Detroit Tigers fail to complete comeback against Padres, fall 5-4 at home

The Detroit Tigers failed to complete the comeback against the San Diego Padres, falling 5-4 and snapping their two-game win streak in the three-game series opener at Comerica Park.

Juan Soto’s prodigious blasts off rookie Reese Olson created an early deficit for the Tigers all night, and though the offense woke up in the latter innings, the late clutch hit eluded them.

“I think tonight was probably the first time I’ve seen Reese try to do a little too much and try enter in and just misfire a lot,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He generally throws a lot of strikes and he fell behind a little bit, threw some behind the count fastballs. He just battled himself to 100 pitches in five innings. He’s usually more efficient than that.”

Zach McKinstry (two hits) and Riley Greene provided some pop at the top of the lineup, both homering to help pull the Tigers to within a run. Javier Báez also had two hits.

But Andy Ibáñez, Jake Rogers and Miguel Cabrera couldn’t get anything going in the ninth inning against Josh Hader, who collected his 24th save of the season.

The series continues on Saturday at 6:10 p.m. with Matt Manning going against a yet to be announced starter for San Diego.

Reese’s pieces

Olson, making just his seventh MLB start of his young career, was roughed up in the first inning, yielding three runs before the Tigers came to bat. He pitched five innings, giving up seven hits and five earned runs and had five strikeouts.

The rookie right-hander (1-4) struggled settled in after his rocky start, though his ERA ballooned to 4.53. The early damage, while substantial, provided a hole the Tigers nearly climbed out of late in the game.

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Soto got the best of Olson with two out in the first inning with a 447-foot missile to center for a solo shot. The Padres tacked on two more runs in the inning when Michigan native Jake Cronenworth tripled to right center field. It looked as if Matt Vierling was going to make a dazzling catch on the play, but the ball slipped out of his glove.

“I don’t think I did a very good job of commanding my fastball or getting ahead of guys,” Olson said. “It’s tough to have a good night when you don’t do any of those.”

Ha-Seong Kim nearly hit another one out for the Padres in the top of the second inning, but left fielder Akil Baddoo made the running leap over the bullpen fence to rob him.

Soto got his second home run in the top of the third inning, outhitting by his first with a 463-foot two-run shot to center field to extend their lead to five.

Offense gets going

The Tigers threatened in the bottom of the second inning by loading the bases, but Padres right-hander Seth Lugo recorded three-straight outs, including two strikeouts, to pitch his way out of it.

Lugo (4-4) pitched six innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits and three walks while striking out seven.

The Tigers finally got on the board in the fifth inning thanks to a solo home run to right from McKinstry. That spark followed the team in the sixth, as Báez tripled to the gap in right-center and Nick Maton brought him home with a sacrifice fly, cutting the deficit to 5-2.

Riley Greene cut that to one with a two-run no-doubt homer to right in the seventh inning and the crowd was suddenly on its feet, taking on the rally cry.

But the Tigers would not get another baserunner after that.

Help is on the way

Chasen Shreve, Brendan White and Tyler Holton kept the Padres scoreless through the eighth.

Shreve’s night was cut short after record two out but allowing a single and a double to put runners in scoring position. But White got Fernando Tatis Jr. to line out to right to end the threat. White also pitched a clean seventh — striking out Soto in the process — as did Holton in the eighth.

But the Tigers followed that scoreless inning pattern in the bottom of the eighth as Vierling, Báez and Maton all grounded out against reliever Robert Suarez.

“Once we got back in the game, it was nice to see us make them a little uncomfortable,” Hinch said. “They had to use their ace out of the bullpen, and we had an opportunity to put up some zeros. We held the score exactly where it was when Reese left, so you know White coming in and cleaning up Shreve’s inning, how we pitched out of the pen, you know those guys put up zeros and gave us a chance to win.”

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Beau Brieske was tasked with keeping the game within reach in the top of the ninth. Brieske, who posted a 7.71 ERA entering the game and gave up two runs in his last outing against Kansas City, collected three straight outs with ease, sending the offense off into the bottom of the ninth inning in the best possible shape to tie or even win the game.

Pinch hitter Ibáñez and Rogers flew out, sending in Miguel Cabrera to pinch hit. But the all-time great struck out against another former All-Star in Hader, sending home most of the 28,834 disappointed.