Toronto – The Tigers were three outs away from stopping their losing streak at five games Wednesday at Rogers Centre. Instead, the Toronto Blue Jays rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth and then won it in the 10th.
After Kevin Kiermaier sacrificed the free runner to third base, George Springer singled up the middle against reliever Jose Cisnero. Blue Jays 4, Tigers 3. Losing streak at six.
Kerry Carpenter, who hit 804 feet of fly ball outs on Tuesday night, launched one 397 feet into the new section of seats in right-center in the seventh inning Wednesday, a two-run shot that broke a 1-1 tie and put the Tigers up 3-1.
But after relievers Jason Foley and Alex Lange collected six straight outs, manager AJ Hinch handed the ball to right-hander Trey Wingenter in the ninth with the heart of the Blue Jays order coming up.
It went poorly. Wingenter, who has one career save and that was four years ago, gave up a single to Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., then walked Matt Chapman on four pitches, one of them a wild pitch to the backstop, and hit Daulton Varsho.
Hinch then summoned veteran lefty Chasen Shreve. He gave up a sacrifice flies to Whit Merrifield and pinch-hitter Alejandro Kirk to tie the game.
Bonus baseball.
The Tigers three runs came on two swings, both on Gausman’s fastball. Nick Maton hit a four-seamer into the right-field seats in the fourth. It was his second homer in two nights and the Tigers’ first hit of the game.
Impressively, he was able to get the barrel of his bat on a 95-mph four-seamer at the top of the strike zone from Jays’ starter Kevin Gausman, who was bedeviling Tigers’ hitters with his splitter and fastball combination.The Tigers’ three runs came on two swings, both on Gausman’s fastball. Nick Maton hit a four-seamer into the right-field seats in the fourth. It was his second homer in two nights and the Tigers’ first hit of the game.
It was Maton’s ninth career homer, four of them have come against Toronto.
It was also the first earned run against Gausman in 15.1 innings. Gausman ended up striking out 11 in eight innings. He got 13 misses on 23 swings at his splitter. He got 11 called strikes with his fastball.
Carpenter got his barrel on a 95-mph heater at the top of the zone.
Tigers starter Eduardo Rodriguez was just as stingy, scattering seven hits over six innings. The only run the Jays mustered against him was a disputed one in the fourth inning.
It was one of several odd base running plays in this one.
The Tigers were up 1-0 and the Blue Jays strung together three singles in the fourth. Guerrero was at second and Varsho at first with two outs. Merrifield grounded one in the hole at shortstop.
Javier Báez made a slick, sliding pick of the ball and smartly spun and threw home. Guerrero thought the ball was going through and rounded the base. He ended up in a rundown and was tagged out on his way back to third.
But third base umpire Erich Bacchus nullified that, calling obstruction on Tigers’ third baseman Ryan Kreidler. Kreidler was in foul ground trying to get to the bag and he crossed paths with Guerrero. By the letter of the law, he did impede Guerrero’s route, even if the route was misbegotten.
Guerrero had already made an out at the plate earlier in the game. He tried to score from first base on a double by Chapman in the first inning and was thrown out on a textbook relay. Right fielder Matt Vierling played the carom off the well expertly and threw a strike to the cutoff man, second baseman Maton. Maton fired it to catcher Eric Haase. Guerrero was out by several steps.
There was another head-scratching play in that fourth inning. Varsho and Merrifield seemed to pull off a double steal. But home plate umpire Ryan Wills sent them back, calling umpire interference on himself. Haase had stepped on his foot as he threw to third base.
The Tigers had some bad moments on the bases themselves.
Haase led off the sixth inning with a double, but he got caught too far off second on a routine grounder to shortstop and was out in a brief rundown.
In the sixth, Vierling inexplicably chose not to slide into second on a stole base attempt. He was tagged out.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky