Cleveland — There is a reason the Tigers refuse to give up on lefty Joey Wentz. He showed why Friday night in the Tigers’ 4-1 loss against the Guardians in Game 2 of the doubleheader at Progressive Field.
Wentz was called up before the 4-2 win in the opener to serve as the 27th man and installed as the starter in the nightcap. The move allowed manager AJ Hinch to add an extra day of rest for the five other starting pitchers in the rotation.
It also gave Wentz a chance to fully flush the nightmarish, eight-run, 10-hit start he endured on Aug. 7 against the Twins, his last start before being sent back to Triple-A Toledo.
Wentz hardly looked like the same pitcher. Pitching exclusively out of the stretch, having abandoned his windup, he had good command of his four-seam fastball, but more importantly, he expertly mixed all four of his pitches, throwing 34 cutters, 21 four-seamers, 15 curveballs and 13 changeups against a lineup mixed with five left-handed hitters and four right-handed hitters.
“I felt like I threw the ball pretty good,” said Wentz, who navigated his way through five scoreless innings, allowing four hits with two walks. “I’m happy I could put up some zeroes for the team.”
The five left-handed bats certainly influenced his more diverse mix.
“With the lefties, I was able to throw more cutters and curveballs,” he said. “The curveball was kind of meh, but I liked the cutter quite a bit. I thought I was able to keep them off-balance for a decent part of my outing.”
BOX SCORE: Guardians 4, Tigers 1 (Game 2)
Right-fielder Kerry Carpenter saved two runs in the second inning with a running, sliding catch in right-center of a slicing, two-out liner by Gabriel Arias with two runners on.
In the fifth, with his pitch count climbing toward 80, Wentz walked No. 9 hitter Zack Collins and Steven Kwan with one out, in front of the ever-dangerous Jose Ramirez.
After a mound visit by pitching coach Chris Fetter, Wentz got Ramirez to pop up a first-pitch changeup, fouling out to third baseman Zack Short.
“Fett came out and gave me a breather and went over some of the options,” Wentz said. “I said I wanted to throw the changeup. He’s their guy and he’s a great player. I was glad I was able to get him and get out of it after that.”
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He ended the inning and his outing getting Andres Gimenez to pop out to second baseman Andy Ibanez.
“Facing so many lefties, that’s going to change his pitch mix,” Hinch said. “He could mix and match a little bit off that lineup and I thought he responded well and he won a really big at-bat there with Ramirez at the end.”
Wentz, who was optioned back to Toledo after the game, left with the Tigers leading 1-0. And that lead, given the way the game was progressing, felt vulnerable.
“For us to win that game 1-0, with the run we scored, we’ve got to avoid the walks,” Hinch said. “Eventually they’re going to come back to bite you.”
The Tigers ended up issuing six walks. And they absolutely came back to bite them.
“That ended up being the difference-maker,” catcher Eric Haase said. “We got the matchups we wanted but didn’t execute when we needed to. That’s what happens when you give them extra opportunities.”
The way that one run was scored is a story unto itself. It happened in the fourth inning and this was the only damage, if you can call it that, against Cleveland starter Xzavion Curry in his six innings.
With Riley Greene on first, Kerry Carpenter lofted a routine fly ball to center field. Will Brennan clearly never picked up the ball in the lights and was waving his arms for help. Right fielder Oscar Gonzalez raced over made the catch.
Ibanez was the next Tigers’ hitter. He lofted a routine fly ball to Gonzalez. This time Gonzalez lost it in the lights and nobody was there to rescue him. The ball fell for an RBI double, scoring Greene from first.
Javier Báez, who returned and was activated off the bereavement list for Game 2, had a pair of singles and nearly created a run in the seventh. He singled and stole second base – he’s 11 for 11 in thievery attempts this season. He went to third on a fly out to the wall in right by Zack McKinstry.
But that’s where the journey ended. With two outs, lefty reliever Sam Hentges struck out pinch-hitter Matt Vierling after a 10-pitch battle.
The Tigers had to get Ramirez out in another tight spot in the seventh. Reliever Beau Brieske got five straight outs before walking Collins with two outs. Lefty Andrew Vasquez was summoned and he walked lefty-swinging Kwan on four pitches.
Vasquez, unfazed, got Ramirez to hit a weak, rollover grounder to third on a 1-1 slider.
But Vasquez, who ended up throwing 11 pitches and only two strikes, walked Gimenez to lead off the eighth.
Floodgates, open.
Jose Cisnero relieved Vasquez and it didn’t go well. With one out, he walked Kole Calhoun, walk No. 6 on the night. It felt like they were living on borrowed time. And they were. Here’s how the rest of the inning went:
∎Rookie Brayan Rocchio, who had struck out in his three previous at-bats, RBI single on a 1-2 fastball. Game tied.
∎Brennan, two-run double over center fielder Vierling’s head — 3-1 Cleveland.
∎Arias, RBI single, ballgame.
“It was frustrating to let it go like that, but they beat us,” Haase said. “They put some good swings on pitches we didn’t execute.”
The Tigers had a couple of streaks stopped. Their home run streak ends at 12 games and Carpenter’s career-best hit streak ends at 13.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
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