'Didn't go our way': Another fielding error comes back to bite Tigers against Rangers

Detroit — For a second straight game, an error in the infield did the Tigers in during the late stages of a loss to the Texas Rangers.

A day after the Tigers' poor ninth-inning fielding allowed the Rangers to steal a 5-4 win at Comerica Park, the Rangers' winning run on Thursday scored in the eighth inning after the Tigers missed an easy opportunity to tag a runner in a rundown.

With one out and Leody Taveras at second, Marcus Semien hit a ground ball to shortstop Javier Báez, who caught the baserunner leaving early. But upon the ball being relayed to third baseman Gio Urshela, the tag could not be applied and Taveras made it safely to third.

Instead of being able to tag the base and end the inning on a ground ball to Spencer Torkelson the next at-bat, the Tigers' first baseman tried throwing it to second for a double play. But Torkelson's throw was off the mark, allowing Taveras to score the deciding run of a 9-7 Rangers win in the series finale.

BOX SCORE: Rangers 9, Tigers 7

"Pretty athletic play by Taveras," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. "Javy made the right read, Colt (Keith) ran him, Gio closed the gap, and when he got him, Taveras made a great play. He got underneath the tag, Gio tried to go down to the ground."

Hinch admitted the Tigers "made plenty of mistakes" but called the tag error "an athletic play that didn't go our way."

The Tigers committed six total errors in the final two games of the series.

"(That's) baseball," Hinch said. "I mean, it's not the unknown because it's just — you've got to handle the ball. Everybody does it across the league. When you mishandle the ball and give the other side extra outs or an extra 90 (feet on the base paths), it puts yourself in really, really tough spots."

Both starters — Tigers' Kenta Maeda and Rangers' Jack Leiter, the latter of whom was making his MLB debut — were roughed up by a pair of energetic offenses in the early goings. Maeda went 2⅔ innings while giving up seven hits, six runs, two walks and three home runs with two strikeouts for the Tigers (10-9). Leiter, meanwhile, went 3⅔ innings and gave up eight hits, seven runs, three walks and struck out three for the Rangers.

Maeda said he didn't have "a feel for my pitches from the get-go and that lingered throughout my outing."

"Just overall, all my pitches weren't very competitive today," Maeda said.

Riley Greene had a double and a triple, Báez turned on a pair of doubles and Mark Canha and Torkelson each recorded two walks, with Canha adding two singles and Torkelson a double. Semien, Jonah Heim and Adolis Garcia homered for Texas (11-9).

The multi-hit game was Báez's first of the season.

"The whole series, they've been pitching me first-pitch fastball, so I make that adjustment and I was ready for it," Báez said.

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It didn't take Texas long to get on the board. After Maeda fell behind 2-0 in the first at-bat of the game, he served up a four-seam meatball that was deposited into the left-field bullpen by Semien for a 1-0 lead. Maeda gave up a single to Corey Seager the following batter but got out of the inning with a double play and a groundout.

The second inning featured more trouble for Maeda. He gave up a six-pitch leadoff walk to Josh Smith, an RBI double to Wyatt Langford and a two-run home run to Heim for a 4-0 Rangers lead with no outs.

The Tigers responded in their half of the second inning. Colt Keith drew a five-pitch walk to lead off the inning and Urshela followed with a single to put two runners on for Báez, who turned on a first-pitch fastball and put it down the line for an RBI double to make it 4-1. Carson Kelly scored Urshela from third on a fielder's choice and Greene tripled to make it 4-3. Canha's second hit of the game brought home Greene and tied the game at 4.

By the time Maeda departed the game, though, the Rangers had another lead. Garcia launched a one-out home run to left center in the top of the third. Langford walked and Heim singled to make it 6-4 and end Maeda's day. Evan Carter scored Semien with a sacrifice fly the following inning.

"It looked like (Maeda) was struggling with everything from the very beginning," Hinch said. "(He was) kind of tentative getting into the game."

The Tigers beat up Leiter in the bottom of the fourth to end his MLB debut with a thud.

With two outs and runners on first and second, Kerry Carpenter hit a long fly ball to center field that couldn't be corralled by Taveras and resulted in a two-run triple. Torkelson tied the game at 7 with an RBI double.

"Leiter comes in, we know he's gonna be energetic, we know he's gonna be nervous, we know he's got high-end stuff," Hinch said. "We found the right balance of aggressiveness against him but also patience to make him come inside the strike zone."

Hinch said the Tigers "had a pretty good game plan and we went out and executed…but we still fell short."

Alex Faedo, who came on in relief for Maeda, pitched 2⅓ innings and struck out one. After Tyler Holton retired the side in order during the sixth, Holton then came back out for the seventh but didn't find the same success.

Holton gave up two singles and hit Smith with a pitch to load the bases. Tigers right-hander Alex Lange came on with one out in the inning and struck out Langford and Heim to maintain an even score into the seventh-inning stretch.

"That was a great momentum shift in our direction," Hinch said. "Had they lost the game, they would have had to talk about missed opportunities, similar to how we have to."

Rangers reliever Jose Urena, who pitched for the Tigers in 2021, got Texas out of the fourth without any further damage and pitched scoreless fifth and sixth innings before returning for the seventh, where he got into a little bit of trouble. He walked Torkelson and gave up a single to Urshela before Rangers right-hander Jose Leclerc came in to shut down the threat.

The Tigers' eighth-inning error proved fatal, though the Tigers mustered a comeback attempt.

Greene and Canha each drew a one-out walk in the eighth but were both left on base as Carpenter and Torkelson struck out. The Rangers added an insurance run off Tigers reliever Andrew Chafin in the ninth inning to make it 9-7.

With one out in the ninth, Urshela singled to keep the Tigers alive. Báez put a charge into a ninth-inning pitch, but his potential tying home run was caught on the warning track to end it.

nbianchi@detroitnews.com

@nolanbianchi