Three lessons learned on Tigers' road trip

For one inning, Matthew Boyd -- who led the American League in home runs allowed in 2019 and 2020 -- was the stingiest pitcher of 2021 in keeping the ball in the park. When the left-hander sent a fastball past A's third baseman Matt Chapman to end the seventh inning on Sunday, he had faced his 101st batter of the young season without allowing a home run, three more than Clayton Kershaw. After two seasons of having to tip his cap, Boyd deserved one himself.

He needed all of those outs to keep the Tigers in a low-scoring duel and protect a slim lead built an inning earlier on Harold Castro's two-run single. But when A's catcher Sean Murphy tagged a fastball and sent it over the left-center-field fence to lead off the eighth, not only was Boyd’s homerless streak gone, so was Detroit’s lead.

When the Tigers struggle to score runs, their margin for wins is slim, a splinter's width that haunted them again when Victor Reyes lost Matt Olson’s fly ball in the sun with one out in the ninth. Three batters later, Mitch Moreland's ground ball scooted past Jeimer Candelario at third base for an error, scoring Olson and sending the Tigers to a 3-2 loss, a four-game series sweep and a 3-7 road trip.

“Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong in this four-game series,” manager A.J. Hinch summed up after Sunday's game.

Reyes battled the sun all afternoon in center, falling over to catch a Tony Kemp fly ball in the sixth inning before never really locating Olson’s ball in the ninth. Robbie Grossman was deked by center fielder Ramón Laureano on Willi Castro’s first-inning blooper, turning a potential bases-loaded, no-out opportunity into a fielder’s choice at third base. The Tigers would not score in the inning.

Detroit's 10-game, three-city trip felt like three different treks. The team was swept on the bookends, scoring six runs over three games in Cleveland and six runs over four games in Oakland, but scored at least six runs in all three games in Houston to sweep the Astros.

Here’s what we learned about the Tigers on their journey:

1) This offense is streaky
It’s not just Akil Baddoo, who went 0-for-11 with eight strikeouts in Oakland after going 5-for-10 with two homers and four RBIs in Houston. Several Tigers slugged in Minute Maid Park but went quiet elsewhere. Renato Núñez, who hit two homers, a double and collected three RBIs in Houston, went 1-for-12 in Oakland.

Wilson Ramos, who briefly led the Majors in homers following two in Cleveland and a two-homer game in Houston, went 2-for-15 with no extra-base hits and four strikeouts in Oakland. Willi Castro went 3-for-21 with six strikeouts in Cleveland and Houston, but regrouped for four hits in Oakland.

For the season, Detroit has scored 30 of its 55 runs on homers, including 12 of 18 runs in Houston. The Tigers’ lone homer in Oakland was Niko Goodrum’s solo shot to center in Thursday’s opener.

2) Boyd is stepping into role atop rotation
Hinch cringes at titles, but through three-plus turns, Boyd is by far Detroit’s most consistent starter. He became the first on the team to pitch into the eighth inning Sunday, a week and a half after becoming the first Tiger to pitch seven innings. He needed just 94 pitches for 7 1/3 innings Sunday, including first-pitch strikes to 20 of 27 batters. The high-strikeout, high-damage pattern he fell into the previous year and a half has evolved for more outs on contact thanks to an effective changeup added to his fastball-slider mix, including 22 changeups Sunday.

“It definitely played a huge role,” Boyd said Sunday. “Slider felt good today, but it was just moving more than it has been, and I just wasn’t accounting for that. So we just went with a changeup and curveball as situations dictated, and it worked out well.”

With a 2.03 ERA, Boyd is on the best four-start run of his career.

“When you hand the ball to a guy to start the day, you ask him to set the tone, you ask him to pitch well and deep into the game,” Hinch said. “He’s checking every one of those boxes in every game he’s pitched so far. I’m proud of him for what he’s doing on a game-by-game basis."

3) Bullpen has been a wild ride
Considering that the Tigers have more talent than experience in a relief corps that went into the season with just six career saves, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the performance has been so varied, Sunday’s hard luck for Soto aside. The Astros produced late off Detroit’s bullpen in all three games, culminating in a wild ninth inning Wednesday that required three relievers before Bryan Garcia salvaged a save from a bases-loaded, no-out jam. Yet José Cisnero, whose command woes set up that finish, struck out both batters he faced Sunday to keep the game tied in the eighth.

The longer Tigers starters go, the easier it’ll be for Hinch to mix and match late as he works without a set closer.