RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 07: Willy Adames #2 of the San Francisco Giants reacts as he rounds the bases after hitting a home run against the Detroit Tigers in the fifth inning at Oracle Park on August 07, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) | Getty Images
After Thursday’s satisfying thumping of the Mariners, the Tigers skooched down the Pacific coast a state or two to open a three-game weekend series in San Francisco against the Giants. Detroit out-hit their hosts by an 11-5 tally, but those runners largely stayed on the bases as the Giants won the series opener 5-2.
Keider Montero, who is now, absolutely, definitely, positively, for now, in the pitching rotation, made his nineteenth start of the year for the Tigers. With the exception of a hiccup in Baltimore recently, he’s looked like himself: not a boatload of strikeouts, but he keeps walks and home runs low, limiting his WHIP to about 1. If guys ain’t getting on base, they ain’t scoring — but there was plenty of traffic on the basepaths tonight, especially early
The Giants decided that JT Brubaker would open for Adrian Houser, and yes, I’m a fan of the name. Brubaker started for Pittsburgh for three years, a few years ago, but both the Yankees and Giants decided he should be in the bullpen, and the change has done him good. He’s been an effective mid- to late-innings reliever, usually entering the game anywhere between the sixth and eighth.
The Tigers wasted no time getting on the board: Kevin McGonigle led off the top of the first with a broken-bat single to right, and Gleyber Torres followed with a single to put runners on the corners. McGonigle scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by Dillon Dingler, making it a 1-0 game early.
The home team countered in the bottom of the first: Jung Hoo Lee walked with one out, and then after a strikeout, Rafael Devers hit a two-run home run to centre on a belt-high 2-2 knuckle-curve for a 2-1 Giants lead.
Houser took over for Brubaker to start the second, and Spencer Torkelson greeted him with a leadoff single. With one out a groundout pushed him up to second, and he came around to score on a Zach McKinstry single to tie the game at two.
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In the bottom of the frame a walk, single and sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one out. Montero then whiffed Christian Koss on a fastball up near his eyes for the second out, but then he walked Bryce Eldridge to load the bases to bring up Lee, who singled to bring home a pair of runs to put the Giants ahead 4-2. A grounder to third handcuffed McGonigle to re-load the bases, but thankfully a popup to Javier Báez got the Tigers out of the inning.
Both pitchers settled down for a little while, Montero mercifully getting a couple of 1-2-3 innings in a row. With Jackson Jobe due to start on Saturday, and likely not going deep in that game, the Tigers definitely needed some length out of Montero.
In the top of the fifth McKinstry singled to right, and McGonigle’s single pushed him up to third. After two foulouts to right, one of which might have been deep enough to score McKinstry, Riley Greene’s little pop-fly to left field hung up just long enough for it to be caught for the third out.
With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Willy Adames hit a solo home run to left field to extend the lead to 5-2. That stung.
Houser held on through the sixth; he was relieved in the seventh by Keaton Winn, who stuck around for a single, a double play and a Dingler walk. Sam Hentges, who you may remember from his time in Cleveland, came in and gave up another flare by Greene to left which dropped this time; Dingler scooted to third and Greene moved up to second as the throw went to third. Eduardo Valencia pinch-hit for Colt Keith against the lefty Hentges, but he was frozen by a curveball on the inside corner for strike three.
Drew Sommers replaced Montero for the bottom of the seventh making Montero’s final line 6 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 5 K. Those three walks are pretty out-of-character for him; he hadn’t walked more than two in a start since the middle of May. What of Sommers, though? He made a soft-comebacker sandwich, using strikeouts as bread. (The last one was fun: Willy Adames received a strike-three call on a pitch that he challenged and had overturned as it was a little too far inside. Next pitch? Swung and missed at ball four, upstairs. He chucked his bat. Tee hee.)
Hentges carried on into the eighth, and gave up a leadoff infield single to Torkelson. With two outs pinch-hitter Hao-Yu Lee walked, but McGonigle flew out to left to end the inning.
Enmanuel De Jesus took over in the eighth and he went 1-2-3 like his predecessor. He could be a very, very valuable piece of the bullpen if he keeps having outings like this.
Old Friend™ Dylan Smith, who’s now the Giants’ closer, came on for the save. Greene walked with two outs, but Valencia flew out and that was the game.
Just a quick reminder, Saturday’s game starts at 7:15 pm EDT as it is on Fox nationally.
Final score: Giants 5, Tigers 2
Numbers and Notes
Much has been made of the Tigers’ bats awakening lately, but let’s zoom out a bit: on the season, the team’s OPS is .732 (league average: .712), second only behind the Astros, who play in a dumb little stadium.
They still strike out a lot, but perhaps not quite as often as you’d imagine: coming into tonight’s game they were fifth in the American League in strikeouts by hitters. They also have both walked and homered the fourth-most in the AL. Insert whatever joke you like about Three True Outcomes you like; eat your heart out, Big Donkey .
Foolish Bailey released a great video this week describing how the Milwaukee Brewers beat up on bad pitchers and struggle against good pitchers, and how this may doom them in the playoffs.
Zach McKinstry and former Tiger Zack Short spell their names subtly differently, and every time I do a recap with either of them involved I have to look up who’s ...
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