The middle game of a weekday, three-game series in Cleveland against the Guardians was a wild one, with hits and runs aplenty on both sides, and the Tigers came out on top 11-7.
Kenta Maeda, who got off to a rough start this year, has recovered quite nicely from a clunker of a start on April 18 against Texas; coming into tonight, his previous two starts saw him give up a total of seven hits and one run in 11 innings, with no walks and ten strikeouts. That’s pretty solid, but would we see that new-and-improved version tonight? (We would not.)
Facing the Tigers tonight was Logan Allen, who’s in his second season with Cleveland. Last year he made 24 starts, acquitted himself quite nicely with a 7-8 record and an ERA under 4, although he definitely did walk a batter or two. This year he’s had a rocky start, with an ERA north of 5 and his strikeouts down a tick, so this presented an opportunity for the Tigers’ bats to get back on track — and they sure did.
Andy Ibáñez got things started with a bang, depositing the third pitch of the game, a fat fastball right down the pipe, over the left field fence for a 1-0 lead.
A two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the first by Will Brennan, off the centrefield fence, brought Andrés Giménez and Josh Naylor around to score, making it 2-1 for the Guardians. So much for that first-inning lead.
In the second, Jake Rogers missed a home run by a couple of feet (roughly 60 cm), clanking a 103 mph (166 km/h) sizzler off the centrefield wall to lead off the inning. Spencer Torkelson walked, then Ryan Vilade grounded into a double play, with Rogers taking third. Javier Báez singled up the middle to cash-in Rogers, knotting the game at two. After a neat Báez delayed steal and a walk to Carson Kelly, Ibáñez hit his second dinger of the year, and of the game in so many innings for a 5-2 tally.
Maeda was clearly not at his sharpest, missing locations pretty routinely, and the Guardians were making him pay for it. A one-out double in the bottom of the second scored the other Naylor brother, Bo, and made it 5-3; José Ramírez tied the game at 5 with a two-run single. Josh Naylor teed-up a fastball and deposited it deep in the right-field stands, scoring Ramírez for a 7-5 Cleveland lead. A pop-out mercifully ended the inning, and it was clear Maeda wasn’t going to stick around for long.
In the third, Riley Greene singled and Spencer Torkelson smashed a double to left; Greene had to be held at third, and that was it for Allen. Vilade got his first major-league hit, a 2-RBI single to left, scoring both Greene and Torkelson and re-tying the game at 7.
Tyler Holton was summoned from the bullpen after two shaky frames from Maeda, and he actually managed to pull off a 1-2-3 inning. To borrow a phrase from the movie Fletch, “I’d have been less surprised if I’d woken up with my head sewn to the carpet.”
Ibáñez and Wenceel Pérez singled to lead off the fourth to put runners on the corners with none out. Matt Vierling grounded into a double play, scoring Ibáñez to put the Tigers up 8-7.
Holton kept rolling in the fourth and fifth, and Báez helped out with a couple of great defensive plays in the fifth, including starting an inning-ending double play. Holton went three crucial innings, giving up a pair of hits and no runs, and if AJ Hinch was looking to buy someone an adult beverage after the game, you could do a lot worse than awarding one to Holton. Alex Faedo came on for Holton in the sixth and set the Cleves down in order.
Things settled down a lot in the ensuing innings, but the Tigers scored again in the top of the seventh: Rogers doubled for a second time, and Vilade came through with another single and another RBI, making it a 9-7 score. Faedo kept rolling in the bottom of the frame, retiring the next three batters.
Ibáñez kept the party going in the eighth, crushing a double off the left-field wall for his fourth hit of the game, with one out. He took third on the ol’ strikeout/wild pitch combination to Pérez, who took first base on the play; a Vierling single scored both Ibáñez and Pérez to make it 11-7 and round-out the scoring.
Andrew Chafin relieved Faedo after his six-up, six-down performance. Chafin gave up a soft infield single, but then got three outs in short order.
Alex Lange was called upon for the ninth — notably, not Jason Foley — and he got a lineout (with a nice grab by Báez, who had quite the night with the leatherwork) and a groundout, and after a walk, got a pop-out to left to seal the deal.
Notes and Numbers
- Welcome back to the majors, Ryan Vilade! His only previous tall-buildings stint was a cup of coffee in 2021 with the Rockies. He spent all of 2023 at Triple-A Indianapolis in the Pirates organization, and had a .949 OPS with Toledo before getting the call-up.
- Parker Meadows was sent down to Toledo as a corresponding move. I think we’ll see Parker back in the bigs really soon, as he has an undeniable talent. Here’s hoping he straightens his batting woes out down there, and has a couple of nice hot dogs while he’s within shouting-distance of a Tony Packo’s.
- Coming into today, Spencer Torkelson was leading the American League with 11 doubles. Say what you will about Tork, the man can hit a two-bagger, and he added to that today.
- I noticed WXYT used White Zombie’s “Thunder Kiss ‘65” as bumper music. Man, that song still rocks, a lot. Best played at a very high volume.
- Happy 200th anniversary to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, first performed on this date in 1824. By this time, Beethoven was mostly deaf — imagine writing music you can’t hear! — and at the premiere in Vienna was the first time he’d appeared in front of an audience in years. Perhaps he thought he was conducting the orchestra, thrashing around wildly, but the musicians were actually following the real conductor instead. As the story goes, at one point the crowd was going wild with applause, but since Beethoven couldn’t hear them and wasn’t facing the crowd, he didn’t know it, so one of the singers grabbed him and turned him towards the audience so he could see their appreciation.