Tigers take the series with 9-1 win

Offense is silenced for a second day in a row while six late Detroit runs seals the deal

For the second day in a row, the Detroit Tigers pitching staff came to play against a previously hot A’s offense.

Yesterday it was Brant Hurter putting the Tigers bullpen on his back; today it was Ty Madden coming in relief of Beau Brieske — A.J. Hinch’s opener for the evening. Both Madden, Brieske and the rest of the Tigers staff left the A’s offense with more questions than answers stifling them for just a singular run for the second day in a row. Detroit won the game 9-1 and took the series as a result.

The Tigers drew first blood in the third thanks to a Trey Sweeney solo shot. A Kerry Carpenter RBI single later in the inning grew the lead to 2-0. In the fourth it was Sweeney picking up another knock, this time on an RBI single to left to extend the early Tigers advantage to 3-0.

On the other hand, the A’s showed no signs of offensive life early. Hinch opted for Brieske to open the first inning and Madden to follow the next five, and in the return the A’s wouldn’t record their first hit until two outs in the fifth inning when Lawrence Butler singled. Six of the 17 Tigers outs to that point were recording via an A’s strikeout.

In the sixth, the A’s broke through with their first and only significant rally of the day. A Shea Langeliers single and Seth Brown double set up first and second for Zack Gelof who brought home a run with an RBI single to right.

With runners now at first and third and just one out, the A’s were in prime condition to add more but Tristan Gray and Max Schuemann failed to advance Brown with two strikeouts.

After that, no more A’s baserunners would reach third base for the rest of the game. The Tigers, meanwhile, blew the doors wide open in the eighth inning.

RBI doubles from Carpenter, Parker Meadows and Matt Vierling while RBI singles from Riley Greene and Colt Keith created for a six-run inning and a 9-1 Detroit advantage. Ross Stripling faced eight batters in the inning while surrendering six hits and six earned, and thankfully the Tigers didn’t add on in the ninth despite loading the bases.

J.T. Ginn is credited with the loss despite allowing just three runs through his five frames of work but the box score doesn’t tell the full story; there was hard contact aplenty and traffic all over the base paths during his evening and on the day, in general.

The A’s have a day off tomorrow but they’ll then fly to Texas to take on the Houston Astros for a best of three starting Tuesday. They’ll head to Chicago after to take on the White Sox and Cubs to cap off a nine-game road trip. It’s Osvaldo Bido set to face-off against Spencer Arrighetti of the Astros on Tuesday.