Late HRs by Riley Greene, Matt Vierling give Detroit Tigers 7-6 win over Houston Astros

HOUSTON — They showed fight. They showed resolve. And they looked like an entirely different team.

Matt Vierling jacked a two-run homer in the 11th inning Monday night, as the Detroit Tigers stunned the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park, 7-6.

The Tigers got some strong defensive plays (and some bad ones), some strong pitching (and some less than strong ones) and a whole bunch of timely hitting.

So, basically, the Tigers looked completely different than the team that opened the season by getting swept by the Tampa Bay Rays, a miserable three-game performance in which they struck out 30 times while being outscored, 21-3.

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But that was so yesterday.

Other than the fifth inning, when the wheels came off for a moment and the Astros exploded for four runs, the Tigers played a solid game.

It was far more encouraging than the disaster in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Last year, the Astros swept the Tigers in seven games; and in those seven games, the Tigers scored just 10 runs and gave up 29.

But this game was far different.

Suddenly, the Tigers were making plays all over the field.

Suddenly, soft singles found holes.

Suddenly, they were stringing together base hits.

And they got the biggest hit of all. Vierling's homer.

Boyd solid in return to Tigers

Left-hander Matthew Boyd started for the Tigers and he was solid, giving them a chance to win.

Boyd looked rocky to open the game. He walked Jeremy Pena, the Astros' leadoff hitter, then walked Jose Abreu. But he got out of it by striking out Kyle Tucker.

Then he settled down and started to cruise, getting through the first four innings holding a 4-0 lead. But then an old axiom popped up: Never walk the first batter of an inning, especially at the bottom of the order.

Boyd walked Mauricio Dubon, and then Martin Maldonado, the Astros' No.9 hitter, blooped a ball into right. So suddenly, Boyd was under stress.

Houston scored a run — on a fielder’s choice — and Hinch pulled Boyd and brought in José Cisnero.

Then it all went bad.

Cisnero plunked Alex Bregman and up came Yordan Alvarez, who jacked a 3-run homer, traveling 435 feet to tie the game, 4-4.

On the other side of that inning, Dubon came up again — the 10^th batter of the inning. The bases were loaded and he sliced a ball into right field. But Vierling made an outstanding diving play, saving several runs and ending the bleeding.

So that was just some of the encouraging defense.

Boyd did a little bit of everything. He came off the mound to make a couple of plays with his glove.

And overall, it was a solid outing, even covering up a defensive miscue.

After a Spencer Torkelson error, Boyd got Jose Abreu to hit a harmless fly ball to right field to get through the first three innings without a run.

In the Hunt

Hunter Brown started the game for Houston.

Brown, who was born in Detroit and drafted by the Astros in 2019's fifth round out of Wayne State, struck out three of the first six batters he faced.

Brown was ranked the No. 28 prospect in baseball in Baseball America’s preseason top-100 rankings.

And he looked every bit the part. But then the Tigers went to an old proven strategy: Hit ‘em where they ain't.

They strung together four singles in the second inning, as Eric Haase lined a ball into right field that drove in a pair.

It was like a cork had been popped.

A little relief.

And suddenly, the Tigers were finding some offense.

A surprising star

With a tie game in the sixth and the Astros holding all the momentum, manager A.J. Hinch turned to rookie Mason Englert to pitch the sixth. After getting two outs, Alex Bregman singled and up came Alvarez.

But Englert got him to harmlessly bounce out.

Englert went back out and pitched the seventh, again getting the Astros in an easy 1-2-3 inning.

Then, he pitched the eighth, getting out of trouble to hold the Astros scoreless.

It was a fantastic performance: three innings, two hits, no walks, no runs.

In the ninth, the Tigers were one out from snapping a three-game losing streak.

One strike from beating the world champion Astros.

One catch at the wall from wiping away some of the misery in St. Pete.

But the Astros scored in the bottom of the ninth against Alex Lange, sending it to extra innings After a one-out single by Alex Bregman, Lange appeared to have locked it down with a groundball to Torkelson at first. He stepped on first, then threw to second ... only to peg Bregman in the back.

The next batter, former White Sox slugger Jose Abreu, was down 0-2 on breaking balls from Lange before doubling to left, driving in a run and tying the game.

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Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.

To read Seidel's recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers rally after blown lead to beat Houston Astros, 7-6 (11)