This was already a pretty eventful day for the Detroit Tigers organization. It was a day that began with Kevin McGonigle receiving a contract extension, and it ended with another dramatic Detroit Tiger victory. That’s now five wins in a row for the boys. That Minnesota series feels like it happened a lifetime ago.
The eighth inning has been very good to the Tigers in this series. This was a ball game that, in a lot of ways, was a carbon copy of what we saw last night. Last night featured two left-handed starters pitching great baseball; tonight, two right-handed starters. It’s hard not to feel a lot better about Jack Flaherty after these last few outings. He still runs into innings where he’s having trouble finding the zone, but overall, he’s throwing a lot more strikes. The fastball velocity was around 94 pretty consistently tonight. Detroit obviously needs its offense to produce, but this is an organization that is building around its pitching. When they get starting pitching performances like what they’ve gotten on this home stand, they’re almost impossible to beat.
This was another night where the Tigers' offense wasn’t exactly tearing the cover off the ball, but it was also another night where I felt like they faced a really good pitcher. Seth Lugo is a guy who knows how to pitch at this level. He mixes speeds and has 1 million different pitches. Detroit tried to take advantage of a few opportunities they had, getting a run across the board thanks to an all-time great slide by Javier Báez. After that, you knew the deeper this thing went, the more it favored Detroit because Kansas City‘s bullpen has been its weakness this year. But having the other team with a weak bullpen is only half of it; you have to keep runs off the board, and Detroit’s bullpen in this home stand has just been sensational. You feel pretty darn good with anyone AJ puts out there right now.
Hitting a game-winning home run can carry you a long way, but Wenceel Perez needed that homer because he needed to get going a little bit. He had not had a hit since being called up following the Parker Meadows injury. This is a guy who’s had a lot of big moments here. He is a legitimate major league player; he needs to figure out a way to put it all together. Tonight should help him immensely.
The Tigers look to cap off a perfect home stand tomorrow. Keider Montero will take the mound against Kris Bubic.