Detroit — Desperation is a dangerous thing. And sometimes in a long season with the odds stacking, it’s a beautiful thing.
Jahmai Jones has felt it and heard it, as his pinch-hitting woes were eliciting boos. So when he hit a soft grounder to short with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the Tigers trailing, he put his head down and churned as if chasing redemption. Jones beat the throw, barely, and helped the Tigers beat the White Sox, barely, and once again we saw how narrow the margins really are.
Dillon Dingler – the Tigers’ newfound Mr. Clutch – cracked the tying single moments later and the Tigers rallied for a 5-4, 10-inning victory Sunday to sweep their division rival. Jones’ dash to first base was much shorter than any dash to first place, and even after a rollicking weekend in a packed Comerica Park, the Tigers are a long way from sniffing contention. But one precious base at a time, their desperation and determination are still alive.
It’s the season’s longest homestand, and while it isn’t quite the Tigers’ last stand, it sure feels like it. With three straight taut victories over the White Sox, the Tigers (33-44) continue to lurk as if they can’t help it, with seven home games looming against the Yankees and Astros. The Tigers are 7.5 games behind first-place Cleveland in the Central and five games out of a wildcard spot. Thanks to the A.L.’s utter mediocrity, the Tigers’ playoff chances still hover above 20%, better than you’d think.
We wouldn’t (shouldn’t?) be having this conversation except that the Tigers’ top-notch rotation is coming together, and last we checked, Tarik Skubal is still on the roster and almost back to full strength. The elements that carried the Tigers to the playoffs the past two seasons resurfaced, from solid defense to aggressive baserunning to clutch hitting. Before this game, the Tigers were 8-14 in one-run games, 0-5 in extra innings, 8-16 against Central foes.
Not much reason to think anything would appreciably change. Just like there wasn’t much reason to think the Tigers could pull out a 4-3 victory Friday night on Kerry Carpenter’s two-out bloop double in the sixth. Or Matt Vierling would win it in the 10th on Father’s Day on a bases-loaded bloop single.
Or that Jones, mired in a 3-for-28 slump that brought the fans’ wrath, would alter their fate with two outs and nobody on in the ninth. When White Sox reliever Seranthony Dominguez delivered the first pitch to Jones, he appeared to end the game. Shortstop Luisangel Acuna scooped up the routine tapper, apparently unaware Jones was running like his future depended on it. Jones covered 90 feet in 29.7 seconds, uncommon speed, and beat the throw by an inch.
What was going through Jones’ head during the tense video review to confirm it?
“Everything, man,” he said. “Please Lord let this be a hit. It’s Father’s Day, man!”
It was the play of the game, but only because the Tigers made several more plays of the game, including Dingler’s RBI single. After the White Sox scored in the top of the 10th, Spencer Torkelson’s two-strike RBI single tied it again 4-4, and Vierling’s looper won it.
None of this is to suggest fortunes have officially, irrevocably turned for the Tigers. It could be telling, it could be teasing, it could be nothing. But it’s classic Tigers, who in consecutive seasons have fashioned a historic comeback, a historic collapse, then another recovery.
In case you forgot, this was how it often looked, with another efficient outing by a starting pitcher. Keider Montero went seven innings and allowed three runs, the 25th consecutive start by a Tiger surrendering four runs or fewer, longest streak in the majors. Another sellout crowd (40,021) was on its feet the final two innings, watching the Tigers make clutch plays.
“Obviously a high-character win, a lot of different contributions,” AJ Hinch said. “Nice to see things go our way and find a way to fight and claw back. … (Jones) is going through it, he feels it, he knows it, he hears it, and obviously he doesn’t have any quit in him.”
Hinch famously doesn’t give up on many players, or defy many analytics. When he lifted Carpenter against a lefty with the bases loaded in the fourth inning Saturday and Jones proceeded to strike out, it elicited the loudest booing of the season. When Jones pinch-hit for Zach McKinstry in the seventh inning Sunday, the boos boomed again and he struck out. When he came to the plate in the ninth, the noise was muted, but notable.
On Father’s Day, Jones might have been thinking about his late dad, Andre Jones, who played for the Lions. But mostly, he was trying not to think too much about anything.
“That’s the first time in my career I’ve been booed by an entire stadium,” said Jones, who’s almost always smiling. “I think sometimes fans forget we’re trying just as hard, I promise. It’s a bad feeling, but if I got wrapped up in it, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did. Hopefully I can start turning it around so they can forgive me. Obviously the entire city wants us to win, and knows how good we can be.”
It’s fruitless to keep guessing at playoff percentages, but the Tigers, more than any team, are forced to do it. Team president Scott Harris must decide sometime before the Aug. 3 trade deadline what to do with Skubal, and if the Tigers aren’t close to contention, he has to deal him. Skubal laid out the urgency the other day when he told the Detroit News’ Chris McCosky, “The reality is we need to play better baseball, or else come the deadline, you give the front office an option to reassess where this team is.”
If this is the final 90-foot (or 90-game) sprint for the Tigers, they may be better equipped to handle it. Troy Melton has stepped nicely into the rotation, even as Justin Verlander returned to the injured list. If Framber Valdez can show more of what he’s capable of, the Tigers have a fearsome group with Skubal and Casey Mize. The Yankees are sending ace Gerrit Cole against Valdez Monday night at Comerica Park, but they’re without injured superstar Aaron Judge.
For the Tigers to make this interesting, they’ll have to do it with starting pitching because the offense has holes, especially with Gleyber Torres out. This team is peculiar in many ways, starting with its streakiness. Before Sunday’s game, they had the exact same run differential as the Guardians, yet were 7.5 games behind them.
The difference is in the margins, the one-run games, the extra-inning games, the toe on the bag a split second before the ball arrives. The effort is what made this one of the best wins of the season, and why the Tigers decline to be defined by their historically woeful May.
“I know sometimes when we have lulls on offense, it’s easy to pile on and ask about our energy,” Hinch said. “We need to keep chipping away one step at a time to dig out of this hole. Our guys recognize the fans showed up, were loud, were into it, they showed their pleasure, their frustration. I think this group in here knows exactly what this place is like, and how much of a true homefield advantage it is when we play the brand of baseball we did this weekend.”
Sunday was the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and the Tigers still have one of the longest climbs in baseball. One step, one out, one outing, one desperate lunge at a time.
Bob.wojnowski@detroitnews.com
@bobwojnowski
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Wojo: Against all odds, Jahmai Jones and Tigers keep clawing
Reporting by Bob Wojnowski, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Bob Wojnowski, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
