Kansas City, Missouri. – Before Tuesday’s game, Matt Vierling talked about how it was almost like playing with the house money for the Tigers this month.
“Honestly, nobody thought we would ever make it here,” he said. “We’re just really grateful and happy and just having fun, and our young people are starting to believe in it. It’s all kind of happened organically and we’ve just embraced it.”
“We just play and have fun and shock people. It’s kind of fun.”
This game was pretty exciting. From the third to the ninth inning, the score was 1-1. And the Tigers knew that the Twins had already won their game in Cleveland.
After left-handed reliever Tyler Holton had taken out six batters in a row in the eighth and ninth innings, Parker Meadows, who had previously prevented two runs with a sensational catch, hit a single into the left outfield at the beginning of the tenth inning, allowing free runner Trey Sweeney to score and break the tie.
Riley Greene followed with an RBI single and the Tigers kept the series going, taking a 3-1 victory in 10 innings over the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
“There’s some of that,” Meadows said of the idea that things are starting to get tighter. “But we’re going to continue to do our thing and play our game. Just show up every day, have fun and stay relaxed. Just be in the moment and keep striking in big situations.”
“This team is really good at it.”
RESULT: Tigers 3, Royals 1 (10)
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Right-hander Jason Foley, playing in his third straight game, made his third straight save (25 on the season) by overcoming orders from the Royals – Bobby Witt, Jr., Salvador Perez and Michael Massey – to leave the free runner standing.
The win keeps the Tigers, who at 79-73 are six games over .500 for the first time this season, a game and a half behind the Twins for the final wild-card spot with 10 games remaining. Their record of 24-10 since Aug. 3 is the best in baseball.
But this game doesn’t get to the 10th inning without Meadows’ third-inning play. The Royals had already scored a run against starter Casey Mize and had two runs on base with two outs. Hunter Renfroe hit a ball just over Meadows’ head in the middle.
Meadows followed it at a sprint speed of 27.6 feet per second for a distance of 75 feet and caught it on the wall.
“I was a tough nut to crack,” he said. “I had a pretty good jump, maybe not the best, but I was able to make up for it. I had to get to the point before the ball. I looked up at the last second and saw it was catchable.”
Mize just shook his head.
“At first I was surprised and then I thought, ‘Why am I surprised that Parker is chasing the ball?'” Mize said. “We’ve talked about it up here. The guy can be a superstar. He’s got everything. When he chases the ball like that, it kind of reminds you why. He’s a freak out there.”
When Meadows starts, the Tigers are 42-23. That feels less random every day.
“I’ll start him tomorrow,” joked manager AJ Hinch. “It’s really remarkable. He’s been an influential player on both sides and can get a lot better. We can win with him.”
The Tigers can also win with their bullpen, and Hinch continues to rely heavily on his back-end warriors.
Despite hitting 97 and 98 mph on his fastballs and 90 mph on his sliders and splitters, Mize failed to make it past the fifth inning for the second consecutive game.
“It wasn’t pretty or perfect from my side, but I did my best on every pitch and I felt like I kept us in the game as best as I could,” said Mize, who allowed one run on six hits and four walks in 4.1 innings.
With one out in the fifth inning, he allowed a single by Tommy Pham and then walked Witt and Perez. He had 89 pitches when Hinch went to the bullpen.
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Right-hander Shelby Miller got out of trouble with a single pitch, getting Massey to jump into a quick 4-6-3 double play.
“We were surprised at first,” Mize said of the Tigers’ bullpen performance. “Now it’s like they’re just doing it. We feel good about letting them have the ball because they’re relentless in getting outs in a lot of different ways and getting the job done.”
“I wish I could have done more for them tonight, but when I see Shelby running in, I’m confident he can get out of that situation. That’s just the state of things where we are right now.”
Miller also got out of a tough spot in the sixth inning when the bases were loaded by forcing Pham to hit a flyout to right.
Beau Brieske, making his fourth appearance in five days, struck out Witt (looking), Perez (swinging) and Massey (looking) in the seventh inning to keep the game tied at 1-1.
“Beau throws with a lot of confidence and his stuff is outstanding,” Hinch said. “And he comes into the dugout with a little emotion, which I love. These guys are all in and giving it their all. They’ve pitched a lot and are giving it their all now.”
From there, Holton took over and six quick outs later he handed it off to Foley, who finished the game.
“We’ve played well all year and you just try to keep everything the same process-wise,” Foley said. “Just attack the zone. Don’t stay back… They definitely had the part of their lineup that they wanted (in the 10th). It was great that we made that second run.”
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The Tigers never really got going against Royals left-handed starter Cole Ragans. He allowed an RBI double from Vierling in the first inning and none in the seventh. Tigers hitters missed his changeup on 10 of 18 hits. In addition, nine four-seamers were counted as strikes.
But they stayed in the fight long enough for Meadows to fend off a nasty changeup from reliever Lucas Erceg in the 10th inning and throw the ball to left.
“Hard pitch, hard pitcher and we threw some hard at-bats against him,” Hinch said. “Riley had a really good at-bat and that tied in with Jace’s at-bat.”
After Meadows broke the tie, Jace Jung, batting for Andy Ibanez, saw nine pitches from Erceg before retiring. Vierling extended the inning with a walk and Greene hit one up the middle and past Witt.
As Meadows said, they continue to strike in big situations.
There was one downside to the evening. Rookie second baseman Colt Keith was taken out of the game in the eighth inning. He lunged at a ball hit up the middle by Pham in the fifth inning and landed hard on his right shoulder.
“I kind of jammed it and it didn’t feel good when I threw it,” Keith said. “So I took myself out. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow or the day after when I get it checked out.”
It’s the same shoulder Keith injured at West Michigan in 2022. That was a labrum injury that did not require surgery.
“I think he’s OK, he needs to get checked out,” Hinch said. “He came off and got his right shoulder jammed and didn’t feel strong. In a game as close as this, I can’t risk him not being able to throw or obviously swing. We’re hoping he just hit the ball on the takeoff and nothing else happened.”
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