The Tigers didn’t start things off too badly on Sunday afternoon, though Jordan Zimmermann didn’t look quite right off the hop, using almost 30 pitches in the first inning, including an RBI single to Eddie Rosario, and an RBI groundout to CJ Cron.
Things evened up quickly in the top of the second with a two-run tying shot from Gordon Beckham, filling in at second for Josh Harrison who was benched for the day with neck tightness.
There were few areas of positivity to note early on, outside the Beckham home run, but the key one was Ronny Rodriguez, who arrived at the park with hardly any time to spare ahead of the game, and then proceeded to make it seem like he was born to be in a major league roster with both a hit and a walk on his scorecard for the day.