The Detroit Tigers refused to lose another high-scoring game.
The offense as a whole remained locked in, just like in Monday’s 7-6 loss, but this time, the Tigers fended off the Chicago Cubs late in Tuesday’s 8-6 win in the second of three games at Comerica Park.
Second baseman Andy Ibáñez, who finished 2-for-3 with one walk, logged the first multi-home run performance of his career, launching both homers to left off Cubs left-hander Drew Smyly.
“You can tell and notice that we have some chemistry,” Ibáñez said. “Everyone is looking to win games as we go forward in the season. We’re happy, and I’m happy that all of this chemistry is working out.”
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Ibáñez cranked a solo homer in the first inning for a 1-0 lead and a three-run home run in the fourth for a 7-4 lead, his first homers since July 23.
The Tigers (58-68) let the Cubs close the gap with a two-run top of the fifth inning, chasing right-hander Reese Olson in the process. Olson, who has a 5.29 ERA in 15 games (12 starts) allowed six runs on four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in 4⅔ innings.
A one-run lead, 7-6, remained intact.
“I thought our at-bats tonight were pretty good,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “Obviously, Andy had two big swings, but even at the end, when we were able to tack on the run, we put pressure on them.”
A one-out triple from Parker Meadows — showcasing his speed on the bases — put the Tigers in a position to widen the slim margin in the fifth inning, but the next two batters struck out to strand him at the hot corner.
Meadows had a 107.9 mph exit velocity on his triple to center field.
“I’m thinking triple out of the box,” Meadows said. “I put my head down, and once I get towards second, I looked up and saw he didn’t really have the ball yet, so I just kept going. A little too wide of a turn for my liking at first, but I was able to make up for it.”
In the eighth inning, Meadows robbed Cody Bellinger of extra bases with a sprinting, diving catch in right-center field. Riley Greene, who didn’t start Tuesday’s game, has moved to the corner outfield positions since Meadows’ promotion.
Greene celebrated for his teammate and friend from the dugout.
“Off the bat, I felt like I had a good chance to catch it,” Meadows said.
Left-handed reliever Tyler Holton and right-handed reliever Jason Foley carried the Tigers through the seventh and eighth innings. Foley stranded two runners in scoring position in the eighth when his revered sinker induced a routine groundout.
Greene stepped into the batter’s box as a pinch-hitter, replacing Ibáñez, to face right-handed reliever José Cuas with Zach McKinstry (hit-by-pitch) and Matt Vierling (walk) on the bases in the eighth inning.
He grounded out to second, but the runners moved up on the first out. Spencer Torkelson drew his second walk of the game to load the bases, and Kerry Carpenter was hit in the foot by a slider.
The hit-by-pitch put the Tigers ahead, 8-6, and kept the bases loaded. The eighth inning ended, though, when Jake Rogers grounded into a double play.
Right-handed reliever Alex Lange, protecting a two-run lead, slammed the door on the Cubs in the top of the ninth inning. Nick Madrigal brought the tying run to the plate with a one-out infield single, but Lange recorded the final two outs for his 19th save.
“The way he handled the situation,” Hinch said of Lange, “the way he went to work with the pitching department and waited his turn again tells me a lot about him and what he’s willing to do to be good again.”
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Striking Smyly
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead on Ibáñez solo homer in the first inning.
After that, Torkelson refused to swing at down-and-away pitches from Smyly and worked a five-pitch walk. He advanced to second base on a wild pitch and scored on Carpenter’s two-strike single for a 2-0 advantage.
“I was not looking for the home run,” Ibáñez said. “I was just looking to make good contact. At the end of the day, I’m happy because of the results, happy because we won the game and happy because I contributed to win this game.”
The Tigers upped their lead to 3-0 with McKinstry’s sacrifice fly in the second inning. The four-run fourth inning, capped off by Ibáñez’s three-run homer, began with a leadoff walk from Meadows.
Back-to-back two-out singles from McKinstry and Vierling drove in Meadows to tie the game, 4-4. Ibáñez, who smoked a knuckle curve in the first inning, tattooed another knuckle curve in the fourth, making it 7-4.
“The first one, it was just a reaction,” Ibáñez said. “The second one, I remembered that one of my coaches, Michael (Brdar), told me during warmups that Drew threw 45% breaking balls, so I was expecting that.”
Olson’s good stuff
The Cubs didn’t get a hit off Olson until Dansby Swanson’s two-run home run in the fourth inning. Olson hung a slider near the middle of the strike zone, and Swanson didn’t miss the mistake.
Two batters later, ex-Tiger Jeimer Candelario blasted a slider at the bottom of the strike zone for a two-run home run. Candelario, whom the Tigers non-tendered in the offseason, has 18 home runs — more than any Tiger but Torkelson or Carpenter — in 117 games this season.
The homers put the Cubs in front, 4-3.
“I think tonight was probably the best stuff I’ve had the whole year,” Olson said, “in terms of fastball command, slider shape, changeup shape. I think it was a better outing than the line shows. … Just a little frustrating.”
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Olson continued to crumble in the fifth inning after getting the lead back, walking Mike Tauchman. He recorded consecutive outs and was on the verge of finishing his start on a positive note, but Cody Bellinger cooked a two-strike fastball on the outside part of the strike zone for a double to center field.
There were runners on the corners.
Right-handed reliever Brendan White replaced Olson, only for Swanson to put his two-strike fastball into right field. The single scored both runners and trimmed the Tigers’ lead to 7-6.
“Finishing at-bats quicker,” Olson said. “I got to 0-2 (counts) pretty quick, and it ends up being 3-2 (counts). Guys are seeing more pitches, and that affects the next time they come up. I need to put guys away earlier. … I think there’s more positives than negatives in this game.”
Olson, who threw 61 of 97 pitches for strikes, used 39 four-seam fastballs (40%), 28 sliders (29%), 16 sinkers (16%), 10 changeups (10%) and four curveballs (4%). He generated 14 whiffs with three four-seamers, six sliders, one sinker, three changeups and one curveball.
His slider was dominant until the second time through the Cubs’ batting order.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.