The Detroit Tigers and Miami Marlins played the second game of a three game series in Florida on Saturday. In the prior game, things didn’t go well for Detroit: Javy Baez was hurt fouling a ball off of his face, Tarik Skubal left the game early with side tightness, and the team lost 8-2. Luckily, it turned out that Skubal was fine and will make his next start, so people could exhale just a little bit.
Taking the mound for Miami was righty Janson Junk and his 4.48 ERA. Parker Meadows, back in the leadoff
spot, led off the game with a single. Junk then buckled down by retiring the next three batters, stranding the runner.
For the Tigers, old man Charlie Morton was on. He’s been pretty bad his last three starts, so the team was really hoping for a bounce-back outing for the veteran. After a groundout, Augustin Ramirez doubled to center. A strikeout got Morton close to escaping, but he gave up a single to score Ramirez. A balk moved up the runner up, but a ground ball ended the inning. The Fish had struck first.
Tigers got a two-out hit from Keith, but nothing else in the second.
A walk scored against Morton when he gave up a two-out double. He walked a second batter, making things dangerous, but escaped further damage again. The veteran was pretty wild early on.
Detroit struck back in the top of the third. Gleyber Torres walked with two out and Kerry Carpenter smashed a two-run homer to right center, tying the game. That’s all they’d get, but a tie game ain’t something to sneeze at.
Morton walked two more batters in the bottom of the third, but managed to prevent them from scoring. He had four total walks through three innings, not something you want to see.
Neither team reached base on the fourth, so off to the fifth we went.
The scrappy Tigers scratched through another run in the top of the inning. Dillon Dingler got it started with a leadoff single. Zach McKinstry grounded into a potential double play, but he beat the throw. Parker Meadows got his second hit, singling and pushing McKinstry to third. Torres hit a fly ball to center that was caught, but the center fielder forgot how many outs there were and then fumbled the ball out of his glove in panic when he realized there were only two. McKinstry scored and Parker, who had run pretty far from first, was able to gallop back safely. Carpenter singled, but Riley Greene flied out harmlessly. Still, Tigers had taken a 3-2 lead.
AJ Hinch went to his bullpen in the fifth, bringing in Troy Melton. Melton’s been pretty good since being called up to be the spot starter/long reliever role as the Tigers limit his innings for a potential playoff run. He got the Marlins to go 1-2-3.
Spencer Torkelson opened the sixth with a single, but that’s all the Tigers could muster.
Melton remained on the mound for the bottom of the frame and got into some trouble. He gave up a massive solo home run to Troy Johnston, tying the game. A one-out single made things interesting, but Melton struck out Victor Mesa, Jr. and Dingler threw a laser to second base, allowing McKinstry to tag out a steal attempt. The old strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out inning ending double play.
The Marlins brought in lefty Cade Gibson for the seventh. Hinch pinch-hit Andy Ibáñez for McKinstry in a move that worked out, as Andy smoked a ball past short for a single. Trey Sweeney was brought in to pinch-run for Andy, but three straight fly ball outs ended the dreams of scoring.
The bullpens went back and forth through the end of regulation, with neither side scoring. It was time for bonus baseball and the Manfred Man.
The Tigers opened the top of the 10th with Meadows at second. A deep fly out to right advanced him to third, but Carp and Greene failed to drive him home. Ouch.
In the bottom of the frame, Will Vest remained in after pitching a clean 9th. A bunt attempt by the Marlins was popped up and Vest caught it, spinned around, tossed it to second, and got the force for a double play as the runner had taken off a bit. Vest then walked the next guy. A bloop hit over Torres put runners on first and third. With the tension ratcheted all the way up, a bloop was caught by Sweeney, ending the inning. Off to the 11th.
With Greene on second, Tork singled, moving him over. Wenceel Pérez doubled to right, scoring Greene. The Marlins intentionally walked Keith, bringing up Dingler with the bases juiced and nobody out. He struck out on three pitches. Miami went back to their pen at this point, bringing in Josh Simpson. A wild pitch bounced back to the catcher off the backstop, meaning a running Tork was a dead duck for the second out. A pinch-hitting Jahmai Jones was intentionally walked, re-loading the bases. Meadows struck out though, ending the threat. Bases loaded with no outs and zero runs. Really frustrating.
Rafael Montero came in to try to close out the game. He did not. A single, a game-tying fielder’s choice, and then a massive home run walked it off for the Marlins. Cue the sad trombone noises.
Final: Miami 6, Detroit 4. The Tigers will try to avoid the sweep tomorrow in Miami.
