Detroit Tigers 2012 regular season review – Part 22
After losing to the Minnesota Twins 7-11 in series opener, the Detroit Tigers were looking to learn from their mistakes to avoid a humiliating series sweep in front of their home crowd. The Twins, however, secured another thrilling 4-3 win in Game 2 on May
17, 2012 to complete a rare series sweep against their American League Central Division rivals.
Using his fastballs and sliders extremely effectively, Twins’ starter P.J. Walters dominated the Tigers’ batting line-up. Overall, he gave up just four hits and three runs in six plus innings to claim his first win of the season.
His counterpart from Detroit, Doug Fister looked completely out of sorts as he gave up nine hits and four runs in just six innings to take his second straight loss. Relief pitchers Phil Coke and Brayan Villarreal combined to pitch three shut-out innings
but their effort was not enough to save the Tigers from another embarrassing defeat.
Justin Morneau homered to left centre in the third inning to break the deadlock and put the Twins on the board. Trevor Plouffe and Morneau hit back-to-back home-runs in the third and the fifth to stretch the lead to 4-0.
"We had some good things happen -- a good couple of wins here," Twins’ Manager Ron Gardenhire said. "This is a great team. This is the team everybody's picked to win this division, and you come in here and you win a couple of ballgames against them, and
you go toe to toe with them. It's a good feeling. It's something we can kind of build off of."
"The only thing that has been consistent for this team is the inconsistency, and that's mind boggling to me," Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland said. "We just aren't putting together the combinations that we need to win."
Tigers bounced back strongly, thanks to Brennan Boesch, Andy Dirks and Prince Fielder who combined to hit three solo home-runs to reduce the deficit to 3-4. However, the night belonged to the Twins, who held on to their slim lead to complete a deserving
series victory.
Jim Leyland and company turned things around brilliantly in their next three match series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. In Game 1 at Comerica Park, the pitching rotation dominated the Pirates to set up an easy win for the Tigers.
Ace Justin Verlander showed just why he is an asset for the Tigers as he pitched his first complete game of the season. Allowing just one runs while striking-out 12 batters, he dominated Pittsburgh’s offence with his unplayable fastballs.
Miguel Cabrera and Fielder combined to give Tigers the early 2-0 lead. Delmon Young smacked a home-run to left and Don Kelly singled to right in the fourth to give Tigers a commanding 4-0 lead.
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