Tigers 5, Giants 4: Whoa, they held on to win this time

The finale of a three-game weekend series in San Francisco featured a first major-league home run, a pair of rundowns in the same inning, and a 5-4 Tigers victory on Sunday afternoon. A pair of late innings loses hurt, and yet the Tigers still come away with a .500 road trip despite the lengthy injured list.

Summitting the tiny hill for the visitors today was Keider Montero. It’s possible that he and the rest of the Tigers’ rotation could comfortably fit in a phone booth. (Remember phone booths?) His previous outing was a solid six-inning sojourn in Seattle, surrendering four hits, a lone run, and striking out eight. He’s usually alright if he can keep the walks down… which he didn’t quite do today.

Making his eighth career start in his rookie year for the Californians was Hayden Birdsong, a sixth-round pick in 2022 from Eastern Illinois University who started off this season in Double-A Richmond. He got roughed-up a few days ago in Washington, but that was the only time that a game has gotten away from him since his call-up, really. He’s typically gone five or six innings, given up a pair of runs, walked two or three, and struck out a few, although lately that has ticked upwards.

Matt Vierling jumped all over the sixth pitch of the game, a slider right down the pipe, for a 1-0 Tigers lead.

The Giants got that run back and more; with the help of a pair of walks from Montero, the bases were loaded with one out and Matt Chapman’s single scored two and left runners on the corners. A pair of groundouts got Montero out of the inning, but you had to wonder if the walks were indeed going to be an issue.

Dillon Dingler, still seeking his first home run… well, he got all of one in the second inning, after a Zach McKinstry single:

A walk and a single in the bottom of the frame put runners on the corners for the Giants again, but with two outs this time; Heliot Ramos chased a high fastball from Montero for strike three, however, and the threat was quenched.

Dingler kept the extra-base power coming with a long ground-rule double to deep right-centre in the fifth. He advanced to third on an Akil Baddoo flyout, and Vierling joined the doubles party with one of his own down the left-field line, plating Dingler for a 4-2 lead. That was the start of the third time through the order, and was also the end of Birdsong’s day. Colt Keith then drove in Baddoo with a left-on-left single to right field for a 5-2 lead.

He’s been scuffling a bit lately, so it’s nice to see him get an important hit.

Meanwhile, after that first inning, Montero started to settle in really nicely, and had two very short innings in the third and fourth. He walked LaMonte Wade Jr. with one out in the fifth, but he coaxed a ground ball out of Ramos that was turned into a double play to end the inning.

A pair of walks in the sixth put Tigers on first and second with one out, and the Giants went to right-handed reliever Sean Hjelle (pronounced as if it was spelled “jelly”). I wouldn’t normally note this sort of thing, except that Hjelle is 6’ 11” tall (2.11 m), which is up there for sure. He got a lineout and a flyout, and there went the threat.

In the bottom of the inning, Michael Conforto hit a leadoff triple and was driven in by a Chapman single, cutting the lead to 5-3. That was the end of Montero’s day, and Tyler Holton came on in relief. Old Friend™ Mark Canha walked, but Holton got a ground-ball double play to get two outs. Alas, Holton didn’t get out of the inning entirely unscathed, as a Jerar Encarnacion double scored Chapman to make it a one-run game. Holton got another grounder, though, and that got him and the Tigers out of the inning.

The Tigers got a little something cooking in the seventh, with an Andy Ibáñez single and a Justyn-Henry Malloy walk with two outs. But Urshela hit a grounder to first and Wade made a nice play on it for the third out.

In the bottom of the inning Tyler Fitzgerald reached on an Urshela error, and he was sacrificed over to second. Holton was dispatched in favour of Brenan Hanifee, and a pair of groundouts stranded the tying run on second.

Chapman opened the bottom of the eighth with a triple, and Canha followed with a grounder to shortstop. Chapman broke for home, Javier Báez (who came into the game to pinch-run for Malloy and stayed in at short) threw to the plate, and the Tigers eventually retired Chapman on a run-down.

Patrick Bailey followed with a comebacker to Hanifee, who wheeled and threw to Báez at shortstop, and they caught Canha in another rundown. A routine grounder to third ended the inning — but, given that Fangraphs’ Run Expectancy Matrix suggests 1.426 runs will score in an inning in which a team gets a runner on third with none out, well… good job all around, fellas!

The Tigers looked to add some insurance in the ninth with a slim one-run lead, and Baddoo led off with a single. With two outs Keith hit a single to put runners on the corners for Báez, who promptly grounded out softly to third to end the insurance bid, stranding a pair.

Will Vest took over to attempt to nail down the victory, and he got a lineout and a groundout in fairly short order. But then he walked Wade to put the tying run on first, and much clenching of various parts of the human anatomy ensued. Vest got to a 1-2 count on Ramos, and Ramos got called out for excessive window-shopping on a perfectly painted four-seamer for strike three and the victory. It was Vest’s first save of the year.

The Tigers have Monday off to recover from the travel and the time change, then open up a three-game series against the Mariners at home on Tuesday evening. Good tickets are still available, I assume.

Box Score: Tigers 5, Giants 4

Glass are Pretty Cheap, Blue

They also botched (but also then fixed) a bogus balk call as well.

Numbers and Things

• Since the All Star Break, Gio Urshela has left a little to be desired at the plate. In 63 plate appearances he’s been 10-for-54 with three doubles, for a .185 batting average and a .495 OPS. Yikes. Made a nice play at third base in the sixth to end the inning, though.
• A crowd microphone for the broadcast must have been very closely placed to someone who repeatedly yelled, “COME ON, BLUE!”. But yes, there were some rather strange decisions being made all day, as noted above.
• Phoenix played a set at the Olympics closing ceremonies. I totally forgot they existed, but hey, they’re pretty good.
• Today would have been singer-songwriter Eric Carmen’s 75th birthday; he passed away earlier this year, though. Whether you know him from his tenure in power-pop legends The Raspberries, or from his later solo work such as “Hungry Eyes,” he definitely had quite a talent. At a Toledo Mud Hens game a few years ago, between innings the stadium had their Kiss Cam on, and at the end of the break the scoreboard’s camera cut to a visiting team’s pitcher sitting alone in the bullpen with Carmen’s “All By Myself” playing.