Javier Baez hit a pair of solo home runs as the host Detroit Tigers downed the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-3 on Tuesday.
Baez’s power display made a winner of Casey Mize (7-2), who allowed three runs (two earned) and five hits in six innings. He struck out four without walking a batter. Chase Lee, Tommy Kahnle and Brenan Hanifee each pitched a scoreless inning of relief for Detroit, which had lost its previous two games.
Detroit’s Riley Greene and Wenceel Perez blasted two-run homers, and Perez also supplied a run-scoring triple.
Alexander Canario had a two-run single for Pittsburgh. Canario replaced Bryan Reynolds, who left the game in the second inning when his wife went into labor.
Starter Bailey Falter gave up three runs and five hits in five innings for Pittsburgh, which has lost four of its past five games. Falter fanned four and walked one.
The Pirates scored an unearned run in the second. Spencer Horwitz led off with a single and moved to third on an error by shortstop Baez. Adam Frazier’s groundout brought him in.
Detroit scored in the bottom of the inning. Spencer Torkelson led off with a double and Perez followed with his homer, lofting a Falter fastball over the left field wall.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s leadoff single in the third sparked Pittsburgh’s two-run inning. Andrew McCutchen smacked a one-out double before Canario lined a 3-0 Mize fastball into right, scoring both runners.
Baez tied the game at 3 leading off the fifth. He blasted a Falter curveball off the top of the left-center-field wall and it caromed into the visitors’ bullpen.
The Tigers took a 4-3 lead in the sixth against Carmen Mlodzinski (1-5). Greene led off with a single and scored when Perez smacked a fastball into the right-center-field gap for a triple.
Baez gave the Tigers some breathing room in the seventh when he cranked a Mlodzinski sweeper over the left-center-field wall for a leadoff homer. Kerry Carpenter was hit by pitch with two outs in the inning, and Greene made it 7-3 by blasting a slider over the right field wall.
–Field Level Media
