Tigers 17 @ Astros 2: What went wrong in the 3rd? Detroit scored in 8 out of 9 innings, tagging a mere trio of Houston pitchers for 21 hits. Miguel Cabrera fattened his coffers with 5 separate RBI events in his 5 trips before bowing out mercifully (single, HR, walk, HR, single), breaking a tie atop the MLB hits race. Max Scherzer allowed a hit to his first batter, who was then caught stealing, down 0-4. The next Astro baserunner came with 2 outs in the 6th, and Scherzer left after 8, having upped his SO/BB ratio to 54/9. Ten straight quality starts by the Tigers rotation.
?I don?t wanna start any trouble, but ? I think Miggy now leads in BA and RBI. Last year, it was a 2nd-half HR barrage ? 26 in 75 games ? that brought him the you-know-what.
?Torii Hunter had 4 hits and is tied for 2nd in that department, with a 240-hit pace. No teammates have reached 220 hits since Bill Terry and Freddie Lindstrom with the 1930 Giants, the only pair ever to reach 230.
?Austin Jackson leads the bigs with 30 runs in 29 games. Ron Leflore ?78 was the last Tiger with 125, Hank Greenberg ?38 the last with 130.
?What?s the most top-heavy lineup in history, the 1920 Yankees? Detroit runs, by batting order spot: 30, 25, 26, 18, 10, 11, 9, 11, 15.
?It still counts: Victor Martinez capped the barrage by ending a 30-game homer drought dating to 2011.
?And this is more progress, seriously: Al Alburquerque came in for a truly meaningless 9th and just threw strikes. He allowed 3 hits (for the 2nd time ever) and a run, but no walks, and only one 2-ball count.
?Believe it or not, this was only the 3rd time the Astros allowed 10+ runs, but it raised their season average to 6.1.
from HighHeatStats
