Detroit Tigers stumble in opener, losing 10-2 to last-place Mets in New York.
Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler hit his team-leading 7th homer in the 10-2 loss at Citi Field.
New York – The absence of so many key players is taking a gradual but steady toll on the Tigers. The strain is real.
“Guys are chasing some things, trying to do more than they’re used to,” said Zach McKinstry after the Tigers suffered a deflating, 3-2, walk-off loss to the New York Mets in the bottom of the 10th inning Wednesday night at Citi Field. “Trying to fill some gaps with some guys missing.”
It was the fifth time the Tigers have been walked off this season and their seventh loss in the last eight games. They are 19-24 on the season and an MLB-worst 7-18 on the road.
“We’re having a hard time getting to the finish line and feeling good,” manager AJ Hinch said. “We’ve got to fight through it. We’re going to need some resolve.”
The Tigers presently have 17 players on the injured list, 11 of them would, if healthy, have been on the active roster Wednesday night. Key components of the lineup, Gleyber Torres, Kerry Carpenter, Javier Báez and Parker Meadows, have been especially missed as the Tigers struggle to score runs.
“We’re definitely battling,” Hinch said. “I don’t see anybody quitting. But there is always the conversation about pressing and trying to do too much and swinging out of the zone and not swinging enough. Right now it feels like all of the above.
“We can break down the game all we want. We either won or we lost. Our guys are fighting, they’re trying. Their guys just did more than our guys did tonight.”
The Tigers carried a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh. Starter Framber Valdez, in his first start back off his five-game suspension, was nails. He had allowed just five hits, all singles, very little hard contact and was one out away from finishing the seventh inning with the lead.
But after striking out the first two batters, he walked the No. 9 hitter Luis Torrens. Hinch stayed with him against left-handed hitter Carson Benge, who extended the inning with an opposite-field jam-shot flare into shallow left field.
Valdez, at 106 pitches, gave way to right-hander Kyle Finnegan to face righty Bo Bichette. Finnegan threw a first-pitch slider down and away that Bichette flared off the end of his bat, 74-mph exit velocity, into short center field to tie the game.
“Those kinds of hits, it’s just part of the game,” said Valdez, through interpreter Carlos Guillen. “They got me. It’s part of the reality. You can’t be frustrated at all. It is surprising but it’s part of the deal.”
BOX SCORE: Mets 3, Tigers 2 (10)
In the top of the 10th inning, the Tigers didn’t move the free runner off second base. In the bottom of the 10th, Mets’ Benge rolled a ground ball up the middle against reliever Drew Anderson to score the free runner and win the game.
“They came up with contact,” Hinch said. “They moved their guy on second base. We didn’t advance our guy. You get to the 10th as the visiting team, there is a ton of pressure to do something and we couldn’t do anything. And honestly, after the first inning, we had a bunch of guys left on base.”
The Tigers were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. The two runs came in the first inning on a single by Riley Greene, who had three hits on the night.
“The guys that are doing well, allow them to keep doing well,” McKinstry said. “The pieces behind them need to step up a little bit.”
This was another imminently winnable game that slipped through their hands.
“Framber was dominating both sides of the plate,” McKinstry said. “It’s fun to play behind him when he’s dominating like that.”
Until the walk to Torrens, Valdez was in full control.
“This start mattered to him, just getting him back into the season,” Hinch said. “He worked hard to get into the game and I thought he threw the ball extremely well. The two-out walk will haunt him and it’ll haunt us a little bit. But we asked a ton out of him tonight and he delivered.”
He gave up a run in the second inning and a couple of singles and a fielder’s choice ground out. A diving stop by third baseman Kevin McGonigle on the RBI grounder by Tyronne Taylor helped mitigate the damage.
He dodged more trouble in the third. Two seeing-eye singles put runners on the corners with no outs. Valdez got Bichette to tap a ball to first baseman Spencer Torkelson who threw out the lead runner Torrens at the plate.
Valdez struck out Juan Soto, getting him to chase a slider in the dirt. The inning ended when Mark Vientos long fly ball to center landed in Matt Vierling’s glove at the wall.
But that was it.
“It was good,” Valdez said. “Happy to be back. I was focused on doing my job, throwing strikes and attacking the hitters. And I knew I had a team behind me that’s going to support me. It was good to be back.”
This game had some bizarre moments.
With two outs in the sixth, McKinstry rolled a slow ground ball toward first base that almost literally stopped at the bag. Vientos stumbled, had trouble picking it up and then ended up kicking it out of his own glove, giving McKinstry a free base.
McKinstry gave it back, though, getting picked off first.
In the bottom of the sixth, Brett Baty took a called strike and stepped out of the box. Home plate umpire Junior Valentine thought he was challenging the call. Baty immediately protested, saying he was just adjusting his helmet.
Valentine went through with the challenge and the call was upheld. Replays showed Baty did not tap his helmet.
Valentine got into it with the Tigers’ dugout later in the game. He seemed to be upset that the on-deck circle was too close to home plate. Twice he made the Tigers move it back.
The Tigers ended the seventh inning by cutting down Benge trying to steal home. Runners were at the corners and Bichette broke for second. Catcher Dillon Dingler threw to the bag at second but shortstop Zack Short caught the ball running toward home and threw a strike back to Dingler at the plate.
Mets’ Juan Soto was pinch-hit for in the seventh inning. He’d fouled a ball off his right instep earlier in the game and wasn’t moving around well.
“We need to keep our mindset up,” Valdez said. “I am going to cheer for them between my starts and wait for the guys who aren’t here to come back. We need to push ahead and stay focused. Our ultimate goal is still to go as far as we can.”
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Detroit Tigers blow lead, lose to Kansas City Royals on walk-off hit.
The Tigers lost, 4-3, to the Royals on Kyle Isbel’s walk-off single in the ninth inning.
