How Jeimer Candelario is carrying empty Detroit Tigers offense through losses

Detroit Free Press

Third baseman Jeimer Candelario snapped the Detroit Tigers‘ 22-inning scoreless drought on a fourth-inning home run Saturday. He caught a slider, sent the ball 378 feet and just missed the second deck in right field.

Born in New York, Candelario was playing in front of family at Yankee Stadium.

“Yeah, definitely felt good,” Candelario said. “Helping contribute to your team, having a little bit of family there. Just get it going.”

Manager AJ Hinch, less enthused after Saturday’s 6-4 loss to the New York Yankees made the Tigers (8-20) the first team to 20 losses this season, said: “We obviously need more than that.”

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The Tigers have dropped four games in a row, as well as 14 of their last 16 contests. Those losses are piling up because of the putrid-at-times offense, but Candelario remains a bright spot.

Even Saturday, when the Tigers collected four runs on seven hits and six walks, there were tough-to-swallow performances in key moments from Willi Castro (0-for-4, four strikeouts) and Miguel Cabrera (0-for-5, two strikeouts). After vying for last year’s American League Rookie of the Year award, Castro is hitting .191 through 25 games; Cabrera, a shadow of his two-time AL MVP self, is hitting .125 through 14 games.

Against the Yankees, the Tigers went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position. But the general results were a smidge better — at least there were runners in scoring position.

That had been a a rarity after back-to-back shutouts by the Yankees and Chicago White Sox.

“It was a winnable game, but also a game I thought was close,” Hinch said. “I thought our guys hung in there and continued to compete. I don’t worry about our guys competing or being disinterested. This sucks, going through this and experiencing the mounting losses.

“But our guys did hang in there and put up a little fight at the end.”

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The problems extend well beyond Castro and Cabrera.

But the positives at the plate — the starting pitchers have been solid, at least — are seemingly limited to Candelario’s presence in the lineup. He has 29 hits in 104 at-bats (.279) with two home runs and eight RBIs in 28 games this season. Though his 27 strikeouts have been rough, he has drawn nine walks and leads the Tigers in hits.

Over its past 16 games, the offense — by far the worst in the majors — hit .179 with 30 runs, 29 walks and 171 strikeouts. Overall, the Tigers have a minus-60 run differential and one everyday batter hitting above .225.

If Candelario wasn’t in the middle of the batting order, how much lower would the team’s .199 batting average be this year?

“When you turn to the locker guy on your right and your left, you’re usually looking for encouragement from someone that’s doing a little better,” Hinch said. “Collectively, they’re looking around trying to find some encouragement, and it’s hard to find right now.”

As the Tigers’ offense has cratered over those 16 games, Candelario has stayed above water, going 14-for-58 (.241) with four runs scored, two walks and 16 strikeouts. He went 3-for-4 with a solo home run in Saturday’s two-run loss and picked up one of the Tigers’ four singles in Friday’s 10-0 embarrassment.

“It’s hard to feel too good about it in this rut that we’ve been in,” Hinch said about Candelario’s fourth-inning blast off Yankees starter Jameson Taillon, who dealt five innings of one-run ball. On the other side, Spencer Turnbull gave up four runs in five-plus innings for the Tigers.

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In his first 12 games, Candelario went 18-for-61 (.295) with nine runs scored, eight walks and 13 strikeouts. He numbers over the past 16 games don’t stand up to that, but still far exceed what his teammates are doing.

“Whatever I can do to help my team win, I will do it,” Candelario said.

Last season, Candelario broke out with a .297 avberage in 52 games.

He was named 2020 Tiger of the Year, so leading his teammates with his on-field performance isn’t unfamiliar. Back in 2019, though, he was fighting for his spot in the organization and trying to find his identity.

“It shows that you can learn at the big-league level,” Hinch said. “He got enough at-bats to find a consistent swing. He’s still working to get a little better, but he picks up good at-bats, he brings energy. I thought he played really good defense today. It was a good all-around game for him.”

The Tigers desperately need Candelario to continue.

And the Tigers also desperately need a whole bunch of others to join him if winning games — Hinch’s top priority — is going to be achieved.

“Things are going to happen,” Candelario said. “I know good things are going to happen. We just got to continue working hard. It’s 162 games. Everything can change in a little bit. We’ve just got to stay positive.”

Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzoldRead more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.

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