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HOUSTON _ Maybe Miguel Cabrera will cut his manager a nice, fat check at the end of the year for all the ejections he's incurred on his behalf this season.
It happened again Monday night, in the fifth inning of the Tigers' 5-4 loss to the Houston Astros.
With the count 3-2 on Astros' Yordan Alvarez, home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez quickly pulled off his mask, turned to the Tigers' dugout and tossed Cabrera, who apparently had been barking at Marquez about his strike zone.
Gardenhire, who hadn't been ejected since June 29, bolted from the dugout to engage Marquez, hoping in vain to put the ejection on himself and keep his designated hitter in the game.
Marquez tossed them both. It was the eighth ejection of the season for Gardenhire and several of them have happened just like this one � trying to protect Cabrera, who himself has been ejected four times this season.
But, it was emblematic of the Tigers' fight level in this one.
A bad first inning put them in a 4-1 hole, but they kept scratching.
Rookie Travis Demeritte, hitting in the No. 2 hole, was a catalyst. He had three hits, including a 434-foot home run to straightaway center field that put the Tigers within a run, 5-4 in the seventh. He singled and scored on a Brandon Dixon sacrifice fly in the third.
His only mistake, if you could call it that, was an error of aggression in the first. The Tigers' first four hitters singled against Astros' left-hander Wade Miley, but only scored one run. Demeritte was thrown out at second base on a superb play by center fielder George Springer.
Side note on Demeritte: He's played in 18 straight games since being acquired from the Braves in the Shane Greene trade. He's hit safely in 13 of them and had five multi-hit games. In the last 13 games he's hitting .354 with three doubles, a triple and two home runs.
Ronny Rodriguez uncorked a 429-foot home run in the sixth inning that banged off the facade just below the train tracks that run about the wall in left-center field. It was his eighth homer of the season.
Demeritte had a chance to put an exclamation point on a huge day, too. He came up with runners at the corners and two outs in the eighth. But reliever Will Harris struck him out with a 2-2 fastball, stranding the tying run at third.
The Tigers put the tying run at second base with one out in the ninth, too. Dixon sliced a double into the right field corner against Astros closer Roberto Osuna. He went to third on a ground out by Dawel Lugo.
But Osuna ended the game by striking out John Hicks on three straight 96-mph fastballs.
The Astros did the bulk of their damage in the first inning against Tigers' starter Edwin Jackson. In a 34-pitch inning, Jackson yielded four hits and a walk that ended up translating into four runs. An RBI double by Alvarez and a two-run double by Yuli Gurriel were the big blows.
It was clear from the start Jackson didn't have his best stuff. His velocity was down and he was struggling to get ahead of the Astros hitters. Still, in keeping with the fighting theme, he soldiered through five innings, allowing three hits and a run after the first.
Relievers Nick Ramirez, David McKay and Gregory Soto kept it a one-run deficit through eight. McKay was impressive, striking out Jose Altuve, Gurriel and Robinson Chirinos in the seventh.
Astros shortstop Carlos Correa left the game in the second inning with back soreness.
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