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Detroit Tigers' Justyn-Henry Malloy hits inside-the-park home run in 7-6 win over Angels
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- Detroit Tigers' Justyn-Henry Malloy hits inside-the-park home run in 7-6 win over Angels
Finally, the Detroit Tigers beat the Los Angeles Angels .
Right-hander Casey Mize shoved 5⅓ scoreless innings in one of his best performances, rookie Justyn-Henry Malloy dashed around the bases for an inside-the-park home run in the fourth inning and catcher Carson Kelly blasted off for a three-run home run in the fifth inning.
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The Tigers , thanks to those three players, pulled off a 7-6 win over the Angels in Sunday's finale of a four-game series at Angel Stadium, snapping a four-game losing streak.
Detroit Tigers designated hitter Justyn-Henry Malloy runs home to score for an inside the park home run against the Los Angeles Angels during the fourth inning at Angel Stadium, June 30, 2024 in Anaheim.
With the win, the Tigers (38-46) climbed to 15 games back of the first place in the American League Central. The three-city, 10-game road trip continues with three games against the Minnesota Twins and three games against the Cincinnati Reds .
What should've been an easy win turned into a nail-biter with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, as right-handed reliever Shelby Miller — who entered to protect a six-run lead — surrendered five runs to the Angels.
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Zach Neto cut the Angels' deficit to 7-4 with a three-run home run to left field off Miller's elevated fastball. Jo Adell cut the Angels' deficit to 7-6 with a two-run home run to center field off Miller's middle-middle slider.
Left-handed reliever Tyler Holton replaced Miller for a matchup with Nolan Schanuel , a left-handed hitter who represented the game-tying run.
Holton struck out Schanuel swinging to end the game.
Miller, whom the Tigers signed to a one-year, $3.25 million contract with a team option, owns a 6.23 ERA across 26 innings in 24 appearances.
The 33-year-old gave up eight runs over 1⅔ innings during two outings against the Angels in the four-game series. He surrendered three runs in Friday's game and five runs in Sunday's game.
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For the first time since 2021
The inside-the-park homer was the highlight of the game.
Malloy — playing in the 22nd game of his MLB career — smacked a middle-middle cutter from left-hander Tyler Anderson to center field with two outs in the fourth inning. Center fielder Mickey Moniak should've caught the ball at the warning track, but instead, the ball bounced off the middle of the wall and caromed toward left-center field.
Moniak jogged slowly to pick up the ball, and by the time he picked it up, Malloy was about to step on third base, with third-base coach Joey Cora waving his left arm to send him home.
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There wasn't even a play at the plate.
It was the first inside-the-park home run for the Tigers since Victor Reyes on Aug. 27, 2021.
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead with Mark Canha 's sacrifice fly in the first inning, but in the fourth inning, the Tigers tacked on three runs — capped by a rare inside-the-park homer to produce two of those runs — for a 4-0 advantage.
In the fifth inning, the Angels replaced Anderson with right-handed reliever Andrew Wantz with two outs. There were runners on first and second base for Kelly, who smoked a middle-middle sinker for a three-run home run to center field, making it 7-0.
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Kelly is hitting .245 with five homers in 48 games this season. He had two hits — a single and a homer — in Sunday's series finale, raising his OPS from .681 to .711.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers rookie hits inside-the-park home run in win over Angels
