Pirates drop third in a row, fall to Tigers as Javier Báez homers twice
DETROIT — Javier Báez hit two of the Detroit Tigers' four home runs in a 7-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night.
Báez hit solo homers in the fifth and seventh innings on the day he reached 10 years of major league service. Wenceel Pérez and Riley Greene also homered for Detroit.
Casey Mize (7-2) got the win, allowing three runs — two earned — on five hits in six innings. He struck out four without walking a batter.
Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead in the second when Spencer Horwitz singled and scored on Adam Frazier's groundout, but the Tigers scored twice in the bottom of the inning on Pérez's homer.
Alexander Canario's two-run single put the Pirates back in front 3-2 in the third, but Báez tied the game with a homer in the fifth. Canario replaced Bryan Reynolds in right field in the second inning after his wife went into labor.
Pérez gave the Tigers a 4-3 lead with an RBI triple in the sixth, and Báez made it a two-run game with a leadoff homer in the seventh. Greene hit a 436-foot home run to right later in the inning, making it 7-3.
Carmen Mlodzinski (1-5) allowed four runs in two innings of relief.
After Pérez’s third-inning homer, the Tigers put runners on the corners with one out, but Bailey Falter got Parker Meadows to pop out before striking out Gleyber Torres to end the inning.
Detroit ace Tarik Skubal (7-2, 1.99 ERA) faces LHP Andrew Heaney (3-5, 3.33) in Game 2 Wednesday night.
