MIAMI — The Detroit Tigers and Miami Marlins traded blows in the late innings.
But the Marlins packed some power in their punches: A two-run home run from Garrett Cooper in the seventh inning off left-handed reliever Tyler Holton and a solo homer from Jean Segura in the eighth inning off right-handed reliever Jose Cisnero.
The three-run swing from the Marlins on two home runs led to the Tigers’ 8-6 loss in Sunday’s series finale at loanDepot Park. The Tigers (47-59) have lost seven of their past 10 games.
“We had plenty of opportunity to win the game,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “We couldn’t get out of our own way a couple of times. A couple mishaps here and there, some mistakes to the wrong hitters at the wrong times, and they hit the ball out of the ballpark at the end of the game. Winnable series that we didn’t win.”
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Starting pitchers Tarik Skubal (for the Tigers) and Jesús Luzardo (for the Marlins) struggled in different innings and in different ways, but both top-tier southpaws allowed four runs across 4⅔ innings.
The game went into the sixth inning tied, 4-4.
The Tigers stranded two runners in the top of the sixth, and in the bottom of the sixth, a controversial rundown between second base and third base led to the Marlins taking their first lead of the series finale.
With one out, Jon Berti — a native of Troy and alumnus of Troy High School — reached safely on a throwing error by third baseman Zach McKinstry. Three pitches later, Berti stole second base as the ball got past catcher Jake Rogers, and Berti attempted to advance to third base.
Rogers recovered quickly and fired the ball to McKinstry, catching Berti in a rundown along with second baseman Zack Short. Berti collided with Short in the basepath, leading third-base umpire Jansen Visconti to call obstruction and award Berti third base.
“If I took a few more steps, I could have tagged him,” Short said. “I felt that he kind of launched himself a few feet back. I know you’re kind of taught that, in a way. I don’t know. I guess it’s smart, but I didn’t agree with the call.”
Shortstop Javier Báez argued the call on the field to no avail.
“In those plays, the runner is always trying to create obstruction,” Hinch said. “We didn’t execute the rundown. It’s a judgment call on whether or not the runner created it. We kind of gave him that opportunity by being in the way.”
The Marlins then took a 5-4 lead with Avisail Garcia’s single off right-handed reliever Brendan White.
The Tigers responded to the momentum-changing rundown, however, by retaking the lead, 6-5, in the seventh. Kerry Carpenter, a left-handed hitter, stayed in the game to face left-handed reliever A.J. Puk.
Carpenter stepped to the plate with one out and the bases loaded. He attacked a first-pitch sweeper, which caught too much of the middle of the plate, for a ground-ball single to right field.
Báez and Rogers scored on Carpenter’s single for a 6-5 lead. Miguel Cabrera, who had drawn a walk, legged it from first to third base on the play. He was removed for pinch-runner Akil Baddoo to complete the final game of his career in Miami.
Cabrera, who waved to the crowd, received a standing ovation from the fans.
It was the last positive moment for the Tigers in Sunday’s series finale.
“There’s just a lot of plays that Baddoo can score and Miggy can’t,” Hinch said, “but he’s as playful as ever and still a kid at heart. He probably thought he was flying around the bases.”
Skubal struggles in final inning
The Tigers gifted Skubal with a four-run cushion early, and he appeared likely to make the most of it.
He faced the minimum 12 batters, erasing a second-inning single with a double play, before falling apart in the fifth inning. A one-out triple from Garcia broke Skubal’s rhythm and seemed to rattle him.
“I thought the 0-2 pitch (to Garcia) was actually really good,” Skubal said. “That’s exactly where I wanted to throw it, and he hits it.”
Skubal forgot to cover first base on Yuli Gurriel’s ground ball to first baseman Spencer Torkelson, which allowed Garcia to score for the Marlins’ first run. He tried to make up for the mistake but didn’t get to the bag in time.
“You got to know the situation,” Skubal said. “I thought something different was going on, and it wasn’t. You got to cover (first base), and there’s no excuse for that.”
Suddenly, Skubal struggled to locate his pitches.
“The inning changes if he’s able to cover first (base) and get the out,” Hinch said. “And then, it’s a runner on base and two outs. But they created momentum and put some really good swings on him at the end.”
Three straight Marlins crushed pitches left near the middle of the strike zone: Segura (single off middle-up changeup), Nick Fortes (double off middle-down fastball) and Garrett Hampson (double off middle-middle slider).
The double from Hampson drove in Segura and Fortes to even the score. Skubal did manage to get Luis Arraez, the National League batting leader, to ground out before exiting his fifth start with two outs in the fifth inning.
“Everything ended up over the heart of the plate,” Skubal said. “I had a hard time of getting it out of the heart of the plate and expanding away. I don’t think I did a good job of landing offspeed (pitches) early for strikes.”
White, who replaced Skubal, sent down Bryan De La Cruz to end the inning and strand Hampson at third base.
Hot start vs. Luzardo
Luzardo needed 47 pitches to complete two innings.
The Tigers finally put runs on the board in the in the third, which began with Matt Vierling’s eight-pitch walk. An ensuing ground-rule double from Andy Ibáñez put runners on the corners.
The Tigers then built their 4-0 lead on Spencer Torkelson’s RBI single, Báez’s RBI single and Cabrera’s two-RBI double to the left-field corner. Cabrera hit a second-pitch slider from Luzardo for the 619th double of his 21-year MLB career.
“Great at-bats against him,” Hinch said. “He’s a really good pitcher, and we laid off a lot of marginal pitches that went our way. We had some big at-bats and a good offensive approach at the beginning of the game.”
Arraez, the Marlins’ second baseman, took away two runs from the Tigers with his defense in the third and fifth innings. He threw out Ibáñez at home plate in the third and Riley Greene at home plate in the fifth.
He also took a single away from Báez with a diving stop in the fifth.
“Those (plays) are huge, obviously, in really close games,” Hinch said.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.