Dose of Venom: Tigers’ bats doom D-backs in series finale

PHOENIX – The Arizona Diamondbacks did not quit.

But ultimately, they did not have enough, losing to the Detroit Tigers Wednesday by a score of 11-5, costing them the series and dropping their record to 44-58 on the season.

Things got off to a rocky beginning for starting pitcher Trevor Cahill and Arizona, as the D-backs fell behind 2-0 in the second inning. Two innings later the wheels came off for the right-hander.

Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and Don Kelly all singled to start the frame. Cabrera would score on Alex Avila’s sacrifice fly, but from there is when it all fell apart.

Andrew Romine hit a grounder to Aaron Hill, but the second baseman booted the ball and appeared to recover in time to at least get the out at first. However, the Tigers challenged umpire Jim Reynolds’ ruling, and upon review Romaine was ruled safe, leaving the bases loaded for pitcher Anibal Sanchez.

Cahill rebounded to strike out his counterpart, but Austin Jackson cleared the bases with a double to left past a diving Mark Trumbo, and after Rajai Davis knocked Jackson in with a single to put Detroit up 7-0, the damage was done.

“It kind of took a little high hop on him, and with the pitcher coming up and then the top of the order,” Cahill said about Hill’s error, “I had some success against them already, I felt like I could have got out of it. Still, looking back, I feel like I should have picked him up and escaped the inning with just that one run.”

The fourth inning would be Cahill’s last, as the pitcher was pulled after allowing eight hits and seven runs — three earned — while striking out three and walking none.

Down by seven runs at the time, it appeared like the D-backs may have been done, but not quite.

Back-to-back doubles from Gerardo Parra and Martin Prado got Arizona on the board in the fifth, with Prado coming around to score on Didi Gregorius’ third home run of the season. The D-backs added another run in the sixth when a Parra single knocked in Paul Goldschmidt, and the game got real close the following inning when David Peralta plated Gregorius to bring the D-backs to within 7-5. They had runners on first and second with no outs, but Aaron Hill flew out to center and then, after Tigers manager Brad Ausmus went to Joba Chamberlain in relief of starter Anibal Sanchez, Goldschmidt grounded into a double play to end the threat.

The D-backs would get no closer, with Cabrera’s three-run home run off the foul pole in left field highlighting a four-run outburst off from Detroit that put the game away in the eighth. All four runs came against D-backs rookie Matt Stites, who began the inning by getting a pair of strikeouts before things began to unravel, culminating with Cabrera’s 15th blast of the year.

“I threw a good pitch 2-2, he didn’t swing on the slider,” Stites said of the Cabrera at-bat. “And then I went back to the fastball. Went with the changeup there, probably — I was talking to (pitching coach Mike Harkey) about this — my third-best pitch, and he says you don’t want to get beat with your third-best pitch.

“That’s what happened, I agree with him, and we won’t do that again.”

The Good

Though the D-backs got themselves in a deep hole, they battled back to the point where the go-ahead run was at the plate in the seventh inning.

Gerardo Parra had three hits — including one double — while driving in one run.

Gregorius’ third home run of the season landed in the pool.

D-backs pitchers Cahill, Eury De La Rosa, Stites and Oliver Perez combined to strike out 12 Detroit hitters.

Cahill did not allow a walk in a start for the first time all season.

The Bad

Hill’s fifth error of the season led to four unearned runs off Cahill.

Mark Trumbo, still working his way back into form, was the only D-back position player not to record at least one hit. He went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, dropping his batting average to .191 on the season.

The D-backs grounded into three double plays. Martin Prado was responsible for one of them, giving him 16 this season.

Stat of the Game

Both teams finished the game with 13 hits.

He said it:

“We come every day with the will to win so even when we’re down we’re going to find a way to get things going in our way. Today didn’t go our way, but hopefully next series we’ll do better than we did in this one.” – D-backs shortstop Didi Gregorius on the team not quitting when getting down early.

Noted

• The loss dropped the D-backs’ post-All-Star break record to 4-2, and evened their season record to 13-13 when the Chase Field roof is closed.

• Arizona is now 5-7 this season in interleague play, having faced off against the Chicago White Sox, Houston Astros, Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers.

Up next

The D-backs have Thursday off before beginning a road series in Philadelphia with the Phillies. Lefty Wade Miley (6-6, 4.16 ERA) will get the nod for the D-backs, and he’ll be opposed by Kyle Kendrick (4-10, 4.87 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. and the action can be heard on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

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