Detroit Tigers avoid hit, stumble against Houston Astros

Houston — AJ Hinch was in no mood to give laurels for avoiding a no-hitter. No one in the Tigers clubhouse is looking for or accepting moral victories these days.

“We’re trying to win the game,” he said. “We’re trying to get guys on base and get back in the game.”

Hard to do when you don’t have a hit for seven innings.

The Tigers lost the series finale to the Houston Astros, 4-1 on Sunday, and were held hitless for seven innings by right-hander Ronel Blanco.

BOX SCORE: Astros 4, Tigers 1

MLB RANKINGS

But he was 94 on seven pitches and the Astros went to their bullpen. And with one out in the eighth, Wenceel Perez singled into center field off Ryan Pressly.

“As a hitter, you always want to break that no-hitter,” Perez said. “When I was in the box, it was like, ‘I have to break this no-hitter down here.’ They kept me out of gear the whole game, so I was prepared for that. And I know Pressly is going to use his rotation a lot, so I was ready.

The Tigers doubled their hit total in the top of the ninth off Josh Hader. Mark Canha singled and scored from first on a double by pinch hitter Andy Ibanez, who put an 0-1 lead on the scoreboard in left.

But for more than seven innings, they stared down the barrel of a negative story. This would have been the 15th time they found themselves on the wrong end of a no-hitter. The last one was on September 29, 2013, when Miami’s Henderson Alvarez shut them out.

“We fought,” Hinch said. “But we obviously couldn’t throw anything at him.”

Blanco has already gone hitless this year, against the Toronto Blue Jays in his first start of the season on April 1.

“He just kept hitting his spots and throwing a lot of different pitches,” Hinch said. “He’s been really good all year. He’s having kind of a breakout year. We knew we were going to have to try to create some pressure on him and throw some innings.

“But without a hit, it’s tough.”

The Tigers (34-37), who had 13 runs and 19 hits Saturday, drew three walks against him and had two outs in the fifth inning. But he asked Zach McKinstry to head to center to end the threat.

In the seventh, as Blanco’s pitch count topped 90, Gio Urshela got two outs on a throwing error by third baseman Alex Bregman.

Akil Baddoo followed with a 406-foot rocket to center field that Chas McCormick caught against the wall.

Astros manager Joe Espada felt Blanco was running on empty and moved to Pressly for the eighth.

“He mixed his pitches really well,” Perez said. “He’s a guy that fills that slot (of the strike zone). He throws, he throws, he throws and he has an angle to his arm that makes the ball come in on you a little bit.”

Blanco, who had eight strikeouts, put Tigers hitters in the proverbial rocking chair from the start with his four-seamer and 94 mph changeup. He mixed up just enough sliders to keep them from guessing 50-50.

The Tigers whiffed 15 times on 41 swings, eight on 15 changeups. They threw 24 called strikes, including 13 fastballs.

It was another laborious outing for Tigers starter Kenta Maeda. He needed 94 pitches to go through five innings. And he did it with a nice bruise on the back of his right leg.

At the end of the first inning, he was pierced with a comebacker from Jon Singleton. The ball was hit with an exit velocity of 86.7 mph. Maeda rushed to the ball and made the play, but he limped a bit as he returned to the dugout.

“It looked ugly and he looked like he was in a lot of pain,” Hinch said. “He recovered and played the game and when he came back he immediately started pleading his case to stay. I know it hurt, but I also knew it was a muscle so it was just a question of tolerance (to pain).

Maeda said, through interpreter Daichi Sekizaki: “Luckily the exit velocity wasn’t too high. But I definitely feel some pain, but it didn’t affect my throwing after this round. “

Order issues did it. Maeda made the fatal error in the second inning, walking No. 9 hitter McCormick with two outs. This brought the always dangerous José Altuve with two runners.

Maeda fell behind 3-0 then left a 3-1 cutter to the middle of the plate. Altuve sent it over the high wall in left center, his 11th homer of the season.

“It was a big mistake,” Maeda said. “You really want to get this guy out, the nine-hole hitter. That really set the tone of the game. Free passes mean everything. If I had gotten the nine-hole hitter out, I could start clean with Altuve in the next round.”

There have been some encouraging signs in this start for Maeda. His fastball velocity has increased almost 2 mph, sitting at 91 and reaching 93. He also has more spin and bite on his slider and splitter.

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