Bryan Garcia inherited the bases loaded and no outs in the ninth inning.
Controlling a three-run lead, the Detroit Tigers initially turned to right-hander Jose Cisnero. He gave up two walks and a single. Manager AJ Hinch called on Garcia, who ended last season as the team’s closer, to dust off the Houston Astros — postseason-bound in each of the past four years — one last time.
Although Garcia gave up a bases-loaded walk, he limited the damage to one run and struck out Kyle Tucker to end the game. He showed Tucker three changeups in a row and caught him staring at a fourth-pitch fastball in the strike zone.
“We didn’t play our best,” Hinch said. “But we still found a way to win.”
The Tigers (6-6) completed a convincing three-game series sweep against the star-studded Astros with Wednesday’s 6-4 victory. It was Hinch’s first time in Minute Maid Park since he was fired by the Astros and suspended by MLB in January 2020 for his role in the sign-stealing scandal. He managed Houston from 2015-19, winning the 2017 World Series.
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These three wins won’t propel the Tigers into the postseason conversation, considering there are 150 games remaining and consistent winning isn’t something the franchise has accomplished in recent years. It’s way too soon to think playoffs. Yet the Tigers displayed their resilience, using dominant starting pitching and discipline on offense, to bounce back from a four-game losing streak, which included getting swept by Cleveland to begin a 10-game road trip.
For the first time in a long time, the Tigers were formidable.
“It just shows the potential of this team,” said right-hander Michael Fulmer, who fired five innings Wednesday and limited to the Astros to two runs. “We believe in ourselves.”
Since Hinch was hired Oct. 30 to lead the Tigers, the 46-year-old has emphasized two main points, critical to his team’s success: Win each day and develop a strong starting rotation. Against the Astros, those goals finally collided and were sustained across three games.
And the offense chipped in, too.
In Cleveland, the Tigers finished 13-for-91 — a weak .143 batting average. They scored six runs on 13 hits and six walks.
In Houston, the Tigers went 31-for-109 (.284) with 20 runs on 31 hits and 13 walks without future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera in the lineup because of a mild left biceps strain.
But the tone was set by the starting pitchers: Casey Mize on Monday, Matthew Boyd on Tuesday and Fulmer on Wednesday. They combined to give up three earned runs in 18⅔ innings for a 1.45 ERA against the Astros, expected to finish at the top of the American League West Division.
The Astros scored eight runs in the series.
“Our long-term goal is to have dominant starting pitching,” Hinch said. “That is not only logging innings, but quality innings. Most of the time, when you get into the sixth and seventh, and sometimes eighth and ninth, that means you’re throwing the ball pretty well.”
Starting pitching
Mize, Boyd and Fulmer came out in attack mode.
On Monday, Mize carried the responsibility of team-wide establishment. After rocky first and second innings without his fastball command, one tweak from pitching coach Chris Fetter had him looking like the former No. 1 overall pick he is. The 23-year-old tossed seven shutout innings, giving up four hits and two walks, with five strikeouts. He only needed 89 pitches (62 strikes), thanks to his rediscovered fastball command and spectacular splitter. Mize locked down his first MLB victory. It was the first time a Tigers rookie pitched seven or more scoreless innings since Fulmer’s complete game shutout in August 2016. Mize has a 0.82 ERA through two starts.
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On Tuesday, Boyd wanted to pitch deeper into the game. He made it into the seventh inning by fearlessly attacking the Astros and got two outs before Hinch went to his bullpen. The 30-year-old — after posting a 6.71 ERA last season — continued his revival with one run on six hits and one walk with four strikeouts in 6⅔ innings. All six hits were singles. Boyd used 100 pitches, generated 67 strikes and supplied his best performance since early in the 2019 season. After leading the AL in home runs with 39 allowed in 2019 and all of MLB with 15 in 2020, he hasn’t given up a long ball through 19⅓ innings. Boyd has a 1.86 ERA in three starts.
“It’s not easy, coming into play a team that lost the ALCS last year and then with the guys they have on this team and the championship tradition,” Boyd said. “But it just speaks to the moxie of the club and the culture that AJ and the whole staff has instilled. Today is what we got, and let’s go out there and get it. We can hang with anybody today, so let’s do it.”
On Wednesday, Fulmer felt motivated to replicate what he watched the previous two nights. He delivered five innings of two-run ball in his first start. He already pitched three games out of the bullpen, where he got back his mid-90s fastball velocity and sharp slider. He retired the first 11 Astros, topped out at 97.4 mph and escaped a fourth-inning jam without damage. He allowed a two-run homer in the fifth but ended the inning with a strikeout. Across five innings, he gave up three hits and one walk, picking up two strikeouts. Of his 78 pitches, 49 went for strikes.
It was Fulmer’s first MLB win since June 14, 2018, before right knee and Tommy John surgeries derailed the early success in his career, and his first time pitching beyond three innings as a starter since Sept. 9, 2018. Last year, he rehabbed at the major-league level, had strict restrictions and finished with an 8.78 ERA.
“They are the tone setters,” Hinch said. “They have a great responsibility on a daily basis. That has been the message from day one with the starting rotation. Certainly, these last couple games, they’ve taken that to heart.”
Yet those three pitchers wouldn’t have been as confident in overwhelming the strike zone — and methodically going outside of the zone — without run support. While smart strikes are always the priority, runs increase comfortability on the mound.
At the plate
The offense produced eight home runs in the three-game series; the Tigers are second in the majors with 19 homers, fifth with a .421 slugging percentage and 11th with a .710 on-base plus slugging percentage.
Catcher Wilson Ramos is tied with Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna Jr. for an MLB-leading six home runs, after only hitting five homers across 45 games last season.
Rookie Akil Baddoo, a 22-year-old Rule 5 draft pick, continues to shine on the biggest stage, maintaining opposite-field power and a veteran-like strike zone awareness.
New roster addition Renato Nunez is stepping up with extra-base hits, and Jeimer Candelario has stayed consistent in his approach to collect multi-hit performances in all three games. He has a .326 batting average in 12 contests.
“Our discipline was very good on offense,” Hinch said. “We jumped out on these guys and took the lead, which is very important because these guys (Astros), I know them well, know how to play with momentum. … You got to play well to beat a good team, and we did.”
Until this week, the Tigers hadn’t scored at least six runs in three consecutive road games since Sept. 18-22 in the 2016 season. They picked up six-run leads before the bottom of the fifth inning in all three games against the Astros.
“Whenever your offense gives you an early lead, that allows you to be in the zone more and just attack guys and end the inning, and get those guys back in the box to generate some more runs,” Mize said. “And the 4-0 (lead) really allows me to throw the ball in the strike zone, create some weak, early contact and just keep it rolling.”
Even when the Tigers got into trouble, such as the ninth inning of Wednesday’s finale, they found a way to stay alive and win. Left-hander Gregory Soto highlighted the bullpen efforts with 1⅔ scoreless innings. The relievers were shaky throughout the series, but the runs permitted by Cisnero, Daniel Norris, Buck Farmer and Derek Holland weren’t a factor until Wednesday.
As the Tigers began to lose momentum, Garcia escaped a bases-loaded, no-out conundrum with authority. He only allowed one run.
“Tough spot, you know,” Garcia said. “But glad we could get out there with the W.”
On to Oakland
The three wins made for a happy flight to Oakland, where the Tigers will face the Athletics in a four-game series at the Oakland Coliseum to conclude the 10-game road trip.
If the starting pitching sets the tone like it did against the Astros, and the bats show up ready to slug, there’s no reason why the Tigers can’t win their second series in a row against another Herculean opponent from the AL West.
“It’s winning baseball,” Hinch said. “Everybody in the league wins when they well play, and you got to win when you play just OK or poorly and somewhere in the middle of that. We saw a little bit of that in these three games. We won in three different ways.
“I’m very proud of this group with the effort we put in and the execution.”
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.