Angels 4, Tigers 2: Offense squanders more chances as Detroit gets swept

The Detroit Tigers have 110 games remaining this season. Mercifully, none of them are at Angels Stadium. The Tigers fell to the Angels 4-2 on Sunday night, capping off the wrong kind of four-game sweep in Anaheim. David Price did his best to keep a struggling offense afloat, but some timely hitting from the Angels ultimately spelled doom for the third-place Tigers.

The Tigers got out to an early lead in the second inning, picking up a run off Angels starter Matt Shoemaker. After J.D. Martinez hit an infield single with one out, Tyler Collins lined the very next pitch into the right field corner for a double. James McCann scored Martinez with a sacrifice fly to center in the next at-bat. The Angels made a puzzling decision to intentionally walk Jose Iglesias with two outs, but the move paid off when Andrew Romine struck out to end the inning, stranding two baserunners.

David Price did not allow a hit until the fourth inning, when David Freese lined a two-out single into center field. The Angels started to put better swings together in the fifth inning, grouping several hits together for their first runs of the game with one out. Johnny Giavotella lined a double into the right field corner to advance runners to second and third, and Erick Aybar flared a single into right-center to tie the game. Mike Trout followed with a line drive single to left to give the Angels a 2-1 lead.

The Tigers tied the game in the sixth thanks to some shoddy Angels defense. After Miguel Cabrera singled to right, catcher Chris Iannetta mishandled a pitch, allowing Cabrera to advance to second. Yoenis Cespedes then hit a routine ground ball to Giavotella, but a wide throw resulted in an error, scoring Cabrera. The Tigers had a golden chance to take the lead in the top of the seventh, but could not score Iglesias from second base with one out. Walks to Ian Kinsler and Miguel Cabrera loaded the bases, but Cespedes popped out to end the threat.

The game would remain tied until the bottom of the eighth. A tiring Price walked David Freese to open the inning, then allowed a single to catcher Chris Iannetta. After a sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk loaded the bases with one out, Price induced a pop-up from pinch hitter Carlos Perez. Tigers manager Brad Ausmus went to his bullpen with Price at a season-high 121 pitches, bringing in Joba Chamberlain to face Giavotella. Joba got the ground ball he wanted, but it found a hole, scoring two runs to give the Angels a 4-2 lead.

ROARS:

The rest of the schedule: Good riddance, Anaheim.

HISSES:

Yoenis Cespedes: One night after collecting two hits with a pair of runs, Cespedes went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts. His biggest chance came in the top of the seventh, but he left the bases loaded when he popped out to right field.

Situational hitting: Once again, the Tigers had trouble hitting in key situations. They were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight baserunners.

STREAKS AND STATS:

• Miguel Cabrera singled in the sixth inning, marking the 20th consecutive game he has reached base safely. This is the longest current streak in baseball, and Cabrera's longest since May 9-31, 2014.
• Jose Iglesias extended his hitting streak to six games with a base hit in the seventh inning. Iglesias has a 10-game hitting streak already this month, and his career-long hitting streak is 13 games, set with the Boston Red Sox in 2013.

WIN PROBABILITY GRAPH:

Source: FanGraphs