Somehow, the Detroit Tigers kept the game within reach.
Left-hander Joey Wentz was chased from his eighth start of the season in the third inning, the defense fumbled opportunities for outs — specifically in the third inning — and the offense stranded too many runners in scoring position.
And yet, the Tigers, almost unbelievably, took a tie game into the final three innings and scored the go-ahead run on Nick Maton’s hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning. The Tigers beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-3, in Sunday’s finale at Comerica Park to avoid a three-game sweep.
“It’s a big win before an off day,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “We salvaged a game in a series where we had a hard time getting runs across. The way we did it, getting ahead and then falling behind and then controlling the strike zone as an offense, I thought our at-bats were pretty good today against some really good pitching.”
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Navigating Wentz’s short start included the use of two relievers, right-handers José Cisnero (1⅓ innings) and Mason Englert (two innings), to get through six innings. Right-hander Jason Foley added a scoreless seventh inning.
“I didn’t contribute to the win,” Wentz said, “but nonetheless, great job by the guys.”
In the bottom of the seventh, the Tigers (18-21) took advantage of mistakes from left-hander Gabe Speier and right-hander Matt Brash.
A walk from Jake Rogers and a single from pinch-hitter Jonathan Schoop started the inning, and although Speier struck out Riley Greene, the Mariners turned to Brash, a righty, to face Javier Báez, a right-handed hitter, with one out in the seventh.
After Báez flew out, Brash walked Spencer Torkelson on five pitches — including four balls well outside the strike zone — to load the bases. Maton, a left-handed hitter, has struggled to hit breaking and offspeed pitches, but he made contact on Brash’s second-pitch slider.
Well, sort of: The slider hit Maton in the foot.
“It was like, how many secondary pitches are they going to throw to him, and what was he going to do with it?” Hinch said. “It’s a good reminder to him, and to all of us, you don’t have to hit a homer to contribute. It’s a big at-bat, and the at-bats before him were big, as well.”
The hit-by-pitch put the Tigers ahead, 4-3, with two outs in the seventh inning. Andy Ibáñez then extended the Tigers’ lead to 5-3 with a four-pitch walk. Brash, who threw four of 15 pitches for strikes, didn’t face another batter.
As for the rest of the Tigers’ bullpen, left-hander Chasen Shreve fired a scoreless eighth inning with two strikeouts and righty Alex Lange worked around a pair of one-out walks for a scoreless ninth inning and his seventh save.
Lange struck out Cal Raleigh and Teoscar Hernandez to strand the runners and end the game.
The Tigers finished 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
Maton, hitting .153 in 36 games this season, went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. He struck out on a third-pitch splitter in the fourth inning and a 10th-pitch slider in the sixth inning.
A tough third
Wentz, who has a 6.38 ERA this season, departed from his start with two outs in the third inning after tossing 16 pitches in the first, 19 pitches in the second and 24 pitches in the third.
The 25-year-old allowed three runs on six hits and one walk with threw strikeouts.
The Mariners hit back-to-back singles in the third inning — putting runners on the corners — before Wentz balked. The balk scored a run and tied the game, 1-1, and then everything fell apart for the Tigers.
“I think his fastball usage and fastball location hurt him in that inning more than the balk did,” Hinch said. “He just couldn’t get his fastball where he wanted to, a bunch of two-strike hits. It wasn’t his best day.”
“Pretty poor fastball command,” Wentz said. “I thought some of my secondary pitches were decent, but when you’re spraying the heater, it’s going to be a lot harder.”
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Julio Rodríguez delivered a single into left field — the third single in a row — to put the Mariners ahead, 2-1. Eugenio Suarez upped the streak to four singles and kept the pressure on Wentz.
The Tigers finally recorded the first out on Tom Murphy’s grounder to Ibáñez on third, but couldn’t turn the double play, leaving runners on the corners. Hernandez extended the Mariners’ lead to 3-1 with a sacrifice fly.
The sacrifice fly occurred after first baseman Torkelson dropped a pop-up in foul territory. Following Jose Caballero’s ensuing two-out single, the Tigers replaced Wentz with Cisnero, and he retired AJ Pollock on five pitches to end the inning.
Wentz threw 40 of 59 pitches for strikes.
“The off days absolutely played into wanting to keep the game close,” Hinch said. “I could use and empty the tank with all the pitching with the off day (Monday) and an off day on Thursday. It puts a little bit of stress on (Michael) Lorenzen on Tuesday. We needed to keep that game close.”
Two runs early, one run to tie
Facing the Tigers, right-hander Logan Gilbert allowed three runs on six hits and one walk with four strikeouts across 5⅔ innings. The Tigers scored one run in the first inning and one run in the third inning.
To take a 1-0 lead, the Tigers got back-to-back singles from Zach McKinstry and Riley Greene — both on fastballs inside the strike zone — in the first inning. Báez drove in the first two runs with a groundout and a single.
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The Tigers tied the game, 3-3, in the sixth inning after chasing Gilbert. He recorded the first two outs — Torkelson (groundout) and Maton (strikeout) — before Ibáñez turned on an inside pitch for a double to left field.
Gilbert threw 65 of 94 pitches for strikes.
Right-handed reliever Trevor Gott took over on the mound, and with his third-pitch changeup, Akil Baddoo lined a double to left-center field. His double scored Ibánez to even the score.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.