DETROIT _ These wins the Tigers are accruing in the first two weeks of the season have gone from gritty to almost clinical.
The 7-2 win over the Reds at Comerica Park Friday night, their third straight win over what was expected to be a top-level Cincinnati team, was by-the-numbers _ strong starting pitching, timely hitting and a lockdown bullpen.
Starter Spencer Turnbull, after pitching four innings of no-hit ball, relinquished a pair of runs in the fifth inning _ doubles by former Tiger Nick Castellanos and Nick Senzel, and a bloop, one-handed single by Tucker Barnhart.
That was all the damage he allowed (other than a harmless second-inning walk that stopped the Tigers' streak of 28 innings without a base on balls _ third-longest in the last 50 years). He finished the outing with a clean, nine-pitch sixth.
Turnbull, mixing his four pitches and varying speeds on each one, struck out six and got nine swing-and-misses and 16 called strikes. The average exit velocity on the balls put in play against him was a soft-ish 87.9 mph.
The Tigers' offense was up against Reds' All-Star right-hander Luis Castillo, who six days ago in Cincinnati racked up 11 strikeouts in six innings. Much better at-bats against him Friday, especially by the bottom of the batting order.
No. 7 hitter Christin Stewart had two hits and scored a run. No. 8 hitter Austin Romine had two hits and a walk, with two RBIs and two runs scored. And No. 9 hitter JaCoby Jones, whose early batting average is approaching .500, had a double, single and an RBI against Castillo.
Here was the Tigers' response to the Reds' two-run top of fifth inning: Stewart doubled (101.6 mph exit velocity), Romine doubled (107 exit velocity) and Jones singled (112 exit velocity). Just like that, the Tigers regained the lead.
Singles by Victor Reyes, Stewart and Romine produced a run in the six and knocked Castillo out of the game. A heads-up play by pinch-runner Travis Demeritte, just recalled from the taxi squad, made it a three-run cushion.
Running for Stewart, Demeritte went first to third on Romine's single. Then, with two outs, he aggressively broke for home on a pitch that bounced only a few feet away from catcher Barnhart, beating the throw with a head-first slide.
That left it up to the bullpen to bring it home, and it did so with nine straight outs.
Left-hander Gregory Soto put on a show in the top of the seventh. He threw eight pitches, all sliders, all of them between 97 and, on a three-pitch strikeout of pinch-hitter Matt Davidson, 100 mph. Soto is becoming a phenom _ he has put down 14 of the 15 hitters he's faced with eight strikeouts.
Buck Farmer had the eighth and got three quick outs, two on ground balls and a lazy fly to center. Farmer has faced 17 batters without allowing a hit, a walk and a safe-on-error the only smudges.
Closer Joe Jimenez's services were not needed on this night. A two-run double by Demeritte off Raisel Iglesias in the bottom of the eighth wiped out the save opportunity.
Bryan Garcia handled the ninth with admirably, closing it out in 10 pitches.
The win improves the Tigers record to 5-3.
