Bullpen buckles as Detroit Tigers give up 4 in 9th for 9th straight loss, 7-5 to Arizona

In the Detroit Tigers’ earliest game of the season, the big swings came late, as the Arizona Diamondbacks scored four runs in the ninth inning off reliever Jason Foley for a 7-5 victory at Comerica Park on Sunday.

With two outs, runners on first and second, and down to his final strike, Arizona’s Christian Walker doubled to left to plate two runs — with help from a bobble and fielding error by Kerry Carpenter — and give the Diamondbacks their first lead since the second inning. The loss is the Tigers’ ninth straight, all in June; they haven’t won since beating Texas on May 31.

“It all sucks, you know, it’s all losing, doesn’t really matter at the end of the year, we’re losing by 10 or one,” catcher Eric Haase said. “But it definitely feels worse when you have a lead as long as we did, and how much better we swung the bats today, y’know, really made a good pitcher work on their side, so obviously frustrating not to come up with that.”

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The Diamondbacks won the game in the ninth, but the Tigers (26-37) might have lost it two innings earlier when manager A.J. Hinch turned to his de facto closer, Alex Lange, to protect a two-run lead with runners on first and third and two outs in the seventh.

After the Diamondbacks pinch-hit Emmanuel Rivera, who entered Sunday with a .915 OPS off lefties, to face lefty Chasen Shreve, Hinch called for Lange, a right-hander.

“The pinch-hit was the big at-bat,” Hinch said, referring to Rivera. “He’s the guy that crushes lefties, won on the bench, they’re giving him a day, and that at-bat was gonna come in, that was the only time they were really gonna hit.

“Didn’t really want to do it, but we were gonna need a punchout if we, if they did that, and he’s the most equipped.”

Lange, the AL’s Reliever of the Month in May who had struggled in two previous June appearances, struck out Rivera on four pitches, getting the righty swinging on an 85.9 mph curveball to end the inning.

With a two-run lead in the ninth, Hinch then turned to Foley, who got one out, then gave up a single, a walk, a run-scoring single and then, after another out, Walker’s double.

Late shuffle

Left-hander Joey Wentz, scratched from the start early Sunday morning, delivered 4⅓ innings of one-hit ball in relief. After allowing two runs on the first two batters he faced, Wentz settled in and retired the next 12 Diamondbacks, with four strikeouts during his run. He finished with strikes on 37 of his 62 pitches, drawing four of his eight whiffs with his four-seam fastball.

“Not getting into the game was tough, but he mentally got over that, and I thought he settled in pretty nicely until we took him out,” Hinch said.

Haase agreed: “Good adjustment, y’know, after that, just attacking the zone, pace was a little bit quicker, started laying his offspeed stuff, opened up his fastball a little bit,” Haase said.

Finding some offense

The Tigers’ bats weren’t late, either, for a game with an 11:35 a.m. first pitch: A day after being shut out for the third time this month, the Tigers scored five runs in the first four innings off Arizona ace Zac Gallen. The right-hander allowed a career-high 10 hits over 5⅔ innings.

“We didn’t really tack on, like you’d like to, and we didn’t stop them from chipping away,” Hinch said. “Our at-bats, I think the quality was pretty good, it wasn’t complete, and you’ve got to play a complete game to beat good teams.”

The big Detroit blast came in a Zach-on-Zac matchup in the fourth inning; the extra “H” was for “home run,” as Zach McKinstry took Gallen deep to right field on a 90.3 mph cutter for a two-run home run.

“They couldn’t catch that one,” said McKinstry, who entered Sunday with no hits over 15 at-bats in his four previous games. “Just hitting the ball hard, right at guys, and continue to just get in the box with confidence, put good swings on good pitches.”

McKinstry also turned in a web gem with a diving catch of a dying flyball in the right-field corner to end the top of the sixth inning.

“Off the bat, I thought it was gonna be a home run,” McKinstry said. “So I was trying to get to the field, or to the fence to try and rob it, whatever I had to do, and then it kinda started dying a little bit, not sure if the wind was circling or whatever, but, yeah, laid out and caught it.”

For openers

Right-hander Will Vest was the surprise starter, rather than Wentz, as Tigers manager A.J. Hinch tried to give the Diamondbacks a different look. Vest had about as much success against Corbin Carroll, the Diamondbacks’ rookie standout, as other Tigers pitchers, though. The rookie, who entered Sunday hitting .301 with 13 homers (including two on Friday night) and 18 steals in 61 games, hammered the fourth pitch of his at-bat against Vest, an 86.8 mph changeup, into the right-center gap for a one-out triple. Carroll added a double in the eighth and a single in the ninth to finish a home run short of the cycle and stole his 19th base in the ninth as well.

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Oh no, Joe

Wentz entered to open the second inning and got into immediate trouble with a walk to veteran right-hander Evan Longoria. It got worse against the next batter, Pavin Smith. The lefty launched Wentz’s four-seam fastball 376 feet the opposite way. In Arizona’s Chase Field, it would have been a long out, but at Comerica Park, Carpenter could only leap at it as it went over the left-field fence and into the bullpen to give the Diamondbacks a 2-1 lead. With the bases cleared, Wentz retired the side, getting a strikeout (of Nick Ahmed on another four-seam fastball), a flyout and a groundout.

After the game, Wentz said he tried to treat the impromptu relief appearance like normal.

“I would say I tried to treat it like pitching,” Wentz said. “It’s like in the first inning, you go in and try to get your outs.”

Even again

Javier Báez, hitting fourth for the first time since mid-April, delivered in the third inning. On the first pitch of his second at-bat (a 93.1 mph fastball), he lofted a flyball to center field to score Spencer Torkelson from third and tie the game at 2-all. Torkelson reached by scorching a four-seam fastball from Gallen — with an exit velocity of 109.3 mph — to left field for a double, then advanced to third on Kerry Carpenter’s single to center.

Carpenter finished 3-for-4; Sunday was his third straight multi-hit game, all since returning from the 10-day injured list Friday.

“It’s been nice,” Hinch said. “He had another good game. … It’s important that he’s in the middle of our order.”

Hit parade

Miguel Cabrera’s single with one out in the fourth inning was the 3,111st of his career, snapping a tie with Dave Winfield for 22nd in MLB history. Next up: Alex Rodriguez, at 3,115. Cabrera came around to score one batter later, on Marisnick’s scorched double to center with one out. It was Marisnick’s first extra-base hit in the majors since July 17, 2022. Marisnick didn’t spend much time on second base, either; McKinstry pulled the first pitch he saw just over the right-field fence. Again, it wouldn’t have been a home run in Arizona, but in Detroit, McKinstry’s fifth homer of 2023 gave the Tigers a 5-2 lead.

“Just tried to get him up and closer,” McKinstry said. “Got a cutter in and hit it pretty good. Hit some changeups away pretty good, too – just gotta get him up closer.”

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Bittersweet relief

After a leadoff walk to Ketel Marte in the sixth, Hinch stuck with Wentz against Carroll. The lefty drove the ball to center field, but Marisnick was there to make the catch. That was enough for Hinch, though, who turned to right-hander José Cisnero out of the bullpen. Cisnero needed just eight pitches to get a pair of flyballs – one a harmless popup to Torkelson at first, the other McKinstry’s diving catch – and end the threat.

The Tigers’ bullpen usage Sunday could have repercussions heading into their series against the National League-leading Atlanta Braves. With a bullpen day already planned for Monday’s series opener and seven pitchers used Sunday — Tyler Holton was the bridge from Lange to Foley — the Tigers will have a challenge ahead.

“We got a lot to sort out before the game, for sure,” Hinch said.

Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford.

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