Guess this was the one bad game of the series.
After yet another precautionary weather delay with no actual weather, the Tigers and Twins got their weekend series started in Detroit on a balmy summer evening. Sawyer Gipson-Long was on the mound for the Tigers, up against David Festa for the Twins.
Sawyer Gipson-Long started the game exactly how you’d want him to, with three straight outs against the Twins. Of course, the Tigers did the exact same in the home half, so it was an inauspicious start.
Another 1-2-3 for the Twins in the top of the second. The Tigers were the first to get baserunners in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Spencer Torkelson was hit by a pitch. Then, with two outs, Dillon Dingler singled. Both runners were left stranded.
In the top of the third, the Twins got something going. Harrison Bader got a one-out single, then advanced to second thanks to a wild pitch by SGL. Christian Vazquez took a walk. A force out and line out ended the inning with no damage done though, but it was the first hiccup in the game for SGL. The Tigers went down in order in the bottom of the inning.
With two outs in the top of the fourth, Matt Wallner hit a double, then a Brooks Lee double right behind him scored Wallner to put the Twins on the board first. They’d have to settle on the one run, but the Tigers were now playing to get out of a hole. They didn’t do anything to get out of the hole in the bottom of the inning, though.
With two outs in the fifth, things got worse for the Tigers as Byron Buxton hit a solo home run to left. But we can focus on the positive, which was this killer catch by Colt Keith to collect the first out of the inning.
The Tigers once again went three-up, three-down.
In the sixth, Willi Castro got things going with a leadoff walk. With one out, SGL’s day was done, replaced by Brant Hurter. Castro then stole second, and almost immediately after he took third on wild pitch by Hurter. Ty France walked, the Brooks Lee was once again clutch with the RBI, singling to score Castro. Kody Clemens was then hit by a pitch, and that was it for Hurter who was replaced by Carlos Hernández. Hernández then got the final two outs of the inning. With all those baserunners and pitchers shuffling, Sawyer Gipson-Long’s final line for the game was 5.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR on 77 pitches. He started out fairly strong and he hasn’t been back long so we’re not going to start panicking on this one yet.
In the home half of the sixth the Tigers managed to get one man on with a two-out single from Gleyber Torres, but they weren’t able to bring him home to score. That single was the end of the game for Festa, though, who was replaced by Danny Coulombe.
Byron Buxton got a leadoff walk in the seventh, and he then stole second. He got to third on a groundout, so he was in a good position when Castro laid down a sacrifice bunt to bring him home. Carlos Correa singled, but no additional runs scored. In the home half, Louis Varland was the new Twins pitcher. Spencer Torkelson got a one-out single, followed by a Wenceel Perez walk. Unfortunately, two outs followed, leaving the baserunners stranded.
Dylan Smith was next out of the Tigers’ pen, and he got the Twins out in order. Griffin Jax came out for the Twins in relief. And in true Tigers fashion, this was the down but not out inning. Colt Keith got a one-out triple. Then Torres singled to bring in the first Tigers’ run of the game. A pinch-hitting Zach McKinstry singled, sending Torres to third and bringing Riley Greene to the plate. McKinstry successfully stole second. Greene struck out, so it was up to Torkelson, who was also felled by a strikeout. At least they managed one run.
Christian Vazquez was hit by a pitch to start the ninth. Buxton struck out, then a double play off the bat of Trevor Larnach ended the inning. The Tigers were down to their last chance to turn things around. Jhoan Duran was out of the pen for the Twins. The Tigers didn’t put up much of a fight, going down in order to end the game.