Tigers Stat of the Day: April 2021

MLB.com is keeping track of a Stat of the Day for the Tigers this season, highlighting a unique, interesting or fun nugget from each game.

April 30: Yankees 10, Tigers 0 -- Miggy at Yankee Stadium
Miguel Cabrera, needing one more hit to tie Babe Ruth for 45th on MLB's all-time list, went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts on Friday before being lifted for a pinch-hitter. Cabrera has hit 10 home runs at Yankee Stadium since it opened in 2009. It's one of nine Major League parks where he has hit double-digit homers in his career, joining Comerica Park (180), Dolphins Stadium (65), Guaranteed Rate Field (25), Progressive Field (24), Kauffman Stadium (17), Target Field (14), Camden Yards (11) and Turner Field (11).

April 29: White Sox 3, Tigers 1 (G1); White Sox 11, Tigers 0 (G2)
Casey Mize's six innings in the Tigers' 3-1 loss in Game 1 of the doubleheader marked Detroit's second six-inning complete game under the seven-inning doubleheader format. He joins Matthew Boyd, who tossed a six-inning complete game with two runs allowed and eight strikeouts in a 2-0 loss to the Twins last Sept. 4. The last Tiger to toss a complete game with fewer innings was Justin Verlander, who tossed five innings in a rain-shortened 4-1 loss to the Red Sox on July 31, 2012.

April 27: Tigers 5, White Sox 2 -- Overcoming adversity
The opener of a three-game series marked Detroit's first win despite committing five errors since July 8, 2007, when the Tigers defeated Boston, 6-5 (also five errors).

April 26: Royals 3, Tigers 2 -- Triple the fun at Comerica Park
Niko Goodrum and Akil Baddoo both tripled in Monday's 3-2 loss to the Royals, making the Tigers the fifth team in the Majors this season to hit multiple triples in a game. Baddoo's three triples are tied for the Major League lead, and make him the first Major Leaguer to triple three or more times within the first 17 games of his rookie season since David Dahl and Trea Turner both did so in 2016.

April 25: Royals 4, Tigers 0 -- Fulmer finds some heat
Michael Fulmer tossed three scoreless innings in his third start of the season while averaging around 95 mph with his fastball and sinker. For the season, his 95.3 average fastball velocity places him among the top 11 percent of Major League pitchers. His 93.1 mph fastball velocity last year was barely in the top half, ranking in the 53rd percentile. The 2.2 mph uptick is the seventh-highest in the Majors this year, as well as second on the team to Casey Mize's 2.7 mph fastball bump.

April 24: Royals 2, Tigers 1 -- Birthday blast for Willi Castro
Willi Castro celebrated his 24th birthday on Saturday with his first home run of the season, providing Detroit's only offense in the loss. It's the 41st time a Tiger has homered on his birthday, and the first since Miguel Cabrera on April 18, 2018, the day he turned 35. Castro is tied for the youngest to do it; Eric Munson (Oct. 3, 2001), Jason Thompson (July 6, 1978) and Rudy York (Aug. 17, 1937) all homered on the day they turned 24.

April 23: Royals 6, Tigers 2 -- No shortage of patience
Zack Short nearly homered for his first Major League hit on Friday, barely curling it foul down the left-field line, before he lined a single to left two pitches later. It capped an eight-pitch at-bat during which he escaped an 0-2 hole to work the count full, something he has done four times in seven at-bats in his brief Major League career. Through two big league games, Short has seen 48 pitches, including six full counts.

"I've been really working on that the last few years of my career," Short said. "I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I've gotten comfortable with two strikes, just kind of been there a bunch in my career, whether it's fouling pitches off or being patient."

April 22: Pirates 4, Tigers 2 -- Jones' noteworthy snag
JaCoby Jones added to his career highlight reel of catches at Comerica Park when he ran down Todd Frazier's 412-foot drive to deep center field. The 110.5 mph drive had an .890 expected batting average. Jones already has three catches of two stars or better this season, and has a plus-1 rating in Outs Above Average.

April 21: Tigers 5, Pirates 2 (G2) -- Turnbull is Mr. Efficient
Spencer Turnbull's five innings of one-run ball on 62 pitches marked the first time he completed five innings in less than 70 pitches in his career, and his first outing with five innings of one-run ball or better since Sept. 18, 2019, at Cleveland. He's the first MLB pitcher this season to toss five innings with one earned run or less in no more than 62 pitches. He's just the ninth pitcher in Tigers history to do that, the first being Jordan Zimmermann on July 29, 2019.

April 18: A's 3, Tigers 2 -- Boyd's homerless streak ends
Sean Murphy's eighth-inning home run Sunday was the first that Matthew Boyd had allowed this season, ending a streak of 101 homerless batters to begin the year. He briefly passed Clayton Kershaw, who has gone 98 batters without a homer allowed this year, for the longest such stretch among MLB starters. Boyd led AL pitchers with 15 home runs allowed last year and 39 in 2019.

April 17: A's 7, Tigers 0 -- A historic shutout
The Tigers suffered back-to-back shutouts against the A's for the first time since June 9-10, 1973. Ken Holtzman tossed a two-hitter against them at the Coliseum, followed by a three-hitter from Catfish Hunter. Oakland won its second consecutive World Series later that season, but Detroit won seven of 12 against them, one of just two teams to win their season series.

April 16: A's 3, Tigers 0 -- Ureña's career night
José Ureña was looking to turn over a new leaf after a rough couple of starts to open the season. In a pitchers' duel against Frankie Montas, Ureña struck out a career-high eight batters in his first quality start since June 2019.

April 15: A's 8, Tigers 4 -- Raking on the road
Entering this game, the Tigers had scored six or more runs in three consecutive road games for the first time since Sept. 18-22, 2016. They then tallied four runs on nine hits, including Niko Goodrum's first home run of the season, in the opener in Oakland.

April 14: Tigers 6, Astros 4 -- Baddoo's best
Akil Baddoo opened the scoring vs. Houston with a second-inning double to drive in Renato Núñez. Baddoo has driven in a run in seven of his first nine Major League games, tying a franchise record set by Dale Alexander in 1929. Alexander drove in 137 runs as a 26-year-old rookie that year.

April 13: Tigers 8, Astros 2 -- Baddoo continues to rake
Akil Baddoo is the first Tiger to homer four times within his first eight Major League games, according to Elias Sports Bureau. He's also the first Major Leaguer to post four home runs and 10 RBIs in his first eight games since Seattle's Kyle Lewis in September 2019. Baddoo's 1.043 slugging percentage is the highest in American League history for a player in his first eight career games, according to STATS.

April 12: Tigers, 6, Astros 2 -- Rookie’s rocket
Among the three home runs the Tigers hit off Zack Greinke was a 450-foot drive to center field from Rule 5 Draft pick Akil Baddoo, his third home run in nine days. That's the longest home run by a Tigers rookie in the Statcast era (since 2015) and tied for the seventh-longest homer by a Major League rookie since the start of last season.

April 11: Indians 5, Tigers 2 -- Ramos providing offensive punch behind plate
Wilson Ramos' home run Sunday in Cleveland marked his third consecutive game with a homer. He's the first Tiger to homer in three consecutive games since Jonathan Schoop did it July 28-30 last year, and he is the first Tigers catcher to do it since Alex Avila from May 30 to June 6, 2017.

April 10: Indians 11, Tigers 3 -- Lange makes MLB debut
Alex Lange made his Major League debut for the Tigers with a perfect inning of relief. The former All-American at Louisiana State University became the 78th player from the school to make it to the Majors, and the 20th big leaguer to have played for Paul Mainieri, the head coach of the LSU Tigers. Five of those 20 -- Lange, JaCoby Jones, Mikie Mahtook, Louis Coleman and Charlie Furbush -- have played for the Tigers under general manager Al Avila, who was an assistant coach under Mainieri at St. Thomas University in Miami in 1988.

April 9: Indians 4, Tigers 1 -- Baddoo hitless in 3 appearances
Tigers outfielder Akil Baddoo wasn't living the dream on Friday against the Indians. He went 0-for-2, but drew a hard-fought walk in the eighth inning of the series opener at Progressive Field. He was down, 0-2, in the count against right-hander Bryan Shaw, but Baddoo managed to work out a walk on six pitches. However, he was left stranded at first base.

April 7: Twins 3, Tigers 2 -- Castro puts exit velocity on display
Willi Castro's sixth career three-hit game Wednesday included two singles with an exit velocity of 107.6 mph and another at 110.8 mph. Add in a fly-ball out at 103.6 mph, and Castro's average exit velocity of 107.4 mph was the highest by a Tiger with at least three hits in a game since J.D. Martinez averaged 109.7 mph in four plate appearances against the Red Sox on June 9, 2017.

April 6: Tigers 4, Twins 3 (10 innings) -- Baddoo makes history
On Tuesday, Akil Baddoo became the first player in baseball's modern era (since 1900) to hit two home runs, including a grand slam, and a walk-off hit within his first three Major League games. He's also the first Tiger to record a walk-off hit within his first three career games since Gabe Alvarez singled off Cubs reliever Dave Stevens on June 24, 1998.

April 5: Twins 15, Tigers 6 -- Soto brings the (really) high heat
Reliever Gregory Soto's first pitch of Monday's 15-6 loss to the Twins sailed over catcher Wilson Ramos' head and would've cleared the backstop if not for the netting. According to Statcast, the 97 mph sinker to Miguel Sanó was tracked at 9.21 feet high, making it the fifth-highest pitch of the pitch-tracking era since 2008.

April 4: Indians 9, Tigers 3 -- Mazara's home run makes a statement
Nomar Mazara hit his first home run as a Tiger on Sunday, sending an Aaron Civale pitch into the right-field seats for a two-run homer with a 105.4 mph exit velocity. Mazara not only matched his 2020 home run total with the White Sox, he topped 105 mph on a ball in play for the second time this season, an exit velocity he reached just eight times in '20.

April 3: Tigers 5, Indians 2 -- Grossman tallies six walks in first two games
Robbie Grossman followed up his three-walk effort on Opening Day with three more walks Saturday. His six walks through two games are the most by a Tiger to start a season since Jo-Jo White in 1935. He's the first Major Leaguer to draw six walks in his first two games since Freddie Freeman in 2018, and the first MLB leadoff hitter to do it since Cleveland's Vic Davalillo in 1977.

April 1: Tigers 3, Indians 2 -- Cabrera slugs career homer No. 488
Miguel Cabrera’s home run off Shane Bieber was his third career Opening Day homer, but his first since 2008, which was his first game as a Tiger. Cabrera was 2-for-12 with four strikeouts for his career off Bieber, who became the 336th Major League pitcher to allow a Cabrera home run. Bieber is also the fourth Cleveland Cy Young Award winner to do so, joining Corey Kluber (six), CC Sabathia (two) and Cliff Lee (one).

“Miggy’s gonna Miggy, you know? He’s a hell of a hitter,” Bieber said. “It is what it is. A lot more games to be played, a lot more starts to be had.”

Cabrera’s 488th career homer moves him to within five of Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff for 28th on MLB’s all-time list. It was also his 350th home run as a Tiger, and he joined the late Al Kaline and Norm Cash as the only players with 350 homers in a Detroit uniform.