Skenes v. Jobe? Holy mackerel, what a matchup!
Well, indeed, on paper it looked to be a game in which the starters would go deep and we'd all be treated to a classic pitching battle. Instead, neither starter stuck around particularly long, the bullpens took over, and in the bottom of the ninth the Tigers gave the game away in a most dramatic fashion, losing 4-3 and dropping the series.
As mentioned, Jackson Jobe got the start for the Tigers. His first outing this year was fantastic: five innings with one hit. His first outing, not so much: he didn't make it out of the fourth and he coughed-up six runs. Now, remember, recovery from Tommy John surgery means that your control will be a little wonky for a while, so I feel like any great outings the Tigers get out of Jobe this year are a bonus.
Facing the Tigers today was some scrub kid, Paul Skenes. He's having a lousy year, by his standards: an ERA of almost 4, a WHIP above 1.1, and he's walking almost 7% of all the hitters he's faced. What a hoser! All jokes aside, he's one of the premier pitchers in the sport — but since the middle of May he has struggled to go deep into games, often topping-out at five or six innings, while he previous triple digit velocity is rarely in evidence.
Skenes walked the first two batters to start the game, and a ground ball to first didn't result in a double play, leaving runners at the corners. Alas, Dillon Dingler struck out and Brett Callahan popped up to the shortstop and that was that.
Pittsburgh got on the board in the bottom of the first: with one out Brandon Lowe walked, and an infield single pushed him up to second. An Oneil Cruz single cashed-in Lowe and it was a 1-0 game at that point.
Hao-Yu Lee (see notes below) led off the third with a single poked down the right-field line, and he aggressively and smartly took third on a Colt Keith single to left. After Gleyber Torres struck out, Kevin McGonigle lofted a fly ball to left field which was deep enough to score Lee and even the score. Dingler followed with a sizzling line-drive to left at 106 mph… and Brian Reynolds made a nice catch on it. Guy can't catch a break these days.
The Tigers retook the lead in the fifth: Max Clark led off with a double, and Lee followed with a walk. After Keith struck out, Torres lofted a little fly ball to centre that dropped in, scoring Clark and moving Lee up to third. That was the end of Skenes' day — as has been his custom in the past couple of months — and Old Friend™ Gregory Soto was brought in for a lefty-lefty matchup. On the first pitch McGonigle split the right-centrefield gap for a double; Lee scored, but Torres was cut down at the plate on a great relay for the second out.
Alas, Dingler then flew out to centre to end the inning.
Meanwhile, Jobe was having a decent start, if a little shaky with his control: through five innings he'd walked three batters and hit another. (Plunking, then later walking, the ninth-place hitter in a lineup isn't exactly what you want to do, but sometimes it happens.) As mentioned above, control takes a while to reacquire after Tommy John surgery, but he made adjustments along the way, including going to his sinker more.
He ended his day after striking out Esmerlyn Valdez on a 99-mph four-seam fastball to end a nine-pitch battle leading off the bottom of the sixth, and his final line was 5 1/3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 3 K, 53 strikes out of 86 pitches. Tyler Holton was brought in to face Cruz and struck him out on three pitches; he gave up an infield single, but then struck out pinch-hitter Nick "No Relation to Thom" Yorke to end the inning.
Jacob Waugespack, who's been having a fairly good go of it lately, hung a cutter to pinch-hitter Rafael Flores Jr. with one out and he did not miss, clubbing a long home run to left field to narrow the gap to 3-2. After a lineout to centre, Drew Sommers came in to face Lowe and he struck out on a slider after a couple of pretty wild outside pitches.
Kyle Finnegan took over to start the eighth inning, and it's been a rough ride for him lately: coming into today's game his last eleven appearances, spanning 8 2/3 innings, he'd given up nine runs and allowed four home runs. Things started off decently well, with a lineout to left and a strikeout, but then Cruz and Nick Gonzales walked. I gulped in anticipation of what might come next, but then Yorke flew out harmlessly to left field. Had it all along, folks! Had it all along.
The Tigers looked to add some insurance in the top of the ninth off triple-digit lefty closer Mason Montgomery: Zach McKinstry led off with a single, and Clark pushed him up to second with a single of his own, taking 99 mph the opposite way in a nice piece of hitting. With two outs the Pirates' catcher tried to back-pick to first to nab Clark but the throw went into right field, pushing the runners up a base. Alas, pinch-hitter Eduardo Valencia grounded out for the third out and it was on to the bottom of the ninth, and it did not go well.
Kenley Jansen, who had not given up a home run since the end of June, served one up to Flores, who hit it a long way with one out to tie the score at 3-3, Flores' second home run of the game. Then, with two out, of course, Lowe hit his 27th of the year off the right-field foul pole for the 4-3 win.
Le sigh.
You know, I'm starting to think that this bullpen isn't very good.
On Monday night, Hao-Yu Lee broke Yu Chang's record for hits in a season by a Taiwanese-born player. Congrats!
Foolish Bailey did a great piece on the Tigers' troubles this year when it comes to bullpen usage by AJ Hinch. All those Hinch-Haters out there, here's some more fuel for your ever-burning fires — like you needed it!
The orbit of a star close to the supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way might show how that black hole is spinning . Neat!
On this day in 1989, the Pan-European Picnic was held on the Austria-Hungary border, as a peace demonstration. During the proceedings, if people crossed from Hungary (then still Communist and under Soviet influence) into Austria, border guards were told to let them freely pass. It was partially a test to see what the Soviets' response would be to a more open border, and since Moscow didn't jump all over it, that emboldened leaders across all the Warsaw Pact nations to open things up even more — and the fall of the Berlin Wall a few months later was clearly the climax of those events.
