It’s not that the Tigers played poorly, it’s just that they can’t quite make the pitch when they need it ... or get the hit when they need it.
BOSTON – This is how it’s gone lately, and how it’s been going now for what feels like forever. The Detroit Tigers grab the lead, pitch well for a bit, fail to take the chance to take control, and find a way – however random – to lose.
And on a night when Cleveland lost, too.
It’s not that the Tigers played poorly, it’s just that they can’t quite make the pitch when they need it ... or get the hit when they need it.
They’re not getting blown out as much as they’re getting squeezed, inning by inning, game by game. The Tigers loaded the bases in the first inning with one out and didn’t score.
They loaded them again in the fourth inning and scored three times, but left two runners on base, a pattern in their 4-3 loss to the Red Sox on Friday, Sept. 26. They left 10 runners on and mostly whiffed with runners in scoring position.
It’s the story of this late collapse and because they collapsed again here at Fenway Park, the full collapse is still in play. And to think they had the chance to retake the lead in the AL Central.
Tigers face reckoning
That’s all but over now, unless Cleveland loses the next two and the Tigers win the next two. It’s possible but hardly feels probable. Not now. Not after yet another blown lead. Not after blowing another solid start.
Casey Mize continued to get back to form. He wasn’t dominant, but had command and poise, striking out eight and pitching his way into the seventh. He gave up two runs and found his way from trouble a few times, pumping his fist each time he did.
Kyle Finnegan took over in the seventh with runners at second and third. He gave up a sacrifice fly and a run but got out of the inning. He couldn’t in the eighth, not after two singles – sandwiched around a stolen base and an extra base from a wild throw from Dillon Dingler – allowed the tying run.
At that point, did anyone see anything other than a full Red Sox comeback? Maybe the Tigers did.
It was all right there for a while, and even longer. Not unlike the Detroit Tigers season, which looked like one thing for four months and then something else entirely.
Inexplicable? You bet. Painful? Endlessly. More so by the day ... or night, as it was again at Fenway Park. If a baseball season is a story, then the games help tell the story, and lately the games are begining to look depressingly familiar.
But not at first. No, at first, the Tigers showed something. Like defense.
A slick running catch by Parker Meadows in the fourth inning. A couple of critical plays by Spencer Torkelson in the seventh inning that held the Red Sox off ... for a moment.
Masataka Yoshida was on first with no outs − after yet another single – when Romy Gonzalez lined one toward first. Spencer Torkelson leapt to his right to snag it for the first out. Ceddanne Rafaela doubled off the wall in left, just missing a homer, putting runners at second and third.
Hinch pulled Mize and called for Kyle Finnegan who gave up a deep fly to center to Nathaniel Lowe. Yoshida scored on the sacrifice.
With a runner at second and two outs, Wilyer Abreu yanked a hard bouncer to first. Once again, Torkelson made a nice play to time the hop and toss it to Finnegan.
Tigers' offense bunts?
As for the offense? At least the Tigers put up the first crooked number in what felt like decades when they scored three in the fourth after loading the bases with no outs on an Andy Ibanez walk, a Dillon Dingler single and a perfect bunt from Parker Meadows.
Wait ... a bunt? From Hinch?
Hey, the season is at stake, and Meadows had been scuffling, and he’s got speed and soft hands. And why not?
While the inning might have been more – should have been more – the Tigers will take it.
They’ll take anything, really, especially professional at-bats, like the one they got from Javy Baez to start the push toward the crooked number.
For the second game in a row, Baez found an opening on the right side of the infield off a lefty to drive in a run. His at-bat against Harrison showed the kind of patience at the plate that’s disappeared in the last month.
He fouled off the first four pitches. On the fifth, he ripped the RBI single, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Jahmai Jones doubled home two more runs. Runners were on second and third – with no outs.
And when the Tigers couldn’t open up the game from there, it began to feel inevitable.
Contact Shawn Windsor: [email protected]. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers' stretch-run collapse continues as bullpen falters vs Red Sox
Category: General Sports
