Houston – The Tigers won a baseball game Monday night, beating the Houston Astros 9-3 in the first of three at Daikin Park.
But, stop us if you’ve heard this before, they might’ve also lost two more players to injury.
Will it ever end?
It started before the game. Right-hander Troy Melton, who was supposed to make the start, was a late scratch because of general back pain. Then in the second inning, second baseman Gleyber Torres winced and doubled over after he swung at a pitch.
Torres had sports hernia surgery in the offseason and missed most of May with a left oblique strain. It appeared he tweaked that same area on the swing.
The Tigers were unclear about the severity of either injury, but their history of avoiding the injured list this season is poor.
As for the game itself, it was the ultimate all-or-nothing performance by the Tigers’ offense. They struck out a season-high 18 times. But they banged out 11 hits, including five home runs and a triple and had runners on base in every inning.
Colt Keith led the charge. After hitting his first home run last Thursday, he swatted three of them and knocked in six runs on Monday. The three homers and six RBI are both career highs.
Keith hit two bombs to right field, the first one 411 feet into the Astros’ bullpen. The last one he hit to the opposite-field into the Crawford Boxes in left.
Rookie Kevin McGonigle, who walked twice and singled, hit his fifth homer of the season in the second inning. Spencer Torkelson hit his 12th, going back-to-back with Keith in the third inning.
Torkelson has hit three homers in four games.
The Tigers’ first three homers, and nine of the strikeouts, came against Astros starter Kai-Wei Teng. His first inning set the tone for the zaniness of this game.
He walked two, hit two, including Keith with the bases loaded, but he struck out three. Through the fourth inning, 11 of the 12 Tigers’ outs were strikeouts.
Dillon Dingler accounted for the sixth run, with his wheels. He sliced a ball to right field that spun away from right-fielder Cam Smith and rolled to the wall. Dingler never slowed down around second and beat the relay throw.
He scored on a passed ball. He had two hits and scored three runs on the night.
The only intrigue down the stretch was whether the Tigers’ could collect enough outs. Melton’s injury turned this into an impromptu bullpen game. And the answer was yes, they could.
Drew Anderson struck out five in 2.2 innings, leaving with a runner on and two outs in the third.
Right-hander Jacob Waguespack entered and gave up home runs on back-to-back pitches – a two-strike, two-run homer to former Tiger Isaac Paredes and a 410-foot rocket to Jose Altuve.
But he pitched a clean fourth. After Kyle Finnegan got through the fifth unscathed, lefty Tyler Holton got the next five outs. It was the fifth straight scoreless outing for Holton. He’s allowed just two runs in 10 innings, with 11 strikeouts in his last 10 games.
Will Vest got four outs and Enmanuel De Jesus finished off the ninth.
This will be updated…
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Colt Keith had two homers and five RBIs to beat Astros in opener
