- The Detroit Tigers lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-3, on Saturday night.
- It’s the third straight loss to open the season for the Tigers.
- The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the first inning off a wild Roki Sasaki, but couldn’t hold on.
The Detroit Tigers continue to search for their first win in the 2025 season.
They were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers — the reigning World Series champions — in the first three games of the new season at Dodger Stadium, capped by Saturday’s 7-3 loss. (The Tigers won two of three games against the Dodgers in the 2024 season, all at Comerica Park.)
The Tigers (0-3) went 4-for-32 with runners in scoring position in the three-game series, all while the Dodgers hit three home runs in each of the three games.
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Although the Tigers were tough to beat in the first two games, the finale wasn’t competitive.
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In Saturday’s loss, the Tigers grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
Dodgers right-hander Rōki Sasaki has elite individual pitches, but he needs to clean up his command, as exemplified by his nine walks across 4⅔ inning in the first two starts of his MLB career. His command issues were on display in the first inning, as he needed 41 pitches for three outs.
The Tigers scored two runs in the process on Manuel Margot’s bases-loaded single and Trey Sweeney’s bases-loaded walk.
Everything went downhill from there.
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Four runs vs. Reese Olson
Tigers right-hander Reese Olson allowed four runs on four hits and two walks with five strikeouts across 4⅔ innings, throwing 93 pitches. He almost immediately squandered the lead, allowing one run apiece in the first and second innings.
“It’s hard with the way it ended,” manager A.J. Hinch said, “but he did a lot of really good things.”
In the first, Freddie Freeman smoked a 95.6 mph fastball — well-located on the down-and-in corner of the strike zone — for a solo home run to right-center.
In the second, back-to-back hits from Andy Pages and Michael Conforto produced another run, with Pages hitting a middle-middle fastball for a single and Conforto hitting a middle-down changeup for a double.
Just like that, the game was tied.
In the fifth inning, the Tigers intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani to put runners on the corners with two outs, allowing Olson to face right-handed Teoscar Hernández. The other option would’ve been to bring in left-handed reliever Brant Hurter to face Ohtani, with a runner on third and two outs.
The Tigers, though, put runners on the corners and stuck with Olson.
“Anything but Shohei,” Hinch said.
Hernández made them pay.
He ripped Olson’s middle-middle slider down the third-base line and into the left-field corner, driving in both runners. The two-run triple put the Dodgers ahead, 4-2. After that, the Tigers replaced Olson with Hurter.
ROUGH START:
Detroit Tigers look like they haven’t missed a beat in 2025 (despite getting beat twice)
Kenta Maeda’s first pitch
Right-hander Kenta Maeda entered in the bottom of the seventh inning.
His first pitch? A 79.2 mph sweeper to Tommy Edman.
The result? A solo home run to center field.
The Dodgers extended their lead to 6-3 on Edman’s home run, then made it 7-3 on Freeman’s RBI double. In two innings, Maeda allowed two runs on two hits and one walk with three strikeouts, throwing 29 pitches.
Before Maeda, the Dodgers and Tigers traded runs in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively.
For the Dodgers, Will Smith hit a middle-middle changeup from Hurter for a solo home run, making it 5-2. For the Tigers, Jake Rogers tripled on a ball in and out of Hernández‘s glove in right, and Zach McKinstry drove him in with a single, making it 5-3.
Free Press columnist Jeff Seidel contributed to this report.
Contact Evan Petzold at [email protected] or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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