DETROIT -- The Tigers’ team leader in home runs last year hit 15 in a full season.
The last time Schoop hit a grand slam, he was with the Brewers in the middle of a playoff chase, and he connected on a pitch from then-Giant Madison Bumgarner. The Tigers aren’t quite in that situation, their hot start having been tempered by the White Sox last week. Still, Schoop said, they have maintained a good mentality.\n\nSchoop homered in three consecutive games at the end of July, then went nearly two weeks before homering again. He has found a steady pace since but hadn’t hit one this year as big as what Tuesday’s slam meant for a team trying to stay within sight of .500, if not the fringe of the eight-team American League playoff bracket.\n\n \n\n“We’ve been through a rough stretch, but we’re still in it,” Schoop said. “Everybody’s going to go through a bad stretch, but now that’s out of the way, so let’s get a good stretch and make a push for it. The buy-in in the clubhouse is really high. Go out there and try to win the series.”
Until Schoop’s fourth career grand slam punctuated a five-run sixth inning, the Tigers were still protecting a slim lead built off a two-run, 37-pitch inning against Cubs starter Tyler Chatwood. They left the bases loaded in the second inning on back-to-back strikeouts after Chatwood walked three of his final four batters, then former White Sox All-Star José Quintana shut down his old division rivals for three innings in his first appearance of the season.\n\nCameron Maybin’s RBI double and Andrew Romine’s walk chased Quintana in the sixth. Former Cubs prospect
The big inning all but ensured