Detroit — The clock struck midnight on the 2022 Tigers Tuesday night, the 6-3 loss to the Astros mathematically eliminating them from the postseason for the eighth straight season.
But apparently the bylaws of Major League Baseball mandate the full season be played regardless.
So the Tigers on Wednesday, against another dominating starting pitcher, fell to a season-worst 35 under .500 after being swept by the Houston Astros, losing the finale 2-1.
Right-hander Cristian Javier stuffed the Tigers on two hits over six innings, striking out eight.
The Tigers lone run came in the seventh on Javier Báez’s 13th home run. After two dreadful at-bats against Javier, Báez blasted a hanging 2-0 slider from right-handed reliever Bryan Abreu 406 feet into the seats beyond the visitor’s bullpen.
Riley Greene, who earlier extended his on-base streak to 20 games with a single, came within a foot of putting the Tigers ahead in the eighth. He jumped a 3-0 fastball from reliever Ryne Stanek and hit a moon shot 424 feet to wall in dead center.
But center fielder Chas McCormick got back and caught it at the wall. That would’ve been a home run in 28 other big-league parks.
Javier, who is maybe the fourth pitcher in a healthy Astros’ rotation, came in with a 32.5% strikeout rate and a 41% swing-and-miss rate with his slider. He tormented the Tigers with it, even when he wasn’t throwing it.
Five of his eight strikeouts were called third strikes, all with fastballs. The Tigers seemed so conscious of the slider, which breaks off the plate, they were locked up on fastballs on either edge of the plate.
Báez took a fastball for a called third strike in the second inning. In the fourth, he swung at four sliders all well outside the strike zone, not wanting to get caught looking at another fastball.
The Tigers took 11 fastballs for strikes and swung and missed eight times on 13 swings at Javier’s slider. And for good measure, Javier mixed in 15 knuckle curves, getting three whiffs and four called strikes.
Rookies Kerry Carpenter and Greene got the lone hits off him.
Willi Castro followed hitting a ball to the wall in right field that Tucker tracked and caught. That was as close as the Tigers got to scoring against Javier.
Rookie left-hander Joey Wentz, coming off his first big-league win, was pulled after walking the leadoff batter in the fifth inning. He was at a most uneconomical 91 pitches. Still, there was a lot to like about his outing.
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The Astros stacked their lineup with eight right-handed hitters and Wentz was able to keep them off-balance with cutters that were moving in and changeups moving away, spotting four-seam fastballs up and curveballs that broke down.
The Astros put 11 balls in play with an average exit velocity of 88.5 mph. The only hit that did damage was a cutter that was down and out of the zone in the fourth inning that left-handed hitting Kyle Tucker golfed over the wall in right field — his 27th home run.
Wentz was at his best at the end of that fourth inning. Trey Mancini blasted a double to center and went to third on a wild pitch. Wentz bowed his neck and struck out Christian Vazquez (swinging) and McCormick (looking) with perfectly-placed cutters.
But the Astros made him work. They fouled off 27 pitches, 18 of them fastballs. He needed 28 pitches to get out of the first inning. In his last at-bat of the day, No. 9 hitter David Hensley fouled off three pitches before Wentz walked him.
He would score on a long sacrifice fly by Alex Bregman.
Those two runs were all the Astros got. Relievers Will Vest, Jason Foley, Joe Jimenez, Jose Cisnero and Gregory Soto pitched five scoreless innings, allowing just one hit (off Soto).
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky