‘A frustrating night’: Urena buckles in 5th as Angels topple Tigers, 11-3

Detroit News
By Dan Arritt |  Special to The Detroit News

Anaheim, Calif. — Jose Urena lasted considerably longer than he did in his last outing, but the right-hander wasn’t nearly deceptive enough to save the Detroit Tigers from another loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.

Urena navigated through four innings against the Angels before giving up three home runs to left-handed batters in the fifth, leading to an 11-3 loss in the second game of their four-game series at Angel Stadium.

Urena (2-7) allowed seven runs and seven hits in 4.1 innings, striking out four and walking three.

Urena lasted just 1.2 innings against the Chicago White Sox on Saturday, allowing eight runs (seven earned) in the 15-2 loss.

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“He was OK in the beginning. He just hasn’t been able to sustain it throughout,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. “They put some really good swings on him and they beat us in every facet. It wasn’t just all Urena.”

He had given up two runs through four innings on Friday when Luis Rengifo began the fifth-inning barrage with a solo homer to make it 3-0.

Following a single by Justin Upton, Shohei Ohtani hit a line drive off the wall and above the home run line in right for his 20th of the season and a 5-0 lead.

Urena then issued his third walk of the game and Jared Walsh put another ball in the right-field seats to increase the lead to 7-0.

“Obviously, a frustrating night for him,” Hinch said. “Back to the drawing board for when he gets the ball in five days.”

The Tigers scored in the sixth after a two-base error was followed by a two-out double RBI by Miguel Cabrera to make it 7-1.

The Tigers lost shortstop Niko Goodrum to a finger injury on his left hand when he dove to knock down an infield single by Phil Gosselin in the sixth. The Angels tacked on three more runs in the inning to move ahead 10-1.

“He was in a lot of pain when I got out there,” Hinch said of Goodrum. “His left index finger didn’t look normal so he’s going to have that examined. I’m expecting it to be an injured list (situation), but I don’t know the extent of it right now.”

Another run by the Tigers in the seventh was matched by the second blast of the game by Ohtani to make it 11-2. Ohtani was also the winning pitcher in the 7-5 win against the Tigers on Thursday.

“He’s very must-see TV,” Hinch said of Ohtani. “You can feel the intensity in the crowd. He’s doing his thing and he’s a very talented player. He’s doing remarkable things on both sides of the ball at the highest level in the world.”

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Urena showed he could pitch out of trouble early on.

Upton led off the game with a ground-rule double on a half-swing fly ball that fell just inside the right-field line and just out of the reach of sliding right fielder Nomar Mazara, but Urena retired the next three batters to strand Upton at second.

Urena walked Max Stassi to lead off the second and Stassi took second when Urena threw a wild pitch to Jose Iglesias when he squared to bunt. One out later, Kean Wong singled to center to drive in Stassi for a 1-0 lead.

Another walk by Urena came around to score in the third.

Taylor Ward, who hit a grand slam in Thursday’s 7-5 win against the Tigers, doubled down the left-field line with two outs to score Upton from first and stretch the lead to 2-0.

Cobb, meanwhile, retired 11 straight after Mazara singled with two outs in the second.

Similar to the 7-5 loss to the Angels on Thursday, the Tigers had their chances to score early against Los Angeles starter Alex Cobb.

The Tigers, who were 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position on Thursday, stranded a runner at second in the first inning when Eric Haase struck out.

Akil Baddoo had a 10-pitch walk to start the second inning, but Niko Goodrum hit into a 6-4-3 double play, the third time Detroit hit into a double play in the past two games.

Dan Arritt is a freelance writer.

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