Detroit — Once again, the Detroit Tigers’ offense provided too little, too late.
To be fair, on Friday night in Detroit, it was probably discouraged by a showing from world-class San Diego Padres slugger Juan Soto, who hit one of the longest home runs in Comerica Park history when he sent one 463 into the bushes in left center during the third inning of a 5-4 Padres win.
That home run, of course, was the encore to one he hit in the first inning that traveled a distance of 447 feet before crashing into the brick wall in right center, marking the 14th multi-home run game of the 24-year-old Soto’s career.
“He gets in good counts and he’s got a big bat,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “A couple of fastballs behind the count that you’d like to have back and he did a ton of damage. When [the Padres] get locked in like that…players like him, they can change a scoreboard.
“Proud of our guys for hanging in there and getting back in the game, but those were two big swings.”
Right-handed starter Reese Olson went five innings, giving up seven hits, five earned runs, two walks and striking out five for the Tigers. Righty Seth Lugo went six innings for the Padres and gave up six hits, two earned runs. Hinch said Friday was a rare example of Olson trying to do too much.
“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 either of those. … Especially in the first inning, maybe (I was) a little juiced up and not able to calm down for whatever reason.
“I’ve been able to do a good job of that until this start. I’m not really worried about it moving forward.”
The Tigers (44-53) got off the mat entering the fifth. Zach McKinstry hit a solo home run, Javy Báez scored on a sacrifice fly in the sixth, and a two-run homer from Riley Greene in the seventh made it a 5-4 ballgame. But it was all the firepower Detroit could muster.
The Padres (47-51) got a strong inning appearances from Robert Suarez and Josh Hader in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to shut the door.
But it was a moment in the second inning that will haunt this team’s dreams.
After Matt Vierling led off the second inning with a single, Báez hit a soft grounder up the middle that got through and gave both runners an extra base. The Padres’ center fielder missed the ball while trying to pick it up barehanded, allowing Vierling to go home — or it should have, anyway.
Vierling got caught up at third in what Hinch called a “weird baseball play,” and despite the Tigers loading the bases in the next at-bat, Detroit’s bats went dormant and ended the inning without a crucial run scored.
“Once he sees it get to the outfield, with no outs, he’s pulling up and Grisham goes and tries to barehand it and misplays it, and then (Tigers third base coach Gary Jones) tries to wave him, and he was already stopped and trying to turn around to see where the ball was,” Hinch said.
“So, a lot of bad timing. With no outs, you want to be absolutely sure, because you have a lot of bats coming up behind it, but when you look back in the inning, it was a missed opportunity to score a run…and that turned out to be really big.”
After Soto’s home run in the first inning, with two men on, Vierling tracked a ball all the way to the wall and appeared to have a chance at the catch as he collided with the fence, but the ball fell to the ground, allowing Jake Cronenworth to clear the bases with a triple and give the Padres a 3-0 lead.
Ha-Seong Kim tried adding more runs with a ball hit deep to left, but this time, left fielder Akil Baddoo came down with it to end the inning with some highway robbery.
“Definitely thankful he made that play. I didn’t think it was going that far off the bat, but thankfully he was back there,” Olson said.
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Fernando Tatis singled to lead off the third before Soto hit his second moonshot of the day to make it 5-0. Olson walked Soto on four pitches when he saw him in the fifth inning. The longest home run of Soto’s career went 466 feet off of Mets pitcher Robert Gsellman in 2020. The longest home run in Comerica Park history was by former New York Yankees (and current Padres) catcher Gary Sanchez (493 feet) off Matthew Boyd in 2017.
“To Juan Soto, both at-bats, falling behind, having to throw a heater in a hitter’s count — I mean, he’s one of the best players in the game,” Olson said. “When you have to do that and kinda — not lay one in there — but throw a heater in a hitter’s count, it’s probably not gonna turn out good.”
McKinstry got Detroit on the board with a solo shot to lead off the bottom of the fifth. Báez hit a one-out triple to right center in the sixth inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by Nick Maton to make it 5-2.
Brendan White, Chasen Shreve, Tyler Holton and Beau Brieske each made scoreless relief appearances for Detroit, which slammed the door on San Diego’s offense over the final six innings.
The end of Lugo’s day further brought Detroit to life.
After Padres right-hander Nick Martinez entered the game, Jake Rogers led off the seventh with a single to set up Greene for a two-run homer that made the game 5-4 and opened the door for some late-inning heroics.
Alas, they never came. Andy Ibañez, Rogers and Miguel Cabrera — who was pinch-hitting for McKinstry — went down in order to end the game.
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @nolanbianchi