Detroit — The crowd at Comerica Park didn’t even wait to see the ball land in the left-field stands before getting up and starting to file out late on Sunday afternoon as the Detroit Tigers blew another lead and lost another game to the Houston Astros in two days.
This time, a Detroit lead entering the seventh inning evaporated on two home run swings, aided by a poorly timed error, before the Astros pulled away in the top of the 10th inning with an RBI single for a one-run lead and then a Christian Walker three-run blast off Kenley Jansen.
That was the cue for the crowd to leave.
And that’s just been the story of 2026 for Detroit (35-49) as it fell, 7-5, to Houston (42-44) on Sunday in 10 innings to drop three out of four games in the series. It’s another game where a lot went well, but not enough to overcome the various shortcomings of this team to date: A lack of offensive firepower, occasionally shoddy defense and, lately, bullpen arms faltering in leverage situations. Detroit is now 1-6 in extra-inning games in 2026.
BOX SCORE: Astros 7, Tigers 5
Detroit even had a chance to walk off the game in the bottom of the ninth inning, with a series of walks loading the bases for Riley Greene. He struck out on four pitches.
“When they made a mistake, meaning three walks to give us a chance to walk it off, we came up short,” manager AJ Hinch said. “So, it’s… it’s frustrating. Frustration doesn’t really do it justice.”
And it might not have even been such a leverage situation for Detroit in the late innings had the bullpen kept the ball in the ballpark. After Will Vest had his meltdown on Saturday, it was Tyler Holton and Kyle Finnegan together who coughed up the lead for Detroit on Sunday.
And Detroit might not have even been in that position if the defense picked up Holton in the seventh.
The lefty reliever had come on in the sixth and delivered a 1-2-3 inning before quickly getting the first two outs in the seventh. He seemed like he had the third out secured when Jake Meyers chopped a ground ball to Kevin McGonigle deep at third.
But McGonigle’s throw to Colt Keith at first base was a bit soft and a shade up the line. Keith couldn’t corral it and Meyers scampered to second. Keith got charged with the error.
“I tried to hold the bag too long and ran out of glove,” Keith said of the error. “I should have tried to push off and maybe replay has it still touching the bag. Just a lot of times, you’re holding the bag longer than you think on those. Or just can come off and get it, so he doesn’t go to second base, get into scoring position.”
The No. 9 hitter, Raynel Delgado, stepped in and smashed a hanging breaking ball for a two-run shot to right field that changed the complexion of the game — one where Detroit could’ve been back in the dugout after another 1-2-3 inning, still leading 3-0. Instead, it was 3-2.
“Obviously there’s one pitch I wish I could have back,” Holton said.
Holton gave way to Finnegan, who got out of that inning but then gave up a lead-off home run to former Tiger Isaac Paredes in the eighth that tied the game, 3-3.
After yet another collapse, Hinch and various players were asked about whether the Tigers’ players are having trouble stopping one mistake compounding into more, or one loss becoming several.
The respective players shared that they felt Detroit is playing with urgency, and that players are well aware of the hole they’ve dug themselves. They’re also feeling like they’re not playing poorly, necessarily — they’ve been in competitive games against top American League competition for much of a 10-game home stand.
But that stretch also saw Detroit finish 5-5 after opening up the stand 3-0 with a sweep of the Chicago White Sox. Now after losing five of seven at home over the past week, there’s acknowledgement that June — which started so well — has not gone to plan.
Hinch acknowledged how the season so far can weigh on players, and that they’re conscious of these things, but also that he’s confident in his group of players to not get bogged down mentally.
“I think our guys have to talk about all of this all the time, and we know our backs are against the wall,” Hinch said. “I mean, we’re about to enter July in a much different position than we’d like to be in, and we’re gonna find our way out of it. If one play in a game sets us down a different path, we’ve got to look a little bit deeper into ourselves. We’re better than that.”
One thing all the Tigers, manager and players, seem to be aligned on: Detroit left some wins on the table over this home stand.
“We do feel like we left a little bit out there, at least I do,” Hinch said, “in terms of opportunity to start to trend better, in the right direction. You know, we played 10 games at home. Fans were great. Weather was great. We saw a lot of really good baseball, saw a lot of close losses.”
To boot, the late collapse from the bullpen Sunday meant Detroit failed to capitalize on a largely sterling start for Jack Flaherty on the mound in his first outing off the injured list.
Sunday against the Astros, Flaherty went five innings, struck out nine, walked three and gave up just two hits.
The Astros finished 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position against Flaherty and he produced plenty of whiffs, 16 in total, on 94 pitches. That’s 17% of his pitches producing a swing and miss. And Flaherty had his stuff on from the first batter he faced, as he struck out Jeremy Peña on a filthy breaking pitch to begin proceedings.
“I think stuff is good from that standpoint,” Flaherty said about missing bats, and adding that he feels healthy after his start. “Still needed a better job to find a way to get some quick outs. Some quick outs, quicker ABs. They did a good job of getting the two strikes, and fouling some pitches off and making at bats go a little bit longer.”
He’d go on to strikeout Peña three times, one of the main victims as Flaherty racked up six strikeouts in his first three innings of work, only allowing one hit.
But that hit could’ve cost him, as Meyers hit a leadoff double in the fourth inning and advanced to third on a passed ball. Flaherty didn’t have much margin to work with with no outs. He struck out the next two batters, then got a popout from the highly-dangerous Yordan Alvarez in a 3-1 count to end the threat.
Flaherty found himself in more trouble the very next inning, this time as walks, his season-long bugaboo, reared their head.
He’d walked Alvarez with the bases empty in the first inning, a defensible outcome against such a dangerous hitter. But with a runner on first and one out in the fourth inning, Flaherty gave up a walk, got a lineout to right, then walked another batter to load the bases with two outs.
It’s the sort of situation that has blown up on Flaherty time and again this year, where one swing undoes otherwise quality work. Not on Sunday, as he got Meyers going down swinging to end the threat. He’d put the Astros down in order in the fifth, ending his day by getting Alvarez to watch a fastball on the bottom rail of the strike zone for strike three.
“The swing and miss was there,” Hinch said. “He had a little small area during the middle of his outing where he lost feel and command a little bit, but he collected himself and finished strong.”
And with Flaherty mowing down the Astros offense, Zach McKinstry provided the jolt for Detroit to get in the driver’s seat. Kerry Carpenter led off the second inning with a single, bringing up McKinstry against Hunter Brown, a St. Clair Shores native who pitched at Wayne State and one of the best pitchers in the AL, who made the start for Houston.
Brown left a four seamer up and down the middle of the plate on his second pitch to McKinstry and the Tigers’ utility man punished the mistake with a two-run home run out to right field.
Detroit rode that 2-0 lead for much of the afternoon until Kevin McGonigle scored from second on an error in the fifth inning as Astros second baseman Raynel Delgado booted a ground ball off Riley Greene’s bat.
It seemed like it would be enough offense with Flaherty chugging along and Detroit having its choice of bullpen arms available. But then things began to unravel.
“So no one play, generally, is going to be the story of the day,” Hinch said. “You know, lately, you can pick a few. But I still felt like we were in a good position to win the game.”
The Tigers were, until all of a sudden they weren’t.
Even if Spencer Torkelson’s two-run home run in the 10th inning made the final result look a bit better, and Detroit really was close to winning a few more games during this home stand, Sunday’s loss ends a crucial 10-game stretch with a bitter note.
Andrew Graham is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers crumble again vs. Astros in ‘frustrating’ defeat
Reporting by Andrew Graham, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Andrew Graham, Special to The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
