Blue Jays 6, Tigers 0: Detroit offense disappears in early season shutout

The Detroit Tigers couldn’t ride the momentum from Thursday’s late-inning heroics as a big inning from the Toronto Blue Jays led to the Tigers’ first loss of the 2019 season by a 6-0 score.

Bats on both sides remained quiet until the fourth inning, when Matthew Boyd surrendered a walk to Randal Grichuk and back-to-back singles to Justin Smoak and Teoscar Hernandez, leading to the Blue Jays opening up the day’s scoring. After Boyd recorded two outs, the Blue Jays managed to load the bases and add three more runs when Mikie Mahtook bobbled Freddy Galvis’s bases-clearing single in center field, as Galvis took third base. Smoak would help the Blue Jays expand their lead as he delivered a two-run single in the seventh.

The Tigers offense failed to gain any real traction despite two extra-base hits and otherwise good swings from Nicholas Castellanos, owner of three of the Tigers’ six hits through two games.

For starters

Save for his rough fourth inning, Boyd put together a solid performance over five innings. He surrendered five hits and walked one while striking out 10 batters. The biggest highlight came as Boyd struck out the side in the first inning to strand a leadoff triple.

The Blue Jays’ big offensive day would prove to be more than enough for Matt Shoemaker, a Trenton, Mich. native and Eastern Michigan University graduate. Building upon a track record of dominance against the Tigers that goes back to his days with the Los Angeles Angels, Shoemaker continued the trend; he surrendered just two hits and struck out seven over seven scoreless innings.

Sweet(?) relief

Buck Farmer, despite walking a batter, managed a clean sixth inning of work with decent life on his fastball. Blaine Hardy, working the seventh, was less fortunate, as he surrendered two runs on two hits and a walk.

Reed Garrett, the Tigers’ selection in the 2018 Rule 5 draft, made his MLB debut on Friday. Touching 95 miles per hour or above with each of his first five pitches, he recorded a perfect eighth inning that saw him earn his first major league strikeout while topping out at 97 mph on the gun and showing good life on his slider.

On deck

The Tigers will continue their opening series with the Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon. Spencer Turnbull, coming off of a solid spring, will make his first start of the season as he faces off against Aaron Sanchez. First pitch is slated for 3:07 p.m. at the Rogers Centre.