ST. LOUIS — Detroit Tigers left-hander Matthew Boyd didn’t get the help he needed from his defense in the fourth inning.
Paul Goldschmidt, the reigning National League MVP, hammered a difficult-to-hit changeup for a ground-rule double. What happened next, while not Boyd’s fault, put the Tigers in a hole.
The Tigers climbed out of the hole — thanks to Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson and several tough-as-nails performances from their bullpen — to beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4, in Friday’s opener of a three-game series at Busch Stadium. The Tigers (14-17) extended their winning streak to four games.
“It’s fun,” Greene said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
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Opening the seventh inning, right-handed reliever Jordan Hicks, a flamethrower for the Cardinals, walked Zach McKinstry and hit Matt Vierling in the forearm. The Tigers had two runners on base with one out for Greene, who had entered the game as a defensive substitution in the fifth inning.
The 22-year-old left-handed hitter made the most of his first plate appearance, despite falling behind 0-2 in the count, by ripping Hicks’ two-strike sweeper — a poorly executed sweeper — for a double to the right-field corner.
“It’s a calculated idea that (left-hander Jordan) Montgomery is not going to stay in, and with Javy (Báez) around him, I didn’t think they were going to bring another lefty in,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said, when asked about the timing of his decision to bring Greene off the bench. “We got the right-handed at-bat that we wanted. He hits the slider down the line, and it was a really big at-bat. It lined up perfectly how we wanted.”
His second extra-base hit to the pull side in the past two games put the Tigers ahead, 4-3. (He drilled a curveball from Justin Verlander for a solo home run in Thursday’s 2-0 win over the New York Mets.)
Too often, Greene has hit the ball on the ground to the pull side, a problem spanning his entire big-league career, but based on his recent swings, he seemingly has found a mechanical fix.
“I never thought I was going through it, to be honest,” Greene said. “There’s always going to be ups and downs in baseball. It’s just a matter of if you can handle them. I worked on some things, got in a good headspace and made sure I’m in a good spot to hit the ball.”
Glove hurts
The clutch double from Greene covered up a big mistake in the fourth inning.
After Goldschmidt’s double, Willson Contreras skied an eight-pitch changeup into shallow right field. The ball landed between second baseman Jonathan Schoop and right fielder Andy Ibáñez.
“We had trouble defensively,” Hinch said. “We missed a routine play, a miscommunication. That is more on us as coaches than the players just because everybody was out of position. But we overcame it.”
Ibáñez, making his first-ever start in right field, should have been charged with an error, but Contreras received a single. Regardless, the mistake came back to hurt on the Tigers on the scoreboard.
A groundout from Nolan Arenado tied the game, 2-2, and a grounder from Dylan Carlson put the Cardinals ahead, 3-2. On Carlson’s grounder, second baseman Jonathan Schoop turned up the aggressiveness and fired the ball to catcher Jake Rogers, rather than getting the easy out at first base.
The throw from Schoop was too late.
“We’re playing in, which is me telling the players that I want the play to be at home,” Hinch said. “He’s probably the only second baseman in the big leagues that has the opportunity to throw that. When it’s that close, I certainly want our players to play aggressively.”
Rally cats
Down 3-2, the Tigers responded in the seventh with Greene’s two-run double. Later in the seventh, Spencer Torkelson hit a two-out double to drive in another run. He put the Tigers ahead, 5-3, and the high-leverage relievers took over for the final three innings.
“We used a lot of resources for that one-run win,” Hinch said, “and it was worth it. The guys are fired up about it.”
Right-hander José Cisnero loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh inning. He was replaced by righty Jason Foley with Contreras stepping to the plate. Contreras hit a weak bouncer to Foley for the third out.
Foley put two runners on base with two outs in the eighth. Lars Nootbaar hit a ground-rule double to right-center field, which scored a run and cut the Tigers’ lead to 5-4. Had the ball not bounced over the wall, the Cardinals would have tied the game.
Right-hander Mason Englert, a rookie and a Rule 5 draft pick, entered to escape a jam with two runners in scoring position. He lost an 11-pitch battle and walked pinch-hitter Brendan Donovan, a left-handed hitter, to load the bases.
Then, Englert struck out pinch-hitter Nolan Gorman, another left-handed hitter, with a full-count slider to strand three runners.
“Englert continues to be unfazed by the moment,” Hinch said.
Protecting a 5-4 lead, right-hander Alex Lange pitched a scoreless ninth inning, working around Goldschmidt’s leadoff double, for his sixth save of the season. He struck out Contreras, Arenado and Carlson. Before the final out, home plate umpire Junior Valentine ejected Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol and Cardinals bench coach Joe McEwing.
“I trust Alex to throw his best stuff to their best hitters,” Hinch said.
“Get ahead, put guys away,” Lange said.
Yeah, Boyd
After the Tigers’ mistakes, Boyd bounced back by striking out the side in the fifth inning.
The 32-year-old sent down Nootbaar (91 mph fastball, looking), Andrew Knizner (77 mph slider, swinging) and Tommy Edman (79.6 mph changeup, swinging). He struck out six batters without allowing a walk.
But the Cardinals scored three runs on three hits in Boyd’s six innings. He completed six innings for the first time in six starts this season, and for the first time since June 8, 2021, against the Seattle Mariners at Comerica Park.
“He was very good early and efficient early,” Hinch said. “He was being Matt Boyd, where he’s mixing and matching and getting some punch outs. He continued to give us a really good chance to hang in there.”
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The first run occurred in the third inning, when Knizner — who entered Friday’s game with seven home runs in 519 at-bats in his MLB career and none this season — slammed a 406-foot homer to left-center field on a first-pitch 90 mph fastball.
His homer cut the Tigers’ advantage to 2-1.
In the sixth inning, Boyd kept his strikeout streak going when he punched out Goldschmidt (81 mph changeup, swinging) for the first out. The next batter, Contreras, was retired on a grounder to shortstop, then Arenado and Carlson produced back-to-back singles. A popout from Juan Yepez, following pitching coach Chris Fetter’s mound visit, ended the inning.
Boyd threw 60 of 87 pitches for strikes.
He relied heavily on his fastball, changeup and slider.
“It was good,” Boyd said. “The pitch count wasn’t even fully taxed, I don’t feel like. It was good. Rog (Jake Rogers) called a great game back there. He really guided me through it. I haven’t got to throw to him in a couple years.”
Early offense
The Tigers loaded their lineup with right-handed hitters against Montgomery, the Cardinals’ left-handed starter. Those decisions paid off almost immediately, as Ibáñez drilled a one-out double.
Báez, scorching hot since April 13, followed up by hitting a two-strike curveball below the strike zone for two-run home run. He didn’t hit the ball hard (94.2 mph exit velocity), but it traveled just far enough — 362 feet — to get over the left-field wall for a 2-0 lead.
It was Báez’s third homer in three days.
“The quality of our at-bats is the key, and it’s led to some runs in the last few games,” Hinch said. “Anybody will tell you it’s nice to play ahead. It’s nice to take a deep breath, and you look up on that scoreboard, and you’re already applying pressure to the other side. Give me the lead every game and I’ll try to manage the best I can.”
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After Báez’s homer, Montgomery kept the Tigers from scoring during the rest of his outing. He allowed two runs on six hits and one walk with six strikeouts, throwing 60 of 89 pitches for strikes.
A seven-pitch sixth inning allowed Montgomery to return for the seventh inning.
The Tigers, trailing 3-2, put runners on the corners — Rogers (double) and Báez (walk) — with two outs in the fifth inning. But Montgomery struck out Eric Haase with a down-and-in sinker for a called third strike, even though the pitch wasn’t inside the strike zone.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.