A six-game road trip that started off with so much promise fizzled out in less than 24 hours for the Detroit Tigers.
First the good: the Tigers won a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins and then beat the Milwaukee Brewers with ease on Monday in the first of a three-game series.
That put the Tigers in a perfect position to win another series.
But all that good melted away quickly. Or rather, it disappeared along with their bats.
The Tigers didn’t do much right in a 5-0 loss Tuesday night and the struggle continued on Wednesday afternoon in another loss, 5-1.
Tigers focus on long game
The Tigers called up Keider Montero from Triple-A Toledo and gave him the start on Wednesday, wanting to give their rotation an extra day of rest.
“He can handle different style lineups,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said on Tuesday. “This is a (Brewers) team that I’m sure they’ll stack lefties against them. They’re going to be an active team if they get on the bases.”
Oh, how prophetic he was.
Montero had four strikeouts through three innings. But he also danced through fire, putting guys on base.
In the first inning, the Brewers put two guys on but Montero got out of it by striking Sal Frelick.
In the second inning, Garrett Mitchell hit a triple. So, Hinch brought the infield in, Montero walked Joey Ortiz and Oliver Dunn had a perfect sacrifice bunt, as the Brewers took a 1-0 lead.
Then, Montero started making mistakes.
In the third inning, Montero left an 87-mph changeup over the middle of the plate, and lefty Christian Yelich, an All-Star, homered to right center (404 feet). It went from bad to worse in the third inning when Rhys Hoskins crushed a 1-2 pitch, getting his second homer in less than 24 hours. And in the sixth inning, Frelick homered to center.
So, while the Tigers were focused on the long game, the Brewers answered with their own long game: three homers.
Montero threw five innings plus two batters, giving up eight hits, walking one, getting eight strikeouts.
