Tigers 0, Angels 1: Efficient baseball is boring baseball

This was not what one might call “exciting” baseball, but it was also a pretty decent game from a fan perspective. The Tigers did not win, however they lost like a much better team than they’ve shown themselves to be for most of the season.

We’ll just touch on the highlights, because “pitched a 1-2-3 inning” can only be written or read so often before the term loses all meaning.

First, let’s look at Matt Manning, who had an absolutely stellar outing, giving up one home run and only two other hits to the Angels — one hit to a sorely missed Mike Trout, who has returned to the team — and I would firmly argue Manning could have gone out for the eighth inning with no real concerns. His final line for the day was 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HR on 90 pitches. A really good night for the young pitcher overall.

Also this stat doesn’t feel possible but is apparently true.

As for the Tigers, they collected a handful of hits from Castro, Cabrera, and Candelario (didn’t realize it was all C-named players until I typed that out, that’s fun), but we scoreless throughout the game, thanks to the fine efforts of Patrick Sandoval. The Angels were also held relatively at-bay, with their only scoring run coming in the top of the second with a solo shot from Walsh.

The entry of Joe Jimenez in the eighth made me a little nervy, but it turned out there was no reason, as he had a smooth inning, aided by a seriously cool bare-handed play from Javier Baez.

Jason Foley was out in the ninth to keep the Angels from getting further ahead and hopefully set up the Tigers for a ninth-inning walk-off. Hopefully. Foley managed yet another 1-2-3 inning and it went back to Sandoval to have a complete game for the Angels.

And a double-play ended the inning, giving Sandoval a Maddux (complete game shutout in 97 pitches), why am I the only one who thinks that’s cool, come on?

Anyway, Tigers lost but they played pretty good baseball.

Final: Angels 1, Tigers 0