The Houston Astros fell 3-1 to the Detroit Tigers in Game One of the American League Wild Card Series on Tuesday afternoon inside Minute Maid Park. Detroit now leads the series 1-0 in a best-of-three. Game Two will be tomorrow at the same time.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Framber Valdez took the ball for Houston in this one. He allowed a first inning baserunner, but erased him with a double play ball to put up a zero in the first.
He was opposed by Tigers’ ace Tarik Skubal. Skubal needed just five pitches to work a very quick one-two-three inning in the bottom of the first. That kept it at 0-0.
Valdez had big struggles in the second inning. A single and a walk had two runners on for Detroit. Then, three straight RBI singles got the Tigers a 3-0 lead. Jake Rogers, Trey Sweeney, and Matt Vierling came through with the hits.
That three-run lead would be a lot to overcome given Skubal was the man on the mound opposing Houston. Skubal cruised through the early innings despite getting hit by a comebacker on his glove hand.
Valdez settled in enough to get through the third and fourth innings. However, he was lifted one out into his fifth inning of work. Hector Neris entered, and was able to get out of the inning for Houston.
Skubal ended his outing with six shutout innings. He was excellent in keeping the Astros bats quieted in this game. He gave way for Will Vest in the seventh. Vest came in and quickly retired the side, getting two strikeouts in the process. That kept it 3-0 Tigers into the eighth frame.
Yordan Alvarez led off the bottom of the ninth with a double off of Tigers’ closer Jason Foley. That was followed by an Alex Bregman infield single, bringing the tying run to the plate. Yainer Diaz poked an RBI single through the right side, and all of a sudden it was 3-1 with no one out and two runners on. A sacrifice bunt from Jeremy Pena moved the runners to second and third with one out. That prompted Detroit to go to another reliever. Beau Brieske came in for the final two outs. Jason Heyward hit a missile, but it was right at Spencer Torkelson, who caught it for the final out.
BIG NUMBER: 3
The Astros got zero runs off of Tarik Skubal. Framber Valdez gave up three. That was the difference in a low-scoring affair. The Houston offense struggled throughout the early and middle portions of this game.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Tarik Skubal
He is one of the best pitchers in baseball for a reason. Skubal kept the Astros off balanced and gave Detroit the outing they needed in what is a very short best-of-three series.
UP NEXT: Game Two will be tomorrow at 1:32 at Minute Maid Park. You can listen to the action on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette 104.1 Lake Charles.
