Seattle — The night featured five hit-batsmen, a mini-skirmish, a couple of ejections and an all-world bat flip from Julio Rodriguez.
But in terms of the actual game, it was Randy Arozarena night at T-Mobile Park Wednesday.
The dynamic Seattle outfielder stole a three-run home run in the fourth inning then delivered a clutch two-out, two-strike double in the sixth that kept the inning alive for Rodriguez’s three-run homer (and epic bat flip) that broke a scoreless tie and sent the Mariners to a 4-2 win.
Thus ending the Tigers’ four-game winning streak and their six-game spree of scoring eight or more runs.
As manager AJ Hinch tried to piece together a bullpen game, started by Drew Anderson who is being built up to rejoin the rotation, Arozarena’s knock foiled the plan.
Lefty Tyler Holton had dispatched six straight Mariners between the fourth and the sixth innings. But with two outs in the sixth and right-handed hitting Arozarena coming up, Hinch went to right-hander Brenan Hanifee.
At a different point in the season, Hinch would’ve been able to go to Will Vest or Kyle Finnegan in that spot. Vest is out for the season after elbow surgery and Finnegan has struggled, giving up six runs in his last two outings.
And Hanifee, though he has been more vulnerable this season (.295 in the short sample), is still a tough at-bat for right-handed hitters, especially Arozarena, who was hitless against him in four at-bats.
“We have to cover a lot of innings,” Hinch said. “So we’re just trying to piece together the bullpen game. I got Holton a third up (pitching in a third inning), which is something I don’t normally do. But getting to Arozarena, I thought we had two shots to get one right-handed hitter out with Hanifee, and then I could turn it over to (lefty Drew) Sommers.”
Hanifee got quickly ahead 0-2, but after missing with a slider, he tried to come inside with a 95-mph sinker and Arozarena slashed it into the corner in left for a double.
“That was the pitch we were trying execute,” Tigers’ catcher Eduardo Valencia said. “He had a really good at-bat and he won.”
BOX SCORE: Mariners 4, Tigers 2
That was absolutely the worst-case scenario for the Tigers. Next up was lefty Dominic Canzone. Hinch had the choice between Canzone (a rock) and Mariners’ All-Star, but right-hand hitting, Rodriguez (a hard place).
With baseball’s three-batter rule, he had to ride with Hanifee.
“All of a sudden, it opens up for Canzone, who is significantly better than Julio against right-handed pitching,” Hinch said. “Now, Julio can burn you at any time, which we saw.”
Left-handed hitters have an .888 OPS against Hanifee. Rodriguez’s OPS against right-handers is .694.
Hinch gave Canzone the free pass and Rodriguez slugged a first-pitch sinker (97 mph) on a line into the right-field seats.
“He put a great swing on a decent pitch,” Hinch said. “Maybe not a perfect pitch. But that is the moment to look back to, which is both frustrating but also part of the game.”
Hanifee had allowed three homers to right-handed hitters in 250 plate appearances before this season. Rodriguez’s blast was third hit off him this season.
“Just execution,” Hinch said. “The location has just been up a little more lately. The ball isn’t driving down as much to get it on the ground. The one to Arozarena was more lateral, side to side, and it’s easier to get it in the air. Usually, you can’t get the ball in the air against him. Execution and not being able to throw the pitch with the action he wants is plaguing him.”
That was Arozarena’s offensive game-changer.
His defensive game-changer came in the fourth.
First, he threw out Gleyber Torres, who mistakenly tried to go first to third on a single to left by Dillon Dingler.
Then, with Dingler and Riley Greene on base, Arozarena leaped above the wall and snared what looked like a three-run homer slugged by Colt Keith.
“A couple of inches from a three-run homer,” Hinch said. “That probably changes the trajectory of the game.”
That was the only threat the Tigers mounted against Mariners’ starter Bryan Woo, despite the fact that he hit three batters and walked another. The back-to-back singles by Torres and Dingler, plus a single by Max Clark in the seventh, were the lone hits against Woo in seven innings.
The three batters Woo hit didn’t factor into the drama in the eighth. Another hit-by-pitch did.
Lefty reliever Enmanuel De Jesus hit Cal Raleigh with a 95-mph fastball on a 1-2 pitch in the seventh inning. When Torres led off the top of the eighth, Mariners’ reliever Gabe Speier threw two pitches inside to Torres, one just missed, the other plunked him in the back of the thigh.
“I think they were protecting Raleigh,” Torres said. “I don’t think we hit Raleigh on purpose but he’s their guy and they try to protect him.”
Both benches and bullpens emptied, but not much came of it other than a lot of jawing the ejections of Speier and Mariners’ manager Dan Wilson.
“I think the back-to-back pitches in a weird spot to Gleyber, one of them smoked him, created a little bit of emotion,” Hinch said. “And then we all ended up on the field.”
The teams swapped home runs after that — Dingler hit his 25th, a two-run shot, and Mariners’ Colt Emerson answered with a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth.
“I think it’s over,” Torres said of the incident. “It’s baseball. All good for me.”
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers’ four-game win streak ends with 4-2 loss to Mariners
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chris McCosky, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
