[jksander]

May 4, 2026: We’re catching the Tigers while they’re on a five-game losing streak, and Dylan Cease (0-3, 4.06 ERA, 31.0 IP, 30 K’s, 1.00 WHIP) was ready to come out and show them what he could do, facing Kris Bubic (1-3, 5.47 ERA, 24.2 IP, 21 K’s, 1.70 WHIP). After three and a half innings of very little offense, we got on the board in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI double by Cody Bellinger, going into the top of the fifth with a 1-0 lead. Cease got us through the fifth having thrown just 48 pitches, and Bubic walked in a run via Kim in the bottom of the fifth to add on! The Tigers’ bullpen has been gutted worse than ours, so despite the loaded bases and no outs, they kept Bubic out there, and a third run scored off a wild pitch, Meidroth then hitting one up the middle to drive in another with a single! They went to the pen with two outs, and Ceddanne Rafaela walked the bases loaded again, but Tauchman couldn’t get one through to run it up further so we took our 4-0 lead into the top of the sixth, Cease still going strong. With one out in the top of the seventh the Tigers got on the board with a two-run homer out of right by Matt Vierling, and an RBI single by Lane Thomas got them back within a run before we were able to get a bullpen arm warmed. Eduard Bazardo came out with two outs and a man on first, getting us out of the inning, throwing four pitches ... and Kjerstad got us a solo homer in the bottom of the inning to buy some insurance. Ryan Helsley took over in the eighth, and in the bottom of the inning Ha-seong Kim hit an RBI single to put another run on the board for us. Ben Joyce came out to close things in the top of the ninth, getting a pop-out to left and a pair of strikeouts as we won this one 6-3! Cease got his first win of the year, improving to 1-2 with a 4.06 ERA thanks to his 6.2 innings with eight hits, a walk, four strikeouts and three earned runs. Bazardo and Helsley each got holds, and Joyce saved his second game of the season. We outhit Detroit 9-8, led by Vargas, who had two hits, a walk and two runs, and Kjerstad, who homered to ensure we would keep our lead late.

May 5, 2026: Noah Schultz (1-1, 2.45 ERA, 33.0 IP, 39 K’s, 0.73 WHIP) pitched against Tarik Skubal (1-3, 3.89 ERA, 37.0 IP, 41 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) in game two against the Tigers, who got on the board quickly in the top of the second with an RBI double by Kerry Carpenter. But we tied it in the top of the fifth with no outs when Ceddanne Rafaela drove in a run with an E8 error, the Tigers’ second error of the inning, and a groundout by Tauchman a moment later gave us the lead! Vargas hit a sac-fly to drive in a third run, and Gary Sanchez scored off a wild pitch ... that’s absolutely brutal, four unearned runs against the Tigers’ ace to put us firmlyin the lead! Ryan Weber took the ball in the top of the seventh, still leading by three runs, for his first bullpen appearance of the season, and the 35-year-old was solid right out of the gate with three quick outs to get us into the stretch leading 4-1. He quietly shut them down again in the eighth inning, getting an out in the ninth before Detroit got an RBI double off Danny Carpenter’s bat, putting the Tigers within two. Power-reliever Luis Sanchez took over on the mound with runners on second and third, getting Zach McKinstry to pop out to third, and he then struck out Kody Clemens swinging as we held tough to win this one 4-2, giving us our first three-game winning streak of the season! Schultz improved to 2-1 with a six inning two-hit effort, striking out seven with one earned run. Weber got a 2.1-inning hold, and Sanchez picked up his second save as he brought his ERA down to 2.89 through 18.2 innings in his 16th appearance. We outhit them 6-4 in the duel, led by Kjerstad and Sanchez who each had a hit and a run.
 
May 6, 2026: Brandon Pfaadt (2-0, 4.03 ERA, 22.1 IP, 21 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) started against Brenan Hanifee (2-2, 3.90 ERA, 27.2 IP, 21 K’S, 1.27 WHIP), and the Tigers, who have been in total freefall mode, still managed to take the lead in the top of the third with an RBI single by Lane Thomas, that was coupled with an E8 error. Pfaadt struggled to get us out of that inning, giving up another run via a single by Riley Greene, and a wild pitch dug us a quick 3-0 hole before he finally got the two outs we needed. Eduard Bazardo took over with two outs and a man on first in the top of the sixth, getting us out of the inning still trailing by three, and we got on the board with a run in the bottom of the inning off a flyball double by Vargas. Syndergaard took the ball in the seventh, and Sanchez came out to pitch with one out and Colt Keith on second in the top of the eighth. He got a strikeout and then let Gabriel Arias hit an RBI single that added a run on, sending us into the bottom of the eighth trailing 4-1. We loaded the bags in the bottom of the inning but came up empty, and Merryweather gave them another run to lead by four as we came up to hit in the bottom of the ninth. Gallo reached on an E4 error to start the frame, and Brooks Lee hit one past the shortstop to drive him into scoring position, a single that brought up our top hitters and kept our rally hopes alive. With one out, Yordys Valdes hit a single into left to load the bases, and Kjerstad hit into a fielder’s choice ... they got the out at second, but a run did score as Brooks Lee advanced to third. Bellinger came to the plate with hopes for a big hit, but instead he grounded out as this one ended as a 5-2 loss. Pfaadt took the loss, falling to 2-1 with a 4.18 ERA, allowing five hits, a walk and three earned runs with seven strikeouts through 5.2 innings. They outhit us 10-7, our offense led by Vargas with a hit, two walks, a run and an RBI, while Kjerstad added a hit, a walk and an RBI.

May 7, 2026: Sean Burke (1-2, 5.24 ERA, 22.1 IP, 23 K’s, 1.48 WHIP) pitched against Nick Martinez (3-2, 4.64 ERA, 33.0 IP, 26 K’s, 1.24 WHIP) in our final game of this homestand against the Tigers. We took the lead in the bottom of the third with an RBI single by Miguel Vargas, added on with an RBI single by Ceddanne Rafaela, scored two more off a line drive double by Brandon Valenzuela, and then Yordys Valdes hit into a fielder’s choice to drive in a fifth run, sending us into the top of the fourth up big, 5-0. The Tigers got a solo homer from Kerry Carpenter to get on the board in the top of the fourth, but we added on two more in the bottom of the inning and Burke was able to get through the fifth with relative ease. Ryan Weber took over in the top of the sixth, leading comfortably by six, and though the Tigers got another solo homer in the seventh, this one off the bat of Spencer Torkelson, Weber got us into the stretch still up 7-2. Julian Merryweather got the ball in the eighth inning, and he stayed out the rest of the way as we won by the same margin, shuting them down 7-2 as we took the series three games to one! Sean Burke improved to 2-2 with a 4.61 ERA, lasting five innings with one hit, two walks, one run and seven strikeouts, and we outhit the Tigers 11-4, led by Cody Bellinger who went 5-5 with two runs and an RBI, by far his best game of the season ... he’d been slumping lately, and now has a .220 average and looks to be coming out of it. Ceddanne Rafaela got ejected for arguing a strike call, forcing us to bring in Kjerstad who subsequently failed to make it on base, ending his on-base streak at 20 games.

We’re hitting the road immediately for New York City, where we’ll play the Yankees three times this weekend and the Mets three times next week before returning home for series against Miami and Pittsburgh. Our record has improved to 14-17, and we have leapfrogged the Tigers into fourth place in the AL Central, just one game out of third, behind the Royals, and only a game and a half back of second-place Minnesota.