St. Louis — The Tigers helped turn the jeers to cheers at Busch Stadium on Sunday with a nightmarish defensive showing in a seven-run sixth inning that propelled the reeling Cardinals to a 12-6 win and snap their eight-game losing streak.
“That’s a good inning to forget,” said Spencer Torkelson, who blasted his third home run of the season earlier in the game.
The Tigers came into the game with the fourth-best defensive rating in baseball in terms of runs saved (plus-17). But they kicked it around pretty good Sunday, with four errors, three that led to four unearned runs in the sixth.
“It was just missed plays,” manager AJ Hinch said. “We couldn’t get that inning to end. That’s what happens in the big leagues when you give teams enough chances. Somebody is going to deliver a big blow.”
BOX SCORE: Cardinals 12, Tigers 6
The Tigers had just taken the lead with a five-run burst in the top of the sixth, keyed by a grand slam home run by Jake Rogers, and Cardinals’ Nation, unaccustomed to being 14 games under .500, were getting salty.
“That was fun,” Rogers said. “That’s what you want to do in that situation.”
The fun didn’t last very long.
The Cardinals put the first two runners on against lefty reliever Tyler Alexander. Hinch brought in rookie Mason Englert. Shortstop Javier Báez, whose error in the second inning led to an unearned run, booted another ground ball that plated a run.
With one out, Brendan Donovan ambushed a first-pitch fastball and put it in the right-field seats, a three-run homer. Third baseman Nick Maton would make two errors in the inning and when the dust settled, the Cardinals had seven runs and five hits and were back in control of the game.
“We just made too many mistakes and they put up a lot of good at-bats,” Hinch said. “It’s frustrating because we worked so hard to get back into the game.”
It was the first two fielding errors Báez has made this season. He hadn’t made an error of any kind since April 9, 59 straight clean chances.
“They’re a good team and they’ve been struggling hitting,” Rogers said. “It looked like they found it in one inning. I know it’s so cliché to say. But that’s baseball. We battled and we stayed in the game as long as we can.”
There was no defending Cardinals’ perennial All-Star Paul Goldschmidt, though. He clubbed three home runs, two solo shots and a two-run blast in the eighth that landed in the third deck in left field — Big Mac Land.
“Three different pitches, two different pitchers,” Rogers said. “He’s a great hitter. Just bad fingers (signs) from me. We tried everything and he was on everything. You tip your cap to him. That was pretty incredible.”
The loss ends the Tigers’ five-game winning streak. It also spoiled what had been some shrewd matchup work by Hinch.
They were down 3-2 with two outs in the top of the sixth. Miguel Cabrera had just lashed an RBI single off right-hander James Naile and with runners on the corners, Hinch sent up left-handed hitting Zach McKinstry to bat for Jonathan Schoop.
He figured Cardinals’ manager Oli Marmol would counter with a lefty, which he did, bringing in JoJo Romero. Hinch still liked McKinstry’s ability to work an at-bat against the lefty and, if he could get on, then he’d have the matchup he really wanted — Rogers against a lefty.
McKinstry worked a four-pitch walk and Rogers countered with a grand slam home run to put the Tigers up 6-3.
That was all undone in the bottom half of the inning.
“It was a huge swing for us, for sure,” Torkelson said. “But I am really proud of the way we battled. Obviously we lost today. But we won the series. There’s a lot of positives to take away and some negatives to learn from and flush.”
The Tigers called up right-hander Alex Faedo from Toledo on Sunday to make what might be a spot start. He certainly faced his share of good, young hitters in his five starts in Triple-A. He did not, rest assured, face anybody like Goldschmidt.
The reigning National League MVP hit a pair of solo home runs to smudge Faedo’s season debut Sunday
Faedo got ahead of Goldschmidt 0-2 in the first inning, getting him to take a slider at the top of the strike zone. He came back with another slider and hung it over the middle of the plate. The ball left Goldschmidt’s bat with an exit velocity of 108 mph and traveled 433 feet onto the berm in dead center field.
In the third, Faedo tried a different approach. He tried to sneak a 93 mph four-seam fastball by him on a 3-2 count. That didn’t work, either. Goldschmidt it that one 407 feet into the seats in right-center.
Faedo, coming off hip surgery, was on a restricted pitch limit. He got the first two outs in the fifth at 72 pitches and Hinch pulled him with left-handed hitting Lars Nootbar the top of the Cardinals’ order coming up.
There was a lot to like about Faedo’s outing. The Goldschmidt blasts were the only real damage. He gave up an unearned run in the second. A rare fielding error by Báez — it was his first fielding error of the season and his first error of any kind since April 9 (59 chances) — set up a sacrifice fly by Tommy Edman.
Faedo allowed three hits with no walks. And other than the one he hung to Goldschmidt, his slider played well. He threw 24 of them and got six swinging strikes (on 13 swings) and five called strikes with the pitch.
The Tigers will be in Cleveland on Monday for a three-game set with the Guardians.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky
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