The Tigers battled back from an early deficit on Saturday, only for Kyle Finnegan and Will Vest to lose a late lead and the game. That is five straight losses and a 2-8 stretch in their last 10 games. They have well and truly fumbled the bag. They’ll take a very slender lead into Sunday’s final home game of the season with seven games left to play and the fear meter is absolutely maxed out right now.
Yesterday in an article I talked a lot about the struggles of Riley Greene and Gleyber Torres in the second
half. Spencer Torkelson certainly hasn’t been hot either, but the Tigers’ first baseman has done a much better job holding things together and continuing to draw walks and a little production at the plate. On Saturday, with the Tigers in real trouble, Torkelson stepped up with a huge game on both sides of the ball, willing the Tigers to victory. Unfortunately his teammates on the pitching side were not able to come through when needed.
After a really good outing last time out, the Tigers were hoping Keider Montero could spin another strong game. On the mound for Atlanta they would face old friend Joey Wentz, who had a nice stretch with Atlanta but has continued to have the blow-up outings that made him untenable in his time in Detroit.
In the first, Montero popped up Jurickson Profar and then walked Matt Olson. He punched out Ronald Acuña Jr. with a pretty nasty slider bending away from him, and then got Drake Baldwin biting an a knuckle curve for another swinging strike three.
The Tigers got their first early lead in what seems like weeks during the home half of the inning. Gleyber Torres smoked a line drive single to center field with one out. A wild pitch moved him to second, but Wentz dusted Wenceel Pérez with a high fastball for the second out. Fortunately, Spencer Torkelson was able to cash in the run with a single to right field. That was all they’d get as Riley Greene struck out, but a 1-0 lead was nothing to sneeze at the way things are going.
Montero still didn’t look as sharp as he did last time out, but he had little trouble in the second inning. He got a nice diving play from Torkelson to start the inning. However, a two-out walk to Michael Harris II showed Montero trying to be careful against the left-handers in the lineup and just missing away a little bit. A fly out to Greene in left off the bat of Sandy Leon ended their half of the inning.
Unfortunately, Wentz went through Andy Ibáñez and Dillon Dingler with good fastballs, and Parker Meadows left out to end the inning.
Montero left a 2-2 slider up in the zone against Nacho Alvarez Jr. and he lifted it out to left for a solo shot to start the third inning. A walk to Profar followed, but Montero erased him with a double play ball off of Olson’s bat. That cheered everyone up for a moment, but a walk to Acuna Jr. followed, and Drake Baldwin stepped into the box. They battled into a 3-2 count and Montero dropped in his knuckle curve hunting the chase. It was located below the zone, but Baldwin launched it to right center field for a two-run homer. 3-1 Braves.
The Tigers scratched out a run of their own in the bottom of the third. Singles from Jahmai Jones and Gleyber Torres got Jones to third, where a Pérez sacrifice fly to center field got him home to make it a 3-2 game. Torkelson flew out to center field to send us to the fourth.
Torres single in that inning was the 1000th hit of his career.
Tommy Kahnle entered the game at that point with Montero just not particularly sharp. He tossed a quick 1-2-3 inning, getting Ha-Seong Kim on a grounder to first, Harris II on a fly out to left, and another grounder to Torkelson off the bat of Sandy Leon to end the inning.
The Tigers got a two-out walk to Dillon Dingler in the bottom half of the fourth. but Parker Meadows swung through a good Wentz fastball, tipping it into the glove for strike three.
Kahnle barely broke a sweat in the fourth, so he came back out for the fifth. He quickly popped up Alvarez Jr. and got Profar on a fly ball out to Meadows. With Matt Olson stepping into the box, Tyler Holton took over and got a grounder to Torkelson to end the half inning.
More frustration followed in the bottom half. Wentz’s pitching count cleared 70 pitches with one out on a Báez fly out. Jahmai Jones ripped a hard one-hopper right through Alvarez at third for a single. Gleyber Torres singled into left center field, and suddenly the Tigers were in business. Jones drew a throw with a huge secondary lead at second base but Wentz locked in and fooled in and dropped a slider at the bottom of the zone. Pérez looked like he was hunting fastball and he was way out ahead for a swinging strike three. That left it up to Torkelson, and Wentz missed with all four pitches, pitching him very carefully and happy to walk him and face Greene instead.
So, bases loaded, Riley Greene at the dish against a lefty. The huge home crowd brought the energy, trying to will their team into turning things around. A first pitch slider fooled Greene, who had seen a lot of Wentz’s fastball, and the next pitch was a routine fly out to left to strand the bases loaded. This is painful.
Tyler Holton kept it going in the sixth, getting ground outs from Acuna and Baldwin. He then gave way to Troy Melton. The right-hander got Albies on yet another routine grounder to Torkelson.
Joey Wentz finally gave way to Hunter Stratton in the bottom of the sixth. Zach McKinstry was first up, taking over at third from Andy Ibáñez, and he electrified the crowd by driving a 1-1 fastball away to deep left center field and into the bullpens for his 12th home run of the season. TIE BALLGAME!
That was McKinstry’s first home run in nearly a month, and the timing was good. Unfortunately, they still couldn’t string a rally together. Dingler grounded out, and Stratton got Meadows and Báez, who is hopefully lost out there in the box, on pop-ups to Kim at shortstop.
Still, it was a new game, and Melton kept the momentum alive with a pretty quick 1-2-3 inning in the top of the seventh. Kim grounded out back to Melton, who made a nice play on it, and Harris II and Leon flew out to Greene in left.
Now the Tigers needed to build on McKinstry’s shot. The Braves turned to lefty Dylan Lee and the Tigers had the right guy first up in leadoff man Jahmai Jones. The lefty masher got behind 1-2 and then fouled off a whole bushel of Lee’s offering until he finally missed down with his eighth pitch of the at-bat for ball two. Jones then got a changeup away, and he yanked it through the left side of the infield past a diving Kim for a single. Torres chased a changeup away off the plate and struck out with Pérez and Torkelson up next. Wenceel fouled off a 3-1 fastball that would’ve been ball four and then got locked up by a changeup down and in that he made a late, flailing swing at to strike out.
Manager Brian Snitker did not want the lefty facing Torkelson, so that was the end of his outing. RHP Pierce Johnson took over and quickly got ahead 1-2. The fans desperately hoped from something good as Torkelson battled back into a full count. Johnson was out of ideas and tried to drop a curveball on the inner third. Tork killed that thing, launching a massive two-run shot to left and igniting the crowd, the dugout, and Tigers fans everywhere. 5-3 Tigers as Torkelson turned to the dugout, exhorting his teammates to fire up and take it to the Braves before beginning his home run trot.
Riley Greene chased a changeup away for strike three, still looking lost out there, but the Tigers had a lead and just needed to lock it down for two innings. With Kyle Finnegan and Will Vest both available, conditions for a win suddenly looked very favorable.
And then the darkness quickly encroached again. Finnegan took the mound against Alvarez Jr. and a 1-1 splitter hung up and got launched into the home bullpen in left for a solo shot. 5-4 Tigers.
Lawd, it just doesn’t come easy. That was the first run Finnegan has allowed in a Tigers uniform.
Finnegan bounced back, punching out Profar and Olson and looking very much like the Kyle Finnegan the Tigers desperately need. He fell behind Acuna Jr. 2-0, but got a whiff on the splitter. A high fastball missed, and you really don’t want a get me over fastball against that man. A nasty splitter that floated onto the inner edge followed instead for strike two, but another one sailed inside to walk him. Acuna Jr. stole second as Finnegan and Baldwin locked into a seven pitch battle, but Finnegan won out by getting yet another ground ball to Torkelson to end the top of the eighth.
It felt like Torkelson recorded half the outs in this game defensively. That’s only a mild exaggeration.
Dylan Dodd entered the game in the bottom of the eighth and tossed a 1-2-3 frame against McKinstry, Dingler, and Meadows. And so, it would all come down to Will Vest against the 5-6-7 hitters in the Braves lineup.
Things didn’t start well and they would get much worse. Ozzie Albies lined a slider up in the zone for a single to right field. Ha-Seong Kim followed by driving another hanging slider for a line drive single of his own to right field. Albies held up at second base as the sounds of a very concerned home crowd floated out of the stands.
Vest got ahead of Harris II 1-2 and fired up 99 mph on the fastball. Harris fouled it off, and another foul clanged off McKinstry’s glove as he reached over the Tigers dugout railing. Harris was battling, fouling off a changeup and then Vest missed down to make it a 2-2 count. Another heater was fouled off. The tension grew excruciating, but Vest bent a slider down and in and Harris swung over it for the first out of the inning.
Next up was the light hitting catcher, Sandy Leon. Vest missed with a slider in, but two firm fastballs were fouled off as Leon was hacking. Vest dropped a high slider just into the zone for strike three. That left it up to Nacho Alvarez Jr., whose two homers in this game were his first in the major leagues.
Vest got ahead 0-2, and the crowd began the Seven Nation Army chant, willing Vest to close it out. Instead a slider was yanked down and away, and Dingler could only knock it down as Albies scampered into third base. Vest tried to get Alvarez to chase a 98 mph heater away, but instead he reached out and lined a single to right to tie the game. Profar fell behind 1-2 and got a slider down, hooking it through the right side for a single and a 4-3 lead. Why they didn’t strafe the top of the zone with fastballs there, I couldn’t tell you. All they needed was a routine fly ball and Vest was not spotting the slider.
Max pain was clearly required, and we’re feeling it.
Hinch came out to get Vest, and Rafael Montero entered the game.
The right-hander got ahead of Matt Olson 1-2, then missed repeatedly to walk him. The bases were juiced, and Acuna Jr. stepped into the box. Fortunately, Montero got him to fly out to Pérez in right and end the inning, but the Tigers were now down a run and desperate for a comeback.
The Braves turned to Raisel Iglesias, and AJ Hinch pinch-hit Jace Jung for Javy Báez, with Kerry Carpenter set to pinch-hit for Jahmai Jones in the leadoff spot due up second in the inning.
Jung popped up a changeup to Albies behind second base. Carpenter stepped in and Iglesias missed down with his first pitch. Carpenter was out in front of a hanging changeup and swung through it to even the count 1-1. Another fastball at the knees made it 1-2, and the next one was ripped right to Olson for the second out. That left it up to Gleyber Torres, who flew out to right field to end the inning.
That is five straight losses for the Tigers, but none quite as horrifying as this one. They battled through some adversity and finally took a lead into the late innings only to lose anyway as Finnegan and Vest couldn’t hold it. We can say nice things about a few players who battled hard in this one, but day after day, it isn’t enough.
The Guardians were leading Minnesota 6-0 in the first of their doubleheader on Saturday. Should they take both games, the Tigers lead will be down to one game in the AL Central with just seven games left.
The final home game of the season is set for 1:40 p.m. ET on Sunday. The Tigers will have to deal with RHP Spencer Strider, while RHP Casey Mize looks to continue his run of good starts.
It goes without saying that everything is must win at this point.
