Detroit Tigers lose to Cleveland Indians 2-4 as Ubaldo Jimenez tops Drew Smyly – MLB Update
Detroit Tigers were beaten by Cleveland Indians 2-4 at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan on Tuesday, June 5 in the opening game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Tigers’ offence, once again, failed to live up to the expectations and the Indians secured an easy win on Tuesday afternoon to take 1-0 lead in the series. Ubaldo Jimenez had an absolutely great time on the mound as he pitched impressively into the seventh inning to outpitch Tigers’ starting pitcher Drew Smyly.
Jimenez has walked more hitters than anybody else in this year’s Major League Baseball. It will not be wrong to say that he has improved his game play immensely since moving over to Cleveland last season. The Indians displayed some high quality team work skills as they hit three run scoring triples against Smyly to put the Tigers under pressure.
"He's better than that," manager Manny Acta said in a post game interview on Tuesday night. "Today was a step in the right direction."
"That's a surprise," Jimenez said with a smile on his face. "With an outing like this, I just want to keep it going."
"I thought Jimenez was effectively wild," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We had some really golden counts for hitters. Just didn't do much with them."
"I just think that it gave him time to rest his left side," Acta said. "You don't want to push him and make it worse."
Cleveland’s starting pitcher won for the sixth time this season, thanks to an impressive outing in which he gave up just one run and five hits in six plus innings. Striking out four, the right hander showed great control over his dipping fastballs.
Miguel Cabrera gave the Tigers a decent start with a double to left in the first inning but the Indians came back strongly in the third. With Michael Brantley’s triple to deep right, they took a handsome 4-1 lead in the sixth. Brennan Boesch had a sacrifice fly to centre in the ninth to reduce Indians’ lead to 2-4 but the effort did not prove to be enough.
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