Detroit – The Tigers have spent the better part of the last three years building a winning culture and nurturing a renewed love affair with the city and the fan base. So to hear the boos floating down from the remnants of a crowd of 21,954 at Comerica Park after another tough loss Tuesday night, well, it felt like salt in the wound.
“It’s part of it,” manager AJ Hinch said after the Tigers gave up a grand slam home run to Vaughn Grissom in a five-run eighth inning to lose, 10-6 to the Los Angeles Angels. “We come to the ballpark every day to win the game and we were in position again and we couldn’t get to the finish line. I know everyone is frustrated inside the building and everyone is frustrated outside the building.
“You kind of have to wear it when the fans turn frustrated with you. Does it feel good to wear this uniform, the home whites with the Old English D, and get booed? Of course not. But you’ve got to play better to bring better energy to the ballpark.”
This loss, the Tigers’ seventh straight at home, was the 11th time this season they lost a game after six innings or later, by far the most in the Major Leagues.
“We are all frustrated,” said Spencer Torkelson, whose bid for a game-breaking grand slam hooked a few feet foul in the fifth inning. “I feel like we all have more to give to this team. But it’s just not happening right now.”
This one scrambled the mind. After having scored four runs or less in 13 straight games, The Tigers posted five on the board through five innings and led 6-4 in the eighth inning.
And, with right-hander Will Vest on the mound, and two outs and the Angels’ No. 9 hitter in the box, Logan O’Hoppe, who came into the game 10 for 68 against right-handed pitching, it had close out written all over it.
“Two-run lead with four outs to go and a five-spot goes up,” Hinch said, still in disbelief. “That’s a hard one to digest right after the game.”
Vest inherited the two-run lead with two on in the seventh inning and got out of it. He struck out Jorge Soler and then got bailed out by a brilliant running catch at the wall in the right-center gap by Riley Greene.
But with two outs in the eighth, O’Hoppe launched a fly ball to the wall in right field. Wenceel Perez tracked it and seemed in position to catch it. But he missed it. The ball fell at the base of the wall for a double. A run was in and the inning was extended. Fatally so.
“I don’t know if Wenceel misjudged it or didn’t see it,” Hinch said. “I need to see another angle. It looked like he tracked it and started to get close to the wall. I don’t know if he just missed it, if he misjudged it or if it wasn’t catchable.”
It was catchable.
Vest didn’t record another out.
The next hitter, Zach Neto, worked a nine-pitch at-bat and singled on a ball that caromed off Vest’s backside and away from second baseman Hao-Yu Lee.
“Vesty took one off his butt-cheek that was right to the second baseman,” Torkelson said. “That’s out of the inning right there. But that’s just the way things are going for us.”
After Vest walked Mike Trout, Grissom unloaded on a 2-0 fastball, sending it out to right-center. He had six RBI on the night.
“Just didn’t execute when I needed to,” Vest said. “I let the inning unravel, which is unfortunate. I think it just came down to execution toward the end. I wasn’t able to execute with my fastball.”
Grissom homered on Vest’s 34th pitch. The Tigers didn’t have anybody warming in the bullpen until he threw his 30th pitch.
“He’s the right guy,” Hinch said when asked about sticking with Vest. “We had two outs and a runner on first with the ball in Will Vest’s hand. He can make a pitch and get that out. I know we don’t like it when it doesn’t happen. But he can get that out.”
The Tigers’ bullpen has blown three saves in the last five games. And neither Kenley Jansen nor Kyle Finnegan were up in the eighth or ninth. Tyler Holton closed out the game.
“Any time you lose it sucks,” Vest said. “When the losses are compounding like they are right now, it sucks. That’s the best way to put it. But it is a long season. We can come out of this. We just have to keep showing up. The ball is not going our way right now. Just keep showing up and keep doing our job.”
There were some good moments in this game for the Tigers. Rookie Kevin McGonigle had three hits including a two-run triple that took them from one run down to two runs up in the fifth. They drew six walks and eight hits, after producing seven or fewer hits in the previous 11 games.
The switch-hitting Perez, who came in hitting .162, drove a right-handed homer beyond the Tigers’ bullpen in left.
Colt Keith had a single and a triple and scored twice against right-handed starter Jack Kochanowicz. And when the Angels went to a lefty in the fifth, Hinch stayed with his process and used right-handed hitting Jahmai Jones to pinch-hit. And he delivered an RBI single.
BOX SCORE: Angels 10,
The Tigers still had the bases loaded and no outs in that fifth inning and Torkelson unloaded on a first pitch breaking ball from lefty Mitch Farris, sending it over the foul pole in left. But replays confirmed it hooked just foul.
He ended up striking out, as did Zach McKinstry and the Tigers stranded those three runners.
“We could’ve broke the game open,” Hinch said. “Our homer went two feet foul and their homer went 10 feet over the fence. Both for four runs. That’s a big swing, obviously. Not breaking the game open when we had the opportunity was a tough one. It changes the trajectory of the game.
“You don’t have to be perfect in every spot, but looking back, that was a huge spot to capitalize on some momentum and some matchups.”
The game ended up being an ugly sandwich for the Tigers, a couple of good innings sandwiched between a bad start and a brutal finish.
“I don’t know if anything can add to the frustration,” Hinch said. “It’s already at a high level. It doesn’t matter how you lose, it’s frustrating. You want to address things and get back to our style of play and back to that belief that when you have the win, you’re going to execute to the finish line.”
The Tigers and Angels are both 21-34 and at the bottom of their respective divisions.
“We are just frustrated with losing,” Torkelson said. “Winning is a hell of a lot more fun and we know how to play winning baseball. We know what it takes and we will turn things around.”
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers’ Will Vest allows late grand slam, lose opener to Angels
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
