After a pair of disappointing losses and a rainout at home against the Guardians, the Tigers hit the road for the Lone Star State, the Bluebonnet State, the Home of the Whopper (I ****** ume) for the opener of a three-game series against the Astros in Houston. It didn’t exactly go as the Tigers initially envisioned it, I imagine, but in the end Detroit came away with a comfortable 9-3 victory on Monday night — and, holy mackerel, did Colt Keith have a night.
Troy Melton woke up with lower-back tightness, so Drew Anderson got the spot start. (Get well soon, Troy. Please.) Anderson has generally been solid whenever in the game he’s been asked to pitch; he made a similar start back on May 20 against Cleveland and he pitched into the fifth, giving up no runs, two hits, and striking out seven. He’s been decent recently, too: in June coming into today, Anderson had pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up seven hits and two runs across five relief appearances.
Facing the Tigers was Kai-Wei Teng, a right-hander from Taiwan in his first season in Houston. He’s had some mixed results so far in his career in North America, spending time with the Giants the last two seasons. Like almost all of his colleagues on the Houston pitching staff, he’s been walking a ton of batters — about 4.2 per 9 innings — so it was important that the Tigers needed to be patient against Teng to get runners on base.
The Tigers loaded the bases with two out in the first after a pair of walks and a hit-batsman. Keith then got clipped by a very, very wild pitch that nicked his back-foot calf pant-leg to force in a run, putting the Tigers up 1-0. With the bases still loaded, Spencer Torkelson struck out on a sweeper for the third out, and what a strange inning: two walks, two hit-by-pitches, three strikeouts, and no ****** in play. (Do not say Teng “struck out the side.”)
Anderson had a similarly silly first inning: he struck out three, but walked a pair and gave up a single; fortunately there were no runs scored. Sheesh, if you were going to show a young pitcher a tape of how not to pitch an inning of baseball, show him either halves of this one (or both).
Troy Melton woke up with lower-back tightness, so Drew Anderson got the spot start. (Get well soon, Troy. Please.) Anderson has generally been solid whenever in the game he’s been asked to pitch; he made a similar start back on May 20 against Cleveland and he pitched into the fifth, giving up no runs, two hits, and striking out seven. He’s been decent recently, too: in June coming into today, Anderson had pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up seven hits and two runs across five relief appearances.
Facing the Tigers was Kai-Wei Teng, a right-hander from Taiwan in his first season in Houston. He’s had some mixed results so far in his career in North America, spending time with the Giants the last two seasons. Like almost all of his colleagues on the Houston pitching staff, he’s been walking a ton of batters — about 4.2 per 9 innings — so it was important that the Tigers needed to be patient against Teng to get runners on base.
The Tigers loaded the bases with two out in the first after a pair of walks and a hit-batsman. Keith then got clipped by a very, very wild pitch that nicked his back-foot calf pant-leg to force in a run, putting the Tigers up 1-0. With the bases still loaded, Spencer Torkelson struck out on a sweeper for the third out, and what a strange inning: two walks, two hit-by-pitches, three strikeouts, and no ****** in play. (Do not say Teng “struck out the side.”)
Anderson had a similarly silly first inning: he struck out three, but walked a pair and gave up a single; fortunately there were no runs scored. Sheesh, if you were going to show a young pitcher a tape of how not to pitch an inning of baseball, show him either halves of this one (or both).
18 hours ago
