PITTSBURGH _ The laughter and glad tidings died abruptly.
The Tigers had barely stopped celebrating back-to-back home runs from Brandon Dixon and Harold Castro and a 7-1 lead when the Pirates' scored seven unanswered runs and walked off with an 8-7 win Wednesday at PNC Park.
Lefty reliever Nick Ramirez bore the brunt of the attack. Before the game, manager Ron Gardenhire was talking about what a valuable addition he'd been to the bullpen. In fact, he nickname him The Big Ticket.
But on this night, The Big Ticket got cashed.
Ramirez inherited a 7-3 lead from starter Jordan Zimmermann and lost it in 1 1/3 innings. Starling Marte hit a two-run home run off him in the fifth inning and Bryan Reynolds whacked a three-run shot in the sixth.
Ramirez had allowed three home runs in 27 innings before Wednesday night, none in his last 14.
It started out as a battle between two veteran starting pitchers returning from lengthy stays on the injured list, and there was enough rust on each to choke an SUV.
The Tigers jumped all over Pirates right-hander Trevor Williams, who had been out with an injury to his right oblique and was making his first start since May 16.
They scored twice in the first inning. JaCoby Jones led off the game with a hustle double _ aggressively taking second base on left fielder Corey Dickerson. He scored on a single by Harold Castro.
The Tigers broke out the big guns in a five-run third. After a two-run double by Niko Goodrum, Dixon and Castro hit 853 feet of home runs. Dixon's blast went 453 feet to the deepest part of PNC Park, over the cut-out in left-center.
Castro followed with his first big-league homer, which traveled 400 feet into the bleachers in right-center.
Williams settled down and got nine straight outs before leaving after five innings. And the Tigers bats stayed dormant against three Pirates relievers, including former Tiger Francisco Liriano, who pitched two scoreless innings.
Zimmermann was making his first start since April 25. He lasted four innings, allowing three runs and five hits. All the runs came after two outs.
He nearly pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the second inning, striking out No. 8 hitter Adam Frazier for the second out. That brought up the pitcher Williams, who lined an opposite-field single on the first pitch.
With two outs in the third inning, after a laborious nine-pitch battle, Dickerson lined a two-run double.
Zimmermann threw 75 pitches in his four innings, and it was clear he didn't have a feel for his slider, a very important weapon for him. In the at-bat against Dickerson, he ended up throwing mostly fastballs and curveballs, eventually losing the at-bat with a curveball.
Before the game, Gardenhire wondered if Zimmermann, who has recovered from a UCL strain, would still have the extension on his delivery to get the sinking action on the slider. He did not. As a result, he threw 27 curves and just 15 sliders, off 30 four-seam fastballs.
The loss took the shine off a couple of encouraging performances. Nick Castellanos, who is showing signs of heating up at the plate, had three hits. Christin Stewart and Castro also had two hits.
But after producing seven runs and nine hits in the first three innings, the Tigers had two singles and no runners in scoring position after the third.
