Tigers 10, Cardinals 4: Detroit offense hits 3 HRs, lifts Shane Greene past St. Louis

The Miguel Cabrera show took center stage in St. Louis on Friday night. The best hitter on the planet ticked off a few more milestones, racked up three hits, and the Tigers' offense erupted for a 10-4 victory in the series opener.

As Miguel Cabrera goes, so does the Tigers' offense. For the second day in a row, it was the thunder in the Tigers' bats that made all the noise as the Tigers' 3-4-5 each launched a home run. Yoenis Cespedes started the parade of bombs in the 2nd inning with a solo shot. A triple from Anthony Gose and a nice piece of two-strike hitting from Ian Kinsler produced the Tigers' second run. Thus was the stage set in the sixth when Miguel Cabrera unleashed a majestic two-run shot to straightaway center-field for the 399th home run of his storied career. With the Tigers now leading 4-0, the very next batter, J.D. Martinez, planted a towering parabola of a dinger right inside the foul pole down the left field line. The Tigers led 5-0 and had much more to come. After a long malaise, the Tiger offense has finally broken out the past few days.

The Tigers saw the good Shane Greene on Friday night. He shelved the changeup against the heavily right-handed Cardinals lineup in favor of his cutter and slider, but was once again effective and efficient. Greene cruised through 5 innings with around 70 pitches, issuing two walks and striking out four. One of those strikeouts allowed him to escape a jam in the fifth as James McCann called for a high fastball and Greene blew away Mark Reynolds to end the inning. Overall he allowed more hard contact than you'd like, but the Cards were gifted several hits that could have been called errors. Unfortunately, Greene experienced some mild inflammation in his elbow and his night was over after just five innings.

The Tigers' bullpen threatened to spoil the party in the late innings. Angel Nesbitt and Tom Gorzelanny each allowed a two-run home run in their inning of work to tighten the game. But the Tigers were having none of it, blowing the game wide open for good in the 9th, a two-RBI double from Yoenis Cespedes putting this one in the bag before they tacked on two more runs to stroll to victory in the series' opener.

ROARS:

Miguel Cabera: Miguel Cabrera crushed his third home run in two days in the 7th inning. The two-run missile to centerfield was the 399th home run of his career, tying him with Andres Galarraga for the most by a Venezuelan born player. More importantly, it tied him with Al Kaline for most home runs by a Tiger player, and he sits 52nd on the all-time list with Galarraga, Kaline and Adrian Beltre.

Shane Greene: Greene's night only lasted five innings, but it was another nice performance. Half the "hits" he allowed could've been ruled errors without home cooking, and more importantly, he showed his best stuff with runners on base, escaping jams in the 2nd and 5th innings.

Yoenis Cespedes: Yoenis launched his fifth home run of the season with one out and no one on in the 2nd inning. In the sixth he beat out an infield single, and after advancing to second, stole his first base of the season to create a scoring threat. In the ninth, with the score closing, Yoenis smashed a double to the base of the wall in right-center to re-open the lead. Three hits, three RBI and a home run. Yeah, when he's hot he is really hot.

Anthony Gose: Gose ran down several hard-hit balls in center-field, and contributed a single and a triple in the game, creating the Tigers' second run with his bat and speed both. He then drove in Iglesias with an infield single for the Tigers sixth run in the 8th inning.

James McCann: A huge night at the plate for McCann with two doubles, three hits, and an RBI for the Tigers' young catcher.

J.D. Martinez: Dingers always get you a roar.

HISSES:

Angel Nesbitt: Gave up a two-run home run in the seventh inning, making it a 5-2 game.

Tom Gorzelanny: Also served up a two-run home run, this one in the eighth inning. While the Tigers had a 6-2 lead at the time, it was suddenly a two-run game again at 6-4.

STREAKS AND STATS:

• Miguel Cabera's 7th inning home run was the 399th of his career, tying him with Al Kaline for most by a Tiger. It also tied him with Andres Galarraga for the most by a Venezuelan born player. Miguel is now tied for 52nd all-time and with his bat red-hot, we may see the 400th before too long.
• Yoenis Cespedes solo home run in the second inning was his 5th of the season, and his first since April 27th against the Minnesota Twins. Yoenis now has 13 multi-hit games on the season and continues to be either red-hot or cold.
• Shane Greene hit Kolten Wong with a fastball in the second inning. This was just the 7th hit batter by Tigers' pitchers this season, ranking them at 28th in the game.
• Through three innings, Shane Greene ranked second in the game in pitches thrown per inning at 13.8.Bartolo Colon is of course, your leader.
• A fourth inning triple by Anthony Gose gave him three on the season, 11 total extra-base hits, and 11 multi-hit games on the season.
• Yoenis Cespedes stole his first base of the year in the 6th inning, catching the Cardinals off-guard as they played in as James McCann showed bunt.
• It was Miguel Cabrera's 10th mult-hit game of the season.
• Anthony Gose has seven hits in the past two games.

WIN PROBABILITY GRAPH:

Source: FanGraphs