NEW YORK – Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch got ejected.
And the Tigers were dejected after a 9-4 loss against the New York Mets in Citi Field on Thursday, May 14, finishing off a trainwreck of a two-city road trip in which the Tigers won just once in six games.
Once again, the Tigers blew an early lead.
Once again, they couldn’t hold it.
Once again, they lost on the road.
And once again – ugh. Yes, we’ve seen this movie before. It has turned into a horror flick that’s simply hard to watch.
The Tigers have lost 13 of 18 games after winning 10 of the previous 13 games.
Consider this: The Tigers came into this game with a 7-18 record on the road. How bad was that 25-game span? It’s only happened 10 times in franchise history. Then, they went out and lost another one. At 7-19 on the road, the Tigers have the worst road record in MLB.
Tigers jump to early lead
The Tigers faced Mets starter Nolan McLean, who has already established himself as an NL Rookie of the Year candidate. McLean came into the game with an eye-popping stat: He is one of three pitchers in MLB history to strikeout more than 114 batters and allowed 25 or fewer earned runs in their first 16 starts.
“I’d be pretty mature, too, if I could throw 99 and pitch with any sequence,” Hinch said before the game. “He’s very talented.”
But the Tigers had no problem against him in the first inning. After a Colt Keith walk and Riley Greene single, Gage Workman jacked a homer over the left-field fence, giving the Tigers a 3-0 lead.
Maybe that fast start wasn’t a surprise.
The Tigers came into the game batting .288 (49-for-170) with a .383 on-base percentage, .447 slugging percentage and an .830 OPS in the first inning this season, the best first-inning OBP in all of baseball, the third-best average and the fifth-best OPS.
But once again, they couldn’t hold it.
A.J. Hinch gets ejected
In the fourth inning, Workman was able to pull the ball, getting a double.
After Zach McKinstry hit a blooper to left field, Workman was caught between second and third, unsure if the ball was going to be caught. Then he broke late for third and was called out, tagged by Brett Baty.
After a video review – the call stood even though it appeared wrong on the replay – Hinch came onto the field and was ejected.
That wrecked a tremendous scoring opportunity for the Tigers.
Then the game slipped away.
A.J. Ewing, the Mets rookie who has had a tremendous debut in this series, homered off Keider Montero – the first homer of the 2023 fourth-round pick’s career.
Baty then homered in the fourth inning, a two-run shot that tied it up, 3-3.
The Mets took control after Juan Soto singled to center, driving in Carson Benge. Then, it turned into a home run parade, with dingers from Mark Vientos, Soto and Marcus Semien.
Dillon Dingler did hit a homer for the Tigers in the eighth inning. But it wasn’t enough.
Wait, they allow bunting in baseball?
The Mets were practicing bunting during their batting practice on Wednesday.
They had a bunting station set up in foul territory and practiced getting the ball down against a pitching machine.
It seemed to pay off when Hayden Senger got a bunt down the first base line with Semien on third. Spencer Torkelson picked the ball up with his glove and scooped the ball to catcher Jake Rogers at home plate. But it was too late, as the Mets extended their lead to 7-3.
When will Casey Mize return?
Casey Mize is eligible to come off the injured list on Friday. He threw a live bullpen in Lakeland on Monday and threw another at Citi Field on Wednesday. It does not appear that he will need a rehab start.
Mize is expected to return to action this weekend against the Toronto Blue Jays and it seems logical that it would be Saturday. Right-hander Ty Madden is scheduled to start on Friday. The Tigers have not listed a starter for Saturday. Jack Flaherty, meanwhile, is listed as the Sunday starter.
“We’re hopeful that he’s going to be good to go sometime in the next series [against Toronto],” Hinch said Thursday morning. “So all signs are pointing in a good direction. Obviously, we’ll wait to the last minute to tell everybody, but it looks promising.”
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers trainwreck of a road trip capped by sweep by Mets
Reporting by Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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