Colt Keith, Javier Báez break through as Tigers salvage series finale vs. Astros

HOUSTON — It was a rugged way to end a glorious month of baseball for the Detroit Tigers and maybe that's fitting for this baseball team.

Like last year, if it ain't rough, it ain't right.

"This was important," said veteran reliever Tommy Kahnle, who got the final four outs Wednesday in the Tigers' series-salvaging 7-4 win over the Houston Astros at Daikin Park. "After losing the first two games in kind of disheartening fashion where we had the lead twice and it didn't go our way, to win today was huge."

It was huge win collectively for the Tigers in historical teams, first of all. It was their 19th of the season and 18th in April. That ties the franchise record for wins in April set by the world championship team in 1984.

"Anytime you get mentioned with the '84 team, that's awesome," said manager AJ Hinch, who rarely steps outside the win-today prism. "That's fun and it's a great note. Also it sets us off on a good start to the season. But it's the first month and you need to win a lot of games to as good a team as we want to be.

"Our team has confidence and we are going to get healthier. I am proud of what we're doing and how we're doing it."

The win Wednesday was also huge for a few players, individually.

Zeroes in the home run column can start to loom large in a hitter’s mind the longer they linger on the scoreboard and a couple of Tigers players got those goose eggs off their ledger.

Colt Keith hadn’t homered since Sept. 16 and came into the game riding a 3 for 26 skid. He got the Tigers going in the second inning, swatting a 92-mph sinker from rookie AJ Blubaugh. The two-run homer flew 406 feet into the second deck in right field.

"It was really good to get back in the positive column for the team," Keith said. "It's been a while since I hit a homer, so it feels really good. I've just kept coming to the field and putting out good effort and saw something click today that hopefully I can keep it going."

The blast was a well-timed counter to Jeremy Pena's leadoff homer in the first inning.

"For Pena to get that first pitch was definitely a punch in the mouth for us," Keith said. "But we're two good teams that both try to do that, both try to get out front early. A game between us and them is not going to be decided in the first inning."

He was dead right about that.

Javier Báez completely ruined Blubaugh’s big-league debut in the third inning. With two outs, he lofted a hanging slider into the Crawford boxes in left. His first homer since Aug. 15 was a grand slam that capped a five-run inning.

"It's about the quality of at-bat," Hinch said of Baez's blast and the fact he's hitting .296 with a .744 OPS this season. "I know everyone is searching for him to do it a certain way. But if we can just stay with the quality, this will be the byproduct. He will start to drive the ball. He's been hitting it pretty hard lately.

"If we can just keep the focus on the quality of at-bat, then we will see where the power numbers end up."

After losing leads of 3-0 and 2-0 in the first two games, the Tigers might've breathed a little easier with a 7-1 lead after three innings.

Except the Astros kept putting runners on base and chipping away. Tigers' pitching helped facilitate that with seven walks. When the dust settled, Tigers pitching stranded 12 of the 16 runners Houston put on base.

"It wasn't pretty," Hinch said. "It wasn't a great series for us. But we salvaged a win and now we get on to the next one."

Rookie Jackson Jobe, making his first start in 12 days, had four of those walks on his ledger and didn't survive the fifth inning.

"I think I pitched pretty well aside from the walks," Jobe said. "I felt like my stuff was good. Everything felt good. Just the walks — I'd rather not do that."

The Tigers didn’t intend for Jobe to miss two turns in the rotation. One would’ve served the purpose, which was simply to seek every opportunity to give him extra days between starts to ensure he gets through his rookie season without drastic restrictions later in the year.

But Mother Nature intervened with a rainout, and it ended up being 12 days between starts for Jobe.

And, as these things tend to go, his first pitch of the game ended up in the seats. Pena launched a 98-mph heater into the Crawford boxes in left. But Jobe didn’t ruffle. He got the next three hitters and put up zeroes in the second, third and fourth innings.

No rust was evident. But fatigue was, especially in the fifth.

"I don't want to make an excuse and say that's why (he walked four)," Jobe said. "There is an aspect of me being a bit tired, more tired than usual toward the end. That maybe had something to do with the time off. But I had two full counts (in the fifth) and didn't execute. Tried to be too perfect.

"These are all things within my control. I can do better and make that adjustment."

The severe right-handedness of the Astros' lineup forced Hinch to lean heavy on his right-handed relievers in this series. And on Wednesday, Will Vest and Chase Lee were not available. So after Jobe gave up two-run double to Jose Altuve in the fifth, he turned again to Brenan Hanifee.

Things got dicey. Hanifee loaded the bases with one out. But he struck out rookie Cam Smith looking at a sinker and got Brendan Rodgers to bounce out to third. Jace Jung made a superb play, charging the slow bouncer and making a strong throw on the run to first base.

"What I take away from this win is, we had the biggest swing of the day with Javy and a lot of the biggest outs from a lot of pitchers," Hinch said.

Lefty Tyler Holton gave up a solo homer to Victor Caratini in the seventh and stranded two before ending the inning. He got the first two outs in the eighth before walking Altuve. Hinch then summoned Kahnle who, after walking Isaac Paredes and bringing the tying run to the plate, punched out Christian Walker to end the threat.

"This has been a huge collective effort, getting all these wins," said Kahnle, who picked up his fifth save. "Overall, we do the right things and it stems from AJ and trickles down to each guy just every day going to work and getting better and staying consistent. We've a great job of that and if we keep it going, we're going to see bright things."

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