Báez hits 2 of Tigers’ 4 home runs against Pirates
Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Javier Báez hit two of the Detroit Tigers’ four home runs in a 7-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night.
Báez hit solo homers in the fifth and seventh innings on the day he reached 10 years of major league service. Wenceel Pérez and Riley Greene also homered for Detroit.
Casey Mize (7-2) got the win, allowing three runs — two earned — on five hits in six innings. He struck out four without walking a batter.
Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead in the second when Spencer Horwitz singled and scored on Adam Frazier’s groundout, but the Tigers scored twice in the bottom of the inning on Pérez’s homer.
Alexander Canario’s two-run single put the Pirates back in front 3-2 in the third, but Báez tied the game with a homer in the fifth. Canario replaced Bryan Reynolds in right field in the second inning after his wife went into labor. Reynolds was expected to be added to the paternity list after the game.
The 30-year-old Reynolds, a two-time All-Star, is hitting .222 with eight homers, 39 RBIs and 81 strikeouts in 71 games.
Pérez gave the Tigers a 4-3 lead with an RBI triple in the sixth and Báez made it a two-run game with a leadoff homer in the seventh. Greene hit a 436-foot home run to right later in the inning, making it 7-3.
Carmen Mlodzinski (1-5) allowed four runs in two innings of relief.
Key moment
After Pérez’s third-inning homer, the Tigers put runners on the corners with one out, but Bailey Falter got Parker Meadows to pop out before striking out Gleyber Torres to end the inning.
Key stat
Báez reached his 10-year milestone in career game 1,284. He is hitting .253 with 190 homers, 663 RBI and 111 stolen bases.
Up next
The teams are scheduled to play the second of three games on Wednesday night, with Detroit ace Tarik Skubal (7-2, 1.99 ERA) facing LHP Andrew Heaney (3-5, 3.33).