Baltimore — It gets to a point where there are no more words to say about it.
In a month of gut-punch losses, the Tigers took one square on the chin Sunday in the first of two at Camden Yards.
One out away from ending the losing streak, Kenley Jansen, the game’s active saves leader, gave up a two-out, three-run, walk-off home run to Colton Cowser, giving the Baltimore Orioles a 5-3 win.
BOX SCORE: Orioles 5, Tigers 3
It was the Tigers’ eighth straight loss, their 16th in the last 18 games and their sixth walk-off loss.
“It’s pretty sh—-, but what are you going to do, man,” said Jansen, who has now allowed three walk-off homers this season. “Give up? Whine about it? Feel sorry about ourselves? I don’t. I don’t feel sorry for myself. I’ve been many times in a situation like this and one thing I know, I don’t give up on myself. This team is too good and I know I’m too good.
“It humbles you sometimes, but you’ve got to move forward.”
Jansen has seven saves this season, but he’s also allowed walk-off homers to Nathaniel Lowe, Matt Olson and now Cowser.
“I should’ve died with my cutter,” Jansen said.
All three of those home runs came off Jansen’s sinker.
“Like deja vu,” he said. “I got some bad swings with the two-seamer but on that one it didn’t move and it became a pretty crappy fastball.”
The Tigers took a 3-1 lead into the eighth inning. Starter Framber Valdez was exceptional, shutting the Orioles down on two hits over six innings, the only smudge a solo homer by Gunnar Henderson in the sixth.
Will Vest pitched a clean seventh and manager AJ Hinch had Kyle Finnegan and Jansen fresh for the final six outs.
“We have to find a way to win that game,” Hinch said. “It went from a hard-fought win to a hard-fought loss quickly. It’s tough. We have to get back to it in a few hours. I don’t have a lot of words for this one.”
Jeremiah Jackson led off the bottom of the eighth with a double and scored on a one-out single by Taylor Ward. After a walk to Henderson, Finnegan got Adley Rutschman to fly out.
Jansen entered at that point and got Pete Alonso to pop out to second on a 2-0 pitch.
Jansen, between innings, had the grounds crew do some maintenance on the mound.
“There was a little hole there,” he said. “When I go I always drag my feet and my foot would hit the hole and change my arm angle. That’s why I went 2-0 on Pete. But that’s not the point. The point is I’ve got to be better.”
The ninth inning got messy, too. Jansen walked Jackson Holliday with one out and then essentially gave him second base. He threw over to first once and made a second disengagement, which all but guaranteed Holliday would try to steal. Which he did, successfully, putting the tying run in scoring position.
Jansen walked Leody Taveras, and with two outs, the Orioles pulled off a double steal with no throw.
“He’s going to make you beat him with the bat,” Hinch said. “The walks are going to eat at him as much as the homer. That inning developed because of what happened before that last swing. The last swing has nothing to do with controlling the running game or where the runners are on base.
“They earned their walks but giving them a couple of free passes to set that up is a tough way to survive the ninth.”
Still, it looked like Jansen was going to escape. He got ahead of Cowser with two cutters. But he threw an 0-2 sinker in the heart of the plate and Cowser sent it 444 feet into the seats in right.
“Walks kill,” Jansen said. “It’s unacceptable. That’s not how I pitch. I will be fully accountable on this one. Just have to keep moving forward. Keep climbing that tall mountain and get on top.”
For once, the Tigers got some favorable bounces. They scored twice in the fourth and once in the eighth without a lot of hard contact.
Kevin McGonigle, who has some 250 friends and family members in attendance, singled and then was safe at second on an odd misplay by Alonso, the first baseman. Dillon Dingler hit a soft, low pop up that Alonso let drop.
He saw that Dingler hadn’t run immediately out of the box and he thought he had a chance to turn a double play. But the ball spun away from him when it hit the ground and he ended up making an errant throw to second.
Everybody was safe.
Matt Vierling singled in one run and Colt Keith plated the other with a sacrifice fly. It was Keith’s first RBI since April 22.
They scratched a third run across in the eighth on a walk, a bloop single by Vierling (his third) and an infield single by pinch-hitter Spencer Torkelson.
“We battled,” Valdez said, through interpreter Carlos Guillen. “I battled for six innings and the guys battled for nine. We have to keep our heads up and our attitudes up. This is going to turn around.”
That was Hinch’s message before the game, too.
“I want to keep encouraging these guys that the season is not lost,” he said. “The division has not been won. The playoff teams have not been named. All the goals you had as little as eight weeks ago are still available to you.
“The coaches are behind the players and the players are behind the coaches and we’re going to pull out of this together.”
The Tigers handed the ball to Troy Melton for Game 2, his season debut after battling back from elbow inflammation.
Right-handed reliever Connor Seabold was designated for assignment to clear spots on the active roster and 40-man roster.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers walked off in ninth inning by Orioles; losing skid hits 8
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
