SEATTLE – It’s apparently never boring when the Detroit Tigers are in town. It got interesting again late Wednesday, Aug. 5, at T-Mobile Park when Gleyber Torres got hit, and the benches cleared, and a pitcher and manager got ejected.
The bit of spice didn’t last, though, nor did the Tigers’ late comeback effort as their offense finally stalled, and so their four-game winning streak came to an end with a 4-2 loss.
Torres wasn’t the only one hit by a pitch. Three other Tigers were, too – Max Clark, Riley Greene, Zack McKinstry. Torres was hit in the eighth. He had a few words with catcher Cal Raleigh, who had been plunked in the inning before.
The benches cleared and the managers met at the plate and eventually left-handed reliever Gabe Speier was ejected for plunking Torres, presumably in retaliation for Raleigh getting hit by Enmanuel DeJesus. Dan Wilson, Seattle’s manager, was also ejected.
When everything settled, Dillon Dingler hit a two-run homer off reliever Eduard Bazardo to cut the Mariners’ lead to 3-2.
Drew Anderson got the start and gave the Tigers nearly four shutout innings. But the bullpen couldn’t hold up.
At the plate: A tale of Woo and woe
Other than Dingler’s home run and single, and a single from Torres, the Tigers got little going, in part due to tough luck and in part because of stellar defense from Randy Arozarena, who stole a home run from Colt Keith and threw out Torres at third base …
… in the same inning.
Torres’ single, by the way, hit off the right-field wall, as he, too, missed a home run by a few feet.
The only other hit came from Max Clark and, again, it showed poise from the rookie. When he stepped to the plate in the seventh, the crowd began chanting “OVER-RATED” on repeat. He responded by ripping a single into right-center.
On the mound: Bullpen stung by homers
Anderson got the start and, frankly, the role for which he’s probably most suited. The Tigers signed him because he had good numbers in Korea last season as a starter and then asked him to come out of the bullpen this season because they had too many starters.
Injury and Monday’s trade deadline moves changed that, and Anderson needed, more than anything, to help the staff eat some innings Wednesday. Manager A.J. Hinch hoped he could go three or four innings and that’s exactly what he did.
If not for a tough hop to Colt Keith at third – a grounder Keith couldn’t handle – Anderson would’ve completed four innings.
As it was, he came up one out short. He allowed three hits and no runs. And the only trouble he got into came in the third when the Mariners led off the inning with an infield single and an old-fashioned single to put runners at first and second with no outs.
Anderson calmly coaxed a soft fly ball from Colt Emerson and then drew a grounder to second from Cole Young on a changeup. The Tigers turned the double play to get out of the inning.
With two outs and no one on base in the sixth inning, Hinch pulled left-handed reliever Tyler Horton in favor of right-hander Brenan Hanifee to face the right-handed Arozarena.
Horton had thrown 23 pitches through two innings and hadn’t given up a hit, but Hinch wanted the righty-on-righty matchup. After putting Arozarena in a two-strike hole and then a 1-2 count, Hanifee hung a 94-mph sinker over the middle and Arozarena yanked a double to left.
Hinch walked left-handed hitting Dominic Canzone to get to right-handed hitting Julio Rodriguez. The problem? Rodriguez is Seattle’s best hitter and crushed Hanifee’s first pitch – a 97 sinker, again middle high – into the left field seats for a three-run homer.
That was the game.
Next up: Rubber match in the Emerald City
Left-hander Framber Valdez gets the start on Thursday (4:05 p.m., Detroit SportsNet) as the Tigers (55-59) try to take the series from the Mariners (56-59). Valdez has been uneven but had a solid outing against the Athletics last week and has shown he can still be effective at times this season.
He’ll need to be as the Tigers can’t afford much of a losing streak if they want to stay in the American League wild-card race. Wednesday’s loss kept the Tigers at 1½ games back of the Cleveland Guardians … and the Texas Rangers, who moved into a tie for the AL’s final playoff spot, with both teams a game under .500 at 57-58. Meanwhile, the Baltimore Orioles sit half a game back and the Mariners half a game behind them and half a game up on the Tigers.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dillon Dinger goes deep again, but Tigers bats finally cool off
Reporting by Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
