unstoppable, and he lined a double down the left field line to score Torkelson. 6-2 Tigers, and now two in scoring position for Nido. The veteran catcher isn’t here for his bat, and he grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.
With Guenther on the mound, Javier Báez took over in center field. That moved Riley Greene to left with McKinstry at third and Ibánez in for Keith at second base. Guenther got Ryan O’Hearn on a grounder and then gave way to sidearmer Chase Lee. He got Westburg to lift a soft fly ball to Báez in center for the second out. He got ahead 0-2 against Laureano and then just missed down with a nasty sweeper. A fastball away made it a 2-2 count and another sweeper just barely off the plate brought the count full, but one more well spotted sweeper drew the whiff to send us to the bottom of the eighth.
Colin Selby took over from Wolfram, and he quickly struck out Jung while showing a pretty nasty knuckle curve. Trey Sweeney nearly took Gleyber Torres’ head off with a foul ball and Torres retreated from the on deck circle to jokingly hide behind the bat boy. Sweeney struck out, and Torres grounded out to send it to the ninth.
Hinch wasn’t messing around despite the four run lead. Tommy Kahnle came on for the ninth, and he quickly racked up the first two outs. Urias was the final hope for the Orioles, and after getting ahead the right-hander missed with a pair of changeups and then yanked a fastball to walk him. Cedric Mullins tried to follow the Urias plan and just take Kahnle’s lethal changeup, but Kahnle froze him with a high changeup in the zone to work the count back to 2-2. Kahnle missed away wildly again, which was odd, but perhaps the situation lacked the adrenaline with such a big lead. Mullins fouled off another changeup and with a 3-2 count fired a perfect changeup just below the zone for the whiff to put this one to bed.
The Tigers are already hot, and they don’t need to you let them get there this year.
They run their American League leading record to 17-10, and they’ll look for the sweep on Sunday with the reigning and defending Cy Young winner on the bump. Let’s go Tigers!