Shane Bieber beats superb Tyler Alexander in Detroit Tigers' 5-2 loss to Cleveland

Detroit Tigers left-hander Tyler Alexander has made seven starts this season but only three since his late-July switch from the bullpen to the rotation. In his latest outing, he pitched into the seventh inning for the first time this season.

The Cleveland Guardians, though, scored once in the fifth and sixth innings, and without any support from the Tigers' offense, Alexander couldn't win his matchup with right-hander Shane Bieber in Tuesday's three-game series opener at Comerica Park.

The Tigers lost, 5-2.

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"He's a valuable pitcher," manager A.J. Hinch said of Alexander. "His approach to the game, the beat-me-over-the-plate mentality is really good. ... The art of pitching to Tyler is disrupting timing and disrupting at-bats. When he's locked in that way with the ball going both ways, it's pretty effective."

Bieber, the 2020 American League Cy Young winner who features a pair of nasty breaking balls, shut down the Tigers (43-68) across seven scoreless innings. He allowed four hits — two singles to Riley Greene, one single to Willi Castro and one single to Miguel Cabrera — and one walk.

Bieber struck out seven batters.

"He can spin it when he wants to, and he commands glove-side fastballs arguably as good as anybody on either side," Hinch said. "His velocity on his fastball has backed off a little bit over the last year or two, but his effectiveness hasn't. He's the definition of a pitcher. He's athletic, can mix pitches and locates. He doesn't overpower you anymore, but man, he's good."

The Tigers didn't advance a runner into scoring position against Bieber until the seventh inning, when Cabrera singled and Jeimer Candelario drew a four-pitch walk. (Pinch-runner Victor Reyes replaced Cabrera on the bases.) The scoring opportunity was squandered by the next three batters in the lineup.

Willi Castro struck out swinging for the first out.

Jonathan Schoop popped out in foul territory for the second out.

Tucker Barnhart grounded out for the third out.

"You got to stick to one pitch with him," Castro said. "I was looking for fastballs, and he didn't throw any to me. There was one at-bat I struck out with runners on first and second. I didn't get the job done. I was just trying to look for fastballs, and he didn't throw it to me. That's on the reports. They know what to throw us. He executed pretty good today."

Some late runs

After the Tigers blew their chance, the Guardians created their next scoring chance in the eighth inning with a one-out walk and single, then executed on a clutch two-out double from Oscar Gonzalez against right-handed reliever Will Vest.

Gonzalez's double drove in two runs and extended the Guardians' lead to 4-0. Josh Naylor made it 5-0 with an ensuing RBI single.

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For Bieber's 91 pitches (63 strikes), the 27-year-old racked up 13 swings and misses: two four-seam fastballs, seven curveballs, three sliders and one cutter. He also had 16 called strikes, including 10 with his fastball and four with his slider.

"Our guys are still trying," Hinch said. "That's a tough task tonight, especially when Bieber is locating pitches the way he was. That's a little bit of pro Bieber, a little bit of frustration on our end."

The Tigers gave themselves a chance to rally in the ninth inning, as the first three batters reached safely against right-handed reliever Eli Morgan: Harold Castro (single), Reyes (single) and Candelario (walk).

A two-out walk from pinch-hitter Eric Haase scored the Tigers' first run, then the Guardians turned to right-handed closer Emmanuel Clase. He threw the ball away on his first pitch to Akil Baddoo, which pushed home another run.

Two pitches later, Baddoo grounded out to end the game.

"Getting Clase in the game is probably the biggest boost," Hinch said. "He's gone two of three (games), now it's three of four. It wasn't a heavy workload, but getting him in the game is a plus maybe."

Detroit finished with six hits, two walks and 11 strikeouts.

Alexander the good

Opposing Bieber, Alexander allowed two runs on seven hits across seven innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out two, throwing 60 of 84 pitches for strikes. For his first 12 outs, thus completing the fourth inning, he needed just 46 pitches.

"I threw a lot of first-pitch strikes," Alexander said. "A lot of first-pitch strikes probably got a little too much of the plate, but I guess they were a little patient. I did a good job getting ahead (in counts) because of it."

The 28-year-old completed seven innings as a starter for the first time since Aug. 20, 2021, against the Blue Jays in Toronto. He also got through seven innings July 21, 2019, against the Blue Jays in Detroit in his second MLB appearance.

Alexander pitched excellent Tuesday, but to beat the Guardians, he needed to be nearly perfect considering Bieber's dominance and the Tigers' confused offense.

"They didn't hit him hard," Hinch said. "They had some tough at-bats and fought off some pitches. There were a couple hard hits, but I thought he was in command of his pitches and controlling contact. A couple ground ball hits aren't going to get me to panic on Tyler. He stays in the strike zone and goes after guys."

Owen Miller and Andres Gimenez got ahold of cutters for back-to-back singles with one out in the fifth inning, putting runners on the corners for Austin Hedges. He produced a sacrifice fly to give the Guardians a 1-0 lead.

In the sixth, the Guardians increased their margin to 2-0 on consecutive doubles from Steven Kwan and Amed Rosario. Alexander ended up with runners on the corners and one out, but he escaped further damage by getting Naylor to ground into an inning-ending double play.

"With the way this year has gone with our starting rotation, we've had a lot of injuries," Alexander said. "I came back (from the injured list) in the bullpen. That was the quickest way for me, and I thought it was good for my arm to ease it in with long relief, three innings. And then, that's been my role the past three years: If they need me to start, I will."

For his 84 pitches, Alexander used 26 four-seam fastballs (31%), 24 cutters (29%), 13 changeups (15%), 11 sinkers (13%) and 10 sliders (12%). He recorded four swings and misses — two cutters, one changeup and one slider — along with 15 called strikes.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers stifled by Shane Bieber, Cleveland Guardians, 5-2