Detroit Tigers’ James McCann hits walk-off HR to beat Houston

Two of the top three teams in the American League duked it out on Thursday as the fiery Houston Astros rolled into Detroit to take on the Tigers, with Detroit ultimately walking away victorious. It was an exciting win, but certainly not an easy one. But with the combined efforts of the team, most notably David Price, Alex Wilson, Yoenis Cespedes, and of course, James McCann.

After having a 5-0 lead in the sixth inning, the Detroit Tigers watched their lead dwindle away as the Astros stormed back to make things 5-4 heading into the ninth inning. With their one-run lead heading into 9th inning, Joakim Soria had the chance to shut the door but surrendered a 1-run HR to Preston Tucker, the rookie’s first major league HR of his career.

After eleven innings of play, the rookie backstop James McCann smacked a walk-off HR off of reliever Tony Sipp to give the Tigers the win.

Detroit sent their ace David Price to the mound while Scott Feldman started for Houston. Price was absolutely spectacular while Feldman also turned in a decent start but it just wasn’t enough.

Price’s Final Line: 6.2 IP, 2 ER, 12 K’s

Feldman’s Final Line: 6.0 IP, 4 ER, 2 K’s

Cespedes: 3-for-3, 2 runs, 2 BB

Alex Wilson’s Final Line: 2.0 IP, 1 hit, Win

Price (3-1) was a magician on the mound, retiring Houston hitters 1-2-3 four times in a row at one point.

Detroit’s offense had a tedious start as they did not score until the fourth inning. Nick Castellanos, fresh off of a big game against the Milwaukee Brewers, clubbed a 2-run HR off of Feldman to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. Two more runs were tacked on in the 5th inning after James McCann scored on a fielder’s choice and Miguel Cabrera knocked in Andrew Romine to give Detroit a four-run lead.

The Tigers were cruising all the way though the sixth inning as Yoenis Cespedes scored his second run of the day off of a Rajai Davis double.

Then things got a little rocky for the pride of the Motor City, says James Schmehl:

Houston scores three times on four hits, including a single from Springer, RBI triple by Evan Gattis and back-to-back singles aided by a Andrew Romine throwing error.

It was at this point Price exited and Blaine Hardy took the reigns, surrendering a single to Luis Valbuena. Just a few batters later Joba Chamberlain allowed a RBI double to George Springer. The Astros were now down one run with the game sitting at 5-4 for Detroit.

Soria came in to shut it down but gave up the Hr to Tucker as mentioned earlier.

It remained tied 5-5 until the 11th inning when McCann won it with a walk-off HR off of Tony Sipp.

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