Tigers 4, Angels 3: Tyler Alexander’s quality start helps hold off Los Angeles

After being shut out on Friday night, the Detroit Tigers came out swinging on Saturday against the Los Angeles Angels. They didn’t light up the scoreboard, as is par for the course, but they jumped on the board early and put up 11 hits en route to a 4-3 victory to even up the series at a game a piece. Tyler Alexander got the best of Reid Detmers on the mound, and Gregory Soto came on in the ninth to close the door.

Hittin’ Harold Castro led off the second inning with a double to right field. Jonathan Schoop then got the Tigers on the board with a one-out double. What could’ve been a big inning for the Tigers was snuffed out by a play at the plate that resulted in Schoop being thrown out trying to score from second off a Tucker Barnhart single. The Tigers would end up scoring again on a bases-loaded walk to Willi Castro, though, to knot the game at two.

Tyler Alexander started for Detroit and managed another quality start despite giving up some early runs. The Angels jumped ahead 1-0 thanks to a double from the game’s most exciting player in Shohei Ohtani who came around to score on a Luis Rengifo single. Andrew Velazquez then homered in the second to give the Angels a 2-0 lead before the Tigers would tie it up in the bottom half of the inning. Alexander threw six innings of three-run baseball with only two strikeouts, which has become his M.O. — effective without being overpowering.

Jo Adell put the Angels ahead in the third inning with a sacrifice fly, but the Tigers once again answered in the bottom half. Eric Haase led off with a double, and then Detroit played a little small-ball by having Hittin’ Harold become Buntin’ Harold with a sacrifice to move Haase to third. Jeimer Candelario followed with a sacrifice fly to score Haase, just as it was originally drawn up I imagine.

In the fifth inning, the Tigers finally took the lead. Following a walk to Candelario and a single from Kody Clemens, who entered the game for an injured Jonathan Schoop, Victor Reyes came up clutch with a two-out RBI single to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead, a lead that they would not relinquish.

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