Before Wednesday’s game, Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch talked about some of the impending challenges in the series finale at Comerica Park. One of the biggest challenges he highlighted: “Getting Cleveland out of town before José Ramírez does anything.”
The Tigers were so close.
Ramírez — who entered the three-game series with five strikeouts across 75 plate appearances this season — entered Wednesday with one hit (a single) and five strikeouts across eight plate appearances in the series.
But Ramírez changed the game in the sixth inning when he hit a three-run home run off Spencer Turnbull’s fastball. The Tigers lost, 3-2, and failed to sweep the Guardians. After five straight wins, the Tigers (7-10) ended up in the loss column for the first time since April 12.
“Quite honestly, the Ramírez at-bat really starts the previous inning with the walk and hit-by-pitch,” Hinch said. “They get to start the next inning with the top of the order. Leadoff walk there, and you’re setting the table for one of the premier hitters in the league.”
AT HIS BEST: Eduardo Rodriguez’s best start as a Tiger sets an example for starting rotation
JEFF SEIDEL: Tigers’ winning streak carries a new mojo: ‘We show up expecting to win’
A game-changing result from Ramírez wasn’t difficult to predict.
By the sixth inning, Turnbull’s four-seam fastball — the pitch he relied on the most in his fourth start of the season — was losing its effectiveness and velocity, plus his command was faltering.
Meanwhile, Ramírez was due for a big hit.
He didn’t miss the 91.9 mph fastball inside the strike zone in a 2-0 count.
“I’m not going to pitch around him,” Turnbull said. “I’m going to challenge him. It wasn’t my best pitch. It’s frustrating. But I’m not as mad at that pitch as I am the 10 pitches before that. It was a lot of misfires. Fatigue or whatever, but I just missed a bunch and got in some bad counts.”
Before Ramírez’s home run, Turnbull walked Steven Kwan on six pitches to start the sixth. Andres Gimenez followed by battling for eight pitches before hitting a fastball into center field for a single on the ninth.
Ramírez, 30, finished 2-for-12 (.167) with one single, one home run, zero walks and six strikeouts in three games. In his 11-year career against the Tigers, the four-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger has a .311 batting average with 27 homers across 132 games.
Left-hander Tyler Alexander replaced Turnbull and completed the sixth inning, then returned to the mound and delivered a scoreless seventh inning. Righties Alex Lange and José Cisnero pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings, respectively.
The Tigers’ offense scored one run in the seventh and one run in the eighth. Guardians closer Emmanuel Close, a right-handed flamethrower, kept the Tigers from scoring in the ninth, but not before Kerry Carpenter and Akil Baddoo opened the inning with back-to-back singles.
He responded to the adversity by retiring Spencer Torkelson, Tyler Nevin and Eric Haase to notch his sixth save. Nevin popped out to conclude an 11-pitch battle that included eight consecutive foul balls.
“Against a guy like him, you can’t come off the fastball and gotta battle as hard as you can,” Nevin said. “You have to try to stay short to the ball, but he’s one of the best in the game, and he got the best of me there.”
No slider, no problem
Turnbull foreshadowed a rough sixth inning.
With two outs in the fifth, Turnbull walked Gabriels Arias on four pitches — two sliders and two fastballs, all nowhere near the strike zone — and drilled Mike Zunino with a first-pitch sinker. The mistakes forced a mound visit from catcher Eric Haase and pitching coach Chris Fetter.
The next batter, Myles Straw, flied out to right field on a first-pitch fastball.
“It’s definitely a process, and I’m not where I want to be yet,” said Turnbull, who missed the 2022 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. “It’s definitely a different type of patience. There’s a lot of frustration because I’m such a perfectionist and have such high expectations of myself. But I also have to realize my body can only do what it can do. It’s getting better.”
WHAT HAPPENED?: Why Tigers, Giants postponed Sunday’s game despite 5-hour delay, two chances to play
AIRING IT OUT: Riley Greene leads Tigers in hits, strikeouts. Here’s what to make of his 2023
Before the collapse, Turnbull pitched like a frontline starter through the first four innings. He relied heavily on his four-seam fastball and wouldn’t back down from the Guardians, even without his slider.
His best pitch is the slider.
In the fourth, Ramírez struck out on an automatic strike because of a pitch-clock violation in a 1-2 count. Turnbull allowed three runs on three hits and three walks with three strikeouts over 5⅓ innings, throwing 52 of 82 pitches for strikes.
“I was pretty encouraged,” Hinch said. “I thought the stuff came out pretty good early. … Good outing for him. I know he’s going to be frustrated because of the way it ended, but I thought it was an encouraging step forward in only his fourth start.”
The 30-year-old tossed 42 four-seam fastballs (51%), 12 changeups (15%), 10 sinkers (12%), nine sliders (11%) and nine curveballs (11%), with his four-seamer generating six of his seven whiffs and nine of his 15 called strikes.
He did not get any whiffs with his slider.
His fastball averaged 93.2 mph.
Tork’s bombs
The Tigers scored their first run with one out in the seventh inning, as Torkelson blasted a solo home run to left-center field on an elevated fastball from right-handed reliever Trevor Stephan.
“I felt like I slowed everything down,” Torkelson said. “I felt good at the plate, saw his pitches well, had a good plan and executed.”
The 23-year-old’s second homer of the season traveled 417 feet with a 109.8 mph exit velocity.
Torkelson finished 2-for-3 with one walk, one double and one homer.
A BENCHED BÁEZ: In benching Javier Báez, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch sends message to players
A BETTER BÁEZ: Javier Báez is proving he can help Tigers win. Can he do it consistently?
Before Stephan’s slip-up, Guardians right-handed starter Cal Quantill dominated the Tigers across six scoreless innings. He allowed four hits and one walk with four strikeouts, throwing 54 of 83 pitches for strikes.
The Tigers had their best scoring opportunities in the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, Torkelson drilled a double to center field with one out but was stranded by Nevin (groundout) and Haase (flyout).
In the sixth, Matt Vierling opened the inning with a double. The next two batters, Nick Maton and Riley Greene, struck out swinging. Javier Báez kept the inning alive with a single, but Carpenter smacked a sharp grounder back to Quantrill for the third out.
Quantrill took Carpenter’s grounder, hit with a 91.4 mph exit velocity, off his right leg (near his ankle). He crawled to the ball and completed the play by throwing the ball from his knees to first baseman Josh Naylor.
But Quantrill did not return for the seventh inning.
The Guardians turned to right-hander James Karinchak for the eighth inning. Pinch-hitter Zach McKinstry, a left-handed hitter replacing Vierling, hit a curveball for a home run to right field, cutting the Tigers’ deficit to 3-2.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.