Detroit’s weekend visit to loanDepot park (emphasis on the lower-case “p”) was nerve-wracking for all the wrong reasons. It’s one thing for Tarik Skubal to struggle in a start; it’s another to imagine a world without him in this year’s postseason. Thankfully, Skubal is okay, and that minimizes the sting of consecutive road losses.
Thanks to Keider Montero, José Urquidy (!), Tommy Kahnle, and Will Vest, Detroit didn’t fall for a third straight day. Despite just two runs from the offense on four hits,
Detroit salvages one win in the series, 2-0. Pending results from Cleveland this afternoon, Detroit’s magic number is now 6, and its first-round bye magic number (to avoid the Wildcard Series) is 9 (nice!).
It hasn’t been a particularly productive weekend for the Tigers offense, and today was no different. Detroit’s first run scored due to back-to-back errors by the Marlins corner infielders:
The Tigers’ second run scored as Dillon Dingler singled in Colt Keith immediately thereafter, who only reached third due to the two errors. Detroit proceeded to get shut out by Adam Mazur and Christian Roa. In fact, the aforementioned single by Dingler was Detroit’s only hit until the eighth inning, when Parker Meadows legged out a double on a ball just past the second baseman’s glove. (Of course, nobody drove him home.) Spencer Torkelson and Colt Keith did put runners on the corners in the ninth, but once again: “TTBDNS.”
Thankfully, Keider Montero pitched well from start to finish, throwing five shutout innings while allowing just three hits and striking out five. Montero threw 50 strikes on 76 pitches before giving way to José Urquidy, making his Tigers debut.
After allowing just one single in the bottom of the sixth, Urquidy came back in for the seventh inning. A single, strikeout, and walk ended his day, allowing Tommy Kahnle to continue his late-season comeback and strand the two runners with just one out (he also pitched the eighth, allowing just a single). Urquidy averaged 93.7 mph and topped out at 94.3 mph on his four-seam fastball, and his average 20 inches of IVB (induced vertical break) was pretty excellent for his season debut. Expect (read: prepare) to see all three of Montero, Urquidy, and Kahnle pitch meaningful innings this postseason for Detroit if things continue this way over the next two weeks.
Will Vest closed this one for Detroit. Vest took Detroit’s 2-0 lead, got one quick out, then walked Troy Johnston. The tying run came to the plate in the form of Heriberto Hernández, who singled to bring the winning run to the plate: Joey Wiemer, who pinch-hit for Jack Winkler (I promise that was not AI-generated). Wiemer made good contact off of Vest, but he got underneath the ball on his 100.6 mph exit velocity swing, flying out to Zach McKinstry in left field. 23-year-old Javier Sanoja proceeded to draw a 3-1 count following an egregiously poor ball call on the first pitch of the at-bat, but two excellently located fastballs by Vest punched out Sanoja, ending the game and a forgettable series in Miami.
The Tigers will take a night off on Monday before beginning their critical dozen-game stretch to close the season with six games at home and then six away. The Guardians won as well to stay 6.5 games back in the division. Six more games against Cleveland await!
