Detroit Tigers Suffer Embarrassing First of 2024 MLB Season
The Detroit Tigers got crushed by the Kansas City Royals 9-2 at Comerica Park on Friday, but the game was actually much closer than the final score would suggest.
The Tigers pounced on Cole Ragans for a two-run homer by Justyn-Henry Malloy in the bottom of the first, giving Tarik Skubal an early lead. However, Skubal struggled in his first start since the trade deadline, allowing the Royals to claw back and take a 3-2 lead into the top of the seventh.
That's when things really apart for Detroit.
The inning started innocently enough with Skubal getting Paul DeJong to pop out. He then allowed back-to-back singles to Dairon Blanco and Maikel Garcia, at which point A.J. Hinch pulled Skubal after 95 pitches.
Miller wasn't able to stop the bleeding, however. Instead, he turned a cut into a gaping wound, surrendering back-to-back singles to Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino, a stolen base to Witt, a wild pitch that scored Witt, an RBI double to Salvador Perez and a single to Hunter Renfroe.
Miller didn't record a single out, allowing hits to all four batters he faced. By the time Hinch came out to get him, the score was 7-2 and the Tigers were essentially cooked.
The nightmare inning wasn't over yet, though. Hinch brought in Beau Brieske, who also couldn't get an out. He immediately yielded an RBI single to Freddy Fermin, followed by a single to Garrett Hampson and another RBI single to DeJong.
Royals knocked 9 STRAIGHT hits vs Tigers in 7th inning. I can’t remember ever seeing that. @SlangsOnSports when was the last time it was done?!?!
— Heidi Watney (@HeidiWatney) August 3, 2024
By the time Brieske finally got the second out of the inning, striking out Blanco, Kansas City had batted around and cracked nine straight hits. That marked the first time in over a year that a team had nine straight hits, which hadn't happened since the Toronto Blue Jays did it against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 23, 2023.
With its lackluster offense, Detroit rarely gets nine hits in a full game, let alone one inning. Sure enough, the slumping Tigers managed just three hits on Friday, falling to 52-59 in Skubal's first loss since June 19. They've now lost five in a row and eight of their last 10 games, which isn't surprising based on their current state of affairs.
TYLER MAHER