Detroit Tigers fall apart after three home runs off Spencer Strider in 10-7 loss to Braves

For the first time, Detroit Tigers veteran Miguel Cabrera put the Detroit Red Wings' helmet on his head upon entering the dugout. He strutted through the dugout, grabbed the hockey stick and shot a puck into the mini-net.

The 40-year-old capped off his team's home run celebration with an unforeseen twist when he used the hockey stick to emulate putting a sword into a sheath on his hip. It was Cabrera's first homer of the 2023 season.

In the first two innings of Game 1 of Wednesday's doubleheader at Comerica Park, the Tigers hit three home runs and scored four runs off right-hander Spencer Strider, one of the best pitchers in baseball. But the Tigers squandered the rare homers in a 10-7 loss to the Atlanta Braves.

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Right-hander Reese Olson — opposing Strider — cruised through the first two innings before surrendering seven runs (six earned runs) in the third and fourth innings. Left fielder Kerry Carpenter and third baseman Nick Maton were responsible for fielding errors in the fourth.

In the third, Ronald Acuña Jr. launched his 14th home run, a two-run shot, to cut the Tigers' lead to 4-2. He hammered a two-strike down-and-away slider for a 429-foot homer to center field.

The Tigers (27-38) fell apart in the fourth.

After a strikeout, Olson walked back-to-back batters before the fielding errors helped the Braves.

On Orlando Arcia's RBI single, runners advanced into scoring position because of Carpenter's fielding error in left field. The next batter, Kevin Pillar, reached safely on Maton's fielding error at third base as another run scored to even the score.

Michael Harris II then drove in Arcia and Pillar, putting the Braves ahead 6-4 with a one-out, two-run double to right. The double chased Olson from his third appearance in the big leagues after 89 pitches.

Left-handed reliever Tyler Holton replaced Olson and immediately surrendered an RBI single to Acuña, making it a 7-4 lead for the Braves. He escaped further damage with an inning-ending double play.

Olson allowed five hits and two walks with two strikeouts, throwing 57 of 89 pitches for strikes. He generated four whiffs — zero whiffs with his four-seam fastball — and 14 called strikes.

Three home runs vs. Spencer Strider

Before the collapse, the Tigers took a 4-0 advantage over the Braves.

Spencer Torkelson opened the scoring with a 436-foot home run to left-center field in the first inning. Strider — the runner-up for National League Rookie of the Year last season (to Harris, his teammate) — threw an up-and-in fastball in the middle part of the strike zone.

It was Torkelson's seventh homer of the season and his second homer in the past two games.

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In the second inning, Cabrera and Eric Haase launched back-to-back home runs off fastballs from Strider.

All three home runs traveled more than 400 feet: Torkelson at 436 feet to left-center, Cabrera at 406 feet to left-center and Haase at 427 feet to center. Cabrera's swing produced a 105.7 mph exit velocity.

Cabrera's home run made him the fifth 40-year-old to hit a homer for the Tigers. He joined Norm Cash, Doc Cramer, Darrell Evans and Bobby Lowe. Cabrera finished 3-for-5 in Game 1 of the doubleheader — a triple shy of the cycle thanks to a ninth-inning double — and is hitting .478 (11-for-23) with six extra-base hits in his past seven games.

Cabrera has 508 homers in his Hall of Fame-caliber career.

The Tigers scored their fifth run off Strider on a wild pitch in the fifth. Strider then struck out Andy Ibáñez to strand two runners in scoring position. He allowed five runs on seven hits and two walks with six strikeouts in five innings, throwing 59 of 94 pitches for strikes.

Strider generated 17 whiffs.

In the eighth inning, the Tigers trimmed the deficit to 10-6 with Zach McKinstry's RBI single. Matt Vierling, who entered as a pinch-hitter earlier in the game, struck out swinging to strand the bases loaded.

The Tigers cut their deficit to 10-7 in the ninth inning against right-handed reliever Raisel Iglesias with Ibáñez's single, Cabrera's ground-rule double and Haase's RBI single. Pinch-hitter Jonathan Schoop grounded out to end the game.

Making his MLB debut

Trailing 7-5 in the sixth, the Tigers called right-handed reliever Brendan White — a 26th-round pick (No. 772 overall) in the 2019 draft out of Siena College — out of the bullpen to make his MLB debut.

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The 24-year-old struck out Albies, the first batter he faced, with a 95.8 mph fastball. He retired the Braves in order in the sixth with a pair of strikeouts. When he returned for the seventh, though, the Braves were ready for him.

Harris, a left-handed hitter who has been red-hot in his past seven games, attacked White's fifth-pitch slider for a 360-foot home run to left-center. The homer pushed the Braves' lead to 8-5.

After a homer and a single, White retired three straight batters to complete his second inning of work.

Right-handed reliever Braden Bristo, added to the roster for the doubleheader as the 27th player, pitched the eighth and ninth. He gave up two runs in the eighth, making it 10-5 Braves. Center fielder Jake Marisnick robbed Matt Olson of a home run in the ninth.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers waste big hits early in 10-7 loss to Atlanta Braves