Detroit drops both ends of doubleheader
DETROIT » Trevor Bauer made short work of the Detroit Tigers, throwing a two-hit shutout in Cincinnati’s 4-0 victory Sunday that gave the Reds a sweep of Major League Baseball’s first seveninning doubleheader.
Shogo Akiyama hit an RBI single in the top of the seventh that sent the Reds to a 4-3 win in the opener.
MLB recently decided to use doubleheaders of seven-inning games, which have been commonplace in the minor leagues and colleges, to help teams alleviate an expected crush of twinbills caused by weather and coronavirus-related postponements. The Reds-Tigers game was rained out Saturday.
Bauer was furious Saturday with the late decision to delay that game — but the postponement
meant he only had to throw seven innings for his shutout Sunday. He finished with 111 pitches.
Matt Davidson had an RBI single in the first inning and Aristides Aquino added another in the second against Detroit starter Daniel Norris (0-1). Christian Colon added a two-run single in the seventh to give Bauer a four-run cushion.
At one point in the first game, Cincinnati starter Anthony DeSclafani forgot the teams were only playing seven innings.
“When the Tigers scored those
three runs to tie the game in the sixth, I was thinking we still had three innings left to win the game,” DeSclafani said.
Nick Castellanos homered twice and drove in three runs for Cincinnati in the opener against his former team. But his threebase error in right field
with the bases loaded in the sixth allowed Detroit to tie the game.
Reliever Tyler Alexander had kept the Tigers in it by striking out the first nine batters he faced, tying the American League record for consecutive strikeouts. His streak ended in the top of the sixth, one short of Tom Seaver’s major league record, when he hit Mike Moustakas with a 1-2 pitch. Moustakas left the game with a forearm injury.
The start of the first game was delayed more than two hours because of rain. Then the game took 2 hours, 25 minutes. The second game went 2:36.
The scoreboard at Comerica Park was still set to display a nine-inning game.
With the score tied and the new doubleheader rules in place, Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire brought in closer Joe Jimenez (0-1) to start the seventh inning of the opener.
Freddy Galvis led off with a double, took third on Tucker Barnhart’s single and scored on Akiyama’s bouncer through the drawn-in infield.
Lucas Sims started the sixth and the Tigers loaded the bases with two out on a single, a walk and a hit batter. Victor Reyes lifted a fly ball to right-center. Castellanos called off center fielder Nick Senzel, but the ball bounced off the tip of his glove and all 3 scored.