On the right side of things, at least.
Tigers 4, Twins 3
In theory, this was a good game. In theory. Rick Porcello (13 GS, 82.2 IP, 4.03 ERA, 3.98 FIP, 1.2 fWAR) was good, except for five batter stretch in the six inning that should have ended a run earlier if not for a poor connection from JDM to Avila when they had Morales out at home by 25 feet. He went seven innings, gave up three runs, and generated a lot of easy outs, but left the game with the score tied. The Tigers grabbed a pair early and tied it shortly after the Twins took the lead on a Castellanos RBI double. Joba held serve in the 8th, despite a bit of trouble, and Nathan did the same, despite a bit more. Torii led off the 9th with a single and VMart reach on complete whiff on the warning track. JDM came up and hit a shallow fly ball, but with the help of a poor throw it was enough to score Hunter for the walk off win. It didn’t feel like a winning series, but the Tigers sent the Twins packing after taking two of three. Justin Verlander (14 GS, 91.2 IP, 4.61 ERA, 3.96 FIP, 1.5 fWAR) will get the ball on Monday when the Royals come to town.
The Moment: JD Martinez hits a shallow, but game winning sac fly.
i really, really feel like the Tigers let Nolasco off the hook early. The win is good. The walk off win is good. The series win is good. But, once again, this game was closer than it should have been. The Tigers had a good opportunity to get to Nolasco early, and they did not deliver. The Tigers faced three below average pitchers in this series and got shut out, nearly blew a blow out and and walked off a game where they could have opened a nice lead early and chased the starter with a couple of hits.
Hopefully this is the beginning of the team getting it’s legs under them again. They’ve now won 3 of their last 4 games!