Detroit — Josh Naylor continues to pester the Tigers.
He did it when he wore a Cleveland Guardians uniform and he’s done it the last two seasons with the Seattle Mariners.
His tactics aren’t necessarily illegal — like sending fake hand signals to a hitter when he’s on second base — nor are they especially kosher.
“I think he’s a guy that you like if he’s your teammate and you hate him if you are on the other side,” said Colt Keith, whose triple was one of just two hits the Tigers got Saturday in a 4-0 loss to the Mariners at Comerica Park. “I’ve seen him do some questionable, borderline dirty baseball stuff. But I think he plays hard.
“He’s just trying to get in your head.”
Naylor’s fingerprints, sliding gloves and spikes were all over the game Saturday. And he’s likely got a nasty bruise on the back of his shoulder to show for it.
He and Julio Rodriguez kept the third inning alive with two-out singles against Tigers starter Keider Montero. Randy Arozarena followed with a double. Rodriguez scored easily from second. Naylor looked like he might get thrown out the plate.
Right fielder Wenceel Perez and second baseman Gleyber Torres executed a smooth relay and the throw to catcher Dillon Dingler arrived at the plate at the same time as Naylor.
Naylor, though, was carrying his sliding glove in his right hand and just as he started his head-first slide, he threw the glove into Dingler as he was trying to catch the throw and apply the tag.
Naylor was called safe and it was upheld after video review.
“I didn’t see that,” Dingler said of the sliding glove. “I didn’t know what happened in real time. I didn’t see it until someone brought it up on the iPad in the dugout.”
Had the glove actually caused Dingler to miss the ball, interference could’ve been called. But Dingler wasn’t visibly impacted by it.
“I missed the tag,” Dingler said. “I didn’t put myself in the best position possible. … I’ve never seen it happen before but I’m sure if it actually messed up the play, something would’ve happened. But in real time, they wouldn’t have done anything about it anyway.”
Not illegal, not classy.
“I couldn’t get it on in time at first base,” Naylor told reporters when asked about why the mitt was in his hand and not on it. “I really didn’t expect Randy to swing at the first pitch. And then I forgot about it as I was running the bases. Then I noticed I had it on the video and it just flew. I felt really bad. I just totally blanked on it.”
BOX SCORE: Mariners 4, Tigers 0
The replay clearly shows him throwing the glove with an underhand motion as he was starting his slide.
“I saw it on the video,” manager AJ Hinch said. “I didn’t see it live. We looked at the replay to see if Ding tagged his hand on the way to the plate. It was a really good throw. Ding caught it in front of the plate. On the replay I saw the guard (sliding glove) go.”
Dingler wasn’t going to add any fuel to this particular fire.
“He plays the game hard,” he said of Naylor. “He’s a good player and he plays the game hard.”
On Friday night, Naylor collided with rookie Kevin McGonigle at first base. Naylor easily could’ve flipped the ball to pitcher Bryan Woo, who was at the bag in plenty of time.
Instead, he opted to run to the bag himself, taking an angle that put him directly in McGonigle’s path.
“Naylor was the bigger vehicle coming into first base,” Hinch said Friday night. “He took an angle betting on winning the collision.”
Again, not illegal, not classy.
“We just play our ball,” said Keith. “That play yesterday was tough when you hit one of our best players. It’s tough to see. But we need to just go out and play our ball and play hard, just like he is. But play the right way.”
When Naylor came to bat again in the top of the fifth inning Saturday, Montero drilled him on the back of the shoulder with a 96-mph sinker. Naylor took it well, like he understood that was the price to pay.
He even laughed as he looked back at Montero and tapped Dingler on the shoulder before going to first base.
“That was for yesterday,” Naylor said, referencing the collision with McGonigle. “(Framber) Valdez was pointing and laughing at me on the bench. So I knew it was on purpose.”
Montero said it was unintentional.
“I was trying to attack him in a few pitches,” Montero said through interpreter Carlos Guillen. “It was a sinker in and it moved too far in and got him. It was the circumstances of the game. It wasn’t anything unsportsmanlike.”
Montero, who reiterated that he wasn’t trying to hit Naylor, said, “It’s part of his game. He’s always laughing and doing stuff. I don’t mind that. That’s his playing style. I’ve got nothing to say about that. Everybody has their own individual playing style.”
Nobody was laughing on the next play when Naylor slid in hard and through the bag and into Torres on a 6-4-3 double-play ball.
“You are not supposed to slide through the bag,” Hinch said. “It’s 2026. Gleyber took exception to getting hit.”
Hinch, at least publicly, didn’t seem bothered by Naylor’s shenanigans.
“I almost had to remind myself what era we’re playing in,” he said. “That (the hard slide) was normal back in the day. We’re just not back in the day. Because it’s unusual now, that’s when you see some of the frustration come out on both sides. That style was how we played when I was growing up. It’s not how you play in 2026.
“He’s supposed to hold the bag, so he would’ve been out even if we hadn’t completed the double play.”
The Tigers, after scoring 32 runs the previous four games and carrying an MLB-best 1.038 OPS in June, could not solve Mariners’ hard-throwing right-hander Bryce Miller. Or the three relievers who followed.
Making just his fifth appearance and fourth start after dealing with an oblique injury, he blanked the Tigers on one hit for six innings, striking out nine.
“His four-seam looked really good with an upshoot,” said Keith, who tripled to lead off the third and was stranded. “It was every bit of 98 mph. He was throwing hard. And pair that with his splitter, he’s a tough guy to face. Especially today the way he was locating.”
Miller, who by the end of his day held his fastball at 96 mph, induced 16 whiffs (nine with the fastball) on 55 swings. Only two balls were hit hard off him.
“We had no counter for Miller,” Hinch said. “We haven’t seen him a lot but that was as good as I’ve seen him (live).”
The loss snaps the Tigers’ four-game winning streak.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Josh Naylor’s ‘borderline dirty’ play pesters Tigers again in loss to Mariners
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Chris McCosky, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
