HOUSTON _ Alex Wilson got what he wanted.
He had it in his glove, a groundball that would turn into a double play, which would thwart a Houston Astros rally and send the upstart Tigers back at the plate.
It was in the bottom of the seventh inning on Tuesday night. It came off the bat of George Springer. A hard-hit ball right into Wilson's glove. But with so much time to think or perhaps the second base umpire obstructing his view, Wilson threw the ball into centerfield.
A run scored, another on a sacrifice fly and the Detroit Tigers lost for a second straight day to the Astros, 6-2, at Minute Maid Park.
Wilson's error dug the Tigers too deep a hole against the back-end of the Astros bullpen, which has been excellent this season. The Astros added a run in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Once again, starter Jordan Zimmermann walked away with nothing to show for.
Zimmermann turned in perhaps his best outing of the season, stuff-wise, but was still plagued by the home-run ball. He allowed two home runs _ both solo shots _ to up his total on the season to 13.
Zimmermann allowed four runs _ two earned _ on five hits over six-plus innings. He struck out three and walked two.
Nick Castellanos, who committed two errors, didn't help Zimmermann defensively. In the third inning, Castellanos let a Jose Altuve groundball underneath his glove to score the second run. Then, in the eighth inning, Castellanos bobbled a sure-thing pickoff attempt and allowed Marwin Gonzalez to scamper back to second base.
Gonzalez was attempting to steal third base on the play.
Zimmermann was close to recording his 19th out of the game for the first time this season but allowed a leadoff single to Juan Centeno in the seventh inning. After two pick-off attempts, manager Brad Ausmus pulled him. Wilson then allowed a hard-hit single before the fateful error.
The error came half an inning after Mikie Mahtook provided the only offense for the Tigers. Mahtook hit his second home run of the season into the Crawford Boxes in left field for a two-run shot, cutting the score to 3-2.
But the Tigers could not break even, and the two late errors cemented any chances of completing a comeback.
The Tigers committed three errors and allowed four unearned runs. They fell to 21-23, two games under .500 for the first time this season.
