Detroit Tigers score: The Tigers hammered Houston for six runs in the first inning to set up a 7-2 victory and a series sweep of the AL West leaders.
The Houston Astros finally snapped a 31-inning scoreless streak when Mauricio Dubón hit a two-run home run off right-hander Charlie Morton in the fourth inning.
Aside from that swing, the Detroit Tigers dominated the struggling Astros.
A six-run first inning propelled the American League Central-leading Tigers to a 7-2 win over the AL West-leading Astros on Wednesday, Aug. 20, in the finale of a three-game series at Comerica Park. For the Astros, left-hander Framber Valdez gave up five runs in the first inning before recording the first out.
More importantly, the Tigers (76-53) won the season series against the Astros, with a 4-2 record in six games, to take the tiebreaker for postseason seeding, if necessary.
The tiebreaker would be the difference between the Tigers landing in the the best-of-five ALDS as opposed to the best-of-three wild-card series – if the Tigers and Astros have the same record as the second- and third-best AL division winners.
The Tigers scored early and often against the Astros in the first inning of Wednesday's finale, allowing them to cruise to the finish line for the series sweep.
They sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning.
Scoring six runs began with back-to-back walks.
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After walks from Jahmai Jones and Gleyber Torres, Andy Ibáñez put the Tigers ahead, 1-0, with a single back up the middle and into center field off Valdez's second-pitch sinker. Two pitches later, Spencer Torkelson increased the advantage to 2-0 with a ground-run double. The Tigers then scored two runs in a row on wild pitches from Valdez for a 4-0 lead. Dillon Dingler drove in another run when he smoked Valdez's in-zone curveball for a triple to deep center field.
The Astros didn't record their first out in the first inning until Wenceel Pérez — the seventh batter in the Tigers' lineup — grounded out. Javier Báez pushed the Tigers' lead to 6-0 with a single, but Jake Rogers grounded into an inning-ending double play.
In the third inning, a one-out double from Dingler and a two-out single from Báez made it 7-0.
Valdez entered Wednesday's game with a 3.01 ERA in 24 starts, but he surrendered seven runs on seven hits and four walks with two strikeouts across five innings, throwing 96 pitches.
His ERA jumped to 3.32 after his 25th start.
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Charlie Morton shines again
At the July 31 trade deadline, the Tigers acquired Morton from the Baltimore Orioles. In his latest start, the 41-year-old allowed two runs on three hits and three walks with eight strikeouts across six innings, throwing 58 of 94 for strikes.
Morton owns a 3.63 ERA in four starts since the trade.
The 18-year MLB veteran limited opponents to two or fewer runs while completing at least six innings in three of those four starts: Aug. 3 against the Philadelphia Phillies, Aug. 15 against the Minnesota Twins and Aug. 20 against the Astros.
The Astros scored their only runs off Morton on Dubón's home run in the fourth inning.
Morton stranded runners in the first, second, third and fifth innings, with the sixth as his only clean inning. In the fifth, he struck out Christian Walker and Jesús Sánchez to strand two runners in scoring position.
In 2025, Morton has a 5.09 ERA in 27 games (21 starts) for the Orioles and Tigers.
Contact Evan Petzold at [email protected] or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers hammer Houston Astros early for 7-2 win, series sweep
Category: Baseball
