How do you beat the defending American League champions while dealing with a host of pitching injuries while facing one of the league’s best young starting pitchers in Trey Yesavage?
If you’re the Detroit Tigers, who beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-2, on Spencer Torkelson’s walk-off RBI single on Friday, May 15, you do it by manufacturing runs. And defense. And pitching. And when the opportunities come, baserunning.
Put it all together, and maybe you give a struggling slugger a chance to win the game. And in the process, you can turn a tough night into a stepping stone, one that could boost the confidence of a key player and help bring the Tigers (20-25) back into the AL Central race.
“I feel really good for [Torkelson],” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “This has not been an easy few weeks for him, and he wears it internally, externally and just continues to post and continues to put in the work.”
Torkelson had a rough 15-game stretch entering Friday’s game since going on a five-game home run streak in late April, slashing .132/.242./.226 with just seven hits in 62 plate appearances. Torkelson has been feeling the pressure but has tried not to let it overwhelm him.
“It sucks not producing because you want to help the team win, but as long as you stick with it, keep grinding and keep working hard and stick through your approach, you’re going to come through,” he said after Friday’s win. “I’ve been a little passive, like not as aggressive as I want to be, and I think it’s a good start tonight.”
But it wasn’t just Torkelson who came through for the Tigers on Friday.
Tigers win a total team effort
The Tigers were aggressive in multiple areas, with Kevin McGonigle scoring their first run in the third inning by taking third base and then scoring on two wild pitches from Yesavage.
Pinch hitter Jahmai Jones was thrown out trying to steal second with the game tied at 2-2 with two outs and Riley Greene at the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning, but the aggressiveness on the basepaths was finally rewarded when Matt Vierling stole second in the bottom of the ninth to set up Torkelson’s winning hit.
According to Hinch, the Tigers were aggressive with runners out of necessity, searching for ways to win even when it didn’t always work out in their favor, such as on Jones’ caught stealing or when second baseman Hao-Yu Lee misread a McGonigle line drive and got doubled up at second base with the Tigers down 2-1 in the fifth inning.
“We’re not going to play perfect and it just shows that we don’t have to,” Hinch said. “We had to battle, and that includes manufacturing a run, being fortunate with some balls in the dirt.”
Change of plans for bullpen game
The game did not go according to plan from the start, with expected bulk reliever Ty Madden leaving the game in the third inning after taking a line drive to his right forearm. Madden was already the third pitcher used by the Tigers after opener Brenan Hanifee and lefty reliever Brant Hurter combined to record five outs and allow two earned runs.
That forced relievers Burch Smith and Drew Anderson into multi-inning roles, and both exvelled, combining for six scoreless innings before handing the ball to closer Kenley Jansen in the ninth.
Jansen then finished off the bullpen’s stellar night, pitching a 1-2-3 inning that included an impressive diving catch from Vierling in center field off a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. line drive.
And when Torkelson came up in the ninth with a runner on second, hitless on the day (and over his previous three games), his teammates had put him in position to come through with arguably his biggest hit of the season.
“You never know when your opportunity is going to come to make it all better,” Hinch said. “We desperately needed a win to feel good about the end of the game. It was a great reward.”
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers game goes off rails, but Spencer Torkelson comes through anyway
Reporting by Christian Romo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
