DENVER _ This time, the game opened up.
After a low-scoring series opener on Monday night at Coors Field, the Detroit Tigers and Colorado Rockies played to another pitcher's duel for much of Tuesday night. For the visitors, it was Michael Fulmer, who was throwing his usual array of solid stuff. For the home team, it was German Marquez, who was lights-out.
The Tigers finally got to Marquez when Mikie Mahtook hit a two-run home run to tie the game in the top of the seventh inning. But with the go-ahead run on first base, manager Brad Ausmus allowed Fulmer to hit a third time. He grounded out and then allowed the game-winning run the next inning, before Warwick Saupold served up a meatball to Nolan Arenado. His three-run, 400-foot shot put the game out of reach. The Rockies won, 7-3.
After Fulmer allowed back-to-back singles to open the seventh inning, Ausmus came out for a chat but didn't change pitchers. Pinch-hitter Carlos Gonzalez then gave the Rockies the lead with a sacrifice fly to center field. Daniel Stumpf entered and recorded a lefty-on-lefty out before Saupold relieved him, walked his first batter and served up a mammoth home run to Arenado, deep to left-center field.
The chain of events made a loser out of Fulmer, who allowed five runs on eight hits over 6 1/3 innings. He struck out three and walked one.
The Tigers' bats were kept at bay by Marquez, an electric rookie right-hander who threw an express fastball in the mid-90 mph range with buckling breaking balls. Marquez was given a three-run lead when D.J. LeMahieu (Birmingham Brother Rice) hit a solo home run in the first inning and Gerardo Parra hit a bloop, two-run single in the third.
An early opportunity was squandered when Alex Presley singled with one out in the first inning and Justin Upton hit a fly down the right-field line. Parra made a diving attempt but knocked the ball well out of his reach. Presley didn't see that, staying on second base, and Upton was caught as an easy out between first and second.
The Tigers got on the board with back-to-back doubles by Mahtook and John Hicks in the fifth inning and then tied the game when Mahtook hit his 10th home run of the season, a no-doubter, in the seventh inning. Marquez, who struck out 10 batters, was done shortly thereafter.
But a night after the bullpen worked four scoreless innings, Ausmus pushed Fulmer too far and it backfired when he wilted early in the home half of the seventh and then Saupold hung a waist-high pitch.
With the loss, the Tigers are 57-74. The rubber game is Wednesday afternoon, when right-hander Justin Verlander takes the mound.
