DETROIT — Win or lose, it’s a fun brand of baseball the Tigers are playing these days. And it was all wins this weekend.
After taking both ends of a doubleheader Saturday, the Tigers completed the series sweep of the Minnesota Twins with a 7-0 win Sunday at Comerica Park.
They did it with an athletic flair that hasn’t been much seen around here in recent years. Take the pivotal third inning as an example.
The game was scoreless and Tigers starter Wily Peralta was laboring. The Twins put the first two runners on. Peralta had to that point struggled to find a feel for his split-change, a critical pitch against the five left-handers in the Twins lineup.
He found it just in time to strikeout Alex Kirilloff for the first out.
That brought Nelson Cruz to the plate. In the same situation last Thursday in Minnesota, Cruz hit a ground ball to third base. Jeimer Candelario tried to start the double play at second base and the relay throw to first was late. That led to the eventual winning run.
On Sunday, Peralta got Cruz to hit another ground ball to Candelario. This time he stepped on third and threw to first himself to complete the double play. Inning over.
The Tigers then unleashed their running game, going all 1980s St. Louis Cardinals against Twins lefty starter J.A. Happ in the bottom half of the third.
Jake Rogers led off with a hustle double, getting to second on a looping liner down the line in right. Derek Hill followed with a bunt single, sending Rogers to third. Rogers scored on a sacrifice fly by Jonathan Schoop.
Hill stole second and Robbie Grossman walked. Hill scored on a single by Miguel Cabrera, outrunning the throw from shallow right-center field. Grossman scored on a double by Candelario.
Against Happ last week in Minneapolis, the Tigers were befuddled by his fastball. They whiffed on seven of them and they took 15 for called strikes. They were much more aggressive against that pitch and his secondary pitches Sunday — hunting pitches in specific sides of the plate, not necessarily hunting specific pitch types.
Cabrera and Candelario ambushed a first-pitch fastball and a change-up, respectively.
Schoop, with Akil Baddoo (two hits) on first in the fifth, jumped a 2-0 fastball, sending it 418 feet into the seats in left field. It left his bat with an exit velocity of 111 mph. It was his team-high 17th homer of the season.
In the seventh inning, with Schoop on first, Candelario pulverized a 2-1 change-up from Happ, sending it 419 feet into the seats in left.
The Tigers may rank as the worst defensive team in baseball statistically, but they didn’t look it in this game. They turned four double plays behind Peralta. One was a strike-out-throw-out play — Peralta striking out Max Kepler and catcher Rogers throwing out Jorge Polanco at second.
Candelario started three double plays himself. He ended the seventh with a brilliant backhand play in the hole at shortstop (playing in the shift) on a slicing ground ball off Kepler’s bat, making a quick throw to second to start the double play.
Peralta, in his sixth start with the Tigers, allowed just four hits in seven scoreless innings. Over his last five starts, he’s allowed one earned run in 26⅔ innings.
As manager AJ Hinch said before the game, he's been a godsend to this rotation.
