Andy Dirks' Poor Defense Costs the Tigers in a 10-4 Loss

The Detroit Tigers lost to the Minnesota Twins today 10-4.

The Tigers scored first today in the 4th inning after a single by Omar Infante, then Miguel Cabrera hit a double to score Infante. Delmon Young eventually came up and hit a single to drive in Cabrera and the Tigers had a 2-0 lead.

Thanks to an error by Andy Dirks (which was somehow called a triple), and then a bad defensive play by Omar Infante (shocker), which led to the end of the day for Max Scherzer. He pitched 5 innings, giving up 3 runs (2 due to bad defense) on 6 hits, walking 1 and striking out 4 batters.

Phil Coke came in for relief and the first batter hit a bloop single thanks to more bad defense from Andy Dirks. After walking the next batter, Coke was pulled without getting an out; he was charged with allowing 2 runs. Brayan Villarreal came in to replace Coke. A mental mistake led to a 4th run scoring; Villarreal eventually got through the 6th inning, but the Twins had a 5-2 lead.

Villarreal came back out and got the first 2 outs of the 7th inning. He gave up an unearned run in the process. Darin Downs came in and got the final out of the 6th inning. Down came back out for the 8th inning and got the first 2 outs, but gave up a 2 runs. Luke Putkonen came in and got the final out of the inning, but allowed 2 runs to score in the process (of course).

Putkonen came back out and pitched a scoreless 9th inning.

Thanks to the bullpen imploding, and Dirks' awful defense, the offense never had a chance to make a comeback. Two runs scored in the 9th inning thanks to a single from Avisail Garcia, but it obviously wasn't enough, and the Tigers lost.

The Tigers play the 2nd game of a double header against the Twins tonight as Drew Smyly (4-3 4.45 ERA) makes a spot start against P.J. Walters (2-4 6.39 ERA).

Picture credit: zimbio.com
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