Royals outslug Tigers, 9-8
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It was not an auspicious start for the Boys in Blue. Carlos Hernández could not make it out of the third inning. He walked four batters and allowed five runs, four earned, on only two hits. In the third inning, he walked the bases loaded, and they all scored on a Miguel Cabrera sacrifice fly and a Jeimer Candelario three-run home run to dead center. The Tigers scored a sixth run in the fifth inning off of a combination of Richard Lovelady and Tyler Zuber.
Casey Mize, meanwhile, was mowing the Royals down pretty well. As he started the fifth inning he had allowed only a pair of hits and one walk. He had struck out five. Mize is supposed to be on a pitch or inning limit of some sort. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch decided to send him back out for the fifth even though by all accounts, he’d hit that limit. Naturally, that’s when things unraveled. The Royals 7-8-9 batters all reached with singles, and Nicky Lo
As hopeful as we all are of all of our young Tiger cubs, there is good reason to demote and promote those that deserve it. I think it is a healthy process to reward, but give others time to.
The Detroit Tigers 2020 Asterisk Awards By Uncle Lefty on Jan 1, 2021, 7:17pm EST +
2020 has finally reached the end of the line, but the small sample size that comes with 36 percent of a full season obviously leaves many questions for 2021. Below are just a few examples:
Is Jeimer Candelario back on track to having a solid major league career, or was 2020 just a hot start similar to what he experienced in the first two months of 2018?
How real is Willi Castro’s .932 OPS and 6 home runs (project to 25 home runs in a full season) in 2020? His .448 BABIP will even out, but to what extent?