The Detroit Tigers’ bats remained quiet in the series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Blue Jays shut down the Tigers, 4-1, on Sunday, May 17, at Comerica Park in front of a hefty Toronto contingent in the stands. The Tigers (20-27) have now lost four straight series and 10 of their past 12 games.
The Tigers mustered just six hits – four off starter Kevin Gausman, and two off relievers Yariel Rodriguez and Joe Mantiply in the eighth inning, which led to one run.
Toronto immediately took the lead in the top of the first inning. In the game’s second at-bat, Blue Jays designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero Jr. turned on an inside fastball from Jack Flaherty and sent a sizzling line drive over the wall and into the Tigers’ bullpen for a 1-0 lead.
Daulton Varsho followed with a double and later scored on a wild pitch from Flaherty, making it 2-0 before the Tigers took a swing.
Toronto doubled up its lead in the third inning. Guerrero reached on a leadoff single and then scored on a triple into left-center field from Varsho. Jesús Sánchez made it 4-0 with a sacrifice fly to plate Varsho.
The Tigers loaded the bases with one out in the eighth inning and plated one run on a fielder’s choice groundball by pinch-hitter Jahmai Jones.
The Tigers return to action at Comerica Park against the Cleveland Guardians on Monday (6:40 p.m., Detroit SportsNet/FS1). It is the first series of the 2026 season against the defending AL Central champs, who enter in first place in the division.
Tigers offense stays flat
The Tigers could not string together enough quality at-bats or hit with enough power to bring more than one run across the plate.
Gausman gave up four hits, but never let more than one runner on base at a time. Toronto’s starter threw 97 pitches over six innings, finishing with five strikeouts and his third win of the season.
Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler had a pair of singles, while Gage Workman and Zach McKinstry also picked up base knocks off Gausman.
The Tigers finally got runners in scoring position in the eighth inning. Wenceel Pérez started with an infield single, followed by a McGonigle single and a Dingler walk to load the bases. Jones, who pinch-hit for Colt Keith, drove in a run with a fielder’s choice ground ball to third base. Riley Greene ended the threat with a groundout.
Greene, who finished 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, had an 11-game hitting streak and a 26-game on-base streak snapped.
Flaherty stung early, but showed improved command
Flaherty went on to throw six innings for just the second time this season (and the first since April 15), but received no run support. Flaherty gave up four runs on five hits and four strikeouts.
For the first time in 10 outings this season, Flaherty did not walk a batter. Entering Sunday, Flaherty had issued the third-most free passes in baseball (29), averaging over three walks per start.
Flaherty only gave up hits to the heart of Toronto’s order, consisting of Guerrero, Varsho and Sánchez in the 2, 3 and 4 spots. Those three hitters combined for five hits and one sacrifice fly in nine plate appearances, while the rest of the Blue Jays’ order went 0-for-15 combined against Flaherty.
Flaherty threw 90 pitches, including 62 for strikes. He primarily relied on a three-pitch mix of his four-seam fastball, slider and knuckle curveball. He threw the fastball 45 times, his slider 25 times and his knuckle curve 18 times.
Flaherty drops to 0-5 with a 5.77 ERA this season.
Burch Smith and Emmanuel De Jesus combined to pitch a clean final three innings out of the bullpen.
Jared Ramsey covers high school sports for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jramsey@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers offense slumbers on in series finale loss to Blue Jays
Reporting by Jared Ramsey, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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