Today’s Detroit Tigers game was significantly less fun than the first series

DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers were fun to watch in their first series against the Cleveland Indians. On Monday, their game against the Minnesota Twins was straight up not a good time.

If you were a little late tuning in after the rain delay, you already found the Tigers down a run.

Jose Urena gave up a single, a wild pitch and then another single, which was capped by an error that allowed a runner to score from third. It was about as bad as a two-batter span gets, but unfortunately, that was just the beginning.

Stories you should read instead of thinking about today’s game:

• Most obvious takeaway from Tigers’ series win over Cleveland: Better at-bats
• Tigers phenom Akil Baddoo crushes homer on first career MLB pitch
• Miguel Cabrera hits home run through snow, slides into second base in first at-bat of 2021

In the second inning, Urena walked three batters, including No. 9 hitter Andrelton Simmons and Luis Arraez, who had injured himself earlier in the at-bat and wasn’t anxious to swing. The next batter hit an easy ground ball toward second base, but Urena reached out and deflected it with his glove, knocking it away from Niko Goodrum and turning it into an RBI single.

That only allowed one run to score, but then, Tigers nemesis Nelson Cruz blasted a grand slam to make it 6-0, and that was that (in terms of competitiveness, at least).

The Twins certainly were not done. They added five more runs off of Buck Farmer and Derek Holland in the fifth inning to make it 11-0. One of those runs was another Cruz bomb. He also hit a double. Nelson, can you just retire, already?

Minnesota scored some more runs later, too, but nobody really cared at that point.

Meanwhile, the Tigers lineup was shut down for a second-straight game, this time by Matt Shoemaker, who is a Trenton High School graduate and notoriously owns the Tigers.

Robbie Grossman did not draw a walk. Jeimer Candelario and Willi Castro made quiet outs. AKIL BADDOO hit a GRAND SLAM and it STILL couldn’t save this game!

It was decidedly less fun than the entire Cleveland series. This pitch sums it up pretty nicely:

Harold Castro pitched a scoreless inning. That was funny. Wilson Ramos and Victor Reyes also hit home runs. That was cool.

But overall, Between Urena’s disastrous debut, the quiet offense and an overall lack of competitiveness, it was a forgettable afternoon for the Tigers.

They’ll return to the field Tuesday for a rematch. At the very least, Tigers fans will get to see Casey Mize make his season debut.