Pay the price: Late pitching change sinks Tigers
Take a look around the league with Big League Stew’s daily wrap up. We’ll hit on all of the biggest moments from the day that you may have missed, while providing highlights, photos and interesting stats.
Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus was faced with a difficult decision Sunday against the Los Angeles Angels: Should he allow his tiring ace to continue pitching, or turn to his bullpen?
Ausmus chose the latter, and it wound up costing him the game.
In the eighth inning, Ausmus made his choice. Up until the beginning of the frame, starter David Price had turned in a strong performance. He started to show signs of fatigue during his final inning.
Price allowed a walk and a single to start the inning. After a sacrifice bunt moved both hitters over, the Tigers issued an intentional walk to Grant Green.
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With the bases loaded, Price managed to induce an infield fly, picking up the second out. At that point, Price had thrown 121 pitches. Ausmus decided that was enough, and made the call to the pen.
Joba Chamberlain entered the game, but couldn’t get the job done. Johnny Giavotella hit a single up the middle, scoring two runs. Chamberlain would induce a weak groundout against the next hitter, but the damage was already done.
Though Ausmus’ decision did not work out, it’s worth noting that Price hadn’t thrown this many pitches in quite some time.
Detroit could not mount a come back against Huston Street, falling 4-2. With the loss, Price fell to 4-2 on the year. He wound up allowing four runs on eight hits over 7 2/3 innings. Price walked four and struck out six. He has a 3.15 ERA, and 3.27 FIP, over 74 1/3 innings.
BREWERS/D-BACKS PLAY NEVER-ENDING GAME
The Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks must have felt generous Sunday. They gave the fans nearly two games for the price of one.
Though Milwaukee eventually sent the fans home happy, it took them 17 innings to do so. The Brewers were finally able to break a 6-6 tie, picking up the 7-6 walk-off victory in the 17th.
Both clubs got their scoring out of the way early. By the end of the sixth inning, the Brewers had a 6-5 lead. The Diamondbacks managed to tie things up in the eighth, and that’s when things started to get weird.
It wasn’t as if the club’s offenses went away, however. Both clubs threatened quite a bit in extras, but could not scratch a run across the plate.
The situation got so dire that both teams turned to starting pitchers late in the contest. Matt Garza wound up tossing five strong innings, eventually picking up the win.
On the other side, Vidal Nuno was used for 5 1/3 innings before finally giving up a walk-off home run to Martin Maldonado.
The game set a few Brewers records.
Milwaukee will take on the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday.
DANKS GOES THE DISTANCE
It’s been a rough season for Chicago White Sox starter John Danks. The 30-year-old has struggled on the mound, and there was briefly talk he could be replaced by prospect Carlos Rodon.
The club opted to move Hector Noesi to the bullpen instead, and Danks rewarded that decision Sunday against the Houston Astros.
Danks tossed a complete game shutout, picking up the 6-0 victory against Houston. It was the third time in his career Danks picked up a shutout.
It was actually a game full of milestones for Danks. He also notched his 1,000th career strikeout during the win.
Though he pitched well, Danks proved to be fairly hittable during the contest. He allowed 10 hits and one walk over nine innings. Danks struck out six batters.
Giving up 10 hits during a complete game shutout is not an easy task.
With the win, Danks lowered his ERA to 4.81. The 23-26 White Sox are set to take on the Texas Rangers starting Tuesday.
GIANTS BLOW ONE LATE
The San Francisco Giants did something uncommon Sunday against the Atlanta Braves: They blew a game in the late innings.
Prior to Sunday’s 7-5 loss, the Giants had only suffered three blown saves this season.
In fact, since Santiago Casilla became the team’s closer, the team had never lost a game in which he blew a save, according to Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles.
That changed Sunday. With the Giants up by two, Casilla entered in the ninth, looking to nail down the save.
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Things started out promising, as Juan Uribe grounded out for the first out. Then, things went downhill. Freddie Freeman hit a solo home run, bringing the lead to just one run.
Andrelton Simmons worked a walk, putting the tying run on base. A fielding error put men on first and second. A.J. Pierzynski would then load the bases with a single.
With the bases juiced, Casilla gave up a bases-clearing triple to Jace Peterson. The Braves took the 7-5 lead. Casilla managed to pick up one more out before he was removed from the contest. His ERA jumped to 2.82 following the outing.
Want to see more from Sunday’s slate of games? Check out our scoreboard.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
