Five days after Matthew Boyd said he took a step in the right direction, he took a leap against another familiar AL Central nemesis. But he still fell to 0-4, in part because the latest Cleveland pitching phenom gave him no margin for error.
While Boyd had a changeup for
Five days after
While Boyd had a changeup for the Indians — several of them, in fact, along with a healthy dose of curveballs — Triston McKenzie held the Tigers to one run over six innings in his Major League debut. Once a couple of sixth-inning baserunners sent manager Ron Gardenhire to his bullpen, the Indians pounced, pulling ahead on Domingo Santana’s bases-clearing double on their way to a 6-1 Detroit defeat Saturday at Progressive Field.
A day after the Tigers beat Cleveland to end a 20-game losing streak in the rivalry, their skid is back at one. It’s a game that arguably got away, squandering by far Boyd’s best outing of the season and maybe his most impressive start since 2019. In many ways, Saturday night looked like a throwback to last season, when many solid starts were all for naught from a lack of run support before opponents pulled away late.
It’s a reversal from many other games this season, when Detroit’s bullpen has been the strength of the staff, if not the entire team early on. But then, Boyd’s attack against Cleveland was a reversal from their meetings last year.
Jason Beck has covered the Tigers for MLB.com since 2002. Read Beck’s Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason.