Spencer Torkelson’s walk-off single ends Detroit Tigers losing skid with 6-5 win over Braves

The Detroit Tigers were on the brink of losing 10 games in a row.

Andy Ibáñez, who had a single, double, home run and walk, saved the Tigers from what had the potential to become their fourth shutout through 10 games in June. He hit a solo homer off Atlanta Braves right-handed reliever Collin McHugh in the seventh inning.

“We needed something positive to keep the game close,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “Obviously, we’ll take the homer. The hits that we piled up at the end, we needed all of them.”

The Tigers used that momentum to fuel an incredible comeback in the eighth and ninth innings. A three-run rally in the ninth, highlighted by a clutch two-strike, two-out hit from Zack Short, sent the game to extra innings.

Spencer Torkelson, who hit a two-run homer in the ninth, hit a walk-off single in the 10th inning for the Tigers’ 6-5 win over the Braves — the second-best team in the National League — in Monday’s series opener at Comerica Park.

“Winning is fun,” Torkelson said. “I think it goes back to what we were feeling 10 games ago, where we were never out of it. Our pitching staff did a great job, and a couple of defensive plays kept us in the game. We just chipped away and kept the line moving.”

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The Tigers (27-37) won their first game since May 31 and snapped a nine-game losing streak.

In Monday’s win, the Tigers collected 15 hits and three walks. The offense finished 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position, but with the game on the line amid an unexpected surge in the late innings, several hitters delivered in key moments.

Torkelson, hitting .232 in 63 games, brought the Tigers to within one run in the bottom of the ninth inning with his two-run blast to left-center field against Braves right-handed reliever Raisel Iglesias.

“The first-pitch changeup caught me by surprise,” Torkelson said. “It was a really good pitch, so I dumbed down the approach, like don’t try to do too much and take a base hit here. Sure enough, I got a good pitch to hit. That’s what happens when you have a simple approach, I guess.”

The ball traveled 440 feet.

It was Torkelson’s sixth homer of the season.

“He’s staying with his approach,” Hinch said. “It gives me a lot of confidence that he’s on the right track because he’s staying with his plan. He’s given feedback on things he’s done well and things he hasn’t done well. He’s got a calm heartbeat. He expects to do really, really well, so he’s pretty hard on himself when he doesn’t.”

Kerry Carpenter followed Torkelson’s homer with a single, and Matt Vierling kept the inning alive with a two-out single. The Tigers had two runners on base when Short hit a two-strike changeup into left field, tying the game at five runs apiece.

Ibáñez struck out swinging to strand two runners in scoring position.

But the Tigers kept the Braves from scoring in the top of the 10th inning, thanks to Ibáñez throwing out pinch-runner Sam Hilliard at the plate.

“Honestly, I don’t know how I made it, but I made it,” Ibáñez said, with Tigers bilingual media coordinator Carlos Guillen interpreting. “My biggest goal was to make the out, and that was the result at the plate. … This is a privilege to be here. I’m very thankful and grateful from my teammates, my coaching staff and everybody.”

In the bottom of the 10th, Jake Rogers dropped down a sacrifice bunt — and reached safely — to advance Ibáñez, the free runner in extra innings, to third base. Torkelson hit a walk-off single against ex-Tiger Joe Jiménez’s second-pitch four-seam fastball above the strike zone to end the losing streak.

“Pretty similar (approach),” Torkelson said. “I know (Jiménez) has really good stuff. He has a hard heater and a good slider with it. I was trying to get a good pitch, and I knew if I could get it in the air deep enough, Andy could score.”

Three long relievers

Instead of a traditional starting pitcher, the Tigers rolled out three relief pitchers — Mason Englert, Garrett Hill and Tyler Alexander — in search of silencing a dangerous offense. It was Englert’s first start of his MLB career.

The Braves, by the way, have averaged 5.7 runs per game in June.

Englert allowed one run on three hits and one walk with one strikeout across 2⅔ innings, while Hill surrendered three runs (two earned runs) on three hits and three walks with two strikeouts across 2⅔ innings.

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The Braves utilized quality plate appearances to take a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Marcell Ozuna doubled to left field and advanced to third base on a deep flyout by Eddie Rosario.

Then, Ozuna scored on a sacrifice fly from Ozzie Albies.

The lead increased to 3-0 with three straight hits in the fifth inning: Orlando Arcia (single), Michael Harris II (single) and Ronald Acuna Jr. (double). The Braves scored two runs on Acuna’s 21st double of the season.

The Braves tacked on their fourth run off Hill in the sixth inning. Facing Alexander, Harris turned on a first-pitch cutter to put the Braves ahead 5-1 with a solo home run to right-center field.

More of the same early

The Tigers couldn’t produce the key hit against Braves right-hander Charlie Morton.

He fired 5⅔ scoreless innings on four hits and three walks with eight strikeouts, throwing 61 of 104 pitches for strikes. The Tigers stranded runners in several innings, including the third and fifth.

“We had gone five straight innings with a runner on second, or a runner on first and second, and I think there was a runner on first and third,” Hinch said. “We needed to push across anything, and that’s a difficult offense to dance around throughout the entire game. Our pitching staff did a really good job of that.”

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Morton walked back-to-back batters — Ibáñez and Rogers — to start the third but retired the next three batters: Zach McKinstry (strikeout), Torkelson (flyout) and Carpenter (strikeout).

In the fifth, Ibáñez doubled to start the inning.

Once again, Morton escaped trouble by retiring three batters in a row: Rogers (lineout), McKinstry (flyout) and Torkelson (pop out). The Tigers also stranded two players on base in the sixth.

Ibáñez, who has found his groove in the past few games, finished 3-for-4 with one walk. He ended up a triple shy of hitting for the cycle, and his three hits had exit velocities of 105.4 mph, 104.5 mph and 101.2 mph.

“I wasn’t aware that I was a triple shy of the cycle, but I was evaluating all the pitches in the at-bats before me,” Ibáñez said. “I was watching what they were throwing, and I was realizing what I thought they were going to throw me, they were throwing me. I was evaluating them beforehand.”

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.