PHOENIX _ Sometimes the game of baseball provides some inevitable conclusions.
Take the bottom of the sixth inning of the Detroit Tigers' listless 7-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday.
Matthew Boyd was spinning another solid start. He had allowed two runs in the third _ one earned (home run by Nick Ahmed) and one unearned (passed ball by James McCann with the bases loaded and two outs).
It was a 2-1 game in the sixth. Brandon Drury rapped a one-out double and went to third on the second passed ball by McCann, who had four passed balls all last season. But Boyd stayed calm. He struck out Chris Iannetta, freezing him with a 1-2 curveball.
He then pointed the No. 8 hitter Ahmed to first base, intentional walk, to bring up the pitcher with two outs.
Inning over, right? Wrong. Boyd walked Triple-A call-up Zack Godley on six pitches. Which set up the inevitable conclusion.
Leadoff hitter A.J. Pollock delivered a back-breaking, two-run single on an 0-2 pitch to put the game out of reach.
Boyd and the Tigers were working with a slim margin for error because of Godley. It was his second big-league start this season _ he's auditioning to replace the injured Shelby Miller _ and he overpowered the Tigers largely with a heavy sinker.
The Tigers scratched out a run in the second on consecutive singles by Justin Upton, Jim Adduci and McCann. The only hit after that was by Boyd _ his first big-league hit.
Godley faced the minimum 15 hitters from the third through the seventh. He got double-play grounders in the third and seventh.
He ended up working seven innings, allowing four hits with six strikeouts and 11 ground-ball outs.
Here's another inevitable conclusion: Pitching Anibal Sanchez on 10 days of rest, in this ballpark where the ball flies when the roof is open, wasn't going to end well. It did not.
Sanchez gave up three runs in the seventh including back-to-back home runs by Yasmany Tomas and Brandon Drury. He also walked a batter and gave up a ringing double to Ahmed.
Sanchez has allowed eight home runs in 17 2/3 innings this season.
One bright spot for the Tigers on this forgettable night: Left-hander Chad Bell, called up from Toledo on April 30, finally made his big-league debut for the Tigers. He pitched a scoreless eighth inning, working around a three-base throwing error by third baseman Nick Castellanos.
He struck out Jake Lamb with a lively 95-mph fastball with a runner on third and one out and then got Tomas to ground out to end the inning.
The Tigers, 2-3 on this West Coast trip, will move to Anaheim for four games against the Angels.
