Right-hander Matt Manning failed to execute the pitching plan.
Second baseman Andy Ibáñez was responsible for three mental mistakes.
The struggles of Manning, who hung too many middle-middle breaking balls instead of relying on his fastball, and Ibáñez, who forgot how to run the bases and made a crucial fielding error, were the difference in the Detroit Tigers‘ 10-6 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in Sunday’s series finale at Comerica Park.
The Tigers (49-62) have lost 10 of their past 15 games.
“We had to fight back a couple of times,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “I appreciate the effort our guys put in to try to get back in the game. … But we were chasing them all day. I liked the fact that we fought to the end, but we made too many mistakes to be encouraged.”
The downfall of the Tigers began in the first inning, when Manning and Ibáñez teamed up to let the Rays take a 3-0 lead. There were runners on the corners with one out in the first inning when Ibáñez bobbled an easy grounder near second base and fell to the ground as the ball trickled away from him.
It could have been an inning-ending double play.
Instead, the Rays jumped out to a 1-0 advantage.
“We weren’t going to turn the double play, most likely, just given the way the ball was hit,” Hinch said. “The guy at third was going to score, but it felt like by not recording an out on that pla,y it opened up the first inning a little bit for them.”
A two-out hit-by-pitch to Isaac Paredes, an ex-Tiger, loaded the bases for Josh Lowe, who ripped Manning’s down-and-in curveball for a single into right field. The single made it 3-0, Rays.
In the second inning, Christian Bethancourt and Yandy Díaz hit middle-middle sliders from Manning. Bethancourt doubled and came around to score on Díaz’s two-run home run to left-center field.
The homer put the Rays ahead, 5-0.
“I thought my mechanics were out of whack,” Manning said of his heavy slider usage. “I didn’t feel like I had my best stuff overall. I think maybe some of these lineups are making adjustments to me. I have to look at it and make an adjustment.”
Ibáñez struggled on the bases in the second and fourth innings when he was thrown out at home plate and second base, respectively. He ran through the stop sign from third-base coach Gary Jones on Eric Haase’s RBI single in the second and forgot to tag up at second base on Jake Rogers’ sacrifice fly in the fourth.
“I don’t think aggressive,” Hinch said. “I don’t think he picked up Jonesy in time. It was a little bit of a tough play to read on what to do with him. … And then I think he just ran with the excitement of the Rogers at-bat. I think he got caught up in the excitement of trying to get going and overreacted to the play.”
Still, the Tigers cut the deficit to 6-3 after the fourth inning on RBIs from Haase, Ibáñez and Rogers. Right-hander Erasmo Ramírez, another ex-Tiger, allowed one run on three hits and one walk with three strikeouts across three innings in his emergency start for the Rays, replacing the injured Tyler Glasnow.
Two-out trouble from Manning in the sixth inning allowed the Rays to extend their lead to 8-3.
After two outs, Manning allowed back-to-back singles to Díaz and Franco to conclude his outing. Left-handed reliever Andrew Vasquez, making his Tigers debut, balked in a run (and advanced a runner to third base) before Harold Ramirez’s RBI single.
“He got too quick,” Hinch said. “He rushed. I’m not sure there was a ton different between that pitch and the first couple, but the umpire saw that there was something different. He rushed through his set. … It was a rough time to have it, especially because the result of that pitch would have been a punch out.”
Manning allowed eight runs (six earned runs) on nine hits and one walk with three strikeouts across 5⅔ innings, throwing 62 of 93 pitches for strikes. He used 42% sliders, 38% fastballs, 16% curveballs and 4% changeups.
The 25-year-old, who has a 5.06 ERA in 10 starts, generated six whiffs with four sliders and two fastballs.
“I just didn’t think he felt good with his fastball, and then I think you go to Plan B,” Hinch said. “He didn’t throw a ton of fastballs first time through (the batting order), and he didn’t have his best stuff first time through. I think he was just a little defensive with lack of aggressiveness. That’s what it looked like from my seat.”
Failed comeback
The Tigers put together a three-run swing and trimmed the deficit to 8-6 through seven innings.
Akil Baddoo hit a one-out double off right-handed reliever Robert Stephenson in the sixth inning and moved up to third base on a wild pitch. After a two-out walk from Rogers, another wild pitch from Stephenson allowed Baddoo to score for the Tigers’ fourth run of the game.
Then, in the seventh, Kerry Carpenter, immediately following Spencer Torkelson’s walk, crushed a 423-foot two-run home run — his first homer since July 15 — off righty reliever Jason Adam’s elevated changeup with two outs.
The homer put the Tigers within striking distance, down 8-6.
But the Rays reclaimed the momentum from the Tigers in the top of the eighth, as Bethancourt singled and Franco blasted right-handed reliever Brendan White’s first-pitch sweeper to right field for a two-run home run.
“It’s tough,” Haase said. “You’re clawing back. We felt like we were one swing away from getting back in that baseball game, and then they go right back ahead. Deflating a little bit, but we’re just trying to stack one at-bat in front of another and just try to play better baseball.”
Just like that, the Rays were in control again with a 10-6 lead.
Coming off the bench
Shortstop Javier Báez has been scratched from the starting lineup in each of the past two games due to a death in his family. He came off the bench in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter for Baddoo.
He faced left-handed reliever Jake Diekman.
Báez struck out swinging on a sixth-pitch fastball inside the strike zone. The next two batters, Haase and Rogers, grounded out. The Tigers received a leadoff single from Zack Short in the ninth inning, but Matt Vierling grounded into a double play.
Riley Greene, who struck out to end the game, finished 0-for-5 with four strikeouts.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.