Tigers Look to Recover After Historic 19-0 Loss to Brewers
Detroit- We began Wednesday by watching left-hander Matthew Boyd strikeout Brewers leadoff hitter Avisail Garcia on three lively fastballs in the top half of the first inning. By stark contrast, the afternoon ended with our eyes on outfielder Travis Demeritte during his pitching debut in the ninth inning of what turned out to be the worst shutout loss in Tigers history.
Grit and resilience are two of the personality traits this team has flashed en-route to their 11 comeback wins this season. Qualities that have awarded the Tigers (19-22) a puncher’s chance to claim the final AL wild-card spot in a season of the unexpected.
On this occasion-- nothing truly ever clicked during a performance in which the hitting, pitching and fielding were multiple steps below what’s needed to win at the Major League level.
Making sense of a day that will go down in the history books for all the wrong reasons is a frustrating but necessary part of Wednesday’s postgame process for Ron Gardenhire.
“It’s just one of those bad days that led to more bad,’’ manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Not much good happened for us, other than no one got hurt.’’
The Brewers aren’t considered to be one of the better offensive teams in the MLB but they managed to register a season-high 21 hits, while the Tigers recorded only two hits, both of which came off the bat of shortstop Willi Castro.
Wednesday’s historic 19-0 loss also reiterated the narrative of inconsistency that’s crept into the Tigers' starting rotation throughout this shortened season. After three stellar performances, Matthew Boyd’s day looked reminiscent of his struggles early on this season.
Boyd’s command of a changeup that played a key role in his revival appeared to be absent in addition to the confidence and tempo that he’s worked with in recent starts.
“Just overthinking it, really,’’ Boyd said. “That leads into tempo, that leads to not being able to get into a rhythm. I mean, I could see what they were trying to do, and I just couldn’t command the baseball today. Kinda happens. Just got to bounce back, learn from it. A lot to be learned. Got to go out there and go get ‘em next time.’’
Matthew Boyd (1-6) allowed six of Milwaukee’s franchise record 13 extra-base hits on Wednesday afternoon. The 29-year old began his ninth start of the season by allowing more walks in the first four batters (two walks) than he did in his previous three starts combined. He ultimately walked a season-high four, and after allowing seven earned runs--his ERA vaulted from 6.64 to 7.63.
More walks in the first four batters for Matthew Boyd than his previous three starts combined. Nonetheless, he was able to get out of the first unscathed. Scoreless in Detroit after the Tigers go down 1-2-3. #DetroitRoots
— Jason Ross Jr (@JasonRossJr1) September 9, 2020
As mentioned, the Tigers resorted to placing a position player on the mound in the ninth inning after mowing through four relievers on the eve of their makeup doubleheader with the Cardinals. Travis Demeritte received a word of valuable advice from his manager before trying to put an end to the suffering.
“I had one player left on the bench, which was [catcher Austin] Romine, and we were not going to use any more pitchers out there,’’ Gardenhire said, “so it was really a pretty simple thing. I told Demeritte, ‘Don’t get killed. Just throw the ball over. Don’t do anything fancy, and let’s try to get out of here.’’
Jedd Gyorko’s solo home run and Tyrone Taylor’s two-run homer were both launched to the left-field seats off 81 mph fastballs. Luis Urias also recorded an RBI single as a part of Milwaukee’s four-run ninth inning that put the cosmetic touches on their most authoritative win this season.
To provide some historical context to Wednesday’s drubbing--this wasn’t the worst shutout loss in Major-League history, but it came three runs short of tying that mark. The Indians’ 22-0 win over the Yankees in 2004 still holds the honor of the worst shutout deficit in modern baseball.
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