Tigers-Red Sox delayed because of lightning in top of the 8th
Detroit — Nothing but storm clouds. The first one the Tigers dealt with Monday wasn’t atmospheric. It was announced before the game that ace Tarik Skubal was placed on the 15-day injured list with loose bodies in his elbow.
He will undergo a surgical procedure to have them removed. The second one was atmospheric. The start time was pushed up 30 minutes because a fierce storm was in the forecast for later in the evening, and it felt like more like a race to beat the rain than a timeless game of baseball.
One pitch into the eighth inning, after a particularly close-feeling bolt of lightning, crew chief Dan Iassogna called for the tarp. The Red Sox were up 5-2. The crowd was asked to move to the concourse as the Tigers came to bat in the bottom of the sixth with the game still scoreless.
The Tigers, though, broke through, in a manner of speaking, in that half-inning against Red Sox lefty Payton Tolle, who had set down the first 12 hitters in the game and would allow just one hit through seven impressive innings. He hit Colt Keith to start the inning and walked Jahmai Jones with one out. Then the Boston defense imploded.
A throwing error by catcher Carlos Narvaez advanced the runners to second and third. Matt Vierling hit a broken-bat ground ball to third, the bat and the ball hurtling toward Andruw Monasterio. Falling backward, Monasterio’s throw to the plate skipped past Narvaez.