Detroit — Spencer Torkelson really was not trying to do too much at the plate, sitting on two strikes and facing Blue Jays reliever Jeff Hoffman in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth inning
“Against him, you can’t really kind of — can’t really manipulate the barrel too much when the guy’s throwing 98,” Torkelson said. “With a really good slider, as well. So, it was just shorten up and just try to get the job done.”
He did. Torkelson’s two-strike, opposite field double to the right-centerfield gap scored Matt Vierling and walked off the Blue Jays as the Tigers won, 3-2, in a series opener on Friday. The win ends a three-game skid for Detroit, and capped off a comeback from an early two-run deficit on Friday evening.
“It feels like I’ve just walked up there with two strikes recently, so it feels good,” Torkelson said. “But no, he’s got good stuff and really the entire battle is just trying to grind it out and do whatever he takes to get the job done. And then as soon as I got the two strikes, just had to reinforce that plan. And try to do too much or not. Get the job done by any means.”
Detroit got runs from shortstop Kevin McGonigle and catcher Dillon Dingler to tie the game after the early deficit, and a bullpen game that started shaky ended up strong with seven-straight scoreless innings from the Tigers’ staff to close out the contest. Kenley Jansen picked up the win after a scoreless ninth inning.
Detroit had inched back offensively to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth inning, as Riley Greene scalded a double down the right field line to plate Dingler.
Dingler got to second base by virtue of Blue Jays second baseman Ernie Clement trying to throw him out at first on a ground ball taking the defender away from the bag. Jumping and contorting his body, Clement missed badly on the throw and Dingler advanced to second base as it trickled to the fence in foul territory.
He’d move up to third base on a fielder’s choice ground ball to the right side, setting up Greene for the game-tying RBI opportunity.
Otherwise, Detroit’s offense had been scuffling to find anything consistent against Toronto ace Trey Yesavage, who pitched six innings giving up four hits and two runs on six strikeouts and a trio of walks.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 3, Blue Jays 2
The Tigers had clawed a run back earlier, in the bottom of the third inning, as Kevin McGonigle’s baserunning aggression got him from second to third on a ball in the dirt behind the plate. A few pitches later, he got home when a ball got away from Blue Jays backstop Brandon Valenzuela.
“We had to manufacture a ton,” Hinch said. “That kid over there was really good. Tough look. It’s a high arm slot, split. Looks identical to his fastball until it’s not. And we had a really, really hard time early in the game. But we made him work enough.”
And the Tigers were digging out of a meager deficit for much of the game.
Brennan Hanifee opened the game on the mound with quick work in the top of the first inning, but problems arose quickly in the second inning, as he gave up a leadoff double. Hinch went to the bullpen, putting Brant Hurter on the bump.
Things didn’t get better, as Hurter gave up a pair of runs and two hits while recording two outs, both runs coming on a two-out double that died in the corner in foul territory after kissing the right field foul line chalk. Hurter also walked two batters as Detroit fell behind, 2-0.
Eventually Ty Madden came on and got the final out of the inning, inducing a flyout to George Springer to end the frame.
But Madden’s moment would be short, as he gave up a leadoff single to Yohendrick Piñango on a 107.9 mph line drive that came back and hit the pitcher in the outer portion of his right forearm, his throwing arm. Madden left the game without throwing another pitch.
After the game, Hinch said X-Rays on Madden came back negative, but more testing would be needed to figure out the extent of his injury and recovery.
“We didn’t find anything on the field, and then you could see us start to swell up, literally while we were standing there,” Hinch said. “So he went for tests. The initial tests, X rays are negative, but we gotta continue to get him evaluated to see what that means, overnight.”
And just as quickly as Detroit’s early pitching substitutions backfired — or got fired back upon by a hitter, in Madden’s case — the later bullpen decisions went the other way.
Burch Smith, who replaced Madden, got a broken-bat pop out on the infield from the dangerous Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and then picked off Piñango at first base to quickly get to two outs and clear the bases. Smith struck out Kazuma Okamoto to finish that frame, and retired the fourth inning in order, in part with the help of a nicely turned double play by Kevin McGonigle and Hao-Yu Lee at shortstop and second base, respectively.
Smith eventually gave way to Drew Anderson, who pitched four scoreless innings to set up Jansen on the bump in the top of the ninth in a tie game.
“Drew did an incredible job after Burch held it, held it right where it was,” Hinch said.
Madden, Smith and Anderson held the Blue Jays to six-straight scoreless innings as the offense eked out a couple runs, setting up the offense and Torkelson to finish off a gritted-out comeback for Detroit.
“The way Burch and Drew stepped up, not only really good, but really efficient, a lot of ground balls,” Torkelson said. “Yeah, huge. They came in and picked us up big time. Got some double plays. Oh, gosh, yeah, we needed that out of them.”
Andrew Graham is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers’ Torkelson gets ‘job done’ with walk-off double against Blue Jays
Reporting by Andrew Graham, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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