What Scott Harris learned from Theo Epstein to improve Detroit Tigers
The “Days of Roar” podcast talks with ESPN’s Jesse Rogers about what lessons Scott Harris gained from Theo Epstein to mold the Detroit Tigers.
The Detroit Tigers lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 11-1, on Saturday, June 14, at Comerica Park.Tigers starter Jack Flaherty allowed seven earned runs, including three homers.Catcher Jake Rogers wrapped up the rout with an inning of relief on the mound for the Tigers.
The Detroit Tigers lost for the seventh Saturday in a row.
This time, right-hander Jack Flaherty was responsible for the loss, with seven earned runs.
Flaherty allowed six runs in the fifth inning, highlighted by Tyler Stephenson’s grand slam off a first-pitch curveball after pitching coach Chris Fetter’s mound visit.
The Tigers lost, 11-1, to the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday, June 14, in the second of three games at Comerica Park, splitting the first two games. Detroit has a 6-2 record in series-deciding games of three-game sets, taking five of them in a row.
But the Saturday streak will have to wait until next week.
The Tigers (46-26) haven’t won a Saturday game since sweeping a doubleheader April 26 against the Baltimore Orioles. Since then, the Tigers have an 0-7 record on Saturday, but a 29-8 record on non-Saturdays.
In the fourth inning, Elly De La Cruz put the Reds ahead, 1-0, when he blasted Flaherty’s elevated four-seam fastball — registering just 90.4 mph, his slowest heater of the game — for a solo home run to right field.
The real damage occurred in the fifth inning.
That’s when Gavin Lux hit a fastball for an RBI single, Stephenson picked a curveball for a grand slam and Spencer Steer drove a slider for a solo home run.
Just like that, the Reds grabbed a 7-1 advantage.
Catcher Jake Rogers pitched for the Tigers in the top of the ninth inning, allowing one run. The speeds of his 15 pitches varied between 51.5 mph and 76.9 mph.
It was Rogers’ first pitching appearance since June 12, 2021 — and just his second time on the mound in his MLB career. He underwent Tommy John surgery in September 2021, roughly three months after his pitching debut.
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One run on four hits
The Tigers scored their lone run in the fourth inning.
Wenceel Pérez delivered an RBI single off right-hander Brady Singer to tie the game, 1-1.
In the third, the Tigers tried to score Javier Báez from first base on Trey Sweeney’s double to right-center field, but Báez was thrown out by a 98.3 mph throw from De La Cruz — following an aggressive send by third-base coach Joey Cora.
Had Cora held up, the Tigers would’ve had runners on the corners with no outs for the top of the lineup.
But it was an opportunity wasted.
John Brebbia keeps struggling
Right-handed reliever John Brebbia may have pitched his final game with the Tigers.
He threw 31 pitches in the 11-5 win vs. the Reds on Friday, June 13, allowing three runs while recording just one out. He then threw 22 pitches in the 11-1 loss vs. the Reds on Saturday, allowing three runs in one inning.
It was a total of 53 pitches in back-to-back days.
After the eighth, manager A.J. Hinch had a longer-than-usual back-and-forth conversation with Brebbia in the dugout.
“He wanted to take the brunt of the rest of the game,” Hinch said after Saturday’s game. “He wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to go to somebody else in the bullpen, where we were with the score. He was volunteering to go back out. I was just telling him no. If we had scored two runs and gotten within the threshold where a pitcher would have had to pitch, then he would have gone back out. I was just letting him know why I was doing it. One, it was to protect him. And two, at that point in the game, him going back out and throwing another 15 to 25 pitches, didn’t help him, didn’t help us.”
In 2025, Brebbia has a 7.71 ERA with 11 walks and 20 strikeouts across 18⅔ innings in 19 games. He signed a one-year, $2.25 million contract with the Tigers in February 2025, which includes a $4 million team option for 2026.
Here’s what Hinch said about Brebbia before Saturday’s game: “He’s not pitching a ton, and when he gets in there, execution has been a challenge for him. His stuff can be good, and then some days, he gets in the middle-middle area of the plate, and he gets burned. He wants to fill up the strike zone a lot when he’s pitching in these games that are big up or big down. That comes with a little bit of a risk. Execution, it needs to improve. The outs will follow if the execution gets better.”
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