At Comerica Park
What happened: Alfredo Simon was rusty. He couldn’t find the plate. Then he found the plate, then he lost it again.
It was an uneven performance by the Tigers starter, but some timely two out hitting in online the fourth inning gave the winningest Tigers pitcher at 3 0 lead that they couldn’t hold with Ben Zobrist supplying a grand slam.
The A’s five run seventh inning came on the heels of Ian Kinsler throwing home instead of first base,Cheap Jerseys china leading to five runs for the winners.
Lost in the walks was the fact that Simon (5 3) carried a no hitter into the fifth despite his wildness.
“Except for the one inning he had trouble throwing strikes,” said manager Brad Ausmus. “He threw very well. He gave us the opportunity to get us a win, which is what you expect out of your starters and that’s what he did. We just didn’t do it.”
The Tigers finally put some two out hits together with Nick Castellanos coming through and catcher James McCann following with a double to keep a potential big inning alive.
But Detroit’s bats fell silent after the fourth with only two hits.
Nice play: Potential doubles are outs when Yoenis Cespedes is tracking down drives in left centerfield. Billy Butler found that out in the fourth inning. Centerfielder Anthony Gose ran down a drive off the bat of Zobrist which looked like sure double.
Bang, bang play: Castellanos said with Brett Lawrie barreling down on him in the seventh inning he had to make a decision to go after the ball or wait for it to come to him and try and put a tag on Lawrie.
“He has a reputation of sliding hard into the base, so I decided instead to going for the ball and then trying to tag him that I’d wait on it,” he said.
He dropped it, which was a key part of the seventh, putting runners at first and third. After Kinsler decided to throw home the wheels came off. Two of them had No. 29 jerseys on. He signed autographs, hugged family members and friends and took in the moment. A total of 12 were in the Fields party with high school friends and well wishers in attendance. They bought their own tickets. Former teammate and U M center Jordan Morgan was in attendance. Daniel didn’t play in the loss.
Streak alive: Miguel Cabrera extended his streak of reaching base safely to 21 games. During that stretch, he’s hitting .329 with five home runs and 13 RBIs. However, the offense has deserted the team.
What’s next: The struggling Tigers and Annibal Sanchez face Oakland’s ace Sonny Gray tonight at 7:08. And download our free Tigers Xtra app on Apple andAthletics 5, Tigers 3.
