Detroit — All the Tigers needed was one more out in the top of the eighth inning. Actually, just one more strike as Will Vest toed the Comerica Park rubber and stared down Houston’s Isaac Paredes.
Vest had entered to pitch for Detroit to begin the eighth inning, and gave up a leadoff single, but got the next two batters to strikeout. After surrendering the tying run, he was a pitch away from stranding runners on second and third base and limiting the damage.
Catcher Jake Rogers set up low and away, as they wanted to expand the zone and see if Paredes would chase on two strikes. Vest missed his spot, and the ball caught the middle of the plate. Paredes, a righty known for his pull power, delivered an unorthodox but crushing blow to the Tigers, flipping a two-run double down the right-field line
“He’s got a hole down the way there and he’ll chase with two strikes out of the zone,” Rogers said of Paredes. “I think it just kind of leaked back over the plate.”
A three-run, two-out rally in the eighth inning against Vest doomed the Tigers to an 8-6 loss on Saturday in the third game of a four-game series against Houston in Detroit. In a back-and-forth slugfest, manager AJ Hinch said he felt the margin came down to Detroit’s inability to finish innings, giving up five of the eight runs with two outs recorded. And the biggest blemish in that regard came in the eighth against Vest, who has notably struggled for consistency in 2026.
“It’s tough because we didn’t finish innings and … half the day we had the leadoff runner on base that we had to defend against,” Hinch said. “So, as well as we’ve thrown the ball lately, it’s a surprise that we didn’t execute at a high rate today to get the outs. So that’s the frustrating part.”
For Vest, May had been disastrous after he came back from a spell on the injury list. His May 26 outing against the Angels, where he gave up five runs on four hits, was the lowest point.
In June, he seemed to have righted things, giving up two earned runs in eight appearances prior to Saturday’s mishap. He’d given up just six hits in those eight appearances.
And though it went wrong on Saturday, Hinch and Vest’s teammates expressed confidence in his ability to pitch critical innings for Detroit.
“It’s hard when you’re pitching at the highest leverage that you can. You get noticed. I know he’s had a tough go of it to execute,” Hinch said. “He’s also had some electrifying innings where he came in and finished games or has come in and got outs. I’ve got a ton of trust in him. But I think it’s the realization that every pitch matters, especially in the highest leverage. And when you make a mistake at this level, you don’t get away with it.”
Rogers said Vest is one of the more mentally tough players on the team, but carries these moments with him, too.
“Had some bad luck of it and given up some runs and he’s been mad, but kind of lets it go and doesn’t let it affect more pitchers that are coming in after him if we still got a chance to win, or if not,” Rogers said. “He’s a great dude, but carries it heavily. But does it really well and carries it well.”
BOX SCORE: Astros 8, Tigers 6
Things looked bleak for Detroit in the early innings, as starter Framber Valdez gave up a number of hard-hit balls across the early innings against his former team.
The nadir of that spell were back-to-back hits to lead off the second inning, as Christian Walker ripped a double and then came home as Cam Smith hit a full-count home run out to left field.
The changeup that Smith hit out is one of only a handful of pitches that Valdez felt he didn’t execute adequately on Saturday.
“Just two of them that I just missed,” Valdez said via a translator. “One of them was a home run.”
That 2-0 deficit — the only runs Detroit gave up without outs recorded — quickly became 3-0 in the top of the third inning, as Jeremy Peña led off with a single for Houston and scored two batters later, coming across as Detroit turned a double play behind him.
It happened again in the fourth inning, as Valdez gave up a leadoff single, another single, recorded two outs, then gave up an RBI hit with two outs for Houston to tie things up.
That Detroit had taken the lead entering the fourth inning was a result of Houston’s own pitching difficulties, as Detroit’s lineup had been hitting starter Kai-Wei Teng hard early.
Then along came Kerry Carpenter, stepping up with the bases loaded — Kevin McGonigle walked, Colt Keith reached on an error and Spencer Torkelson got hit by a pitch — and one out in the bottom of the third inning.
Carpenter quickly got into a 1-2 hole and the chances of a heroic moment seemed to have passed.
Then Teng threw a 1-2 breaking pitch in the same spot Carpenter had just missed one for a foul ball, and Detroit’s right fielder pummeled the baseball into the right-field stands for a grand slam.
It was the third grand slam of Carpenter’s career, and his first in 2026.
“When you fall behind, somebody’s gonna have to do something,” Hinch said. “You’re gonna pair a few at-bats together. They made their own error and we were able to capitalize with a big swing to completely flip the game and get back out in front. Carp’s very dangerous, we’ve seen that.”
Detroit only led briefly after the grand slam, as Houston pushed a fourth run across in the top of the fourth inning, scoring another leadoff man after he singled off Valdez to start the inning.
And Valdez nearly got into a bigger jam in that inning, putting runners on first and second base with one out before, once more, leaning on his defense to get him out of the pickle.
“Kind of a mixed bag,” Hinch said of Valdez. “I thought he held it together OK. Again, the execution wasn’t there. He didn’t get ahead of hitters like the good version of him does. They did get the ball elevated a couple times. He also wiggled out of a few jams here and there.”
The third time through the order, though, Valdez found his form, putting down six batters in a row through the fifth and sixth innings before Drew Anderson took over in the seventh.
Valdez finished going six innings, giving up four earned runs on eight hits with two strikeouts. And as Valdez locked in late in his outing, Detroit’s offense pushed back ahead.
Detroit retook the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning, as Rogers got aboard with a leadoff single, advanced to second on a two-out single by Riley Greene and scored on a Torkelson double a few pitches later.
And in the bottom of the fifth inning, rookie infielder Hao-Yu Lee got enough of a first-pitch slider out and over the plate to get it over the fence into the bullpens in left-center field. That solo home run is the third in Lee’s career so far, and gave Detroit a 6-4 lead.
Detroit seemed in position to scratch out a win, turning the game over to Anderson out of the bullpen in the seventh. He gave up a run — also after getting two outs — cutting the lead down to a 6-5 margin. But Drew Sommers came out to replace him and managed to escape a jam with two runners on base.
That set the table for Vest to get the Tigers through the eighth inning and into the ninth with a lead.
Instead, a win within Detroit’s grasp slipped away on two more two-out RBI from Paredes.
“Just the middle-middle execution with two strikes,” Hinch said. “I mean, obviously, he’s a good hitter on most pitches. He’s an excellent hitter if you’re gonna throw one down the middle.”
Andrew Graham is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Will Vest’s late-game disaster dooms Tigers: ‘We didn’t finish innings’
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
