BALTIMORE — The Detroit Tigers wasted an almost perfect start from Eduardo Rodriguez.
“This is my best start that I’ve ever had,” he said.
The Tigers have lost four games in a row, scoring five runs combined in their latest losing streak. They were swept by the Baltimore Orioles in Sunday’s 2-1 loss in extra innings despite their starting pitcher taking a perfect game into the seventh inning. One of the worst offenses in baseball went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and squandered several opportunities to score runs in the first few innings.
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It was another frustrating loss, and another masterpiece from Rodriguez as the Tigers fell to 7-13.
“My mindset all the time is go out there and put zeros on the board,” Rodriguez said, when asked about the lack of run support. “I know we’re going to score runs at some point, and we did. For me, it’s go out there — no matter what the score is — and put a zero on the board.”
Seven outs away from a perfect game, Rodriguez faced Ryan Mountcastle with two outs in the seventh inning at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mountcastle, a slugging first baseman, fouled off four pitches in a row before hitting an eighth-pitch changeup for a single into left-center field.
Rodriguez, a left-hander, threw the changeup down and away.
“I was thinking I would bounce a changeup to get a swing and miss,” said Rodriguez, who didn’t bounce the changeup but left the pitch in a tough-to-hit location. “He made a good swing and got a base hit.”
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No MLB pitcher has thrown a perfect game since Seattle’s Félix Hernández did so in 2012.
Catcher Jake Rogers realized Rodriguez had a chance to make history heading into the fourth inning, and Rodriguez was certainly aware of the situation as his fifth start of the season unfolded in Baltimore.
“He was incredible,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “We just didn’t score enough for him.”
A confident Rodriguez — possibly the most confident he has ever been on the mound — posted seven innings of one-hit ball with zero walks and six strikeouts, throwing 65 of 95 pitches for strikes. The 30-year-old generated 16 swings and misses with five fastballs, six cutters and five changeups.
It was a continuation of his previous start.
On April 18, Rodriguez fired eight scoreless innings — completing the eighth for just the fourth time in his career — against the Cleveland Guardians with four hits, zero walks and 10 strikeouts. He has allowed one run in 21 innings — a 0.43 ERA — over his past three starts and currently owns a 17-inning scoreless streak.
“I took a no-hitter into the eighth inning in Oakland,” Rodriguez said, referencing his start for the Boston Red Sox against the Oakland Athletics on Sept. 4, 2016. “But that was a no-hitter. This was a perfect game.”
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After five starts, Rodriguez has a 2.32 ERA with five walks and 25 strikeouts across 31 innings. His five-year, $77 million contract — signed in November 2021 — includes an opt-out clause after this season, so the Tigers could ship him to a postseason contender for prospects at the trade deadline.
“Just keep throwing strikes,” Rodriguez said of his plan moving forward. “I’m going to go out there with the same mentality. I’ll try to execute every pitch that I throw and throw it right where I want it. That’s it.”
In Sunday’s performance, Rodriguez became the first Tigers pitcher to retire the first 20 batters of a game since Jordan Zimmermann against the Toronto Blue Jays in March 2019. Both Rodriguez and Zimmermann lost their perfect games with two outs in the seventh inning.
Rodriguez also became the first pitcher in Tigers history to post back-to-back starts with at least seven shutout innings, zero walks and at least six strikeouts. The last MLB pitcher to do so was Jacob deGrom in 2019.
“It definitely hurts,” said outfielder Matt Vierling. “He had a hell of a performance. It sucks we couldn’t have taken advantage of that.”
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That’s exactly what happened.
The Tigers missed too many scoring opportunities in the first three innings but finally scored one run in the top of the eighth inning, only for the Orioles to counter with one run in the bottom of the eighth. They tied the game on a poor relay throw from outfielder Akil Baddoo.
Once the game went into extra innings, the Orioles walked off the Tigers, this time on a wild pitch, for the second time in three games.
“It hurts to lose the game,” Hinch said. “We had plenty of opportunities. You can’t win games if you continually miss out on opportunities, especially low-scoring games like that. We gave ourselves some chances and still couldn’t come through any sort of breakout hit or run-scoring event. It sucks to lose that game.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.