Spenser Watkins pitches into sixth, but O's lose series finale

Only three Tigers got hits today off former Detroit farmhand and current O's right-hander Spenser Watkins. But his day was a mixed bag of a rough start and some late frustration as Detroit beat the Orioles 6-2 to level the four-game series at two wins each.

After he gave up three runs after getting the first two batters out in the last of the first, Watkins settled in nicely. He gave the O's a solid outing and retired 14 in a row from the end of the first into the sixth.

Watkins went 5 2/3 innings in the second-longest of his five big league starts. He allowed those three hits in 19 at-bats and gave up four runs. He walked two and fanned four, throwing 89 pitches, 56 for strikes.

But a call he did not get in the first inning hurt him as Detroit went on to score three runs. And, after the Orioles had taken a 2-0 lead in their half of the first, they were down 3-2 by the end of that inning.

After getting two groundouts to start his day, Watkins saw the count run full to Tigers right fielder Robbie Grossman. On the eighth pitch, Grossman took a four-seam fastball for ball four to extend the inning. Watkins thought he got a strikeout on the pitch that hit the outside corner high, but in the zone on the GameTracker box. But he didn't get the call and Grossman trotted to first. He then moved to second when Watkins walked Miguel Cabrera, who was 6-for-10 with two homers in the first three games of this series.

Third baseman Jeimer Candelario then hit a grounder up the first base line and the ball kicked off the glove of Trey Mancini into short right field for an RBI single that sent Cabrera to third. That was another chance to get out of the inning with no runs scoring, but it would have taken a premium defensive play by Mancini. Left fielder Eric Haase then added to Watkins' frustrations by hitting a two-run double to center for a 3-2 Tigers lead.

The Orioles had taken a 2-0 lead off Detroit lefty Tyler Alexander when they struck quickly to start the game. Within the game's first six pitches they had hit four balls with an exit velocity of triple digits and led 2-0.

Austin Hays doubled on the first pitch at 103 mph and Mancini flied out to the warning track on the second pitch. Ryan Mountcastle, who had three hits last night, boomed a 421-foot double to center to score Hays that produced an exit velocity of 103 mph and his 58th RBI. He scored on Anthony Santander's second-pitch double to center that was 106.5 off the bat and went 409 feet. That was a quick 2-0 lead.

But it would not hold up even an inning as Watkins didn't get the strikeout he thought he had earned and could not stop Detroit before they had taken the lead.

But man, did he settle in after that.

He retired the side in order in the second, third, fourth and fifth, needing 48 pitches to get those 12 outs.

Detroit added one against him in the sixth to lead 4-2 and there was more frustration. Grossman tripled with one out and Watkins got a mound meeting from pitching coach Chris Holt. Would they pitch around Cabrera? They may have been trying to, as Watkins threw four of the next five pitches out of the strike zone. But Cabrera took a pitch off the outside corner and skied it toward right field. It drifted foul but was caught by Santander. The throw home was late and Cabrera had an RBI on a sac fly. It could be that Watkins didn't get the pitch far enough away to not be hit. They didn't intentionally walk Cabrera and he was able to get bat on ball to produce a two-run lead for the Tigers.

Watkins did give the Orioles another outing that was nearly their seventh start of six innings or more in 15 games since the All-Star break. They got just 16 six-innings-or-more starts in 89 games in the first half. The rotation ERA in the second half was 4.82 for the Orioles coming into today and 3.55 over their previous 12 games.

Detroit added two runs off Conner Greene and Keegan Akin in the seventh to complete their scoring as they improved to 51-57 overall, and to 11-6 in the second half.

The Orioles failed to score after the first, so they split four in Detroit and now it's onto Yankee Stadium, where they lost two of three in the second series of the season in early April. On Monday night, right-hander Jorge López (2-12, 6.19 ERA) faces new Yankees lefty Andrew Heaney (6-7, 5.27 ERA).