ST. LOUIS — Baseball can be a game of inches.
There were three such plays as the Tigers took on the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium on Friday night. Two went the Tigers’ way and the other didn’t. That extra inch helped Detroit to escape with a 5-4 win, running the team’s winning streak to four games.
The two close plays that went the Tigers’ way came in crucial moments in the seventh and eighth innings.
The first involved a Matt Vierling hit-by-pitch that set up a seventh-inning rally.
Vierling was facing Cardinals flame-throwing reliever Jordan Hicks with one on, one out and the Tigers’ trailing, 3-2, in the seventh. Hicks threw a 100-mph pitch that hit Vierling in the right forearm. The ball bounced into fair territory in front of home plate and Cardinals catcher Andrew Knizner threw it to second to start what was originally called a 2-4-3 double play, which would have ended the inning. But after the umpires gathered, they overturned the call and awarded Vierling first base.
“I totally understand what the umpires were doing, just making sure the right call was made and I understand too why it was close,” Vierling said. “Maybe they thought it hit my bat or something, but yeah, it definitely got me.”
Vierling, who was wearing a wrap on his right forearm afterwards, said he should be good to play Saturday. He stayed in the game.
“I didn’t really even see an out call and I know they probably did,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “Everyone kind of stopped — it was the most slow motion play imaginable.”
Center fielder Riley Greene, who entered in the fifth as a defensive replacement, capitalized on the reprieve three pitches later, lining a two-run double into the right-field corner. First baseman Spencer Torkelson added an RBI double later in the frame, giving the Tigers enough cushion to secure the win.
“Two strikes, just tried to bear down, you know make something happen, and I was still staying on the fastball, hit the other way,” Greene said. “Then, I saw a curveball or slider pop and that’s when I went.”
The second break came in the eighth, which helped mitigate a Cardinals’ rally. With runners on first and second, Lars Nootbaar smashed a liner into the right-center-field gap that one-hopped into the stands for a ground-rule double. The hit scored a run, but had it stayed in play St. Louis likely would have tied the game.
“Me and Matt [Vierling] were like, ‘Hey, thank God that ball went over the fence,’” Greene said. “Because if it doesn’t, that run scores, so that was huge. It’s crazy the things that can happen in baseball.”
Two batters later, Tigers reliever Mason Englert struck out Nolan Gorman bases loaded to escape the jam. Closer Alex Lange struck three batters allowing a leadoff double to Paul Goldschmidt in the ninth to earn his sixth save.
“All these guys, we’ve leaned on them a ton,” Hinch said. “We’ll lean on the other part of our bullpen tomorrow, but it’s nice when you get rewarded with a win.”
The rally gave lefty Matthew Boyd (2-2), who turned in his best start of the season, going six innings, while giving up three runs on five hits the win.
Boyd struck out six and for the first time this season didn’t walk a batter.
“[Jake Rogers] called a great game back there today,” Boyd said. “He really guided me through it and it was fun.”
Boyd retired the first eight Cardinals he faced before Knizner homered in the third. Boyd also had some bad luck in the fourth as a pop-up to short right field fell for a hit between three Tigers defenders, leading to two more runs. That was the inch that went against the Tigers as the ball grazed off right fielder Andy Ibáñez‘s glove.
“It was a miscommunication that is more on us as coaches than the players, just because everybody was out of position,” Hinch said. “But we overcame it.”
Detroit once again got out to an early lead as Ibáñez doubled and shortstop Javier Báez followed with a two-run homer, his second homer in as many days, to make it 2-0. It was the fourth straight game that the Tigers scored multiple runs in the first.
“We played a lot of good teams last month and we want to keep it going,” Vierling said. “We feel pretty good right now, a lot of momentum, and I don’t even think we’re close to where we could be.”