The Tigers rolled into Baltimore having lost eleven of their last twelve games, hoping that a three-game series against the team with the worst record in the major leagues would help to put an end to their losing ways. The Tigers sent Daniel Norris to the mound against the Orioles’ Gabriel Ynoa. The Memorial Day contest featured a match up between the two teams with the largest negative run differential, and with more implications for the 2020 June draft than it had for the 2019 season.
Both teams displayed poor defense in the opening frame, with Keon Buxton dropping an easy pop fly to center field off the bat of Christin Stewart, and Norris throwing the ball into right field after a bunt single.