The News’ Tony Paul gives his quick takes on the Tigers’ 5-3 loss to the Orioles in Game 1 of a day-night doubleheader Sunday afternoon:
One thing I loved
The Tigers spent the better part of the week watching the Cleveland Guardians be super-opportunistic on offense, and it led to a four-game sweep in Detroit. Well, the Tigers had a Guards Ball-type inning in the fourth inning of Game 1 of the doubleheader Sunday in Baltimore, where even two of their three outs were productive.
Kevin McGonigle led off with a single (his 54th career hit in his 51st major-league game), before Dillon Dingler reached on an error by Orioles first baseman Pete Alonso. The Tigers took advantage. Riley Greene flew out to center field, but McGonigle still was able to tag to get to third. Matt Vierling then followed with an RBI single, and Dingler made his way to third base. Colt Keith then drove in Dingler with a sacrifice fly to right for the 2-0 early lead. Four innings later, the Tigers pushed the lead back to two runs, 3-1, on an infield single by Spencer Torkelson.
The reality is, the Tigers are going to need to take advantage of more innings like this. They’re a bottom-six team in baseball in homers, with noticeable power decreases by Greene (four) and Keith (zero). With so many key injuries, the bottom three in the lineup of Game 1 Sunday afternoon featured three players (Wenceel Perez, Jake Rogers and Zack Short) carrying an OPS of less than .500. Scratching and clawing for table scraps is imperative if this team is going to scratch and claw its way back into an AL Central picture that’s very close to fading to black after the losing streak now has reached eight.
One thing I didn’t
You can excuse some of the extreme weaknesses in the Tigers’ lineup. You don’t like it if you’re a Tigers fan, but you get it, with the injuries to the likes of Gleyber Torres, Kerry Carpenter, Javier Báez and Parker Meadows.
But atop the Tigers’ lineup Sunday afternoon was Zach McKinstry, and he’s a glaring problem, given he was an All-Star last year, and Tigers brass (manager AJ Hinch and president Scott Harris) repeatedly this winter cited their All-Star third baseman as a reason they didn’t feel a sense of urgency to add a big bat (i.e., Alex Bregman) via free agency. But more and more, the first 106 games of 2025 were the exception, not the rule for McKinstry:
McKinstry was 0-for-3 with a walk in Game 1 on Sunday afternoon, and he’s nearly a negative-1.0 WAR player for a Tigers team that now has scored three runs or fewer in 14 of its last 17 games. The Tigers had just six hits (five singles) in Sunday’s Game 1 loss, and they haven’t had more than seven in a game since May 13.
Three stars
(Season total in parentheses)
Matt Vierling (6)
Will Vest
Framber Valdez (6)
Player of the game
Colton Cowser — A three-run home run to win it with two out in the bottom of the ninth. It’s the third walk-off homer allowed this season by Tigers closer Kenley Jansen, who has four blown saves.
Tigers’ uniform tracker
Next Tigers game
Game 54: Tigers at Orioles, 6:35 Sunday, Detroit SportsNet, 97.1
ICYMI: Friday’s Tigers recap
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit Tigers, Game 53: One thing I loved, one thing I didn’t
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
