Detroit — In baseball, there’s always the next day.
And even though the days are getting shorter in mid-August, that was the silver lining for the Tigers on Wednesday night, after they’d tried and ultimately failed to get their heads above water here at Comerica Park.
It’s sink-or-swim time now, and the Tigers know it. But with the chance to finally surface in this delayed playoff chase — poised to reach .500 for the first time since early May — they lost a 6-4 game to Cleveland in what felt like a mirror image of Tuesday’s series opener.
“I mean, the goal is to win the game,” manager AJ Hinch said afterward, “and we came up short.”
But on a day that began with another chain wrapped around their neck — All-Star Riley Greene (hamstring) headed to the 10-day injured list — and in a game that began with bases-loaded jam and a 2-0 first-inning deficit for erstwhile ace Framber Valdez, there still was something to hold onto in the end.
“We did put up a pretty good effort,” Hinch added, “and we leaned on them quite a bit.”
And if you’re among those leaning toward optimism — or simply looking for the bright side of things at this point in the Tigers’ wayward season — the fact that it was the bright-eyed youngster landing the late-round body blows Wednesday night had to be an encouraging sign.
Max Clark’s epic 12-pitch at-bat against the Guardians’ Cade Smith in the eighth inning didn’t decide Wednesday’s game. But it just might play a role in deciding Thursday’s series finale, as Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt’s decision to try to get a four-out save from his All-Star closer came at a price.
Clark made sure of that as Smith came out of the bullpen with two outs and runners at the corners in a 6-3 game in the bottom of the eighth. Ironically, it was a scenario he’d even discussed with his manager hours earlier during his pregame work on the field. Smith just happened to walk by, and Hinch used the opportunity talk about what might happen should he come walking out of the bullpen later.
“These are all firsts for him,” Hinch explained later, talking about a 21-year-old in Clark who was playing in just his 11th big-league game and only his second in this ballpark.
At first glance, Smith is rather intimidating, too. His fastball tops 100-mph whenever he wants, and Smith’s elite arm extension gives hitters even less time to react than the sheer velocity does.
“So my approach was almost to swing when it leaves his hand,” Clark said later, smiling.
But you can’t cheat, he added, because the splitter Smith throws sometimes feels unfair.
“If you over-swing, you’re going to punch,” Hinch said. “If you get too far out in front of yourself because of emotions, you’re going to chase.”
Yet if you watch that at-bat again, you’ll see Clark figuring all that out in real time. And reacting like a true pro.
He fouled off Smith’s initial 99.6-mph offering, then took a called strike — top rail, outside corner, good luck — to fall behind an 0-2 count. Yet that’s when Clark started to get comfortable and Smith began to look a bit frustrated, as the rookie fouled off seven of the next nine pitches. The two he laid off were both balls, including the first splitter Smith threw that went for a wild pitch and allowed Clark’s rookie teammate, Kevin McGonigle, to score from third.
“Yeah, he battled battled his butt off up there,” said McGonigle, who’d had a similar at-bat against Smith earlier this season.
Clark kept battling right up until Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges managed to hang on to a foul-tip on a 101-mph heater to finally end the inning.
“I mean, there’s just a lot to like in that at-bat,” Hinch said of Clark’s effort. “And I love his awareness of the big moment and overcoming the instinct to, you know, try to end it. … It’s nice to see him control himself in that moment, right?”
Right. And on a night where the Tigers’ staff didn’t have much control themselves — Valdez, for starters, issued five walks and hit a batter in 5 2/3 innings — that was all the more notable.
Because Clark’s lengthy at-bat helped give Hinch’s team a “puncher’s chance” in the ninth, as he put it. Singles by Javier Báez and Gleyber Torres brought Dillon Dingler to the plate with a chance to tie the game or even win it, but Smith struck him out looking. And then McGonigle grounded out to end the threat after that.
But not before the Tigers had extended Smith to 38 pitches on the night, four more than his MLB career-high for an outing. That likely means he’ll be unavailable to pitch Thursday. So as mad as Clark was to lose the battle, he was reminded about the larger war afterward.
“I need to find a way to get that runner home,” he said. “But we’ll get him again. And my takeaway from it is he’s probably not going to pitch tomorrow, which is big. So, yeah, I was pretty pissed coming out of that. But afterward, you know that you set it up for tomorrow.”
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
@JohnNiyo
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Niyo: Clark, Tigers give fair warning despite foul ending
Reporting by John Niyo, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By John Niyo, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
