Plenty of baserunners, not enough run scorers.
The Tigers continued their series against the Padres tonight with Jack Flaherty on the mound for the Tigers up against Nick Pivetta for the Padres. Flaherty was throwing a nice mix of pitches to help keep the San Diego batters on their toes. He looked fairly confident in his delivery and stuff from the start, but one pitch was the difference in this one as both sides threw the ball really well and had hitters off balance all night.
In the first inning, Flaherty wasted no time getting the Padres out in order. Onto the home half, and Gleyber Torres got a one-out walk and was able to steal second. But even with a runner in scoring position, the Tigers weren’t able to score.
Xander Bogaerts kicked off the second with a single. Then, while Flaherty collected two outs, he gave up a home run to Elias Diaz, to put the Padres up by two. In the home half Dillon Dingler singled with two outs, but was left stranded.
In the third, Fernando Tatis Jr. reached on a fielding error by Trey Sweeney, but Flaherty pitched out of the jam on the next two batters. The Tigers went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.
The fourth inning saw old friend Jose Iglesias get a two-out single, but he was unable to score. Meanwhile, in the home half, Justyn-Henry Malloy got his own two-out single and was also left stranded.
Tyler Wade kicked off the fifth with a leadoff single. Three outs followed to leave him at first. In the bottom half of the inning the Tigers got another walk for the night a Trey Sweeney collected a free bag, but two outs followed and once again the Tigers failed to bring a baserunner home.
In the sixth, Oscar Gonzalez got a two-out single, and time for a moment of appreciation for Flaherty’s knuckle curve, which might be one of the filthiest pitches I’ve seen all season. Dead sexy, that. The Padres left their baserunner stranded, ending the inning with a groundout.
That was the end of the day for Flaherty and his knuckle curve, going 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 1 HR on 96 pitches. The Tigers went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.
Bailey Horn was in out of the Tigers’ pen for the seventh and his sweeper befuddled the Padres beautifully, taking out the side in order. The Tigers went 1-2-3 again in the bottom of the seventh.
Horn stayed in for the eighth and gave up a leadoff walk to Tatis. Horn got one more out, then A.J. Hinch turned to Chase Lee, making his MLB debut. Lee, delightfully, earned the nickname of “the Viper” after switching to a sidearm delivery in college and suddenly finding a lot of success. Manny Machado hit a liner back to Lee, who turned it to Torkelson for a double-play to end the inning. Nice way to be introduced to the big leagues.
In the home half Jason Adam was in to replace Pivetta, and with one out, Javier Baez singled. Credit where credit is due, Mason McCoy of the Padres made a sick catch rolling over the tarp against the netting on the first base side. The Tigers reviewed the play to see if the ball hit the net before McCoy caught it, which would make it a dead ball, not an out. The Tigers lost the challenge. McCoy then made another crazy diving stop to get the final out of the inning. Curse your incredible fielding, McCoy!
Top of the ninth, and Lee stayed in, and Bogaerts hit right back to him. Lee tried to throw to first, but ended up nailing Bogaerts in the back, but Bogaerts was called out anyway for running on the grass instead of the basepath. Lee then walked a pinch-hitting Tirso Ornelas with some very borderline pitches. Iglesias then got hit by a pitch, grazing his uniform. With two runners on, Riley Greene made a tremendous diving catch in left on a sinking drive hit by Diaz. Lee then walked Tyler Wade. Could the rookie dig deep and keep the score close to give the Tigers a chance at a comeback? Yes he could. Lee got McCoy to chase a pitch way outside the zone to get his first major league strikeout and escaped the inning with the bases left loaded. Phew.
It was down to the bottom of the ninth, and the Tigers were almost out of chances against Robert Suarez. Too bad it didn’t appear that a comeback was in order as the Tigers went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning. Onto tomorrow’s rubber match!
Final: Padres 2, Tigers 0