Unfortunately for Tigers fans, Simon has fallen off the second half of the season, and now, with Detroit nearly entirely out of the playoff race, the question lingers about what to do with Simon, not just after the year, but for the rest of the season as well. “What I really liked was the pace of his game. He made his pitches all night”.
Texas Rangers’ Rougned Odor (12) raises his arm to avoid the tag…
“He threw a great game”, first baseman Mitch Moreland said.
Texas belted a few balls hard but never got another hit.
The result was Simon (11-7) retiring 14 of the first 15 hitters before Odor’s double. He threw 116 pitches, three short of his career high.
“We still felt good even after all the traffic and limited damage, and look up and at one point we were only three runs down”.
The Tigers will try to keep their offense surging when they host the wild-card hopeful Texas Rangers in the opener of a four-game series on Thursday. He struck out four.
“The situation with Martin is he couldn’t quite find the range with all his pitches”, Banister said. “He did a decent job of limiting the damage, but he pitched himself into too much trouble”. Since he missed last season because of neck surgery, Fielder missed his homecoming in 2014.
“Well, last time I got booed, so why change?” he said with a grin. “As far as the comments, you know, what people think of me is none of my business”. Nick Castellanos drove in two runs while Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez had two hits and an RBI apiece.
Kinsler started the fifth with a triple to right-center field, and Cabrera followed with a single to center.
Tigers: Detroit placed two starting pitchers – LHP Daniel Norris (oblique strain) and RHP Anibal Sanchez (rotator-cuff strain) – on the DL, and called up relievers Guido Knudson and Jose Valdez from Triple-A Toledo. The over is 12-4-1 in Detroit’s last 17 games as a favorite and is 6-2-1 in their last 9 Friday games while going 18-7-1 in their last 26 home games. Not only was it Simon’s first shutout in 74 career starts, but it was his first complete game. 400 over his last five games with three doubles, a homer and four RBIs.