Field Level Media
Jun 18, 2019
The visiting Tigers scored the winning run in the eighth inning Tuesday with the help of a mistake-prone Pittsburgh Pirates defense, and Detroit broke a four-game losing streak with a 5-4 victory.
In a 4-4 game, Detroit loaded the bases with one out in the eighth on a walk by Nicholas Castellanos, a single by Miguel Cabrera and a pitch from reliever Kyle Crick (2-3) that grazed Christin Stewart's foot. Brandon Dixon's grounder might have been a double play, but second baseman Adam Frazier chose to go to first base first, and Castellanos scored to give the Tigers a 5-4 lead.
Castellanos had an RBI double and Cabrera an RBI single for the Tigers.
Josh Bell homered, and Jung Ho Kang and Kevin Newman each hit an RBI triple for Pittsburgh, which was charged with three errors while losing for the ninth time in 11 games.
Tigers starter Daniel Norris pitched six innings, giving up two runs and four hits with four strikeouts and a walk. After surrendering a tying triple on his first batter, Buck Farmer (4-4) then recorded the final out in the seventh and ultimately got the win, and Shane Greene pitched a scoreless ninth for his 21st save.
Pittsburgh's Mitch Keller, making the third start of his big league career, allowed four runs (two earned0 and four hits in five innings. He struck out six and walked two.
Bell gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead when he led off the second with his 20th homer, a shot to right-center.
Niko Goodrum walked with two outs in the third and scored on Castellanos' double. Cabrera followed with an RBI base hit to put the Tigers ahead 2-1.
In the fourth, Dixon led off with a single. Harold Castro bunted and reached on a throwing error by Keller, putting runners at second and third. Both scored on Kang's fielding error on a ball hit by John Hicks, pushing the margin to 4-1.
Pittsburgh cut it to 4-2 in the fifth. Elias Diaz led off with a single and scored on Kang's triple.
In the seventh, Kang hit a one-out chopper that got him to second on reliever Victor Alcantara's errant throw to first. Kang went to third on Frazier's groundout and, after Daniel Stumpf replaced Alcantara, scored on pinch hitter Colin Moran's single to left. Farmer came in and gave up Newman's RBI triple for a 4-4 tie.
--Field Level Media