Detroit – The Tigers like to play aggressive baseball and apply pressure on the opponent at every turn.
The Milwaukee Brewers, they pretty much own the brand.
“It’s no secret,” Jake Rogers said before the game Tuesday, “they wreak some havoc.”
The havoc started in the second inning, when the Brewers scored three times on their way to a 12-4 romp in the first of three games at Comerica Park. The loss snapped the Tigers’ six-game home win streak.
“We go over it and we talked about it,” manager AJ Hinch said. “It’s really frustrating because we just didn’t play fast enough. I’m frustrated with the way we just couldn’t execute. There had to be four if not five (outs) that they’re giving us if we could just execute.
“And obviously that creates pressure on top of pressure, which is their strength.”
It started when Garrett Mitchell, with his elite 30 feet-per-second sprint speed, beat out a routine ground ball to shortstop.
“I sat back on it,” rookie Kevin McGonigle said. “I should’ve went and got it. I’m learning runners right now. I know they have speed in their lineup. I’m not happy with that. It kind of opened up a big inning for them. I’m going to learn from it, for sure.”
Tigers starter Keider Montero walked Luis Rengifo. The Brewers are second in the big leagues in drawing walks. Then he fell behind Sal Frelick before giving up an RBI single to right.
David Hamilton pushed a bunt toward third base which rookie Hao-Yu Lee reacted late on. The infield single loaded the bases.
“These are valuable lessons for those guys,” Hinch said. “It’s just tough to swallow in the competition.”
After Montero struck out Blake Perkins, Brice Turang dropped a broken-bat single into shallow right field. Two runs scored easily and a potential third run was cut down at the plate by a well-executed relay and rundown by the Tigers.
BOX SCORE: Brewers 12, Tigers 4
Right-fielder Matt Vierling threw a head-high strike to cutoff man Spencer Torkelson in the middle of the diamond. The throw was high enough to entice Turang to go to second.
Torkelson, second baseman Gleyber Torres and McGonigle kept Turang in the rundown until Hamilton, who was rounding third, broke for home.
McGonigle pivoted and threw him out at the plate. Textbook.
Vierling talked about trying to deal with the Brewers’ aggression before the game.
“It starts with awareness,” he said. “They are going to go. Like, No. 1, they are going to go first to third, they are going to try to steal, they are going to try to take every 90 feet. So, you have to attack every ball in the outfield.
“You need to throw it in quick and hit the cutoff man.”
They executed on that one but the fatal damage had been done.
“I thought Keider pitched effectively through all that mess,” Hinch said of Montero, who didn’t allow another run and went 5.2 innings.
The Tigers were handed an opportunity to flip the game in the bottom of the fourth, but they deferred.
Kyle Harrison, the Brewers’ lefty starter staked to a 3-0 lead, walked Riley Greene and Torkelson and then gave up a bullet single to Lee. Lee, in his Comerica Park debut, hit the ball so hard (110.6 mph off the bat), Greene didn’t have a chance to score from second.
That ended Harrison’s night but only one of those runners would end up on his ledger.
Right-hander Grant Anderson, who throws nasty four-seamers and sweepers with a side-arm delivery, got Javier Báez to ground into a double-play, which brought Greene home.
Hinch, fourth inning or not, took his shot using lefty Kerry Carpenter to pinch-hit for Jahmai Jones.
Anderson struck out Carpenter with a sweeper.
That turned out to be the last gasp for the Tigers’ offense.
The Tigers did what you cannot do against the Brewers in the seventh. They gave them an extra out and paid for it with two tack-on runs.
Lefty reliever Enmanuel De Jesus got the first two outs before giving up a single to lefty-swinger Hamilton and then walked No. 9 hitter Perkins. But he had a chance to end the inning right there. He caught Hamilton leaving second base early. He ran right at him, like he’s supposed to, but his throw to second baseman Torres was errant and Hamilton strolled into the third base.
Turang and William Contreras followed with back-breaking RBI singles.
“Really disappointing,” De Jesus said. “We weren’t able to get the results we were looking for. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hold the game right there to give us a chance. I felt a little bit rushed (on the throw). I was trying to attack him and throw to second base. He’s a really fast runner. I was trying to get the ball to the infielder so he can do his job.
“Unfortunately, it was a bad throw.”
His night got considerably worse in the eighth when the Brewers, in a pocket of five left-handed hitters, batted around and tacked on seven more runs. De Jesus did not record an out.
He gave up back-to-back triples to Gary Sanchez and Turang to start the inning, just the fourth career triple for the slow-footed Sanchez, and was ultimately pulled after he reacted late and wasn’t able to beat Hamilton to the bag on a ground ball to Torkelson at first.
“Rough one,” Hinch said. “He started out great but things just piled up on him. Whether it was a mistake pitch or a mistake PFP (pitchers fielding practice) play that turned into a crooked number or not covering first — it was a collection of mental lapses that create a messy game.”
The Tigers (12-12) got a too-little-too-late boost from Rogers, a catcher by trade, who pitched a scoreless ninth inning and recorded his first big-league strikeout, freezing Joey Ortiz with a knuckleball.
And after being limited to one hit from the fourth to the eighth, they rattled off four hits in the ninth, including an RBI single by McGonigle, who has reached base safely in 19 straight starts, and a two-run double by Vierling.
“I am glad we got a little positive energy out of Jake pitching and we got a couple of runs, but we have to address some things,” Hinch said. “The unnecessary mistakes create way more havoc than what’s necessary.”
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Mental lapses cost Tigers in 12-4 loss to Brewers: ‘Messy game’
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
