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Detroit Tigers rally, but miss out on sweep of Tampa Bay Rays with 7-5 loss

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Detroit Tigers rally, but miss out on sweep of Tampa Bay Rays with 7-5 loss


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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Right-hander Jack Flaherty is trying to put together a bounce-back season with the Detroit Tigers, and since the start of the regular season, the slider has been a pitch reborn for him.

It has been one of the best sliders in baseball.

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But the Tampa Bay Rays executed their game plan against Flaherty’s slider, recording four hits off it en route to four runs across the first and second innings. Flaherty settled into his fifth start after adjusting his pitch mix, which allowed the Tigers to storm back and take the lead, but the Rays delivered a comeback of their own in the later innings.

The Tigers lost to the Rays, 7-5, in Wednesday’s finale of a three-game series at Tropicana Field. Right-handed reliever Will Vest, who replaced Flaherty, surrendered three runs in the sixth inning.

The Tigers (14-11) finished their six-game roadtrip with a 4-2 record.

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The two teams combined for five runs in the sixth inning.

The Tigers jumped out to a 5-4 lead with RBI singles from Buddy Kennedy and Javier Báez, both with two outs against right-handed reliever Chris Devenski. The two-run inning was set up by Matt Vierling’s one-out triple to the right-field corner.

The Rays regained the lead, 7-5, with an RBI single from Ben Rortvedt and a two-run home run from Curtis Mead, both off Vest with two outs. Isaac Paredes, who played for the Tigers in 2020-21, sparked the comeback with a leadoff double.

Mead only hit the ball 327 feet to left, but he got just enough of Vest’s slider for a two-run homer to the shortest part of the park. It was the slowest exit velocity to produce an over-the-wall home run this season, at 87.3 mph.

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After Báez’s double, the next nine batters were retired by Rays relievers before Jake Rogers walked with two outs in the ninth inning, but left-handed reliever Garrett Cleavinger struck out Riley Greene to end the game.

[ MUST LISTEN: Make “Days of Roar” your go-to Detroit Tigers podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]

Jack not so nimble

In his fifth start, Flaherty allowed four runs on seven hits — without a walk — in five innings, striking out six batters. He kept the Rays from scoring in the third, fourth and fifth innings to keep the Tigers within striking distance.

He threw 97 pitches.

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The Rays collected their first four hits off Flaherty’s slider: Randy Arozarena’s solo home run in the first inning, followed by Amed Rosario’s single, Rortvedt’s double and José Caballero’s single in the second.

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The double from Rortvedt and the single from Caballero scored runs for a 3-1 lead. Yandy Díaz increased the Rays’ lead to 4-1 with an RBI single off Flaherty’s fastball with two strikes and two outs in the second.

After that, Flaherty began to throw more curveballs.

Flaherty struck out Arozarena on three pitches in the third inning: a 74.1 mph curveball for a called strike, an uncharacteristically slow 88.9 mph four-seam fastball fouled off and, finally, a 77.3 mph curveball for a swinging strike.

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He retired the final six batters he faced.

Flaherty generated 15 whiffs (on 50 swings) with six fastballs, five sliders and four curveballs. His fastball — responsible for six of 15 whiffs and nine of 15 called strikes — averaged 93.6 mph.

A reunion with Tyler Alexander

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Greene delivered a leadoff single and scored on Spencer Torkelson’s hard-hit groundout. Greene trotted to second base on Wenceel Pérez’s walk, then moved up to third on a balk from right-hander Shawn Armstrong, who served as an opener for the Rays.

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The Tigers tacked on two runs in the fifth inning against left-hander Tyler Alexander, an old friend.

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Alexander, who pitched for the Tigers from 2019-23, walked Báez on four pitches with one out in the fifth. Rogers followed up with a single, pulling Alexander’s middle-in cutter. The runners advanced — both into scoring position — when Greene flew out to the warning track in right-center field.

Báez and Rogers scored on Mark Canha’s two-run single on a ground ball into left field, cutting the Tigers’ deficit to 4-3.

Alexander, whom the Tigers designated for assignment in early November, allowed two runs on three hits and one walk with two strikeouts in four innings. The Rays claimed Alexander off waivers after he was cut by the Tigers.

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He has a 4.74 ERA in 24⅔ innings this season.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

Listen to our weekly Tigers show “Days of Roar” every Monday afternoon on demand at freep.com, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.





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Detroit, MI

Detroit Tigers Place Young Star Outfielder on Injured List

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Detroit Tigers Place Young Star Outfielder on Injured List


The Detroit Tigers have been one of the most talked about teams in baseball over the last couple of weeks.

While they have started to play better on the field, the majority of attention is on who they might be shipping out ahead of the 2024 MLB trade deadline next week.

While those rumors have been swirling aggressively, there is another piece of major news to report about the franchise.

Unfortunately, the Tigers have had to make a move to place their young star outfielder Riley Greene on the injured list heading into the weekend with a strained right hamstring. There has been no expected timetable given to for his potential return to the field.

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In a corresponding move, Detroit has decided to recall utilityman Ryan Vilade from Triple-A affiliate Toledo.

So far during the 2024 season, Greene has been a massive bright spot for the Tigers. He has played in 101 games, batting .264/.357/.485 to go along with 17 home runs and 51 RBI. That production will be missed.

Hopefully, this isn’t an injury that will last long-term. Detroit needs their young rising star back on the field. He is quickly turning into the centerpiece of the lineup for the future.

All of that being said, the Tigers will now turn their attention to the moves they’re going to make ahead of the deadline. Names like Jack Flaherty, Mark Canha, and even Tarik Skubal are making their rounds through the rumors.

Only time will tell what they choose to do at the deadline, but for now they’re simply hoping for a quick recovery and return to the diamond from Greene.

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Detroit, MI

Detroit Lions kicker to miss season after ‘severe injury’ prepping for practice

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Detroit Lions kicker to miss season after ‘severe injury’ prepping for practice


DETROIT – The Detroit Lions’ primary kicker will miss the entire season after suffering a “severe injury” while preparing for practice.

The announcement was made by the team’s reporter, Tim Twentyman. He said Michael Badgley was getting ready for practice on Thursday when he suffered the injury.

Ian Rapoport, of NFL Network, reports the injury is a torn hamstring.

Badgley will be placed on injured reserve and miss the season, Twentyman revealed.

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In a follow-up post, Twentyman said the Lions plan to bring in another kicker to compete with UFL phenom Jake Bates for the starting job.

Bates earned a deal with the Lions this offseason when he made a series of long kicks at Ford Field for the Michigan Panthers, a United Football League team.

Twentyman said Bates has looked good in practice so far — training camp began on Wednesday — so the team isn’t in a hurry to make a decision on the other kicker.

Field goal kicking hasn’t been a strength for the Lions the last few seasons since they decided not to bring back Matt Prater. Badgley was a solid option, but now the role will fall to Bates or someone else.

Copyright 2024 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.

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Detroit, MI

Site of 3 killings during 1967 Detroit riot to receive historic marker

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Site of 3 killings during 1967 Detroit riot to receive historic marker


DETROIT (AP) — The site of a transient motel in Detroit where three young Black men were killed, allegedly by white police officers, during the city’s bloody 1967 race riot is receiving a historic marker.

A dedication ceremony is scheduled Friday several miles (kilometers) north of downtown where the Algiers Motel once stood.

As parts of Detroit burned in one of the bloodiest race riots in U.S. history, police and members of the National Guard raided the motel and its adjacent Manor House on July 26, 1967, after reports of gunfire in the area.

The bodies of Aubrey Pollard, 19, Carl Cooper, 17, and Fred Temple, 18, were found later. About a half dozen others, including two young, white women, had been beaten.

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Several trials later were held, but no one ever was convicted in the deaths and beatings.

“A historical marker cannot tell the whole story of what happened at the Algiers Motel in 1967, nor adjudicate past horrors and injustices,” historian Danielle McGuire said. “It can, however, begin the process of repair for survivors, victims’ families and community members through truth-telling.”

McGuire has spent years working with community members and the Michigan Historical Marker Commission to get a marker installed at the site.

“What we choose to remember — or forget — signals who and what we value as a community,” she said in a statement. “Initiatives that seek to remember incidents of state-sanctioned racial violence are affirmative statements about the value of Black lives then and now.”

Resentment among Detroit’s Blacks toward the city’s mostly-white police department had been simmering for years before the unrest. On July 23, 1967, it boiled over after a police raid on an illegal after-hours club about a dozen or so blocks from the Algiers.

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Five days of violence would leave about three dozen Black people and 10 white people dead and more than 1,400 buildings burned. More than 7,000 people were arrested.

The riot helped to hasten the flight of whites from the city to the suburbs. Detroit had about 1.8 million people in the 1950s. It was the nation’s fourth-biggest city in terms of population in 1960. A half-century later, about 713,000 people lived in Detroit.

The plummeting population devastated Detroit’s tax base. Many businesses also fled the city, following the white and Black middle class to more affluent suburban communities to the north, east and west.

Deep in long-term debt and with annual multi-million dollar budget deficits, the city fell under state financial control. A state-installed manager took Detroit into the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history in 2013. Detroit exited bankruptcy at the end of 2014.

Today, the city’s population stands at about 633,000, according to the U.S. Census.

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The Algiers, which was torn down in the late 1970s and is now a park, has been featured in documentaries about the Detroit riot. The 2017 film “Detroit” chronicled the 1967 riot and focused on the Algiers Motel incident.

“While we will acknowledge the history of the site, our main focus will be to honor and remember the victims and acknowledge the harms done to them,” McGuire said. “The past is unchangeable, but by telling the truth about history — even hard truths — we can help forge a future where this kind of violence is not repeated.”



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