Inside the sleepy clubhouse Saturday morning, one of the Detroit Tigers passed around a carafe of coffee, the kind used for a pour-over.
A strong brew seemed in order for a team looking to awaken from a nightmarish June slumber marked only by defeat.
But the Tigers remained comatose, falling to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-0, at Comerica Park and extending their losing streak to eight games.
The sudden and pronounced regression has caused the Tigers to drop in the standings — all the way to fourth in the American League Central — and has left manager A.J. Hinch perplexed in the process.
INJURY TO INSULT: Tigers place Akil Baddoo on injured list, recall newly acquired Nick Solak
THE BIG PICTURE: 5 Detroit Tigers players that matter most in 2023 season
“I think in the back of our minds, ‘There’s a ‘what the hell happened?’ ” Hinch said before Saturday’s game.
Some fans are probably asking the same question.
But the answers seem obvious. An unimpressive roster has been further diminished by injuries, with Akil Baddoo’s quadriceps strain Friday night creating yet another problem to solve. The offense has missing in action, producing one or fewer runs in four of the past eight games. And their pitching has been inconsistent.
As the team reconvened to play Arizona for the second time this weekend, Hinch was optimistic there would be a breakthrough while outlining the strategy he implored starter Matthew Boyd to execute. The objective was to gain the upper hand with a steady stream of early-count strikes and to mitigate the number of high-leverage situations for the Diamondbacks, a team that Hinch said has “a really talented offense.”
Arizona began Saturday ranked in the top five in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS. The night before, the Diamondbacks pounced on the Tigers, pushing across 11 runs. Seven of them came in the decisive seventh inning, when they resembled a den of boa constrictors and squeezed the life out of Hinch’s club.
“They put the ball in play too much,” Hinch cautioned in one breath.
“There is a lot to deal with,” he warned in another.
But Boyd failed to heed Hinch’s counsel.
ON THE BENCH: Tigers’ Riley Greene elated to rejoin teammates at Comerica Park
When the left-hander exhibited his first sign of vulnerability Saturday, the Diamondbacks struck with venom. After Pavin Smith singled with two outs, Nick Ahmed let two pitches sail outside the strike zone before Boyd delivered a 90.6 mph four-seam fastball over the middle. Ahmed deposited the ball beyond the left-field wall, quieting a lively crowd that came to get their hands on a Miguel Cabrera bobblehead giveaway. As Ahmed circled the bases, they could sense doom for a team that maintains little margin for error.
Before Saturday’s first pitch, the Tigers had scored only 14 runs while hitting .153 in June. As the slump deepened during a calamitous six-game road trip, there was hope that a return home to the intersection of Montcalm and Brush would help the Tigers snap out of their stupor. There was reason to be encouraged that would soon happen after they scored in each of the final four innings Friday.
But the Tigers reverted to their feckless ways, failing to generate much oomph. They managed only two extra-base hits and couldn’t take advantage when they advanced runners to scoring position.
Case in point: The second inning.
Not long after Ahmed drew first blood, Miguel Cabrera hit a scorching line drive to center field for a double. But the next batter, catcher Jake Rogers, struck out, extinguishing any hope for a two-out rally.
Cabrera, of course, wasn’t the only player stranded on base. Jake Marisnick was left out there, too, in the third inning. He stood 90 feet from home after opening the inning with a single and gradually working his way over to third.
But Kerry Carpenter couldn’t drive him in, popping out in foul territory to end the threat.
On and on it went. The Tigers teased and then turtled, even loading the bases in the sixth. That forced Arizona to dip into its bullpen, only for the Tigers to suffer yet another letdown when Zack Short flew out to center.
The futility offered a harsh reminder of the tall task Boyd faced when he took the mound.
It’s why he must have known his fate when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. smashed a three-run home run in the fifth inning that gave Arizona a 5-0 lead. Gurriel’s blast carried 418 feet into the left-field stands; it came on a 1-1 count, but the pitch Boyd made was just not good enough. It was a 76.1 mph curveball that didn’t have enough bite, which is representative of the Tigers at large these days.