Detroit — Turns out, it was just a matter of breaking the seal.
Giants right-hander Logan Webb was cruising along, holding the Tigers hitless for 4.1 innings. Then Jeimer Candelario, hitting under .200, decided enough was enough.
With the defense shifted to the right side of the infield, Candelario made a decided effort to inside-out his swing and push the ball to the vacant side of the field. Which he did, rolling it inside the bag at third for a single.
“He’s a sinker guy,” Candelario said. “If you try to pull that guy, you’re going to get yourself out every time. With him, just be short and quick, let it come to you and shoot it the other way.
“When I get on base, a lot of good things happen.”
Certainly was the case this time.
The Tigers went on to bat around in the inning, bang out six hits, score six runs and ultimately beat the Giants, 6-1, at Comerica Park Wednesday afternoon.
“A lot of two-out at-bats that were really important,” manager AJ Hinch said. “And it just never ended. Good at-bat after good at-bat, put up a six-spot. Nice.”
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After Candelario broke the seal, Tucker Barnhart followed with a seeing-eye, bouncing double through the shift and Akil Baddoo walked to load the bases.
“Akil’s at-bat was a perfect example of one that could’ve gone sideways if he doesn’t stay disciplined,” Hinch said. “He tries to be a hero and swings out of the zone and puts it in play, the inning is likely over.”
It wasn’t.
Webb won a seven-pitch battle and got a called third strike on Riley Greene for the second out and then put Victor Reyes into a fast 0-2 hole.
Reyes has been quietly clutch for the Tigers this season, hitting .409 with two outs and runners in scoring position. He slammed the 0-2 pitch right at shortstop Brandon Crawford, who was playing behind second base in the Giants’ shift.
The ball left Reyes’ bat with an exit velocity of 104 mph and it ate Crawford up, caroming into center field. Two runs scored.
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Kody Clemens, hitting in the three-hole, and Harold Castro added RBI singles and, against lefty reliever Thomas Szapucki, Willi Castro lined a two-run double into the left field corner.
From being no-hit to scoring six runs, all with two outs – useful.
So what was Clemens doing hitting third? Good question. Literally minutes before Hinch was to bring the lineup card out to the umpires, head athletic trainer Doug Teter informed him that starting shortstop Javier Baez’s back had locked up.
Instead of hastily rewriting the entire lineup, Hinch scratched out Baez and wrote Clemens in the third spot.
“That’s not normally what I would do,” he said. “It was a race to get the lineup to the umpire. Maybe a minute and thirty seconds before they were going to walk out, so I just scratched it out and went with Clemens in the three-hole.
“I joked with Kody that it was his responsibility to make me look smart for putting him in the three-hole. First couple of at-bats, maybe not so much. The last couple were pretty good.”
Baez was available to pinch-hit later in the game and Hinch said he expects him to start in Texas on Friday.
“Maybe under different circumstances I would have made the whole game wait and rewrote the lineup,” he said. “But all’s well that ends well.”
Tigers’ starter Matt Manning was happy for the support, for sure. He spun six scoreless innings, with a career-high eight strikeouts and no walks.
“It was nice to see him walk off the mound with a lot of confidence,” Hinch said. “There’s a good vibe around him right now. He’s just extremely confident.”
Manning had to grind. Starting with a 26-pitch first inning, he stranded a runner at third base in four of his six frames.
“I just made pitches when I had to,” he said. “I didn’t come out of the gate super sharp. But as the game went on, I just tried to put good at-bats together, throw first-pitch strikes and not walk guys.”
He ended up getting 16 swings-and-misses and 22 called strikes. His slider was baffling the Giants. They took 19 swings at it and missed on 12. They also took it eight times for strikes.
“That’s been a huge pitch for him,” catcher Barnhart said. “It’s a very effective weapon to right-handed hitters. Curve balls generally are easier to hit for a right-hander than a slider. The consistent evolution of the slider is a direct indication of how dominant he’s become.”
Manning’s response to the six-run inning: He struck out the heart of the San Francisco order in the sixth – Wilmer Flores, Joc Pederson and Evan Longoria.
“That’s about as good a finish as you can have,” Hinch said. “At 90-some pitches and just emptying the tank like that.”
The last Tigers’ pitcher to work six or more scoreless innings with eight or more strikeouts was Michael Fulmer, Aug. 14, 2016, when he threw a complete-game shutout at Texas.
“They gave me a cushion,” Manning said. “I didn’t want to waste it.”
Over his last four starts since coming off the injured list, Manning has posted a 1.80 ERA with 28 strikeouts and five walks.
“Pretty cool facing those guys,” said Manning, who grew up in Sacramento. “Playing a team like that from my home town, I watched a lot of those guys growing up, I thought that was pretty cool.”
Twitter: @cmccosky