Tigers Walloped By Baltimore Bats

The Baltimore Orioles showed up, Sunday afternoon, ready for a home run derby. The Tigers… not so much. An early deficit didn’t get any better as the Orioles chased Anibal Sanchez off the mound, while handing the Tigers the 8-1 loss. The story of this game through the first four innings was the number five, which was the number of home runs given up by Sanchez, including three back to back home runs in the 1^st inning. Capped off by a pair of home runs in the 4^th, Brad Ausmus had seen enough, and reliever Chad Bell would come on to relieve Sanchez. The Tigers trailed 8-0.

Tiger offense was plagued by an inability to send runners across the plate. In seven different innings, they put two runners on. However, through eight, the only run for the Tigers came from a single shot home run, from Nick Castellanos, in the 5^th.

While Chad Bell had a strong outing, the Orioles weren’t done picking on Tiger pitchers. In the 8^th inning, a single from Machado would score two more for the Orioles. Saupold would relieve Jimenez, but the Orioles would tack on two more runs before the end of the inning. Tiger hitters were able to cut into an eleven run deficit in the 9^th. A pair of singles from Kinsler and Aducci, and Upton would hit into a ground ball out, scoring Kinsler. A single from Mahtook scored Adduci, but that was all. The Tigers fell to Baltimore, 12-3.

In a four inning start, Sanchez gave up eight runs on ten hits, with the five home runs, two strikeouts and one walk. Oriole defense stranded twelve Tiger base runners and the Tigers were outhit 17 to 14. In spite of the low score, Ian Kinsler, John Hicks and Andrew Romine all had three hit games.

With the second straight loss to the Orioles, the Tigers have to settle for the series split. The Tigers road trip continues Monday night in Pittsburgh. The Tigers will square off for two games, before hosting the Pirates for two. Our Monday night match up will feature Jordan Zimmerman(7-8  5.35 ERA). Climbing the mound for the Pirates is Trevor Williams(4-4  4.47 ERA). Our coverage begins at 6:40, on 95.3 WBCK.