Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch — playing chess with Baltimore Orioles manager Brandon Hyde — put himself in a perfect position in the eighth inning, trailing by one run. He played all the right cards.
But the Tigers still lost, 5-3, in Sunday’s series finale at Comerica Park.
“When it doesn’t work out, it’s obviously frustrating,” Hinch said. “It’s complicated to explain. I don’t really want to tell you the entire strategy, but we got another opportunity that was right there for us.”
Left-handed reliever Chasen Shreve allowed a solo home run to Jorge Mateo in the top of the ninth inning, which put the Orioles ahead by two runs. The Tigers (10-17) dropped six of seven games in the season series with the Orioles, and they have lost 12 of 14 games against the American League East Division.
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An opportunity to complete the comeback occurred in the eighth inning.
Spencer Torkelson worked a leadoff six-pitch walk against right-handed reliever Austin Voth, and with Nick Maton — a left-handed hitter — approaching from the on-deck circle, the Orioles switched pitchers.
Left-handed reliever Danny Coulombe entered to face Maton, but Hinch unloaded the right-handed hitters on his bench for more favorable matchups.
“We’re fighting,” said outfielder Matt Vierling. “It’s definitely a little frustrating, I’m not going to lie, but we’re in almost every game we play, and we’re just right there. At some point, those will fall and other things will go our way. If anything, it shows a lot about our team.”
Righty Eric Haase pinch-hit for Maton but struck out swinging. Then, righty Zack Short pinch-hit for Akil Baddoo and blooped Coulombe’s fifth-pitch fastball into shallow left-center field for a single.
That put two runners on base.
Coulombe bounced back by striking out Vierling, a right-handed hitter, on seven pitches without throwing a single pitch inside the strike zone. Vierling struck out looking at an up-and-in sweeper, which should not have been called a strike by home plate umpire Doug Eddings.
“I thought it was in,” Vierling said. “That’s just me as a hitter. I thought it was in. I didn’t really think I could do much with it, and I read it as a ball.”
With two outs, the Orioles brought in righty reliever Yennier Cano, one of the relievers in baseball right now, who struck out Jake Rogers with a changeup to end the inning.
The Tigers stranded two runners.
Cano, who has sent down 32 of 33 batters this season, returned for the ninth inning, protecting a 5-3 lead, and retired three batters in a row: Andy Ibáñez (groundout), Zach McKintry (strikeout) and Riley Greene (groundout).
“He’s pitching with a ton of confidence,” Hinch said. “The (arm) angle is different, so he’s a big human coming at you from a funky angle. The changeup looks really good. This last 10 days, when we’ve seen him seven times, we’ve unfortunately seen him too much because he pitches when they’re ahead. But yeah, he looks tough to hit.”
The early bird …
The Orioles scored four runs in the first five innings: three off starter Spencer Turnbull and one run off lefty reliever Tyler Holton. Turnbull allowed three runs (two earned runs) on five hits and two walks with three strikeouts in four innings.
He threw 50 of 83 pitches for strikes.
“I thought I took some steps forward today,” Turnbull said. “I thought my stuff was really good in the first inning. I think it was pretty good in the second, but I got crushed by that long inning, which took a lot out of me. I feel like I battled after that and gave us a chance.”
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A leadoff walk, followed by McKinstry’s fielding error at second base, led to the Orioles’ first run in the second inning, as Ryan O’Hearn ripped a curveball for an RBI single to right field.
It was a 32-pitch second inning.
“It’s definitely a little bit labor intensive,” Turnbull said. “I feel like before (Tommy John) surgery, I could have handled that a lot easier. Now, I’m still kind of getting my stamina back. I don’t want to make any more excuses. It is what it is. I still have to make pitches and keep my pitch count down.”
Back-to-back doubles from Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle produced the Orioles’ second run in the third inning, but Turnbull responded by retiring the next three batters.
In the fourth, Adam Frazier launched Turnbull’s second-pitch fastball for a solo home run to right field for a 3-0 lead.
Turnbull threw 43 fastballs, 19 sliders, 11 changeups, seven sinkers and three curveballs, and generated just nine whiffs on six fastballs, two sliders and one sinker. He recorded 18 called strikes.
“It’s still stagnant with his rhythm, timing, delivery,” Hinch said. “Something is a little off. He just looks a little slow to warm in the beginning of the season. He will show flashes of being in the (strike) zone and being in leverage (counts), and then lose it a little bit. Nothing that imploded, which is the positive sign.”
The Tigers called on Holton to start the fifth inning. Mountcastle greeted the left-handed reliever with a leadoff double, then advanced to third base on a groundout and scored on Austin Hays’ sacrifice fly for a 4-0 advantage.
Scratching a few across
The Tigers clawed back into the game with a three-run fifth inning against right-hander Kyle Bradish. The Orioles’ starter allowed three runs on six hits and one walk with five strikeouts in 4⅔ innings.
He retired 12 of 15 batters before the fifth inning.
“We got to see him a couple times through, and that generally is going to favor the hitter more and more,” Hinch said. “Early, I didn’t think our at-bats were very good at all, and it got a little better as the game went on.”
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The fifth inning started with a grounder and continued with a bang.
Rogers followed Vierling’s leadoff single by hammering Bradish’s sinker for a 410-foot two-run home run to left-center field, his third homer in 18 games this season.
The Tigers kept the comeback alive with two outs when Greene hit a line-drive single to center field. Javier Báez scored Greene from first base — cutting the deficit to 4-3 — when he doubled to left-center field on a full-count slider inside the strike zone.
Facing lefty reliever Cionel Pérez, Maton struck out swinging at a pitch below the strike zone on a check swing to end the inning.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.
Next up: Mets
Matchup: Tigers (10-17) vs. N.Y. Mets (15-12), series opener.
First pitch: 6:40 p.m. Tuesday; Comerica Park, Detroit.
TV/radio: Bally Sports Detroit; WXYT-FM (97.1).
Probable pitchers: Tigers — RHP Michael Lorenzen (0-1, 7.07 ERA); Mets — RHP Max Scherzer (2-1, 3.72).