The Fourth of July fireworks from Keith looked pretty, but a deluge of runs, and then an actual deluge, left the Tigers with an ugly 12-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins in Thursday’s finale of the three-game series at Target Field, all because right-hander Kenta Maeda struggled again.
“I feel bad,” Maeda said in Japanese, though interpreter Daichi Sekizaki. “I feel like I let the team down.
I think that was the result of my body language.”
Maeda had already been tagged for multiple runs when the rain started falling in Minneapolis, but the umpires kept the game going into the seventh inning.
Eventually, the umpires stopped play, and after a brief rain delay, the game was called with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
With Thursday’s loss, the Tigers (39-48) have dropped seven of their past eight series.
Also, the Tigers haven’t won two games in a row since winning three in a row from June 2-4. Since then, they’ve lost 18 of 26 games.
Maeda signed a two-year, $24 million contract with the Tigers, owed $14 million in 2024 and $10 million in 2025.
President of baseball operations Scott Harris expected Maeda to help the young pitchers learn to command their pitches.
“We’ve got to find the command again,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “With Kenta, it begins and ends with command.
The way he’s effective is dominating the strike zone. It’s not falling behind and getting into bad counts and missing middle.
We need to sort out his command for him to be the pitcher he can be.”
