The Tigers fell 10-0 to the Angels on Monday for their 19th shutout of the season, the most of any Tigers team since 1976.
In contrast to the Tigers (51-84), the Angels (59-76) threw their 17th shutout of the season, tied with the Mets for the most in Major League Baseball this season.
On a Monday night in Anaheim where the two narratives met head on, Angels starter José Suarez (seven innings, three hits, no runs, seven strikeouts) was one of the key players, staying one step ahead of Tigers hitters with a healthy mix of well-located fastballs and elusive changeups.
Suarez’s longest outing since August 8 led to another mediocre night at the plate for Detroit, with four hits compared to the Angels’ 16. Until Willi Castro’s single to center field in the sixth, the Tigers’ only hit of the game was Victor Reyes’ one-hopper up the left field line in the third, mere inches away from being scooped by Rengifo for a groundout.
“The same pitches we were giving up, we weren’t hitting,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told Bally Sports Detroit. “(Suarez) beat us in the strike zone. We had a decent plan against him – we didn’t really execute it.”
Tyler Alexander (4 1/3 innings, 10 hits, six earned runs) gave up plenty of hard contact to the Angels but none more impactful than their two best players. Mike Trout (3-4, RBI, 3 runs) fell a triple shy of the cycle and Shohei Ohtani (3-5, 3 RBIs) notched his sixth multi-homer game of the season, with a 2-run blast in the third and a solo shot in the seventh.
“They’re tremendous players,” Hinch told Bally Sports Detroit. “As I said before the game, you can’t make mistakes to them and you can’t keep them down very long if you don’t make good pitches.”
The Angels wasted no time taking a 2-0 lead on Alexander in the first after Trout, Ohtani and Luis Renfigo (4-5, RBI, 2 runs) notched three consecutive hits, with Taylor Ward driving in Ohtani off an RBI groundout. Alexander recovered to post a 1-2-3 second inning before things took another turn for the worse in the third.
After David Fletcher grounded out, Trout ripped a one-out double to left field and Ohtani followed up with a towering 2-run home run, his 31st of the year. Riley Greene subsequently made a sensational leaping catch in center field on Rengifo’s long flyball – only to drop it after hitting the ground, leading to a triple for the Angels third baseman.
Ward’s sacrifice fly brought in Rengifo and made it 5-0 in favor of a home team intent on growing their lead. Trout and Ohtani both smashed 416-foot solo home runs in 2-run fifth and seventh innings, respectively, before Kody Clemens gave up an RBI single to Ryan Aguilar to make it 10-0 through eight.
As the rout wore on, the Tigers were not without some bright moments. Hinch told Bally Sports Detroit he thought Luis Castillo’s (1 2/3 innings, no hits, no runs, three strikeouts) outing in relief of Alexander was good, Josh Lester made his MLB debut for the Tigers in the top of the eighth and left fielder Kody Clemens picked up his first career strikeout on Ohtani in the ensuing frame.
“I don’t know if (Ohtani) has ever faced a position player before but that’ll go down in the memory book for Kody. .. I don’t know how (Roger Clemens, Kody’s father) would have done against him but he can always say he punched him out,” Hinch told Bally Sports Detroit.
Harold Castro mustered the Tigers’ fourth hit of the game in the ninth, a single to left center field, before Zack Weiss struck out Clemens to close a 10-0 Angels shutout encouraging for one side and wholly frustrating for the other.
“I’m tired of tipping my cap,” Hinch told Bally Sports Detroit. “It’s a tough loss, 10-to-nothing, we did a lot wrong. Didn’t win.”