Pirates 8, Tigers 4 (F/10): Buccos bury Bengals

Comebacks are fun, but losing in extra innings isn’t.

After clinching a series win against the Pirates with the day-game opener on Thursday afternoon, the early-evening nightcap started and ended late, and a scrappy comeback was all for naught as the Tigers dropped the season finale 8-4 in 10 innings.

Playing the role of Opener today was Tyler Holton, and in the role of Bulk Guy was Keider Montero. As we all know, Holton has been less effective this year in comparison to last year — but, you may also be interested to know that Holton’s ERAs for April/May/June of 2024 were 5.40/3.52/3.29, so he started off last year far less of a shutdown reliever than he became later in the season. Montero this season has often been paired with an opener, and he’ll typically give you four or five decent innings after that (when he’s not pitching against the Rockies, that is).

And now, the man, the facial hair, the phenomenon, the prodigy: Paul Skenes. It was a darn shame that we didn’t get a Skenes-Skubal matchup (like ships passing in the night); regardless, fans got to see two highly-touted pitchers in the same day. The tall righty was sensational last year and has been even better this year: an ERA of 1.78, ERA+ of 236, WHIP of 0.854, surrendering 5.6 hits per nine innings, a league-leading 4.1 bWAR… and, of course, a won-loss record of 4-6 coming into today. Oopsie-daisy.

After an uneventful first inning, the Pirates’ Nick Gonzalez thumped a leadoff solo home run in the second to put the visitors up 1-0. Adam Frazier followed with a single, then light-hitting Jared Triolo smashed a two-run dinger to straightaway centre to make it a 3-0 game, which was the eighth (!!) home run given up by Holton so far this year. Montero took over with two out in the second and got the third out.

The visitors continued the home run parade in the third, with Andrew McCutcheon spanking a first-pitch slider over the wall in left field for a 4-0 score.

Meanwhile, Skenes was probably sitting in the dugout thinking, “Huh, so this is what it’s like to pitch with a nice lead. I don’t get this too often.”

The Tigers got a little something going in the third with a Jake Rogers leadoff double and a Colt Keith walk with one out. However, Gleyber Torres hit a crisp grounder to short which had “double play” written all over it, and that was that.

Detroit took advantage of some Skenes wildness and a strange call in the fifth: with one out, Rogers and Trey Sweeney both walked, and on a Keith ground ball to second, Sweeney was ruled out on some light interference with the second baseman. That was a crucial call because the initial play, without the intererence call, was the Pirates turning a double play to end the inning. Instead, on the interference call, the ball was dead and runners were placed on first and second, setting the table perfectly for a two-run Gleyber Torres double to score both runners (with an aggressive Cora windmill) and cut the lead to 4-2.

Skenes carried on into the sixth as his pitch count neared 100, so his evening was (thankfully) going to be done soon: Wenceel Pérez worked a two-out walk, but Zach McKinstry struck out on a 99 mph four-seamer on his 105th pitch and that would be that.

After getting Isiah Kiner-Falefa to ground out to start the seventh, Montero was relieved in favour of lefty Matt Gage, making his third appearance for the Tigers this year. He got Oneil Cruz to hit a sizzling lineout to right field, walked McCutcheon, but then struck out Spencer Horowitz to end the inning.

Isaac Mattson came on for Skenes in the bottom of the seventh, and with one out Sweeney doubled to right to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Keith, and he hit his first home run in over a month to indeed tie the game.

Tommy “The Changeup” Kahnle took over for the eighth and it was as boring as you’d hope for.

The game progressed to the ninth, still tied at 4, and Will Vest was summoned for the first time since the Pinky Finger Incident against the Reds. A walk and an infield single with one out put a pair of runners on for Cruz at the top of the lineup, and Vest was looking a little rusty at times but managed to strike out Cruz on a slider for the second out. He then punched-out McCutcheon on a high fastball and it was on to the bottom of the ninth: whatever rust Vest had on him, he shook it off just in time.

Rain began to fall as the bottom of the inning rolled around, and with one out and a 1-2 count on Rogers, the tarp came out and the game went into a delay for a little more than an hour. Pirates manager and Old Friend™ Don Kelly was livid at the umpiring crew chief for letting the half-inning start with rain all over the place, necessitating the probable burning of an additional back-end reliever. After the delay Rogers struck out and Sweeney grounded out, and we were on to extra innings.

Brant Hurter was brought in for the tenth, and pinch-hitter Ke’Bryan Hayes poked a single to right; the Manfred Man, pinch-runner Tommy Pham, rounded third and was initially called safe at home, but upon replay… was still deemed to be safe. AJ Hinch came out to argue and was promptly ejected, to the lusty boos of the soggy faithful remaining in attendance. A single, sacrifice bunt and intentional walk loaded the bases with one out, and pinch-hitter Joey Bart singled to make it 6-4, and after a strikeout Kiner-Falefa poked a two-run single through the left side to push the lead to 8-4.

At that point the crowd started to turn a little surly, and Pham pointed out some rather unsavory language from the stands directed at Cruz (the batter) to the umpire, who had some fans ejected from the building. I mean, come on, you can be surly, but at the very least keep it classy.

The bottom of the tenth saw the Tigers trying to climb a very steep hill covered in banana peels against David Bednar, a very tough reliever. Keith flew out and drove Sweeney up from second to third; Torres walked, and suddenly things got a little more interesting. However, Kerry Carpenter struck out on a nasty splitter for the second out, and Riley Greene flew out softly to centre for the final out.

The Tigers head to Tampa to take on the Rays at Steinbrenner Field over the weekend. That should be fun.

Final score: Pirates 8, Tigers 4

Paws, You Dawg

(Olivia “Livvy” Dunne is Paul Skenes’ ladyfriend.)

Notes and Observances

• Javier Báez hit two home runs in Tuesday’s game. It was also his 10-year anniversary in the major leagues, which means he’s fully vested in the pension plan. (Trevor May nicely breaks down what that means near the end of this excellent video .) ¡Felicidades, Javy!
• Riley Greene is on track to have over 100 RBI this year. If he keeps up the pace he’d be the first Detroit Tigers ’ player since Nick Castellanos in 2017 to do that.
• Also, 2017 was the year the Tigers started moving Castellanos to right field from third base. (Let’s just say ol’ Nick wasn’t exactly the best third baseman in the world.)
• On this day in 1865, formerly-enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were officially informed of their freedom two months after the US Civil War ended. (What can I say, news travelled pretty slowly before the internet came around.) The day was called Juneteenth and was first celebrated in Texas for many years before spreading all across the US in recent years, becoming a federal holiday in 2021.