BALTIMORE — Whenever former Western Michigan pitcher Keegan Akin takes the mound, the Baltimore Orioles seem to always lose.
Since June 11, the Orioles have lost in each of Akin’s 10 appearances, including seven starts. The Detroit Tigers made the most of his troubles Tuesday, chasing him in the third inning on the way to a 9-4 win at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Of Detroit’s 11 hits, six went for extra bases.
The Tigers (55-60) are 46-36 since May 8 and 15-9 since the All-Star break.
Before first pitch, the game was delayed one hour, 54 minutes due to rain.
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To start the three-game series with a victory, the Tigers got two runs in the second inning and four runs in the third. A uneven start from rookie right-hander Casey Mize forced manager AJ Hinch to turn to his bullpen with one out in the fifth inning.
The relievers were the reason the Tigers didn’t crumble.
Kyle Funkhouser delivered 1⅔ innings of perfection, escaping the jam Mize created in the fifth inning. Jose Cisnero took over for the seventh and was perfect despite all three batters putting the ball in play. Michael Fulmer worked around a walk and a hit for a scoreless eighth.
With Fulmer on the mound, Anthony Santander crushed a fly ball between left fielder Akil Baddoo and center fielder Derek Hill. Running at full speed, their bodies collided while Hill made the catch. The crash left them down on the warning track. Both players exited with injuries.
Buck Farmer put two runners in scoring position with one out in the ninth. Hinch turned to left-hander Gregory Soto against Orioles All-Star Cedric Mullins, who struck out swinging. Soto then secured the win with another strikeout.
In the eighth, the Tigers extended their lead to 8-4 with a two-run home run from Jeimer Candelario, who entered Tuesday tied for the American League lead in doubles (30) with Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez and Marcus Semien. He hit the ball 337 feet to right field off Orioles reliever Adam Plutko’s cutter.
Robbie Grossman hit an RBI single in the ninth to make it 9-4.
What happened to Mize?
Facing the Orioles for the third time through their lineup, Mize unraveled with one out in the fifth inning. Mullins — extending his hitting streak to 17 games — cranked a double and advanced to third on Mize’s wild pitch.
Ramos Urias chopped a slider back to Mize, who stared down Mullins at third to keep him from running. But Mullins started running, after Mize’s throw to first baseman Jonathan Schoop missed his glove for a throwing error.
Mize shouted in frustration.
Hinch ended Mize’s outing earlier than expected: 4⅓ innings, five hits, four runs (three earned), one walk and four strikeouts. He threw 49 of 85 pitches for strikes, along with three home runs allowed, one hit batter, one wild pitch and one error.
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In the second inning, Mize allowed a home run to Santander on a seventh-pitch slider. He smashed the ball 414 feet to right and out of the ballpark. It was the 111th home run to reach Eutaw Street and the 51st by an Oriole hitter.
Austin Hays followed with a single, but Mize struck out DJ Stewart (swinging, fastball) and Maikel Franco (looking, slider) to regain the momentum. Catcher Eric Haase threw out Hays trying to steal second to conclude the second inning.
Mize recorded two quick outs in the third, but he walked Mullins on four pitches, including one pitch that flew to the backstop, and plunked Urias with a two-seam fastball. After a mound visit from pitching coach Chris Fetter, Mize fell behind 2-0 in the count to Trey Mancini, who eventually grounded into an inning-ending force out.
The Orioles tacked on two more runs in the fourth, cutting the Tigers’ lead to 6-3. Santander belted his second home run of the night on a two-seam fastball, and Stewart tossed in a solo home run on Mize’s four-seam fastball.
Akin beat up
Upon taking over in the fourth inning, Baltimore bullpen blanked the Tigers until the eighth. The damage, however, had already been done.
In his return from the injured list, Niko Goodrum sparked his team’s offense with a two-out, nine-pitch walk in the second. Willi Castro followed with an RBI double off the right-field wall, and Baddoo lined his sixth triple down the left-field line for a 2-0 lead.
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The Tigers scored four runs in the third inning behind RBIs from Jonathan Schoop (20th double), Goodrum (single) and Castro (fifth triple). The single and triple from Goodrum and Castro, respectively, came with two outs.
Akin completed the third inning by getting Baddoo to pop out, but he didn’t return for the fourth. He allowed six runs on seven hits and one walk, striking out five batters and throwing 52 of 68 pitches for strikes.
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.