How does the Detroit Tigers’ rare pitching strategy work?
Mark and Evan discuss the atypical pitching approach the Tigers are using out of necessity. Full Days of Roar podcast (September 3) available now.
Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal, the favorite for the American League Cy Young Award, was unable to add another win to his candidacy as the best pitcher in baseball.
Worse still, the Tigers failed to add another win to their AL wildcard race, suffering a heartbreaking loss to the Oakland Athletics.
The Tigers lost 7-6 to the Athletics in the first of three games of the series at Oakland Coliseum on Friday. Skubal gave up two runs and failed to finish the sixth inning, but the Tigers forced overtime — only to lose in the 13th inning on a walk-off single by Seth Brown.
“This was a winnable game,” manager AJ Hinch told reporters in Oakland. “We brought this on ourselves in some situations. The games here get a little crazy, with extra innings and all the extra runners and stuff. It’s a tough loss.”
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For the first time since Aug. 2, the Tigers (71-71) lost a game in which Skubal began to end a streak of five wins in Skubal games. The loss puts the Tigers within 5½ of the third and final wild-card spot in the American League with 20 games remaining.
This game lasted four extra innings.
In the 10th inning, the Tigers and Athletics traded runs, with an RBI single by Colt Keith off right-handed reliever Mason Miller with two outs in the top half and an RBI double by Brent Rooker off right-handed reliever Brenan Hanifee in the bottom half.
In the 11th inning, the Tigers and Athletics traded two runs, with Parker Meadows’ two-run double off left-handed reliever Scott Alexander with two outs in the top half and Brown’s two-run home run off right-handed reliever Shelby Miller in the bottom half.
Brown, a left-handed pinch hitter, smashed Miller’s middle-middle slider with two strikes.
“It hasn’t changed much because we have Shelby playing against lefties the way he pitched against lefties,” Hinch said. “I know he had a couple of tough at-bats, but in general he was really tough there. Just one pitch to Brown and the game was on.”
In the 12th inning, the Tigers and Athletics traded runs, with Riley Greene’s RBI single to right-handed reliever Grant Holman in the top half and Rooker’s sacrifice fly to right-handed reliever Beau Brieske in the bottom half.
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At the beginning of the 13th inning, the score was tied 6-6.
Meadows, who hit a grand slam in the ninth inning to lead off Friday’s win over the San Diego Padres, struck out with a flourish in the 13th inning with the bases loaded and two outs.
The Meadows strikeout was Holman’s only strikeout in two innings of work.
The Athletics didn’t miss their chance with one out in the bottom of the 13th inning when Brown turned an inside fastball from Brieske into a walk-off single down the first-base line into right field, bringing the free runner home from second base.
It was Brown’s second big hit in three innings.
In the loss, the Tigers used 13 fielders and eight pitchers.
Meadows went 2-for-7 with four strikeouts; Greene went 4-for-6 with one strikeout; Keith went 1-for-6 with two strikeouts; Spencer Torkelson went 0-for-6 with four strikeouts; Trey Sweeney went 0-for-6 with two strikeouts; Jake Rogers went 0-for-4 with two walks and two strikeouts. Torkelson has 26 strikeouts in 59 appearances over his last 14 games – a 48% strikeout rate.
The game lasted three hours and 34 minutes.
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Tarik Skubal Day
Skubal held the Athletics at bay until the fourth inning, when Lawrence Butler and Rooker hit back-to-back singles. With one out, JJ Bleday hit a ball off the center-field wall, but for a moment it looked like Meadows had caught the ball.
The moment of uncertainty was enough to fool the Athletics. Butler stayed on third base, Bleday on second base, and Rooker got in between them. The Tigers tagged Rooker out between the bases.
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Skubal then left two runners in scoring position by throwing out former Tiger Tyler Nevin and throwing in an 89.6 mph changeup in the bottom of the strike zone. When Nevin missed, Skubal let out a whoop of joy as he ran backwards off the mound.
However, the Athletics finally scored in the fifth inning when Zack Gelof hit a one-out double and Jacob Wilson hit a two-out triple. The triple fell inside the free throw line in right field, just out of reach of Kerry Carpenter’s slipping glove, tying the game at 1-1.
In the sixth inning, former Tiger Daz Cameron gave the Athletics a 2-1 lead when he hit an RBI single off Skubal’s sinker, placed in center, with two strikes and two outs. Cameron’s single drove Skubal out of the game after 96 pitches.
Skubal has a 2.53 ERA in 28 starts.
Against the Athletics, Skubal allowed two runs on nine hits, zero walks and seven strikeouts. The 27-year-old managed 18 whiffs in 48 swings, including 11 whiffs in 18 swings against his changeup.
Before the extra innings
The Tigers scored one run each in the fifth and seventh innings.
In the fifth inning, Meadows, Jace Jung and Greene chased right-hander Mitch Spence from his starting spot with three consecutive singles. Greene’s single gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
In the seventh inning, Greene – a left-hander – hit a two-strike, two-out double against left-handed reliever Hogan Harris. The Tigers brought in Matt Vierling as a pinch hitter for Carpenter, but the Athletics countered by bringing in right-handed reliever Michel Otañez.
The decision was a failure.
Otañez threw two wild pitches to Vierling in his first six pitches. The first wild pitch allowed Greene to advance to third base, and the second wild pitch allowed Greene to score to tie the game 2-2.
Contact Evan Petzold at [email protected] or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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