Tigers fail to sweep Rays, drop rare game with lead in sixth inning
Chris McCosky
St. Petersburg, Fla. — The Tigers finished off a stretch of 14 games in 13 days, losing two series at home and winning two series on the road. Somehow, even though it didn't feel like it after a 7-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays Wednesday, going 7-7 feels like a long-term win.
"The series wins are nice," manager AJ Hinch said. "We have an off day tomorrow, we're going home and we're happy with the road trip. It didn't end well. But keeping things in perspective, we're doing some good things and we're winning series, which is key.
"But you want to get greedy when you have a chance to sweep them, especially when you have the lead in the middle part of the game. They came up bigger in the big moments and won this game."
The Tigers’ starting pitchers hadn’t given up a run in three games. The bullpen had held leads over the last three games and lost leads from the sixth inning on only twice all season.
Different script Wednesday night.
The Rays scored four runs off starter Jack Flaherty in two innings and then tagged reliever Will Vest for three in the sixth.
"It's bittersweet," Hinch said. "I'm proud of how our guys are fighting and we do deserve the off day tomorrow but we walk away here tonight wishing we'd have won this game."
The main attraction was supposed to be lefty Tyler Alexander battling his former teammates for the first time. But the scoreboard quelled a lot of the banter.
"He said he was going to give me a cookie and he threw me a backdoor cutter and then a changeup," said Jake Rogers, Alexander's long-time battery mate. "I got some texts to exchange with him. But he was great. We were messing around. He said, 'I don't know whether to hit you in the elbow or give you a cookie.' And he did neither."
Falling into a three-run deficit early, the Tigers weren’t really in the mood for kibbitzing with their friend. Especially when he was blanking them for three innings.
“I’ve stayed away from him this series because I don’t want to like him this series,” Hinch said before the game. “I don’t want to be entertained by him. I’ll love him tomorrow.”
Turns out, Hinch could’ve started loving him again after the fifth inning. Alexander was out of the game and the Tigers rallied to take a short-lived 5-4 lead.
Alexander, working bulk relief after opener Shawn Armstrong gave up a run in the first inning, set down the first eight former teammates he faced and eight of the first nine. But in the fifth inning, his fourth inning of work, he got into the soup, walking Javier Báez and giving up a single to Rogers.
Riley Greene just missed hitting a three-run homer. His ball was caught on the track in right-center by right fielder Amed Rosario as he collided with center fielder Randy Arozarena. The runners moved up and with two outs both scored on a ground ball single by Mark Canha.
Alexander slapped his glove in frustration. But he got Wenceel Perez to fly out and he left with a 4-3 lead.
"Everybody was trying to avoid it," Hinch said of the Alexander banter. "It's like playing against your brother or relative. We hit balls hard against him early but he was able to get some quick outs. He was filling the zone. He was exactly how he's always looked, just in a different uniform."
The Tigers took a quick 5-4 lead against reliever Chris Devenski in the sixth. Buddy Kennedy came through with a clutch, two-out single to score Matt Vierling, who had tripled. Kennedy stole second and scored a double by Báez.
The Rays answered with three off Vest in the bottom of the sixth. Catcher Ben Rortvedt singled in a run and then scored ahead of Curtis Mead’s 327-foot home run that curled inside the foul pole and just over the 315-foot marker in left.
It was Mead’s first extra base hit and the first homer allowed by Vest this season.
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"I've got to do a better job," Flaherty said. "That's what happens when you go just five innings. Vest has been unbelievable all year and he continued to throw the ball well. I've got to go deeper. Going five just doesn't get the job done. I've got to be better earlier on so that it's not like, 'Oh, you threw well in the fifth.'
"I need to be out there in the sixth and seventh."
Flaherty gave up a line drive homer to Arozarena on a 3-1 slider in the first inning and endured a frustrating series of events in a 30-pitch second inning.
Infield single on a ball that bounced over his head, just missed turning a 3-6-1 double-play, a mislocated slider down and in to lefty-swinging Rortvedt, who smashed it into the right-field corner for an RBI double. A misplay by third baseman Vierling gave Rortvedt third base, then with two outs, well-placed RBI singles by Jose Caballero and Yandy Diaz. Just like that, Flaherty had allowed four runs and was at 50 pitches.
"I wanted to make that play on the first one," he said. "That ball goes up, you see it and you kind of freeze. There were a bunch of different ways I could've done that. I knew I was the only one who had a chance at that."
The other regret, shared by Flaherty and Rogers, was they they didn't sequence the curveball in earlier. He was all fastball-slider in the second inning.
"I told him it was on me," Rogers said. "I should've mixed the curveball in there in the second inning. After that we used it more and got outs. That's the one regret I have. I wish I could take back time and go back to the second. They got some seeing-eye singles and put some good hits together and scored some runs.
"But after that, Jack was nails."
Flaherty shut the Rays down over the next three innings, retiring the last six hitters he faced.
"We want to win as many games as we can," Rogers said. "Winning this series against this ballclub is good. The boys are winning. We want to win a little more, but we're taking wins when we can. We need to keep moving forward and keep winning."
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky