The Detroit Tigers’ offense is staggering as they approach the All-Star break.
They went scoreless for seven innings on Friday in a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Friday night, their second consecutive loss in Minneapolis.
The Twins scored all of their runs in the sixth inning.
Robbie Grossman provided the Tigers’ offense with a two-run homer in the eighth.
Matt Manning pitched five-plus innings and was charged with two runs and the loss while allowing only two hits and recording three strikeouts.
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Manning mixes it up
Just like Tarik Skubal on Thursday, Manning didn’t give up a hit until one out in the fifth.
He was fortunate early on, as Luis Arraez’s liner landed in Jeimer Candelario’s glove and Josh Donaldson’s 400-foot blast to center was caught at the wall by Akil Baddoo. Miguel Sano sent right fielder Nomar Mazara to the warning track in the third but Manning then settled in.
The 6-foot-6 Manning relied more on his secondary pitches, throwing them 48% of the time before his outing was through.
Minnesota’s first hit, Max Kepler’s opposite-field single, came after Jorge Polanco drew a walk. Manning responded by striking out Sano with a slider and inducing a weak grounder from Ben Rortvedt on a fastball.
Manning, who surrendered 11 runs and 16 hits in 6⅓ innings during his previous two starts, was removed in the sixth after giving up a leadoff single to Arraez and a walk to Donaldson.
Krol’s return goes awry
Ian Krol’s first major-league appearance in more than three years didn’t have a storybook ending.
Elevated from Triple-A Toledo earlier in the week and brought in to replace Manning, Krol balked with runners on first and second to move both into scoring position. The 30-year-old right-hander then gave up an RBI single to Trevor Larnach past the drawn-in infield and a sacrifice fly to Sano.
Following a walk and a flyout, Kepler smacked a liner to left that went under Grossman’s glove and bounced to the wall. The two-run triple gave the Twins a 4-0 lead and ended Krol’s frustrating stint.
His last major-league outing came in May 2018 for the Los Angeles Angels. He made 78 relief appearances with the Tigers in 2014-15.
Grossman reaches career best
Grossman sat out Thursday’s game after he jammed a finger diving into first base on a pickoff Wednesday against the Texas Rangers.
He didn’t put a ball in play until the eighth on Friday, walking once and striking out twice.
Grossman pulled an inside fastball from Caleb Thielbar over the left-field wall for his 12th homer this season, a career high. He hit 11 home runs for Minnesota in 2016.
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