Pitching Lapses Spell Doom For The Tigers

It was a pitcher’s duel, to start Tuesday night’s matchup, between the Tigers and the Texas Rangers. Justin Verlander was strong through three innings, but let a seven batter, 4^th inning ruin his night. The score was tied 1-1, going into the 4^th. Two singles scored a run to give the Rangers the lead. This was followed up by back to back home runs before Verlander pitched his way out of the inning. The Tigers trailed 5-1.

Outside a single and two doubles in the 2^nd inning, the Tigers really didn’t get anything else going until the top of the 7^th. Victor Martinez would draw the leadoff walk. A double from Hicks would follow and Martinez scored on a ground out from Presley, to second. Another ground out scored Hicks. The Tigers left the inning, trailing 5-3.

The play of the game clearly went to Texas Ranger, Rougned Odor, who in the 7^th scored(officially) on a balk from Stumpf. It looked suspiciously like he, in fact, stole home. Either way, the run may have taken something out of Tiger batters, who went down 1-2-3, on 7 pitches in the 8^th. The Rangers went on to bust the game wide open in the bottom of the 8^th by sending nine to the plate and scoring four. Martinez cut into that seven run lead in the ninth, with a leadoff home run. The Tigers would get another single, but no more. They fell to the Rangers, 10-4.

Verlander pitched six innings and gave up five runs on eight hits with no walks and eight strikeouts. Victor Martinez and John Hicks led the Tigers offensively. Martinez went two for four, with two hits and a walk. Hicks went three for four, including two doubles.

With the loss, the Tigers drop to thirteen games below the .500 mark. The Tigers will get another crack at the Rangers on Wednesday, when they’ll look to salvage one. Our Wednesday night match up will feature Anibal Sanchez(3-3  6.69 ERA) against Cole Hamels(7-1  3.31 ERA). Our coverage begins at 7:40, on 95.3 WBCK.