After winning a weekend three-game series against the division-rival Royals, the Tigers came home to start a three-gamer with a team in the thick of the National League Wild Card race, the New York Mets. Both teams brought their hitting shoes, but the Mets outlasted the Tigers in a wild 10-8 contest.
Charlie Morton made his sixth start for the Tigers, after being acquired from the Baltimore ball club at the trade deadline. It’s been up-and-down, with his previous start against the Homeless Athletics
featuring five runs surrendered in five innings. But the two starts before that were good, so, you know that collection of characters that, when put together, gives you a shrugging-person? This one ( ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )? Yeah, that’s Ol’ Man Morton these days.
Taking the hill for the Mets was Sean Manaea, who’s in his second year with the club. It hasn’t gone terribly well for Manaea this year, after missing the entire first half with an oblique muscle injury; he’s made nine appearances (eight starts) before today, and let’s just say he hasn’t exactly been missing a lot of bats. However, despite giving up a lot of hits in a typical start, he’ll strike out a bunch and won’t walk many.
Morton got into a little trouble right off the bat, walking the first two batters. But then Pete Alonso hit a grounder to third and Wenceel Pérez snagged it, touched third, and gunned over to first for a nifty double play. Brandon Nimmo followed with a grounder to first and that was that.
Jahmai Jones wasted exactly zero time — quite literally, it was the first pitch of the bottom of the first — to get the Tigers on the board.
The Metropolitans got that one back and then some in the top of the second: hit-by-pitch, single, sac bunt put runners on second and third with none out. A Luis Torrens double scored both runners to put the visitors up 2-1. Another walk drew a Chris Fetter visit, and after Fetter sprinkled some magic dust on the mound and chanted a spell or two, Morton got Francisco Lindor to fly out and then he struck out Juan Soto.
In the bottom of that frame the Tigers had runners on first and second with one out; a forceout at second placed runners on the corners for Javier Báez… who grounded out to second. But one inning later, after Gleyber Torres walked, Pérez spanked an inside sweeper over the left-field wall to retake the lead for the Tigers, 3-2.
In the fourth the Mets doubled, walked and blooped their way to a bases-loaded, none-out situation, as the heavy traffic behind Morton on the basepaths continued. But then Morton struck out Brett Baty and Francisco Lindor, and you wanted to think that maybe, just maybe, the Tigers could wiggle out of this unscathed. Well, Juan Soto poured a bucket of cold water all over those hopes as he smacked a grand slam on a 1-2 count to right for a 6-3 Mets lead, and that was the end of Morton’s day. Rafael Montero was brought in and walked Alonso, but coaxed a grounder to first from Nimmo and the inning was, mercifully, over.
The Tigers, not one to shy away from a fight, came right back in the bottom of the inning: Dillon Dingler led off with his second single of the day, and Zach McKinstry tripled to score Dingler and cut the lead to 6-4. Jones laced a single to right to score McKinstry and it was again a one-run game, 6-5.
Montero got the first out of the fifth and was replaced by Drew Sommers, who got a little help from Báez with a nice sliding catch.
In the bottom of the fifth Spencer Torkelson broke an 0-for-11 drought with a single. After Riley Greene struck out, Andy Ibáñez singled and Torkelson moved all the way up to third on a very close play. That aggressive baserunning paid off when the new pitcher, Ryne Stanek — who I recently read was named after Ryne Sandberg, who himself was named after Ryne Duren — uncorked a wild pitch to score Torkelson and push Ibáñez up to second, tying the game at six. Dingler struck out for the second out, but McKinstry walked to keep the line moving. Kerry Carpenter was brought in to pinch-hit for Báez… but he lined-out to right for the third out. Ah well.
Sommers surrendered a single to Luis Torrens (his third hit of the day), but after Baty grounded out, Lindor was plunked to bring Soto to the plate with two runners on base. Both of them scored as Soto tripled into the right-field corner to put the Mets ahead 8-6. Sommers departed, Troy Melton was brought in with a runner on third, and Melton struck out Alonso on a 99-mph heater for the second out. But Nimmo singled up the middle to score Soto and the Mets were up 9-6.
New York got the first two runners on in the seventh via a Torres error and a walk. A sacrifice bunt — a ploy with which the Mets appeared to be particularly enamoured today — pushed the runners up a base with one out. But hey, it worked out for ‘em: a grounder to second scored a run and it was 10-6 for the visiting squad.
With two outs in the bottom the seventh and Greene on second, McKinstry singled to right to cash-in Greene and make it 10-7. But then the recently-recalled Justyn-Henry Malloy, pinch-hitting for Carpenter, popped out to second for the third out.
Jones led off the bottom of the eighth with his fourth hit of the day, a double to left. He advanced to third on a Torres flyout, and he scored on a chopper to third by Pérez to make it 10-8.
Mets closer Edwin Díaz was brought in to face Torkelson, who took him to the wall in left field but juuuuust got under it and it was hauled-in for the third out.
(Díaz was the Mets’ seventh pitcher of the day, so hey, at least we burned through their bullpen decently thoroughly.)
In the bottom of the ninth Greene struck out, Colt Keith lined-out to centre, and Dingler struck out swinging to end the game.
The second game of the series starts at 6:40 pm EDT on Tuesday night. Rookie sensation Nolan McLean is scheduled to start for the Mets, so that should be fun.
Final score: Mets 10, Tigers 8
Notes and Observances
- Tarik Skubal made six starts in the month of August. He pitched into the seventh in five of those, and completed at least seven innings in four.
- The only start of his that the Tigers didn’t win was against the A’s on August 25; he gave up five runs but only one of them was earned.
- The only start of the season before today in which he hadn’t completed five innings was on August 8 against the Angels, a game the Tigers came back to win.
- Over a bonkers 11-game stretch from April 8 through June 6, he worked 72 2/3 innings, striking out 95, and there were three things he did three times in that entire stretch: give up a home run, hit a batter, and walk a batter. That’s just totally off-the-charts.
- Happy Labour Day to everyone in North America. This holiday, the first Monday in September, is meant to highlight the contributions of organized labour to our society, most notably the eight-hour work day. Most countries in the world celebrate theirs on May 1; some have it on another day of the year. Hug a union member today! (Consensually, of course.)
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