Detroit – The Tigers like to play aggressive baseball and apply pressure on the opponent at every turn.
The Milwaukee Brewers, they pretty much own the brand.
“It’s no secret,” Jake Rogers said before the game Tuesday, “they wreak some havoc.”
The havoc started in the second inning, when the Brewers scored three times on their way to a 12-4 romp in the first of three games at Comerica Park. The loss snapped the Tigers’ six-game home win streak.
“It’s not just a philosophy,” manager AJ Hinch said. “They do a good job playing to their strengths. They make you make plays. I think it’s fun to challenge yourself against a team that thrives on applying pressure.”
The second inning hit quick, if not particularly hard.
It started when Garrett Mitchell, with his elite 30 feet-per-second sprint speed, beat out a routine ground ball to shortstop. Tigers starter Keider Montero walked Luis Rengifo, fell behind Sal Frelick and then gave up RBI single to right.
David Hamilton dropped a perfect bunt single to load the bases.
After Montero struck out Blake Perkins, Brice Turang dropped a broken-bat single into shallow right field. Two runs scored easily and a potential third run was cut down at the plate by a well-executed relay and rundown by the Tigers.
Right-fielder Matt Vierling threw a head-high strike to cutoff man Spencer Torkelson in the middle of the diamond. The throw was high enough to entice Turang to go to second.
Torkelson, second baseman Gleyber Torres and shortstop Kevin McGonigle kept Turang in the rundown until Hamilton, who was rounding third, broke for home.
Vierling talked about trying to deal with the Brewers’ aggression before the game.
“It starts with awareness,” he said. “They are going to go. Like, No. 1, they are going to go first to third, they are going to try to steal, they are going to try to take every 90 feet. So, you have to attack every ball in the outfield.
“You need to throw it in quick and hit the cutoff man.”
The Tigers were handed an opportunity to flip the game in the bottom of the fourth, but they deferred.
Kyle Harrison, the Brewers’ lefty starter staked to a 3-0 lead, walked Riley Greene and Torkelson and then gave up a bullet single to Hao-Yu Lee. Lee, in his Comerica Park debut, hit the ball so hard (110.6 mph off the bat), Greene didn’t have a chance to score from second.
That ended Harrison’s night but only one of those runners would end up on his ledger.
Right-hander Grant Anderson, who throws nasty four-seamers and sweepers with a side-arm delivery, got Javier Baez to ground into a double-play, which brought Greene home.
Tigers’ manager AJ Hinch, fourth inning or not, took his shot using lefty Kerry Carpenter to pinch-hit for Jahmai Jones.
That turned out to be the last gasp for the Tigers’ offense.