Finding Three Stars in the Detroit Tigers' Embarrassing 11-2 Loss
· Yahoo Sports
What a juxtaposition from Monday's game.
Detroit took it on the chin early and just kept taking punches for nearly the entire game.
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You may be asking yourself, are three stars even worth handing out after a comically bad outing like this? And you'd be right to ask. But if you have any hope for this Tigers team, there's always a way to find three stars—you just have to look a little harder.
Before we get to Tuesday's forced three stars, let's quickly recap whatever there is to recap.
Detroit fell back to seven games under .500 at 47-54. The White Sox were embarrassed as well, losing 10-0, so the Tigers remain 6.5 games back of the division lead. The Red Sox were postponed, leaving Detroit 5.0 games behind the final American League Wild Card spot.
With just 61 games remaining, the walls are beginning to close in.
Now, let's dive into the three stars.
Third Star: Ben Malgeri
Alright, this star is admittedly a bit of a throwaway, but Ben Malgeri deserves some flowers.
He was thrown under the bus in the first inning by teammate Gleyber Torres. A routine pop-up into shallow right field territory hung in the gnarly Wrigley wind, and Torres never aggressively went after it, forcing Malgeri to sprint what felt like a football field. He couldn't make the catch, and the inning only continued to snowball from there.
Malgeri responded later with a hard single to left that almost looked like an angry swing.
For that, he earns the third star.
Second Star: Matt Vierling
Two singles were good enough to earn Matt Vierling the second star.
Just when all hope was lost, Vierling collected singles in both the seventh and ninth innings.
The latter came after Dillon Dingler's two-run home run, and despite already trailing by nine runs with one out, there was the tiniest sliver of hope that maybe—just maybe—Detroit could string together nine more runs.
They didn't.
First Star: Dillon Dingler
Mr. No Quit didn't care whether the Tigers were down 11-0 or up 11-0 when he launched a ball over the left-field wall for his third home run of the series.
Unfortunately, it was the former.
Dingler's blast was his 22nd home run of the season and finally put Detroit on the scoreboard after the Tigers had been shut out through eight innings.
Dingler continues to be Detroit's best hitter, and he does it with a Barry Sanders-esque mentality. Even during one of the ugliest losses of the season, he looks as cool as a cucumber.
Other Player News and Notes
Gleyber Torres
Returning from the injured list may have slowed Torres down, but there was little excuse for the first-inning pop-up. The ball danced in the brutal Wrigley wind, yet it still landed far too close to second base for Torres not to make a stronger effort.
Hao-Yu Lee
- Singled in the ninth inning.
- Scored on Dingler's two-run home run.
Kevin McGonigle
- Singled in the sixth inning.
Hitless Starting Batters
- Gleyber Torres: 0-for-4
- Riley Greene: 0-for-3
- Spencer Torkelson: 0-for-3, 1 walk
- Jake Rogers: 0-for-3, 1 walk (also pitched one inning)
Framber Valdez
- 0.2 innings pitched
- 5 hits allowed
- 6 earned runs
- 2 walks
Final Notes
Two position players took the mound for Detroit in the lopsided loss. Zach McKinstry pitched the eighth inning, while Jake Rogers handled the ninth, putting an exclamation point on what was a night the Tigers will be eager to forget.